Page 56 of Lords of Misrule
“Come in the shower.” She nods to the door and smiles a little at the accidental double entendre she just made.
“Charlotte…” I frown.
“I won’t touch you. You won’t touch me. Opposite sides. I just want you in here with me,” she says it so innocently like she’s a siren calling me to the rocks. But I follow her request, opening the door and joining her in the steam. It immediately starts to cling to my skin, making me even hotter than I was before.
She leans back against the tiles and watches me, her fingers massaging her clit and then her head tilts back, a little gasp is followed by a soft moan, and her fingers start to slow. The sound of her is all I need. Before I know it, I’m coming, imagining I’m inside her—making her make those sounds. I stroke my cock fast and hard. A thick spray hits the tile of the floor and mixes with the water swirling there as it heads for the drain.
I brace myself against the tile, trying to catch my breath. I close my eyes and lean my forehead against the cool damp stone, letting it even out before I risk a look at her. She’s similarly spent, just now stepping back under the stream of water to rinse her hands. I want to beg her for a taste, but we promised no touching, so I stay rooted where I am. But I can’t go on like this. Watching her but never having her.
“I’m talking to Rowan when we get back,” I announce, breaking the silence.
“About what?”
“About this. About us.”
“Us?” She looks at me with a tentative smile.
“I want to at least try it. I get you’re loyal to them. That you have feelings for them. I respect that and your relationship with them. But I want on the inside of it. I’m tired of being fucking trapped out here where I can’t touch you. Can’t kiss you without it being a made-up scenario and then still feeling guilty for it.”
“Me too.”
“Good. Then I’m talking to Rowan.”
“What if this is all just because it’s something—someone—we can’t have? Then once you’ve had me, you’ll be bored and want to go back to freedom. You’ll have lots of options, Hudson. I feel like you should explore them before you decide to go down a route that leads to conflict with Rowan. I’m not worth it. I promise you.”
I take the shampoo bottle from her hands and pour some in my palm, running it through the wet strands of her hair and then massaging her scalp until it creates a lather. It feels safe to touch her now, like this at least.
“It killed me when you didn’t go to my bed that night. I wouldn’t have touched you. But I wanted to know I was your safe place in all this. That you trusted me.”
“I do trust you and you are—in so many ways.”
“That’s all I want. You’re all I want.”
She leans back into my touch, and I finish massaging her scalp, letting her slip under the water to rinse when I’m done. I get soaped up myself, and she watches me, her eyes drifting over me like she’s seeing things she didn’t before.
“Okay. If you’re sure,” she says finally.
“I’m sure.”
“We should hurry up and get some sleep then. Got to get that painting to Ed in the morning and get back to face our fate.”
“Right. Sleep,” I acknowledge.
Twenty-Nine
Rowan
Hudson, Finn, and I are stumbling into our hotel room after our road game with a bag of burgers and a mound of fries. Hudson’s flight home had been delayed and the two of them had barely gotten back in town before the three of us had to leave again for a road game. We have to get back on a plane tomorrow morning to go back home, but for tonight we’re stuck in this mid-grade hotel.
“This place needs a deep clean.” Hudson eyes the dust on the back of the TV and the stains on the wall.
“Just because it isn’t up to your bougie-ass standards. There’s nothing wrong with it. Not like it’s a highway motel.”
“He was just spoiled on that fancy-ass trip he took with Charlotte.” Finn grins, digging into the fries and grabbing some pop we stashed away in the mini fridge. “That hotel looked gorgeous.”
“Better with her in it,” Hudson says absently as he grabs his burger, and Finn drops his fry and looks at me and then Hudson.
“What the fuck does that mean?” I snap, and Hudson’s dark blue eyes jump up to meet mine.
