Zeb…

Tiffany was in my bathroom, soaking in the tub when Reaver rang me up. I was glad my phone’s ringer was off and it was buzzing across my kitchen bench when I grabbed it. I wanted her to relax some.

“Yeah, Bro. What’s good?” I asked in greeting.

“Nothing here,” he said and I frowned.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It means she ain’t home. Her car is in the lot. I asked Data to look up her info. Nothing is out of place, but that makes it out of place, you know what I mean?”

“Ah, yeah. Are you in her apartment then?”

“Yup. Picked the lock. It was a little too easy. Everything looks normal, I guess. I mean shit ain’t knocked over or anything. No signs of a struggle. She’s kind of a messy person, though. Bras and panties everywhere. She even has a set hanging off a lamp.”

I laughed a bit and nodded, “Definitely fits what my Tiff has said about her.”

“Yeah? What’s that?”

I shrugged even though he couldn’t see it and said, “That they couldn’t be more different. Opposites attract and all of that. My Tiff is a neat person, likes to keep things clean. Stands to reason her opposite friend would be a bit messy.”

“Yeah, more than a bit. I’m gonna bounce before I accidentally touch something and bring it home to Hayden.”

“Hey, now!” I said and he laughed.

“I didn’t mean it that way; I just mean I have no way of telling what’s growing in here in the dark.”

“Heh, I’m not there, so I can’t declare if that’s fair or not.”

“Wow, rhyme a little more there, buddy.”

“Fuck you.”

“That’s not a haiku.”

I laughed, “They don’t rhyme.”

“Meh, I’m a basic guy. Gimme a limerick over that fancy Japanese shit any day… wait, haikus are Japanese, right?”

“Yeah man, they’re Japanese.”

“Good, I got that right. Okay, then.”

“I’ll talk to her when she’s out of her bath.”

“Dude! Why aren’t you in there with her?”

“Nah, that’s her time for her – she doesn’t get a lot of it.”

“Yeah, I know what you mean. I’m just blessed with my Doll who doesn’t want a lot of it. Time for just her. She just about always wants me there.”

“She thought you were dead for almost a year, Bro.”

“Yeah, that probably has something to do with it,” and he didn’t sound too happy about the reminder.

“Go home, make it up to her some more.”

“There are some things in life you can never make up for, man. That would definitely top the list.”

“Just because you can’t make up for it don’t mean you ever stop trying.”

“Now, that, I am on board with. You’re absolutely right. I’m going home and fucking my wife, now.”

“You do that.”

“Just you try and stop me,” he said, and his voice was as cold as the winter pressing against the dark window glass up here.

“Nah, wouldn’t dream of it,” I said and hung up.

I set the phone down and heard Tiff call out, “Hey, Nik?”

“Yeah?” I called back.

“Was that Reaver?” she called and I smiled a little to myself, a smile that held a bitter edge at the strain of worry in her voice. I loved that she worried so much about her friend but at the same time, I hated that she had cause to worry at all.

I went around from the kitchen to the bathroom door and pushed in. She lay back in the tub, scented milky water steaming, covering all the important bits except the perfect peaks of her breasts. I went over and sat on the edge of the tub, trailing fingertips beneath the warm, almost-too-hot water, from her ankle, up her shin, to her knee, and back.

“Yeah, that was Reaver. He said her car is in the lot, but she’s not home.”

“Damn it, Delia!” she swore under her breath. She closed her eyes and banged her head lightly on the tile wall behind her head, sighing. Her hands raising from the water so she could press fingertips to her eyes and cover her face.

She took several deep breaths and shuddered and I slid my hand up higher, just holding the inside of her thigh.

“Goddammit, Lia!” she cried and let out a harsh breath. She didn’t cry but it was a near thing and my heart went out to her.

“I don’t know what to say or do to fix it,” I confessed and she shook her head.

“Nothing, there’s nothing you can say or do to fix it. At best, you can just distract me and you are so very good and such a pleasant distraction,” she said and I smiled.

I slid my hand higher and she parted her knees so my fingertips could graze her silky sex beneath the water.

“I aim to please,” I said with a chuckle and she sucked in a sharp breath when I slid a finger inside her.

