I made Sadie brush her teeth and change to pajamas before bed, and she was asleep before I even read a story. She was so wiped out from the park that I let her skip a bath till in the morning. I went and took a shower, electrified and angry with myself.
13
Rachel
I stood there, completely locked up like I’d been hypnotized to remain in place. Probably, I could’ve moved if there’d been a fire or an emergency happening right in front of my face, but I wasn’t a hundred percent sure. It was the opposite of Sleeping Beauty. Instead of waking me up, his kiss put me in a trance. Leave it to me to get a fairytale backwards.
That kiss. Damn. I had no words for it. Unless we count ZING as a word, because there was a lot of zing-went-the-strings-of-my-heart going on show tune style in my bloodstream and my pulse was just tap dancing along with it. A wild electricity crackled through me. I had the unusual urge to just squeal right out loud. Because that was one hell of an incredible kiss.
You’d think after weeks of yearning and dreaming about it, that a kiss from Max would be a letdown. No real live, flesh and blood man could live up to that kind of expectation. Except he did. He blew the fantasy right out of the water. I’d had a theory that he was possibly a lazy kisser. That he didn’t make much effort. It was a lie I told myself to make me feel better. It was juvenile and silly, but I had told myself that men who look that amazing just don’t bother to learn to be good kissers. They think their overall attractiveness will make up for a lack of skill or finesse. Nope. Not that guy. That guy knew exactly what he was doing. And what he was doing was making my toes curl. If there was a kissing Olympics, not only would I volunteer to practice with him for the time trials or whatever, but he would win all the gold medals and other men would drop out of the competition with their egos destroyed.
I watched him shut the door behind him after he left hastily. Which was a nice way of saying he fled like I’d released a swarm of venomous snakes after him. Not the reaction I was looking for from a first kiss, that’s for sure. I was hoping more for the kind of let’s-do-this-some-more vibe and not, oh Lord, get me out of here. He had, by his own admission, been single for a long time by choice. He didn’t go around kissing women, particularly women who worked for him, very often if at all. He was very hardcore on his monastic lifestyle and everything for the good of his child. I respected how noble that was, but at the same time I wished he’d cut it out, quit being a martyr and let himself enjoy life. Enjoy me. I wanted him to enjoy me. A lot.
When I finally unstuck myself from the spot on the floor where I seemed to be glued, staring after him in tingly disbelief, I went and took a shower. I stood under the warm water, staring at the tiled wall. I kept forgetting that I was in there to get clean. I went over and over what had happened in minute detail, reliving it obsessively. Max had come back for Sadie’s toy. I’d turned around quickly and bumped into his chest. A solid wall of muscle that felt like a literal brick wall. Startled, I’d almost stepped back. But Max had grabbed my arms. Maybe to steady me, maybe to keep me from pulling away. Then he’d kissed me, or I’d kissed him, but technically, he started it by gripping my arms and hauling me against him. That was a pretty clear want-you-now signal. Even a workaholic who was rusty at flirting could recognize that much.
In the shower, I couldn’t get him off my mind. Specifically, my body throbbed for him, a yearning and emptiness howling for satisfaction. I was rubbing foamy body wash across my skin with my mesh sponge when I noticed my nipples were super sensitive. I couldn’t resist stroking them, plucking at them while I let my mind drift back to Max and how it felt to have his mouth on mine. The plain truth of it was that I’d been thrilled. So happy that he clearly felt the same attraction for me, that he wanted me as fiercely as he kissed.
So I couldn’t really blame myself for sliding slick, soapy hands over my eager nipples and letting one hand trail down the curve of my stomach and nestle between my thighs. My soft strokes gave way to a full-blown fantasy.