Page 72 of Heart Strings & Hotlines
“You’re naked.”
“I am.” She arches her back, and I flex my hands at my sides. She stands like an offering, a sacrifice, a fucking temptation I can’t refuse. She’s Eve, her body the apple, and I’m the weak man who will happily taste that forbidden fruit.
“Charlotte. What are you doing?”
She bends over and lifts a purple bottle from the floor. Her tits sway like sweet peaches I want to reach out and pluck.
“Showering.” There’s innocence in her eyes but destruction in her body language.
She will be my downfall, and I’m powerless to stop it.
“Charlotte.” Her name roars and rumbles from my whole chest.
She pours a purple soap into her hand that instantly fills the room with the scent of lilacs. I stand rooted to the spot, clenching the shower door so tightly it might shatter, as she painfully slowly brings her hands to her chest.
She moves down and cups her breasts in both hands, then pinches her nipples as suds form on her wet skin.
Every inch of me vibrates with a need so powerful that one touch from her would send me crumbling to the floor like ancient ruins.
Her right hand dips down to her belly, over her hip, and stops when her fingertips tremble at the top of her pubic bone.
My gaze snaps to hers. She’s still biting her lip, but now there’s something else in her expression.What the fuck is it?I can’t begin to make my brain work. She’s short-circuited every tool I’ve ever had. Even my narrator sits in my head with his tongue hanging out, unable to form a single word.
Vulnerable. The word echoes from somewhere deep in my memory. She’s vulnerable. How can she not be? She’s standing before me, gloriously naked, running soapy hands over her entire body.
Her cheeks tinge pink, and the lovely shade creeps down her neck to the tops of her tits.
I want dress shirts in that color. One for every day of the week, so I never forget how beautiful she is in this moment.
“What do you need, sweetheart?”
Her teeth are leaving an indent in her bottom lip—the surrounding skin flushing white.
“I think…” she whispers.
I lean forward, my feet planted on the outside of the shower while my chest is close enough for water droplets to bounce off her skin and onto mine.
“What I need.”
I stop breathing, afraid that even a sharp inhale would drown out her words.
“Is you.”
I think…what I need…is you.
That’s what she said.
I think…what I need…is you.
Like the pins in a lock, my body rolls and moves and fits together in a way it never has before until finally, finally, all my pieces click into place, freeing me to reach for this beautiful, aggravating, sexy, strong woman before me.
Mine.It echoes through my thoughts, the only prayer I’m capable of.
I hold the sides of her face and remind myself to be gentle, but my lips crash against hers in a bruising kiss that fills me with my first taste of freedom.
That’s what she is—she’s the key that unlocks the puzzle of me.
Her arms wrap around my waist, under my arms, until her nails dig into my shoulder blades.
