Page 74 of Where You're Planted

“You didn’t answer. And then you were under,” he explained, crouched by the side of the tub, plucking a wet strand of hair off her cheek and tucking it behind her ear. “I thought—” He shook his head, as if however he meant to finish that sentence was too stupid to say.

She caught his hand. “I’m fine. I was just…” But she didn’t know how to finish her sentence either. Enjoying a little oblivion didn’t sound super stable.

“I was coming to tell you dinner’s ready.” Jack’s gaze dropped to her hand, still holding his wrist, and then lower, at the bubbles obscuring her. Only, time and her flailing had resulted in a good portion of them dissolving, leaving her exposed to him. He cleared his throat. When his fingers flexed, she felt the minute movement in the tendons cording his wrist. He made no move to leave the room or pull the large bath sheet from the bar for her.

She couldn’t pinpoint exactly how the next thing happened. Maybe her movement in the water, crossing and uncrossing her legs, had started it. Or maybe it was the responsive catch in his breath or the flare of heat in his eyes, fixed on her hand tightly clutching his wrist. It happened likethat Ouija game, how you’d watch your own hand and a partner’s slide the planchette over the board to spell a message, never quite knowing who or what was controlling the movement. Whether it was Tansy’s doing, Jack’s, or the work of some other force entirely, their hands slowly descended into the water until his palm covered her breast.

Tansy held her breath, as if any disturbance would wake them from this dream. She watched his hand caress her, then glide down over her stomach, feathered with faded white stretch marks, her C-section scar. She swallowed the impulse to explain or apologize for her body, partly because he was looking at her like she was his first drink of water after days in a desert, and partly because her body, scarred and soft as it was, came undeniablyaliveunder his touch. And that responsiveness, that quick readiness after years of relative dormancy, like it still knew what to do even if she didn’t, sent a wave of relief and gratitude through her.

Finally his hand delved between her thighs, which she opened for him. She was still clinging to the knobby part of his wrist, still unsure if she was guiding his movements or readying to stop him or heightening her own arousal by feeling every flex of his tendons. His sleeve was submerged in the water, the thin plaid clinging to his forearm. “Your shirt—”

A sudden point of gentle pressure behind her jaw brought her eyes to his face. His free hand settled at her neck, warm against her drying skin and the hammering of her pulse under it. His lips were parted and his eyes were dark, capturing hers, as his other hand cupped and teased her. He didn’t give a shit about his shirt right now, that much was clear.

The swelling pleasure of his touch made her eyelashes flutter closed, but there was that light pressure again, a swipe ofhis thumb across the front of her throat, silently imploring her to stay connected with him.

“You already did this earlier,” she pointed out in an embarrassingly breathy voice.

His jaw flexed as her hips lifted to his touch. “It’s not a box to check once and move on.”

“But I want more this time.” She felt herself blush.

His mouth twitched in an almost smile, but his amusement couldn’t push the dark need from his eyes.

Didn’t he want more, too? She was completely naked before him, wet and writhing, while he was still completely buttoned up. She let his wrist go, drawing her arm up over her breasts. “Our dinner will get cold.”

Jack shook his head firmly and then put her hand back on his own, on his hand onher, her palm covering his knuckles, her fingers curled around his. Now both of his sleeves were in the water. “Don’t care about dinner. Show me what you like,” he rasped.

Tansy huffed a frustrated breath, too worked up to genuinely press him about their food and too desperate for more of him to abide this drawn-out pace. She didn’t need foreplay. She was more than ready. As if he couldn’t tell that by touching her.

“Show me,” he repeated, bringing his mouth to her ear. His beard scraped her cheek, and she nestled into the rough scratch of it.

Bossy Jack. Tansy pressed two of his thick fingers into her entrance and rocked herself against the firm pressure of his palm.

The water stirred at the movement, ebbing and flowing across the tops of her breasts and up over her collarbones. It lapped at the sides of the tub. The room filled with rhythmic sloshing, with their breaths. Her back arched, her hips lifting off the basin, but she couldn’t get herself any closer.

“The way your body moves,” he marveled, holding her jaw, firm but tender, so she couldn’t duck from the compliment. “You’re so fucking beautiful.”

“More,” she gasped. She didn’t even know what she was asking for more of—his fingers, his body, or his words.

She didn’t have to know, though, because Jack growled into her hair then slipped his arms behind her knees and back and lifted her out. “Jack!” she gasp-laughed, water soaking his shirt and jeans and splashing onto the floor. She reached for the towel slung over the bar behind him and barely yanked it off as he marched her into his bedroom.

“I’ll get everything wet,” she warned, twisting to try to spread the towel on his bed before he dropped her right on top of the covers. She abandoned the task entirely when he pushed her knees apart and up, tucked his shoulders under her legs, and brought his hot mouth directly to her core.

She came before her wet skin lost the heat from the bath.

“Please tell me we’re not stopping there,” she panted.

Jack kissed her thigh, fanning his palm affectionately over her stomach.

“Come up here.”

“I love it when you make demands,” he said, his lips brushing the sensitive skin of her inner thigh.

“More than you like bossing me around?”

He chuckled as he climbed over her to reach for his bedside drawer. “Guess I like both.”

She took the condom he produced and turned it thoughtfully. “We should use this because I’m not on birth control, but just for the record, I haven’t been with anyone since my last test…”

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