Between the hot water, her even hotter mouth, and the way she looked all sexy and wet on her knees in front of me, this wasn’t going to last very long. I threaded my fingers through her heavy hair, closed my eyes, and tried to remember anything in my life ever being as good as this. The way she rolled her tongue over the tip and across every single ridge had my heart thundering in my ears. When she added her hands and sent them exploring between my legs, I had to really concentrate to stay upright because the pleasure was so much it nearly knocked me down. She made a satisfied sound at the back of her throat that vibrated all along my entire length where it was trapped between her plump lips.
I pulled lightly on the long tresses that I had wrapped around my fingers and told her gruffly, “You need to let up if you want a turn with that.”
I felt her mouth quirk around my dick and then she was using her hands along with her mouth in a way that was meant to render a man absolutely useless. My knees shook because I came with her name on my lips once again. She rose to her feet in one elegant move, the water running down her naked form making her look like some kind of satisfied sea siren that knew good and well how thoroughly she had just ruined me. I was struggling to breathe, to get my head out of the clouds, when she turned her back to me and picked up the shampoo bottle I had resting on a caddy under the showerhead.
“I have to get my car and head home. I have to work tonight and I want to go see Dom before my shift. I don’t have time for a turn, but I’ll take a rain check.” Her point was clear. Last night had been all about her, this morning was all about me. “You should consider that some games are always more fun when they are played with two people.”
She lathered up her long hair either unaware of or purposely ignoring the fact that I was a boneless, shaking mess behind her. I had never had anyone offer something up without expecting something, usually more, in return. I couldn’t get my erratic heartbeat under control so I could put all that emotion her selfless actions had awoken in someplace safe.
I rallied enough to help her scrub her extraordinary head of hair. I almost shored up the reserves enough to help her soap up, which really just meant I ran my hands over every slippery inch of her until she was breathing heavy and looking at me with desire-glazed eyes. I was all for moving her to the bed and returning her early-morning attention and then some, but she just shook her head at me and stepped out of the shower. She snagged the only towel I had hanging on the rod and gave me a pointed look.
“Next time you’re in there and thinking about me, think of that instead.”
She swept out of the bathroom with far more dignity than a girl that was clad in only a threadbare towel should be able to muster.
Now that the water had turned lukewarm and my raging lust had been quelled, I actually showered. She hollered across the tiny apartment asking for the unlock code on my cell. I didn’t even hesitate to shout out the numbers to her. I was long since past the point where I had things to hide in my life and I had never been stupid enough to keep incriminating evidence on something that was as easy to misplace as a cell phone. I heard her talking to whomever it was she called for rescue, and sighed, as I had to stand on the bathroom rug to drip dry for a few minutes before making my way over to the single closet in the room to find something to wear.
She was perched on the arm of the recliner, back in her gym clothes with her hair in a long braid. She looked so fresh and so clean if I hadn’t just been there I never would’ve believed all the dirty, sexy things she could do with her mouth.
I pulled on a pair of jeans sans underwear. I never wore them. I didn’t see the need even though it was cold in Denver and I often cursed myself for not having a layer of something between my dick and the chilly metal of my zipper. I found a black thermal and a hoodie that I tossed to her after I pulled my shirt on over my head. She caught it with a smirk and tossed the phone at me as I sat on the edge of the bed to pull on my black boots.
“You call Nash?” She nodded in answer to my question as she glanced around the bedraggled apartment that looked a hundred times worse during the day.
“This isn’t where I would’ve pictured you living.”
It wasn’t where I ever thought I was going to live either, but shit happened. “I stayed with Cora and Ayden when I first moved here. It was cool for a little while because Jet was gone so much, but then Ayden was on my ass about everything. Then she thought I had something to do with the Bar getting robbed and I knew I had to move out or we would kill each other.”
I rubbed my hands over my damp hair, making it stick straight up and sending water dancing every direction.
“I was laid up, couldn’t work because I had a broken leg and all kinds of other broken junk inside of me. All I could do was limp around the house and mess around on the Internet. I’m dangerous when I don’t have something to focus on.” I couldn’t believe I was about to disclose this to her, not because I was worried about how it would make her think about me, but because she was a cop and I was about to admit to some straight-up illegal activity.
“I started gambling online. I was messing around on Internet poker sites, winning and losing money like crazy. I had no idea how I was going to support myself now that I was determined to stay on the straight and narrow, and at the time it felt like an easy score that wouldn’t hurt anyone.”
I let out a bitter laugh and climbed to my feet as she watched me carefully. “Cora walked in on me more than once and asked what I was up to. I always just shut the computer down or shuffled away before she could see what I was doing, but I think she knew I was up to no good. I made enough to pay off a huge chunk of my medical bills, but instead of doing that …” I made sure she was paying attention, that she really understood how seriously fucked up I was. “Instead of doing that, I bet it all on one hand because I was on a hot streak. I lost it all.” I waved a hand around the barren room and lackluster decor. “I think that’s why I lost it when Ayden thought I had something to do with the robbery at the Bar. Weeks before I was actually fucking shit up, but as soon as Rome threw me a lifeline, I took it and realized the only way to stop drowning in my own mistakes was to start living within my actual means.”
I scowled and looked down at the tips of my boots. “All my life, even when I try to help myself or someone else, I screw it up. The day Rome offered me the job at the Bar, I told myself I would live on what I made and that’s it. No more get-rich-quick schemes. No more high-risk endeavors that may or may not pay off. I live here because it’s cheap and close to work. I don’t have a car because I pay off my debt with anything extra I have a month. For once I’m living the life I’m supposed to have instead of doing whatever it takes to try and live the life I always thought I should have. Do you understand?”