Page 56 of Brood
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Two months later, they send me back to our quarters a couple of hours into my morning shift because the kitchen ventilation system stops working.
Everyone else has to stay and work without adequate airflow, but I’m pregnant, so they’re not taking any chances on a bad reaction with me.
Last month, most of the morning sickness finally cleared, so I’ve been working at least four hours in the morning and the full two-hour afternoon shift. It’s unnerving to be walking through the mostly empty halls at nine o’clock instead of working busily like everyone else.
I feel exposed. Aware of every camera in a way I never was before.
Ever since that conversation with Will where he told me the truth, it’s felt like threatening eyes are constantly on me. Even in our private rooms.
Will claims he’s searched and can’t find a camera there, but nothing feels safe anymore.
Our quarters are dark when I arrive, making it clear that Will hasn’t arrived yet for his shower. At least, that’s what I assume as I walk through the living area and toward the archway.
The door to the bathroom slides open as it always does, but the bathroom isn’t dark and empty.
The lights are on but halfway dimmed. The water is running. The shower door is partly fogged—but not enough to disguise what’s happening inside.
Will. Naked in the shower. Bracing himself with one hand against the wall. His other arm jerking weirdly.
I’m not completely oblivious, but I’m disoriented and stunned. It takes me a minute to figure out what he’s doing in there.
Masturbating.
I stand motionless, staring as my blood and the air around me pulse at the rhythm of his hand on his cock.
We still haven’t had sex since I got pregnant. It’s not necessary for breeding right now, and neither one of us has suggested it. But I’ve been thinking about it more and more as I’ve been gradually feeling better, and my body is suddenly a lit fuse. Hot. Throbbing. Expectant.
The shower pulses twice and then turns off. Will must have been in there for his full ten minutes, but he doesn’t stop.
He has no idea I’ve walked in. His muscles are rippling, tensing, like he’s pushing against the shower wall. His hips jerk against his hand. His butt cheeks are clenching.
Arousal has hit me so intensely and so fast that I ache between my legs.
He’s been breathing fast, but he suddenly lets out a long, raspy groan. At the very end, it becomes a word.
One word.
“Cadence.”
My name.
I should back away as he works through the final jerks of his release. Hurry out of our quarters as silently as possible. Never let him know what I’ve just witnessed.
But I can’t move. Even the air in my lungs is trapped in this heated daze. I suck in a loud inhale to clear my airways.
He hears it.
His body has visibly relaxed, although he’s still holding himself up against the wall. But now he stiffens dramatically and whirls around to face me.
His body is naked. Familiar. Strong and natural and deeply attractive. Dripping with water.
My eyes don’t behave themselves. They rake over him from his soaked hair and beard to his bare feet. Then up again, lingering on the thickness of his thighs, the breadth of his chest, the hair at his groin.
His cock.
Which should be flaccid, since he just brought himself to climax. Instead, it twitches as I stare. Starts hardening again.
