Page 15

“Ciaran.”

She whimpered as I held my hand still. She was going to have to do the work for now.

Water splashed out of the tub as she raised and lowered her hips at an increasingly frenzied pace. Annie chased her climax, but her whine of frustration as she tugged her nipples told me she wouldn’t reach it on her own. Grabbing her hair, still half up in a ponytail, I pulled her to me for a bruising kiss. As my tongue tangled with hers, I drove my fingers in and out of her pussy. I pressed my thumb down hard on her clit, noting how it throbbed.

“Come for me, Annie.” I knew she was close. “Show me what a good little slut you are.”

It seemed she responded well to a little dirty talk. Her pussy clenched around my fingers. A strangled cry ripped from her throat as she convulsed violently, splashing water out of the tub. My pants were soaked, but I didn’t care. Watching this woman come apart was the greatest thing I’d ever witnessed. I leaned over to kiss her through her orgasm, then, as the tremors in her body subsided, I pulled back, stroking her face.

“That was beautiful, Annie.”

She grinned, a slightly goofy, dazed look on her face. I got to my feet and moved around the tub to stand behind her.

“Sit up, sweetheart.”

She did as she was told, and I removed the elastic holding her hair in a loose ponytail. It wasn’t easy to free it from her hair now it was wet, and she hissed as I accidentally tugged too hard.

“Sorry, sweetheart.” Tossing the elastic band aside, I teased out her hair, then grabbed a plastic jug my sister had left on the shelf by the tub and filled it with water. “Lean back a little.”

She tilted her head back, and I poured water over her hair. When it was wet through, I grabbed a bottle of shampoo. Its sandalwood scent was on the masculine side, but it was all I had to hand. I squirted a generous amount into my palm and then massaged it into Annie’s hair.

“This reminds me of a film,” she said. “Robert Redford was in it, and Meryl Streep, I think.”

I knew the movie she was talking about. “Out of Africa.”

“Yes.” She smiled as I continued to work the shampoo onto her scalp. “You know it?”

“My mom’s a movie buff. She used to make the whole family watch movies together every Saturday night.”

“You have a big family?”

“Two brothers, two sisters.”

“Wow. Are you still close to everyone?”

“My mom moved to Florida after my father died.” I didn’t give Annie the chance to offer the inevitable condolences. “My brothers and my sister Emily still live in Detroit. My other sister, Erin, is at school in New York. She’s doing her Masters in Fine Art.”

“Wow, that’s impressive.”

“Yeah, I’m really proud of her.” Erin had incredible talent. I had no idea where she got it from. None of the rest of us were artistic. We used to joke she was a changeling left by the faeries. “What about you? Any siblings?”

I already knew from the research I’d asked my cousin Jace to do on her that she was an only child, but I wanted to hear it from her.

“No, it’s just me.”

“That’s a shame.”

“Yeah.”

“So, what do you do for work?”

“I’m a teacher.”

“You like your job?” I asked as I filled the jug with water to rinse her hair.

“It’s fun most of the time. The kids are great. It’s the parents that are a handful.”

I laughed at the dramatic shudder she gave.