Rob floated the comforter over the hastily re-made bed. The sheets were smooth and tight, the bedroom tidied. He wasn’t the kind of guy who cluttered up every room in the house, reserving his one unrestrained mess for the office. Here it was a book on the nightstand, a pair of reading glasses on top. A framed picture of him and Mia on the dresser. He considered that, thinking about Kari’s expressed concern about his daughter’s feelings, and decided to relocate the photograph to the living room.
Mia wouldn’t care—quite the reverse, she’d be cheering the two of them on.
But he was pretty sure that even Mia’s photographic presence in the bedroom would have a dampening effect on Kari’s feelings. Rob rubbed his hands together, nervousness zinging through his belly. What else? He gave a surreptitious sniff of one armpit. He…thought he was fine? But after a day of painting in a warm room and fishing? He probably wasn’t.
Just a quick shower. He should be able to get in, lather up quickly, and get out and dry in less than five minutes. Darting to the bathroom, he turned on the water and shucked off his clothes. Stepping into the hot spray, he had just enough time to wet his hair and begin to lather his chest when a noise made him freeze.
“Hello?” Kari’s voice, outside the bathroom door.
“Just taking a quick shower,” he called, rubbing the soap under his armpits and across the back of his neck.
“You have me at a disadvantage.” Kari’s voice floated through the half-open door. “I should have showered myself.”
He turned to face the spray, hanging his head and letting the water flow over his shoulders and neck, cascading off his hair. Closing his eyes, he gathered his courage. He had meant to take things slowly, to tease and discover, to peel layers away.
But it seemed like all his plans were meant to be jettisoned today.
He turned again and lifted his head, slicking his hair back with one hand. “You could join me,” he offered. “If you want.”
A long silence, and his half-hardened cock started to soften.
“Really?” He couldn’t catch the tone of Kari’s voice over the noise of the water.
“Really.” He cleared his throat. His voice had gone all tight. He almost sounded like a teenager.
Another silence, and then he could see her form vaguely outlined behind the shower curtain. He rubbed the back of his neck, waiting, half turned on, half flooded with anxiety.
Pale fingers hooked around the shower curtain, drawing it aside slowly, as if she was waiting for him to change his mind. His hand on the back of his neck stilled and Kari stepped into the tub, the one long leg and her half-apprehensive expression making his breath stop. He held out a hand and she took it to support herself as she stepped all the way into the little enclosure that suddenly seemed a whole lot smaller.
A nervous little smile quirked her lips and her free hand hovered as if ready to cover herself. As if it could. He tugged her a little closer and she came without hesitation, stopping mere inches away. He swallowed, feeling like he should reassure her somehow—yet feeling like he needed reassurance too.
How did this used to go?
He settled his hands on her hips. “Beautiful.”
Kari almost laughed. Me? She wanted to say? Look at you. Rob was toned and fit, his belly only slightly less than flat, his broad chest sprinkled with dark hair peppered with the occasional silver strand, just like on his head.
“Why are you looking at me like that?” she asked.
“Am I looking at you in a way?” he asked.
“Yeah. You’re…fit. And I’m…” Soft, sagging, succumbing to gravity she wanted to say. Maybe a few other choice words starting with S, if she could think of any.
He turned her away from him, pulling her back against his body, the warm spray from the shower spilling over his front and sliding down her back, his delicious lips and rough stubble pressing into the nape of her neck. She shivered and his arms came around her, one hand cradling her belly, the other weighing one breast, pinching gently at her hardening nipple. “Sexy,” he said. “Soft.” He bit where her neck joined her shoulder. “Just right.”
Make me feel this way and I don’t care how I look, she thought. Every sensation—the water, his hands, his mouth—all flowed through her and coalesced in a bright heat between her legs. It had been so long since she felt this urgent, needy throbbing with someone else. She could have laughed, but instead she gasped as he shifted against her, his cock hardening as it rubbed against the cleft of her ass. The hand on her stomach drifted lower, sliding through her pubic hair, long fingers finding the hood of her clit and circling gently.
“Like this?” his hot breath in her ear made her shiver.
Her breath hitched. “Harder.”
He chuckled, increasing the pressure and the speed and Kari’s knees trembled. Normally, she was as far from a hair trigger as they came, but the warm water, the unexpected feeling of safety in Rob’s embrace, one of his hands rubbing her clit and the other continuing to tease at her nipple—oh.
“I’ve got you,” he murmured. Then he pressed a kiss to the side of her neck, tongue exploring the sensitive nerve endings there, and everything in Kari flew apart into bright, spangled shards of light and shivering energy.
