Finally, she caved, tilting her head and opening her mouth to mine. Her tongue swept against mine in one long, wet stroke and I groaned, tightening my hands around her. I stood, and she squeaked into my mouth, but wrapped her legs tightly around my waist. Adele wound around me like a python, and we kissed all the way up the flight of stairs.

Once I cleared the top step, I hesitated, pulling my mouth away from hers.

“How about we shower that coffee smell off of you before bed?”

“We?”

I nodded, took her lower lip in between my teeth and tugged while I walked us into the bathroom.

After I’d lowered her so she could sit on the bathroom counter, neither of us spoke. I tested the water with my hand, her eyes boring into my back, as tangible as a bullet through my skin.

She’d unzipped her sweatshirt already, and I stilled her hands before she could remove the shirt underneath.

“Let me.”

And she did. Every inch of skin that I uncovered, I tasted or smelled. The thin, hard line of her collarbone felt like steel under my lips. The slope of her shoulder held some of that scent that I’d come to love so much, so I lingered there a little longer than I’d planned.

Adele let out a soft whimper when I finally slipped her shirt completely off.

“You’re supposed to be quiet,” I gently reminded her, no heat present in my tone. She nodded, dropping her forehead to my shoulder so I could reach the clasp of her bra more easily. With the shower running behind us, the air was wet and heavy, steam curling around our bodies while we curled into each other. The straps of her bra slid down her upper arms and caught when she held the cups to her breasts, the heavy skin and beaded nipples still partially hidden behind the lace.

I lifted her up so that she had no choice but to stand. Lowering myself to my knees onto the cold tile floor, I placed a slow, open-mouthed kiss on the skin just below her belly button. The room was so warm now, almost stifling in its heat, but she shivered, goosebumps pebbling her stomach.

Adele toed off her shoes, and I peeled her pants down her forever-long legs, my mouth following down the toned flesh of her thighs. Once she was uncovered, bare before me save her underwear and the almost-falling-off bra, I stood, digging my hands into her hair and tilting her face up to me.

We traded languid kisses, just moving our lips over and over. Her hands made quick work of the buttons on my shirt, only slowing their movement as she tracked down my chest, lingering over the clenching muscles of my abs. Each drag of her fingers made me want to move faster, touch harder, dig into her skin.

But I didn’t. There was some unspoken agreement we’d made coming up here together. A shift in the way our bodies wanted to move, wanted to feel and be felt.

Finally, I used one finger to pull the bra off of her completely, taking the tip of that same finger to smooth over the tight flesh of her nipple, making small, slow circles around the edge. Her hips shifted toward me and I pressed back, letting the painfully stiff length of my cock grind against where she wanted me most.

My pants were gone with two quick movements of my hands, and hers slid my boxer briefs down over my ass so I could step out of them. Adele went to take off her own underwear, but I stopped her.

“No,” I said, stopping her hands and pulling the lace back into place over her perfect, perfect ass, “leave them on for me.”

She smiled and turned to pull open the clear glass door the shower. Instead of following her, I stayed and watched while she stood under the steaming water, tilting her head back to wet her hair. The water sluicing down her body made her shine, every inch of her flesh covered now. Her eyes stayed closed, and her hands followed a light path that mirrored the one I’d taken earlier. Slowly circling a nipple with one finger, trailing down her flat stomach to the skin under belly button and dragging back up again.

I fisted my cock and tried to even my breathing, but it was impossible. No man, no mere mortal could stand where I was standing and look at her and not feel like the weak fleshly beings that we were. Just by being there, she was giving me everything I’d been missing, been deprived of for years.

I released my cock, let it bob back up, and entered the shower. Running my hands around her hips to embrace her from behind. When she relaxed into me, her hands folding over my arms, the simple comfort from her made me want to fall to my knees.

So that’s exactly what I set about doing.

Using my hands, I turned her so she faced me, not kissing her the way her upturned mouth begged me to. Instead I lightly pushed her back so her shoulders met the tile of the shower wall. She shivered again, the hard surface behind her probably still colder than the sultry air around us. When I used my hands to cup her ass and tilt her hips out from the wall, realization lit in her cat-green eyes.

Gripping the bar mounted into the tile next to her, Adele shifted down the wall a fraction at the same time that I sank down onto my knees. I leaned my forehead against her stomach, letting the hot water pound against my back. She wound the fingers from her free hand into my hair, smoothing back the strands in a gesture so sweet and so soothing that I almost wanted to weep.

I mouthed the skin along her abdomen, licking the water on her flesh into my mouth. When she angled her hips toward me, I smiled, trailing a hand up her leg, curling it into her inner thigh. I traced my hands over the wet lace of her underwear, using my hand to curve over her pussy, rubbing the fabric into her clit with my palm.

The lace felt scratchy over my tongue when I dragged it along the edge. Using my teeth, I pulled it down over one hip, then moved over and did the same on the other side. When it fell with a wet plop onto the tile next to us, I hefted one of her legs up over my shoulder, opening her up to me, and curling two fingers into her slick, hot channel.

The breaths coming out of her were heavy and deep, loud enough that I could hear her over the water. Glancing up, I saw that her head aimed down, her eyes lasered in on me. Holding her gaze, I kissed the mound of her pussy, sucking her clit into my mouth. Adele finally cracked, moaning in one long, drawn out sound.

I clutched at the skin under my hands, drew her deeper into my mouth, worked my fingers around, snaking my tongue against her flesh. Her hips moved in tiny circles, riding my face with shameless, wanton pleasure. The hair on my scalp was gripped so tightly in her hands that I pulled back.

“What the fu—”

“Be nice to my hair. I’d like to keep it on my head.”

She grinned, cheeks flushed to pink, and tightened her fingers again. I stood in a sudden movement, the leg that was around my shoulder dropping so that I held it in the crook of my elbow. The way it opened her to me made it so that my cock lined up right where my mouth had been.

“Are you going to fuck me now?”

I shook my head, placing a chaste kiss on her lips. “No. That’s absolutely not what this will be.”

I pushed into her with one long, smooth slide. We stayed pressed up against each other, so tightly wound that the water could barely make room between our bodies. Then I kept my movements so slow, so agonizingly slow, that when we both came, there was barely any sound between us.

Chapter Twenty-Four

The first thing I saw upon opening my eyes was his face, serene. His hair was mussed, his lips soft. I wanted to lean over, to see how his lips tasted first thing in the morning, but I didn’t. The worries he wore in the creases of his forehead were smoothed and I wanted him to enjoy the peace that sleep gave him a little longer.