Page 107 of Frosting and Flames

I lead her to my bedroom, the air between us still a little tense after our talk at the fire station. I don’t want it to be that way, especially tonight of all nights, but I can’t help it. Even though I understand logically where she was coming from not involvingme with what was going on with Kyle, emotionally… it stings. I want us to be a team. To have each other’s back. To share in the goodandbad things.

But maybe I’m wanting too much, too soon. Trust isn’t something you can rush. And like I told her weeks ago, I want to earn her trust, especially knowing she doesn’t blindly give it.

She sets the bag she brought with her on my dresser, fiddling with it for a moment before turning around to face me. “I don’t want what happened earlier to affect tonight,” she says bluntly, watching me with careful eyes.

I set my phone down on my nightstand. “I don’t either.”

She crosses the room, sliding her hands over my shoulders to loop behind my neck. Instantly, the tension drains from me. “I’ve really been looking forward to tonight.”

My hands move to her waist, squeezing. The action already feels familiar, as if I’ve been doing it for years. “Me, too.”

She moves closer, whispering in my ear, “Will you join me in the shower?”

That spark of lust inside me ignites. It doesn’t take much to get me going when it comes to Rachel. “I can’t think of anywhere else I’d rather be.”

I pick her up, surprising her, and she yelps.

She quickly covers her mouth, glancing toward the door. “Should I be quiet with Tanner here?”

I grin at her. “I’m pretty sure he knows we’ll be loud tonight. I guarantee he has his noise-canceling headphones on.”

She bites at her bottom lip, grinning back at me as I carry her to the en-suite bathroom.

Setting her down gently, I twist the lever in the shower to get things going, and turn to her, loving her mischievous smile as she brings her hands to the hem of my shirt and tugs up. I pull it over my head, but I can’t get hers off because she’s alreadyreaching for the button of my jeans next, impatiently pulling down the fly.

“Hey,” I murmur, stepping in closer. I place my hands on either side of her jaw, tilting her face up. “We have all night.”

She nods, and now that I’m looking, I can spot the hint of nerves surrounding her.

“What’s wrong?”

She stares at me for a moment before admitting, “I don’t want to mess this up.”

“You can’t,” I assure her. “If anyone’s going to screw it up, it’s me,” I joke, trying to put her at ease.

Her hands run along my forearms, tracing the veins there. “This is important to me. You’re important to me.”

I nod, understanding what she means. Tonight is the start of something momentous.

I kiss her, waiting as she relaxes by degrees, until the room turns steamy from the hot water running and she’s putty in my arms. I undress her slowly, pausing after each article is removed to touch her, gliding my hands over her perfect body.

By the time I take off her panties, my dick is hard, straining to be let out of my boxers. She gives me a knowing smile as she finishes undressing me, too, and I hold the shower door open for her, steam enveloping us as we step inside.

My cock bobs between us, but I ignore it for the moment, getting wet under the spray.

She reaches out to the products in the shower caddy, flipping open the lid of the shower gel. “Desert cedar,” she reads off the label. She turns to me with a smile as she inhales. “This is what you smell like.”

“Is that a good thing?”

I position her facing away from the spray so I can wet her hair, then turn her again, reaching for the shampoo.

“It’s very good.” She continues reading as I lather the shampoo and massage it in her hair. “Sun kissed cedar from the Eastern Sierras—” She stops, tilting her head back, and lets out a groan. “Oh my God, that’s good. Why haven’t you been giving me scalp massages all this time?”

I smile to myself. “You only had to ask.”

She makes a contented sound as I continue to shampoo her hair, rubbing her scalp in long strokes that have her melting into me.

My cock presses against her ass as she moves closer, but she doesn’t shy away. If anything, she leans further into me.

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