Tags/TW are listed at the beginning of each fic/chapter. All works available on AO3 under @ scuttlebuttle. Sadly I do not own the characters - I just needed a hobby.
If you want to be tagged in anything please let me know!
Ratings:
G - general audiences
T - teen & up
M - mature audiences, 18+
E - explicit, 18+
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Zemo x Plus Size Female Reader
No One But Me
Summary:Â When you received a call from Sam and Bucky to help them catch the Flag Smashers you didnât entirely know what to expect. As a lonely PhD student studying the effects of Hydra on shaping modern history, the duo thought you could be useful in finding leads towards the case. What you didnât know was that a certain incarcerated Baron would be working alongside you stirring up trouble, and in more ways than one.Â
         Rated: E     Word Count: 4.7kÂ
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Baron on the Run series
Young Folks
Summary:Â Zemo takes you shopping and you decide itâs time to have a little fun with your Baron.Â
        Rated: M      Word Count: 1.3K
Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!
Summary: You and Zemo do a little dance.
        Rated: T       Word Count: 1.3k
Aphrodite
Summary: The morning after No One But Me.
Rated: E Word Count: 2.2k
Beard Burn
Summary: A beard is the best disguise.
Rated: M Word Count: ~600
Man Size Meatballs
Summary: QVC is dangerous.
Rated G Word Count: ~600
What Are Those?
Summary: You buy your Baron some new shoes.
Rated: G Word Count: ~500
Summary: Zemo keeps the holsters on.
Don't Let Go
Rated: E Word Count: ~2k
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Niki Lauda (Rush 2013)
Sleeping With The Enemy masterlist
Pairing: Niki Lauda x fem!OC Catherine Sinclair/Reader
Summary: Catherine Sinclair is the younger, estranged half-sister of renowned F1 driver James Hunt. Things get a bit complicated when she decides to reenter Jamesâ life and ends up meeting his rival - Niki Lauda. Engines ignite as Catherine finds herself caught between her feelings for Niki and the rivalry that the two men share. Will she pump the brakes or let herself crash in the inferno?
Rating: E for smut
SWTE One Shots Masterlist
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The Heist masterlist
Synopsis: Niki Lauda and James Hunt are complete opposites. With their careers on the line as International Agents for Interpol, the two get paired together to solve the case of a small underground black market art heist. The introduction of an American, a woman no less, into the team only complicates things further as the trio goes undercover. There's more than just art that is at risk of being stolen on this mission.Â
Pairing: Niki Lauda x Fem!Reader, some James Hunt x Reader
Rated: E 18+ for eventual smut, language, and violence
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Dr. Laszlo Kreizler (The Alienist)
The Interpretation of Dreams Masterlist
Pairing: Laszlo Kreizler x fem!Reader
Summary: Modern AU. Professor Laszlo Kreizler is a pretentious ass - that's the only way you could possibly explain the man. That being said, you needed a job to help pay for grad school, and the position of being his TA was the only thing available. You'll suck it up and deal with it, but the last thing you'll do is let this man get inside your head in the process.
Enemies to Lovers
Rated: E for smut & descriptions of trauma
Psychopathia Sexualis Masterlist
Sequel to The Interpretation of Dreams
Pairing: Laszlo Kreizler x fem!Reader
Summary: After experiencing a whirlwind enemies-turned-lovers romance with the imposing Professor Laszlo Kreizler, things have been wonderful for you. Your studies are coming along, work is enjoyable, and you are in a stable relationship with the man you believe to be the love of your life. Suddenly, everything threatens to come crashing down with the arrival of a face from the past. Will jealousy and desire consume you and destroy the love you finally found?
Rated: E for smut & dark themes
Peri Psyches masterlist
A one shot series to follow The Interpretation of Dreams & Psychopathia Sexualis fics. Oneshots vary in rating, tags will be listed at the beginning of each fic. Also posted to AO3.
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Other BrĂŒhl Boys Oneshots & HCs
Two Stars Miles Apart
Pairing: Andrea Marowski (Ladies in Lavender) x GN reader
Lingonberry Schnapps
Pairing: Laszlo Kreizler (The Alienist) x GN reader
Sweater Weather
Pairing: Alex Garel (Eva) x GN reader
Up In Flames
Pairing: AU firefighter Zemo x fem!Reader (smut)
Breakfast in Bed - drabble request
Pairing: Zemo x pregnant wife reader
Promises Kept
Pairing: Dark!Thomas Fischer (My Zoe) x afab!Reader
Ernst Schmidt with a baby - HCs
Modern! Andrea Marowski- HCs
Voyeurism Kink Daniel Weltz - HCs
BrĂŒhl Boys & how they would help you on your period Alignment chart
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It was your first holiday season as a team - you and the Thunderbolts (and Bob). Yelena once told you she always wanted to experience an American Christmas. What better way to celebrate than with your newfound family?Â
Rated: G (maybe T if you squint)
TW: mentions of past trauma and grief, mentions of death, mentions of alcohol, hot second of walker discussing body image but heâs really just being extra, mild language, bonding and fluff, some light kissing (platonic thunderbolts and romantic GN reader x bob), overall this is really fun and sweet okay, little bits of flirting, thunderbolts spoilers, mostly going to be bob and yelena centered
~4.6k
AN: I had this thought and couldn't get rid of it. cool đ
"UhâŠ.are you s-sure?" Bob stuttered, his fingers gripping your forearms like if he let go he would cease to exist. His worried eyes glanced around the others on the team, specifically Ava and Yelena. They were naturals on the ice. He told you that heâd never been ice skating before, his childhood didnât lend much time to sports or activities or anything other than yelling really. You insisted that you would be there with him every step of the way.
"Yes, I've got you," you instruct with a nod, "now push off a little with the right foot and let your left follow.â Gently you begin to skate backwards, guiding Bob along. Even under the twinkling glow of lights, the colorful blur of thick downy coats, and laughter bouncing around the rink his brow was furrowed in concentration. He rocked unsteady. You were sure that his nails would leave indents in your skin through your thick sweater - not that you minded.
When Yelena had offhandedly mentioned to you that she wanted to experience her first American Christmas you knew what you had to do. Over a late night of drinking she confessed it. You both were reminiscing on the olden days, on the people youâd loved and lost. She told you of Natasha. How the last time she was in New York during the holidays it was shortly after she lost her sister and she had been so consumed with grief and finding Clint Barton that she never got to enjoy the festivities.Â
The two of you had become close in an instant when you met. It was like youâd known each other your whole lives. Val had unwittingly recruited you after Bucky demanded that you work with the Thunderbolts - ehem - âNew Avengersâ - after the events involving the Void. By this point months later you were so close with the team you wondered how you ever got by without your found family. Alexei and Bucky were somehow the âparentsâ of your dysfunctional little group. Even Walker, who was a notoriously nicknamed âAmericaâs Assholeâ around the tower, was like a brother to you.
Which is exactly why you took it upon yourself to plan the most extravagant, most extraordinary, American Christmas for the team. So you made a list. Movies, decorating, presents - the whole nine yards.
First on the list? Ice skating and the tree lighting in Rockefeller Center, which is how you found yourself here holding hands and tugging a nauseous looking Bob around the rink.Â
âLooking good, Bobby!â John whooped from the sidelines. Bucky leaned against the rail holding a cup of steaming black coffee, giving a silent cheers with his paper cup. Walker and Buck refused to get on the ice - you didnât give them the option to not come to support Yelena and Bob - and they knew not to get on your bad side.Â
Yelena and Ava whipped past you in a flourish, cheering for your teammate. âYay Bob!â His blush darkened his already frostbitten cheeks.
You continued your laps, Bob getting slightly steadier on his skates. âHowâre you feeling sweetheart? Youâre doing so great.â His blue eyes met yours. You almost swore you saw a flash of that gold he kept buried deep down as his confidence grew.Â
âGood - yeah Iâm good,â he huffed in a sort of chuckle, like he was in disbelief at how well this was going. You both smiled at each other softly, almost shy. Bob wasnât used to you being shy towards him. You had been quick to join Yelena in taking him under your wing. As time passed your bond deepened, changed. It was different from the others, yet no less significant. Stolen glances, whispered words, the occasional touch that lingered much too long, a meeting of lips in the most gentle of kisses. Nothing was official between you two, but everyone knew that there was something there.Â
It felt like time stood still; almost like there was a spark of magic in the air.
WhichâŠ. didnât last long.
With a gasp Bob lost his balance. The two of you went tumbling onto the ice in a heap of limbs. His arms circled around your waist, protecting you from the worst of the impact. People of all ages continued to dash around you. For a moment you just looked at your Bob, unsure of how he would react to the fall. His lip twitched once, twice, before breaking out into a wide grin, his laugh breaking the silence. You matched it with one of your own.
Icy fingers moved the fallen brunette locks from his eyes, checking him over for any injuries. âYou okay?â He nodded, bashful.
"Are you? I tried to catch you."Â
"I know. You're very good at breaking my fall."Â
Bob snickers. His digits twitch against your side. "A guy's gotta be good at something. "
With a ksch and spray of snow Alexei skidded to a stop, his large body looming yet surprisingly lithe on skates. âWhy you on ground? Be strong, Bob! You are strong and will conquer the ice!â With a powerful thrust and fist bump he was off.
âYep. I will get right on that,â he called after to the retreating Russian with a shake of his index finger.Â
After catching your breath you nod to the team who are gathering on the sidelines. âIt's about time for the tree lighting. Letâs get some hot cocoa and find a good spot?â His hand entwined with yours as you pulled yourselves to your shaky feet, leading him back to the others.
The team quickly changed back into their shoes before finding the queue for hot chocolate. Thankfully it moved quickly. Stepping up to the window you ask âcan we get 7 deluxe hot cocoas please-â
John interrupts. â-Only 6 deluxe. Just give me the regular.â The cashier nods while Bucky settles the tab, grumbling about how back in his day this wouldâve only cost him a nickel.Â
Yelena balks at his request. âWhat? Why are you ruining American Christmas!?â
âYou donât-â Walker sighs â-you donât have to keep calling it âAmerican Christmasâ. Just call it Christmas, Yelena.â
âEven Bucky got the deluxe, and heâs an old grump,â Ava chimes in with a sideways glance. James doesnât respond, just rolls his eyes and stays out of it.Â
âYeah well, all the sugar from the whipped cream and marshmallows is bad for my workout regime,â he trails off with a half-assed wave of his hand.Â
âSoâŠlet me get this straightâŠ.â Ava starts, brow cocked high. âYou, a super soldier, canât have a little something sweet on holiday for fear it will ruin your metabolism, that you clearly donât need, since the serum is making your body basically perfect? Hmm, yeah thatâs such bullshit.âÂ
âPoor baby Walker,â Yelena cuts in with a sarcastic pout. The two women keep teasing John.Â
âAlright- alright! I just donât like marshmallows, okay? Theyâre weird and sticky,â he grinds out.
Even Bob looks affronted. âWhat? Everybody loves marshmallowsâŠâ Nobody has the heart to tell Bob that he has a whipped cream moustache coating his upper lip. It's adorable. You grab your mug and take a generous gulp, despite the heat burning your tongue.Â
The blonde widow suddenly snaps her fingers - âOh! I know what this is! You are the goblin man who eats Christmas!â Everyone stops to glance her direction confused. âYou know!?â She starts gesturing wildly with her fingers, trying not to spill the drink overflowing with whipped cream and marshmallows and chocolate shavings. âHe kidnaps the small girl and together they try to get Christmas, no? Stealing the toys and sugar plums from the little childrenâs dreams?â She mimics a plucking motion to demonstrate.
Nobody quite knows what to say until Bob quips in with a âdo you mean the Grinch?â
âYes! Thank you, Bob! See I knew I liked you best!â she jumps, giving the timid man a hug. âWalker is such a Grinch!â The spy immediately turns to you. âAnd I like you too because you are giving me my American Christmas!â she all but squeals. Once again Walker sighs in defeat.
Making your way to the festivities, the group finds a good spot to settle. Yelena oohs and ahhs at the tree, commenting on how big it is - âeven bigger than your gun, Walkerâ. The crowd is beyond thick. You can feel Bob retreating into himself so you slip your hand into his, fingers entwined with yours. He shoots you an appreciative smile.Â
Soon enough the countdown begins.Â
âThree! - Two! - One!âÂ
The treeâs lights nearly blind you with all their shimmering glory. Beams of white, red, blue, and gold scatter across your faces, illuminating the sparkles within Bob and Yelenaâs eyes, open wide with wonder. Though youâve seen the Rockefeller tree several times growing up it never ceases to amaze you with its grandeur. Daring to peek around, you spot the same look of wonderment on your found family. Alexei cheers raucously from behind, Ava and Walker are not bickering for once, Bob has his mouth hanging wide, and Yelenaâs expressive eyes are wet with unshed tears. You think you even see a smile on Buckyâs usually grumpy face.
You give Bobâs fingers a gentle squeeze, all while leaning over to wrap your arm around Yelenaâs shoulders. Giving the man beside you a kiss to his cheek, you lean and give a chaste kiss to the Russian girlâs hair, whispering âmerry American Christmas, Lena.âÂ
__________________________
âHas everyone got on their sweater?â you announce while standing in the center of the team. The 6 other members of the Thunderbolts New Avengers stood lined up. It was clear that they were not the most excited bunch about this⊠excursion⊠of yours. And then there was Lena. She was practically bouncing with excitement.Â
Bucky pulls at the collar of his sweater - some itchy woolen contraption full of stripey green and red patterns. It was hideous. But Yelena was excited so he dealt with itâŠ.mostly. âDo I really need to be matching in thisâŠ.thing?â he pulled at the collar again. I could just wear something red and stand in the back.â
âYes,â both you and Yelena retort, âand no.â
John shifted, his hands coming to rest on his hips. âShit⊠This is embarrassing. Why are we doing this, people are staring,â he whispered. Walker gave a weak wave at the people passing by with their cell phones raised.Â
âBecause this is what regular people do for the holidays,â you respond with a more genuine smile on your face, passing out a plethora of red Santa hats.
Ava stood with her arms crossed. âYou Yanks are odd.â
The line moved up until it was your turn. âAlright everyone, here we go. Remember - hats on, smiles up!âÂ
Everyone gathered around the plush chair. Alexei gave the jolly man in a red suit a slap on the back, thanking him for bringing âjoy to children,â but not without bringing up how Russiaâs Morozko was still superior to the American version. The mall Santa didnât quite know what to make of that, letting out an awkward chuckle.Â
You stood with Bob and Yelena right in front, your arms wrapped around their backs. Yelena had managed to find a prop of a beautifully wrapped gift, holding to her chest like it was precious cargo. Meanwhile Bob fiddled with the edges of his sweater, oversized just like he preferred.Â
âAlright everyone -Â say âAmerican Christmas!ââ
With a click the camera shuttered, capturing the photo.
Nobody quite knows how the Mall Santa picture made it onto the teamâs official social media accounts - ugly Christmas sweaters, floppy crimson hats, cheesy grins, and all.
_______________
âAre you sure itâs going to fit?â Bob says while trying to catch his breath.
âItâll fit.â
He tosses an unsure look at you. âYeah, butâŠitâs so big.â
You curl your arm around Bobâs shoulder. âSweetheart, itâs not that-â you trail off for a few seconds â-ah okay yeah itâs pretty big,â you giggle. He giggles too.
âLena wanted the biggest we could get sooooâ you gesture at the massive pine tree Bucky and Alexei were trying to set up in the common area. Bob had gone with them to pick it up while Yelena called all the shots on which was the tallest, thickest, most green tree on the lot. The three men brought it up to the Tower, Bob trailing along carrying the edge (he wanted to feel useful). âAn American Christmas it is!â
âIf youâre so worried about it why donât you get Sentry to fly up there and make sure we get it in place, hm? Would be quicker than the âGrampsâ over there.â Walker kicks back on the couch, arms flipping through a magazine. He had been tasked with picking out decorations at the store with you and Ava; really you just wanted him to carry all the bags with his super strength.
Bob blinks before sputtering out "you know I can't use Sentry without⊠Him coming out too. Donât think he really fits the Christmas spirit. But I can look and tell you if it's crooked, though."Â
Yelena walks over and swats the back of Johnâs head as if to say âdonât ruin this for usâ. She and Ava shuffle through the bags of decor. Bob shifts awkwardly in the center of the room pulling at his too-long sleeves, considering what task to do next. Yelena pulls out handfuls of red stockings, each embroidered with your names. Looking around her smile falls. âWe donât have a fireplace.â
Head ducking, Bob chips in. âI have an idea.âÂ
So Bob and Yelena begin the meticulous task of pinning up each stocking along the barâs granite countertop, whispering to themselves about how they never got to do these things as children. For a moment you worried that your idea was just reminding them of all the things that haunted them. But when the two looked up with beaming smiles everything just clicked into place. You were meant to be here with these people, and they were meant to be here with you.Â
You tasked yourself with finding the perfect Christmas playlist - all the greats like Bing Crosby, Burl Ives, even the occasional Mariah Carey. With the tree finally secured in place you all begin the task of putting up the remaining decorations. Lights and baubles and tinsel wrap the tree in every color. Candles and snowglobes scattered around the various surfaces, wreaths and garland adorned every door and window. Even Bucky got in on it, stringing popcorn to hang on the tree like he used to do with his sisters as children. It looked like a Sears catalogue from the 1980s.Â
Yelena picks up the silvery star meant for the treetop. It was the final touch. She took a moment to ponder her reflection, seeing the smile that felt right, the light behind her usually dark eyes. Alexei ran his hand over her hair soothingly. âYou look happy. Like when you were little girl, my sweet Malyshka with eyes so bright.â She buries her face into his chest as he squishes her in his arms, dropping a kiss to her head.
With a sniffle she lifts her face. âHey Dad, could you give me a lift?â Alexei bends down as she climbs on top of his open palms. With perfect balance he lifts her towards the highest branch and she delicately places the star.Â
Itâs perfect.Â
The newfound family gathers to admire their handiwork, chatting softly under the glow of the Christmas lights and flickering candles, mugs of tea and cocoa that Bob prepared as a reward for their hard work. Quickly the conversation turns to a heated debate on which holiday film was the best - Home Alone, White Christmas, or Elf. Ava tried to suggest the Nightmare Before Christmas but Walker argued it didnât count, much to her annoyance.
Sliding your arm around his elbow you tug Bob away. He follows without question. âI need your help with something,â you explain while guiding him to the edge of the room. Stopping at the doorway you nudge something prickly into his hand.Â
âWha- oh.â A deep crimson spreads over his freckled cheeks.Â
Mistletoe.
He looks up then stretches onto his toes, securing the sprig from the hook youâd hung earlier. Coming back down he licks his lips and locks stormy blue eyes with you.Â
Biting your tongue you swallow down your nerves. Barely above a whisper you tell him âyou know⊠it is tradition to kiss the person you meet under the mistletoe.â
He blinks in that way you know heâs fighting back another blush. âWe uh-â he clears his throat â-we wouldnât want to break tradition, would we?â You let him take the lead. He steps closer, his palm coming to rest on your waist. Slowly but surely hip lips meet yours so, so softly, almost as if you hadnât done this before. When your hands come to rest against his chest it renews his confidence and he kisses you with more intent. Once, twice, thrice.
âEwwww guys they are making out!â Yelena teasingly yells across the room, shocking you out of your moment.Â
You jump apart. Bobâs eyes are wide as he pulls back a fraction to face the team. Shrugging he defends himself. âWhat? Itâs tradition,â he says as if itâs the most obvious thing in the world.
______________
âIcing-â
â-Icing.â
âGumdrop-â
â-Gumdrop.â
âChocolate chip-â
â-Chocolate chip.â
âBob-â
â-Bob-â a pause â-BobâŠ?â Lena questions, the name breaking her focus.
Big blue doe eyes flick between you and the widow. âYes, Bob. Sweetheart, save some candy for the house,â you remind him with a wink as he lifts yet another piece of chocolate to his mouth.
You, Bob, and Yelena worked like a well oiled machine assembling your gingerbread house. Frosted window panes, peppermint paved sidewalks, and gumdrop shingles in every color brought your imagination to life. Yelena even placed a cutout of the mall picture in the front yard. âThere. Now it is a tiny Tower for tiny Avengers.âÂ
âIt looks great. Love the teamwork everyone!â You high-fived your two Thunderbolts.
âWhen do we get to eat it?â
You laugh at her question. âYou donât - the gingerbread in this is too hard to eat, we just decorate it. But-â you reach across the table towards the rest of the team â- thatâs what these are for.â You shake the plate of fresh baked cookies at them. âHowâs it coming Buck? Ava?â
In response they both just pause their conversation to show you the cookies they already finished. All are frosted the exact same; white, green, or red icing indelicately smeared over the top and a dash of sugar crystals thrown on top.
