the instant mellow happy endorphins that follow, making my limbs heavy and limp.
Chapter Nine
Verek
* * *
What the hell just happened?
I’m not complaining, I’m just shocked and a little overwhelmed.
One thing is for sure, all that guilt that was slowly but surely weighing me down is suddenly lifted off my shoulders now that I have something else to think about.
More than the deaths by my hands, I think I was worried that despite Tessa’s assertions that she was okay with all of this, that afterward she would change her mind and see me differently. That she would be even more revolted by me than before.
At least I could tell myself that it wasn’t me personally making her feel that way but the result of her surviving one hell of an ordeal.
Now, to know that after everything, she laid her hands and her lips on me in such a fiercely intimate way, in what was possibly the sexiest experience I’ve ever had with a woman, I’m ecstatic.
I know I can’t turn around and touch her the way I want, but she’s given me something even better.
“Thank you,” I say into the silence that was filled by the shower raining down on us. Well, mostly on her.
“For what?” she asks quietly. “That was…it wasn’t much…”
“It was everything,” I tell her, unable to look at her right now because my self-control may snap with the need to wrap my arms around her. “Was that the first time you’ve…”
“Yes,” Tessa answers my unspoken question about her first orgasm since the kidnapping. “I’ll, um, I’ll dry off and get out of your way,” she says. I hear the slide of the shower curtain going back before it’s replaced, then her retreating footsteps.
She’ll need time to get dried off and changed in the other room, so I take my time, soaping myself up again, although it doesn’t feel nearly as good as when Tessa did it, then finally turn off the shower, dry off, and get dressed, leaving my shoes and shirt off. I don’t think my partial nakedness will bother her since she seemed perfectly fine with my full nudity.
Before walking out of the bathroom, though, I ask, “Is it okay if I come out?” because I’m certain she would have a problem with me seeing her undressed. Even in the summer, she wears more clothing than is necessary in what I assume is an attempt to hide her body.
“Yeah, sure,” she responds.
I step out and find Tessa lying under the covers of the bed furthest from the door, her eyes barely open. Seeing her apparently triggers my body into demanding its own rest because I only have the energy to make it to the opposite bed where I collapse face-first.
“We should get a few hours of sleep and then get out of here as soon as possible,” I mutter into the pillow.
“Okay,” Tessa agrees. “Mind if I join you?”
She wants to sleep in the bed with me? I thought she made it clear that we should each have our own bed. I won’t second-guess her, though. Tessa knows better than anyone what she can handle and what she can’t.
“Sure,” I reply as I roll to my side facing her since I’m not sure I could move even if she asked me to come to her bed. Okay, that’s a lie. I would summon the energy from the depths of my soul and crawl over there if necessary. But thankfully, Tessa throws the covers back and then walks around to the empty side of my queen bed where she climbs in under the sheets while I stay lying on top of them.
When she scoots close enough to me that the front of her body is pressed to my back like in the shower, my dick twitches in interest. That’s obviously not what Tessa has in mind, though, when she throws her arm over my waist, spooning me from behind with our clothes and the sheets between us and says, “Good night.”
“Good night,” I reply even though it’s almost lunchtime. For us, it’s well past time for some sleep after being awake for more than twenty-four hours.
In the back of my mind, I’m still thinking about the shit Roman said, that he wants me to turn in my cut when we get back home. He’s not a man who says things he doesn’t mean. I have no doubt that he was serious.
Losing the Savage Kings, not to mention my job, would be devastating, but I knew the