Stray for You (Rainbow Rescue Cat Café #3)

Chapter 15

Chapter Fifteen

Cameron

I FALL ASLEEP WITH Julian on my chest. I keep expecting him to shift and squirm, but he stays there, getting heavier as his breathing goes deep and even.

For some reason, I never move him. I let him sleep on me, and soon enough my eyes are heavy and my body is warm and I drift off as well.

We must move at some point in the night. When I wake, we’ve shifted, but we haven’t drifted very far. Julian is on his back, and I’m … I’ve rolled onto my side, and I wake with his hair tickling the tip of my nose. My first breath is him, and as my eyes clear, my first sight is the blurry shell of his shoulder.

I very nearly kiss it.

Julian stirs. He twists onto his side, smiling before his eyes clear when he finds me beside him. I may have held back, but he doesn’t. He tips forward, kissing the tip of my nose before I can object.

He covers his mouth with his hand. “I’ll brush before I demand more.”

My brain is still booting up when he hops out of bed and practically skips to the bathroom. Of course he’s a morning person. Somehow that fits his whole irritating … thing . Though how irritating can it really be when I’m waking up next to him for the second time? Shit.

I drag myself out of bed. I put on briefs, but don’t bother with anything else. There wasn’t much of me he didn’t see … and touch … and taste last night, so what’s the point in putting on uncomfortable jeans? Still, when I join him in the bathroom, his eyes immediately crawl up and down me, and I almost regret my choice … until I realize he’s completely naked.

I turn to the mirror, keeping my eyes on my face as I splash some water on it.

“Toothbrush?” Julian says as he pulls it out of his mouth and spits into the sink.

“That’s disgusting.”

He rolls his eyes. “You swallowed my cum last night. My toothbrush will not kill you. Here, I’ll clean it.”

He rinses it in the sink, then pats it dry on a towel before applying a fresh dollop of toothpaste. I stare for a moment before finally accepting it and shoving it in my mouth before I can think too hard about it. It’s better than feeling gross all morning, or so I tell myself as I scrub out my mouth and spit the toothpaste into the sink.

By the time I finish, a different faucet is running. I set the toothbrush aside and take in the bathroom for the first time. It’s massive. I could fit half my apartment in here. It has two sinks along the countertop, as well as a separate area with a dedicated mirror for makeup and shaving. A door leads to a tiny little room exclusively for the toilet. I could probably fit every single article of clothing I’ve ever owned in there. The shower occupies the far back corner, but across from it sits the tub, a massive basin with a rounded lip and an array of products sitting on a ledge above it. Julian is leaning over to feel the water temperature as the basin fills, and I have to look away quickly before he catches me ogling his ass.

He straightens and sets his hands on his hips. “Join me?”

“In there?” I say, nodding at the tub.

“Well, we could squeeze into the shower, but I figure this is more comfortable.”

I blink, pausing. “You want to … take a bath with me?”

“I prefer to clean up before a long flight,” Julian says like it’s the simplest thing in the world. “We can wash up, eat, then…”

Then he’ll head to the airport, he doesn’t add. Then this ends.

I sigh and shove my briefs down, kicking myself free of them. I may have offered Julian some privacy when he bent over the tub, but he affords me no such courtesy. He eyes me shamelessly, and I hurry past him and sink into the water before I can regret this.

Julian hops in after me, sloshing water over the side in his excitement. We sit on opposite ends of the tub, our legs overlapping. Julian swiftly isn’t satisfied with this arrangement. He drapes his legs over mine and scoots forward until he’s almost sitting in my lap.

“Let me wash you,” he says.

“I’m an adult. I can wash myself.”

“Well, yeah, obviously. That’s not why I asked.” When I hesitate, he pushes. “Stop being obtuse and grab the soap.”

“I don’t remember you being this bossy.”

“You don’t really know me. There’s a lot about me that would probably surprise you.”

If this wasn’t ending. If we had more time.

The words hang between us unspoken. Maybe he would keep surprising me, but the timer has run out on this. He’s going home, and I’m going back to my normal, Julian-free life.

I reach up to grab the soap on the shelf above us. It’s not really soap, but some bottle of fragrant goop that suds up when Julian squirts it into his hands and lathers it up. Once it’s ready, he rubs it onto my chest, squeezing as he goes, spending way more time than my chest has ever required for cleanliness.

“I think you got it,” I drawl.

Julian looks directly up at me under his eyebrows. “This is not a practical operation.”

“I thought we were getting clean so we could go to ‘brunch,’” I counter.

“That’s the pretext, yes. God, you don’t have an insincere bone in your body, do you? The people I spent the past week with would eat your earnest ass alive.”