The widow nods. "Love the effort guys."Â
âSimple.â Bob states, matter-of-fact and reaching for one to nibble on. âAhn dehlishus;" crumbs tumble onto his sweater.Â
âLena - hey hey - which is better? Red Guardian, eh?â Alexei wiggles his brows and holds up a gingerbread man that kind of resembles himself in uniform, âor this guy, pfftâ he gestures at Walkerâs similarly designed self-themed cookie with a scoff.
âWow. Thatâs soâŠ. Did you give him your beardâŠ?â Yelena squints at the cookie, which very much has a squiggle of frosting reminiscent of Alexei's facial hair.Â
A beat passes before she shoots up out of her seat and lunges across the table. âI WANT TO MAKE COOKIE LENA!â
_____________
âHow does the Secretive Santa work?â Yelena asked, eyeing the bag you held with furrowed brow like it would hold all the answers to the universe, or maybe a bug that needed to be squashed.
âEach person draws a name from the bag, but you have to make sure that you donât tell anyone who you got. Your job is then to buy that person a gift to give them for Christmas.â
Alexei grunts. âWhat if I get myself? Do I buy present for me?â
âThen you draw a different card,â Ava says from next to you.
The big Russian grunts again and shakes his head in a nod, decaring âRed Guardian is great gift giver. You would be lucky to have him. Once in Soviet Russia I gift-â
â-Oookay dad thank you I want to pick now.â Yelena doesnât waste a beat before shoving her hand in the bag, eyes squeezed shut, and pulling a name. She opens the slip of paper. Gaze drifting around the team she leaves no clues about who she picked, her poker face like that of a black cat on the prowl.Â
The rest of the group follows her lead. You receive Alexei, knowing exactly what to get him already. Glancing around you watch as Bob draws a paper - you hold in a smirk seeing how the tips of his ears go red beneath his brown curls, his eyes darting to Bucky before hitting the floor. Your poor Bob, the darling man.Â
___________
There were 2 weeks before Christmas for you all to sort out gifts, and boy did it go by in a blur.
Christmas morning comes. Finally.
You tried to be sneaky about placing your gift under the tree before the sun rose. Creeping into the living room, you spy Bob bent over placing a box snugly beneath a branch. âPssst.â
âAH!â he jumps with a start, throwing his hand over his chest. âGeez you nearly scared me to death!â A flicker of yellow popped into his iris before disappearing.Â
The present he placed was wrapped with a golden paper, too much tape and a wonky bow settled on top - just like the 6 others wrapped identically beside it. They caught your suspicion immediately. âWhatcha doing?â you ask in a singsong voice.Â
His face is already beet red at being caught. âN-nothing. I- uh- got to go,â he stumbles over his words and bare feet as he retreats past you back to his room, but not before dropping a quick kiss to your cheek.Â
With a shake of your head you decide to finish what you came for, adding your gift to the growing pile beneath the tree. On your way back to your room you stopped at the glass of milk and plate of cookies you insisted to Yelena, must be left out. âLike a sacrifice offering to Santa Clausâ sheâd called it. Intending to take a few nibbles for the illusion, you noticed that someone had already helped themself to the treats (you would later learn that despite being sure it was Alexei or maybe John, it had actually been Bucky).Â
Morning came soon enough, the 7 of you gathered around the tree in your pajamas. Steaming mugs of coffee were passed around. The radio was quietly playing christmas carols and the tv was tuned to a fake fireplace video.Â
âAlright, who wants to go first?â
Alexeiâs hand shoots up. âRed Guardian will start!â He digs around the pile of presents before pulling out a red wrapped box (to no-one's surprise). âFor Mr. America.â John opens it to reveal a framed magazine clipping on his work redeeming himself as an Avenger and a toy action figure of himself. You can just make out the way his words catch as he thanks the Russian man.
Walker goes next, giving his gift bag to you. Riffling through you pull out a polaroid camera set. âSo you can take more embarrassing pictures of us without dragging us to the mall again.â The team cackles at his âbut seriously please donât, I hate the mall.â You thank him and open the camera, flicking on the switch, loading the photo paper, and posing with your new family behind you as you take the shot. They wait patiently while you label it as âAn Avengersâ First American Christmasâ.
Alexei receives his present from you next. The red striped paper is torn to bits in seconds; âAh! YES!â he yells while holding up a custom engraved âNew Avengersâ whisky glass set and bottle of top shelf vodka - Russian made, of course.
Bucky shifts. He places a sleek black box in front of Yelena.Â
Her lips curve up, excitement hardly restrained. Delicately she lifts the tape on one side of the gift. Then another. The team waits with bated breath as she removes the lid. A choked sob breaks from her chest and she reaches in and pulls out a small trinket, then another. An old photo of two young girls follows, and a small envelope with the word Sestra written in delicate script. Sister.Â
âThey belonged to Natasha. Pepper had them in storage and I know Nat wouldâve wanted you to have them.â Bucky explains. Yelena twists closer to him, her arms wrapping around his shoulders. He holds her, comforting her as she mumbles something in Russian that you donât quite catch.Â
Tears calm and Lena cheerfully asks Ava to fetch the next bag under the glittering tree, bringing the team back from the bittersweet moment. The Brit clutches several colorful eyeliner pencils and a certificate for a rage room. âNow we can have matching style when we save the world and then show these boys how itâs done, kick their asses!â they laugh.Â
Ava starts her turn and passes a neatly tied Harrods box to Bob. He opens it with glee, his smile cracking huge on his face. âOh, man- this- this is great Ava. Thanks!â Bob lifts up a charcoal grey knit sweater as if it's the best thing heâs ever seen. He puts it on over his sleep shirt, the sleeves dangling past his wrists just like he favors.Â
Sweater half hanging off his shoulder Bob presents Bucky with his gift. James opens the golden box to reveal a can of car polish and a set of fingerless leather gloves. With a cock of his brow Buck holds up the polish. âItâs so you can- uh- keep your arm shiny,â he starts sheepishly. âAnd I know you tore up your gloves on the last mission.âÂ
Bucky nods in appreciation and gives him a nudge. âItâs great, kid.âÂ
âHey BobâŠ. why are there so many presents left⊠thatâs kinda weird, no? Werenât you only supposed to get like, one?â Lena peers at him then points to all the identically wrapped presents leftover.
âOh. Umm.â Bob rocks back and forth on his heels. âYeah I- I guess but I just wanted to get something for everyone, you know? Because I just-â he clears his throat and looks down for a moment before meeting the groupâs gaze. â-I just wanted you all to know how much you mean to me. After everything.âÂ
Yelena moves first, launching herself into a hug. You follow suit. Next thing you know Bob is under a dogpile of Thunderbolts, murmurs of âwe love you Bobâ and âweâre so glad youâre part of our familyâ and 'merry American Christmas' fill the room.
Finally breaking free, Bob passes out the remaining boxes to the team, and a flurry of gold and tape and wonky bows covers the floor.Â
Ava gets a container of her favorite tea and jaffa cakes from back home. Alexei gets another Red Guardian Avengers Edition comic book for his collection. Yelena, one half of a âbest friendsâ keychain (Bob has the other half). He gets you a photo album to fill with polaroids; in the front slot sits the first group picture the team ever took.Â
As the Thunderbolts admire the gifts, Walker looks up dumbly.Â
âIs this a coupon redeemable for âone fixed shieldâ?â
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Pipe sprung a leak in the bathroom the other day and the cat came and bothered me about it and I can't stop thinking about it. She doesn't know what a towel or a mop is but she knew there was an unauthorised fucking Wet and she trusted my ability to rectify the situation
Pairing: Bob/Robert Reynolds/The Sentry/The Void x Thunderbolts!Fem!Reader!
Summary: When the air conditioner of the Watchtower breaks during peak summertime, Bob finds an odd solution to your overheating problem.
Warnings: 18+ Minors DNI! Smut and Fluff yall. Bob and Reader are in an established friends with benefits relationship (that has hints of something more), Bob is a problem solver lol.
Smut Warnings: Unprotected P in V Sex (wrap it up yall), Temperature Play, Fingering, Oral Sex (fem! Receiving), Nipple Play, Dirty Talk, Bob is a bit freaky in this, but itâs a great change up, Spit Kink (kind ofâŠAn interesting take on it lol) Bob is totally a super soft dom in here to be completely honest and heâs an absolute tease, Aftercare (cause itâs essential and we love aftercare scenes!)
Authors Note: It is disgustingly hot where I live at the moment and I got this idea when I was writing something else and thought âJesus Christ this is perfectâ and EUREKA đĄ itâs been made and created. And itâs so fitting cause today is supposed to be one of the hottest days of the year where I live and Iâve been sweating it up, so CHEERS TO THAT! Enjoy the read yall â€ïžâ€ïž
Word Count: 9,364
You felt like you were choking on the air you were breathing. It clung to your lungs like steam in a sauna, heavy and thick, each inhale a sluggish, labored thing that coated the inside of your throat with undeniable heat. The Watchtower had become a pressure cookerâwalls sweating, tempers rising, bodyâs slowly melting into puddles of collective misery.
The central air system had sputtered its final breath two days ago, and since then, the compound had been thrown into environmental purgatory. Val, of course, couldnât be bothered.
âYouâve been trained in worse conditions? So thereâs a little bit of heatâŠâ She said over the comms, dismissing the situation with a lazy flick of her tongue, âAdapt. Hydrate. Be resourceful. You guys are a bunch of trained professionals. Jesus.â
Bucky had tried to find a solution by rush-ordering industrial-grade fans for everyoneâs room. It was a notable effort, but ultimately it turned futileâthe machines just churned around warm air like oversized hairdryers, only adding to the misery. Everyone had begun to crack in their own unhinged little ways soon after.
Walker had abandoned his bedroom entirely, calling it a hotbox of deathâbecause it was facing the sun head onâand was now taking refuge on the cool concrete floor of the weapons bay, curled up beside an icebox and using a half-eaten bag of frozen peas as his pillow. Nobody knew if he was the one who ate the peas, and truly no one wanted to ask.
Alexei had opted to walk around shirtless, unapologetically drenched, swearing in Russian every time his back stuck to the leather chairs of the common room. You hadnât seen cotton touch his torso in thirty-six hours.
Ava had tried to stick her head in the freezer at least three timesâsilent, dead-eyed, standing with the door propped open like a statue. She once murmured, âThereâs no useâŠNot even the freezer can cool me down,â Before slamming the door shut and stomping away angrily.
Yelena didnât even pretend to tough it out. She booked a hotel in the city with central air and an infinity pool and sent a group text that read: Temporarily unavailable. Followed by a photo of her in a robe, flipping everyone off.
You, on the other hand, were stuck in the sweltering hellhole that used to be the Watchtower. Unfortunately, you had responsibilities. Paperwork, of all godforsaken thingsâan Everest-sized pile of clearance reports, post-op evaluations, requisition forms, and incident debriefs that needed to be reviewed and signed off yesterday. As you worked through it though you were convinced the paper pile was actively multiplying every time you blinked.
You had stripped down to bare undergarments midway through the first day of this whole ordealâtank tops and boy shorts, cycling through a mix of fabrics and colours, and faded cotton that clung to your skin within minutes of putting it on. A real outfit felt like a joke at this point. The way your thighs stuck to chairs, the way your bra would turn into a soaked band of torture across your ribsâit was all unbearable. So you stopped pretending, cause everyone had seen you in much lessâunfortunately. A little skin in the name of not dying seemed fair game.
Youâd made camp in the common room, spread out across the wooden floor: limbs splayed, eyes half-lidded, lips dry, surrounded by open folders and half-filled forms. Your pen was stuck between your fingers, and your knees were damp from the humidity clinging to the floorboards. You used half-complete reports as manual fans, your wrist flicking back and forth in a tired desperate rhythm.
Under the dim overhead lights your skin was shimmering. Sweat collected in the hollow of your throat, slicked down your back in slow, miserable trails, and glistened across your chest in a sheen that was just enough to be maddening.
Especially to Bob.
Bob wasnât bothered by the heatânot one bit. In fact, he seemed to be thriving in it. While the rest of the compound staggered around like melting wax figures, Bob was walking proof that some unholy fusion of celestial physiology and boyish stubbornness could, against all logic, turn a heatwave into a personal spa retreat. His body already ran hot, warmer than any humans should be, so the shift in temperature justâŠMatched him. Balanced him. He was in his element. Youâd caught him once humming as he refilled your water bottle and didnât even look winded. It had taken every ounce of your willpower not to throw a folder at him out of sheer spite.
But as much as Bob was coasting through the inferno like a Sun God in July, there was one thing the heat did make difficult, and that was you.
More specifically: being around you without physically attaching himself to every available inch of your skin. And that was a problem. Because all you wanted was to peel your limbs off your own body and shove your head in the freezer next to Avaâs.
The first night the central air had gasped its last breath, you had trudged into your room in a haze of exhaustion and heat delirium. Your tank top was soaked, your shorts were riding up in ways that made you irrationally furious, and your entire back felt like it had been slow-roasted on a rack. All you wanted was to collapse onto your bed, cool yourself down on your fresh pillow, and not die.
Bob had followed in behind you a few minutes later. Barefoot, shirtless in his boxer shorts, and radiating heat like a bonfire. You had barely flattened yourself on the mattress before you felt the bed dip and a very warm, very clingy arm wrap around your middle.
âBobâno. No. Youâre a human space heater. I am going to combust.â He had blinked down at you like you had kicked him, lip tugging downward, but he didnât retreat. His eyes shimmered slightly.
âJustâJust my arm. I wonât move around and make it hotter! I pr-promise! How about my leg? Just a little le-leg.â You tried to slither out from his trap, but he was persistent, curling his body around you like a cat trying to fit into a shoebox, âYou know I ca-canât sleep without cuddling youâŠPlease.â He begged.
In the end, you had given up just enough to let him have his victoryâan arm draped over your waist, a thigh tucked between your sweaty ones. His skin was boiling, his breath stuck to your neck, and you were sweating so much your sheets were damp. But he sighed with such softness and content, like that moment of closeness was everything he needed. And even though you mumbled curses and threatened to sleep on the floor next time, you didnât push him off.
Now, he was watching you from his usual perch in the common room, planted in one of the worn armchairs, looking relaxed, comfortable-and absolutely lovesick in shorts and a t-shirt.
Every movement made your tank top shift and stick in new ways. A bead of sweat curved down your chest, catching the attention of Bobâs traitorous eyes before he jerked his gaze away, returning it to the book in front of him, like he hadnât been staring.
You werenât even trying to be provocative. You were just trying not to pass out. But the heat had made you soft-limbed, loose-spined, and languid. It made you sigh out loud and stretch like a cat, chasing relief. And every time you did, Bobâs eyes trailed after you like he was tethered. He swallowed thickly when you adjusted your posture again, thigh flexing, tank top riding up a bit more, your sweat-dampened back arching ever so slightly as you reached for another form.
You didnât look at him when you spoke, but your voice was low and teasing. âYour eyes are gonna burn holes in me if you keep staring like that.â
Bob stiffened in his chair, legs snapping closer together. âIâuh. Wasnâtââ You snorted softly, not buying it for a second.
âYou forget how I can feel when youâre looking at me.â You said, still not looking up from your papers, âYour gaze is like a goddamn laser. Feels like Iâve got sunburn from the inside out.â You could hear the hesitation in his breath, the soft rustle of fabric as he fidgeted in his seat, gathering the courage to speak. And thenâ
âWellâŠEv-even though youâre meltingâŠâ He started, voice cracking like a sun-baked sidewalk, âI still th-think youâre⊠pretty.â You paused, pen hovering above a requisition form like you were about to stab a signature into it, then slowly tilted your head up. Your eyes locked onto him from across the room, narrowing ever so slightly.
âBob,â You warned, a soft edge to your voice. âYou know Iâm a softie for compliments and your faceâŠâ
His lips twitched into a nervous smile, hopefulâbut you cut him off.
ââŠBut I swear to God, I think I would kill you if you even attempted to take my clothes off to have sex with me right now.â Bobâs lashes fluttered rapidly and he swallowed hard, the book lowering to his lap slightly.
âI-I was just s-saying you looked p-prettyâŠâ He mumbled, face turning scarlet. You squinted, pointing your pen at him accusingly.
âYes. And then it escalates. It always escalates.â Bobâs mouth opened like he wanted to object, but you were already rolling, âYou say I look pretty, then itâs something about how good I look in the outfit Iâm wearingâwhich is barely even an outfit, mind youâthen you get all sentimental and say something sappy like âIâm so lucky to have a friend like youâ and âI donât know what Iâd do without youâ and blah, blah, blahâIâm not falling for it.â Bob looked like a man trying to explain himself at a trial with no legal counsel.
âIâI didnâtâthis time, I wasnât gonnaââ You lifted a brow, and he wilted a little further into his armchair, âOkayâŠI mightâve said something sappy laterâŠMaybe.â You snorted and went back to fanning yourself with a requisition form.
âExactly.â
âButââ He tried, hands wringing in his lap, âYou do look really go-good right now. Even with the sweatâŠAnd the uhâŠPaper stuck to your thigh.â He added. You glanced down and sighed, peeling a requisition form off your leg and flinging it to the side. Bob let out a small laugh at the sight, before lowering his voice.
âI really wasnât trying to escalate. I know youâd kill me if I evenâtried. Iâd pr-probably turn into the sun the second I touched you.â
âYou would,â You replied firmly, wiping a drop of sweat from your collarbone, âIâd light you up like a match.â There was a pause, then he hummed.
ââŠItâd still be woâworth it.â You looked up again, slowly. Bob looked sheepish, guilty, and totally sincere.
âYouâre lucky Iâm too exhausted to throw something at you.â Bob smiled a little wider now, cautiously hopeful.
âCould I at least get a hug?â You groaned.
âNoâŠâ
âA sweaty hug?â He corrected, as you dragged your hands down your face, shaking your head. He stood anyway, walking over with slow, careful steps. You felt his shadow fall over you, tall and soft at the edges, and when you peeked up, he was grinning down at youâdimples and all.
âIâll just hover then,â He said, crouching next to you and pressing a gentle kiss to your temple, tasting a bead of sweat on his lips, before settling down beside your paper fortress, legs stretching out beside yours.
You let out a soft laugh through your noseâquiet, breathy, the kind of sound that wouldâve floated past someone else entirely. But not Bob. Never Bob. He absorbed everything you did like a sponge pressed to waterâhyper aware, quietly observant, and always aching in the silence between moments. No matter what you were doing, he always made it feel like he was watching an artist paint their biggest masterpiece.
You couldâve been cleaning blood off your boots, halfâcatatonic from fatigue, or wearing yesterdayâs tank top turned inside out, it didnât matter to him. He looked at you like he was witnessing a miracle, and it was never just lust that filled his eyes, never only wantâit was that stunned, adoring kind of interest that made you feel like the world quieted when you moved.
Even now, in this godforsaken heat, when your skin felt slick and your hair clung to the back of your neck, he sat beside you like he was somewhere sacred. His shoulder barely grazed yours, but you could feel itâthe press of his attention, the steady warmth of his presence folding over you like a second sun.
And despite your endless complaints, despite telling him time and time again that you were overheating and one more inch of skin contact might kill you, you were glad he hadnât listened. Not fully. Because the truth wasâyou liked that he didnât give you space. Not really. You liked the orbit of him. The magnetism. The strange, constant gravity that pulled him to you no matter the setting.
Ever since the two of you started hooking up though, that tether had only grown stronger. It didnât matter if you were in bed or on opposite ends of the training floorâyour bodies reached for each other instinctively. Your minds always seemed to be aware of one another in a way that felt cellular.
And though you were actively trying not to spontaneously combust under the heat dome that was the Watchtower, though youâd explicitly told him not to try anything, you still craved him. The pull of his voice, the shape of his breath, the way he sat beside you like you were something holy that made him forget himself.
But until somethingâanythingâcooled you down enough not to literally die during sex, you had to suppress it.
You kept working, even as the sweat made your pen slippery in your grip. Even as your thighs stuck to the hardwood and your spine ached from the sticky angle of your slouch. You scribbled notes into the margins of reports for ValââSlight concussion, extreme belligerence. Unsure if it was the wound.â All the while, you felt Bob watching you.
Now that he was close, it was worse. His gaze was warm. Not burning. Not greedy. But hotâlike youâd stepped into late afternoon sunlight and knew it was going to follow you until dusk. He watched the way your collarbone caught the light, the slow trail of sweat that disappeared beneath the line of your tank top, the rise and fall of your chest like a tide he wanted to wade into.
He could smell you now, too. Your body washâthe mix of basil, blueberry, and lemonâhad softened and bloomed in the heat, curling around you like a halo of late-summer air. You smelled like a drink he wanted to taste, a memory he wanted to bottle and keep forever. It made his throat feel thick. It made something ancient and hungry stir in him.
You swiped a hand across your forehead again, let out a huff, signed another sheetâand thatâs when you felt his gaze sharpen.
âBob,â You said dryly, not even glancing at him âKeep your eyes to yoursââ
âThereâs ic-ice in the freezer,â He interrupted, voice cracking slightly like it was tripping on the edge of his desire. You paused, turning your head toward him with a squint.
