Descent From Grace: A Luxe Novella Book 1.5 (23 page)

  “You know I’m Greek right?” She giggles and I look away briefly because I didn’t know that.
  “With a little Scandinavian in you—”
  “I little!” she boasts in laughter and throws her arms around my neck. She pushes her nose to mine and says, “A lot. A whole lot.” Her teeth sink into my lip, making me growl.

I’d love to fuck her right now but that’d negate the whole bath idea. Closeness and comfort, not having to fuck every time we touch, some crap like that. I should just fuck her. Letting her go, I decide I’m not going to skip this bath; we distract too easily. On my knees, I start to untie her shoes.

  “So you’ve all of a sudden decided to change my name?”

  “No.” I push her pants down. “I’ve been calling you that for a while now. You’re saved in my phone as ‘My Freyja’.”

Still on my knees, I’m staring at her shaved pussy; she smells like . . . my Freyja. She’s nothing like any other woman I’ve seen, smelled, encountered. She’s by far the best thing I’ve ever come in contact with and she smells like home and comfort. I think all those elements make this true love.
  “Ian.” She’s self-conscious and covering herself with her hand.
  “Stop.” I grab her wrist, pulling her hand away. “You’re perfect, baby.” My lips go to her lower stomach, hoping she believes me when I tell her that stuff, because I mean it. She’s imperfectly perfect for me.

  “You’ll have to brief me on Norse mythology.” She chuckles and steps into the water.

  “Freyja is the goddess of love.” I glance at her while removing my shirt. “Beauty, sexuality, war, gold. She’s an all around badass that’s sexy as hell.” I left out fertility and death. For obvious reasons.

She’s laughing at me. “Who was the goddess that looked over the dead? She got half. . . .” She’s thinking really hard and I want to laugh because of course she’s going to force me into mentioning Freyja’s also associated with death.

  “That’s you too.” I smirk and step in.

The water isn’t hot enough for me, but I know she likes lukewarm water when showering and I’ve seen what her porcelain skin looks like after getting out of a hot shower.

Now I have to tell her I also associate her with death. “She got half of the dead who died in battle and the other half went to Odin—”
  “Why do you know this stuff?” She’s laughing at me as she sits in front of me.
  “Come on, who doesn’t know who Thor is? And Odin’s Thor’s dad—”
She interrupts me, laughing harder. “That doesn’t explain why you’re into Norse mythology.”

  “I’m into a lot, baby.” I pull her to lie back on me and kiss her temple.

  “I’d like to know that stuff.” She sounds disappointed she doesn’t know this stuff about me.

There’s a lot we have to discover about each other; we haven’t known each other long, but I don’t need to know what kind of things she nerded out on when she was a kid to know I’m insane over her. I need this woman.

After an hour, we’re not talking anymore. Both silence and conversation comes naturally when I’m with Lily. With Karen, if she’s not constantly talking it’s because I’m fucking her, but even through that she talks too much.

The water’s only getting cooler, but I don’t want to move. My fingers have pruned and I hate that feeling, but we’re so relaxed I could sit here for a few more hours.
  “Ian?” She sounds about as relaxed as I am. We haven’t even moved in the last twenty minutes.

  “Hmm?” I lean my head down to kiss the side of her face.
  “What do you call Karen?”

I know I shouldn’t be, but right now I’m so comfortable talking to Lily about Karen I’d tell her anything she wanted to know. As demented as it is, I feel like Karen is a project we have together.

  “Kare usually.”
  “What else?”
  “Sometimes honey.”
  “Do you call her baby?” She looks back and up at me.

  “No.” That’s the truth, I never have. She calls me babe, but I’ve never used that on her. I don’t know why and I don’t know how I got to calling Lily baby, but she’s the only one.

  “What does she call you?” She’s rubbing her pruned fingers together. I even hate the way pruned fingers look.
  “Usually babe.”

  “Sloan used to call me sweetheart. I can’t stand sweetheart anymore. Never call me that, oh, and Lil. I
hate
Lil!” she growls.