I held her, cupped in my hand, my middle finger deep inside her, my thumb pressed against her clit and my eyes glued to her perfect, beautiful face. I swear to you, on the souls of my ancestors, I didn’t even see the scar when I looked at her anymore. She was just beautiful, just perfect, from the way she came to me the day I met her all the way up until now. Actually, that was sort of a lie. I didn’t think such a thing was possible, but I believe she grew more beautiful to me every day.

She sucked in a breath and gripped the edge of the tub with a white-knuckled grip, her other hand gripping the top of her thigh over by the wall. She gasped and her hips gave a little jerk, the lavender-colored water swirling with flashes of silver glitter in it in little eddies around her body.

I bit my bottom lip and concentrated on giving her the distraction she’d asked for, playing my thumb in little circles over her clit, working my finger in a come-hither motion over the roof of her pussy, teasing reactions from her.

Her eyes closed, she bit her bottom lip and turned her head to the side, so into what I was doing, she didn’t even realize she turned the unmarked side away from me, putting her warrior’s mark on full display. I rewarded that bit of trust by teasing at her clit a little more, her pussy clenching tight, her mouth falling open and a little breathy moan falling from her sweet lips even as she fought not to ride my hand, her hips lifting and falling rhythmically just below the water’s surface, the sparkles suspended in it dancing and swirling, accentuating her curves, and making me wish more than just my hand was between her thighs.

I tried to tell myself to be patient and that I’d be there soon enough. We had all the rest of tonight and into part of the day tomorrow if we wanted before either of us had to go to work.

“Nik!” she gasped and her voice was like angel song to my ears.

She closed her eyes and shuddered in her warm bath as I made her come and it was beautiful. Like she shattered into many points of sparkling light and dissolved into the glitter in the tub before rising back up whole and new. She practically leaped up, her warm, wet hands grabbing my face to either side as she crushed her mouth to mine. Off-balance, I practically fell on her, half into the water. She exclaimed, a surprised, light sound, into my mouth and laughed against it, even as the warm bathwater soaked into my clothes.

“Guess these are going to have to come off, eh.”

“I guess so,” she murmured demurely.

I peeled back the flannel I was wearing as she helped pull the black thermal undershirt from the waistband of my jeans. We made some quick work of undressing and discovered with some maneuvering, that it was a tight fit but that we both fit and we learned a bit of a science lesson on displacement while we were at it.

“I love this,” she murmured and pulled my arms around her where she rested back against my chest.

“I do, too,” I confessed and we silently enjoyed the warmth and closeness until the bathwater grew too tepid to stay.

“You think everything is okay?” she asked as I dried her through a towel and she sounded both fragile and hopeful.

I lied to her, and it killed me to do it, but I couldn’t tell her the truth. She didn’t need the truth right now, she needed to believe. “I think everything’s fine and she’s off getting her rocks off with that bloke.”

“I hope you’re right,” she said and she sounded like she didn’t believe me. She leaned up and kissed me softly and said, “You’re a terrible liar, but thank you. You’re right for doing it.”

I smiled and said, “Guilty, but then again, I hate to see you hurt.”

“I love that about you, too.”

I felt a sudden warmth radiate out from my center at her words.

“The more I get to know you, the more time I spend with you… I really think I’m starting to love everything about you,” I said evenly.

“Except my job,” she murmured and I smiled.

“Hard to love that,” I said.

She nodded and looked a little sad, “There are some days I loved my job, but they haven’t come in a while.”

“So why don’t you quit?” I asked, and held her close. She looked up at me and her expression was sad and a little bit torn.

“The money, for one. Honestly, I don’t know what else I would do.”

“Well,” I said and kissed her softly, “Nothing has to change right now, or even soon.”

“Seriously?” she asked and bit her bottom lip, giving me a skeptical look.

“Truly,” I told her.

She hugged me close, resting her head on my shoulder and I held her back, smoothing a hand over the towel over her lower back and her bum.

“Thank you,” she whispered.

“For what?”

“For not lying, but for not forcing me to choose or make a change right now.”

“I will never force you to do anything you don’t want to. That’s not how I want any of this to work.”

“But you want it to work?” she asked and that fragile hope was back in her voice.

I didn’t lie one bit when I said, “More than anything, Wahine. More than anything I’ve ever wanted before.”