Page 39

CHAPTER 38

SUDS AND SNACKS

WILDER

H ours later, I’m mesmerized by the sight of thick, ropey come spurting from the slick head of my cock. But that’s nothing compared to the vision of her fair skin painted with my pearly seed.

It takes me down, my knees giving way and body trembling as I collapse half on top of Cass and half on the bed. My vision is blurry after a second of momentary blindness, but I can see her just fine, her red hair shocking against the white sheets. Her chest heaves, and I take in the mess I’ve made, my cock still pulsing. Her breasts and neck are streaked with come, an errant stream on her cheek, despite my efforts to contain the chaos.

Should have known that was pointless when she commanded me to come on her.

Panting, she smiles at me. Panting, I kiss the fuck out of her.

I thumb the mess from her cheek and look her over again, shaking my head. The milky ropes have started to drip into every valley they can find—between her breasts, into the slope between ribs that’s only visible when she gulps air. But when I see the hollow of her throat pooling with come, I’m not sure if I’ll make it through the night without a major cardiac event.

Honestly, I’m surprised I’ve lived this long.

“Don’t move,” I say, kissing her briefly before rolling out of bed. My knees are jelly, and I stagger for a step before righting myself.

“But I—” She starts to get up as I round the bed, and I give her a look of warning.

“I’m not just being bossy—you’re covered in come. Just lemme get a towel.” I chuckle when she flushes, but when she says Yes, sir , I stop dead and give her a different warning look altogether.

When I return with a towel and a damp washcloth, she’s exactly where I left her.

“That’s a good girl,” I rumble with a smirk. She’s pretty much in the middle of the bed, so I sit on the edge as I clean her up, getting the bulk of it with the dry towel and discarding it with a toss. “You’re a mess,” I note, catching her eye for a beat when I clean her cheek.

“Your fault.”

I tilt her chin to expose her neck so I can wipe it off. “I wouldn’t have done it if you hadn’t asked.”

“I don’t think I asked so much as demanded.”

“I never could tell you no.”

“Ooh, I might have to test that.” She giggles, squirming when I detail the hollow of her throat, sadly empty now.

“Listen, babe—you ever tell me to come, I’ll do it without question, wherever you tell me to.”

At that, she laughs. “Just like, anytime? Like I could tell you to come in the grocery store and you’d blow?”

“No, you might have to wait until the parking lot, but I’m certain I could oblige.”

We’re quiet for a moment—she watches me with a soft, small smile on her face as I clean her torso.

“Wait,” she says, “I think you missed a spot.”

“That so? Where?”

She points at her left nipple. “Right there.”

“Oh, here—lemme get that.” I palm that breast, leaving her nipple exposed so I can cover it with my mouth, sweeping my tongue around, sucking gently when I’m through. “Better?”

“Mmhmm.” Her bottom lip is between her teeth, her cheeks rosy and beautiful.

Amused, I do a more thorough inspection, pulling her leg into my lap so I can get a good look at her pussy. There’s a silvery drip of come, and I shake my head, my heart thundering at the sight. My cock, however, is exhausted and doesn’t even flinch. Tenderly, I clean the insides of her thighs, the mound of flesh above her hood, back down again, but when the cloth inadvertently brushes beyond her labia, she flinches, hissing.

A frown drags my smile down. “Sore?”

“The good kind.”

I’m already getting up. “I’ll make a bath.”

“You don’t have to do that,” she says, attempting to push up on her elbows, but it seems to take a lot of effort. I’ve exhausted her.

“I know.” I kiss her forehead and strut away like the cock of the walk to start a bath. Cass got some bubble bath and stuff for Cricket, since she loves to take baths in the big tub , so I add a little and head back in for her.

She’s sitting on the edge of the bed now but looks wobbly as she twists her hair up.

I chuckle. “You okay?”

“No! You fucked me useless. I’m not sure I can even walk.”

When I pick her up, she squeals. “You couldn’t be useless if you tried.”

“What are you doing?” she asks on a riot of laughter, her arms around my neck.

“You said you couldn’t walk.”

She’s still giggling when I put her in the tub, but when I turn to leave, she grabs my hand. “Wait! Where you going?”

“I’m getting you a snack.”

