Page 103 of Major Penalty

A soft little plea. An invitation. And fuck me, I’ve never wanted anything more.

I strip slowly as her eyes follow every inch I reveal, taking all of me in.

I slide into the tub behind her, hot water wrapping around my body as I settle in.

“Scoot forward a little,” I instruct her, and she does.

I lower myself in, my arms resting around her, legs framing hers beneath the water. She immediately leans back into me like it’s second nature.

We sit in silence for a while, just breathing, the water sloshing quietly as her back molds into my chest.

“I was afraid you wouldn’t want me if you knew.” Her voice breaks the quiet.

I blink and slowly lower my gaze to the back of her head.

“I thought…” she pauses and exhales, “I thought if you knew, you would see me as a complication to your career. Something that makes everything harder. Something you’d want to stop.”

My hands float up from under the water and settle softly around her waist.

She turns in my arms to face me, bare and wet, eyes full of truth.

“I never meant to make you feel likeyouwere a secret,” she says. “I swear.”

My chest aches. This whole time, I thought she was hiding me out of shame, that I was just her mistake to keep in the shadows.

But now I see it clearly. She wasn’t ashamed; she was scared of what I’d do.

And so was I.

I gaze at her. At this girl with her heart in her hands and her body pressed to mine. And I feel a heaviness loosen in my chest. Heaviness that’s been hurting for too long.

“So, we’ve both been scared of the same thing,” I murmur, brushing my knuckles down her cheek. “I was scared, too,” I whisper. “Scared that I was just a thrill to you.”

She stills.

“That once the rush wore off…once the secrecy stopped feeling good, you would move on.”

I stare past her, at the wall, into the past, into every part of myself that always expects to be left behind.

“I thought you’d see me for what I really am—broken and not worth the trouble.”

She shifts in the water until she’s facing me completely, settling between my legs. Her hands rise to my face, wet and soft. She cradles my jaw and kisses me sweetly.

“I’m so sorry,” she whispers against my lips. “For making you think that. For making you feel like you’re just something to use and toss away.”

Her words slice through me. She turned around to look me in the eye and say it out loud. And I believe her.

I reach for her face and mirror her hands with mine.

“You can tell me anything,” I whisper. “Anything, Irene. I want you to.”

She closes her eyes and moves closer to me, bubbles sliding down her naked breasts.

“I want to know everything about you.” I tilt her face up. “All your big dreams and small habits. All the little things that make youyou.” My thumbs brush her cheeks. “I want to know your fears so I can chase them away.”

She makes a broken sound in her throat and pulls me in, elbows resting on my shoulders, forearms wrapped around my head. I lean and kiss her, to taste her, to make her see that I’m staying, and that I’m begging her to do the same.

She sits back and sniffs, holding up her pinkie, just like earlier, just like the first promise she made and kept.

---