Arouse Read online

  Would it be too weird to escape again to her closet?

  “So, wanna tell me what went down tonight? I suppose you have insider knowledge.” There, she’d change the subject, or redirect it, in any case, away from her transparent top and jiggling boobs.

  He cleared his throat and motioned for her to pass the shampoo. “My favorite kind of case—open and shut.”

  She had to give him credit; after his initial unwavering stare at her one-woman wet t-shirt contest, he very assiduously made eye contact with her while scrubbing Ruffles’ hindquarters.

  “Open and shut? That’s all you’re going to tell me?”

  She could tell he was measuring his words. He’d promised to tell her everything. But she’d bet her mortgage he was trying to protect her from the worst. “Perp was crying on his front porch, hands on his head, when patrol got there. Allegedly. No injuries sustained—unless you count the drywall and a flat screen. No kids involved.”

  Kami gave her dog a few extra scritches behind the ears as she lathered him up and barely resisted burying her face in his fur. No kids.

  No kids hiding in linen closets. No kids with the crack of gunfire rending the air. No kids whose parents would go away forever.

  “You doing okay?”

  She dodged his question with a carefree “Time for a rinse. Hold your nose, Ruffles!”

  Predictably, Ruffles did not hold his nose. He splashed and thrashed about like a baby hippo, making great snorting noises all the while. Which is why, when she didn’t have him professionally groomed, she bathed him in the shower enclosure. Fewer chances for escape and utter mayhem. She’d thought with two of them, they might control his, ah, antics in the tub.

  She’d thought wrong.

  “Fucking hell!” Jeff took a hit of water direct in the face and came up sputtering, so it was more like flucking bbbellll, and she slipped down of the lip of the tub laughing so hard. Ruffles took the opportunity to hop out, leaving his human companions twisted around each other in the tub while he shook and wreaked holy havoc on the bathroom.

  In the fray, the sprayer got loose, and water swizzled through the air like a sprinkler on the Fourth of July. They lunged for it at the same time and tangled further. And if Kami thought Jeff looked good shirtless, he almost burned her panties right off her when he was wet and shirtless. And on top of her.

  His hair was dripping onto her chest. Soft plip, plips of water that beaded and collected, then rolled down.

  “I’m getting you all wet,” he said, his odd green eyes solemn as they held her gaze then darted to her lips, her neck, her cleavage—and back to scorch her with intensity.

  “Just cut it off.” Her shirt, the sprayer, what was she even talking about? Was she talking or was she just running her open mouth over his hot skin?

  “But if I cut it off, Kami, I can’t do this, can I?”

  Chapter 4

  Jeff had to force himself to move. Kami was his every waking dream come true—and every wet dream come true, too.

  In all the ways he’d fantasized about her body, naked and wet—naked and wet with water, that is—wasn’t part of the spank bank repertoire.

  A major oversight on his part.

  Her tits were so fucking majestic. Big and heavy, they pressed against the tight white fabric of her tank and threatened to spill over the top. The completely transparent fabric clung to her skin, dipping low over the upper curves—torturing him with the barest hint of color—and outlining her tight nipples. Her skin was luminous, and beads of water ran down her chest into that shadowy space between her breasts that even the see-through top didn’t reveal.

  He wanted to gather up her up in his hands, feel the weight against his palms, and push them together to capture those droplets. He could spend hours with his hands on her tits. Mouth, too—there were so many ways he could play with her.

  Earlier, Jeff’s eyes had damn near fallen out of their sockets when her shirt got damp from the spray. And now he thanked every god in the universe they were still in their sockets, because when he directed the spray nozzle directly at her chest, they pulsed and bobbed and just begged for his attention.

  And he gave it to her.

  “Looks like you’re a little dirty.”

  “Oh, am I?” Her voice was full and thick. Sexy as all get out. The weeks and months of almost-whispers over their shared fence hadn’t prepared him for just how her voice would affect him. But affect him it did.

  “Mmhmm, you are.”

