Was he not going to tell me? I hesitated to ask, because I didn’t know if we were close enough to pry into each other’s business. I only asked about his dad because he brought it up first. If this was something personal, he didn’t want to tell me, I couldn’t force him to do so against his will. I didn’t want to, but I let it go as we finished dinner in silence.
“You cooked and you barely ate anything,” I complained afterwards, the guilt returning once I’d cleared my second serving.
“Unlike you, I actually had lunch, and I ate before I came here, so I wasn’t all that hungry, anyway. Let me just wash the dishes and I’ll go run that bath for you.”
I went to stand as he took the dishes to the sink. “At least let me do the dishes! You’re making me feel a guilty. I’m not so lazy, or so tired, that I can’t do this much.”
“I know, but you don’t have to,” Howard said with a chuckle. “I want to do something nice for you every once in a while, and it’s not much. Go sit down and wait.”
I pouted as he used up all the space by the sink, nudging me away when I tried to get close to help. “You’re surprisingly bossy, Howard.”
He sent a smirk at me. “After being with me for more than a month now, shouldn’t you know that already, Zoe?”
My face flushed at the heated words. Yes, he was definitely bossy when it came to the bedroom. I’d come to realize it quickly after the first few times we had sex, and I was even more surprised when I didn’t really mind it. I’d had a few relationships while I was in college,
and I wasn’t a virgin when I met Howard, but sex with him was unlike anything I’d felt before. Maybe that was why I was so addicted to it.
Crap. Now I’m turned on.
Even though I’d just been surprised that he wanted to spend time with me without having sex, I had to admit part of it was at least my fault. I gave in every time he seduced me because I wanted it, too.
I left him to his work while I went to sit on the couch, turning my thoughts to something else, like his strange expression from earlier. Actually, when I thought about it, him coming to my place at all was strange. He’d only been by three times, but when I told him he couldn’t keep coming over in case Dad found him here, he’d agreed with me.
So why did he come here when Dad could have easily been the one to come home and see him at the front door?
Dad didn’t know how close we were, but he hated Howard and he’d already warned me off from spending too much time around him, getting caught at our house would just make things more complicated for him if he really planned to sign on with the Eagles. Come to think of it, there was no way he’d know what I was doing today, and I didn’t think of it when I first saw him, but how long had he been waiting before I got back? I found him crouching beside the door and I didn’t question anything because I was in a bad mood at the time.
For all I knew, he could have been waiting a while.
Why would he risk coming here? Was something wrong? I was almost positive he was definitely keeping something from me, but I didn’t know what it could be. What did he want when he came here?
I was distracted by my thoughts, so Howard surprised me when he came in and pressed a kiss to my cheek from behind.
“I’ve been calling you. What’s got you so preoccupied?” He asked curiously, but didn’t give me a chance to reply. “I drew the bath already, so you can come in and soak.”
He caught my hand and tugged until I stood, then pulled me around the couch and up the stairs to the bathroom. I must have been out of it for longer than I’d thought if he’d had time to get all this done. The bathroom was already steaming, the tub three quarters full. I touched my hand inside, and the water was hot, but just the right, relaxing kind of hot.
“Thanks,” I said absently.
I noticed Howard had his sleeves folded back, and the front of his shirt and his jeans seemed to be wet.
“You splashed some on yourself.” I touched the wet spots on his shirt. “Come to think of it, I don’t really have a change of clothes for you, and you can’t wear Dad’s. Maybe you really shouldn’t stay over...”
My voice drifted off, because he was showing that strange expression again, a little worried, with an edge of desperation. He hid it away quickly, but I noticed.
“I’m not going anywhere. And since I’ll be staying the whole weekend,” he said, voice husky, taking a step closer. “I won’t need clothes the whole time.”
Before I could think of anything to say to that, he kissed me, and I decided it wasn’t worth breaking off the kiss to speak. Howard surprised me, though. It wasn’t a simple kiss. His lips pressed hard against mine, and he nipped and licked at my lips, even as I parted them for him, and he thrust his tongue in and out of my mouth, then sucked my tongue into his mouth.
The kiss was hot and desperate, and I let out a moan. Howard’s arms wrapped tight around my waist, but just as well, because I didn’t think my legs could hold me up steadily. I grabbed onto his arms, kissing back as best as I could, but he left me overwhelmed. When he broke the kiss, my mind was spinning. I panted, feeling the warmth between my thighs grow unbearable.
“Howard?”
I said his name, though it came out sounding like a moan. I would have been embarrassed if my body wasn’t so hot. I wasn’t some hormonal teenager, but around Howard, I couldn’t help feeling like one. The whole issue with him keeping something important from me was still valid, but I completely forgot it in place of other, more important things.
“Do you mind if I join you?” he asked, nipping my ear lobe and making me tremble.