Chapter 24 Ping rings out through the quiet darkness of my bedroom, stirring me from a hard-won sleep far too soon. With a groan, I roll over and slap at my phone. It's likely spam. Or a reminder that my credit card payment is due soon. Ugh. Either way, I don't want to know at... "Five? It's five in the morning?" slips out venomously. I don't have to be up for another half an hour. "This better be good." I open the text and sigh because I have not one but two texts. Due to inclement weather, Bright Lights Daycare will be closed today. The second one is from my clinical instructor stating the school is closed today and therefore there is no clinical either. Crap. That means I have to be home today too. Should I text my boss or go downstairs, crawl back into his bed, and let him know? I snicker and lift the sheet, taking in Vander's shirt I put back on before I fled his room. At least he won't be here today. He never is. After the longest mental debate in history, I say fuck it, dramatically toss the sheets back, and climb out of bed. I don't know why I do it. I honestly don't. It's five in the morning, and I should roll over and go back to sleep since I only got about three hours at most. Maybe it's because of the way I left him last night and the weird, nonsensical guilt I felt. It's not as if he asked or even wanted me to sleep in his bed. Yet here I am, standing outside his door, peeking my head in like a creeper and finding his bed... empty. The fuck? I swear, if this man skipped his sheets after I graced them, he's going to be in-is that his shower running? I pop my head in and listen a little harder. Yep, I think that's his shower. Lucky him. He was about to lose a testicle. With an indignation I have no right to, I thrust into his room and waltz straight into his bathroom. But the moment I push the door open and find him standing still beneath the powered jets of hot water, his face cast down and only the silhouette of his fogged body to go by, I falter. I can't see his cock piercings, but hell, do I wish I could. He must hear me because his head slowly turns, and crap, what do I do now? "Um. I got a text from the daycare. It's closed." I nearly wince at how soft and weak that came out. "Yes. My facilities manager called. Boston is covered in a sheet of ice after the sleet and freezing rain that came overnight. I closed the building." "Oh." That means I have a snow day at home with Vander. And Hazel, thank goodness. I can hopefully catch up on schoolwork. Something I am woefully behind on. "Are you coming in?" "What?" "The shower." I laugh at how ridiculous that is. "No. Absolutely⁠-" The glass door opens, and wet and naked Vander comes barreling out, scoops me up in his arms, and carries me back into the shower. "Ah! What are you doing?" He sets me down, rips my shirt over my head, and drops it in a wet heap on the floor. "I wanted my shirt back." His hands capture my face, and his lips come down on mine in a fierce kiss. I hold onto his arms for dear life, suddenly feeling like I'm drowning. I don't know how to navigate this, and the saner side of me knows I shouldn't even attempt to. But I can't stop. Not when he kisses me like this. If this is what drowning in Vander feels like, I'll gladly give him my last breath. His lips and tongue quickly dominate, demanding my full submission. My hands get lost in his hair and drag across his skin. I didn't get to touch him last night. Not at all, and I won't even lie and say it's not something I've been craving. Ten years have done a lot to him, physically and emotionally, but his body has only gotten better. He's tall and lean with arm muscles and pecs that have me drooling. I want to explore his ink and relearn all the places that make him moan and pulse. I want to feel connected to him again, and it pisses me off. To the point where I bite his lip in anger and frustration. He grins against me, annoyingly cocky as he reads me better than I like. His lips graze down my jaw and along my neck as he walks me backward until I'm pressed into the wall. His hands are everywhere. All over my breasts and the curves of my hips and between my legs and around to my ass. It's as if he can't get enough and doesn't know where he wants to touch or kiss me most. "What time does Hazel wake up?" "Huh?" The redirection has my head spinning. He pulls away from my neck and meets my eyes as he lifts me and forces my legs around his waist. "You left last night before I was done with you because you said Hazel might wake up. So I'm asking, what time does she normally wake up? I don't want you running out on me again." Oh. Well, damn. "Um, on weekends she sleeps till around seven thirtyish." "Then hold on, baby. I don't have a lot of time to work with." I feel his cock at my entrance, heavy and pressing, with the metal playing with the sensitive skin there. I haven't gotten to explore that either. All his new metal. He doesn't push in, just teases me a bit as he continues to kiss me. I grind down on him, wanting to feel him inside me again, and