Page 61 of Late Bloomer
The silence in the room grows, and I squint one eye open to find Pepper staring at me.
“So?” Pepper says, head tilted to the side and brows knitted in confusion. She drags her nails down my forearms, then across my knuckles before skating down my thighs.
“I… er… well, it’s not, uh, as nice-looking?”
“Why would I care about how you groom yourself?” Pepper looks at me with such pure confusion I almost laugh. Or cry. Damn woman really makes me spell things out for her.
“I… I don’t know. You’re shaved, so I’m assuming it’s what you’d prefer.”
Pepper absentmindedly traces circles around my ankle bones as she studies me. “I shave my body hair because it’s a sensory processing thing. I don’t like the way it feels againstmy clothes and the sensation is enough to send me into a meltdown. Why is it any of my business what you do with yours?”
Fucking hell, she’s looking at me like she wants an answer. “People always care,” I say, an edge of frustration in my voice. The echoes of so many small cutting comments filling up the room.
Pepper manages to pull one of my hands away from my pussy, but the other immediately replaces it.
“People meaning Miles?”
I shrug. “Not only him, but yeah, he was pretty vocal about wanting me to be as smooth as a Barbie down there. Wouldn’t… It… I don’t know. It made me feel like people wouldn’t find me sexy or desirable if I wasn’t waxed.”
Pepper sits back on her heels, face pinched in thought. She tucks her hair behind her ears, then glances at me through her lashes with a look of raw vulnerability. “Did you consider me less sexy when you found out I hadn’t slept with anyone before?”
“God. No, Pepper. Of course not.”
“Have I done something that makes you think I don’t find you desirable?”
“No! It’s just—”
“Because I found you pretty damn desirable the entire time your head was between my legs. That was kind of what the whole screaming thing was about.”
I can’t help it, I giggle like a loon. “Pepper, the screaming thing had a lot to do with what I was doingtoyou. You might not feel the same way doing it to me once you see… everything.”
Pepper blows out a sharp breath through her nose. “Do you not want me to do this?”
“I do! I just—”
“So the way I see it, we have three options.” She ticks them off on her fingers. “You either tell me you don’t want me to fuck you with my mouth. You go shave as fast as humanly possible, then get back in this bed. Or you get over it, move your hands, and let me taste you. What’ll it be?”
My jaw falls open. And, without another moment’s thought, my hands drop to my sides.
“Good girl,” Pepper says, a devilish smile tugging up the corners of her mouth. Her eyes slowly leave my face, trace down my body.
Pepper licks her lips as she gently pulls my knees apart, staring at my center, eyes nothing but heat and smoke and want.
“Sweetheart,” she said quietly, gaze darting up to lock with mine. “You couldn’t be prettier.”
Her touch is gentle, almost timid, gaze sharp with focus as she watches her hand. Watches herself touch me. She starts at my hips, tracing the crease along my thigh, then between my legs.
I’m so keyed up, my entire body bucks, a tremble running through me. Pepper blinks rapidly, then meets my eyes. My breaths are so sharp and short, I worry I might pass out.
But then, a slow, delicious, delighted smile curves Pepper’s stern mouth. And I worry I might die.
I open my mouth, ready to beg for relief, but all that comes out is a broken whimper.
And that smile glows.
Still as gentle, but one hundred times surer, Pepper tracesacross my slit, parting my folds. I’m so wet—aching and ready—her fingers slip between me, gliding to my opening. A sharp gasp is tugged from the center of my chest, my head rolling back. Pepper hums in satisfaction.
“This okay?” she whispers, circling around me. My muscles clamp, desperate for her to fill me, to fuck me.