  He shouldn’t push it. He should stop things right now with just a little light flirtation and heavy ogling. It was foolish to continue down a path that would only lead to complications—if you counted multiple orgasms as complications, because those were definitely signposts on this path.

  Between neighbors, orgasms were always complications.

  When he looked up, her eyes were glassy, glazed over where they seemed to be fixated on the sight of his hand wrapped around the showerhead. Kami had her lips pursed in an O, and with each ragged breath, she trembled.

  Oh, who was he kidding? This was no light flirtation. This was full arousal.

  He pushed it.

  “Very dirty. Here.” He directed the now-pulsing edge of the spray to one nipple. She gasped, tilted her head back, and damn if that didn’t thrust her breasts up a little higher. He willed her top to slide down a little further, but the thin cotton was plastered to her skin. “Maybe a little bit here, too.” He rubbed his thumb over her other nipple, still holding the spray against the first. She shuddered and made some low moan that zinged down along his spine.

  “Jeff—”

  “Too much?” He took his hands away from her and looked down her body. Her panties had gone as see-through as her top. Oh man, definitely all natural.

  He had to get a grip. One that didn’t involve his thumbs stroking and pulling her nipples—or fisting his cock and furiously spurting all over her.

  He looked around the bathroom. It was covered in puddles of water and the dog was gone. Oh crap. “Uh, about Chips…”

  “Ruffles!” Kami laughed, and it did amazing things to her chest. It was a moment before he was able to focus on her words again. “He’s fine. He sulks after a bath. He’s in his crate p-pouting.”

  “You sure he’s okay?” If he was going to close this deal with Kami, he wanted her full attention, and he knew she was wild about the big lug. And he didn’t particularly relish the idea of the hundred-pound dog looking on as Jeff put his hands all over Kami.

  “He’s fine.”

  “That’s good,” he stated, somewhat inanely. It was a miracle he could put two words together when she was spread out before him all but nude. “Are you good?”

  “It depends.” Kami bit her lower lip and took a deep breath.

  “Depends on?” Please say “if you put your hands on me again.”

  The spray from the nozzle beat across his thigh. Dashed over his erection. Felt good.

  He could make them both feel so good.

  “What are you doing?”

  “This?” He was slowly losing his mind, that’s what he was doing. He dropped the sprayer and reached around her for the bottle of body wash on the edge of the tub surround. But that brought him closer and closer to her, until he had no choice but to brace a hand on either side of her shoulders and swoop down for a quick kiss.

  Though he’d intended it to be quick, a mere introduction of lips before what was to follow, she tilted her head up when his lips met hers. Her breasts brushed his chest, and she opened up beneath him.

  The kiss was filthy, all wet heat and strong suction. The way Kami kissed him back shocked him to his core. He’d expected her to be… not passive, exactly, but not so… fierce. Jeff had imagined he’d be the one to set the tone whenever they got together. If they ever got together.

  Nothing he’d ever imagined prepared him for Kami’s kiss. She took, and took, from him—challenging him with every bite, teasing him with every slow sucking pull on his
tongue.

  “You play dirty,” he damn near growled when they came up for air. Her smile was full of promises. “Let’s get you cleaned up.”

  Inch by inch, he lowered the straps of her little top, baring her breasts until it caught on her nipples. He left it there, left her shivering and wanting, while he painted her chest with little drops of body wash.

  It was clear but smelled like heaven. Cinnamon? Something spicy. Whatever it was, he wanted to lick her clean.

  That would come in time.

  “Jeff—”

  “Yes, Kami?”

  “All the way. Please?”

  Was she talking about taking off her top—or taking them all the way? It was his turn to smile and promise dirty things. “We’ll get there.”

  He traced his fingers along the tops of her breasts, through the dollops of soap. Long, looping figure eights that drew the silky gel along her skin. She squirmed and it only teased them both. Poor thing, she must be aching for his whole hand, but he was aching, too, especially when her squirming made her tits jiggle.

