They spent longer recovering from their orgasms than they’d spent giving them to each other. They caught their breath together and kissed slow and easy, Erin’s hands on Cassie’s shoulders and Cassie’s cradling Erin’s elbows. Finally, Cassie pulled back to laugh.
“I still have to shower, you know?”
Erin replied without thinking, “Turn around. I’ll wash your hair.”
By the time she processed her words enough to cringe, Cassie had turned. Erin couldn’t help but trace a fingertip over the tattoo on Cassie’s shoulder blade: five stars in a W shape, connected by a delicate dotted line. Maybe it wasn’t incredibly weird to offer to wash someone’s hair. Or maybe Cassie was just easy in the afterglow. She was pliable, following the gentlest of touches from Erin to dip her head back under the shower spray and then out of it. Erin squirted shampoo into her hand.
This was definitely weird. Too personal. They’d slept together twice. It wasn’t like they were dating. It wasn’t like they could date. Scratching at Cassie’s scalp, fingers combing through her hair—it felt more intimate than the sex. Still, Erin let her hand slip down to massage Cassie’s neck, which went limp as Erin pressed a thumb along the base of her skull.
“This might be better than the orgasm,” Cassie admitted.
Erin couldn’t help but laugh. “Maybe I should get better at making you come.”
“Yeah, if you want me to black out.”
Erin hid her smile even though Cassie was facing away from her. She rubbed harder at Cassie’s neck before tilting her backward to wash out the shampoo.
Before Erin could get the conditioner, Cassie turned around.
“I wanna do yours,” she said.
Erin decided to stop overthinking it. Instead, she let herself go as pliant as Cassie had been. Cassie hummed—in approval, maybe. Erin hummed back. It made sense, now, why Cassie suggested this was better than the orgasm. Cassie’s fingers were just as skilled in Erin’s hair as they had been inside of her.
Cassie slipped a hand around Erin’s front, reaching for her.
Erin laughed. “Again?”
“Again,” Cassie said. She let go of Erin and pushed the products on the end of the tub to the side. It was flat there, not quite wide enough to be called a bench, but wide enough for her to sit down on anyway. “Rinse your hair out and get over here.”
Erin complied, rinsing the shampoo out of her hair before moving to stand in front of Cassie. Her knees remembered their time on the floor, and they were not acquiescing to the idea that she straddle the other woman, as much as she wanted to. Cassie pulled her closer by her hips, leaned in and kissed the exact part of her stomach Erin had been self-conscious about.
“We’re wasting water,” Erin said rather than think too hard.
Cassie smirked. “Then come quickly, and we’ll stop.”
Erin’s chuckle broke off when Cassie slid her fingers inside her once more.
“When are we gonna do this in a bed?”
Before Erin could respond—
“Oh, fuck.”
Cassie’s tongue was against her clit and Erin had no idea how she was supposed to do this standing up. There was no chance her legs were going to hold her.
Cassie’s mouth was exactly as wickedly confident as it always was. Erin was embarrassed at how quickly she’d come for Cassie earlier, but this was going to be faster still, that tongue relentless on her clit and those fingers with their own steady pace inside her. Erin couldn’t even tell what Cassie was doing the entire time; she just knew she never wanted her to stop.
Cassie took her mouth off Erin eventually, pressing a kiss to her thigh. “C’mon, sweetheart,” she murmured. “We’re wasting water.”
“Fuck you.” Erin laughed, mostly breathless. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d laughed with someone while having sex.
“Nope.” Cassie pumped her fingers harder. “I’m fucking you.”
She put her mouth back on Erin’s center and Erin couldn’t do anything but throw her head back and come.
It took a minute to remember how to exist, think, breathe. They did at least manage to get out of the shower before the water went cold.
As they toweled off, Erin tried to keep her mind from spiraling.
She dug her toes into the blue shag of the rug she’d bought Parker. She’d slept with one of her daughter’s best friends in the bathroom they shared. Before Adam moved out, the three of them had shared. The only other time Erin had been on her knees in the tub was cleaning it.