âYeah? And why are you bringing that up so randomly?â His eyes widened at bit, then he flushed, his hand coming up to scratch the back of his neckâa tell that he was nervous.
âMaybe I want toâŠCool you doâdown?â Your eyes narrowed, the corner of your mouth twitching up in slow suspicion.
âYeah? And how would you do that?â He hesitatedâjust for a momentâand then leaned in ever so slightly, his voice low, uncertain, trembling with barely-leashed tenderness.
âWhy donât you let me sh-show you?â God, the way he said itâit wasnât a line. It wasnât cocky. It wasnât even seductive in the traditional sense. It was something softer than that. Sweeter. Gentler.
It was Bob wanting to worship, not possess. To soothe, not seduce. It was in the way his voice cracked around the word show, like he meant something more than just a practical gesture. Like he wanted to lay you down and press ice to every patch of you that felt too hot, not to make you moan, but to make you breathe again.
Like cooling you down would be an honor.
He wasnât talking about sex. Not entirely at least. He was talking about the intimacy of care. The small, slow rituals that said I see you, I know you, Iâll take care of this part too.
You felt it in your spineâthe way the suggestion settled, the weight of the moment bending inward like a candle flame curling toward its own wax. You turned your head slowly to look at him and found him already watching you with that same melted-lovely stare. Eyes wide. Lips parted. Hope curling behind his lashes.
He looked like he was waiting for permission to make the heat bearable. Waiting to touch you only if it meant relief.
Your throat worked once, then you set your pen down.
ââŠAlright then, Bob,â You murmured, tilting your head. âShow me.â Bob shot to his feet like a firework, the shift from softness to sudden motion making you laugh a bit. He offered you both hands, palms open, eyes bright with some boyish spark you hadnât seen since before the heatwave hit.
âCâmon,â He urged, a grin tugging at the corners of his lips like he was already proud of whatever plan had rooted itself in his head. You glanced down at his hands, then back up at him.
âYouâre not gonna do it here?â He shook his head quickly, his light brown, sun-kissed strands of hair flopping slightly.
âTr-Trust me,â He said with a nervous unmistakable glimmer in his eye, âYou want to do it in a be-bedroom.â Your stomach flipped. Not because it sounded dirtyâthough your traitorous mind was already sprinting toward some variation of shirtlessâBob dripping ice water down your spineâbut because of the tone, and the way he said it. So sure. So gentle. So full of barely concealed affection. Your skin prickled from anticipation. He helped you up from the floor with ease, and turned, starting for the hallway.
You followed closely behind, your legs stiff and heavy from too much time on the floor. He stopped at the kitchen, and you caught the distinct sound of the freezer opening, the crinkle of plastic, the quiet clatter of something.
Curious, you poked your head around the cornerâonly to find Bob standing in front of the counter, brow furrowed in focus, tearing open a large bag of ice with his teeth and pouring generous handfuls into a wide stainless steel mixing bowl. The ice chimed and cracked as it landed, a sound almost obscene in the still, overheated silence of the Watchtower.
Your eyebrows rose.
Bob caught your expression immediately and looked sheepish, shrugging one shoulder at you.
âThe mo-more the merrier,â He commented, lifting the bowl like a trophy. You huffed a laugh, low and incredulous.
âThis is either going to be really sweet or very dumb,â You muttered, shaking your head as he approached.
âItâll definitely be both.â He replied, not missing a beat.
He took your hand in his free one, fingers warm and steady even as he balanced the cold weight of the bowl in the other. His thumb slid along your knuckles as he led you back down the hallway, his touch grounding despite the faint sheen of sweat that coated you, it only took a few steps until you finally reached your room.
It was hot there. Thick, slow, swampy heat. The kind that stuck to the corners of the ceiling and refused to move. The blackout drapes youâd thrown up were trying their best, but the sun still managed to bleed in around the edgesâgold streaks slicing through the air like knives. The only saving grace was the cracked window above your headboard, which at night had allowed the barest hint of a breeze to creep in. It didnât help muchâbut it was something at least.
Your room was a lived-in kind of mess. A fan sat on your desk, humming uselessly. There were two half-drunk bottles of water near your nightstand, a crumpled hoodie discarded on the floor, and the sheets were tangled from restless nights. Still, it smelled like you. That same clean, citrus-sweet scent that clung to your skin. Bob inhaled it without even thinking.
He moved with purpose now, stepping around you to the bed, placing the bowl of ice on your side table before grabbing the nearest towel from your hamperâfresh, fluffy, cream-colored. He spread it over the foot of your bed carefully, smoothing out the creases like he was setting a picnic for something sacred.
âOkay,â He said, crouching slightly and patting the towel with one hand, âYou sit thâthere. And Iâll sit behind you.â
His voice was soft. Intentional. No teasing nowâjust quiet care threading every syllable. And it did something to you. Something that reached down into the heat-numbed center of your chest and gave it a gentle squeeze.
You obeyed without a word, stepping forward and sitting on the edge of the bed, the towel rough and cool beneath your thighs. You could hear the clink of ice behind you, the shifting of his body as the mattress shifted under his weight. And then, slowly, the warmth of him pressed close behindâlegs on either side of yours, his knees bent so he could sit just barely higher, his breath ghosting near the back of your ear.
âReady?â You noddedâimmediately, instinctivelyâbefore the word even had time to form in your mouth.
The air was still thick and stifling, but the anticipation split through it like a thunderclap. You heard the soft rustle of movement behind youâthe dip of Bobâs arm into the bowl, the telltale clink of shifting ice. A pause. A breath. And thenâ
Cold.
Your spine arched in reflex as the first piece of ice touched your upper back, the sensation so stark against your overheated skin that you gasped. The cube dragged in a slow, deliberate line between your shoulder blades, leaving a shivering trail in its wake. Your breath hitched.
Bobâs free hand came to rest against your waistânot forceful, not possessive, but anchoring. His palm was hot, fingers splayed across your damp skin like he needed the contact just to stay grounded.
He was slow with it.
The ice danced across your skin, trailing up and then outward over the curve of your right shoulder blade. And then the left. The path was meticulous, methodical, melting little rivers that trickled down the curve of your back until they disappeared into the band of your tank top.
You shudderedâeyes fluttering shutâjust as you felt his breath behind you, warm and steady, before his lips grazed your skin.
Bob leaned in.
And then he licked the droplets off your back.
Your entire body jolted like it had been kissed by lightning. His tongue was hot, a perfect, obscene contrast to the cold that came before it. He followed the rivulets the ice had left behind, slow and deliberate, his mouth brushing against your skin with almost unbearable care. You could feel his breath between licks, the air stirring goosebumps in its wake.
âJesus, BobâŠâ You whispered, voice already shaky, barely above a breath.
He didnât respond. He just kept going.
He trailed the ice once moreâlower this time, letting the cold slip just beneath the band of your tank top before dragging it back up in a long, trembling sweep. Then came his mouth again. His lips. His tongue. You felt his teeth graze your shoulderânot biting, just there, like he couldnât help but taste the saltiness of your skin.
Every time he kissed the water from your spine, it felt like he was drinking in something sacred.
You leaned forward slightly, head bowing as your hands clutched at the towel beneath you. Your breathing was shallow, pulse thrumming behind your ears. Bobâs hand on your waist squeezed just once, steadying you.
And then his voice, soft and low and trembling with something barely restrained, broke the silence against the shell of your ear.
âTake off your sh-shirt.â
It wasnât a command. It wasnât even a request.
It was a prayer. A plea.
Like he couldnât bear the barrier between you a second longer. Like he needed more of you, not just for heat or for want, but for relief. For whatever spell that had overtaken both of you in the dense summer silence of your bedroom.
Your fingers moved before your mind caught up. You gripped the hem of your soaked tank top andâslowly, shakilyâpeeled it upward. It clung to your skin in stubborn patches, lifting in jerks until it passed over your head, leaving you bare from the waist up. Damp. Glowing. Breathing hard.
Bobâs breath stuttered.
You could feel his eyes on your backâdevouring, worshiping, stunned silent. You started to turn your head over your shoulder, to ask what he was thinkingâbut you didnât get the chance.
Because the next thing you felt was the ice againâthis time sliding down your spine unburdened by cloth. And then his mouth. Hot. Open. Worshipful. He let out a soft moan against your skin, the sound low and trembling like it had clawed its way up from somewhere deep. His breath was hot, reverent. âTastes sâso goodâŠâ he whispered, the words pressed into your spine like a confessionâfragile and feral all at once.
You felt the faint scrape of his teeth next, dragging along the sensitive ridge of your lower shoulder blade, making your back arch into him involuntarily. His handâstill splayed wide on your waistâtightened once, then slipped away with purpose. A soft clink sounded beside you. Another piece of ice.
And thenâ
Cold.
This time, not against your back, but your chest.
You gaspedâbody jolting forward, spine bowingâas the ice skimmed the swell of your breast. The contrast was devastating. Your skin was already buzzing from the heat and his mouth, but the sudden bite of chill stole your breath.
Bobâs lips chased the line of melting droplets down your spine, tongue trailing them like he was memorizing every bead. Every curve. Every shiver.
And then the second piece of iceâstill in his other handâdragged across your chest in slow, deliberate passes. He brought it lower, tracing under the curve of your breast, thenâso slowly it almost broke youâup toward your nipple.
Your mouth fell open. A moan spilled out before you could stop it.
âBobâŠHâHoly fuck, Bob.â
You felt the corners of his lips lift where they pressed to your backâsmirking. Smug and innocent like he hadnât just unraveled you with frozen water and heat.
âWhâWhat?â He asked, faux-innocent, his voice thick and trembling with barely restrained want.
He circled your nipple with the iceâquick, swirling passes that sent lightning through your chest. Then, without warning, he moved to the other, just as devastating.
âJesus Christ,â you whispered, half a prayer, half a curse.
Your body leaned back instinctively, seeking him. The moment your spine met his chest, you felt itâall of him. His warmth. The racing thrum of his heart. The hardness pressed beneath his shorts. The quiet tremble in his hands as he reached around you again.
His mouth hovered near your ear.
âCan IâŠâ His voice was barely audible now, so close it vibrated in your bones. âCan I lick the droplets off?â
âYes,â You breathed, without hesitation. âYesâŠâ
You felt him smile against your temple. Not greedy. Not cocky. Just grateful. Devoted.
He slipped off the bed slowly, deliberately. His palms ran down your thighs as he sank, and then he was thereâon his knees in front of you, golden in the streaks of sun that leaked through the curtainâs edge. His eyes were glassy, wide with awe, his curls damp from sweat, sticking to his forehead. He looked like he was looking at a fever dream.
He reached for the bowl of ice beside him and set it gently on the floor, then looked back up at you with a question in his eyes. You nodded once, breathless.
Bob guided you forward with careful hands, his fingers feather-light beneath your arms as he encouraged you to lean down toward him, your chest close to his lips.
And thenâ
His mouth latched onto your nipple.
His tongue was warm and needy, lapping at the cold water like it was something holy. You cried outâsoft and brokenâas he sucked gently, pulling the chill into his mouth and swallowing your heat like he needed it.
At the same time, his hand reached into the bowl and lifted another piece of ice. He guided it slowly to your other breast, circling the nipple with glacial focus, letting it bead and drip while his mouth worked the other in steady, wet rhythm.
Your fingers tangled in his hair.
He moaned softly at that, tongue pressing flatter now, lips tighter, like he couldnât help himself.
And when you looked down at him, flushed and kneeling between your legs, worshipping you with his mouth and melting ice, you swore youâd never been touched more sweetly in your life.
He pulled off your nipple with a soft, wet pop, licking it one last time, tongue circling tenderly before he released it. His lips grazed the curve of your breast in a gentle kiss, trailing heat in their wake. Then he shiftedâslow, purposefulâtoward the other, where the ice had melted into a glossy sheen over your skin. He didnât rush. He paused to admire you, blue eyes glazed with something more than lustâadoration, worship, the kind of awe that made your chest cave in. He was drunk on the taste of your skin, and all he wanted was more.
His mouth sealed around your other nipple with a desperate hunger softened by devotion. His tongue moved languidly, drinking the cold from your body and replacing it with his heat, like he needed to balance you out. As his lips worked, he moved the piece of ice in his handâdown your ribcage, trailing it along the edge of your ribs with devastating slowness.
You gasped when it passed the under-side of your breast, the chill biting in contrast to the molten heat of his mouth, then lower, across the dip of your stomach, inching toward the space just above your navel. You flinched as it reached the sensitive skin right above the waistband of your boyshorts, and he groaned low in his throat in responseâlike your every twitch was a prayer answered.
Your hands tugged gently at his hair, not to pull him away but to feel something tethered, something grounding, because your entire body was floatingâadrift in heat and cold and sensation.
He pulled away from your breast with a breathless sigh, mouth shiny and pink, and leaned in to chase the wet path down your stomach. You watched his tongue trace the same line the ice had carved, warm and wet, mouth open and panting against your navel as he moved lower and lower. Every kiss was a blessing. Every lick, a declaration.
And then he stopped at the waistband.
His nose brushed it gently. His breath was a humid puff across your lower belly. He looked up at you through damp lashes, cheeks flushed, curls curling slightly with sweat, his tongue running absently over his lower lip before he tilted his headâso soft, so careful.
âCan I take these off?â He asked, voice low and quiet, almost bashful despite everything. You nodded immediately, breath hitching.
âYâYeah.â He helped you stand with that same steady grace, his thumb sliding along the elastic at your hips, eyes never leaving yoursânot even for a second. Then he slowly tugged them down. The fabric peeled from your thighs with a sticky reluctance, damp with sweat and tension and heat. He bent as he went, lowering himself with each inch until he was on his knees again, breath ghosting across your inner thighs.
Your hands trembled as he sat you down at the edge of the bed once more, steadying you with one hand on your hip, the other bracing your thigh. You watched as he pulled your legs gently over his shoulders, a smile coming up on his lips.
Bobâs breath hitched the moment he saw youâalready glistening, already soaked, slick with heat and want and sweat. He stared like he couldnât quite believe you were real, like heâd stumbled into something mythic, something divine. And then, without breaking eye contact, he reached for the bowl.
The ice clinked gently as he dipped his fingers in, searching by feel. When he pulled one out, the cube was already slick in his grip, catching the dim light like crystal. He held it there for a secondâthen looked up at you.
âCâCan I put this on you?â He asked softly, voice breathless with awe.
You nodded without a pause, lips parted, heart thudding somewhere in your throat. âYes⊠do it.â
He smiled.
And then he movedâslow, reverent, a priest in the presence of a miracle.
He brought the ice to your center, resting it just above your clit, and immediatelyâyou felt it. A single drop fell.
You gasped.
The cold dragged across your head, contrasting so violently with the flushed wetness of your core that your hips jerked. Another drop slid between your folds, trailing downward like a teasing finger. Your whole body shiveredâand thatâs when Bob leaned in.
He licked the first droplet as it passed your clit.
And then he lost himself.
His mouth met you with heat so sharp it made your knees lock around his shoulders. His tongue licked up the length of your folds, slow at first, but with increasing urgency. The chill of the ice was still thereâhe never removed it, just held it against you, letting it drip while he worshipped you with his mouth.
You moanedâa high, breathless, broken thingâand your fingers dove into his hair, yanking just enough to feel him groan into you. It was obscene.
The ice kept dripping. His mouth kept moving. And the contrast was too much. Cold sliding into hot. Wet meeting wetter. His tongue was everywhereâflicking, flattening, curling against your clit, lapping up the melting droplets like he needed them to survive. Every moan that rumbled from his chest vibrated into you. He wasnât holding back. He was devouring you.
Feral. Controlled. Utterly consumed.
You tried to speakâtried to tell him how fucking good it feltâbut all that came out were broken syllables and a whispered, âOh my God⊠Bob, pleaseââ
He answered by moaning into your core, low and guttural, dragging the flat of his tongue up from your entrance to your clit in one long, devastating pass. The ice cube shifted slightly, grazing your skin, making you cry out as your body jolted again.
And thenâhe slipped two fingers inside you.
You nearly sobbed.
They pushed in slow but deep, curling instantly. He knew exactly where to touch you, exactly how to fuck you with his hand while his mouth never stopped moving. His lips sealed around your clit, tongue swirling, licking away each cold droplet before it even had the chance to fully fall.
âFuckâBobâdonât stop, donât you dareââ You whimpered, legs trembling.
He didnât.
His fingers thrust harder. His tongue licked deeper. And when you rocked your hips forwardâdesperate for moreâhe groaned again, rutting subtly against the bed, lost in the taste of you.
The heat in your belly cracked wide open.
You felt the wave before it hitâfelt your thighs tightening, your walls fluttering around his fingers, your back arching towards him.
âFuck!â You cried, one hand gripping the edge of the sheets, the other twisted tight in his curls. Your orgasm ripped through you like wildfire, your whole body locking up before it collapsed into tremors, your thighs clamped tight around his neck, shaking. He held you through it. Tongue still moving. Fingers slowing just enough to prolong it, to guide you down from the cliff as gently as heâd brought you there.
When your body finally eased, when the waves started to ebb and your limbs stopped trembling, he pulled backâslowly, reluctantly.
His face was soaked.
Completely, reverently drenched. His lips were swollen, his cheeks glistened with your slick, your sweat, and faint trails of melting ice. His eyes were glazed with something carnal, but softâsofter than anything should be after what he just did to you.
He looked like heâd just returned from the edge of something sacred.
He exhaled, licking his lips slowly, pulling his fingers out gently before looking up at you like youâd just changed the orbit of his universe.
ââŠYou taâtaste like fucking salvation,â He whispered, hoarse. Your thighs were trembling, your chest rising in ragged, shuddering breaths, your lips parting in the aftermath of the orgasm he had just wrung from you with nothing but his mouth, fingers, and a melting piece of ice. His tongue darted out again, slowly, to taste the last bead of wetness from your inner thigh.
Then, he lifted his handâthe one still holding the ice cube. It had shrunk to half its size now, slick and trembling between his fingertips. He raised it with the same care you might offer a relic, brushing it over your clit, before pulling it away completely.
âI wa-want you to open your mouth.â He instructed gently. You listened to him without hesitation. Bob brought the ice to his own lips, slipping it into his mouth. His cheeks hollowed as he chewed it slowly, the cold cracking and popping between his teeth. You watched every second like it was a ritualâlike he was about to give you something sacred. And he was.
He slid your legs gently from his shoulders and rose to his full height, towering over you in the low, golden light. His face glowed with sweat and flushed a light red, as he cups your cheeks with his handsâfingertips damp, warm, trembling with careâand leaned in until his lips hovered just above yours.
Thenâhe parted his lips and let the water drip into your mouth.
You moaned at the first taste.
It wasnât just water. It wasnât just ice. It was you. Your taste lingered in itâyour slick, your arousal, your salt and sweetness and heat. It tasted like shared sin. Like everything Bob had just taken from you with his mouth and was now giving back in liquid communion.
You swallowed slowly, lips brushing his, breath mingling.
And thenâhe kissed you.
Hard.
It wasnât careful. It wasnât sweet. It was intimate, filthy in how much love was packed between teeth and tongue. His lips crashed against yours, his mouth open, slick, tasting of melted ice and you and him. His tongue slid against yours, greedy and slow, like he was still trying to share the taste of you back and forth between your mouths.
You whimpered, hands flying to the waistband of his shorts, tugging at the tie. It loosened easily in your grip, and his hips jerked forward with a soft, broken sound.
Bob panted into your mouth, forehead pressed to yours. âYouâre goâgonna get hot againâŠâ
You shook your head, smiling through the haze of pleasure still coiling in your belly. Your voice dropped to a sultry whisper, lips brushing his as you said, âNot if my legs are on your shoulders and youâre fucking me with my hips on the edge of the bed.â His entire body shuddered. His throat bobbed in a tight, desperate swallow. He didnât even respond. Justâmoved.
His shirt was off in seconds, ripped over his head and tossed somewhere you didnât care about. You moaned at the sight.
You always moaned at the sight.
His chest was flushed and glowing, the heat making every line of him more vividâshoulders broad, chest rising fast, his skin glistening with sweat and want. And thenâhis shorts dropped. He stepped out of them like he was shedding a burden. His cock sprang free, hard and leaking, twitching at the air between you. He was painfully ready, his tip flushed, veins prominent along the shaft, his body trembling with restraint he no longer seemed interested in holding.
And stillâhe looked at you like you were a miracle.
He kissed you again before you could speak, devouring your mouth with a groan, hands gripping your hips with reverent, aching need.
Bob pulled back just enough to breathe, his forehead still resting against yours, his chest rising and falling with ragged urgency. His blue eyes flicked over your face, searching, drinking you in like you might vanish if he blinked. You could feel the tremble in his thighs, the barely-restrained hunger in the way his grip tightened on your hips.
Thenâgentlyâhe guided you backward.
