Full Package(54)

Or maybe it’s just an echo in my head.

“Ladies first,” I say, and open the shower door for her. She stands under the stream, and I join her in the heat as she lets the water rinse out the color. Pinkish waterfalls slide down her body, over her breasts, down her legs. The dye splashes on the tile floor in a bright fuchsia puddle.

I grab her shampoo, pour some in my hand, and lather up her hair. She sighs happily, like a cat being petted. That’s one of the very many things I love about this girl. She welcomes touch. She’s amazingly good at giving pleasure, and accepting it, too. Not every woman can bask in the moment and savor someone adoring her body. But Josie can. She opens herself fully to feeling good, to being worshipped as she fucking deserves. And it’s maddening how much it turns me on.

I concentrate on the task of washing her hair. Once she’s all lathered up, I tip her head back and rinse out the shampoo. When her hair is sleek as a seal’s, she raises her head out of the stream.

“There,” I say, and she opens her eyes and loops her arms around my neck.

She lifts her chin and says a soft, “Thank you.”

“Anytime,” I say, trying to keep it light, since I feel anything but.

She runs her finger over my top lip as the hot water beats down. “Did you know I’m on the pill?”

All the air rushes from my lungs. I nod. “I did know that.”

That’s the thing about sharing a bathroom and a medicine cabinet. We don’t have too many secrets.

“Do you want to do it without protection?”

I groan, and somehow my dick thickens more, practically begging me to get down to business this second.

Josie is killing me. Just fucking killing me. Max was right. I’ve got to get out of here. I can’t be near her. I can’t resist her.

Right now, I don’t intend to.

I shift her to the wall, push her back against it, and slide my hand between her legs. I stroke her pussy and marvel at the feel. It hits me that she’s this turned on simply from me washing her hair.

Jesus Christ.

In some alternate universe I’m the luckiest bastard on the face of the earth, to have a woman who’s so wildly aroused.

In this one, I’m just the schmuck about to enjoy his final benefit.

But make no mistake, I’m going to enjoy the ever-loving hell out of it.

I hook her leg around my hip, holding her tight, then rub my dick against her sweet, wet center. A sexy moan falls from her gorgeous mouth, and I slide home.

It’s extraordinary.

And I never want to wear a condom again because this is motherfucking heaven. Her heat envelopes me. Her walls clench around my hard-on. Her breath catches, the most desperate sound I’ve ever heard her make.

Then I fuck her.

In my head, I say that word over and over.

This is fucking. This is fucking. This is fucking.

This isn’t making love.

This is just the final screw before I go. I can’t care about the way she threads her hands in my hair. I can’t linger on the murmurs she makes. And I can’t give a second thought ever again to how she clutches me and cries my name when she comes, as if I’m the answer to her every wish.

I won’t let myself think about how she sounds just as lost as I am.

Because seconds later, I’m coming, too, and the pleasure blots out the empty ache.



A little later I’m dried off and dressed. I zip up my backpack, which contains a few changes of clothes. Footsteps sound behind me, then a question.

“What are you doing?”

I turn around, take a breath, and rip off the Band-Aid like I promised I’d do. “I’m going to stay with Max.”

Her jaw drops. “What?”

I nod. “Just for a little while.”

“Why?” Her brow furrows as her voice wobbles. She stands in my doorway, dressed in jeans and a cute green blouse. Her hair is blown dry, and the ends are bright pink now.

I step closer. “I think the cake is baked now, baby,” I say softly, remembering I have to do this. “It’ll be easier this way.”

“You’re just leaving?”

“I’ll be back. I promise.” Though, right now I don’t know how to be near her when I want her this badly. “We always knew we had to stop. I can’t stop when I’m living in the same six hundred square feet as you. It feels like we’re playing house.”

She bites her lip as if she’s holding in all her sadness. “You think we’re just playing house?”

I glance around and wave at the walls, frustration building inside me, mixed with hurt. “We can’t just go on like this,” I say. Then I can’t help it. I’m done. I just can’t hold it in anymore. I unleash my heart. “I wake up next to you, and I want to touch you. I watch TV with you, and I can’t stop kissing you. Hell, I dye your hair and we wind up naked in the shower. I can’t just cut this off like it’s a growth and go back to watching Bored to Death without wanting to make love to you,” I say, then wince because I’ve made my great mistake.

I swallow nervously, but stand my ground.

Her eyes pin me, and she says nothing for a moment that lasts too long. When she speaks, her tone is soft and tender. “Was that what it was for you?”

I won’t go first. “You tell me.” My voice is gravelly. Broken.