“I don’t disagree.” I grimace even thinking of a building full of people speaking exclusively in riddles. That’s his world, not mine, and I’ll never claim to understand it.

Julian rises up on his knees, water sloshing. He leans forward to kiss me, soapy hands braced on my chest.

“You’re pouting, but it’s adorable,” he says. “And refreshing. I like it.”

I swallow, suddenly incapable of speech. He sounds sincere, incredibly sincere, but I’ve never known this man to be sincere, not in my entire life. The Julian I’ve experienced this weekend has been more than a little shocking, and I’m still trying to work out how much of it I should believe. If he was some guy I just met, sure, I’d buy it. I’d fall head over heels for it. But Julian Brooks is not some guy I just met, and a piece of me quavers at the notion of taking this sweet, unassuming, complimentary version of him at face value.

“Turn around,” he says, and I do, grateful for a reason to look away and catch my breath.

He settles back down in the water and starts “cleaning” my back. Mostly, his hands wander around, thumbs kneading into the muscles. They dig in at my low back, sending a pleasant jolt through my body that threatens to do more than merely relax me. He even massages my shoulders, and when a tiny, unintentional noise of pleasure slips from my mouth, he leans forward, his chest against my back and lips beside my ear.

“You’re so tense,” he says, his voice lower. “Maybe I should help you with that.”

His hands slide around me, groping my pecs once more before they dive shamelessly downward. He makes it to my hips, fingertips brushing the crease that angles toward toward my groin … and my rapidly awakening cock.

“What about brunch?” I grumble.

“I can find something to eat at the airport,” he says, and without missing a beat, he leans against my back so he can reach my cock with his soapy hand.

The water sloshes as he pumps me under it. Between the soap and the water, it’s a weird feeling. I want to rise up so I’m not submerged, but it doesn’t seem to matter all that much. Somehow, Julian’s hand is every bit as effective this way as it would be if we were in bed.

He wraps his free arm around my chest, and I lay my hand atop his. Maybe I want a steady anchor amid the storm we’re brewing in this bathtub. My fingers end up laced between his, and he hangs onto me like he’s the one being groped.

I close my eyes and tip my head back against his shoulder, giving in to the sensation.

“Damn it, Julian,” I rasp. “I thought … we were going to be normal this morning.”

“We’ve never been normal,” he says at my ear. “Isn’t that right, nearly step-brother?”

“Shut up,” I grit out, but there’s nothing behind it this time. I can’t muster the usual heat I’d inject into that denial. My snapping loses its bite when Julian is pumping me hard and fast in the tub, and my cock is aching to respond. This shouldn’t feel so good. The water or something should mess it up. I tried to jerk off in the tub once and I finally gave up and stood to get the job done. Yet Julian has me grinding my teeth and struggling to hold back.

“I’m going to … to ruin the bath,” I say.

“It doesn’t matter,” Julian says. “Come for me, Cam. I want to see you do it. You’re so damn hot.”

His encouragement works, for some reason. I give up my resistance, jerking my hips at his hand in search of that final push over the edge. I grunt as it hits me and I dirty the water with spend.

Julian peppers my neck with kisses as I sag heavily against him. “Yeah, baby, just like that. You’re so good.”

Dimly, I register the desire in his voice. Before I can worry about the mess in the tub, I free myself from his grasp and turn around, shoving him against the side. He hits it with a grunt. I pin him there with a hand on his chest, then grab his cock and pump him. He’s underwater like me, so I go hard, even harder than I normally would. Julian yelps, but it’s surprise, not pain. He grabs at the arm pressing him against the side of the tub, clinging to me as he jerks his hips under the water.

I look up this time, look right into his eyes. They’re an even brighter blue than usual as pleasure overcomes him. His mouth hangs open, eyebrows curling with agonizing desire.

“Kiss me,” he gasps.

I slam my mouth against his. He moans pitifully, sweetly, pathetically, then adds to the filth in the tub.

We sit there panting for a moment, but only a moment. We get out of the tub quickly thanks to what we just did to it, but even as we towel off, this feels like a dream, like a hazy, half-forgotten memory. There’s no way this past week has been real.

We dry off and get dressed, then Julian announces that it’s time.

“I’ll walk you downstairs,” he says. “My taxi is waiting.”

“Sure.”

I feel like I should say more, but nothing else comes to mind. When we reach the lobby, we stare at each other, feet shuffling, but I don’t kiss him goodbye. I don’t even hug him. Whatever happened between us this week belongs to hotel rooms and underground tours. It has no business in the light.

We stand on the curb for a beat longer than we should, and Julian says, “Stay in touch.”

That isn’t as ridiculous a notion as it once was. I nod. “Sure. You too.”

It’s not goodbye, but it sure feels like it.