Page 29 of Roads Behind Us
My mouth watered to taste his skin, but I knew that would be pushing things too far.
Most of the paint had run off his chest when I rinsed his hair, but I dragged the warm cloth over his skin slowly anyway, and he opened his eyes.
Somehow, seeing his unguarded vulnerability gave me courage, and my rag traveled lower. Molding the palm of my hand over his pec above the washcloth, I pressed gently with the tips of my fingers, and he moaned quietly.
Silently, I slid onto my knees between the john and the side of the tub. The extra washcloths fell to the floor, and I rubbed lower, letting the slippery fabric ride the ridges of his tightened abdomen, and Bax’s breaths came faster.
“Bea?”
“Shh,” I whispered. Dragging my eyes from his hard, wet chest, I looked right into his soul and admitted, “Don’t talk. If you talk, I’ll kiss you. The sound of your voice is makin’ me insane right now, and I’m barely in control. I don’t think you want me out of control.”
“Please,” he begged.
I froze. Did he want me to stop? “Please what?”
“Kiss me.”
“You sure?”
“Yes.”
The washcloth floated out of my hand, and I leaned further over him, bracing my hand next to his on the far lip of the tub, and moved closer. His fingers brushed against mine, and my hair fell between us, the yellow ends soaking up the water left from my cloth and plastering themselves to his chest.
I hovered above him, and his breath shook as it flowed jaggedly out of his mouth—the mouth that I was currently imagining on my body, with his warm lips and hot tongue doing things to me I hadn’t felt in ages.
“Are you sure?” he asked.
“I think so.”
“Then kiss me,” he whispered, and he gripped my ribs, spread his hands wide over my shirt, and steadied me above him as I licked my lips and touched them to his.
He groaned, and heat pulsed between my legs when his tongue slid over mine.
But I was afraid. Afraid that I’d never wanted anyone as much as I wanted Bax Lee. Funny that, because not an hour ago, I still thought I hated him. But now that I’d realized I didn’t, maybe all he wanted was my hand and my tongue. Maybe his wife was in the room with us. Maybe she was the one always on his mind and I was just a stand-in. I couldn’t be special to him, not with her shadow pulling at my happiness too.
Besides, I’d only been here a day, for crying out loud. That in itself was enough to scare the crap out of me. I’d never been so attracted to someone I barely knew.
None of it mattered. Bax, no matter how alluring, was off limits to me.
But I moved my hand beneath the water again anyway.
When the smooth skin below his navel made way to coarse hair, I paused.
“Don’t stop, Bea,” he whispered into my mouth. “Make the ache go away.”
I tilted my head and lifted my dry hand to his face, rubbing my fingertips over his scruffy cheek while his tongue, like wet velvet, soothed my own ache with every delve and dip into my mouth.
The pads of his fingers dug into my ribcage, raging desire rose deep inside me, and I slid my hand into his hair and gripped it so hard, my fingers hurt.
My other hand searched even lower beneath the water, and when his hard-on bobbed against my knuckles, I twisted my wrist and gripped his length in my palm.
He filled my hand completely, and he moaned and rolled his hips. The shallow water lapped at his skin in little waves, splashing quietly against the sides of the tub, and the black garbage bags covering his scratchy plaster cast rubbed and stuck to my arm beneath the hem of my T-shirt’s sleeve.
“Feels so good to be touched by you,” he breathed, and he pulled away from our kiss. His head lolled on the wall behind him, and he watched me, his eyes like a clear, cloudless sky.
“Are you sure?”
“Yes, Bea. More.”
