Always There

Chapter Seventy-Four

Instead, I say, "Sure, my love. Anything for you."

Blossom already has the shower door partway open, and so I only have to push it a little bit more for there to be enough room for me to reach in and retrieve the bottle of shampoo, squeeze some into my hand, and then gesture for Blossom to turn her back to me.

She does so willingly, and so I raise my hands to her head, lathering the shampoo into the hair at her scalp. She lets out a noise that sounds suspiciously like a purr, and I can't help but to smile, as this is a sure sign that she's becoming more comfortable being around me again.

After I shampoo her hair, I reach for the bottle of conditioner that she had left behind and I run some through the ends of her hair. I know that Blossom usually lets the conditioner sit in her hair for a little bit before she rinses it out, and so in the meantime, I reach for the loofa so that I can't clean her body too.

I'm about to grab the vanilla shower gel Blossom uses—which I have started to use myself when I'm missing her a little bit more than usual—but when Blossom sees what I'm doing, she spins around and grabs my wrist to stop me.

I furrow my eyebrows at her, and she gives me a small smile.

"Could you use your shower gel instead? I want to smell like you. I love your smell," she says.

I chuckle, unable to help myself. It's little things like this that make me fall even harder for her.

"Sure, Blossom. Whatever you want," I say, grabbing the bottle of cinnamon shower gel and squeezing some out onto the loofa with another chuckle.

Blossom grins at me, staring up into my eyes. "Thank you," she says softly, stepping a little bit closer towards me so that I can scrub her body with the loofa.

I ignore the fact that my T-shirt is now drenched with water as long as I can as I gently move the loofa across Blossom's smooth skin. Eventually, the way that the thin fabric clings to me becomes annoying, and so I hand the loofa to Blossom, pull the shirt up and off of my body, and toss it behind me so that it can join the pile of Blossom's damp clothes on the floor.

Blossom's eyes roam my chest shamelessly, and knowing that she's still just as entranced by my body as I am with hers gives me an overwhelming surge of delight.

"Have you been working out more than usual? I noticed your arms earlier but now I'm seeing your chest and your abs and your V-line and my heart is beating so fast, Bryce. I think I might pass out. I need to touch you. I want it so badly," she whimpers, her hands wrapping around my wrists and squeezing desperately, as though this is the only thing she can do to contain herself.

I bite my lip. "How about you rinse off so I can go get you some clothes to wear. Then we can curl up on the couch, put on a movie, and talk a little bit about what happened today. Then, we can do whatever you want. All right?"

Blossom blinks up at me. "Okay. That sounds perfect. Thank you, Bryce."

I lean into the shower, kiss her on the cheek, and then head out of the bathroom and into the bedroom.

I grab a pair of boxers and a T-shirt from my closet as fast as possible, knowing that Blossom really doesn't want to be alone right now. I then make my way through the bedroom and back into the bathroom where I find Blossom already out of the shower, ringing water out of her hair with a towel.

She picked up our damp clothes from off the floor and instead draped them over the side of the bathtub to dry at some point in time, and I can't help but to smile at this as it's yet again another little display of the Blossom that I've known for so many years.

When Blossom sees me enter the room she smiles, hangs the towel that she had been drying off with back up on one of the hooks next to the shower, and then turns to face me again.

I hold out the clothes that I had gathered for her and she takes them gingerly. "Thank you," she whispers.

I then watch as she pulls the boxers up her legs and the T-shirt down over her head. She seems so genuinely happy to be wearing my clothes that my heart skips a beat.

And then she takes me by complete surprise by stepping towards me, wrapping her arms around my neck, and then pressing her body firmly against mine.

I can only assume that this is her way of asking me to lift her up and so I scoop her up into my arms, letting her rest her cheek on my shoulder and wrap her legs around my waist.

"You ready to talk about all this chaos?" I ask her gently.

She giggles, and it's a surprisingly lighthearted sound considering the circumstances.

"Yes, sir," she says with another laugh.

I roll my eyes at her, carrying her out of the bathroom, through the bedroom, and into the living room.

A/N: Please read this guys!!!

抖阴社区's been having a lot of problems lately, and one of them seems to be with notifications. I've gotten several messages from you guys saying that you aren't getting notifications when I post a new chapter, and though I can't fix that, I have a partial solution:

Please follow me! I post an alert on my message board every time I upload, and even the people who don't get notifications just from having this book in their library seem to still get notifications for my alerts. If you want to make sure not to miss a chapter, I really recommend following me.

Now back to the usual geeky author's note:

I just spent three hours watching the 25th anniversary recording of The Phantom of the Opera because it's on YouTube for 48 hours. So that's why this chapter is late. But I'm justifying my poor time management by saying that watching this show was research for later in this book.

Wink. Wink.

Anyway, hope you guys are all having a good day. I love you all <3