“Good.” On impulse, I slide my fingers into his hair and he groans, eyelids shuttering, pressing his scalp into my touch. His vulnerability is so real and honest, it packs such a punch, I can hardly catch my breath to continue. “In and out. Feel your abdomen expand. Focus on it. And we’re going to let that breath out into the rest of your body slowly. Let it wash into all of those places where you’re locked up.”
“God, Lula. I’ve needed your voice.” His parted mouth dips to my neck and he gathers me closer on his lap, like a man holding on to a lifeline. “Keep talking to me, sweet girl.”
I can’t pretend I don’t feel his erection growing underneath me. It’s quite huge and impossible to ignore. The hard flesh presses up against my panties, the material of them soaked from the shower spray still raining down upon us both. I’ve never been in any kind of sexual situation, but the impulse to rock myself on that bulge is fierce. Instinctive. Somehow, I manage to hold myself back, however. Vale is definitely not thinking clearly. God forbid we do something that he’ll regret when he’s back to his calmer self.
“O-okay,” I whisper, my fingers luxuriating in his hair, head tilting to the left so I can feel his breath more fully on my neck. I’m not a saint, apparently, and these things are too intoxicating to pass up. “Now become more aware of your body, Vale. Feel your arms and feet and shoulders. Come back into yourself, letting your breath expand into every region. Your body is the only world that matters right now, there’s nothing outside of it.”
My stepbrother turns his head, his lips dragging across my cheek to my mouth, hovering a breath away. Remaining there for several heavy breaths. “There’s you.” His lips graze mine, those blue eyes hot and intense, cutting through the dimness of the shower. “Your letters saved me. Now here you are, saving me again. My princess.”
“Vale.”
“I know. I know we can’t do this.” A low rumble takes place in his chest. “But God, I’d love to put you flat on your fucking back right now.” A muscle jumps in his cheek. “Make those titties jiggle for Daddy.”
I don’t know what happens to me.
One second I’m caught between burgeoning hunger and surprise that this flawless man wants me—and the next I’m being run over by release so potent, I can only sob and shake, my sex clenching madly inside my panties, his erection stiff and pulsing along with my climax, even though neither one of us dares to move and create friction. I’m having my first orgasm right on top of his rigid length—and he only had to say the right word to unlock me, make it happen.
Daddy. He said Daddy.
His eyes are bright with surprise and lust. “Goddamn, Lula. Is that your first?”
I drop my face into his neck and whimper, nodding. Shaking head to toe.
“Ahhh Jesus.” He rolls his hips beneath me and stars prick the backs of my eyelids. “Fuck it. Give me that mouth, princess. Give it over now.”
Is this really happening?
This famous, battle-hewn warrior is so desperate for me?
But he’s not merely a warrior right now, is he? At this very moment, in my arms, he’s Vale. He’s the lonely soldier I’ve been writing to. He’s a man who is facing a very different reality than the one he’s been living and it overwhelms him.
Maybe he only wants me because I’m convenient. Because I’m compassionate and he’s reeling. I don’t care, though. Not right now.
I only want to soothe him.
Be what he needs.
All it takes is a slight incline of my chin and his mouth is on mine, unruly and wet. His kiss is like being transported. My life is now divided into before my stepbrother’s mouth and after. It’s animal and desperate, lips twisting and taking, his hips lifting beneath me, his hands fisting in the sides of my dress. I’ve never been kissed before, but it wouldn’t have mattered if I had, because no one could compare. He’s male, unquestionably in command and yet somehow humble, groaning brokenly as he sinks his tongue into my mouth and rubs it erotically against mine.
“Lula, I can’t slow down. I’m sorry.” He surges forward, lifting me and dropping my back to the shower floor, his hands shoving up the hem of my dress and wrestling with my panties, jerking the sodden material down to my knees. Water from the above shower is dripping off the ends of his hair, the sharp blade of his shoulders. “Have to get my cock inside you—”
There’s a loud knock coming from somewhere.
We both go still, except for our sides which heave from exertion.
“Lula, dinner is on the table,” calls my mother’s voice. A few seconds pass, followed by another knock in a different location. “Dinner is served, Vale. I’m sure you’re starved for a home-cooked meal.”