Page 51 of Delayed Penalty

“I’m going to let you get some sleep. Let me know if you need anything,” I say, turning to walk toward the door. Slapping my palm right next to the door, I stop myself in indecision, turning to look at Avery. “You look beautiful, Avery. You always do, but I will forever remember today.”

This time I don’t stop, just let the door close behind me.

Or at least I think I do, but Avery stops it.

“Harris…” she says quietly, and I can’t help but hope she’s thinking the same things I am.

Her body. My body. Together again.

“Yes?”

“Could you… help me? Kelly had to lace me up and zip me up, I don’t think I’ll be able to undo it on my own,” she says, her eyes bouncing around like she’s too nervous to focus on me. “I can always just ask Kelly,” she adds quietly.

I glare.

“Turn around,” I growl, walking back into her room.

When she turns around, I see the white lace dress she’s wearing has a zipper from right below her neck, all the way down to damn near her tail bone. Grabbing the clasp, I slowly start to slide it down, the quietness of this moment is too much as I can hear the individual clasps of the zippers being separated as I slide it down.

I’m acutely aware of every move she makes, the shallowness of her breathing as my fingers graze her skin ever so gently as I unzip her completely.

“There you go,” I whisper, afraid of speaking too loudly and scaring this moment away.

“Umm… Could you… could you do the rest?” she asks, and I look down and see the laces she was talking about.

Fucking lingerie.

“You and your goddamn lingerie are going to be the fucking death of me,” I growl as I start to unlace her lingerie, slowly loosening it enough to where she’ll be able to slip it off.

She laughs a light, breathy laugh that catches me off guard, a sound so sweet I want to lap it up, taste it with my tongue.

That’s not the only thing I imagine tasting with my tongue as I help her out of this. The immediate comparison to the night that started this all is not lost on me. I spent that night relearning her body and I’m ready for another study session. I want to be an expert; I want to be the one who can make her body sing like no one else.

But I also want to be the one that makes her feel safe, that makes her laugh instead of cry, smile when life is tough.

I want it all.

Until I can be that person for her, until she’ll let me, I can’t bring myself to try for another night like that. She’s right, it’s not worth it since we have a baby. The only difference is I don’t mean we aren’t worth it. I mean a hook up without an actual commitment is not worth it. Until she realizes just how committed I am to her, I’m just going to keep showing up until she does.

So, I take a deep breath and start naming cereal brands to keep myself in check.

When I’m finally finished, I move my hands and slowly take a step back.

“All done,” I whisper, and she turns ever so slowly, her hands holding her dress up as she watches me with a look I recognize. She wants this too.

“Thank you,” she says, her eyes dropping down to my lips and I know I could close the gap, claim her with my mouth and my cock again, but I can’t.

In a move that shocks the entire world, I take another step back.

“Good night,” I say with a smile. “I’ll be in my room if you need anything. Sleep well, wifey.”

She looks surprised, but smiles, shaking the lusts from her eyes as she closes the door behind me.

Chapter Twenty

Harris

Avery, Kelly, and I all walk into Hudson’s twenty minutes earlier than I told everyone else because I wanted to make sure we got our usual spot and that we were the first ones here. I’m not sure why but I feel like if we were to walk up to the table together, we’d immediately have a sign above our heads telling all of our secrets right off the bat, and honestly, I’m a little excited to be the one to tell them.

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