Page 157 of Tides That Bind

When Harper’s fingers rub at the base of my neck, my cock twitches. I taste a kind of delicious anticipation on my tongue that swipes across my dampened lips.

“Turn around,” she says only loud enough for me to hear over the water and the racing of my pulse in my ears.

My strained cock brushes against her when I turn, leaning my head back under the shower as the shampoo’s suds flow down my back, steams of it trickling down my neck and over my chest where Harper rubs them away.

I open my eyes when her movements pause, and she presses a hand above my heart thumping hard against my chest.

“From head to toe,” Harper repeats. “I love you and everything in between.”

The intensity of my breath forces my lips to part when she rests her hand above my racing heart. I fling an arm to the wall of the shower to steady myself.

Her hand falls from my chest and I shiver when her lips covet the now abandoned spot before she drags her mouth up. Her pillowy mouth is a stark contrast to the tautness of my neck where heavy breaths race out of. They’re loud, powerful, packed to the brim with waning control. But whatever is left of them Harper steals when she grips my cock firmly in her hand.

“Everything,” she emphasizes with a lick to my neck whileswirling her thumb around the opening of my swollen tip. I shiver and I shake, overwhelmed with the emotion surrounding us against the anxiety of tomorrow.

But there’s a need for Harper that’s bigger than any and all of that.

I loosen her hand and place it back on my chest, her palm sliding against my wet skin before managing to rest securely over my heart.

“You haven’t always been mine. Not for the taking or the keeping. But do you know what you are now?”

Harper gently shakes her head.

“You’re mine,” I lean down to whisper against her lips. “For the loving.”

When Harper whispers, “I’m yours, Riley,” there’s no going back.

I take her against the shower.

I keep her there as I slide inside of her, my body relaxing when I can go no further.

And I make love to her as she digs her heels into my back and claws at my skin.

“Riley…”

They say your name sounds different from the mouth of a person who loves you. That should’ve been my first clue of how deep I love Harper. Because I’d die a happy man if she were the only person left on the planet to whisper it.

“I’m ready,”Lucas says from the top of the stairs.

I’m fixing my hair in the mirror that leans against the small console by the front door, poorly attempting to tame a few fly aways. It’s in the reflection, the sight of Lucas coming downstairs makes my voice thicken so much I can’t say anything.

Like the overactive, little boy he is, Lucas takes two steps at a time.

But the truth is, I don’t see a little boy anymore. It might be because he’s wearing a navy suit and a brand-new, white dress shirt.

What I see in my mind as I look at Lucas is who he will become one day and all he has yet to experience wearing a suit.

A teenager going to prom.

A college student on his graduation.

A young man standing at the altar on his wedding day.

But I’m reminded by his little voice, that today, he still needs me. And as grown up as he looks in the moment, Lucas is still a little boy.

“I don’t know what to do with this.”

Looking down, I take the tie he holds out. I gently pull at the pencil skirt of the dress I wear and drop tomy knees to get on his level. Before I drape the tie around Lucas's neck, I stop and smile at the mismatched buttons at the bottom of his shirt.

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