The humidity in the bathroom was frizzing her hair. She had it piled into a loose knot on top of her head, but tendrils fell and she could feel it sticking to her neck. Adina slipped a little further under the water, letting it lap almost to her collarbones. It was hard to unwind, difficult to let her thoughts settle, but she was trying. She was just on the edge of dozing when her phone buzzed next to her ear.
Adina sighed, reaching up to angle the screen so she could see. Tovia, great, she answered the call and put it on speaker, settling back against the bath pillow. "Hello tante," she said, shifting in the tub and wondering if she should have just let the call go to voicemail. Her day hadn't been especially taxing, just writing, lunch with Cady, but she was noticing that she had to be mindful of times like this, when she was alone. So that she could appreciate being fully present and not obsess over Mathias. It had been a little over a week.
They still called, texted, saw each other, but it was different. There was distance. She was trying not to push him but it was hard to see the tightness around his eyes and know she couldn't fix it. She realized Tovia had asked a question and straightened a little in the tub, sloshing the water. "I'm sorry, tante, what did you say?"
"Really, Adina," the woman said, sounding a little hurt, a little annoyed. She switched to yiddish when she was really upset. Adina was hoping to avoid that. "I asked if you've heard anything regarding your book."
"Oh," she sat back in the tub again, reaching for her glass of ice water. "Jane loves the pages, she's still shopping it around, once we've found a publisher then it'll go through the editing process for real."
"I'm very proud of you, bubbeleh, your mama would be so happy that you are no longer writing the smut, you know."
She knew. Tovia made a point to say so at least once a week. She heard the unmistakable sound of a door opening, she sat up in the tub for a moment, listening hard. Tovia was still talking but she ignored it, she heard keys jangling and relaxed, he hadn't said he was coming over but she was glad. Warmth pooled in her belly and she slid back against the bath pillow. "You should have said something sooner, tante," Adina said, picking up the thread of the conversation around her writing erotica and fighting not to laugh. "If I'd known you felt so strongly I would have considered switching genres ages ago."
She was watching the doorway so her eyes caught his almost immediately. He leaned against the door jamb, silent amusement curling his lips as her aunt spluttered into the phone. Adina's choice to write "smutty stories" as Tovia called them, had been good to her. The fact that she lived more frugally than she needed to so she could pay for Tovia's place at a Jewish Assisted Living Facility in San Francisco was something he knew because they'd discussed it, but not something she would ever throw in the woman's face. She shifted in the tub to sip from the water glass again and lifted her hand to him, beckoning.
He went to her, leaning down to brush his lips over her forehead before sitting on the edge of the garden tub. Adina rested her arm on the tub's edge, fingers curling in the fabric of his shirt. She held his gaze as his hand skimmed the surface of the water, coming to rest on her knee. She arched an eyebrow as he took the sponge from its resting place and dipped it into the water, catching suds as he did so. Tovia was still speaking and Adina made herself answer, something noncommittal but pertinent enough to sound as though she were listening closely.
Mathias skimmed the sponge down the line of her shin, she lifted her leg out of the water, her eyes teasing the tiniest bit. He raised an eyebrow at the challenge and dipped the sponge again. This time shifting so he could reach more of her beneath the surface. Adina bit her lip, making a small, pained sound. Tovia broke off abruptly. "Am I boring you, child?"
"No, tante," she said, glaring at him in mock reproach. "But I'm not feeling very well. Could I call you tomorrow?"
"If you must," Tovia said, "it's not that man is it?"
"What is?" Adina asked, suddenly a little confused. Tovia could be eerily perceptive sometimes, but if she'd figured out that Adina was staring down her lover while her aunt chatted about, about well she wasn't actually sure what Tovia had been chatting about because she'd stopped listening.
"Whatever has you out of sorts. Is it that man?"
"Oh," She rolled her eyes, covering her face with a hand, "no, tante."
"He's still treating you well?" the older woman's voice was just this side of shrill. Adina winced, but smiled in spite of herself as she reached for the phone.
"Yes, tante."
"Good, you should be happy," she harrumphed before clicking off. Adina's head snapped back a little, surprised. That wasn't like Tovia at all. She stared down at her phone for a moment, mystified.
He touched her nose and she jumped, placing the phone back on the ledge and turning her attention back to him. She nipped at his finger playfully, and then sat back against the bath pillow. "I wasn't expecting to see you tonight."
"I can see I interrupted," he said, leaning over the tub again to kiss her fully on the mouth. When he lifted his head he smiled, "Should I go?"
