One Breathless Night(18)

It was a jungle.

Everywhere she looked the jungle surrounded them, crawled up the walls to the canopy on the ceiling. She could barely make out the many showerheads, but Rick was perfectly clear.

With his hair wet and his body glistening, he approached her slowly. “Look at that smile. I think I’m jealous.”

“Of a shower?” Jenna laughed. “I’m a water baby, that’s all. I would swim every day if I could, then sit in a hot tub every night. At home, I spent a lot on an oxygenated showerhead. But this, holy cow, this is the mother ship.”

Grinning, he inclined his head. “Check out the amenities.”

She hadn’t even noticed the shelves filled with all manner of wonders. Everything from body scrubs to shampoos.

“I’ve never heard of any of them,” he said. “But then, I’m not a spa kind of guy.”

The first thing she picked up from the shelf was a body wash by Hermès. The next was Guerlain. “Uh, won’t your friend be pissed if we use these? I know they cost a fortune.”

“It’s okay. Promise.” He took a bottle off another shelf, poured what looked like liquid gold into his hands, and then walked behind her. Seconds later, he was washing her back, soaping her up with what felt like wet silk. When she had abandoned herself completely to pleasure, wet and warm as could be, he pressed his front against her back. Then he began at her neck and moved his large hands down.

She dropped her chin when he started on her breasts. Reaching behind her, she caught the back of his head and brought it to her shoulder. “I want to wash you,” she said.

“I’ll let you.”

“Okay, but I don’t want to make love in here. I want to wait until we go back to bed.”

“I’m good with that.”

“Excellent,” she said, then let him go. He moved down her abdomen, guiding her this way and that so he wasn’t competing with the jets.

When he arrived at her landing strip he soaped that slowly, moving down farther until his fingers were inside her.

It didn’t take but a minute for him to put his index finger on her now ripe clit.

“Remember,” she said, turning her head so she’d hear him. “Not till we get to bed.”

“I think you’re forgetting that you, Ms. Jenna, don’t have much of a refractory period at all.”

“Oh, right,” she said, nodding. “Go for it.”

His chest shook with a laugh but not for long. Her hands were on his arms, lightly holding him, loving the feel of his muscles as he worked her into her own private lather.

Behind her, she could feel him. He was very hard, and very clever as long as he didn’t take it too far. He thrust his soapy cock between her buttocks. She’d never been big on frottage before, but this was sexy as all get out. The jungle was alive around them, the rain full of tricks. But now all she could think of was his fingers, and how her body was tightening, preparing to blind her with a whole body orgasm. It was there. Rising, pulsing. “I’m close,” she said.

“Good.”

“Rick!”

“I’m here,” he said. “Let go. I’ve got you.”

In the dead center of what had to be a wet dream, she came apart. The only thing keeping her from turning into a quivering puddle was his arms. Lights flashed behind her eyelids and the room spun. She was gulping air, somehow not drowning. Probably because Rick was there, strong and steady, with his wicked fingers slipping away seconds before she became too sensitive.

Finally, after who knew how long, she stood on her own, anxious to feel his body under her own soapy hands. Instead of the Guerlain, she went to the men’s shelf where... “Oh, my God, you have to see this.”

He gave her a quizzical look, but his eyebrows rose when he read the label of the shower gel. It was called Bond No. 9.

“Do you like the scent?”

He uncapped the bottle, sniffed, and then handed it to her.

She inhaled deeply. “Mmm, I do,” she said. It smelled of ginger and leather and something darker but also citrusy. It didn’t matter, as long as he liked it. “Okay?”

“As a very good friend of mine once said, go for it.”

She lathered up, and went to town. It was more amazing than she’d imagined. Especially because the whole time she was caressing every part she could reach, he was shampooing her hair.

Magic. Again.

Not the jungle, not the luxurious products, not any of it.

Just him.

Just Rick.

* * *

THEY’D ALMOST made it. Almost.

