Page 99 of Badd Love
"Isit obvious?" she asked, still facing away from me but looking over her shoulder at me, watching through her peripheral vision.
I stepped up behind her, crushing my hard-on against the swell of her ass. "I don't know, honey. You tell me. Is it obvious?"
"I think I might be a little worried that you're erect right now, given the heaviness of this conversation."
I laughed, slipping my arms around her waist again, my hands now sliding over her bare, warm skin. "Don't be worried."
"Do you have some kind of emotional kink? like, you're turned on by tears or some shit?"
"Lindsey."
She sighed. "Avoidance through humor again. I'm sorry." She rested her head back against my shoulder. "What am I supposed to be feeling, right now?"
"Complicated. There's nosupposed to, that's my point. There's no right or wrong. There's just whatis." I kissed her cheek, caressing her belly between her diaphragm and waistband. "I can feel desire for your body at the same time as I feel empathy for the complicated emotions I can see you wrestling with. They're not mutually exclusive, babe. You can want me and touch me and need me while feeling…shit…I dunno, honey, everything you're feeling right now. Feel it all, Linz. You can kiss me while you're crying, as long as I'm not the reason you're crying—in a negative way, at least."
She sniffled a half-hearted laugh. "God, Dane."
"I love every facet of who you are, Lindsey, including facets I know I haven't seen yet. Cranky in the mornings? PMSing and ready to kill me for chewing too loudly? Silly and weird for no reason? Melancholy and in need of a long bath?"
She snorted. "A long bath? You mean sitting in bacteria soup?"
I frowned. "You don't like baths?"
“Gasp!" She literally said the word. "A woman who doesn't like baths? What is this world coming to?"
"Have you tried a relaxing bath lately?"
She rolled her eyes, shaking her head. "No. I tried a few years ago and just got sweaty and felt gross."
I pivoted, taking her with me so I was walking backward, pulling her after me by the hand while she covered her chest with other. "C'mon. You clearly have no idea what you're missing."
She snorted. "And you're the expert on baths, are you?"
"I'll have you know I have been known to take a bath on occasion. I get bored and get out before long, but it's a nice way to just relax, breathe, and…I dunno…just be." I pulled her into the bathroom. "You ever take a bathwithsomeone?"
She shook her head. "No. You?"
"Nope." I twisted on the hot water and let it run. "But it sounds like fun to me. Try it with me?"
She dropped her arm. "Fine. I'll light some candles. I think I saw some in the kitchen."
While she was hunting down candles, I sent a quick text to my brother, asking a question—I was over here a few weeks ago with Rune, Duncan, Jax, and a few other cousins, just hanging out and watching TV. This bathroom had been in use, so I used Rune and Duncan's, and happened to spot some of those bath bombs in a little ceramic bowl by the tub. I asked him to ask Rune if I could steal one. I received a thumbs up and a winking emoji. I sent back a rolling eye and a thanks.
I popped over into their bathroom, took one of the chalky-looking, plastic-wrapped balls, opened it, and tossed it into the tub. It fizzed pink and red and pink again, spewing foamy suds in a rainbow of colors. I adjusted the water temp to be tolerable for human flesh.
Lindsey came in then with a handful of tealights, which she scattered around the bathroom and lit. She noticed the sudsy, colorful, foamy, lavender- and rose-scented water. "Where on earth did you get a bath bomb?"
"Rune. Happened to know she had some in their bathroom and asked Dunc if I could have one."
She bent and sniffed the air over the water. "Smells pretty girly. That doesn't bother you?"
I snorted. "Smells nice to me. I don't really go in for all that genderized bullshit. As a straight man, I see no reason why I can't enjoy certain smells or whatever. I don't need to smelllike gunpowder and whiskey and shit in order to be a man. I like the scent of lavender, and I like the scent of roses, and yet…" I sidled up behind her as she straightened and caressed her belly, cupping her breasts. "I feel pretty confident in my heterosexuality and masculinity."
She exhaled slowly, softly. "I feel pretty confident in your heterosexuality and masculinity, too."
I kissed her nape. "Glad we agree on that."
She exhaled again, this time with a quiet whimper as I rolled her nipples between my fingers; she reached up behind her head to clasp my neck, scraping and sliding her hands down my arms, rotated her hands down to slide her touch down my waist, and reached behind herself to run her hands over my thighs. She arched her chest into my touch, whimpering again as I caressed her tits, cupping and lifting and squeezing and kneading the soft, hot weight of them, and then pinching and rolling her hard little nipples.