She made a negating sound in her throat and her fingers brushed his jaw, "No, stay." She gestured with her foot to the taps, "You should join me."
"Yeah?" his fingers curled one of the tendrils that had fallen loose from her bun.
"Yeah," Adina sat up, the difference in temperature from the hot bath water making her nipples stand to attention. Her mouth was only inches from his this way. And her fingers could play with the buttons of the uniform shirt. "Stay," his lips hovered over hers for a brief moment, long enough for her to murmur "please."
Then he was rising. She arched her neck, maybe a little confused for a moment, but she smiled when his fingers went to the shirt. He started the process of undressing, eyes holding hers, intent. By the time he'd removed the shirt she settled back against the bath pillow, one hand curled absently over her breast, the other lower, hidden in the tub from his view.
She didn't know why it was so attractive watching him undress. Maybe it was the quick, economical movements of his fingers on the shirt buttons. More likely it was the set of his mouth, serious, challenging, but still mildly amused. His eyes burned as they always did and it took everything in her not to rise from the tub to help him. But she didn't want this to be a sexual encounter, she realized.
Oh, she wanted to have sex with him, of course she did. But something in the set of his shoulders told her that wasn't what he needed. The shirt and his undershirt were in a heap on the floor and he was working on his belt and the jeans now. She licked her dry lips, remembered the ice water, and reached for it, nearly tipping over the glass into the tub. Cold condensation dripped from the glass to her chest and she jumped, but her eyes didn't leave his. When she finished with the water she offered it to him. He took a sip of his own before putting it on the counter behind him.
By the time he got to his boots she was nearly undone. Adina's fingers were curled tightly around her knees as she waited for him. When he kicked the last boot under the sink she sighed with relief. Lifting one hand she held it out to him, widening her legs under the water in invitation for him to sit. Mathias did so, making a noise at the heat of the water as he climbed into the tub with her.
Adina sat back against the tub wall, fingers curling over his shoulders. His back was almost completely healed, but she could still see remnants of the scratches she'd left. She was proud that she didn't trace them, though she wanted to. He slid in the tub, moving so that he was leaning back, her breasts cushioning his shoulders. His head fell back against her shoulder and she almost asked him if he wanted a tie for his hair, then decided against it because that would involve moving. Instead she picked up the sponge, beginning the work of soothing his tense muscles in the water.
She realized, after a time, that they hadn't spoken in a while. She knew he was still awake, knew he was acutely aware of what her fingers were doing, but he didn't speak. She chose not to either, knowing that if she spoke she'd pepper him with questions he wouldn't want to answer. She concentrated instead on easing the tension. Starting with his neck and shoulders. Paying particular attention to that muscle there, then this knot here. Slowly, slowly things unknit. Her fingers worked through what she could reach, for as long as she could, until her arms were too tired to do much more than wrap around him.
In the end, they stayed that way for a long time, in that warmth, with her fingers trailing idly through his hair, her other hand finding his, toying with the ring he wore before twining his fingers with hers. As the water began to cool, her lips touched his forehead, a question there that she didn't want to voice because it would ruin the peace of the moment. That was when she realized he was asleep.
888
There was a truck in her backyard.
Adina set the bag of coffee beans on the counter and stepped back from the window. She cocked her head, from another angle it was still a truck. She arched an eyebrow. "Babe?" She felt a little bad, she'd wanted to let him pretend to sleep a little longer, but it was weird to discover a jewel-green classic truck in your backyard when yesterday there had just been, like, a deck there. And okay some overgrown lawn. But she didn't really use the back yard. "Can you come here for a second?"
She heard movement in the bedroom and her hands settled on her hips. She guessed it would have fit through the driveway and the gate just fine, it was a big truck, but it wasn't as wide as her Jeep. She wondered if he'd come through the back door instead of the front last night.
"Hey," his lips brushed her hairline, right at the back of her neck. Her eyebrow quirked higher.
"Mathias," she said, her tone slow and careful. "Is there a truck in my backyard?" She was staring right at it, his chin rested on her shoulder, so, ostensibly so was he. She figured that was good, if she was hallucinating it was better to find out sooner rather than later.
"There is," he said evenly.
Her head fell back and he nibbled the sensitive skin of her neck. "Why," she said, staring up at the ceiling, "is there a truck in my backyard?"
"It won't start," he said, between small bites. His hands played with the hem of her tank top, his thumbs edging below the hem of her silk shorts. "I needed a place to work on it."
