Page 54 of Suddenly Entwined

Caro cranes her head to look at me.

“I know,” she says slowly. “Isit on it all week.”

“Smart ass. Turn around.”

I pull the lever on the spray bottle, misting the length of her hair. The night I barged in after her shower it was wet and nearly twice as long.

Separating the curls into smaller pieces as gently as possible, I use the wide toothed comb from the basket to brush it out, transfixed at the way it glides through her shiny hair. A vision of all those curls splayed across my chest pops into my mind, unbidden.

The television eats up the silence as I finish smoothing the last of the tangles.

“Three pieces?” I check as I do my best to separate them equally.

“Mmm hmm.”

Her soft voice doesn’t help me keep my thoughts on the task at hand. My cock twitches in my shorts. She shifts, relaxing her posture so she leans back against my parted legs. I suck in what’s supposed to be a calming breath through my nose, but all I get is the fruity scent of her shampoo, and the pressure in my pants increases. I should turn the damn spray bottle around and squirt myself to cool off.

With the three pieces in my hand, I begin to cross the outer ones over the centre one, just like I’ve seen in tutorials.

“Wait.” I frown at the sagging strands. “That doesn’t look right.”

I undo my work and try again. But I’m too distracted, and within a minute I’ve made the same mistake and it’s a hot mess. I sigh in frustration.

“Remember, cross over.”

“I’mdoingthat.”

Well, I think I am. It looks like…something. I lick my lips, shaking out my cramping hand. Her hair slides through my fingers, soft and thick against my skin. That sweet scent wafts out of it again and whether I want to admit it or not, I’m hard. She needs to keep her eyes focused forward so that I don’t look like a creep.

“I don’t think I’m good at this,” I admit defeatedly.

She reaches back and tangles her fingers in mine. “Don’t give up.”

“Caro…” My voice is hoarse, but I make no efforts to separate our fingers.

I look down, all four of our hands blended together, her shoulders settled between my legs as they rise and fall. My own chest is heaving with the effort of not taking this further, but I’m not sure I’m strong enough for that. She’s right here with me and she’s been driving me crazy for weeks. But I want to learn this for my daughters. It’s important for me to know how to do everything. They’ll have all the same experiences any other child would. I’ll make sure of it.

“I’ll try again,” I say, undoing everything to start from scratch.

She scoffs. “Let me show you this time.”

Caro reaches behind her head again, brushing my inner thigh by accident as she does. The sight of her fingertips on my legs is enough to make me clench my jaw.

“No, I cando it. I want to figure this out on my own.”

She inspects the half finished mess of a braid with her finger tips, and she’s only making it worse as she pokes around.

“Caro, get your hands out of the way.”

“You need to do it tighter,” she tells me.

“Well, I don’t want to pull it,” I reply, surprised at how hard this is and frustrated that my body isn’t listening to me.

“And I’m saying that you might have to pull it a bit to get the result you want.”

“Let me try again.”

“Practising it wrong over and over isn’t going to teach you anything.”

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