Series: Cobalt Empire Series by Krista Ritchie
Total pages in book: 234
Estimated words: 226965 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1135(@200wpm)___ 908(@250wpm)___ 757(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 226965 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1135(@200wpm)___ 908(@250wpm)___ 757(@300wpm)
Instead, I get the chance to comfort her. To make this better.
Her silence is eating at me just as much as her tears did. “I’m sorry,” I breathe out. “If I made you feel this way…”
She whirls around, her glare still cute but it splinters in places. “No, you’ve been upfront with me.” She brushes water out of her eyes. “I shouldn’t have cried—”
“You can cry,” I say. “I want to know how you feel, and if that’s how you feel, you can let it out.”
Harriet holds my waist. She’s not crossing her arms. That’s good. I see her thinking before she says, “It was the sex.”
I wrack my brain. “The sex brought you to distraught tears?” That’s…not good. “Did I hurt you?” My chest tightens. I thought I went slow enough.
“No, the sex was the best, Ben.” Her reddened eyes carry so much emotion. I clasp her cheek, then cradle her head as she strains her neck. Not wanting her to look away from me. “I’ve never felt anything like it, and then knowing you’re leaving soon…it just got to me. But I’ll get over it.”
A knot is in my ribs. Do I want her to get over it? Get over me? I know I’ll never get over her. I pull Harriet against me in a hug, my hand cupping the back of her skull. She rests her cheek against my chest and hangs on to my build.
“It was the best for me too,” I whisper to her. We take some breaths together, and I sense her body relaxing against mine. When we pull back, I peel a wet tendril of hair off her jaw.
She bites at the corner of her lip, her eyes drifting down to my cock. She’s been doing that since we got in the shower, which I’ve learned is one of my biggest turn-ons with Harriet, but I’m hesitant to start another round right now. Not when she’s been so fractured.
“Can we start over, Cobalt boy?” Harriet asks with a stiff shrug.
“Depends on how far over.” I push my wet hair back and angle the showerhead away from her. She’s being pelted with water.
“How far are you willing to rewind?”
I suck in a breath, feigning contemplation. “Two minutes.”
Her cheeks pinch in a grimaced smile. “Oh, only two minutes.” She pumps a lackluster fist in the air.
“Now we can’t rewind at all because that was too cute. We can push pause though. Let me just do this first.” I lift her up, and her legs naturally wrap around me. We’re eye-level while I cup her soft, bare ass. Her arms drape over my shoulders, and her grumpy, sullen face takes a much lighter turn. “You want to pause, Fisher?”
She nods slowly while she says, “I don’t want to fuck this up. We have such a short amount of time left, and I might ruin it.”
“You won’t ruin anything. You are the least ruinous person I’ve met. I’m the one—”
“You warned me,” she interjects. “You told me. There was nothing more you could do, except not have sex with me, and I wouldn’t want that either. I loved tonight. So I’m not rewinding a single second, I’ve decided.”
“Good—”
She kisses me abruptly, which makes me smile. I kiss back, slowing the tempo, which draws an aching sound out of her.
When our lips part, she pants out, “Did we press play?”
“I think so.”
“Cool, because I wanted to ask what shampoo we’re using.”
I laugh. “Hate it?”
“I could marry it.”
“Now you’re making me jealous. I might have to trash it.” I reach for the bottle, holding her up against me with one arm.
She tears my hand away from the ledge of products. “Absolutely fucking not.”
A deeper laugh rumbles out of me.
“My hair has never felt this silky, and it’s not even dry yet. Feel.” She tips her head forward to me.
I gladly run my fingers through the blonde strands. “That’s the work of a high-end vegan shampoo.”
“High-end, huh.” Her brows spring at me. “Splurging, Friend?”
“Thankfully I already had it before my bank account plummeted to zero. I don’t use a lot at one time.”
“Conserving,” she nods. “I do the same thing with toothpaste. You have to roll that sucker to the very tip.” Her puckered smile is making me grin. My heart feels so fucking full again.
I lean in and kiss her—then I hear the slam of a door.
Our mouths break apart like we’ve been electrocuted. I shift my hands to her hips, and she slides down my body, her feet splashing into the wet tile.
“What was that?” Harriet’s eyes widen.
I’m already jumping out of the shower, not willing to take any chances. “Stay here.” I wrench a towel off the hook. “Use the conditioner. Just don’t marry it while I’m gone.”
Her hesitation ends the banter, a hand frozen on the hot-and-cold lever. “I thought your brothers usually spend the night at your parents’ house on Wednesdays?”