Your body yielded beneath his touch, melting into the mattress as your back met the damp sheets. The towel beneath you was bunched and wrinkled now, forgotten. All that mattered was him. The way he looked at you like you were something sacred, and the reverent hush that settled over the room as he bent to his knees on the bed, positioning himself above you.
He slid one arm beneath your thigh, guiding your hips down the bed ever so slightly, adjusting your body with the same care one might use to arrange something fragileâsomething precious. His touch was patient, but deliberate, until your hips were at the edge of the mattress and your legs could rise, slow and trembling, to rest over his shoulders.
The moment your calves draped across his skin, he paused. His breath hitched. You watched the awe flash across his face as he looked down at youâcompletely bare, flushed, and glistening with sweat. Your fingers reached for his hand, and he found yours instantly, weaving his fingers through yours, palms pressing tight like a lifeline.
Thenâ
He pressed his cock against your entrance.
The head of him was thick and hot, sliding slowly through your slick folds, smearing himself in the mess he had coaxed from you with ice and mouth and praise. He nudged your entrance gently, gliding in just enough to make your breath catch. Your lashes fluttered. His hips paused, trembling with restraint.
And thenâhe pushed.
You both moanedâbroken and breathlessâas he sank into you inch by inch. The stretch was slow, deliberate, perfect. His cock filled you in a way that made your whole body seize with need, the stretch burning just enough to make you tremble. He pressed forward until he was fully seated inside youâhis hips flush with yours, his body rigid above you, the head of him brushing so deep you swore you saw stars.
Your hand tightened in his. His head dropped slightly, lips parting with a shaky groan.
âF-fuckâŠYou feel so goodâŠâ He whispered, his voice hoarse, eyes screwed shut in overwhelmed bliss. Then, after a breathless second, he leaned down and kissed your calfâsoftly, reverentlyâbefore he started to move.
The first thrust was slow. Gentle. A pull and press that made your hips rock into his instinctively. He dragged his cock almost all the way out before easing back in, groaning at the way your walls clung to him.
You gasped, back arching. âBobâŠâ
He began a rhythm. Measured. Loving. Each thrust slow and deep, dragging against every aching spot inside you until your thighs were trembling and your core was fluttering with need. The sounds were obsceneâwet, slick, breathless. Every push of his hips made you gasp. Every roll of your body made him moan.
âFeel so perfect,â He panted, his free hand sliding to your waist to anchor you. âSo warmâŠSo fucking tightâŠFuckââ
He picked up the pace just slightly, hips rocking harder now, deeper. Your body jolted with each motion, the slap of skin against skin echoing beneath the hum of the useless fan in the corner.
Your walls began to pulse around him. You whimpered, breath shattering.
âIâmâIâm closeâŠâ
That was all it took for him to unravel a little more.
He let go of your hand and leaned down, bringing his weight forward until your knees were nearly touching your chest, his chest flush with yours, his mouth capturing yours in a kiss so hungry it knocked the breath out of you. He moaned into your mouth as he thrust harder, deeper, every drag of his cock stealing another cry from your throat.
Your legs tightened around his shoulders. His thrusts grew rougher, more desperate.
âIâm goâgonna finish so deep inside you,â He groaned into your mouth, voice low and trembling. âIâm gonna fill you up so fuckinâ deepâyouâre neânever going to get rid of me.â Your entire body convulsed.
The orgasm hit like a wave, hot and endless. Your mouth fell open in a soundless cry as your back arched off the bed and your walls clamped down around him, milking his cock with fluttering, pulsing waves of pure pleasure.
âFuckâfuck fuck fuckââ Bob gasped, his rhythm faltering. And thenâwith one final, deep thrustâhe came.
He buried himself to the hilt, cock twitching inside you as he spilled into you in thick, hot waves. You gasped as you felt itâhis cum filling you, warm and devastating, the heat of it flooding your already over-sensitized body. His cock pulsed with every spurt, deep inside, pressed right against your cervix. Your hands clutched his back, fingers digging into his shoulders as you gasped in pure, broken pleasure.
You could feel it.
The way it filled you. Coated you. Seeped so deep it felt like you were glowing from the inside out.
Bob moaned against your mouth, his hips stuttering once, twice, as he gave you the last of it, trembling. He stayed like that, buried in you, his forehead pressed to yours, your legs still locked over his shoulders.
The room was quiet but for the pantingâyour breaths, tangled and uneven, and his, rasping against your skin like wind through trees. Your hands slowly began tracing soft, lazy circles along his shoulders, fingertips dragging through the sweat and heat still clinging to his flushed skin. You could feel the way he was still tremblingâjust a littleâfrom the aftershocks. Every breath he took made his chest rise against yours, pressed so tightly together it was hard to tell where your heartbeat ended and his began.
And thenâhe laughed.
Quiet and disbelieving. Almost dazed.
You tilted your head, blinking up at him. âWhat?â
Bob shook his head, curls sticking adorably to his damp forehead, a flushed, crooked smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. His eyes were half-lidded but glowing.
âYou juâjust have so much control over meâŠâ He murmured, voice still breathless. âAnd I loâlove it so much.â
Your lips curled in a slow, sultry smirk. You kissed himâsoft and sensual, dragging your mouth across his like you had all the time in the world. You felt him melt into it, sighing, his hips still pressed to yours, his body heavy with contentment and heat.
Thenâslowlyâyou slipped your legs down from his shoulders. The stretch burned instantly, a ripple of dull ache shooting through your inner thighs. You let out a soft groan, your face twitching at the sting.
Bob pulled back, eyebrows immediately knitting in concern. âYou okay?â
You nodded, exhaling through the slight discomfort. âYeah. JustâŠa little sore from the position. I may be flexible during missions, but when I have the weight of you pressing into me like thatâŠâ You gave him a pointed, teasing look. âItâs a different story.â
He flushed at the implication, letting out a shy little laugh before you reached up and brushed a strand of damp hair from his forehead. Your fingers lingered on his cheek, tracing the curve of it with a tenderness that made his lashes flutter.
Bob leaned into your palm instinctively, eyes slipping shut. Then he cracked a smile again, eyes twinkling with something mischievous.
âYâknow whâwhat would be great?â He asked softly, voice low and hopeful.
You hummed. âWhat?â
He leaned forward until his nose brushed yours, his voice a conspiratorial whisper:
âA shower with you⊠Pr-Preferably a warm one. So neither of us are miserable.â
You huffed a laugh through your nose, shaking your head as affection welled up in your chest. âSounds goodâŠâ You whispered. âCan you carry me to the bathroom?â
His brows raised like youâd just told him the sun rose for him. âOf coâcourse,â he said with no hesitation, already shifting. âOnly you deserve the five star treatment.â
You let out a soft laugh as he gently pulled out, the stretch and warmth making you sigh, his cum slipping and pooling between your thighs with a hot, sticky glide. He moved carefully, placing a kiss on your collarbone before sliding his arms between your back and the mattress.
You yelped lightly as he scooped you up in one smooth motionâlike you weighed nothing at all. His strength was effortless, infused with the serum but wrapped in the gentleness that was uniquely Bob. He held you against his chest like you were precious cargo, one hand tucked under your knees, the other cradling your back.
You looped your arms around his neck, resting your chin on his shoulder, your lips finding the warm skin there in a soft kiss. He smiled at the contact, turning his head to nuzzle your temple as he carried you toward the bathroom.
With one foot, he kicked the door open, stepping over discarded clothes and damp towels without missing a beat. The bathroom light flicked on, flooding the space with soft golden glow. You heard the quiet thud of the door shutting behind him and the click of the lock.
The air inside was warm alreadyâtrapped heat lingering from earlier, but not unbearable. You felt it shift as Bob moved toward the shower and set you gently on the counterâs edge, making sure you were stable before reaching for the faucet.
The pipes groaned as the water sputtered to life. Within seconds, warm steam began curling in lazy tendrils from behind the frosted glass.
Bob turned back to you with a smile, silhouetted in the hazy light, and asked softly, âSh-shampoo or no shampoo?â
You grinned, eyes heavy, heart full.
âShampoo,â You murmured. âMight as well go for the full spa package.â
He chuckled, Bob turned back from the shelf with your preferred shampoo already in hand, fingers slick from the steam curling up around you both. He stepped into the shower first, testing the water with his wrist, then held a hand out for you to follow. You took it wordlessly, skin still flushed and legs still weak, letting him guide you under the cascade of warmth.
The water streamed down your back in lazy waves, soothing the tension from your spine as Bob gently eased your head back beneath the spray. His touch was careful, reverent. Once your hair was wet enough, he tipped the bottle, squeezing a dollop into his palm, and then set to work.
His fingers threaded through your scalp like he was touching something sacred, slow and deliberate, working the shampoo in with gentle pressure. He never scratched too hard, never rushed. It was more massage than anythingâhis knuckles dragging lazy circles, thumbs brushing along your hairline, his eyes locked onto you the whole time like you were the most important thing heâd ever been trusted to care for.
Just before he let you rinse, he leaned in againâlips pressing to your collarbone in a kiss so soft it barely registered, just heat and breath and affection. And then his voice, low and warm and dripping with adoration, spilled over you like another layer of steam.
âYouâre incredibleâŠSo fucking beautiful. Yo-You know that, right? So smartâŠSo strong, and you let meâlet me toâtouch you like this, hold you like this. God, Iâm so lucky. You taste like the sun. You feel like home. You make everything good againâŠâ
You huffed a soft breath, overwhelmed and flustered, tilting your head just slightly to rinse the lather away. Bobâs hands helped guide the water down, careful not to splash you in the face. When you blinked through the droplets, still breathless from how he spoke like worship poured from his chest, you couldnât help but murmur:
âYouâre always so soft after sex.â
Bob stilled behind you for a moment, as if processing it. Then he leaned forward, voice tinged with surprise and a faint, teasing pout. âAm I no-not soft any other times?â
You laughed, turning in the warm spray to face him, droplets beading along his flushed collarbones. âYouâre soft other times, Bob. But youâre way more soft after sex. LikeâŠMelted marshmallow soft.â
He grinned, cheeks going red as he ducked his head slightly, the water slicking his hair to his forehead. âWellâŠWe are releasing bo-bonding hormones, soâŠâ He said with a small shrug, âHow could I not want to be attached to you and be soâsoft with you?â
You stepped closer, chest brushing his. Your lips met his in a warm, lingering kiss, water slipping between you as your hands smoothed up his arms. âYouâre rightâŠâ
What followed was a slow, shared ritual of care. Bob washed your body in sections, treating each limb like it deserved a love letter. He murmured praise against your shoulder, your belly, the back of your knee. His hands glided with reverence, touching as if your skin might flake away like ash if he wasnât gentle. And when it was your turn, you returned the careârubbing slow circles into his broad back, tracing over his chest, lathering his curls with the same tenderness heâd shown you.
âYou smell like sunshine and sin,â he whispered as you rinsed him off. âLike citrus and heaven. Like something Iâm not supposed to touch, but I get to anyway.â
You giggled softly, pressing your lips to his neck. âYouâre insufferable.â
âYou love it,â He breathed, eyes glowing.
You were just about to pull him into another kissâforeheads close, smiles sticky sweetâwhen a shout rang out through the compound, muffled by walls but unmistakably furious:
âWHO TOUCHED MY BAG OF ICE!?â
You both froze.
Then, slowly, your gazes turned toward each otherâeyes wide, lips twitching.
ââŠOh no,â You whispered.
Bobâs eyes went round with guilt. âI-Iâll buy her another oneââ
âSheâs gonna kill us,â You said flatly.
And then the both of you burst out laughing, muffling the sound in each otherâs shoulders as the water kept streaming, and the heat of the Watchtower still pressed in around youâbut somehow, in that tiny sanctuary of steam and love and whispered giggles, you barely felt it anymore.
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Pairing: The Sentry/Bob/Robert Reynolds/The Void x Enhanced!Thunderbolts!Fem!Reader!
Summary: After the incident with Walker, Sentry becomes your unofficial sparring partner during your training sessions. (Sequel to âGood Griefâ)
Warnings 18+ Minors DNI! Smut and Fluff, Depictions of fighting, Sentry is being a little too overprotective, and Sentry volunteers to be your training dummy (cause heâs got a little crush), Sentry and the reader evidently have a bond, itâs evident (Bob doesnât make an appearance, this is full Sentry)
Smut Warnings: Unprotected P in V Sex, Body Worship, Overstimulation, Hair Pulling, Sentry is literally a god who kneels đ€·đ»ââïžwhat can I say? Need I say more?, Shower Sex, Fingering, Biting (with intentions to mark and claim), Oral Sex (female receiving), Dirty Talk
Authorâs Note: I had two different requests for Sentry smut and they were both fairly similar and they were both anon's...And on top of that they fit really well with this story! Fantastic for me, I just combined them! Thank you for reading and I hope yâall enjoy <3
Word Count:10,002
Sentry stood in the middle of the training room, unmoving, watching as you wrapped your hands with slow, distracted care. Not a word passed between the two of you, just silent glances from you to him. He didnât shift, didnât blink, didnât so much as adjust the angle of his stance. He just stood there, solid and patient, like a monument forged from fire and waiting for someone who was brave enough to strike it.
His presence was gravity incarnate.
You could feel it coiling tight in the air, bending the atmosphere toward him like everything in the room was caught in a sort of orbit. He wasnât glowing the way he sometimes did when adrenaline flared or when his power leaked through the cracks of Bob. There was no blinding light, or burning heat. But he radiated something much quieter. Heavier. It was the kind of silent energy that didnât demand attentionâit commanded itâŠJust like any God commanded their followers to go to war for them.
The fluorescents above him buzzed faintly, and then one flickeredâtwiceâbefore dimming into a low, stuttering pulse. The light didnât break entirely. It just hesitated, like even the electricity was aware of who stood beneath it. As if the current in the walls had paused to watch him too.
The air was warmâtoo warm for a room this size with the ventilation system running. There was a faint smell of ozone lingering beneath the cleanerâs citrus scent. Not sharp, not overwhelming, but present. You tasted it when you inhaled. It sat on the back of your tongue like a storm about to break.
He wore the simplest thing possibleâgrey sweatpants hanging low and loose on his hips, the drawstring frayed and untied, cuffs brushing the tops of his bare feet. His black t-shirt looked worn, lived-in, the hem slightly uneven and the sleeves clinging too well to the thick lines of his arms. It wasnât flashy. It wasnât tactical. It looked like something pulled from the top of his drawer that morningâand yet on him, it looked almost ceremonial.
Casual clothing on an apocalyptic being. The softness of the fabric clinging to muscle so dense it might as well have been marble. And still, he stood there like a temple waiting to be tested. Not arrogant. Not restless.
Just ready.
The mat beneath him didnât creak. It didnât shift. But you could feel the weight of him in your spineâlike if he took a step, the sound would echo down into the foundation of the building.
You tightened the last loop of tape around your knuckles, pulse beginning to riseânot from effort, but from proximity. From the way his gaze held you. Not predatory. Not curious. Just fixedâlike your movements were the only things keeping the world spinning, and if you stopped wrapping your hands, something ancient and dangerous might uncoil.
You exhaled slowly and finally looked up, catching his golden kissed eyes.
They didnât waver.
âIs this seriously necessary?â You asked, voice rough with disbelief. âI didnât get hurt, Sentry. I literally got the wind knocked out of me for a few minutes. You canât just ban me from training with other people.â
Still, he didnât move. His weight remained balanced, his stance loose, but every inch of him alert.
âIâm not banning you,â He said evenly. âIâm replacing them.â
You let out a quiet, incredulous breath and rose to your feet, stepping fully onto the mat. âOh, thatâs not the same thing at all,â You muttered sarcastically. âYouâre not banning me, youâre just volunteering to be my sole sparring partner for the foreseeable future like thatâs not completelyââ
âIâm the safest option,â He interrupted, voice soft but unshakable. âYou know that.â You scoffed under your breath, stepping farther onto the mat until your toes brushed the edge of the taped centerline.
âIâm sure youâre the safest option,â You said, stretching your shoulder in a lazy roll, âbut I donât normally spar with people in general. The whole Walker and Bucky thing was literally one time. A flukeâŠYou know what that is right?â You asked, raising an eyebrow at him.
Sentry blinked once. Thenâdeadpan, voice laced with something dangerously close to sassâhe replied, âYes. I know what a fluke is.â
The corner of your mouth twitched.
Before you could speak again, he added, âBut have you ever thought maybeâŠI want to see what you can do?â
That made you pause.
You took a slow step forward, then anotherâonly closing half the distance between you, but it was enough to feel the tension in the air tighten, the warmth of him like a soft current against your skin.
âYou already see what I can do,â You countered, gaze steady on his. âYou watch me all the time. With Bob.â
He tilted his head slightly. The movement was subtle. Smooth.
âSee, thatâs not what I want thoughâŠâ He murmured. âMaybe I want to feel it.â
You stopped walking.
One foot planted, one slightly lifted mid-stepâlike something in you had gone still in response. Your brow rose, arms slowly crossing over your chest, muscles shifting beneath the fabric of your tank top.
âOkay,â You said carefully. âI think youâre overestimating my strength. Because Iâm pretty sure you wonât feel a single thing if I punch you.â You gestured broadly toward his chest, to the absurdly built wall of him standing there like a modern-day colossus in soft cotton. âIf I threw an anvil at you, I donât think youâd even blink. Itâd be like⊠a gust of wind blew too hard in your direction. A mild inconvenience.â
That made him smirk. Not teasing. Not ego-driven. JustâŠAmused. Like youâd said something that charmed him in a way he didnât quite know how to explain.
âWell,â He said, that golden glow flickering over his irisesâpulsing like a heartbeat almost, âYou havenât tried doing anything to me, have you?âA slow breath. A beat of quiet. âSo you wouldnât know how Iâd react.â
You stared at him for a moment longer than you meant to.
Then you exhaled and crossed your arms tighter. âOkay. FineâŠAre you going to fight back at least?â
âNo,â He replied quickly, âOf course not.â
âYouâre not even going to put up a challenge?â His silence was answer enough, but you pushed anyway, gesturing toward the training dummies lined up along the far wall.
âNow thatâs not realistic at all, Sentry. I would actually prefer to punch the dummy. At least it wobbles.â
He shook his headâjust onceâbut the motion was full-bodied, slow and deliberate, like a parent too tired to keep arguing with a child who refused to listen.
âIâd end up accidentally putting you through a wall if I fought back,â he said, the words a little too dry to be dramatic and far too sincere to be a joke. âAnd no, Iâm not exaggerating when I say that.â His golden eyes flicked over your face, unreadable but steady. âCanât you just go with it? For the love of God?â
You groaned loudly, letting your head fall back for a beat, eyes rolling toward the ceiling as if the cracked tiles might have an opinion.
Then you stepped forward again.
And again.
Until you were within reachâclose enough that the heat coming off him felt almost physical. Like a pulse. Like the sun was leaking out of him in slow, restrained breaths.
You didnât touch him. Not yet.
But your chest was rising a little faster now. Your heart thudding louder than it had any business doing. Because up close, the scale of him wasâŠImpossible. Even dressed down in soft cotton and loose sweatpants, he was still carved from something the universe had only built once.
âFine,â You muttered, the word slipping out like a reluctant surrender. Your fists dropped loosely to your sides. âBut if I break my hand on your chest, Iâm making you carry me to medbay.â
He didnât respond.
Didnât smile. Didnât tease.
He just stood there.
Still as stone.
Waiting.
You flexed your fingers once.
Then raised your fists.
You circled himâhalf a step, then another. Your bare feet were silent against the mat, but every motion sent a ripple through the silence like a blade carving through water. His head turned ever so slightly to follow your movement, but he didnât tense. Didnât shift.
He was perfectly relaxed.
You studied him.
His posture. His balance. The faint flicker of gold behind his eyes.
And thenâwithout warningâyou struck.
A clean, tight right hook. Not full-force, not your strongest. But fast. Sharp. Enough to feel.
Your fist slammed into his sideâjust below the ribs, right at the spot where a normal opponent might recoil.
And he didnât even flinch.
Didnât blink. Didnât breathe.
It was like hitting the surface of something just this side of indestructible.
The impact reverberated through your knuckles and into your forearm, a shock of resistance that felt almost mechanical. The kind of hit that shouldâve yielded some reactionâbut instead, it justâŠLanded.
And stayed there.
Like youâd punched the hull of a goddamn battleship.
You hissed through your teeth, shaking out your fingers slightly as your feet adjusted on the mat.
âOkay,â You muttered under your breath, eyeing him, âThat was not a dummy.â
âDo it again,â Sentry said quietly, his voice low and steady like thunder just barely rumbling in the distance.
You looked at him for a moment, lips parted, then exhaled and rolled your shoulders back with a sigh. âYou sure? Iâm not exactly delivering haymakers here.â
âIâm sure.â
Another step forward. Your muscles adjusted on instinct, your stance falling into its natural rhythm. And then you swung again. And again.
