Page 113 of You First
“Yes, come in.”
The door opened, and his eyes found hers. “How are you feeling?” The blue of his irises glinted in the candlelight, and the way his gaze devoured her made Meredith tremble.
“A lot better. Thank you.”
Gray closed the door behind him and took two steps toward her before sinking to the floor and putting his back against the tub.
“I should leave you alone, but I can’t seem to help myself.”
Sitting in the tub behind him, she was able to admire the soft curling of his dark hair at his nape and the masculine sinews in his neck. She felt a sudden urge to run her tongue along its length. Other than the briefest of kisses and the comfort of his embrace, Gray hadn’t touched her since the attack, and Meredith was beginning to wonder if he ever would.
She picked up the soap and rubbed it against the washcloth to give her hands something to do. “I’m glad you’re here.”
He looked over his shoulder, meeting her eyes again. “I’m gladyou’rehere… I love having you here.”
There it was. That word again.
“I hope we’re not too much trouble,” she said honestly. “I feel like I’ve brought you nothing but drama.”
“What?” he eyed her with genuine surprise. “You’ve brought me nothing but happiness.”
Considering the last few days, it was almost impossible to believe, but the look he wore was bare and true. It was such a beautiful look that Meredith drew her left hand out of the water and brushed the back of her fingers to the side of his cheek. She watched him close his eyes as though her touch pained him, and he pressed his lips to the back of her hand before turning away.
“I’d better leave you alone,” he muttered. But before he could rise to his feet, Meredith hooked two fingers along the back of his collar.
“Or… you could stay.”
Gray glanced back at her, half-stunned. Then his eyes blazed. He got to his knees and faced her, and Meredith expected that he’d remove that chambray button-down, strip out of his jeans and whatever he wore underneath, and join her in the tub.
Instead, he pushed aside the curtain, leaned over her, and captured her lips with his. One hand dove behind her head, cupping her gently, and the other found hers that held the bar of soap. A moment later, he broke the kiss, leaving them both panting.
“If I get to stay,” he said, wearing a wolfish grin, “let me help with this.”
Meredith’s cheeks flamed as her sense of modesty walked in with a tardy slip. The soap had turned the bath water milky, and in the faint light of the candle, everything beneath the water’s surface lay in shadow. But she folded her arms across her breasts before she nodded.
Gray set the soap and washcloth on the edge of the tub and unbuttoned the cuffs of his sleeves. “You have no idea how absolutely stunning you are,” he said, rolling up his sleeves with measured calm. “I’d write about your beauty, but I don’t want to share it. I want it all for myself.”
Meredith shut her eyes, his words overwhelming her. “Gray…” she pleaded.
“It’s dark in here, and I can still see you blushing,” he whispered gently. “Don’t be embarrassed.”
She heard a small splash and felt his hand close around her ankle, and she opened her eyes to see him lift her left foot from the water. With his other hand, he wrapped it in the sudsy washcloth and bathed her foot with the gentlest strokes.
A sigh left her lungs at the exquisite sensation. As he moved between each of her toes, her whole body went limp, and she whimpered in surrender. He squeezed her heel and massaged her calf, slipping the bar of soap behind her knee and around her thigh, causing her breath to go shallow before he moved back down and picked up her right foot.
The only thing that was better than his touch was the look on his face as he bathed her. It was the look of a man completely enraptured, and she wanted nothing more than to pull him down on top of her and show him how much she loved him.
Half expecting him to keep working up her body when he reached the top of her right thigh, Meredith was surprised when he slipped an arm behind her shoulders. “Sit forward, my love,” he said, so she bent her knees and folded over them. When he rubbed the soapy cloth over her back, Meredith whimpered again. She crossed her arms over her knees and rested her cheek against them, letting her breasts press into her thighs. The sensation as he massaged her back felt so amazing, Meredith was tempted to close her eyes, but then she wouldn’t be able to watch him, and watching him as he tended to her was the most erotic experience of her life.
His fingers came to her shoulders and the base of her neck, and she couldn’t help the little moan that escaped her. The muffled choking sound Gray made then and the way his Adam’s apple bobbed in this throat suggested that he, too, was drowning in desire.
As Gray gently scrubbed over her left shoulder and down her arm to where her chin rested, their eyes met. The wonder she saw in them mirrored her own, and neither looked away when he traced the bar of soap around her waist. They moved as one when his right hand cupped the back of her neck again, and she lay back until she rested in the crook of his arm. He skated the soap over her chest, and then she heard the square of soap splash into the water just as his hand closed over her right breast.
Her gasp tore through the room right before Gray caught it with his kiss.
She gripped the front of his shirt with one hand and snaked the other through his hair as he caressed her now swollen breasts. First one and then the other, his masculine touch driving her wild as his tongue drove deep with urgent kisses.
He kept kissing her even as he released her breast and cupped handfuls of water over her front, still bathing her and washing away the last of the slick soap. She trembled at each warm cascade, aware of nothing but water and Gray.