She groans like I just said something nasty about her pussy. “That is so fucking hot.”

Shaking my head, I smirk and strut my way into the kitchen to get a little plate together. Since Cass moved in, we always seem to have supplies for a cheese board, so I fill the plate up with cheeses, crackers, and some grapes, topping off her water bottle too. By the time I get back, the tub is half full and all I can see is her head, which is leaned against the back edge, her face tilted up and eyes closed. The most content smile is on her face, and goddamn, it makes me feel things. So many things. Too many things.

When she hears me, her lids open heavily, her smile spreading. There’s a little bamboo tray she brought with her that stretches across the tub. I set the plate on it, her water next to the tub, and get in behind her when she scoots up to turn off the faucet.

I, however, am all but forgotten—Cass is shoving cheese and crackers into her mouth hand over fist like a gremlin.

When I laugh, her head whips around—her cheeks are full like a squirrel’s and there are crumbs at the corners of her mouth.

“Whuu?” she says around a full mouth. I’m still laughing when I thumb the crumbs off one side.

“Nothing. Eat.”

She smiles and returns to the plate. “Mmm, shu guh. Wuh hunhry.”

“I can see that.”

“Wan shum?”

“I snacked in the kitchen while I made it. Here, drink some water so you don’t choke.”

She takes it with a grateful face, gulping greedily. “Mmm. Thank you,” she pants. “Jesus, how gross was that?”

“Zero percent.”

Her face flattens, head tilted. “Oh, come on.”

“If it had been anybody else, I would have had to leave the room. It’s cute on you. Don’t know why. Science, I guess.”

“Well, that’s what compatibility is, really. It’s not the good stuff that makes you fit together. It’s that you think all the annoying shit is cute.” She pops a grape into her mouth, then another, shaking her head at the plate. “Just when I think you can’t get hotter, you go and do shit like this. Unreal, dude. Un. Real.”

“I like taking care of you.”

When she turns to look at me this time, her eyes are all big and schmoopy. “See? Like that!” She pushes the tray so it’s way at the other end of the tub and hands me a bar of soap, picking up her loofa after. We’re too busy trying not to gawk at each other while we bathe—as much as I’d love nothing more than to fuck her again, I don’t want to hurt her. When we’re finished, she puts everything back on the ledge next to the tub, then sinks in and flips over in one motion. When her arms are wedged between my sides and the tub and her body is stretched out between my legs, she looks up at me with adoration. I try to ignore the way her tits are smushed against me and cradling my currently useless cock.

I skim one hand down her back, as far as I can reach, anyway. The bubbles tickle her chin, and worse, cover her ass.

“Really, Wilder—if you made a cheese board and bubble bath for all the girls you banged over the years, you must have left a trail of broken hearts.”

I frown. “Don’t do that.”

“What?” She’s genuinely confused, but I see a pang behind her eyes that I don’t like.

“Talk about any of that like it matters. It doesn’t. It never did—I was looking for something I’d never find. You. I like taking care of you . Like, pathologically. Like, it might be problematic just how much I want to take care of you.” The corner of my lips has climbed, and she smiles.

“If this is you being problematic, please—be a problem. Be a fucking menace. I can take it. Do your worst.”

I laugh, kiss her awkwardly because of the angle, and shift. “Sit up. Let me wash your hair.”

“But it’s not wash day!”

Thumbing her chin, I offer a placid smile. “Cass, there’s come in your hair.”

Her cheeks flame, which always makes her eyes look like they’re lit from the inside. “Fine, but you don’t have to do it.” She sits and puts her back to me, reaching to take her hair tie out, but I stay her with a hand on her wrist.

“Let me.”

The lovely curves of her shoulders rise and fall with a sigh of contentment. Her hands move to play with the bubbles, scooping and patting and blowing them while I work.

I untie her hair, enjoying with deep satisfaction the sight of it against her skin, the ends skimming the bubbles and into the water. I grab the little pitcher we use for Cricket when she takes a bath in here, dipping it into the tub to fill it.

“Tip your head,” I say, pleased when she does.

“What time is it?”

“Two thirty.”

Her head swivels around so she can gape at me. “You’re kidding.”