"How did you get it back there if it won't start?" She cocked her head, thinking there was no way a tow truck would have fit in the space between the house and the neighbor's hedge. The movement cut off his access to that side of her neck. He laughed shortly, turning her body around to face him.
"I need to ask you not to ask any questions about this, Adina," he said, she was shocked by how serious his face was. "This was the best place I could think of, you've got a privacy fence and the neighborhood is pretty-"
"Boring-"
"Quiet," he said pointedly. "No more than two days. I promise."
"The parking lot at your place is pretty quiet too," she pointed out.
"But not as private," he dipped his head, angling to look her more fully in the eye. "Please?"
She sighed, "You know you don't even have to ask." His smile lit his whole face and something tugged in the vicinity of her belly. She traced his jaw, "Is it really that easy to make you this happy?"
His lips were warm against hers, his fingers tightening her her hips. Adina groaned, wrapping an arm around his neck, the other playing with the band of his boxer briefs. She wasn't expecting it when he lifted her, and she yelped against his lips, but then she was on the counter and he was stepping between her legs. She laughed because he tickled her side before his fingers skimmed beneath the tank top, she lifted her arms obligingly and then his lips were on her breast. She twined the fingers of one hand in his hair, holding him to her, her other hand reaching for his wrist, urging his fingers to her shorts.
Mathias laughed against her skin, his fingers sliding beneath the loose hem of the shorts, finding the sensitive flesh between her legs. She moaned, hips canting forward on the counter, legs parting wider. His thumb brushed her and she gasped, he lifted his head and she rolled her eyes, leaning her head against the cabinet. "I was going to make coffee," she said, a little breathless.
"I don't need coffee," he shot back, urging her leg around him, "I'm plenty awake."
"I see that," she said, her fingers sliding over his arms to curl around his shoulders. "But I might want coffee."
Mathias lifted his head, stopping what he was doing to look her in the eye. Adina fought the urge to pout. "You'd rather have coffee?"
"I didn't say that," she said, tightening her legs around his waist, "Just, you know," she waved a hand, "I was gonna make some. You distracted me."
"Oh, I see," he was laughing at her and she didn't care because his fingers were busy, moving the wide leg of the shorts out of the way. "My mistake."
"You should definitely pay closer attention-ohhh," he was inside her and she threw herself forward against his body. Her arm flailed and the bag of beans scattered, spraying the floor and the counter. She felt his hands tight on her hips, holding her against him and her arms tightened around his shoulders. "Fuck," she said, her lips close to his ear, "oh fuck."
"Like this?" he said, doing something with his hips that made her cry out. He did it again and she sobbed a breath, forehead pressing into his neck.
"Just like that," she said, rolling her hips to meet him. "Don't stop."
"No?" His lips closed over the pulse at her throat and she groaned. Adina fought the urge to tell him to shut up and focus.
"No," she said, turning her head so that her lips could find his. The kiss was long and deep, scorching. When it broke, his hands found her hips again, fingers curling around her ass. She moaned against his neck, tightening her muscles, trying to urge herself toward her orgasm. His fingers found the place where they were joined, his thumb stroked her clit. She whimpered.
"So impatient," he said against her neck. But he did quicken his pace. She reached between their bodies, cupping him. He jerked against her, pulling her away from the counter entirely. Adina yelped in surprise, but he was easing down to his knees. She held onto him feeling the smooth tile beneath her shins. One of his hands slid from her hips to hold onto the counter above her head. His thrusts were deeper from this angle.
Adina cried out, resting her head against the cabinet as his lips ravaged her neck. "Fuck," she groaned again, because she couldn't think of anything more coherent. He chuckled against her neck and she made a negating sound in her throat. "Are you enjoying yourself?" she asked, her lips finding his again.
He broke the kiss, resting his forehead against hers, "Oh yeah." She reached up to grasp his forearm, urging his hand down from the counter. She pressed his palm to her breast and he took the invitation, molding it. His other hand hadn't stopped it's work. His thumb was insistent on her over sensitized clit. Adina shuddered over him. "You close?"
She tossed her head in an approximation of a nod. "Come with me," she said, and the way his eyes darkened nearly put her over the edge right then. "Please."
"You know you don't even have to ask," he said, teasing. She was distantly aware of the smell of the beans, they mixed with the smell of him and she'd never thought of coffee as sexy before, but there was a first time for everything. His fingers were more insistent against her and she felt her orgasm building. She moaned, her fingers tangling in his hair as she urged him to meet her.
She never did make the coffee.