Page 127 of Crew Princess
Ididwant a shower, but I mostly wanted to clean off the feel of those zip ties, those accusations, that hallway, seeing Alex slump down.
I wanted to wash away that image.
I stepped under the shower, and once that water hit me, I lost it. Head buried in my hands, water pounding down on me, I almost fell apart.
But I didn’t.
Stay strong, Bren.
I heard my mother whispering in my ear, and I stopped myself. I just stopped.
I took a breath and then washed and stepped out.
The water was still going. I was reaching back to turn it off, but again, I just stopped.
Cross was standing inside the door, his eyes heated. His jaw clenched.
My body started trembling, reacting to the need I saw from him. It rose up, swiftly, almost threatening to choke me.
I thought I fell apart in the shower, but this—it didn’t compare to this.
I needed him. Being arrested, hearing those words about Alex, being interrogated, and then walking out—all of it came back to me, pounding me one memory at a time, but there was a surge of renewal. I was fine. I would be fine. They couldn’t destroy me and here Cross was. I saw all of it in him, a mirror reflection. And whoever was in the house, be damned. Forget them.
In this moment, it was Cross and I.
I dropped my hand and he started for me. Stark hunger flaring in him, then he was in front of me. His hand curved around my waist. He stepped in, his head bending. His mouth grazed over my shoulder, and I trembled again. A full-body shiver because that felt so fucking good.
He murmured there, “I couldn’t—I need this.”
I was nodding, already relaying how I needed him too even before he finished.
“—I need you,” he finished, gutting out.
I reached up, grasping the back of his head, and I lifted his mouth to mine.
Then I didn’t need anything else. His mouth opened over mine, and all was gone.
Moving into the shower, he was soaked in an instant.
He pushed me against the wall and I was pulling at his shirt as he was kicking off his jeans. Everything was tossed out until it was just him, just me, and then he was lifting me up. My legs were around his waist.
Mouth on mouth.
This moment, it was just us.
No one else existed.
Nothing else existed.
There’d been no arrest.
There’d been no police station.
We were wiping it all away.
Him. Me. And then he was inside me, and we both stilled from the contact.
He groaned, his mouth moving to my throat. “I love you so much.”