He thought he had better control of himself, but when she started to wash him below the belt, so to speak, the switch got flipped and he was a goner. She’d barely touched his cock with her handful of shower gel and he’d popped like a champagne cork.

It didn’t matter. They had all night.

But for now, they were happily drained, done in by an overdose of pleasure. It was remarkably difficult to get dry despite the warm towels, then to make it all the way to the bed. He’d been worried about being away from his gym routine, but the hell with that. All he wanted was lying next to him, her hair dried and gorgeous, spread over his shoulder. They’d exchanged maybe ten words since leaving the shower.

He was glad for Sam, because this place just kept getting better, but unlike the superrich would-be clients, Rick had to go back to his apartment shower after this.

He’d always bought serviceable crap for the bathroom. He wasn’t a pig or anything, but he bought his things from the neighborhood drugstore. He was tempted to go online right now and order some of that Bond stuff, but no. He’d do it later, when he wasn’t so perfectly at peace.

He felt pretty certain that every time he used the gel it would remind him of Jenna. Of how lucky they’d been to meet each other, let alone to spend this kind of time together. To remember this New Year’s Eve as the one where he’d met her instead of the one where he’d almost made a huge mistake with Faith was pretty great.

The walls had been changing colors ever since they’d slid between the sheets. They were soft, like the color of the wheat fields he’d walked past on his way to school when he was a boy, and the pale blue of the cloudless skies of summer. Odd. He hadn’t thought about his hometown in ages, and he wasn’t sure why he was now.

He ran his hand down the downy soft skin of her back. “I hate to be the bearer of bad tidings, but I had to change my flight plans. I’ll be leaving early tomorrow morning. It’s probably our only chance to get out before the really big storms come through.”

“Oh. That’s awful. I was hoping we’d get to stay until Sunday,” she said.

“Me, too. But I have to get back to work. This is a very unusual winter. I usually hate the idea of being stuck inside for any length of time. I pretty much build my life around outdoor sports. But with you...”

“I wouldn’t mind being trapped here.” Jenna shifted a bit until she was able to meet his gaze.

“No. If I had my way, I’d keep us here through here through Monday. Just think. Two more nights...enough food for an army. That shower.”

She moaned, and he felt himself react as if he hadn’t just come thirty minutes ago. “I noticed the tubs are pretty spectacular. The one in my bathroom is a whirlpool. I’ve never seen one with more jets.”

“Big enough for two?”

“Definitely. But I don’t see how we’ll ever get to use it.” She ran her hand over his chest. “I’ve been trying to figure out why I’m more comfortable with you than I am with people I’ve known for years.”

“Think it’s shared trauma?” he asked, then wanted to bite his tongue for the mistake. Things had been nice and easy. The last thing he wanted to talk about was Payton or Faith.

“Some of it,” she said, “sure. For all intents and purposes, we were in the same train wreck.”

“Which doesn’t quite explain that first kiss.”

Her hand stopped. A few seconds later, she was playing with the sparse hair on his chest again. “Or the one from ten minutes ago,” she said, making it sound almost like a question.

But when he thought about it... “You’re right. I don’t think I’ve—I don’t know, everything feels different.”

“It’ll probably fade. We’ll get back to our real lives, and then all the stuff that we’ve locked out will come crashing down around us.”

He nodded. “I’ve got to find a new apartment.”

“Ugh,” she said. “I don’t envy you that. I hate apartment shopping.”

“Especially after staying here.”

They both laughed a little, but feeling her against him was like a drug. “What about you?”

“You mean when I get back? Well, I’ve got school, of course, but at least I won’t need to scramble. I prepared a week’s worth of lesson plans right after Christmas. But it’s always weird on the first day back after a long break. The kids will be humming with energy. Missing the freedom of Christmas vacation.”

Everything about her in his arms was perfect. He had no reason at all to move a muscle, and yet he had no choice but to move them both until he could look her in the eyes.

“Hey,” she murmured. “I was enjoying that.”