Page 17 of Play With Me

“Lean back.” I guided Brook over to the sink and poured water over his hair. He closed his eyes. I added shampoo and, pressing my fingers into his scalp, lathered it through his long strands. A soft moan escaped his lips, and I smiled.

“I could get used to this,” he murmured.

Part of me hoped that he would.

After conditioning, I rinsed his hair, toweled it off, and combed through. Brook watched me in the mirror, sometimes smiling, other times lost in deep thought. I began cutting at the front and worked my way to the back.

“Once I’m done with you, Madman, you’ll never want anyone else cutting your hair.” I felt my mouth curve. I had been some time since I’d felt this happy, and I wondered what it was about Brook Madden that had me all giddy and full of stupid joy.

“Did you have this bathroom redone for your job? How long did it take you to learn how to cut?” he asked.

“Oh, no. What you’re seeing here, Madman, is part of my crazy world. Eddie gave me my first job at his barber shop when I was ten. He took me off the streets after I picked a thief’s pocket who picked his.”

“You wereten?”

“Yeah. The street teaches you quickly. I started at Eddie’s with sweeping floors and worked my way up to cutting and shaving. Beside here, the Men’s Room was the only other home I’d ever known.”

I blew a breath over his forehead to get rid of the stray strands, and he flinched.

“I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay. I’m enjoying this. Why were you on the street? What happened to your parents? You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to.”

“No, it’s fine. The answer is much simpler than you’d think. My step-father was a pedophile, and my mother didn’t do anything about it when I told her he tried to get his hand up my shirt, among other things. She wasn’t exactly the maternal type. So I left. See what I mean about fucked up families? That was two years before I ran into Eddie. I stayed with him for a long time.”

Until Sebastian came to get me.

“And then you decided to work for a security firm? How did you make that leap from one to the other?”

“No, I didn’t. It’s a long story. Maybe one day I’ll tell you.”

The short of it was that shit happened. And when all the world’s shit fills your life to the point you feel like you’re swimming in it, you make changes you never thought you would. You float to the top because the last thing you want is to drown with all the rest of the shit.

“We’ve got time,” he said.

“Not enough to explain all the shit that’s happened.” Telling him that I thought my job at a security firm could help me find the woman who’d saved my life would open that can of worms I wasn’t ready to open. Telling him that I pledged my life to help others, the way I’d been helped, would bring on more questions. How could I explain to him that continuing what Sebastian had started was the only way I could go on? Working for Emma Cross made me feel whole again. Taking over Sebastian’s work made sense. He was the good guy. His job was to protect, so why had he been taken from me so quickly? Why had I been spared and not him? I hoped to find the answer soon. In less than eight months, to be exact. In the meantime, I would continue working on the case he started.

I felt Brook’s hand on my hip, and I looked to the left where his fingers pressed into my skin. “Hands off. I have to concentrate.”

He growled.

“Be patient. You already look better.”

Patience wasn’t always one of my strongest points either. After the accident, I’d hired a private investigator from Sebastian’s company, James, to help me find the woman who that day had happened to be in one of the cars. I never found out all the details about that day because the files had been locked away for an investigation, but it was a massacre. I only knew that she died, and I lived.

James did have new information for me, though. I would be able to meet her family in just over a year, and when the time came, it would feel better than a fresh shave.

I clipped along the shorter line, slowly moving to the back, and once all the strands were the perfect length, I concentrated on evening his hairline. Brook sat quietly. I could feel the heat of his stare reflected through the mirror, but he didn’t even flinch. As soon as I set the scissors on the counter, Brook grasped my hips and pulled me down to his lap. He lowered his mouth to mine. His tongue strokes intensified with every sweep. He was so good at tantalizing me. It only took seconds, and I stained both my black lace panties and his jeans. I pulled away with reluctance, saying, “I’m not done with you yet.”

“And all I want to do is you.”

“You’ll get your chance, Madman. Now hold still and let me finish. I’m almost done.” Leaning over him, I pulled open a drawer, and removed a straight razor while my chest rested against the side of his face. As soon as I felt him twitch underneath my ass, I stood up. If I felt him get any harder, I wouldn’t have enough strength to resist him, and I liked to finish the jobs I started.

“What are you going to do with that?” he asked.

“Even out your hairline. Then I’m going to shave you.”

His brows rose with interest, and his expression held both surprise and appreciation.

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