She realized he really did have her. She sagged into him, one of his arms supporting her weight, the other hand pressing against the place where ecstatic shivers continued to radiate outward. She straightened, swallowing hard, and turned in the arm that still encircled her, winding her arms around his neck and spearing her fingers into his wet hair.
“Thank you,” she murmured against his lips.
“My pleasure,” he said. She could feel his smile against her mouth.
“You have that backwards.”
“No, I don’t. I’m just glad to know I still know how to do a thing or two.”
“If you’ve lost a step, I want a time machine to go back to when you were doing this regularly.”
But not to share. The thought came out of nowhere, flattening her with its sudden vehemence.
“Or maybe I can just get back in practice now,” he said.
She leaned back, pretending to consider. “Oh, if you must.”
“Cheeky.” He must have grabbed the soap from behind her back because she felt strong hands sliding across her rear, slick, massaging the muscles and making her sag against him again.
“Not fair. You’ve been all give so far.” She picked up the container of shampoo and dribbled some into her palm, scrubbing her fingertips into his scalp, massaging and exploring. He groaned and tilted his head back into the spray when her fingers slowed, rinsing himself clean. Lifting his head and blinking the water away, he soaped up his hands again and smoothed them up the front of her torso, lifting her breasts and running his thumbs across her still-tight nipples.
“Still giving,” she said, rubbing the soap between her own palms.
“No, this is taking,” he said, his eyes on the slide of his fingers over her skin, then gulped as she grasped his cock with her soap-slick fingers, his eyes sliding closed. “Be gentle on an old man.”
“Hardly.” She gave his shaft an experimental squeeze, gratified at the way it throbbed against her palm.
“No, really. I don’t bounce back the way I did when I was younger. Pace yourself.” He switched their positions, putting her back under the spray, letting water stream over her shoulders and down her front. She closed her eyes and wetted her hair, smiling when she felt his hands shampooing her. He didn’t do that thing some men did: heap her hair on top of her head, rendering it a snarled mess. Instead, he concentrated on her scalp, combing his fingers gently through her hair as she rinsed.
“Ready to get out?” he asked.
“Right behind you,” she said, suddenly shy about cleaning her armpits in front of him. Which was absurd. But there it was.
Rob stepped out of the shower and snagged his towel from the rail. Crap. Kari needed one. Drying off quickly and wrapping the terrycloth around his hips, he darted to the hallway to get a spare from the linen closet. He heard the water shut off and was back just in time to hand her a towel as she pulled the shower curtain aside.
“Thanks.” She lifted the towel to her hair, the movement making her breasts move in a mesmerizing way.
“Sure.” Pulling the towel from his body, he rubbed it across her belly, wrapping it around to dry her hips, her ass, sliding it down her legs, his mouth going dry when his face was mere inches from the triangle of pubic hair, the curls darker gold than her straight, fine hair.
“Hello down there.” Rob looked up at Kari’s face, flushed from the warm water, her hair a delicious, tangled halo around it.
“Hello yourself.” Levering himself to his feet, he lavished a little more attention on her breasts with the damp towel while she laughed and reached for his comb, tugging it through her tangled locks. “That’s enough tidying your hair. I’m just going to mess it up again,” he said, taking the comb from her hand and laying it on the counter.
“Someone’s urgent all of a sudden.” Kari’s eyes danced with mischief.
“Someone’s got some unfinished business.”
“I see.” Kari’s eyes drifted down and her lips curled up.
“Among other things.” Yes, his erection still throbbed. But he also wanted her warm, soft skin against his again, her almost-as-tall-as-he-was length plastered against his body. Grasping her hands, he walked backwards, across the hall to the bedroom, tugging her after him. A small duffel sat on the bed. He released one of Kari’s hands and lifted the duffle. “What’s in the bag, little girl?”
Kari’s eyes traveled from the duffel in his hand up his arm to his face. “Clothes. Mostly.”
“Mostly.” He let an eyebrow quirk upward.
“Yes, mostly.” Her mouth went prim, but her eyes danced with humor and innuendo.
“All right, then.” Rob let the duffel drop to the side of the bed and pulled Kari into his arms, his eyes sliding closed with pleasure as his cock was trapped between his body and hers. Yes. This was what he wanted.
Well, not quite. He wanted the hot, slick slide inside her. The very thought was enough to make his eyes roll back in his head. He tugged her back to the bed, sitting on the mattress and lying back, pulling her down on top of him. A fit of nervousness hit him, and he looped a strand of damp hair behind Kari’s ear.
