AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Don’t do that.” She squeezed my shoulders. “I like your skin.”
“You’re stealing my lines.”
“I like your lines too.” She pressed into me, her soft breasts flattening against my abdomen. “Can I wash your hair?”
“I—” Didn’t know what the fuck to say. “Do you want to?”
She nodded, drops of water dripping from her lashes, running in rivulets down her cheeks. “I’d like to take care of you, Elliot.” Rising on her toes, she reached for my hair, sliding her fingers through the sides. “You have me at a height disadvantage, though. You might need to sit down for me.”
“I can do that.” I took a seat on the built-in marble bench at the back of the shower, my heart tumbling down never-ending stairs. But that wasn’t panic. It came from watching Catherine. We hadn’t taken a shower together before, and the sight of her with water streaming over her curves like a wild waterfall snatched what little breath I’d recovered right out of my lungs.
This woman was spectacular.
She stepped between my spread knees, rubbed the shampoo in her hands together, then went to work on my hair. Her fingers carved lines along the sides and top, nails dragging from my crown to my nape.
I closed my eyes and let my head fall against her stomach and breasts. A little gasp escaped her, a pause in her movements, then she returned to her tender care.
It went without saying I had never been given this sort of treatment. But then, I’d never been open to something like this. I wouldn’t have been with anyone but her.
To think I’d nearly missed this, that I wasn’t going to allow myself to even think of having her. Much less invite her into my life in a way that would render me useless if she left permanently. For me, there was no going back. There hadn’t been since I’d opened my eyes to her.
Her fingertips massaged my scalp, slow and deep, dragging with them the days of worries and insecurity as she pressed her love and adoration into me.
My limbs loosened with each pass of her fingers, and I gave her more of my weight, falling into her.
I almost missed them.
I never would have known this kind of love.
My throat knotted, and the backs of my eyes burned. Oh Jesus, what was this?
“Shhh.” She smoothed my hair back off my forehead and cupped the crown of my head. “Shhh…it’s been a long, long couple days, but we’re together now, and it’s all okay.”
Oh god, I couldn’t hold on. She’d gently taken the control from my hands with her sweet reassurance. Itwasall okay because we were here, in the home we had agreed was not mine but ours.
Our home.
Almost missed this.
My arms wrapped around her middle as my shoulders shook, and I clung to her with a franticness that didn’t make sense but was real nonetheless.
“Oh, Elliot,” she whispered. “I know, I know, but it’s all okay. We understand each other now.”
Lowering herself to the bench, her knees on the outside of my hips, she held my face in her hands. I should have been mortified by the tears I’d let loose, but she pressed her lips to each one, never asking where they’d come from or why they were there.
Kissed them away.
Just like that.
My Catherine. My sweetheart.
Her fingers stroked through my hair, and her lips slid along my cheeks, soothing me, caring for me in the way only she could.
“I love you, Elliot,” she murmured. “I’ve cared for you for a long time, even when you drove me mad, but I think it started to turn to love when I walked into my bedroom after you let me sleep all night and were holding Joey on your chest. You smiled at me, and at the time, I didn’t think about it, but later, I did. You were happy to see me rested and just as happy to be holding my daughter. From that moment on, I was all yours.”
“You were always mine,” I murmured. “And I would have let you go. I would have let you work for me, and when it was time for you to move on, I would have let you go.”
“Elliot,” she crackled out. “Oh…”