  Her breathing was coming faster, and he focused on his to encourage hers to slow. “We’ll get there.”

  “Faster.”

  “Sweetheart, we’ll get to that, too.”

  Slowly, he unwrapped Kami. Her nipples popped free of the shirt, dusky pink areolae giving way to darker centers. It was torture to go slow, to not swoop down and capture one of the peaks in his mouth, to tease it against the roof of his mouth, draw on it until she cried out. But now that they were here at the point of no return, he intended to savor every minute of excruciatingly heightened arousal.

  “Up you go.” He freed her arms from the straps and guided them to the side of the tub. “Gorgeous.”

  She was fully on display for him, breasts spilling out, legs slightly splayed. Oh, they’d get there next.

  “So pretty, but so dirty.”

  “Yes,” she breathed as he began to soap up her breasts with his bare hands.

  Kami seemed to love breast play as much as he did. Each teasing, long massaging stroke and short, sharp pinch to her nipples took her higher and higher. Her chest was flushed with color, a contrast to the shiny white lather he was working over her skin.

  She’d managed to straddle his lap, began riding his erection, at some point. And with each tug and pull he administered to her flesh, she rubbed against his. “You feel so good. Jeff, I love your hands on me. I want to get my hands on you.”

  Kami started to move her hands from the edge of the bathtub, but he stopped her with a hard kiss and a harsh notice. “No. Dirty girls don’t get to choose. Hands stay where they are or we’re done. Understand?”

  He expected her to fight him on that, to assert herself as she had in their first kiss, so when she relaxed, degree by degree—softened against him—it was a beautiful gift.

  So he gave her one in return.

  Jeff reached beside him and grabbed the nozzle, rinsing the soap from her skin in sweeping arcs. “Nice and clean, Kami.”

  She started to move, but he stopped her with a finger between her breasts. “Oh, what have we here? I think I missed a spot.” And he started all over again. With his mouth.

  If touching Kami had been enough to make him harder than he’d ever been in his life, putting his mouth on her threatened to make him explode. She was slick and soft, her flesh yielding to his lips, his teeth. When he circled one nipple with his tongue, she cried out and grabbed for his head.

  He forgot all about his earlier command and reveled in the feel of her hands in his hair. Frantic pulling, scoring his shoulders with the soft tips of her nails, oh, she was probably on the edge of orgasm.

  “Can you come from this alone?” He asked, fingers making lazy circles around one nipple. Jeff felt her shake her head, and he pulled her more fully against him. With that bit of encouragement, she wrapped her thighs around him and ground down on him.

  There was a moment when he thought fuck this, and moved to free his cock and shove her panties to the side, but there’d be time for that later. Much later. Instead, he redoubled his efforts on her nipples, showering attention on them as she bucked against him.

  “More,” she demanded, and moved her hand up to his, showing him just how hard she liked it, how to twist and soothe to make her come apart.

  Kami shuddered as she came, shaking against him as he placed soft kisses on the sweet undersides of her breasts. She smelled of her spicy soap and clean sunshine, and he smiled at the satisfied noises she uttered.

  Flushed and breathing heavy, she leaned back against the tub. He instantly missed her wet center rubbing against him, but he’d never grow tired of looking at a post-orgasm Kami. Her lips were as dark and puffy as her nipples. She must have been biting them as he was biting at her breasts.

  When she brought her hands to the top of her head and took a deep breath, he had to give his cock a hard squeeze. Kami winked at him, as if she could read his mind—as if she knew he was imagining her doing the same thing when she was sitting on top of him, clenching tight around him as she bounced on his cock.

  “Give me a minute and it’ll be your turn.”

  “We’ll get to that,” he murmured, picking up the hand shower once more. Jeff adjusted the flow and gave himself a quick rinse. He didn’t miss the way Kami’s eyes followed his every move.

