When he said I needed a shower, I didn’t expect him to join me. “I can shower without your help, River,” I said. “I didn’t pin you as a stalker, you know.”
“Trust me a little, okay? There’s no need to be nervous, Cara,” he whispered as he slowly stripped me of my clothes. “I’ve seen you naked a million times.”
Trust him? Why wasn’t I fighting back? Where was the deep-seated scorn in my heart? For two years, I never wavered, but right this moment, I was stripped of all the hate and animosity, becoming the woman I was before the man I had once agreed to marry hurt me.
I was paralyzed as he took off my clothes. He didn’t utter a word, but I saw his throat bob like he was as nervous as I was. Apart from that small indicator, he resorted back to being mercurial as took care of me.
If I was going bonkers before, I was wrong, because the second River took off his Calvin’s, his eyes trained on mine, pulling me in, mesmerizing me, I felt unhinged. His honed chest, sculpted abdomen, and the beautifully protruding proud cock me salivate like a dog in heat.
Holy cock. Was he always that enormous?
I swallowed hard while trying to unglue my eyes from the massive thick intruder. How did I imagine to survive this arousing ordeal? He was literally making things difficult for me to think, let alone breathe.
Shutting my eyes for a brief moment, I felt faint from the powerful tug of desire thrumming throughout my body. Desire so potent it was nothing but mental. It was like fighting the pull of two magnets attracting its counterpart.
“Let’s warm you up,” he murmured, holding my hand as he led me toward the marbled shower with the hot spray already running, gradually steaming the glass.
I didn’t need warming. One gaze at his thick, lengthy member was all I needed to remedy that problem.
I didn’t dare glance south again.
Clearly out of my element, I was too overwrought to properly function. So, when he gestured to shampoo my hair, I barely managed a nod to let him do as he pleased. He then soothingly lathered my body with soap, being careful not to touch my breasts and other sensitive areas. That was some sort of consolation. He probably understood the turmoil I was in, while he seemed composed, as if he had done this a million times.
He then proceeded to carefully wash my back, softly trailing the base of spine, tracing the soft curve of my back before reaching my bottom. He paused then before taking a sharp intake of air, while I anticipated his next action.
“Cara …” he rasped out before I felt his lips against the back of my neck, hovering. He inched closer against my back, and I shuddered when I felt his cock graze my butt cheeks.
There was no denying that I was sex-starved wherever he was concerned, but I wasn’t sure I wanted it. Thinking and acting were two different things.
“Please don’t,” I begged.
“I know.” His breathing went ragged before he slowly spun me around to face him. “I’m just testing to see if you want me as I want you. You’ve proven me wrong.”
Compounded with conflicting emotions, I kept my mouth shut. It was blatantly apparent that, though he tried to smile, there was sadness in his eyes. It was most likely from his dented ego from my somewhat rejection.
Keeping my mouth sealed was the only way I could keep myself together. I didn’t trust myself to reveal the turmoil I was experiencing, because I didn’t want him to use it against me.
Both freshly showered, I wore his shirt while he donned a new pair of black Calvin’s. I was tempted to ask for a pair myself since I had nothing underneath the shirt, but words deserted me when the man switched on the fireplace across the room, lights off while playing Niia’s “Last Night in Los Feliz” in the background.
“How about that dance, petal?” he asked as he treaded toward me with his hand out and a pleasing look on his face.
I watched the flames dance on his face, highlighting his dark beauty. He was so beautiful it ached to look at him without having my heart pang with such longing it was unendurable at times.
Giving him my hand, I cautiously gazed at him. “You’ve become such the seducer, Romeo. Were you always like this?”
That remark earned me a soft cackle before he pulled me in a sweet embrace. “Only with you, my love … only with you.” He held me like I was the most precious thing—securely, gently—as we slowly swayed to the music.
My eyes closed as I rested my cheek against the side of his neck. I was transported back to the first time we had danced. Just like this. It was the same fated night I gave myself to him on his sixteenth birthday. The memory was bittersweet. It gnawed on me, leaving me vulnerable and unguarded.
“I’m never leaving you. I’m never giving you up, not for a second time. We’re entwined you and I. Maybe not as lovers, but as friends, as family. It’s not negotiable,” he uttered with such conviction that it almost brought me to tears.
We vowed that no matter what, we were family. A promise I had tried not to honor.
“I’m terrified …” Of him and what he could do to me. He knew my weaknesses, and I couldn’t trust him not to use them against me. If I couldn’t protect myself, who would?
“You’re not alone. I’m terrified, too, but I can’t go on living a life without you in it, Cara. The past two years were hell. I love you, and I know you’re not willing to be mine, so I’ll settle for the second best. I’ll take it. I don’t care if it’s killing me. Someday, you’ll understand that my love for you has no conditions.”
Hot, heavy tears rolled down my face, my resolve slowly dissolving. We had separately come so far, yet somehow fate brought me here, to him.