I chuckle, kissing her head again.

  “You’re my Freyja and my baby,” I tell her and bring her pruned fingers to my lips.

  “I like that.” She turns to face me, kneeling between my legs. “We’re going to have to start using protection at least for a month after I start my pills.”
  “When do you think we’ll have sex again? Can’t be anytime soon.”
  “They sent me paperwork, it says at least seven days, but fourteen is more ideal.”
  “What’s the risk?”
  “Infection.” She shrugs.

The thought is nauseating. All of it. I don’t know what the procedure is and I never thought I would. Having to wait that long to have sex with her is rough, but I’ll wait a damn month if it means nothing will happen to her like infection. This shit isn’t a relaxing conversation topic I want to have.
  “There’s other sex we could do.” She grins and I can’t help but laugh. Conversation’s getting better.

Sliding my hand to her ass, I sarcastically say, “Are you referring to anal?” I lift my eyebrows.

Her eyes go wide. The gears are turning as she contemplates this. I fucking love this look on her face. Wide-eyed Lily hasn’t been around in a while. I fell in love with this woman because of wide-eyed Lily.

  “You like that?”
  “Only done it a few times; not many women are willing to let me do it.”
  “You want to do that with me?” Her face is quizzical.

I know it’s perverse, but she seems so inexperienced when she’s like this and all I can think about is being the one to teach her all about these deviant curiosities.

  “I’d like to, but I don’t want to hurt you.”
  “You can start with your fingers or anal beads.”

I’m almost blown away she’s down for this, but now I’m hoping she hasn’t done anal with someone else. Judging by her face, she hasn’t. Shit, I hope she hasn’t.

  “You haven’t done it before, have you?”
  “No!” She starts to laugh. “Sloan would have never!” She laughs harder.

I want to ask what about the others, but I don’t; she’s already told me no and I’m content with that answer.

  “I think we should start with my tongue.” I grin and she’s staring at me wide-eyed again. “I want to lick every inch of you, Lily, nothing’s off limits.”
  “Will you let me do it to you?”

Completely caught off guard, I shut my mouth; I wasn’t expecting that and I don’t know how to answer. I mean, I did swallow my own come for this woman. . . .
  “You’d want to?”

Apparently we’re going to be exploring new deviant acts together. Shit that I never thought I would do. I’ve had some fucked up requests; the worst coming from Karen, but I have limits and I’ve set them with her. I’ve told other woman they didn’t have a chance in hell, but with Lily, limits are nowhere to be found.

  “I want to do a lot with you.” Pulling herself from my arms, she sits back onto her ass, and as I reach for her, she says, “I watched this video of this girl cutting herself while—”
  “No.” I stand. I’ve had enough. I can’t even stomach the thought of that.

Silence fills the bathroom and I look down at her, seeing she’s sad, maybe even afraid she’s pissed me off. Reaching down, I pull her up.

  “I don’t want to hurt you.”

  “It doesn’t hurt. It’s such a release for me, Ian.” Her whimsical tone about cutting herself pisses me off.
  “Okay.” I say smugly and let her hand go, stepping out of the bathtub. “All right.” My tone’s a little brash, but I’m proving a point here. I walk to the drawer closest to the sink where I know she keeps razors hidden in a girly hair bag thing. I’ve seen it out on the counter before. “I want to feel it,” I say, pulling out a razor.

I don’t want to do this, but I want to feel what the fuck she’s talking about. Why is she so drawn to this? I have no idea what I’m doing, but I push it to my abdomen.
  “Ian!” she snaps, hitting my hand. The slap stings and knocks the razor to the ground. “Don’t.”
  “Why?” I look at her self-satisfied, then bend and pick up the razor.
  “Don’t be stupid.”
  “You just asked me to fuck you while you cut.” I cock my eyebrow.
  “That’s me. I do this, you don’t.”

  “I want to feel what you get out of it.”
  “Well you won’t.” She yanks the razor from my hand. “You don’t have the problems I do.”
  “You don’t anymore either.”

