Page 30 of Mother Pucker

I shake my head, dismissing her gushing. “Speaking of that forbidden aspect, what about our professional relationship?”

“Fuck the professional relationship. Fuck any relationship at all,” Delia answers. “You do you. Wait, you were already doing you with all those vibrators . . . What I mean is, you lethimdo you, if that’s what you both want. To hell with overthinking the consequences or putting labels on things.”

My eyes widen. “Youare telling me to get into bed with him?You, who wants nothing to do with men?”

Delia bristles dramatically. “Let’s be clear. I’m nottellingyou to get into bed with anyone. You’re a successful woman with a great head on your shoulders, and if youchooseto fuck another consenting adult, then more power to you. Just because I find single-celled amoebas more interesting than men doesn’t mean I expect my friends to feel the same way.”

“Wow. That’s one hell of a convincing speech,” I deadpan.

“Shay, I know what you went through with Ajay,” Dylan says, giving me a meaningful look. Of all my friends, she’s always been the most intuitive. “And I don’t mean just while he was battling cancer. Even before that, you guys were making it work, but it wasn’t great. It’s time for you to live for yourself. Let the universe guide you in finding your happiness.”

I swallow, my bones feeling heavy inside my small frame, trying not to remember the nights well before the cancer, when I would instigate intimacy with him–asking him to touch me, to fuck me–only for him to say he was tired or maybe we would another night.

I used to excuse it, agreeing that hewastired, that he had a long day.

But I can’t deny there were more nights spent with those toys than with him. I can’t deny that was the time I felt loneliest . . .

I stare at them, scared to even consider what they’re saying, but knowing I’m already doing so. “I . . . I don’t want to complicate mine and Kai’s lives. What if he finds out? What if someone from the media finds out?” My heart races. “I could lose my license.”

Delia’s eyes bore into me. “No one is going to find out until you’re ready for them to, not even Kai. And, in case you’ve forgotten, you have the best fucking assistant district attorney in the state of Massachusetts as your best friend. Anyone will think twice before throwing even the tiniest stone in your direction.”

I take a breath, picking up my things to get ready to go to Rowan’s place. I give the girls a hug and just as I’m heading out, Liv slaps my ass. “Go jump his cocky-as-fuck hockey player bones,” she repeats my words. “And don’t you come back until you’re ready to share each and every filthy detail during our next book club.”

ten

shay

I bringthe little bottle to my nose, taking a whiff of his cologne, imagining my nose pressed against the base of his neck. There should be no reason for me to want the man the way I do.

But, dammit, I do.

I set the bottle down, looking around at his opulent and chic bathroom, dragging my eyes over the black leathered marble floors, all glass shower with room for ten, and landing on the enormous, freestanding tub with a beautiful chandelier above it and at least a ten-foot ornate mirror behind it.

Rowan sent me a text message right as I was pulling up to his building ten minutes ago, saying he was running an hour late from practice and to make myself at home. He even asked if I wanted anything to eat since he was going to stop by his favorite Mexican restaurant. And since I’d skipped lunch and spilled most of that kombucha, I’d quickly scanned the menu and found a salad that seemed mostly healthy–minus the fried tortilla strips–so I asked him to pick that up for me.

But now I have all this time to kill.

Walking toward the beautifully decorated shelves next to the tub, I pick up another bottle, reading the label. Hibiscus and honey bubble bath, infused with Hawaiian essential oils. I flipthe cap, hovering my nose over it before taking a long inhale. I swear, I’ve drifted all the way to heaven on a giant flower but without any of the pollen.

Jesus, I’m practically salivating over a bottle of bubble bath.

I bite my bottom lip, staring at the bottle for another minute like it’ll provide me the answers I need.

He did say to make myself at home. He also said it would take him an hour to get here–technically fifty minutes now. So, if I hurry, he would never even know.

No one would blame me for using the time to my advantage and finally doing the one thing I’ve been dreaming about since I moved into the house of horrors with my best friends–a fucking bubble bath.

Not wasting more time overthinking it, I quickly turn on the faucet to fill the tub before undressing and leaving my clothes on the bench near the door where the towel is. Then, realizing I’d left my purse with my Kindle on the sofa in the living room, I quickly run out to grab it, hoping Rowan’s neighbors don’t see me running naked through the massive windows.

Another ten minutes later, and I’m enjoying the most incredible bubble bath in the history of bubble baths. Like Versace, Gucci, and Prada all mated to have a bubble bath baby kind of bubble bath. I bet even Grecian goddesses didn’t bathe like this–like they were floating inside a cloud.

Over the course of the next five minutes, I shape some bubbles over my tits, pretending to be a mermaid in a bubble bikini, make some bubble mountains, and blow some bubbles off my palms like I’m making a wish on dandelion fluff.

After all that excitement, I finally settle in the bath with my head resting on the edge. I grab my Kindle off the shelf I’d left it on and open up the book my best friends and I had picked for this week’s smutty book club, called Ablaze.

My thighs clench as I read the sex scene between the two protagonists, Dean and Mala.

I run my nose along the seam of Mala’s thigh before taking my first swipe of her beautiful, swollen pussy. Her body quivers under my touch and satisfaction courses through my veins.

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