“Nope.” I turn her head back to the front and tug her hair so she’ll tip it for another round. “Tell me about last night with Jessa and Shelby.”

“Well, the whole thing started because they were making fun of me. They asked if I was still pretending I wasn’t interested in you, so I reminded them I’ve never denied the depraved thoughts I have for you.”

I chuckle, setting the pitcher on the window ledge to get her shampoo. I lather it up while she talks.

“I wasn’t completely honest with even myself though— ohhh, ” she moans when I slip my fingers into her hair, massaging her scalp. “Oh, that’s nice.”

“What weren’t you honest about?”

“About how…how close we’ve gotten since all this started. It felt like it used to, but more. Stronger. Maybe because I wouldn’t admit it to myself, I don’t know. But you’ve become my best friend again. Don’t tell Jessa I said that,” she adds with an amused air of warning.

“I’d never.” My heart is in my throat, but my lips are smiling softly. Cass’s hair is a pile of bubbles slashed with crimson sitting on top of her crown.

“But it didn’t really hit me until we started talking about Davis.”

My smile disappears and I find myself growling. “Fuck Davis.”

“ Because— let me finish—because I didn’t love him.”

Smug satisfaction vanquishes the vague impulse for violence.

“I mean, I loved him in my way, in some way. But the problem was always going to be that I chose you. I didn’t know I had, but once I realized, it was easy. I’ve always been yours Wilder, since before I even knew what it meant.”

My soapy hands abandon her hair for her shoulders, and I pull her to recline against my arm so I can kiss her with relief whirling around in my chest.

She didn’t love him, not like she loved me. And if she doesn’t love me now, I hope someday she will again.

Mine.

She already knows I’m hers.

When our lips part, we smile at each other. But then a drip of soap heads for her brow, and I swipe it away with a curse and sit her back up.

“Anyway,” she continues as I rinse out her hair, “the hardest part was waiting to tell you.”

“You should have come to the station.”

“So you could take me where? Because God knows you were going to take me.”

“I’d have figured it out.” I watch the bubbles slide out of the sheet of her hair, pitcher by pitcher. “Another wash?”

“No, thank you.”

I switch for the conditioner, working it into her ends. “I wouldn’t have been mad at a call.”

“Liar,” she says on a laugh. “You barely made it through today. You didn’t come home this morning?—”

“I would have.”

She pauses. “I didn’t think of that. Dammit! I really thought you had to go set up.”

“I did. But I would have been home so fucking fast. Lickity-split , as they say.”

“Anyway,” she says on a chuckle, “I wanted to wait until tonight when we were alone.”

“How come you didn’t?”

She thinks about it for a second. “It wasn’t one thing, really. You were doing the relay and just threw yourself into it. Took charge. It was so hot, by the way. And I just…I waited all this time, and I realized I didn’t want to wait anymore.”

I fill up the pitcher, noting, “I’m glad you didn’t wait until tonight.”

“Me too,” she says to the ceiling as I rinse. “You got on your knees and worshipped my pussy in a bathroom at The Horseshoe, shredded my tights like a fucking animal. Waiting all day made you ruin one of my favorite dresses like a savage. It was basically the best day ever.”

“Best day ever,” I echo, setting the pitcher down now that her hair is rinsed. When I sit back, so does she, leaning against my chest with a sigh.

“I’m glad you changed your mind,” I say for the hundredth time today.

“Me too. Sorry it took so long.”

“I’d wait forever for you, Cass.”

I don’t mean for it to sound so real, so deep. She turns around again, and it’s her turn to kiss me, her hands bracketing my face, lips soft and sweet and perfect.

When she breaks away, it’s to smile.

“Take me to bed,” she says.

I kiss her nose and move to stand, reaching for a big, fluffy towel as she pulls the plug on the tub. “Told you I can’t say no to you.” I open it up, and when she stands, I wrap her up in it, top of her head and all, with just her face sticking out.

“Better watch out or I might take advantage of you,” she says.

The sound I make is somewhere between a groan and a laugh. “Take advantage of me, Cass. Pretty please, with a cherry.”

She giggles. I kiss her again, help her out. Dry off and slide into bed with her.

We fall asleep whispering in the dark, wrapped up in each other.

Right where I’ve wanted to be.