“How are you doing so far?”
She gave him a startled look. “After that shower? Are you serious?”
“Just thought I should check in.”
Her eyes narrowed. “How are you doing?”
“A little nervous, to be honest.” Despite their promising start, he was worried that something would go awry, that he’d fail to please her, maybe even hurt her. It had been so long.
“Ah. Anything I can do?” That tiny, crooked smile that he was getting used to reappeared.
He considered their relative positions. “How do you feel about being on top? At least for a start?”
The smile broadened. “Just fine. One minute.”
She stood and he lifted his head. “Where you going?”
“To get the Mostly.”
She crouched by the bed and the sound of the duffle zipper being opened made him rise up on his elbows so he could see what she was doing. She stood, a tube of something in her hand.
“Scootch back.” She popped the tube open and squirted something into her hand.
“What’s that?” he asked, inching back until he was all the way on the bed.
She showed him the label, her eyebrows lifting.
He squinted. “Lube? Did I not do something right?”
“You did everything right. But, like you, I’m not twenty-five anymore. I’m not even thirty-five anymore.”
A sudden doubt smacked him in the chest. “I thought you said you hadn’t been with anyone for years. Why…”
She frowned. “A girl doesn’t need to be with a person to need lubricant.”
He remembered her furtive grab of her nightstand and his face heated with embarrassment. “Ah. Of course. I’m sorry.” Great. He was already screwing this up.
“Yeah.” She held his gaze as she applied the lubricant to herself, her fingers stroking between her legs in a way that made Rob’s throat close and his mouth go dry. It was intense and erotic, that look, those fingers.
He cleared his throat. “Care to put some on me too?”
The band of tension that had constricted Kari’s chest from the moment of Rob’s question eased and she took a careful breath, reaching for the lube. “Sure. Warm or cold?”
He shuddered. “Warm. Definitely warm.”
She squirted more lube into her palm and brought her hands together until it had absorbed the heat from her hands, then slicked it over his hard length, savoring his indrawn breath.
“Damn, that feels good.”
“Good.” Kari circled the head with her thumb, coating him entirely, then snagged a tissue from the nightstand and cleaned her hands. Her heart hammered harder and her breath was tight again, but this time it was from anticipation, not apprehension. “Ready?”
“Be gentle with me.” His words were flippant, but his expression held the same anticipation she felt, but maybe with the slightest tinge of anxiety.
“I’ll do my best.” She straddled his hips, gripping his cock and positioning it at her entrance, sinking down by slow degrees, her eyes sliding closed. Her hips came flush with his and she swallowed, her body adjusting to the welcome invasion.
“You okay?” Rob’s voice was low, tight.
She nodded, unable for the moment to speak. She opened her eyes again, looked down at him. His hands were hovering around her hips, seeming unable to decide where to put them, what to do with them. She laced her fingers through his, gripping his hands, palm to palm, and began to rock in slow undulations.
Rob’s eyelids lowered halfway and a muscle in his jaw ticked. His fingers flexed as she rolled her hips, squeezing her hands. “God. Kari. Oh.” His breath hissed again.
“Too much?” She leaned over him, teasing his lips with hers. “Not enough?”
He released one of her hands, wrapping his arm around her waist. “Just right, Goldilocks. Just right. Don’t stop. Are you okay?”
“More than okay.” Her body had adjusted to the sensation of being filled, stretched, gloriously fucked. Rob started moving with her and she found she could take him even deeper, sliding her knees further apart, one hand holding his, the other planted on the mattress over his shoulder. His hand on her lower back and butt encouraged her to move faster and she tried, but couldn’t keep up with the pace he seemed to want.
“I’m sorry.” She was panting now. “I can’t…too fast.”
“How about we…” He tightened his grip on her back and rocked his hip in a suggestion. She nodded, and they rolled over, Kari’s legs wrapping around his thighs. His stubble scraped her cheek and he began to move more quickly than Kari had been able to, thrusting into her in a rhythm she had to focus to keep pace with. Then a quickening of his hips and a final thrust that seemed to stop time, his muscles rigid before liquid relaxation flowed through him.
“God, Kari. I’d meant…” His breath was hot in her ear. “You should have been better taken care of…I should have…”
Kari hugged him with arms and legs, kissing his neck. “You took care of me in the shower. If you’re keeping score, we’re square.”
He lifted his head, squinting down at her. “I still feel like I owe you one. Or two. Or something.”
Kari toyed with the silver hair at his temples, swallowing back the emotion that threatened. “I could…take a rain check. If you wanted to do this again sometime.”