Punch after punch landed against him with the same result: nothing. No shift. No stumble. Not even a ripple of tension in his frame. Just the steady, unflinching wall of him absorbing the strikes like they were wind brushing against a mountain.
But you kept going.
Because something about the way he stood there made you want to see if you could draw any sort of reaction. A grunt. A blink. A goddamn eyebrow raise. Anything.
The rhythm grew sharper. Your jaw set tighter. Sweat began to bead along your spine, down your temple. The sound of your fists hitting his chest echoed sharply across the training roomâthud, thud, thudâlike muffled war drums. Every strike reverberated back into your arm with bruising density, but you didnât stop.
You were breathing harder now.
And Sentry was still just⊠watching you.
Not bored. Not blank. He was studying youâlike a scholar with a sacred text. Like every move you made was worthy of reverence. There was a faint gleam of something pleased in his expression, golden irises flicking between the set of your shoulders and the tension in your clenched jaw, like he was cataloging every shift in your form with quiet admiration.
It wasnât desire. Not lust. Just awe.
And then, finally, you stepped back. Your arms hung loose at your sides, wrists sore and shoulders flushed with exertion. You shook out your hands with a grunt, sucking in a slow breath.
âI have a question for you,â you said, voice uneven from the effort.
Sentry straightened a fraction. Cleared his throat softly, like he hadnât spoken in a century.
âGo ahead.â
You stepped closerâagain. The heat between your bodies was tangible now. You stopped just short of brushing his chest with yours, close enough that you could feel the hum of him buzzing beneath the thin layer of his cotton shirt.
âYou and BobâŠâ you began slowly. âYou share thoughts, right? Like⊠You can talk to him inside his head?â
Sentry nodded once. Calm. âYes. Of course.â
He didnât ask where the question was goingâbut there was a subtle flicker of curiosity behind his gaze. A glint of wariness.
You tilted your head slightly.
âSo that means⊠You know what he thinks of me?â
That made something in his face change.
Not visiblyâbut internally. Like a shift in gravity.
His jaw tightened. His eyes narrowed, but not with anger. Just with the weight of knowing exactly what you meant.
âYes,â He said finally. âIsnât it obvious?â
You bit the inside of your cheek to keep from smiling, but it didnât quite work. A smirk tugged at the edge of your mouth anyway.
âJust wanted confirmation.â
He squinted at you suspiciously, head tilting. âI feel like youâre trying to set me up to say something that should be coming from Bob.â
âIâm not,â You said quickly, voice light. âI swear Iâm not. Iâm justâŠCurious. Thatâs all.â
You held his gaze for a beat, then let it slip for just a secondâjust long enough to flick down to his neck. He didnât miss it.
And when your eyes darted back up to his, there was something different there. A spark. A glint of mischief. A subtle shift in the air that sent a new ripple of heat down your spine.
âDo you guys share similarâŠâ You began slowly, teasingly, âWeaknesses?â
Sentry blinked. Cautious. Confused.
Then he huffed a quiet laugh, low and incredulous. âThat is where we differ. Iâm practically indestruââ
He didnât finish the sentence.
Because in one smooth movement, your fingers darted out and skated lightly up the side of his neckâjust under his jaw, where the skin was most sensitive to both BobâŠAnd him.
And the sound he madeâ
Was not godly.
It was sharp. Undignified. Somewhere between a yelp and a startled grunt, the kind of noise someone made when theyâd been caught off guard in the worst way. His whole body jerked back half a step, and his knees bent as if something in his godlike frame just short-circuited.
âJesus Christ,â Sentry hissed, glaring at you like youâd committed some sort of war crime.
You burst out laughing. Bent at the waist, arms braced on your thighs as the sound poured from you uncontrollably.
You couldnât breathe. Could barely talk.
Between wheezes, you managed, âI didnât expect you to react like thatâbut holy shitâitâs good to know that gods get ticklish sometimes too.â
He straightened slowly.
âGuess itâs one of the disadvantages,â He muttered, âOf being attached to Bob.â
You wiped your eyes, still grinning, as you leaned your weight back onto one foot.
âDamn,â You said breathlessly, âIf the team ever finds out about thisâŠâ
âThey wonât.â
You just smiled wider.
âSure, Sentry. Whatever you say.â His eyes narrowed as he straightened fully, his arms slowly dropping from where theyâd hovered in a mid-defensive reflex. His jaw clenched once, golden gaze burning hot beneath furrowed brows. There was no real danger in his postureâno spark of fury or divine wrathâbut something shifted in his voice, something dry and faintly amused.
âIt really seems like youâre trying to push me into fighting you.â
You raised your eyebrows, already taking a half-step backward with that same glint in your eye.
âWhat? Because Iâm probably going to go tell the entire team that Sentryâs ticklish like Bob?â You teased, voice light and sing-songy as you began to edge toward the door. âBecause I might casually bring it up at dinner next time Walker starts bragging about his bench press? âOh yeah? Well, Sentry can bench the moon, but he also squeals like a kid if you touch his neck.ââ
Sentry stared at you, the corner of his mouth twitching like he was fighting the urge to smileâor maybe grit his teeth.
You pointed a lazy finger at him as you backed up farther, heel tapping the edge of the mat.
âYou know Iâll do it. Iâll tell Yelena. Iâll tell Alexei. And heâll never let you live it down.â
His hands fell loosely to his sides, the veins in his forearms flexing subtly beneath the black sleeves as he took one slow step forward. The overhead lights buzzed againâjust onceâand then went completely still.
âAlright,â He said calmly, âYou asked for it.â You barely had time to register the words before he moved. You blinked.
And then ran.
A breathless laugh tore from your throat as you pivoted hard and booked it toward the exit, bare feet silent across the mat. You knew heâd followâbut you werenât expecting how fast. You barely made it five steps before the air shifted behind you.
He was there.
You didnât even hear him move.
Strong arms slipped around your waist, lifting you clean off your feet like it was nothing. You shriekedâhalf indignation, half delighted surpriseâand squirmed hard against him.
âPut me down!â
âNope,â Sentry grunted, voice steady with amusement. âYou opened this door.â
You twisted hard, elbow aiming for his ribsânot to hurt, just to annoy. He caught it easily, body flexing behind you as he adjusted his grip, lowering you just enough that your heels skimmed the mat. His chest was warm against your back, too warm, and you could feel the restrained strength in every inch of him. He wasnât trying to hurt you. He was holding you like something sacredâdelicately, even when your body writhed with every ounce of mischief you had left.
âI will scream,â You warned.
âIâm counting on it.â
You gasped-half laugh, half breathlessâand hooked your ankle around his shin to try and trip him. He didnât budge. Instead, his arm shifted, sliding up to wrap around your chest and pull you flush against him. You could feel the thunder of his pulse nowâburied deep behind the quiet of him. That cosmic stillness. It made your own heart race faster, like it was trying to match something much older, much heavier.
âGod, youâre obnoxious,â You huffed, yanking at his arm.
âYouâre the one who threatened to tell Alexei Iâm ticklish,â He countered.
âAnd I will!â
âThen I guess Iâm justified.â
You twisted in his hold, managing to face him fullyâand he let you. Didnât resist when you grabbed his shirt in both fists and tugged like it would help.
You were panting now, flushed and laughing, but there was a fire behind itâsomething not quite amusement. Not anymore.
He stared at you for a moment, his eyes glowing softly, shimmering with the classic Sentry gold.
You were so close your noses nearly brushed. Your chest rose and fell in fast, shallow pulls, brushing against his. One of his hands was still resting low on your side, fingers spread wideâgrounding you, maybe, or steadying himself.
You swallowed.
Your voice, when it came, was quieter. Rougher.
ââŠYou donât have to hold back this much.â
Sentryâs expression shifted. Not smug. Not surprised. Just sharpâwith awareness.
âI do,â He said simply. âBut it doesnât mean I donât want to see what youâre like⊠when youâre under pressure.â
You tilted your chin up, breath catching. âWhy?â
A pause.
And then:
âBecause I like how you burn when youâre pushed.â The air between you pulsed like something alive. Charged and hot and thrumming with everything neither of you had said. You didnât know if it was Bob in that second, or Sentry, or bothâbut you burned too.
You stared at his mouth. Then his throat. Then back to his eyes.
And he saw it.
He saw all of it.
Something clicked behind his gazeâsnapped, maybeâand suddenly his hand slid to the back of your neck, warm and sure and deliberate.
And then his mouth was on yours.
The kiss wasnât tentative.
It was hungry.
It hit like a gravitational collapseâlike the breathless moment between lightning and thunder, the second before a star goes supernova. His mouth claimed yours like he had waited centuries for this moment and wasnât going to waste a second of it. There was no soft warm-up, no gentle build. Just the press of lips that had held back too long and a low, almost feral sound from his chest as you kissed him back with everything you had.
Your hands curled in the front of his shirt, tugging him closer. His body pressed into yours like he was trying to memorize the exact shape of youâlike restraint was no longer an option.
Your back hit the nearest wallânot hard, just enough for him to anchor you there with the weight of him, arm braced beside your head. He broke the kiss only long enough to gasp against your mouth, voice shredded and low.
âYou have no idea what you do to us.â You barely had time to breathe before he continued, his voice rasped and reverent, breaking on the edges like it hurt to hold the words in.
âWhen you ask questions that you know the answers to.â The heat in his eyes didnât flicker. It burned steady. Fixed. Like he was looking at the only thing in existence that had ever managed to make him feel truly alive.
His hand was still cradling the back of your neckâthumb brushing slow arcs along your skin, grounding him as much as it grounded you. His other hand had settled at your waist again, fingers flexing, as though he didnât trust himself to hold you tighter.
And still he spoke, each word barely more than a breath, like a confession pulled from the center of a god.
âWhen you look at me like you see me. Not what I am. Not what I can do. JustâŠMe.â
You swallowed, chest rising fast against his.
He dipped his head slightly, golden eyes flickering over your mouth again.
âWhen you touch us like we are yoursâŠEven when we havenât even claimed you as suchâŠYet.â
And thenâ
He kissed you again.
But this time, you leaned into it.
Your fingers slid up his chest, over the slope of his shoulder, until they reached the nape of his neck and tangled in the softness of his light brown hair. You pulledâgently, but enough. Enough to make him groan against your mouth, low and wrecked, like your hands on him were something heâd dreamed of and denied himself for too long.
The sound vibrated into your jaw, into your throat, and you kissed him harder in response. Hungrier. The kind of kiss that made your knees soften and your lungs burn and your body ache.
He shifted thenâcloser, impossibly closerâhis hips brushing yours, his chest a wall of heat against your front. You were pinned between him and the wall now, not trapped, but held. Like he wanted to keep you there forever. Like you were a prayer he didnât know how to say out loud yet, but couldnât stop whispering beneath his skin.
Your hands fisted tighter in his hair, and he made that sound again, louder this time. His hand slid from your waist up your spine in a slow, aching drag that left you trembling, fingertips pressing between your shoulder blades like he needed to feel every part of you rising to meet him.
You gasped against his mouth, lips swollen and breathless, and he took that as an invitation to devour the sound, to kiss you deeper, and to drink from you.
And the truth wasâŠ
You both were starving.
For touch. For closeness. For something that didnât end in fear or retreat or silence. Something that pulled instead of pushed.
And now, here he wasâSentry, Bob, both of themâfinally holding you like you were the only thing in this world that had ever felt real.
And you didnât want to waste this moment on overthinking.
You didnât want to question it, to slow it down, to analyze the weight of his hand or the heat of his mouth or the way your body arched so desperately into hisâbecause for once, it all made sense. This wasnât strategy. This wasnât timing. This was inevitable.
The kiss became sloppy fast.
It was still all teeth and tongue and soft, panting sounds that echoed between the cracks of restraintâbut now your hands were dragging down the planes of his back, curling in the hem of that soft black shirt like you could pull him closer than physics allowed. He groaned into you again, louder this timeâricher, rougherâlike he hadnât realized how much he needed this until he had it, and now he didnât know how to stop.
Your legs shifted on instinctâwidening just slightly for balance as you arched into himâand he responded immediately.
Sentry shifted.
The movement was fluid and almost too smooth for something that carried this much desperation, but you didnât care. You barely even noticed the transitionâyour world had narrowed to the feel of him, the weight of his mouth, the stretch of your lungs trying to keep up.
You felt the moment his knees hit the mat.
The world tilted, and suddenly you were lowerâhis arms supporting you as your back hit the padded floor with a quiet, muffled thud.
And then he was over you.
Not crushing. Not smothering. Just thereâbraced on one arm, hovering above you with his chest heaving and his golden eyes wild, like he hadnât expected to find himself here either, but now that he was, there was no chance heâd leave.
Your hands cupped his jaw, thumbs brushing the warmth of his cheeks, and he leaned back down like he couldnât stay awayânot even for a second.
His mouth found yours again. Hot. Messy. Open. His tongue brushed against yours and you whimpered, breath catching as your hips lifted just slightly into the space between his. You werenât even thinking anymore. Not about the compound. Not about the team. Not about anything except him.
And thenâwithout warningâhe pulled back.
Only a few inches. But it was enough for the cold air to kiss your spit-slick lips. Enough to make your brows pinch with protest.
But Sentry was staring at you.
His eyes were wide. Dark with heat. Glowing with something that went beyond hunger.
He looked wrecked.
âDo you know,â He said softly, voice hoarse, âHow many times Iâve wanted to do that?â
Your breath hitched.
He shook his head slightly, chest still rising and falling like heâd just run a marathon. His voice dropped even lower.
âIâve imagined it in every damn room Iâve been in. The med bay, the kitchen, my room, your room, the living roomâŠFucking everywhere.â He let out a breathless laugh, pressed his forehead against yours. âI can barely breathe when youâre near me. I try to act normal, I try to just watch, like Bob does, like Iâm supposed toâbut itâs never enough.â You blinked, heart in your throat.
He leaned down again, brushing your jaw with his mouth.
âI think about your hands when youâre not here,â He murmured. âI think about the way you talk when youâre irritated. The way you look when youâre focused. How your voice sounds when you laugh. I remember every fucking sound youâve ever made.â
His mouth kissed a line down the side of your throatâhot, reverent, barely restrained. Your fingers dug into his shoulders, body arching into his like gravity was conspiring with him.
He lifted his head again, gaze locked to yours, barely more than a breath away.
âI think about touching you every time I close my eyes,â He whispered, âI think about what it would mean. To be yours.â You stared up at him, chest heaving beneath the weight of everything heâd just said. Everything heâd confessed. There was no filter in him now. No veil. No divine wall of restraint.
Just truth.
Raw and devastating.
And yours.
Your hands slid up the sides of his face, thumbs grazing the delicate dip beneath his cheekbones, palms cupping the sharp angles of his jaw like you were trying to hold the entire sun between your fingers. He leaned into the touchâstarved for itâand you surged forward.
You kissed him hard. Biting his bottom lip gently, tugging just enough to make his body jolt above yours, a sharp, shuddered groan escaping from deep in his chest.
Then, breathless, lips still brushing his, you whispered with a crooked smile:
âGod, you really know how to make a girl feel wanted, huh?â
That made him laugh.
Low and stunned and wrecked, like the sound had been dragged out of somewhere deep in his ribcage. His forehead dropped to yours for a beat, and he let out a warm, shaky exhale.
Then he kissed you againâharder this time, deeper, the kind of kiss that tasted like a thank-you and a promise and a claim all at once. One hand slid down your side to hook beneath your thigh, adjusting his body above yours, fitting himself to you with a precision that felt nothing short of divine.
âI could go on forever,â He said, voice low and thunder-warm, âAbout how much Iâve wanted you.â
His eyes flicked over your face like you were scripture carved into flesh.
âI could tell you how many times Iâve had to hold Bob back from saying your name in his sleep, how heâll flinch when someone says it in a hallway because his heart justâstops.â
He dipped his head, kissing the corner of your mouth like a prayer.
âI could tell you how he made me promise Iâd always be near. Always listening. Just in case you needed something he couldnât give fast enough.â
Another kissâyour jaw, your cheekbone, your temple.
âHe tethered us to you.â His voice dropped into something reverent. Barely audible. Worshipful. âNot out of fear. Not duty. But because his love for you has become instinct.â You didnât realize you were trembling until his hand was cupping your side, warm and grounding. Sentry felt itâfelt the way your body vibrated with something between overload and surrender, the way your breath stuttered beneath his palm. He shifted just enough to look at you properly again, his thumb dragging softly across your ribcage.
âYouâre shaking,â he murmured, not with concern, but awe. Like your reaction was the most sacred thing heâd ever witnessed.
âIâm fine,â you whispered back, though your voice cracked at the edges.
He searched your face for a beat, then dipped his head, pressing a gentle kiss beneath your jaw. Slower now. Calmer. He lingered there, lips barely brushing your skin, just breathing you in like he needed it to steady himself.
But you didnât want steady.
You wanted more.
And he could feel that too.
ââŠThis floor isnât exactly comfortable,â you said softly, your hands still buried in his hair, voice tinged with a breathless laugh. âAnd Iâm pretty sure youâre leaking nuclear heat through your t-shirt.â
He huffed, and the sound vibrated against your throat.
âIâm trying not to melt you.â
âToo late,â you murmured.
His mouth curved into a crooked smile against your neck. âCome with me,â he saidâquiet, but sure. âBefore I forget how to be gentle.â
You didnât ask where.
You didnât need to.
He rose slowly, cradling your hips with one arm as he guided you upright with him. His other hand stayed on your lower back, grounding, reverent. You stood together for a beat, close and flushed and breathing each other inâyour body barely keeping from leaning back into the mat out of sheer sensory overload.
But he kissed your forehead like a promise, and you followed when he took your hand.
The hallway was quiet.
He led you through it barefoot, fingers laced with yours, his other hand resting low on your spine to steady you whenever your steps faltered. The air felt cooler outside the training roomâbarely, but enough to raise a chill along your sweat-damp skin.
You didnât realize where he was leading you until the scent of clean steam and citrus hit your nose.
The locker room.
He pushed the door open gently, the fluorescent lights humming above, diffused by the quiet fog curling in the air. You hadnât even asked if anyone else was aroundâbut somehow, you knew they werenât. They wouldnât be.
Not right nowâespecially this early in the morning.
Sentry released your hand just long enough to walk over to one of the shower stalls. You heard the soft hiss of water turning onâheard the shift in his breathing when he adjusted the temperature with pinpoint care.
By the time he turned back to you, the steam was rising in slow tendrils around him.
His shirt clung damp to his chest, darkening in the heat. You watched the golden flicker in his eyes catch the haze and hold it there, like light bending for him alone.
You stepped toward him slowly.
âYou sure this isnât just adrenaline talking?â He shook his headâslowly, reverently, steam curling around his jaw like a shroud.
âPleaseâŠâ His voice was quiet. Unsteady in that way gods rarely allow themselves to be. âI think the admission of what we felt for you was long overdue. Itâs not the adrenaline talking.â
He stepped closer. Just one pace, but it made your breath catch in your throat.
Then he reached for the hem of his shirt.
It was wet nowâsticking to the hard lines of his torsoâbut he peeled it off in one fluid motion, revealing what you had only ever glimpsed in slivers beneath battle-torn fabric and half-buttoned uniforms. And even then, nothing had quite prepared you for this.
For him.
He looked like something carved out of devotion. Like a figure from myth brought to life in firelight and steam. Dense, sculpted muscle corded through his frame, every inch of him wrapped in strength that seemed impossible yet undeniable. Not exaggerated. Not grotesque. JustâŠPerfect in that terrifying, celestial way. His skin was flushed from the heat of the locker room, as steam caught along the slopes of his shoulders, trailing down the valley between his abs.
Your gaze traced the scars scattered across himâsome faint and faded, some darker, older, deep with memory. Not many. But enough. Enough to know that even gods bled sometimes.
And then there was the light. The quiet flicker of gold beneath his skin, pulsing faintly at his sternum and branching like veins of starlight across his chest. Glowing. Alive. Like divinity itself was trying to escape through him.
He was beautiful in a way that defied logic.
And you stared.
You had always wonderedâalways imagined. The way his shirts clung when he lifted something, the way muscles shifted in his back when he moved too quickly. Youâd dreamed of what was underneath, fantasized in quiet, guilty moments.
But now, there he was. Bared. Unashamed.
And he was looking at you.
Not demanding. Not expecting. JustâŠwaiting.
You swallowed, the heat rising in your cheeks as your fingers found the hem of your own tank top and slowly pulled it upward, peeling it away from your flushed skin. It slipped over your head in one smooth motionâand you stood bare-chested before him, breasts exposed to the low locker room light, skin flushed with effort and anticipation.
Sentryâs breath hitched audibly. You saw his jaw flex. His eyesâalready glowing faintlyâwent molten.
He didnât speak.
Didnât move.
Just stared at you like you were some divine vision made flesh. Like you were something sacred he was afraid to reach for in case he ruined it.
Then his eyes dropped.
