I slip my hand under her and find her clit without ever slowing down. “Oh fuck. Rey, please.” Her words are desperate, strained, so fucking close. One more thrust and I feel her spasm. She arches off the bed, voice echoing off the walls. The force of her climax is too much, and the world goes white, another electric burst of lighting driving me into her and holding me deep.
Pleasure so deep it comes from places that I didn’t know it existed. And it lasts for what feels like forever.
When I come back to myself, I’m still buried inside Klara’s cunt, leaned over her on the bed. Lowering myself further, I press a kiss to the back of her neck. “You were right,” I say. “Always both.”
She laughs, though it’s raw from her used voice. “We’re going to have to wash your sheets. I got you all over them.”
“Worth it.” I slip out of her and deal with the condom and come back out to find her stripping the bed. “You don’t have to do that now,” I say.
One eyebrow raises. “We’re going to sleep in them?”
“No, but you’re still covered in my cum,” I tell her, saying it intentionally. “Figured we could shower first.”
Klara grins. “I’d like that. But I’m not sure I can go another time.”
I reach out and take her hand. “If you think just being with you naked, wet, and soapy isn’t something that I’m interested in, then you’re wrong.”
She drops the sheets, and when she comes closer, I capture her in my arms and kiss her. “I’m very glad that you’re not staying in your house.”
Klara doesn’t say anything, she just kisses me back harder, and when we pull apart, she’s the one that leads me into the shower.
9
Klara
The crew that shows up in the cul-de-sac the next morning is a better one than I could have hired. I had the list of things that needed to be done, but honestly, they barely needed any direction. We retrieved the supplies my father had bought from the storage unit, and they got to work. And because they moved as a unit led by Reynard, I could start to make plans for the actual decoration.
Most of the places had some basic furniture, and I can make do with that. A few coats of paint and some other details, and these houses will be perfectly adequate guest houses. And as income from them starts to come in, improvements could be made. So, I create tiers of decor and I start at the bottom.
Rey thought of that too, and the crew is fully prepped to paint and primp when the actual renovation work is done.
I would never admit it to him, but he’d been right that first day. My parents did give me an impossible task. I don’t exactly blame them. They were desperate and thought that they were about to lose everything. But that doesn’t change the fact that I could have never done this by myself. Even if I were only decorating these five houses, getting all of them done, alone, in two weeks, would be a stretch. Now we actually have a chance.
Later in the afternoon, a shadow falls across the notebook I’m sketching in while sitting on the front lawn of my childhood home, and I look up to see Rey smiling down at me. “How’s it going?”
“I’m feeling much more hopeful and optimistic now. How’s the crew?”
He sits down on the grass beside me. “They’re taking a quick break, but they’re doing well. The house should be finished up tomorrow.”
“Rey, there’s really no way that I can thank you. You’re saving my ass in a truly indescribable way.”
Reaching over, he takes my hand. “It’s nothing.”
“It’s not.”
One half of his mouth tips up into a smile. “I know what it’s like to be in over your head. And I know the feeling of panic that it brings. If I can make it so someone doesn’t have to feel that, I will.”
“Thank you. Seriously.”
Rey leans close and kisses me. This kiss isn’t like the others we’ve shared. It’s not the raw passion that seems to overtake us when we’re alone in his bedroom, and it’s not tentative like new lovers should be. It’s soft and sweet and comfortable. It tugs at the strings inside my chest and makes me wonder how this is even possible.
And the things it makes me feel aren’t things that I can think about right now. “Do they need help?” I ask when I pull away. “I’ve done some good work here—I can put this on hold.”
“Nah,” Rey shakes his head. “They’re fine. In the rhythm of it.”
“In other words, don’t go in there and fuck it up?”
He laughs. “That’s not what I was going to say. But you don’t need to go anywhere at the moment. They’ve got their marching orders. But I wanted to mention that I’ve made plans tonight to get drinks with a friend—Manuel. We do it every couple of weeks. You’ll have the run of my house, and I won’t be back late. That all right?”