She looks up at me and wide-eyed Lily is gone.

  “I’ve been lashing out at you, I haven’t needed to cut myself.”
  “Then we’ll keep doing that.”
  “No,” she huffs, tossing the razor to the countertop. “I hate myself when I do that. We’ve fought too much and I want it to stop. I think after tomorrow.” She pulls me from the bathroom. “I think it will.”

While she climbs into the bed, petals stick to her wet skin. She rolls to her stomach and I smirk; she definitely looks like some sort of exotic creature now with rose petals stuck to her glistening skin. I can’t believe I did the rose petals, but it was a picture perfect setup.

*LUXE*

Lilith arched her ass up and looked at him over her shoulder.

Wiggling her ass, she said, “I’m waiting.”

With a lusting grunt he reached out, grabbing her hips and bit her softly.

She could have fucked him all night. The idea she wouldn’t be able to have him inside her for two weeks was disconcerting. And knowing he’d want to wait the full two weeks, she fucked him hotter, harder, and nastier than before, leaving him baffled, sore, and satiated. Laying on her stomach, she looked over at him with a fulfilled grin.

He looked over at her, heavily panting, sweating, and mind blown.

  “Fuck,” he breathlessly huffed.

  “Did I hurt you?” She laughed.

  “Holy fuck. Fuck me. Christ, Lily.”

  “Ian,” she scoffed.
He quickly looked at her. “What?”

  “That was weird?” she asked with worry. “You didn’t like it?”
  “What?” He sat up, pushing her flat on the bed and hovered over her. “I fucking loved everything we just did.” He kissed her. “Everything seems so much better with you,” he guiltily admitted; she didn’t understand his disheartened tone.

  “Why do you say it like that?” 

Staring down at her, he ran his thumb over her bottom lip. “I don’t deserve you, baby,” he honestly told her.

She was more than enough for him and even he didn’t understand why he kept Karen around.

  “Don’t say that.” She kissed him softly. Staring him in the eyes, she said, “I love you.”
  “I love you, Lily.” He ran his nose along hers. “More than you’ll ever understand.”

After a few intense minutes of staring into his eyes, she kissed him. “Get to sleep.”

Self-loathing engulfed him; he’d never felt it before. Knowing the following day she was going to terminate what could have been their perfect future together made him hate himself for not being able to give her what she needed. Lilith was all he’d ever needed in life and he still couldn’t drop Karen. He hated himself because the way Lilith looked at him, he saw what he meant to her, yet when he gave her the same look, he knew she had doubts.

When she stirred from a bad dream, she called his name; he pulled her closer and her heavy breathing calmed while in his arms. He took solace in her sleeping soundly in his arms, but he couldn’t fall asleep. His guilt and worry about the next day kept him up all night and at six he couldn’t lay there any longer; his thoughts were eating him alive. Hoping a run would help, he set out, but found himself dwelling on the upcoming event. Not only did the termination pain him, but not knowing what would happen to Lilith during and after terrified him.

Aimlessly running, he found himself at Karen’s building, unsure why he ran there. Leaving his phone at the condo, he couldn’t call so he knocked loudly incase she wasn’t awake, like she should have been.
Fully dressed for work, she pulled open the door and looked at him peculiarly. “What’re you doing?”

  “I went for a jog.”
  “You’re pouring sweat, it’s cold out there. Why are you sweating so much?”
Leaning in, he pressed his lips to hers. He was assessing his feelings for her through the kiss and it wasn’t there; it was nothing like he had with Lilith.

Her pink lips quirked into a smile. “Good morning.”

With a disappointed huff, he looked around aimlessly. “How are you getting to work?”
  “Tash.”
  “And home?”
  “Probably cab. Can you pick me up?”
  “No, I won’t be around. I think I’m going camping. Won’t have a phone.”
  “Will you please tell me what the deal is?”

  “I just need some space from work, from you.” With his eyes locked on hers, he saw her frown.