You saw the moment they landed on your breasts. Saw the subtle twitch in his mouth as he bit the inside of his lower lipâhard. A sharp, restrained motion that made the muscle in his cheek jump. He didnât speak, but he exhaled roughly through his nose, like he was trying to calm a fire that had just started to roar.
Then, with one slow, fluid motion, he pushed his sweatpants and underwear down in a single breath.
And your brain short-circuited.
Because even semi-erect, he wasâŠBig.
Thick. Heavy. Perfectly shaped. You could already tell that when he was fully hard, it would be something else entirelyâsomething that bordered on surreal. And the way he carried itâno posturing, no arrogance, just naked truthâmade your thighs clench so hard you nearly gasped. It was instinct. A raw, involuntary reaction that ran straight down your spine and pooled low in your gut.
He caught the movement.
His gaze flicked from your legs back to your face, golden eyes smoldering with understanding. Hunger. But he didnât pounce. He didnât move forward or press his advantage.
He just let you look.
And maybe that was what undid you the most.
That even nowâeven with your nipples tightening under the locker room air, with your mouth parted and breath shallow, with your eyes darting back down to the weight of him hanging between his legsâhe waited. Like this wasnât about lust or claim or need.
It was about offering.
âTell me what you want,â He said, his voice low. Gravel rough. Unsteady in a way that told you he was holding himself back with every ounce of divine willpower he had.
âBecause Iâll give it to you,â He added. âAll of it. Anything. Just say the word.â
You stared at himâat the awe in his face, the restraint braided through every muscle in his bodyâand for a moment, you couldnât breathe.
Not from nerves.
Not from fear.
But from knowing.
Knowing that whatever this was, whatever it became, youâd never feel anything like it again.
Your lips parted.
âI want you,â you whispered. âAll of it. All of you.â
A beat. Your voice dipped lower, rougher, shy despite the heat rolling off your skin.
âBut more than that⊠I want you to do what you want to me.â
Something cracked in himâvisibly. A flicker of gold pulsed brighter across his chest, blooming in a stuttered vein of light over his collarbone like lightning caught beneath his skin.
And he breathed your name.
Once.
Just once.
Like it was a prayer too holy to say more than once without unraveling the world.
You took a small step back and hooked your thumbs in the waistband of your shorts, shimming them down your hips with quiet, fluid ease. They fell to the damp tile around your feet, and you stepped out of them with a soft exhale.
You were bare before him now.
No shields. No distance. No more questions.
Just youâand the way his eyes drank you in like he hadnât believed you were real until now.
Sentry moved before the silence had a chance to grow heavy.
His hand reached outâstrong, open, reverentâand he took yours like he was terrified you might change your mind if he moved too fast. His fingers curled around yours, warm and solid, grounding you even as he pulled you gently into the shower stall beside him.
And then the water hit.
Hot.
Steam curling instantly around your joined bodies.
And just like thatâ
His mouth was on yours.
Not rough. Not frenzied.
But urgent.
Like something eternal was unraveling behind his ribs and the only way to stop it was to feel your breath in his lungs. The kiss was full and deep, lips parting around each other with soaked, open-mouthed need as the water poured over both of you. His hands roamedâslowly, reverentlyâone skimming down the side of your waist, the other cradling the back of your head as he pressed you into him, skin to skin, heat to heat.
Your nipples brushed his chest and you whimpered against his mouth. His answering groan was low, ragged.
The kind of sound a man makes when devotion collides with desire.
He pulled back just far enough to look at you, his thumb brushing your cheek. Water ran down his face, catching the light stubble along his jaw and the ridges of his collarbone, tracing the light glowing faintly beneath his skin.
His voice was soft. Almost broken. âYou donât know what this means to me.â
âThen show meâŠâ You whispered. The water cascaded over your skin in steady, rhythmic sheets, hot enough to sting faintly where tension still lived in your muscles. Steam coiled around both of you, clinging to every surface, wrapping your bodies in something sacred and unseen. And he kissed you like the storm had broken inside him.
There was no hesitation now.
His mouth moved against yours with growing heatâmessy, wet, open, and needy. Every time your lips parted, he drank from you like he couldnât get enough, like the taste of you was something heâd craved since the moment Bob first laid eyes on you. You moaned into him when his hand slid down your waist and cupped the curve of your ass, squeezing with a low, desperate growl against your mouth.
His hips pressed forwardâslow, grinding, not to take, not yet, but to feel. To savor. His cock, heavy and flushed, dragged against your stomach as he kissed you deeper, your thighs trembling from the sheer tension rolling through your core.
And thenâhe broke the kiss.
Just barely.
Only enough to trail his lips along your jaw, then lowerâdown your neck, where the skin was flushed and damp, where your pulse pounded loud and hot. He kissed there once. Twice. Then again, teeth grazing just enough to make you gasp and tilt your head back against the tile.
âThat sound,â He whispered, his voice rasping low over your throat, âI want to hear it again.â
And he kissed lower.
Your breath caught.
His lips traced the arch of your collarbone, then down to the swell of your breastsâopen-mouthed, reverent kisses that dragged over your skin with unbearable heat. When his mouth closed around one nipple, tongue flicking and lips sealing tight, you gaspedâbody jolting forward, one hand flying to the back of his neck, the other bracing against the wall behind you.
âSentryââ You whimpered.
He moaned softly against your skin, the sound vibrating through your chest as he suckled just hard enough to make your knees tremble. Then he shifted to the other breast, lavishing the same wet, aching worship there, tongue teasing, lips tugging.
Your body arched against him, chasing every touch.
Every kiss.
And stillâhe moved lower.
Slow. Deliberate. Like he was reading you through his mouth, tasting every inch of what was his now, what heâd been denied for too long. He kissed down the slope of your stomach, tongue dipping to trace the curve of your navel, his hands anchoring you in place as your thighs trembled under the waterâs steady heat.
Then he knelt.
Slow. Controlled.
God-like.
The moment his knees hit the tile, it felt like worship. Like he was built to kneel here. For you.
The sight of him looking up from between your legsâhair plastered to his forehead, steam curling around his cheeks, eyes glowing gold beneath thick lashesâmade your lungs seize. One of his hands slid behind your thigh, lifting it gently, reverently, until your foot braced on the small edge of the bench beside you. He coaxed your leg up over his shoulder, eyes never leaving your face.
âIâll hold you,â he murmured, voice low and grounded. His palm pressed firm and warm to your hip, the other bracing your opposite thigh against the wall. âIâve got you.â
And then he leaned in.
You cried out softly the moment his mouth found the inside of your thighâkissing there first. Not rushing. Just dragging his lips across the tender flesh like he wanted to memorize the texture of your skin.
He nibbled gently, the scrape of his teeth just enough to make your hips twitch.
Then lower.
A breath against your folds.
Thenâhis mouth.
The first brush of his tongue made your whole body tense, spine pressing against the wall like it was the only thing keeping you upright. His lips parted around you and he groanedâloud and low and so deeply aroused it sounded like it had been pulled from his chest by gravity.
âYou tasteâŠâ He didnât finish the thought. Just moaned again and buried his mouth between your legs like he was starving.
You gasped, one hand flying to his hair, tangling in the soaked strands as your hips jerked forward.
His tongue moved slowâdragging through your folds with a precision that made your thighs clamp instinctively around his head. He didnât stop. Didnât falter. He just groaned into you, hands tightening their hold to keep you in place, and he began to work you open with steady, fluid movements. Licking. Tasting. Worshiping.
Every pass of his tongue was devastating.
Soft, then firm. A flick, then a slow, sucking kiss. He circled your clit with unbearable careâtaking his time, mapping you, learning you. And when he finally sealed his mouth around it and suckedâ
You moaned.
Loud.
High-pitched and wrecked, echoing off the tile, lost in the steam.
âFâFuckââ You gasped, your head hitting the wall behind you.
Sentry grunted at the sound, tongue flicking faster now, more precise. One of his hands left your hip and slid between your thighs, two fingers parting you gently, spreading you open as he devoured you. His mouth moved in time with his hand, tongue teasing, lips sealing, fingers slipping lowerâcoaxing you closer and closer to the edge with every devastating pass.
You couldnât think.
Couldnât breathe.
The world had narrowed to the heat of his mouth, the slip of his fingers, the weight of your leg trembling over his shoulder as he dragged moan after moan from your throat.
Your hips rolled on instinct.
Your fingers tightened in his hair.
And Sentry groaned against youâlouder this timeâlike your pleasure was fueling him. Like your moans were what he needed to keep breathing.
He pulled back just far enough to look up at you, lips soaked, eyes wild.
âLet go for me,â He whispered hoarsely. âI want to feel it.â
Then he buried his face in you againâtongue flicking against your clit in quick strokes, fingers curling, hitting just the right spots, and his entirety finding a rhythm so perfect it felt otherworldly.
And you shattered.
Your release hit hardâsharp, hot, trembling. Your cry echoed off the shower walls as your body seized, thighs trembling, hands gripping his hair like you might fall into the heat of him and never crawl back out. He held you through itâmouth never breaking contact, swallowing every moan, every quake of your body, drinking your pleasure like holy water.
Only when the aftershocks made your hips twitch did he finally ease back to look up at you. His mouth lingered just above your inner thigh, lips parted, breath hot against your trembling skin. You could still feel the aftershocks pulsing through your body, each one fainter than the last, but no less devastating. And Sentryâthis god of heat and reverenceâwas still kneeling between your legs, steady as stone, as though worshiping you wasnât something he wanted to do.
It was something he was made to do.
His fingers were still inside you, thrusting slow and deep, curling just right, coaxing soft, wrecked little gasps from your throat that you couldnât have swallowed even if you tried.
He kissed your hipbone, tender and warm.
Then he whispered, voice husky and low:
âGive me another.â
Your chest hitched. Your hand was still tangled in his soaked hair, your hips twitching each time his fingers pressed into that unbearable spot. You were so close to the edge already, but his voiceâthat voiceâit broke something in you.
âI want to watch you fall apart again,â He murmured, teeth grazing the hollow where your thigh met your pelvis. âI want to feel you break for me. To taste it. To swallow it down like it was made for me alone.â
You whimpered.
And he didnât stop.
âIâm not asking for much,â He rasped, lips moving like a hymn across your skin. âJust one more. One more time, and Iâll make it so good for you⊠youâll forget there was ever a world outside this.â
Your voice cracked. âY-YesâŠOkayâGod, yesâplease.â
That was all he needed.
His eyes burned goldâmolten and brightâand then he adjusted.
Slow, precise strength carried your other leg up over his other shoulder. He adjusted with you like it was effortless, like your weight was nothing to himâjust something sacred he got to carry. The wall steadied your back. He steadied everything else. You were open to him now, bare and flushed, your thighs trembling over his broad shoulders, your hands braced in his hair like you might fall to pieces if you let go.
And then he devoured you.
There was no teasing this time.
No hesitation.
Just need.
He pulled his fingers out of you, and replaced the emptiness with his mouth. His tongue plunged deep in you before dragging up in a slow, sinful flick that made your entire spine arch. You cried out, head falling back with a sharp thud against the tile, but he didnât stop. He held you thereâhands firm under your ass, keeping your hips tilted up, off the ground, pinned to the wall by nothing but his mouth and the carved weight of his divine strength.
He moaned into you, loudly, the sound vibrating straight through your core. Then his tongue found your clit againâslick and swollen and already aching from your last orgasmâand he wrapped his lips around it and sucked.
You screamed.
Your hands flew from the wall back into his hair, yanking hard, grinding forward instinctively, trying to press yourself deeper against his face. And he let you.
Noâhe welcomed it.
He groaned like it fed him, like your hips grinding into his mouth were the prayer heâd been waiting centuries to receive.
His tongue worked faster now, flicking and circling, relentless, worshipful, and when you moaned his name he made a sound youâd never heard from him before.
Unholy. Wrecked. Like heâd just been blessed.
He slipped his fingers back inside you againâcurling, thrusting, fucking into that perfect spot while his tongue ravaged your clit, every motion synced like a symphony of sin and praise.
You were crying, now.
Not in pain.
In pure, trembling pleasure.
Your thighs clenched around his head, your body lifting against the wall, barely tethered to earth by the strength of his grip and the heat of his mouth. His teeth grazed your clit and you shattered with a sob.
Your orgasm hit like a wave breaking over a cliffâhard, hot, unstoppable.
You screamed his name. Your hips jerked, bucked. You held his head to you like it was life or death, grinding against his mouth as your body convulsed through a release so sharp it made your vision white out.
And Sentry?
He groaned into your core like it was his reward. He kept his mouth on you through every twitch, every moan, every desperate grind. His fingers stayed buried, stroking you through the aftershocks until your cries softened into gasping whimpers and your thighs shook uncontrollably around his ears.
And only thenâonly thenâdid he slowly pull back.
He let your legs slide gently from his shoulders, your body trembling as your feet found the tile again, barely standing. But you didnât have time to breathe before you saw himâ
Lips slick. Face soaked in you. Gold eyes burning like wildfire as he slowly pulled his fingers out of your body.
And thenâ
He licked them clean.
One at a time.
Tongue dragging up each finger, slow and deliberate, moaning like you were ambrosia poured straight from the heavens.
âThat,â He rasped, licking the last drop from the web between his fingers, âwas the most divine fucking thing Iâve ever tasted.â
You stared.
You couldnât speak.
You could barely stand.
But your body was vibrating with heat and want and disbeliefâbecause no one had ever touched you like that. No one had looked at you like that. Like you were something sacred. Like your pleasure was a commandment.
Sentry rose to his full height, golden eyes flickering with restrained need as he looked down at youâsoaked, flushed, trembling, and utterly undone beneath the weight of his devotion.
His breath was ragged. Controlled, but only just.
And then, voice low and rough, he whispered:
âTaste yourself.â
He leaned inâslowly, reverentlyâand kissed you.
His mouth was slick, drenched with the echoes of your pleasure, and when your lips parted to meet his, you tasted it. The sweetness. The salt. The heat. You moaned softly into his mouth, and he swallowed the sound with a low, aching groan that rumbled against your chest like thunder curling behind the clouds.
He deepened the kiss, tongue sweeping into your mouth with deliberate, hungry care, like he was giving you everything he hadâeverything youâd poured into himânow returning it in full.
His hand rose to cradle your jaw, thumb brushing gently across your cheek, and the kiss turned hot, messy, intoxicating. You were gasping now, hands pressing against his chest, your body aching with the overwhelming desire to be filled, to be claimed. To be his in every way.
You broke the kiss with a soft gasp, panting against his lips.
Your voice trembled, desperate and sure.
âSentry, pleaseâŠPlease take me.â
His breath caught.
âMark me. Claim me. Make it so Iâm officially yours. I want to walk around and make sure people know who I belong to.â
The sound he made was something between a groan and a laughâa stunned, reverent huff that left his chest trembling.
He looked at you like he was seeing a miracle. Like the universe had answered every prayer he didnât know heâd made.
â I will carve my name into the marrow of your soul with every stroke, every breath, every cry of mine that fills you.â His hands slid beneath your thighs, and with effortless, godlike strength, he lifted you. Your legs wrapped around his waist instinctively, your arms clinging to his shoulders as your back pressed gently against the slick tile behind you. He held you there like you weighed nothingâlike you were made to be in his arms, always.
âYou want the world to know who you belong to?â He rasped against your throat, voice molten. âThen Iâll make sure they never question it again.â
His cock, thick and heavy, slid against your slick coreâhot and pulsing between your thighs. The sensation made your breath hitch, your hips rolling forward on instinct, chasing the contact.
âSentryââ
âIâve got you,â He whispered, kissing your jaw, your cheek, your mouth. âIâll always have you.â
And thenâslow, devastating, divineâhe pushed inside you.
You cried out, head falling back with a soft, strangled moan as your body stretched to take him. He was massive, thick and perfect, and the way he filled you made stars burst behind your eyes.
He stilled once he was buried deep, forehead pressed to yours, breathing heavy. Your nails dug into his back, thighs trembling where they wrapped around his hips. You whimpered, rolling your hips. âMoveâplease, justâfuck, moveââ
And he did.
He pulled out slow, just enough to make you clench, and then drove back in with a low, guttural moan that sent a tremor through your spine. His thrusts were deep. Measured. Devastating. Each one stole the air from your lungs, each one carved his presence deeper into your body like a brand.
The sound of your bodies meeting was wet, sinfulâechoing in the steamy air with every hard grind of his hips.
âYouâre mine,â He growled into your neck, biting gently where your pulse pounded. âSay it.â
âIâm yours,â You gasped, clinging to him like a lifeline. âIâve always been yours.â
His pace quickenedâthrusts growing hungrier, sharper, your back braced against the tile as he fucked into you with divine rhythm, every stroke hitting so deep it made your eyes roll back.
âYou take me so fucking well,â He groaned, his voice breaking, âSo perfect, so tight-God, you were made for meââ
Your cries filled the roomâhis name a mantra on your lips, every gasp an offering, every moan a confession.
You felt your climax building againâfast, furious, overwhelming. Your walls clenched tight around him and he let out a broken moan, his thrusts turning erratic. Each one punched a gasp from your lungs as he slammed up into you, the full weight of his strength braced into your hips, your back pressed tight to the slick tile. You clung to him like gravity had forgotten you existedâyour fingers buried in his soaked hair, tugging hard with every roll of your hips to meet his.
And he loved it.
âFuckâyes,â he groaned, his voice breaking against your throat. âPull harderâdonât stopâGod, I needââ
The sound of your slick heat swallowing him over and over again echoed off the steamy walls, and you couldâve swornâ
You heard it.
A soft sizzle in the air.
Not from the water.
From him.
From the radiant heat pouring off his skinâgolden veins pulsing beneath his shoulders, sweat and steam beading off his spine, chest glowing like a furnace that had reached the edge of combustion. It rolled off him in waves. The kind of heat that seared. That warned. That branded.
And thenâ
He bit you.
His mouth opened wide over the curve of your shoulder, and his teeth sank deep into the tender flesh thereânot teasing, not playful, but primal. Claiming.
You screamed.
Not from pain.
From devastation.
Your body seized violently against his, a sob torn from your throat as your climax ripped through you, sharp and fast and absolute. The pain and pleasure twisted together, blooming like fire through your blood. Your muscles locked, your walls clenching down so hard on him that he choked on a groan, arms trembling where he held you.
You could feel it.
His teeth.
Breaking skin.
Not deep enough to destroyâbut deep enough to mark. Permanently.
To scarâŠTo mark.
âYouâre all mine.â He grunted against your skin, voice shredded with need. You were already shaking, still riding the aftermath of your orgasm when he growled into your throat:
âIâm gonna fill you up.â
A savage thrust.
âI want it dripping down your thighs.â
Another.
Harder.
Deeper.
You moaned so loud your voice cracked, hips bucking helplessly as he thrust into you again, again, againâ
And then he buried himself to the hilt, grinding hard against your hips, and his forehead dropped to your burning shoulderâright over the mark heâd madeâas he let out a long, broken moan.
His body shuddered, muscles locking, cock throbbing deep inside you as he spilled into you with everything he had.
It was endless.
Hot. Heavy. Worshipful.
You could feel himâhis release pulsing inside you in thick waves, his breath stuttering against your skin, his hands shaking where they clutched your thighs like he didnât trust himself not to fall apart completely.
And he was falling apart.
You felt it in every twitch of his hips. Every tremble in his chest. Every wrecked, holy sound that escaped his throat as he stayed locked inside you, trembling from the force of his own climax.
âYouâreâŠFuckâYouâre everything,â He rasped, voice barely a whisper. âI donât care if I burn for this. Iâd burn again. A thousand times. Just to feel you like this.â
You clung to him, panting, overwhelmed, every nerve still humming.
And when his arms finally loosened and he kissed the wound heâd left on your shoulderâsoft, gentle, as though to apologize even while owning itâyour breath caught all over again.
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Summary: When you ask Bob Floyd to tutor you after not doing so well on your first Advanced Theoretical Physics test, you never expected him to say yes, nor did you expect him to be so enthusiastic to teach you the material either.
Warnings: 18+ Minors DNI! Smut and Fluff, Reader is an Engineering Major who is just trying to take a required elective that doesnât tank their average, Bob is a Physics Major who is an overachiever and is top of his class. We love a good tutor trope yâall, and technically itâs friends to lovers hehehehe
Smut Warnings: Unprotected P in V Sex (yâall, wrap it up), Bobâs a certified munchâŠWhat Can I Say? Itâs in the holy scripture lol, Oral Sex (fem! Receiving), Fingering, Dirty Talk, Teasing, Hair Pulling, Face Grinding, Bobâs got a bit of performance anxiety (and loves praise, but the man also likes worshipping hehehe), Breast Play, Bobâs giving sub vibes in this, Handjob (I donât think Iâm missing anything)
Authorâs Note: Alright. Alright. I heard the crowd lol. I heard the masses, and I finally got around to writing for THE Bob Floyd....And I came out guns blazing on this one. I hope itâs not a let down, I know yâall have been waiting for something from me regarding this cutie patootie, so Iâm glad I can please the masses đEnjoy!!! (Side note: Iâm not a physics major but I took a few courses here and there, donât strike me down if I donât get certain things right about the questions please! lol) This was also a request by @shewhocallstothestars but I did modify it a bit (hopefully that's okay.) đ
P.S: Evil stuff dropping this so casually on a Wednesday afternoon! Lol Surprise tho!
