I laughed. “It would defeat the purpose of thetrope.”

“True.” She gently brushed her fingers over the glass shower door, taking it in. “But we’re adults, right?”

“Right,” I said. “And now that I know about the trope, I’ll try not to be such a cliché.”

“Good,” she replied. “Now hand me my bag? I’m going to take some bathroom time.”

The thought of her in my bathroom, naked, wasn’t one I’d been prepared for. And fuck, I couldn’t get the thought of her tits freed from the dress out of my head. My eyes were going to give me away if my semi didn’t.

I turned away from her and reached for the bag I’d set on my bed. “Here you are. Will you let me know when you’re finished?”

“Oh, I will.” She bit her lip, and my mind went crazy all over again.

Why did everything she do send all my blood to my dick? There wasn’t enough left over for thinking the kind of thoughts I should have.

“I’ll be awhile,” she said. “I want to enjoy this.”

I laughed, the sound coming out strangled. “Have fun.” Before I could betray her trust and make her think I’d only invited her over for sex, I left the bedroom and started down the hall.

I didn’t even know how I got to the living room, but I sat on the couch, my dick hard and desperate. It had been too damn long, and the idea of six months of this waiting... fuck.

I had to do something to distract myself. To make this pulsing longing go the fuck away, because I couldn’t act on it now. Not with Mara Taylor naked in my bathroom.

Holy fucking shit.

I could hear the water running from here, the scattering of the drops as it hit her body and landed on the tile floor, and that had to mean...

I bit down on my knuckles, hard, trying to take away the pain in my groin, but it did nothing. My dick pressed painfully against the zipper in my pants, and this wasn’t the kind of hard-on that was going away.

Fuck.

I was supposed to sleep with her in the same bed tonight and not wake up with my boner pressed into her backside.

The only way to keep that from happening...

I pushed myself off the couch, reached into my pants and adjusted my dick so I could walk. Then I want to the guest room and began tearing at the cardboard box holding that stupid fucking mattress that I should have fucking taken apart a fucking month ago.

When I got through the box, though, there was a thick plastic sheet I couldn’t rip apart no matter how hard I tried.

The kitchen was too far, so I walked to the foyer, still hard as fuck, and grabbed my keys. Inside the room, I ripped through the plastic, shoved it aside to let the mattress air out.

And then I unzipped my pants and took my throbbing dick in my hands. I pumped once and groaned. Shit, I needed to come.

I didn’t know how much time I had, so I spit in my hand and started rubbing my shaft, slowly moving back and forth. Images of Mara in the shower instantly came to mind, of the water flowing off her hair, over her face, dropping from her full tits to the floor. She would tilt her head back, that long mane tickling her voluptuous ass.

I moaned quietly at the thought of squeezing her ass. Of pumping deep inside of her and filling her like no man had before.

Ofclaimingher.

Because in real life, I could never hold on to a girl like Mara. She was wild in all the ways I was not. But in my fantasies, she wasmine.

14

Mara

Confession: I may have been wrong about accountants...

Every timeI closed my eyes, I saw Jonas in his suit. Jonas holding my face in his hands. I could feel the memory of his lips on mine and how it stirred something unbidden and powerful inside me.