Chapter 126: Heavenly Shower
- RAYA -
The morning comes in a different bed than usual, and I roll over to find that Dex has already gotten up. I’m wrapped in a sheet, sore from the previous night and wanting nothing more than to stay wrapped in every memory with Dex forever.
When I finally venture out of bed, peeking around the doorframe to listen for his voice because I’m completely naked and my dress was tossed on the floor of the hallway last night, I hear Dex talking on the first floor. He must be on the phone, so I take the opportunity to scurry down to his bedroom. The dress is nowhere in sight. He must have picked it up.
Sure enough, the discarded garment is on the bed with Moira Rose lying on top of it, apparently having found the novelty of it preferable to every other place she might lay on Dex’s bed. Or maybe it smells like me.
Moira makes a little noise when she sees me, and I lean down to let her sniff my nose before scratching her head and then darting into the bathroom. I don’t want Dex to come in and see me standing here naked. I’m sure he wouldn’t mind, but I need a shower.
Finally remembering to try Liz’s products, I am completely in love with every single one of them. The shampoo is weird with the large chunks of sea salt, but it smells like the ocean, and I’m convinced it’s my new favorite scent. If I can wake up smelling like the ocean everyday once I’m out of the shower, I’ll never go back to traditional shampoo. It’s subtle and refreshing.
The face scrub somehow smells like a delicious cinnamon dessert without having any cinnamon in its ingredients. It must have something to do with the tagua nut powder, but when I’m smoothing it on I feel delicious. I kind of want to lick myself.
I decide the face dessert is quickly my new favorite until I open the body scrub and smooth it on. It’s pink with a luxurious texture, and it smells like fields of lavender. Apparently it has bamboo stem extract and cypress leaf infusion, and I’m not sure how I could ever go back to just buying regular products. These are incredible.
I’m getting ready to try the conditioner when Dex walks in, and it’s like the air becomes electrified with his presence. I can see him through the glass door, which means he can also see me.
"It smells like a hippie in here," he says, leaning on the wall and crossing his arms with a smirk.
"The Verdure products," I tell him, quickly adding the strawberry and honey conditioner to my hair and turning to rinse the rest from my hands. "I figured I should try them before meeting with Liz again tomorrow."
Dex hums his understanding, and when I turn to look at him again, he has a hand covering his mouth and then smoothing down his beard while his eyes hungrily roam my body. Trails of fire lick my skin everywhere his eyes go.
"How are they?" He asks, his voice deep and seductive. I wonder if he realizes what only his voice does to me.
"Amazing. I keep thinking one is my favorite until I try the next, and then that one is my new favorite."
He smiles. "I have a feeling you and Liz are going to end up being good friends."
I smile back and then wonder if I should invite him into the shower with me. It must be obvious where my mind has gone, and it probably doesn’t help that I’m biting my lip looking at him with what I can only imagine is scorching intensity, because before I can even open my mouth to ask, Dex is shucking off his shorts and pulling his shirt over his head, only breaking eye contact when the fabric gets in the way.
When he steps in, I’m overwhelmed by him once again. There is no way I will ever not be affected by Dex—his rolling muscles, his equally tender and desirous eyes, his beautiful dark brown hair that’s like a wavy lion’s mane falling at his shoulders.
I move back to make room for him, but he catches me by the waist and tugs so that our bodies are flush—my warm, wet abdomen against his rigid muscles, my chest pressed against his. He reaches up, smoothing my hair back that now smells like strawberries and gazes at me deeply.
Without a single word, his hands run down the curves of my shoulders and arms until I twist so that we’re trading places and he’s directly under the warm shower—water droplets falling like jewels and clinging to all of his most delicious parts.
Dex reaches past me for his shampoo and continues to watch me while he lathers it into his hair—only tearing his eyes away when they close and he tips his head back, letting the water fall over him to rinse the shampoo away. And, my god, Dex with his head tipped back and eyes closed under falling water is the most erotic thing I have ever witnessed in my entire life.
When he straightens again and runs a hand over his face to remove the excess water, he catches my dazed look and chuckles. His eyelashes are thick and long, clinging to each other, and his eyes beneath are even darker as if they have been saturated with water, too.
I said last night that everything would probably be better with melted chocolate. Well, Dex is melted chocolate, and I could lick and taste every delicious morsel and never get enough.
His lips curve into a crooked smile, and once again I’m wondering if he can read minds.
"What?" I ask with a shy laugh, cheeks heating if they weren’t already.
"You are so fucking beautiful," he says, shaking his head with a huge smile now that allows me a glimpse at that adorable dimple behind his beard.
"No, you are," I insist.
"No, you are."
I shake my head in silent denial and reach for the Verdure body scrub, deciding he’s going to try it today, too. There’s really no good way to put it on other than just using my hands, so I scoop some onto my fingers and take one of his arms. After rubbing it on his forearm and working my way to his shoulder, his hands find my hips and the touch sends sparks straight through my center—stealing my breath, holding it hostage so that every sense can be attuned to where his skin rests on mine.
His hands are large and their texture coarse, indicating how much he uses them—probably in lifting weights and working on his motorcycle. These are things he has mentioned that he does, but I haven’t had a chance to witness them myself. But I can’t wait until I do.
Dex’s touch shifts, one hand remaining on my hip while the other slowly traces the curve of my back, and my breathing hitches and fights to remain steady. But I try not to let him notice, working intently on covering him with the lavender scent—fingers gliding over every ridge, every swell, watching in awe as his muscles tense when I touch some parts and shiver when I touch others.
I cover his chest and legs and then repeat the process on his back, slowing the paths my hands make so that I can savor this, memorize him. I know we don’t have much time and have to actually be functional adults who go to work and get things done other than just reveling in each other’s presence, but I can’t help it. Dex has a body that I’ve only ever seen on television or magazines. And it’s not just anyone’s body. It’s his. And it’s mine.
When I’m finally done and return to help rinse the fine grains of divinely scented body scrub from his skin, his phone rings from somewhere in the bedroom, and we both turn toward the sound.
"Shit, I’m sorry," he groans. "I have to get that. It’s probably my father again."
"Your father?" I repeat, mouth dropping open as I watch him grab a towel and step out.
Dex finally spoke to his father? I was wondering when it was going to happen. It seems like he has been avoiding finding out the status of his father’s condition—something that has started to become a growing concern in my mind. I’ve been trying to ignore it, hoping everything would just work itself out and Mr. Jansen would miraculously return without any health issues.
"Yeah, he called early this morning. Things sound really good," Dex smiles, and I can hear the relief in his voice. "I’ll tell you about it in a second."
Then he jogs the few steps out of the bathroom with the towel in hand when the phone rings a third time, and I sigh, taking in the pure, unfiltered happiness that remains in his wake. The bathroom now smells like the ocean and fields of strawberries and lavender, and the most incredible man I have ever laid eyes is walking around naked with wet hair, carrying with him what sounds like happy news about his father.
"Maybe this is heaven," I smile and reach for a towel.