Word Count: 19,626 (HA!)
The first time Bob Floyd saw you, you were late for Advanced Theoretical Physics.
Not embarrassingly lateâbut just enough for the heavy lecture hall door to groan open and click shut behind you with a sound that echoed far too loudly in the cavernous space. Just enough to make the professor falter mid-sentence, his marker hovering above the whiteboard as heads turned in your direction like a wave.
Your chin stayed tucked, gaze low as you moved up the steps with a quick, purposeful stride that practically whispered âplease for the love of god donât look at me.â Still, it was a walk that carried weight. Not flustered or apologeticâjust sharp. Like you were used to showing up in the middle of things and moving through rooms without needing to explain why.
But even if you didnât owe anyone an apology, you didnât want the attention.
Especially not in the outfit you were wearing.
You didnât mean to put on anything eye-catching, but laundry day had come and gone without mercy. Between leading three straight days of exhausting freshman orientationâclipboard, whistle, and allâand trying to get your textbooks, syllabi, and housing situation in order before classes began, your options had run out. So youâd thrown on a slightly-too-tight zip-up hoodie, your collegeâs emblem half-hidden under the worn zipper, and the only clean bottom you had left: a black skirt you hadnât touched since the first day of summer.
It rode a little higher than you remembered, and paired with your bare legs and sneakers, it was far from inappropriate, but in a room where everyone else was in jeans and sweats, it made you feel seen. And not in a way you liked.
You spotted a half-empty row about midway up the lecture hall, three seats in from the aisle, and made a beeline for it, holding your skirt down as you made quick strides towards the spot that had your name written all over it. The weight of dozens of eyes prickled against your skin, but you kept moving, zeroed in on that opening like it might swallow you whole and hide you from the ogling stares.
Bob was seated near the end of that row.
His notebook was open, half a page of densely packed notes already filled in with that small, impossibly neat handwriting of his. A mechanical pencil twitched in his right hand as you approachedâstill mid-spin from the distraction you had caused. He looked like someone who took school seriously, but not obnoxiously so. His light brown hair was cropped short and a little mussed on the top, as though he hadnât quite decided whether to tame it or notâor the wind got to it and messed it up on the way to class.
He was wearing a white t-shirtâsimple, fitted just enough to hint at the softness of muscle underneath, but crisp in that way cotton gets when itâs been folded with care. Not stiff, but starched just slightly from the wash, like maybe he had just done his laundry the night before. His jeans were a classic blueânot faded or overly worn, but comfortably lived-in. No rips or frays.
His glasses were perched low on the bridge of his nose, the thin metal frames glinting faintly beneath the harsh overhead lightsâalmost silver against the warm tones of his skin. They sat just crooked enough to suggest heâd pushed them up one-handed without really thinking about it. Lenses wide and clear, catching reflections of the whiteboard, but not enough to shield the way his eyes flicked toward you the moment your footsteps slowed beside him.
He looked sun-kissed from the dying summerâlike August had clung to him a little longer than it should have. His skin was a shade deeper than it would be in a few weeksâ time, golden along his forearms and the high points of his face, like heâd spent the end of break outsideâon rooftops, maybe, or walking alone down sidewalks still radiating heat. His lips were a touch dry, his knuckles faintly rough. But he looked steady. Bright-eyed and well-rested. Like he wanted to start the semester with good intentions and achievable goals.
You stopped just beside himâhovering for half a second, your bag shifting on your shoulder as you nodded toward the empty seat a few spots in.
âSorry, just gotta get by,â You murmured, voice low and unassuming.
Bob looked up fully then and immediately shifted forward, pulling his legs in without hesitation. His knee brushed the underside of the desk as he tucked himself close to make room for you, the motion smooth but stiff like he hadnât quite expected you to speak to him. Or maybe he hadnât expected you to sound like thatâsoft, a little breathless from the walk up the gauntlet of steps, but still sharp.
You moved past him in one fluid step whispering a thanks, then your scent hit him.
It wasnât overpowering. It wasnât the cloying kind of perfume that lingered too long in a hallway. It was justâŠYou. Soft and sweet, but groundedâlike vanilla left to steep in warm skin, the subtle warmth of almond or cream trailing just behind it. Lotion maybe. Something gentle. Something worn, not sprayed on. Like it had been absorbed into your hoodie, your neck, the backs of your knees in the early September heat.
But then there was something brighter, just beneath itâlike sugar and citrus had melted into the mix. Not sharp. Not tart. Just the idea of lemon. A barely-there twist of brightness that reminded him of the first sip of a drink on a hot day. Cool. Balanced. Memorable.
It made Bob lose all his grip on the pencil in his hand, and made him straighten slightly, as his eyes glanced over to you slipping into the seat three down from his, holding your skirt against yourself so it didnât ride up when you settled. When you shiftedâonce, just enough to adjust your bag or maybe smooth your hoodieâhis eyes dropped quickly to your legs.
Bare and warm-looking in the stale lecture hall light. The skin smooth, catching little glints of reflection in a way that made him stare too long before he realized what he was doing.
His gaze jerked back up, and his pencil fell out of his hands. He fumbled to catch it before it rolled off the desk and clattered to the floor, and somehow he barely managed to do it. He cleared his throat so quietly that it didnât even echo under the dome of the lecture hall. And then he exhaled once, trying to shake off the heat that creeped up his neck, fingers curling tight around the side of his notebook.
You didnât look at him. Not once.
Not even when you pulled out your pen and your fresh, untouched notebook and started scribbling quick, efficient notes in handwriting he couldnât quite see. Not even when your fingers fidgeted once at the hem of your hoodie like you werenât sure if it was covering enough. Not even when you tilted your head slightly to the left, exposing the faint shape of your jaw and that one stubborn wisp of hair behind your ear.
You didnât look back.
But he couldnât stop glancing.
Every time there was a lull in the lectureâevery time the professor turned toward the whiteboard or paused to answer a question from across the roomâBobâs eyes slid sideways. Just for a second. Just to check.
He told himself it was just curiosity. That he hadnât seen you around before, and that this class wasnât usually the kind that brought in new faces. Not Advanced Theoretical Physics. Not on day one. And especially not someone like you.
You didnât fit the moldânot in the way you moved, not in the way you sat. There was a presence to you, even when you were quiet. Like you werenât just taking spaceâyou owned it. It made him curious. It made him distracted.
It made the last half of his notes nearly unreadable.
Heâd rewrite them later. He always did.
But heâd still remember the scent you left behind when you passed him. The subtle trace of sweetness and skin-warmed citrus that had settled in the air like something meant to haunt him.
And heâd remember that you never once looked back.
âââââââââ
You didnât speak to Bob until the third week of classes, when you got your first âminiâ test back and got hit with the harsh realities of the choice you had made in picking Advanced Theoretical Physics for your upper elective.
You got a 68. You had never got a 68 in your life.
Not in high school, not in your other college courses, not in anything that involved formulas or numbers or mental gymnastics you were usually proud to be good at. Being an engineering student was supposed to make classes like this feel natural. Calculation, logic, technical problem solvingâit was your bread and butter.
But this? This was humbling.
You stared down at the note the professor had written in red just beneath the grade:
âRevisit your derivationsâconceptual understanding needs tightening.â You didnât even know what the hell that meant. You had studied everything possible to prepare yourself, you knew you had been on the right track, there was no possible way this was the right grade. Your jaw flexed, and you tapped your pen once against the corner of your desk before you forced yourself to still.
You tried to breathe through the sting crawling up the back of your neck, the tightness that formed just under your ribs. This wasnât even a midtermâit wasnât supposed to matter. But to you, it did. You prided yourself on being able to handle anything. Being the kind of student professors leaned on. A leader. Someone who could run orientation like a sergeant and still ace quantum mechanics in the same week.
And here you were. With a 68 circled at the top of your page like a slap.
You let the paper fall face-down across your notebook and sighed hard through your nose.
Then you glanced over.
Three seats down, Bob was sitting quietly, glasses low on his nose again, flipping his test booklet over to the back like he wanted to get one more long look at it before class officially started.
You caught a glimpse of the front page as he didâand there it was. Written in the same red your grade was given in, unmistakable in the overhead light.
97.
Clean, confident. Circled big enough to make a statement.
He didnât look smug about it. Not exactly. But there was something in the way he stared at that number, his brows lifting faintly as if confirming to himself, Yeah, that sounds right. His lips were pressed together in a close-lipped smile, the kind people wear when theyâve worked hard and know it paid off. He tapped the eraser end of his pencil against the bottom of the page once. Then again.
Pleased as punch.
You didnât mean to keep staringâbut it was hard to look away.
His black t-shirt was tucked just barely into the waistband of his jeans today, like heâd rushed to get dressed but still managed to look clean and composed. His hair looked softer, freshly washed maybe, curling a little more than normal without any product in his hair. The sun-kissed flush along his cheekbones hadnât faded just yet, but it was slowly revealing little patches of paleness beneath it. The silver frames of his glasses caught the light again as he leaned slightly forward, flipping to a fresh page in his notebook to take pre-class notes even though nothing had started yet.
He wasâŠPrepared. Calm, and clearly good at this.
And you were not evidently.
You sat back slowly in your seat, gaze flicking toward the whiteboard, but your mind was still racing. Not with formulas. Not with panic. But with something slower, more deliberate.
You needed help. That much was obvious.
And unfortunatelyâor maybe fortunatelyâthe only person who hadnât fumbled through the last three weeks with shaky handwriting and unsure eyes was sitting just three seats away.
ThenâŠYou made a decision you never thought you would be making in a class you expected to be good in.
You were going to ask him for help.
It went against every fibre in your beingâthe pride you carried like a shield, the belief that if you just studied harder, dug deeper, figured it out on your own, youâd make it through. Thatâs how it had always worked before. You didnât need tutors. You didnât ask for things.
But your test score was still burning a hole through your notebook, and Bob Floyd was still sitting three seats down, calmly annotating equations while half the class looked like they were on the verge of weeping. He definitely had the highest mark and there was no denying that, and you had to pick his brain to see if you could emulate the same genius level thinking. Maybe there was a secret to it all, and he would somehow share it with you so you could make a quick recovery and still grasp honours at the end of the semesterâŠAt this point youâd take even the craziest solutions to save yourself from another embarrassing mark.
SoâŠYou waited until the end of the lecture.
It took everything in you not to bolt out the second the professor dismissed the room. You always left quicklyâefficientlyâavoiding the post-class shuffle of students with questions or headphones already in. But today you stayed seated, even as the sound of backpacks zipping and notebooks slamming shut rose around you like thunder. You didnât move, just flicked your pen closed and kept your eyes on the spiral binding of your notes until most of the room had emptied.
You packed up faster than usual, sweeping your things into your bag in quiet, practiced movementsâbut you left your test out, folded once, red ink still just barely visible beneath the crease. Your hands felt warm. A little clammy. The kind of nervous energy you hadnât felt since your very first midterm in undergrad. But you stood anyway.
Bob was still at his desk, leaning forward, transcribing the last few formulas the professor had scribbled across the bottom corner of the board. His notebook looked the same as alwaysâclean lines, small print, mechanical pencil pressed tight to the paper like he didnât know how to be imprecise.
You made your way down the row, test in hand, and stopped just short of his space. The words were already forming in your mouth, even before he noticed you.
You cleared your throat. âHey⊠Sorry to bother you. Youâre Bob, right?â
His head snapped up fast, and his eyes locked onto yours like he hadnât expected you to actually exist this close.
âUhâyeah,â He replied, âYeah. Bob Floyd.â
Youâd caught him off guard. You could tell by the way he blinked, like he had to reset. His mouth parted slightly, lips soft and chapped in the middle, and thenâalmost as if he remembered he was supposed to be someone in this momentâhe cleared his throat and sat up straighter.
âYouâreâŠY/N? Right?â
You nodded. âYeah.â
He held out his hand, a little unsure. âNice to meet you.â
You hesitated for a beatâbecause it wasnât every day someone in a physics class offered a handshakeâbut you took it. His palm was warm and dry, his grip a little firm at first, like he hadnât meant for it to feel that strong.
His fingers were long. His nails clean, almost manicured in a way that surprised you. His thumb brushed yours briefly, and for a second, the contact lingered just a little too long.
You let go, and Bob rubbed his hand on the knee of his jeans as you both sat in the pause that followed, air slightly charged.
You werenât wearing anything special todayâjust an old cropped t-shirt that rode up when you lifted your arms and a pair of low-slung sweatpants that had long since given up trying to cling to your hips. A hoodie hung open over it all, soft with wear. It wasnât much. Just lazy comfort. But something in the way Bobâs eyes dropped for half a secondâjust below the hem to a flicker of skin at your waistâtold you it wasnât invisible either.
He gulped again, trying to recover from being caught.
You cleared your throat. âSo, uh⊠I was wondering if you offer tutoring or something. I kinda bombed that first mini quiz.â His brows lifted over the rim of his glassesâan expression halfway between surprise and amusement.
âIâŠI donât offer it or anything,â He said, already fumbling a little, âBut I can help, if thatâs what youâre looking forâŠHow bad did you do?â He asked, trying not to assume the worst, but knowing there was a possibility he was going to see a fairly bad mark, judging by the conversations that happened behind him when the tests were handed out at the beginning of class. You flipped the test open toward him, and he stared at the 68, a smirk drawing up on his lips. He let out a short, soft laugh through his nose, more of a warm exhale than anything mean.
âI meanâŠItâs not great, but Iâve seen worse.â You raised your eyebrows at him and smirked faintly.
âHow comforting.â You mumbled. He shifted in his seat, thumb rubbing across the corner of his notebook like he wasnât sure what to do with his hands. His gaze didnât meet yours directly; it just hovered somewhere around your shoulder, your mouth, and your hair. He was still absorbing the fact you were in front of him asking to be tutored.
âI can definitely help you bring your grade up. Itâs early enough in the semester to get it back on track.â He explained. Something in his voice steadiedâlike the gears in his brain had finally clicked into place. Like this was territory he knew how to navigate. Structure. Process. Solutions. A small smile tugged at your lips. A breath of relief rushed through you before you could stop it.
âThank you so much,â You replied. And then, already leaning in with eagerness, âWhen can we get started?â Bob paused, chewing on the inside of his cheek as his eyes flicked slightly upwardâthinking, scanning the mental file cabinet of his day.
âWe could do todayâŠYou could meet me at the library,â He suggested, after a second, âI'm free after four.â You wrinkled your nose a little, already shaking your head.
âThe libraryâs kind of a distraction for me,â You admitted. âItâs always too loudâsomeoneâs always coughing or typing like theyâre in a race. Even the reserved study roomsâŠI donât know, it never really works for me.â
Bob tilted his head a little, listening closely, waiting for you to present a different option.
You hesitated for just a second before offering, more carefully now, âIf you feel okay with itâŠWe could study at my dorm? Itâs definitely quieter. And thereâs not much to get distracted by.â
You didnât say it with any kind of tone. No flirt, no implication. Just facts. Just a space.
But Bobâs throat tightened anyway.
His mind, helpful as ever, immediately conjured the imageâyour dorm. What it looked like. What it might smell like. You curled up in your desk chair, with your hair pushed out of your face, sleeves rolled, and a half-empty mug of tea or coffee next to an open binder. Maybe your bed was still unmade. Maybe there was a bottle of lotion on your nightstand in the same scent that clung to you now, soft and sweet and skin-warmed.
He swallowed.
Hard.
Not because he had any ulterior motives. Not because he thought anything would happen. But because it had been a long time since heâd been invited into someoneâs space like that. A womanâs space. A woman like youâall sharp eyes and soft smiles, casual comfort and effortless pull.
âYeah,â He agreed, clearing his throat and nodding. âYeah, thatâs totally fine. If youâre comfortable with it.â
âI wouldnât have offered it if I wasnât,â You said easily, and the way you said itâso certain, so casualâmade something tighten low in his stomach again.
âOkay,â He replied, and he finally looked at you. His blue eyes were steady behind his glasses, a little glassy from the fluorescents, but locked on yours. âJust email me your dorm number. Iâll bring the notes, you bring the test, and weâll make a plan.â
You grinned, and god, it hit him like a sucker punch. Like something he hadnât braced for.
âDeal.â
And then you turned, backpack swinging over one shoulder, hoodie hem swaying against your hips as you made your way back up the aisle.
Bob sat still for a moment. Longer than he meant to.
He hadnât even packed up yet.
It took him another ten seconds before he finally exhaled, shoved his pencil into the spiral of his notebook, and muttered to himself under his breathâ
ââŠWay to make this hard for yourselfâŠYou dummy.â
ââââââââ
Your dorm wasnât anything glamorousâbut it was yours, and that made all the difference.
When you unlocked the door and pushed it open after class, you were immediately met with the familiar scent of fabric softener and the faint citrus-vanilla from the reed diffuser you kept on the dresser. The room was small, technically a single dorm, but it was just enough space for you to carve out your version of comfort. Still, as you stood in the doorway, backpack slipping off one shoulder, you looked around and immediately thought that there was no way in hell it was going to stay like this, especially with a guest coming over.
You dropped your bag near the door, and got to work immediately.
The bed was first. You hadnât made it this morningâjust rolled out with your alarm still going, one arm flung across your eyes as you reached blindly for your phone, groggy and unwilling to admit the day had started. The sheets were still tangled, your navy-blue comforter half-slid to the floor, the corner twisted around your foot in your sleep. You tugged it all back with quick, practiced tugs, smoothing the fitted sheet until the last of the sleep wrinkles vanished under your palm.
Your comforter had a faint rip in the seam on the left side near your hipâstitched up once, badly, with mismatched thread. Youâd done it the second week of your freshman year, the night youâd fallen asleep sobbing after a brutal call with your high school boyfriend, and woken up the next morning tangled so tightly in the blanket that it tore when you got up. You never fixed it properly. You kind of liked the scar.
You fluffed the single throw pillow you used for your headâan old one, pillowcase faded with soft clouds printed across pale blue fabric. Not the prettiest, but it felt like home. And the long body pillow you always fell asleep huggingâcream-colored, with one end slightly more smushed than the otherâwent right in its usual spot against the wall. A comfort thing. You didnât sleep well without it.
Then you moved to your desk.
It was more shelf than desk, sureâbut it held your brain in neat, tiny pieces. Notes, sticky tabs, a single battered wire basket for loose paper, and a coffee mug you never drank out of that just held highlighters, lip balm, and the same pair of scissors youâd had since high school. You stacked your textbooks neatlyâphysics, mechanics, one painfully dry thermodynamics manualâand slid your notebook on top, flipping it to the most recent page so Bob wouldnât see your chaotic post-lab scrawl from earlier in the week.
There was a Polaroid pinned to the corkboard just above the workspaceâone of you and your best friend from home, taken in your kitchen during winter break. You were both in pajamas, mid-laugh, a sliver of frosting from a baking experiment smeared across your nose. You paused for a moment, fixing the pin to straighten it, and sighed.
Your reed diffuser sat on the corner of the dresserâthree pale wooden sticks soaked in a warm citrus-vanilla scent that reminded you of summer mornings and freshly folded laundry. The bottle was nearly empty now. You shouldâve replaced it weeks ago, but you kept putting it off. There was something comforting about the familiar scent, even as it faded.
Near it sat a tiny glass tray shaped like a shell, where you kept rings you barely wore and two hair ties you always reached for. One had stretched out completely, the elastic barely holding togetherâbut you refused to throw it away. It had survived too many late-night study sessions, too many chaotic mornings before class. It had history.
You lit your desk lampâthe one with the soft yellow bulb, not the bright blue-white you hated. It cast a glow across the room that made it look gentler, less like a dorm and more like a nook carved from a novel. Cozy. Private. You turned off the overhead light and stood there for a second, letting yourself just look. The soft shadows, the freshly made bed, the diffuserâs scent hanging lightly in the air.
You sigh, satisfied with your work, eyes scanning over the room once more. Everything was in its place. Not perfect, maybeâbut it looked lived in, cared for, warm. It looked like you.
With that final breath of approval, you turned toward the door tucked just beside your dresserâthe greatest stroke of luck youâd had all year.
An attached bathroom.
Single dorms were hard enough to land as a second-year, but a single with a private bathroom? That was near mythic. Your RA had called it the âhousing lottery jackpot,â and you hadnât argued. No communal showers meant no mildew smell clinging to your towel, no forgotten flip-flops, andâbest of allâno awkward small talk with girls brushing their teeth beside you at midnight.
You stepped inside, shutting the door behind you with a soft click, and reached for your phone on the counter. 3:30 PM. Forty-five minutes, give or take.
