Chapter 26

I grip her hand and step in carefully. She rests her other hand on the side of my thigh, gliding it up as I crouch to sit. When I recline into her with a sigh, she slips her arm around my ribs below my breasts in a loose embrace. I feel her breathe in deeply and slowly, and then release it and her tension. I angle my body so my shoulder is resting against her sternum and I can face her a little, my head resting back on her collarbone."How do you feel?" I ask. "Do you want to talk about it?" She breathes in, and out, again slowly, and answers, "Can we do that after our bath?""Of course." I grip her arms around me and relax further into her. But I'm too restless to enjoy the silence and the stillness. I start trailing my nails up and down her forearm, and I feel her muscles contract as she tightens her hold on my ribs.

She slips a little lower in the tub so that her chin comes to rest on my shoulder. She turns her head and kisses behind my ear, and starts nipping and licking down my neck and along my shoulder.

"Don't leave marks," I breathe.Her hand on my ribs lightly strokes there, barely going up and down, in a way that’s clearly meant to drive me crazy and never further. Her mouth is doing more of the same, nibbling and teasing and never increasing. I let her for a minute, anticipating more any moment, but she only adds her other hand to the tantalizing rhythm of soft caresses, low on my belly but still not helping anything. Just when I’m about to turn around to take control of the rhythm, she slips her hand lower. I sigh a barely audible “yes” and let my head fall back on her shoulder. The hand on my ribs comes up to cup my breast, first palming it, then lightly tracing circles closer and closer to my nipples with the pad of her fingers. Paige licks and sucks on the sensitive point at the edge of my hair on the side of my neck, and I shakily breathe out and then back in.Now that she has positioned herself ideally for her intent, she wastes no more time in reaching her goal. She’s almost more efficient than passionate, to the point that I am gripping the side of the tub in one hand and her arm in the other within minutes. And when I arch into her, feet braced against the steep-sloped wall of the tub, there’s no more rippling than that caused by my body lifting up in tension. Again, I come down quickly, but this time I have a mind to balance her efficiency with slow tenderness. I bask for a short moment in the warm water and her hot skin and my relaxation, but soon I get up and pull Paige out with me.“Come here,” I say as I tug on her arms. Her eyes widen a little but she comes willingly. I dry us with short decisive strokes and take her hand to lead her to the bed with no delay. I have plans for her.I lay myself on top of her, all naked inches of our bodies in contact, but for my hips nestled between her thighs. She brings her arms up around my neck but lets me set the pace. We look at each other for a moment. My eyes dart between hers until she smiles and says, “Hi.”“Hi,” I breathe out before dipping down to her mouth. I start an unhurried rhythm of kissing with my tongue, trying to coax the most languorous sounds out of her. When her hips start to move against mine, I shift to trailing kisses down her neck slowly, thoroughly and down to her collarbone against which I graze with my teeth, light enough to leave no mark. Paige sighs andI feel her throat vibrate with inaudible moans. I keep going, dropping pecks and nibbles all the way to her nipples but stopping just before them. I feel her hand in my hair, the tension of not gripping, of not guiding. I bring my fingers up to skim them along the goosebumps forming along the slope of her chest, down to the middle line of her sternum, circling down to the underside of her breast and spiraling back up, increasingly closer to her nipple. While I track the movement of my hand with my eyes and feel her reactions to it – the catch of her breath, the tensing of her intercostal muscles, the expansion of her ribs I forget a little about what my mouth is doing. She quickly reminds me with a groaned, “Ash.” I think a “please” is about to follow but it dissolves in her mouth as I nip right underneath her nipple, on the softest part of her breast. I almost just want to stay where I am for the rest of the afternoon but my position allows me to feel her when she lifts her hips against me, just the barest hint of slickness against my belly, andI almost dip my hand down right then. At this point, she starts grinding slowly, almost restrained, with heels bracing the tiniest bit against the mattress. I decide to shift my pace just a bit faster and, as I start licking and kissing her other breast, I let the hand that was there skim against her stomach, alternating between flat palm and grazing finger pads, exploring more thoroughly than the other night. I feel her abdominal muscles tense and spasm and release, jolts decreasingly strong as her skin acclimates to the touch.

Finally, I trail a series of kisses down her stomach, slowly but firmly angled toward a specific goal. Paige finds her voice then.“I see you know what I want.”I chuckle against her navel and feel the reflexive clench below my mouth. I lift my head to rest my chin on the soft skin there, still smiling, and lock eyes with her. “Maybe it’s just what I want.” She brings her hand back to push my hair out of my eyes, and I raise mine to press hers against my cheek. “Good thing we want the same things.” I think she is talking about the broader picture and hope blossoms in my ribcage. I take a slow expansive inspiration, but I need to pause those thoughts until we have a proper discussion, so I smile and I hum and I lower my head again.I slip my shoulders under her legs and trail kisses along her inner thighs. One side and then the other. Paige shudders and digs a heel in my back just a little, more support than pressure. I linger on the seam between her pelvis and her thigh, right where her curls start, until Paige plants both feet on the bed and groans.Again, she says, “Ash,” low and gravely. I look up with a grin to see there’s no desperate plea on her lips. Maybe not frustration exactly either, but this is more the look of a woman who knows what she wants.“Do you need me to guide you right now?” She smirks.“I know the basics,” I joke.“How about you start with that then, and I help you refine your technique along the way.” I don’t reply and just lower my mouth to kiss and lick her from the bottom up, first flat and soft, then with more pointed pressure as I finish the stroke. She gasps and whispers, “Good start.” I grin against her curls and get back to it. She shifts a little so she is resting more weight on one hip, that leg fully in contact with the bed, while the other bends above my shoulder and presses with the flat of her foot next to my ribcage.The new angle widens her stance and gives me more access. I bring my hand up to stroke her inner thigh with my thumb in pace with my tongue. She sighs and clenches her fingers against my scalp, still not pushing my head in any manner but tensing with restraint. She murmurs something of which I make out “like that” and takes my other hand in her a strong grip.

After that, her rhythm quickly grows more frantic and I have to hold her hips down as I try to keep up with it until her entire body tenses off of the bed and she can’t subdue her hold on my head with her hands and thighs anymore. She remains suspended in that moment for long seconds, and even as she lowers her head again, I feel her stomach contract with the barest of movement on my part.Soon, she says, “Come back up,” and I happily comply, quickly tracking kisses up her body until I reach her lips. She enfolds me in her arms and rolls us off to the side. I lean my forehead against hers and let her savor the moment.After some time, she gets up and goes to the bathroom, but I stay where I am, hoping to coax her back into bed when she comes back.Later, still in bed, still in each others’ arms, we talk. Paige's face is inches from mine, our bodies linked from shoulder to toe, so we almost whisper.