that stupid, delicious smile is back on his lips. "Anxious for me, my little angel?" Yes. "No. Just wanting to get it over with." He chuckles. "Liar." With that, he thrusts straight into me, and my head falls back against the wall, and my eyes close. Because holy damn, that feels so good. He hasn't even moved yet, and already having sex with Vander is better than any sex I've had in the years between him. It's an unfortunate hell. His lips and tongue and teeth nip and suck on my neck, but for the longest moment, he's just inside of me, not moving but feeling me from the inside out. His breathing is so heavy, and his body is shaking with the effort of it. "Like nothing else," he murmurs. "Being inside you is like nothing else." S~ᴇaʀᴄh the ƒindNoᴠᴇl.nᴇt website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. He slides almost all the way out and plunges back in, deep and rough, using the power of his hips and thighs to give me every inch of him. All I can do is hold on. Same as last night, I'm once again at his mercy. Taking what he gives me and not caring if that makes me his. It's just for now. Just during this. With his hands on my ass, he starts to fuck me. And where last night he fucked me so hard I thought he was going to split me in half, this is different. It's slower and deeper, closer somehow, and with that, it's more intimate. I feel his eyes on me, watching me in between kisses, but I'm afraid to look at him. Afraid of what that will do to me. My thighs tremble as I hug his hips. I'm barely hanging on, and I throw my body forward, hugging him tighter to me so I can grind against him as he pistons up. It puts my face in his neck, and I breathe in the scent of him, sucking and biting on his hot skin. "Fuck, you feel so good. That's it. Moan for me. Just like that. Show me how good my cock feels when I fuck you." "Oh. Yes. Please, more." He shifts me and yanks my hair back until my face is inches in front of his. "Touch yourself and look at me." Holy shit. Holy freaking shit. "Do it, Angel. Touch yourself until you come all over me." His hand goes back to my ass and he shifts me again, creating a V between us, and with my legs around his waist and this new angle, and the way he's fucking up into my front wall, and the steam of the shower swirling all around us, it's almost too much. My hand glides down my chest, toying with and touching my breasts, pulling on my nipples, and riding him as much as I can. But I can't hold off. I'm too turned on. Too close to the edge of coming. And I want him to see me like this. Like a woman who isn't afraid of anything. Including him. I want him to watch me touch myself, knowing he's desperate to do it himself. With my eyes on his, I start rubbing my pulsing clit, circling it and then narrowing to the center. It's incendiary. And those moans he was after, I give him, unable to stop the sounds I'm making. "That's it," he praises. "Fuck, you're so hot. So fucking sexy, I can hardly stand it. I'm gonna fuck you till you come. Till I make you scream." He moves the fingers of one hand lower and then pushes them inside me along with his cock. Then another into my ass. "Holy shit! Oh my god!" It's so tight and I'm so full and the stretch of it... "Surrender to me, Angel. You can take it. Such a good little angel for me." It's so much. Too much. But I don't want to stop it. Not for a second. I grind down on him, wanting his fingers and cock deeper, harder. I want all of him. My fingers pick up speed, my nails on my other hand digging into his shoulder. His movements grow jerky, his thighs shaking, and I know he's going to come. He's going to come so hard inside of me, and the thought of it shoots me straight over the edge into an orgasm unlike any I've ever had. Especially when he tenses, his grip becomes bruising, and he grunts and growls and curses as he comes. My eyes flash open and our eyes lock, and seeing him like this, seeing how hard he's coming because of me, has me shaking and shuddering and clenching around him even harder. For the longest time he holds me. Even after his fingers gently slip out of me, his cock hasn't moved. We're hugging and breathing together, and I don't have it in me to stop it. Same as last night. No one has held me in so long, and it's not just anyone doing it. It's him. It's Vander. My first everything. He sets me down on my feet, making sure I'm steady before he leads me under the sprays. Wordlessly, he grabs his shampoo bottle and starts to wash my hair. "Vander-" "Shh. Don't stop me. Just enjoy it." So I do. He washes my hair and then conditions it. With his hands lathered in body wash, he cleans me, touches me, and massages the tight and sore muscles in my back, shoulders, and thighs. The man is on his knees washing and massaging me, and I don't know what to do with this. I can handle fighting. I can handle rough. I can even handle possessive. But sweet, tender Vander rushes past all my resistance, bringing him closer and closer to the one place I need to keep him from. For all our sakes.