“Yep.” He brushed a strand of her hair from her eyes and dropped a soft kiss onto her lips. “Aren’t you glad I didn’t skip the party like I planned?”
A scowl crossed her face. “Life wouldn’t be that unfair. I was meant to meet you tonight. I can feel it in my bones.”
“Speaking of bones—” he took more of his weight on his elbow and knees, shooting a quick look down their bodies, “—how’s your hip?”
With a gentle laugh, she stretched her leg out beside his thigh. “All good. Little twingey at the halfway point, but I gritted through.”
“Thank you for that.” He grinned. “But how about I get my sizeable arse off you and—”
A sharp pain sank into his head, just above the top of his spine.
He winced, squeezing his eyes shut for a split second before the pain vanished.
“You okay?” Bria frowned up at him.
Throat thick, pulse pounding, he nodded, letting out a wobbly chuckle. “Jet-lag headache, I think.” He arched an eyebrow at her. “Or maybe you just blew my mind?”
“You better believe it, bud.” She gave his cock a little squeeze with her inner muscles and arched her own eyebrow. “Wanna take a shower with me?”
“Hell yeah.”
Making certain the condom came with him, he rolled off her. He bit back another wince as a dull pain pressed at the back of his head again and straightened to his feet beside the bed.
Thirty minutes—and a blowjob that really did almost blow his mind—later, Bria strutted out of the bathroom wrapped only in a towel. “I’m getting us some ice cream,” she threw over her shoulder as Owen shut off the water.
He scanned the room, looking for a towel. Two big fluffy ones hung from the racks—presumably her sisters—and four more folded ones were piled on a shelf opposite the shower. He shook himself off as best he could, crossed the floor, and snagged the top one. He had no idea if Bria was getting them ice cream from the freezer or going out somewhere. Could be either, with what he’d discerned about her so far. A chuckle bubbled up in his chest as he toweled off. Guess he’d find out when he finished in here.
Giving his damp hair a quick comb-slash-tussle with his fingers, he studied his reflection in the small mirror above the basin. No dark circles under his eyes, no residue hint of the pain that had shot through his head earlier.
Good.
He didn’t want to think about what that pain was right now. Right now, all he wanted to do was surrender to the absolute pleasure of Bria’s company. With one last, long stare into his own eyes, he let out a breath. “You’ve got this, mate.”
Wrapping the borrowed towel around his hips, he exited the bathroom and made his way down the short hallway, clearing his throat loudly as he approached the living room, just in case. “Bria?”
“Chocolate, vanilla, peanut-butter fudge, rocky road or peppermint chocolate-chip?” her voice wafted back to him.
She stood in the kitchen, studying the contents of the freezer, wearing the skimpiest pair of black undies he’d ever seen and a little black singlet that stopped a centimeter or two below her last rib.
His cock pulsed beneath his towel, and he drew in a slow breath. He wanted to stride into the kitchen, lose the towel along the way, bend her over the counter, and bury himself into her tight heat, but he suspected she might be feeling a tad tender after their rather vigorous interactions. Plus, he’d only had one condom in his wallet, and…well, it was now well and truly disposed of.
“Peppermint choc-chip,” he said, scooping up his shorts from the floor. Where the hell was his shirt? And his stingray?
“A man after my own heart.” She closed the freezer door and turned to face him, a brown and green tub in her hand, a grin in her eyes. “You okay with eating it straight outta the tub, or would you like a bowl?”
He arched an eyebrow. “Who eats ice cream out of a bowl?”
She laughed.
He pulled his shorts on, flung the towel aside with dramatic flair, flicked a look at where it landed on the floor, and then hurried over to it. “Sorry,” he said with a wry chuckle. “If I don’t hang this up somewhere, it’ll bug me for the rest of the night.”
Bria’s lips curled in a smile. “There’s a laundry hamper in the bathroom.”
He nodded, took the towel to the hamper, and came back, throat thick. Every minute with her was wonderful, and he was beginning to panic. This was only meant to be a one-night hookup. This wasn’t how he’d expected to feel. There was weight to this, significance. How was he meant to walk away from this when it was over?
Returning to the living area, he found Bria sitting crossed-legged on the kitchen counter, open tub of ice cream in one hand, ice cream-laden spoon in another. Her eyes connected with his as she parted her lips and slipped the spoon into her mouth.
Yeah, he was not gonna walk away from this unscarred, that was for certain. He crossed to where she sat, pressing his palms to the counter’s edge on either side of her knees.