Page 48 of Wandering Closer

Under the sink in the guest bath. What did the troublemaker do?

Lily:

Rolled in something foul.

Thoren:

It’s a nice day, leave her outside and I’ll give her a bath when I get home. She doesn’t love them. Also, don’t make dinner tonight. I have a surprise for you.

There’s no way I’m leaving the bath for him. It’s my fault she smells, and he doesn’t need anything else to do after this week. I’ll Google ways to keep dogs happy during bath time. Is he planning to take me out for dinner? I hope not, because all I want is to jump his bones, and that will be hard at a restaurant.

Lily:

Is the surprise sausages? Because I’m drooling at the thought of tasting yours.

Thoren:

Behave.

Why did that one word send heat flooding through my body?

Lily:

Or what?

Thoren:

Baby, you’re going to find out soon enough.

Shadow zips past me, doing her zoomies in the yard, pulling my thoughts from all the things Thoren is hopefully going to do to me tonight. I’m not inexperienced; I slept with a guy in high school and Tyler tried to have sex with me every time he came over. Saying my sex life was good, though, would be a lie. It was lackluster at best. I only ever got off when I was on top and controlling things. Tyler’s tastes were very vanilla, which was fine, but I wanted something… more.

Thoren’s demanding and dominating touch, his gravelly hard voice when he commands me, his light hold on my neck when we kiss, and don’t even get me started on his praise. Those are things that set my body on fire, that make my panties wet and my pussy ache.

Shadow zooms past me again, almost taking me out as she runs in circles. “Let’s go get that bath, wild girl.”

As it turns out, giving dogs a bath is easy, thanks to a quick trick. Peanut butter spread on the side of the tub was all it took. Shadow is happily standing still while I scrub her down as long as I keep the peanut butter coming. A sense of pride isn’t something I feel often, but it’s happening here pretty frequently. I’ve never been around animals much, and here I am, nailing my first dog bath.

“Your daddy is going to give you so many snuggles tonight when he smells you,” I tell Shadow as I rinse out her doggy shampoo.

“As if she doesn’t get enough snuggles as is,” a deep voice rumbles behind me, scaring the ever loving life out of me.

Shadow’s tail thumps against the tub as I turn around to see Jake leaning against the door, arms crossed over his chest.

“Where did you come from?” I squeak. “You scared the crap out of me.”

He lets out a low chuckle, still staring at me. “Sorry, I knocked, but you didn’t answer.”

“So you just let yourself in? Is that a normal thing for you guys?”

“Honestly? Yeah. You’re sleeping in my room, ya know?” His stare bores into me, his mouth lifting into a smirk. “If you’re even sleeping in there.”

I sputter a cough and turn back to rinsing Shadow, trying to hide my red cheeks. I haven’t slept in there once. Why would Iwhen I can spend the night in a loving embrace, surrounded by Thoren’s comforting scent?

“Well, it’s good to see you again. What are you doing here?”

“I wanted to talk to you, and Thoren wanted me to check out your bathroom. He thought I could make a cool vanity for in there,” he says, still just watching me.

“The first part sounds ominous, but the second part sounds amazing. Thanks, Jake.”

---