Page 31 of What About Us
Especially since she’s been talking to some guy from Bozeman named Brad. It makes me want to put my fist through a wall.
The garage door opening and closing downstairs pulls me from the mediocre listings.
“Daddy?” Paige calls from the bath off the hallway.
I slide my laptop onto the nightstand and head out into the hall. Paige is laid back in the tub, only her head visible above the mountain of bubbles covering her.
“Yeah, Pip?”
“Can we get a puppy?”
I close the toilet seat lid and sit down, rest my forearms on my knees, and let out a sigh. “Not right now, Paige. We don’t have a yard,” I say, a little irritation creeping into my voice. I’m not annoyed at her, just the situation.
“But we have the patio and the grass in the front,” she whines.
Footsteps sound on the stairs before Finn appears in the doorway. I turn my head and tip my chin up in greeting.
“Hey,” she says. “Can you help me for a second?”
“Finnley!” Paige slides up in the tub, water sloshing over the edge.
I nod and stand. “Careful, Pipsqueak.” I reach for a towel and Finn snags it off the towel rack, handing it to me.
“So, can we?”
“Dogs need lots of room to run,” I say, sopping up the water with the towel and my foot. “Maybe when we get a place of our own.”
“When is that gonna be? I really, really want a puppy.”
I cast a glance at Finn. “Uh, soon, I hope. We’ll talk about it, ok?” She nods. “Get your hair washed, and I’ll be back in a minute.”
I follow Finn out into the hall. I can tell she’s disappointed at the thought of us moving out, but she doesn’t say anything.
Dragging a hand through my hair, I ask, “What’s up?”
“I got a sliver in my foot from the porch at Timber Haven and it’s in a place I can’t reach. Can you see if you can get it?”
“Sure.” I follow her into her room. It smells just like her in here. Grapefruit, the subtle scent of sandalwood.
The curtains flutter in the breeze coming in through the open window. She crosses into the bathroom, and I follow. Opening a drawer, she hands me a pair of tweezers. “Lemme just change. Be right back.”
She passes me to go back into the bedroom, and with her back to me, unbuttons her jeans. Hooking her thumbs into the waistband, she shoves them down her hips and works them off with her feet. My inability to look away rewards me with a mouthwatering view of her ass in tiny, lace lavender panties when she yanks her top off. She turns a little and I get a tiny peek of one perfect tit, too. If she turned even a fraction of an inch, I could make out a nipple.
I slam my eyes shut and spin around.Fuck.I will my dick to mind his business. It’s not like I’ve never seen her in her underwear before, but it’s different now that everything she seems to do makes it into my spank bank.
I drum my fingers on the vanity while I wait. There’s the sound of a drawer opening, and a few seconds later, she’s back in the bathroom in cutoffs and a tank top.
“That’s better,” she says, with a bright smile. “Where do you want me?” she asks, looking up at me.
On your knees. On your back in that bed. Sitting on my face. I’m not picky.
I clear my throat with a cough. “Uh, on the counter?”
Even better, with that mirror.
She perches on the edge of the sink, and I sit on the closed toilet lid. With her foot balanced on my knee, her perfectly painted toenails are on display. I’ve touched her legs a million times, rubbed little circles over her knee while we watch movies, and played with her hair—which is one of her favorite things. But the sight of her thighs splayed before me in the least sexual way possible is doing something to my gut. And other parts, too.
I swallow thickly and try not to let my eyes trail up her legs. I fail. Hard. She’s freshly shaved, probably from me teasing her about it. And fuck me, I can’t help but wonder just how serious she was about how she shaves her pussy.