  If he postured and flexed a bit more than he would have, normally, when giving himself a quick shower, well, that was just part of the fun. Of course, he normally didn’t shower in his shorts sitting in a bathtub, but if he shucked those, he’d be done in a second. And he wanted this to last as long as her hot water did.

  Adjusting the flow again, he gave Kami’s torso another quick once-over. She shivered prettily and her nipples beaded up again. “So responsive.”

  “Jeff, quit teasing me.”

  He dodged to the right when she started to grab for the sprayer. “Teasing? Uh uh. I seem to recall a certain person in this tub screaming out an orgasm a moment ago. And that person wasn’t me. It’s a crime to lie to a peace officer, you know.”

  He feinted left when she came at him once more, and the spray grazed his cock again. He gritted his teeth against the pleasure, and an evil idea came to mind.

  Chapter 5

  “I’ll show you a tease, Kami.”

  There was purpose in his voice. Sensual purpose. That word flitted through her mind again: mercenary.

  Oh yeah, he was going to take her.

  And she planned on letting him.

  As he sat between her calves, studying her, Jeff grinned wickedly. She was sprawled out, and, in her post-orgasm high, she didn’t care that her tank top was resting beneath her breasts, that the bottom hem had ridden up while she’d ridden him. And he didn’t seem to care, either, from the looks of the massive erection in his boxer briefs.

  He was spraying the water up and down his thighs. With each pass of the nozzle, the tendons in his forearm stood in relief. He was big everywhere. How had she never noticed his wrist was so large?

  Maybe because you’ve never seen him in daylight and now here you are seeing him in his altogether.

  Almost. Saints and angels, she couldn’t wait to get him naked-naked.

  He batted her foot away when she tried to coyly slip her arch up and down his cock. She tried again, and he gripped her ankle and started running that smooth, pulsing jet up the sensitive skin of her calf.

  Not to be outmaneuvered, she started with her left foot, knowing he probably wouldn’t drop the hand shower to restrain her. He was so hard beneath her teasing toes as she lightly traced his length. When she rubbed her arch up and down, up and down his enormous erection, his groan did naughty things to her insides.

  “And what was that about a tease, Jeff?” Her voice echoed off the tiles, a hundred sultry sirens amused by the simple human male and his one-track mind.

  As soon as the words were out of her mouth, he stretched her right leg up and had it bent over the side of the tub. S
he shouldn’t have underestimated him.

  It wasn’t uncomfortable, physically; she was pretty limber still, even though she hadn’t danced in years. But it was uncomfortable to be spread open before him. Breasts were one thing, but she knew her panties had to be practically transparent.

  Squirming under his unrelenting stare, Kami squeezed her eyes tight, imagining what he must be thinking. She hadn’t been prepared for this—whatever this was between them. Hadn’t taken time to ready herself for any below-the-belt action. She never dreamed that when she went out on the deck—

  “Oh my—fuck!” The words were ripped from her throat as a full-body spasm racked her. “What are you…”

  He had the jet streaming right on her clit, through the thin cotton of her panties, that’s what he was doing. She tried to wriggle away from the searing pleasure, but he held her thigh as sure as he held the water to her.

  “Feel good?”

  It felt like the worst sort of pleasure. Like something explosive was just beyond her reach. “Jeff, it’s awful.”

  Immediately, he took away the stream of water, and she cried out for more. How could she explain it was delicious torture to have the water directed at her clit through the barrier of her panties when she was almost out of her mind with the sensation of it all?

  “I guess we’ll have to try something else, sweetheart.”

  “Noooo.”

  His laughter bounced off the tile surround, and she clenched around the emptiness between her legs. “Let it never be said I deny you pleasure.”

  Jeff might have been laughing, but there was a core of steel beneath his words. Kami shivered, and it wasn’t because he’d redirected the spray between her legs—okay, that might have been part of it. But it was the look in his eyes as he said it. As he bent his entire concentration to her desire.

  It was an exhilarating turn of events. Though Kami and her showerhead were very well acquainted, she’d never experienced this blood-thrumming excitement.