Page 54 of Scheme
I’d always thought I’d had a perfectly adequately-sized shower, but that illusion was shattered as Kit squeezed into the tight, enclosed space behind me, his front pressing to my back. I shivered despite the warmth of his skin on mine, tucking my chin down so my now-soaked again hair formed a curtain around my face.
I wasn’t surprised when Kit’s hands landed on my shoulders, gently encouraging me around to face him, but I was slightly more surprised that I let him. There was no raging lust clouding his judgment now, he was going to get an unvarnished look at my bare face without an erection to distract him.
Kit gently cupped my jaw, encouraging me to meet his eyes, before stroking his thumb over my cheek, a small smile playing around his mouth. “You have such a pretty blush.”
I swallowed thickly, squashing the wobbly emotion that was trying to sink its claws into my chest. “I probably need some water. I’ll grab a drink after I wash up.”
Kit grimaced, releasing my face and turning his attention to the row of bottles on the shelf before picking out my unscented body wash. “I’m not very good at this alpha thing, am I? Dropping you home after last night, knotting you from behind on the sofa, and now my abysmal aftercare…”
“It’s really fine,” I assured him, quickly pumping some soap into my hands so I could wash myself because he looked like he was about to try to rectify all that lacking aftercare right here in the shower, and my shields weren’t strong enough to withstand that kind of tenderness right now. “You don’t have to do all that stuff with me, remember? That’s the point of this whole… arrangement.”
I wasn’t entirely sure what he expected to have done differently, in all honesty. It wasn’t like he could have come upstairs last night anyway—there was no way a fake boyfriend was sleeping in my real nest. And I’d been the one to turn away from him on the couch.
Kit was silent for a long moment. “You cancelled our arrangement.”
“For all the good it did, you’ve been upholding your side of the deal anyway,” I pointed out drily.
“So have you when you came to meet my mother,” Kit pointed out looking rather pleased with himself. “You’ve gone above and beyond our deal, actually.”
“Don’t read into it,” I mumbled, keeping my head bowed and focusing a little harder than necessary on washing away the slick coating my inner thighs.
“Too late.” He was almost cheerful by Kit’s standards. “Our arrangement was briefly on hold, but now it’s back in full effect, with an amendment for sex, of course.”
“An amendment for sex?!” I sputtered.
“Absolutely. The amendment being: I think we should keep having sex. And whatever pretending we do when we’re in public doesn’t extend to what we do when it’s just the two of us. I’m not faking this.”
How was he so being so infuriatingly calm and logical about this? As though we were discussing the train schedule or something?
“Do you think you can let me look after you, Margot? Just occasionally? The way I should have insisted on last night?”
Do you think you’re capable of looking after me?I almost shot back, though it was impossible to voice that snarky thought when he sounded so contrite. Kit’s track record suggested no, he wouldn’t be capable of looking after me, but he was clearly wrestling with these new urges, and I didn’t have it in me to hold it over his head.
“If it’s important to you, sure,” I replied carefully, steeling myself to peek up at him through my lashes. “But you were probably only feeling so driven today because you didn’t knot me last night. Now that you have, do you think there’s a very great risk of this happening again?”
Somehow, Kit’s eyes seemed to darken. Something within me, some primal, purely omega part of my soul responded almost instantly, the wordalphalooping around on repeat.
“Oh, yes. This will most definitely be happening again.”
Chapter 13
Sincehedidn’tseemin any rush to leave, I set Kit up in the armchair in the corner of my office to edit photos on his laptop—a task he’d been on his way to do at a cafe when he’d decided to come and see me instead.
Once he was situated, I escaped into my room to dress—in slightly more presentable clothes than I’d intended on wearing today—and to do a full face of makeup and fix my hair.
Kit did a double take as I re-entered the office, a look on his face that I couldn’t quite read.
“Everything okay?” I asked, unscrewing the lid of my glass water bottle to chug some more. Orgasms were so dehydrating. “Doyouneed a glass of wine?”
“No, no wine,” Kit replied a little too quickly. “I want to make you dinner tonight.”
“You can cook?” I winced. “Sorry, that came out more judgemental than I intended.”
Kit snorted. “When I’m on the road, there’s no Violet around to prepare a three-course meal with wine pairings each night, so yes, I can cook. Usually, it’s simple stuff I can make in my hotel room on a hot plate, but I wanted to make something a little more complex today. A comfort food from my childhood.”
“I certainly won’t say no to that.” I sat down at my desk, shaking the mouse to wake up my computer. “I usually do meal prep one week at a time. There’s not a ton of variety.”
Kit wrinkled his nose, and I laughed quietly to myself, logging on to my computer. There was no motivation to cook each day when it was just me, and besides, I liked to have the flexibility to eat whenever since I was often out and about.