Bob said âafter four,â but something told you he wasnât the type to be late. You werenât sure if that meant heâd be earlyâbut either way, you werenât risking being caught in your towel when he showed up at your door.
Without much thought, you tugged your clothes off in a few quick motions and tossed them into the hamper tucked beside the sink. The hoodie fell in a heap, the fabric heavy with the dayâs wear. Your cropped t-shirt was damp at the neckline, your waistband creased from sitting through the afternoon lecture. It all smelled faintly of the campus and the late-summer airâsun-warmed concrete, paper, and the barest hint of classroom chalk.
You flicked on the fan and twisted the shower knob until the water reached the right balance of hotâjust shy of scalding.
Steam bloomed in the narrow space like it had been waiting, curling along the top of the curtain and fogging the mirror in soft, slow layers. You stepped in, letting the heat rush over your shoulders in a way that made your muscles go slack and your eyelids flutter briefly closed. You werenât indulging, not really. You just needed to rinse the day awayâstrip it off like a second skin, let the tension from your shoulders drain down the tiles and vanish with the suds.
While the water beat down over the back of your neck, your thoughts began to drift.
Even though this was just a tutoring sessionâjust notes, formulas, and a second chance at a first impressionâit felt bigger than that.
You hadnât brought a guy into your room in months.
Not since youâd drawn that invisible line in the sandâthe one that said: this space is mine and mine only. Not since you started guarding your time, your energy, and your peace. You werenât a prudeâfar from it. You werenât closed off either. You justâŠStopped inviting chaos into your life. And sometimes, chaos looked like someone elseâs backpack thrown on your floor, someone elseâs hand on your thigh or under the waistband of your sweatpants, or someone elseâs voice asking, âDo you mind if I crash here tonight?â
You didnât miss it.
But stillâwhen you looked Bob Floyd in the eyes and suggested your dorm like it was no big deal, like it didnât mean anythingâsomething in your chest had fluttered. Not panic. Not excitement. Just a shift.
A crack in the routine.
Now, standing under the steaming pulse of your shower, with the scent of citrus shampoo rising like vapor and the water cascading down your spine, you realized you hadnât really prepared yourself for that part.
Bob Floyd. In your dorm. Sitting on your bed, or at your deskâŠBreathing in your space.
You didnât think it would be weird. He didnât seem like the type to make things uncomfortable. If anything, he seemed like the kind of guy whoâd knock twice even after you told him the door was open. He was polite. Mild-mannered. A little tightly wound in a way that made you think he probably alphabetized his class folders.
But you didnât know him.
And it was dawning on you, as you tilted your face into the stream and let it blur your vision with heat, that this was only the second conversation youâd had with him. Two conversations, and now you were inviting him into the most intimate space a student could haveâyour dorm. Your bedroom. Your sanctuary. A place where your throw blanket still held the scent of last weekâs laundry, and where your pillowcase had that faint stretch of mascara from the night you fell asleep before washing your face.
What if he thought it was messy?
What if he thought you were messy?
What if he saw the tangled cords beside your bed or the half-finished cup of coffee on your nightstand and assumed you were the kind of person who couldnât get it togetherâeven when your whole reputation said otherwise?
What if he looked at your 68 again, and thought you were dumb suddenly?
You hated that thought most of all.
You werenât dumb. You knew you werenât. You were sharp, resilient, calculated when it matteredâand still, you wondered if heâd already made up his mind about you. Academic ego like hisâ97s without breaking a sweatâprobably came with an equally inflated sense of who could keep up. Maybe he was too polite to say it, but what if he thought you were just another pretty girl in a hard class, grasping for help she hadnât earned?
You scrubbed your hands over your scalp trying to shake the thought loose, because it didnât matter what he thought.
Right?
Youâd asked for help. That was the whole point. And heâd agreed. Heâd said yes without hesitationâwell, after a small nervous stammer, but still. Heâd seemed open. Kind, even. And if you were being honest with yourselfâand not just stewing in self-preservationâyou didnât think he saw you that way. Not as dense. Not as helpless. If anything, he seemed genuinely surprised that youâd asked him at all. Like he hadnât expected someone like you to even talk to someone like him.
You rinsed the last remnants of soap and shampoo off your body, letting the moment pass.
You werenât going to overthink this.
He was coming over, he was going to sit down. You were going to go through your test and try and work through the incorrect answers, maybe laugh once or twice, and youâd be one step closer to not failing this class.
That was it.
You shut off the water, the sudden silence deafening in the tiny bathroom.
Steam clung to every surface. You wiped your hand across the mirror, catching your own reflection looking back at youâa few beads of water dripping from your hair, over your collarbones, down over your breasts, the light reflecting off of them like little glowing orbs.
You wrapped yourself in a towel, padded out onto the tile, and toweled your hair dry with slow, deliberate motions. Youâd keep things light. Professional. Youâd study. Youâd ask questions. Youâd nod along when he explained something that made sense. And thenâ
You paused.
Then maybeâŠMaybe youâd ask what his secret was. The 97. The sharp notes. The calm in his hands. The look in his eyes when he first saw you walking up those lecture hall stairs. Not because you wanted anything from it.
But because part of you was justâŠCurious.
You stepped out of the bathroom wrapped in the last traces of damp heat, the steam still clinging faintly to your skin like a second breath. The scent of your shampoo followed you into the roomâlight citrus, clean warmth, a kind of quiet comfortâand you padded barefoot across the tile, leaving soft marks on the floor that vanished almost as soon as they appeared.
Your eyes flicked to the digital clock on your nightstand.
3:55 PM.
Of course it was. Right on the edge of too early, which meant Bob would probably be here right on timeâmaybe even five minutes ahead, just to be polite. Just to prove he meant it when he said he took this seriously.
You crossed the room in quick, practiced steps, flipping through your clothes without ceremony. You didnât want to overthink it. You couldnât overthink it. You were still a little warm from the shower, your skin flushed and hair damp, and the last thing you needed was to feel sweat pooling under a too-thick hoodie while trying to understand whatever theoretical mind game was about to come your way.
So you grabbed a soft t-shirtâa light heather grey, already worn thin in spots from too many washesâand a pair of black workout shorts that hit mid-thigh. Functional. Comfortable. No-nonsense. You pulled them on in a few quick motions, not bothering with makeup or overthinking how the shorts made your legs look in the soft afternoon light that filtered through the slits of your blinds. It wasnât about that.
You hung up your towels quickly on the hook by the door, turned to your desk, and yanked open the middle drawer with a quiet clatter. Your whiteboard markers were all crammed into a cup at the backâcaps loose, labels fading. You pulled out four of themâblue, green, red, and blackâand lined them up on your desk next to your notebook like youâd planned it that way all along. Some kind of subconscious need for control, maybe. Or maybe you just didnât want Bob to see you fumbling for supplies mid-conversation.
Then you reached for the test. The test. The damn 68, still folded and creased and red-inked like a bruise on paper. You slapped it onto the desk with a sigh, the sound small but sharp in the quiet of the room. Your hands slid to your hips. You stared at it for a long second.
This was where it would start. Hopefully where it would turn around.
And thenâjust as your breath settled and you were about to pull your chair outâ
Knock knock.
Two firm taps.
Not tentative. Not obnoxious. JustâŠPrecisely delivered. Like heâd rehearsed it.
You sighed. Not from dreadâbut from inevitability. From the knowledge that this, right here, was the moment it would all shift. You rolled your shoulders once, exhaled through your nose, and crossed the room in five brisk steps.
You pulled the door open.
And there he was.
Bob Floyd stood just outside, backpack slung over one shoulder, a black three-ring binder hugged awkwardly to his chest like he didnât quite know what to do with it. He had changed. He was wearing a navy t-shirt that clung just enough to his chest to remind you that he was broader than he looked seated in a lecture hall. His jeans were dark againâclean, cuffed slightly at the ankle because they were a little too long for his legsâand his sneakers looked freshly wiped down, as if heâd paused just outside the dorm building to rub them clean against the concrete.
His glasses were perched on his nose again, slightly fogged at the corners from the outside humidity. His hair was still a little mussed, like the wind had gotten to himâor maybe heâd run his hand through it on the walk over. His eyes met yours instantly, wide and a little unsure, like he was trying to memorize the moment.
âHey,â He said, and it came out just a little too soft.
You leaned against the doorframe, one hand curled around the edge of it, the other still resting lightly on your hip. You didnât mean to look casualâbut you did. Warm skin. Damp hair. Legs bare in your shorts. You were dressed like comfort, like late afternoon, like a version of home he wasnât expecting to see.
âHey,â You returned. A small smile tugged at your lips. âRight on time.â
âIâuh, yeah.â Bob adjusted the strap on his backpack like it gave him something to do. âDidnât wanna be early. Or, you know, too early. But also didnât wanna be late.â
You stepped aside. âYouâre good. Come on in.â
He hesitated just slightly before crossing the threshold, like he was stepping into a space that demanded a kind of reverence. And maybe, in a way, he was. His eyes swept the room instinctively, slow and deliberateânot nosey, just observant. His gaze skimmed over the bed, the desk, the glow of the warm lamp light, the closed bathroom door. Then back to you.
You watched him take it all in. The details. The neatness. The quiet hum of your diffuser still at work in the corner.
âThis isâŠNice,â He said finally. And he meant it. âLike, really nice. Kinda cozy.â
You smirked like you hadnât been panic cleaning for the past hour or two, âI try.âHe nodded once, still a little awestruck, like he wasnât entirely sure how heâd ended up here.
âSmells good tooâŠLike you baked something.â You raised an eyebrow at him and gave a small laugh, motioning behind him.
âItâs just my diffuser.â Bobâs gaze drifted toward the thin plume of steam rising from your dresser, his face going slightly blush.
âOhâŠâ He blinked. âDidnât notice that.â
The corners of his mouth twitched upward in a sheepish little smile, soft and crooked. He ran his palm over the front of his jeans like it might smooth over the awkward pause that followed.
You glanced over your shoulder at him, brow arched.
âWell,â You started, already moving toward your desk, âYou can sit anywhere youâd like. Iâm just gonna pull my whiteboard out so we have somewhere to work.â
He opened his mouthâmaybe to respond, maybe to stallâbut you cut in before the silence could return. âDo you want anything to drink? Iâve got water, Sprite, orâŠâ you paused with a shrug, âan emergency stash of energy drinks if youâre into heart palpitations.â
Bob let out a short laugh, ducking his head as his fingers scratched the back of his neck. âWaterâs good, thank you. Do you⊠need any help with anything?â
You shook your head with a quiet chuckle, already crouching to slide the whiteboard from behind your desk. âItâs all good, I got it.â
âYou sure?â
âIâm sure,â you replied with a grin. âJust get comfortable.â
Bob hesitated for a beatâthen nodded once and toed off his shoes with quiet care, tucking them neatly beside the frame of your bed. The soft creak of your mattress followed as he eased himself up onto it, adjusting his binder across his lap. He settled back against your pillows like someone trying not to disturb a shrine. His back met the wall in a slow, deliberate lean, shoulders squaring before his legs stretched out in front of him, one knee bent just slightly.
You were still crouched in front of your desk, tugging the whiteboard forward and flipping the eraser out of the marker tray with practiced ease. When you stood and propped the board upright against the far wallâangled so you could sit beside the bed and still reach itâBobâs gaze caught on you again.
He wasnât proud of it. But he couldnât help it.
The soft sheen on your legs caught the warm light from your desk lamp, the moisture from your shower still clinging in subtle streaks across your skin. Your shorts were tightâthey were the kind that followed the natural dip of your thighs when you bent forward, holding you in all the right places. Every angle pulled his attention. The curve where your hip met your waist, the shadow along the back of your knee when you adjusted your weight. You were only wearing a t-shirt and shorts, nothing scandalous, nothing remotely calculatedâbut Bob felt like he was seeing something private.
Like youâd invited him into something sacred and forgot to mention just how much of you lived here.
He cleared his throat and glanced out the window beside your bed, the blinds slatted just enough to let in the softest touch of late afternoon sun. The light was golden. Low. Hazy in the kind of way that made everything look suspended in time.
He told himself to focus. On the equations. On the test in your hand. On the notes in his binder.
Not on the way your legs moved when you crossed the room again, not on the lotion-sweet smell of you that lingered now even stronger than it had that first day in class, and not on the sight of youârelaxed and warm and totally unguardedâin a way he hadnât seen before.
You crossed the room with a bottle of water and handed it to him without fuss, and when your fingers brushed, he felt the jolt of it deep in his chest.
âThanks,â He said quietly, cradling the bottle like a peace offering.
You gave him a smile. Not teasing, not knowing. Just kind. Grounded. Unbothered.
And that made it worse somehow. Made it harder not to stare. Harder not to wonder what this was becoming, and how much trouble he was in already.
Because he could memorize equations. He could build models, ace problem sets, and calculate theoretical orbital mechanics in his sleep.
But none of that had prepared him for you.
You didnât sit right away.
Instead, you hovered just beside the whiteboard for a moment longer, the test clutched in your hand, thumb brushing over the red mark like maybe you could fade it out with friction alone. But Bob waited patientlyâquiet, composed, the bottle of water still nestled in his lap like he didnât quite know what to do with his hands yet.
You held the test out toward him. âAlright, letâs see how bad it really is.â
Bob offered a faint, crooked smile as he took the folded packet, careful not to smudge the corners with condensation from the bottle. He flipped it open to the first page, eyes scanning the first problem set. His gaze moved quicklyâbut not dismissively. He was reading, really reading, lips parting slightly as he traced your work with his eyes.
Then his brows lifted, just a touchânot surprise, but curiosity.
âCan youâŠâ He glanced up at you, the glint of his glasses catching the light again, âshow me how you got this answer? Go through it with meâŠI just want to pick your brain first. See your logic a bit.â
You hesitated, just for a beat.
Not because you didnât remember how you got the answer. You did. You remembered every painful minute of trying to pull it out of thin air, piecing together old lecture notes and half-remembered formulas from late-night readings. But the thought of speaking it out loud? Of saying it in front of him?
That part feltâŠVulnerable.
You bit the inside of your lip for a second, eyes flicking from the board to his face, then back again. Then, without a word, you bent down and picked up the black marker.
Bob leaned forward just slightly, shifting the binder onto the mattress beside him as you uncapped it with your teeth and started writing on the board. The soft squeak of dry erase on the surface filled the room.
âOkay,â You said finally, your voice steadier than you expected, âSo the question was asking about particle behavior in a non-inertial reference frame, right? So I assumed we were supposed to use the rotating frame model the prof showed us last week. The one with the centrifugal and Coriolis corrections?â Bob nodded slowly, eyes locked on the board, on your hand.
You started to drawâcarefully, neatly, the way you always did when trying to make sense of something. A circle. A line to represent the radius. Arrows for velocity, angular acceleration. You wrote out the base equation next to it, then began working through your substitutions.
âI plugged in the knowns here,â you continued, underlining as you spoke, âand then tried to isolate the pseudo-forcesâŠbut I think I misapplied the coordinate system. I used polar, but I think the solution assumed Cartesian.â
Bob made a small hum in the back of his throatâsoft, thoughtful. You glanced back at him.
He was watching you. Focused, engaged. Almost the look a professor would give when they saw potential flickering just beneath a studentâs mistake, and that made your throat tighten from the nerves that began to bubble over in your stomach.
Bob shifted again, the mattress dipping softly beneath his weight as he leaned forward, one hand braced on the bed beside his binder. âNo, thatâs good,â He murmured. âThatâs actually really good. You werenât wrong to try it that way. I think the issueâs just hereââHe reached for the red marker from your stack, uncapping it with a soft click.
âSee how you treated this term?â He pointed gently toward a partial derivative in your equation, careful not to touch the board. âYou factored it like it was independent, but because itâs nested in the rotating frame, it still has angular dependence. Thatâs what threw the rest off.â
You blinked at the board, then at him.
âWaitâŠSo if Iâd just accounted for the cross-product instead of canceling itâŠâ
âYou wouldâve landed within the margin of error,â He finished, smiling softly. âEasily a B. Maybe even B+ depending on how much partial credit he gave.â You stared at your own math like it had betrayed you and then slowly dropped your hand to your side, still holding the marker.
âThatâŠMakes so much more sense,â You said, voice a little quieter now. Not embarrassed. Just a little humbled.
Bob stood up slowly, the mattress giving a soft groan beneath him as he rose. His steps were quiet but sure as he moved to stand beside you at the whiteboard, marker still poised in his hand like a baton he didnât quite realize heâd taken control of. You stepped slightly to the side to give him space, though your shoulders still nearly brushed.
His voice came low, steady, as he started to rewrite the middle portion of your equation. His handwriting was sharp and balancedâblocky print with just a hint of slant, the kind of penmanship that spoke of hours spent copying down formula after formula with care.
âYour approach wasnât bad,â He started, glancing at you just briefly before continuing, âSeriously. You just went too fast on the middle step, thatâs allâŠAnd honestly?â He let out a breathy, half-laugh. âThatâs the part that gets everyone.â You let out a quiet, half-aware chuckleâmore breath than voice.
âWellâŠEvidently it doesnât get you. Youâre the one that got a 97.â
Bob flushed immediately. The back of his neck went pink first, then the tips of his ears. He ducked his head as he kept writing, though his next words carried a little laugh of their own.
âIâm a physics major,â He said. âSo I better be getting that mark or else Iâd be needing a refund from the school.â
You let out a real laugh at thatâlight, short, amusedâand crossed your arms loosely over your chest, watching him scribble through the rest of the correction with a kind of practiced rhythm.
âNo wonder youâre so good at thisâŠâ You muttered, more to yourself than him, but loud enough for him to catch.
Bobâs head tilted slightly toward you. âWhatâre you majoring in?â
You scratched the back of your neck, mildly self-conscious. âEngineering.â
He pausedâjust long enough to let the silence feel deliberateâand then let out a short, knowing laugh. âAhh. Now it makes sense.â
You raised a brow, narrowing your eyes in mock warning. âWhatâs that supposed to mean?â
âYou guys are chronic overthinkers,â He stated, like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
You scoffed, uncrossing your arms. âAnd you guys arenât? Please. Look at all the work you need to do just to get a simple solution. Two extra diagrams and four substitutions just to prove a particle moves left.â
He rolled his eyes, the kind of eye roll that had barely any edgeâjust enough sass to keep the playfulness alive. âLeast if I took an engineering course, Iâd still hit an 80 on the tests.â
You blinked at him. âWow. Bold of you to assume youâd survive statics.â
Bob turned toward you a little more, raising an eyebrow, eyes glittering behind the faint reflection on his glasses. âIâd thrive in statics.â
âOh, really?â you said, grinning now. âYou think you would have a handle on it?â He cleared his throat lightly and gave you a soft smirk, the corner of his mouth curling.
âMaybe if I had the right tutor.â You blinked once. And thenâŠSmiled.
He turned back to the board and finished the last line of the solution with a soft swipe of the marker.
âThere,â He said, voice quieter again. âThatâs how I did it.â
You stared at the board, then at him. The space between your shoulders eased a little. The knot in your chest began to loosen.
âWellâŠThatâs one question downâŠAt least I know where I went wrongâŠâ Bob nodded, tapping the cap of the red marker softly against his palm.
âLetâs go to the next one.â
You reached over to flip the test packet to the next problem set, fingers skimming over the thin paper before tugging the top page aside. The math was already crowding your visionâvariables stacked in tight lines, subscripts nestled between integrals and force vectorsâand you let out a breath as you raised the black marker again.
He stepped back slightly to give you room, standing just behind and to your left. You could feel the warmth of him, the quiet energy he held so close to his chest, just skimming your shoulder. You swiped the board clean with the eraser in a few broad, practiced strokes until nothing remained but the faint sheen of leftover marker ghosting the surface.
âIâm gonna admit,â You started, glancing at him from the corner of your eye, âI winged this one. So Iâm definitely not gonna have an explanation for it.â
Bob shrugged, unbothered. âThen solve it,â He said casually. âOr attempt to. Iâll guide if you need it.â
There was a subtle shift in his toneâsomething a little less guarded, a little more drawled than usual. A slight southern cadence that lilted through the last few words, soft but present, like a warm hush pulled from somewhere deeper than lecture hall confidence. You felt your cheeks heat slightly at the sound.
Still, you nodded. âAlright.â
You started from scratchâno notes, no copying, just your best attempt. The marker glided smoothly under your hand as you worked through the logic piece by piece, pausing every few steps to reassess. You murmured quietly to yourself as you went, instinctively talking through the math aloud, and Bob said nothingâjust watched. You could feel his eyes trace the path your gaze took, from the top of your diagram down through the first few steps of your math. Thenâ
âNope. Wrong,â He interrupted, it came gently but firmly.
You blinked at the board, your hand frozen mid-step, and let out a quiet sigh. âWhy?â
He stepped forward again, lifting the red marker. He didnât correct it for youâjust circled one specific term, the ink smooth and patient.
âThis,â He pointed out, âYou forgot to convert the mass into angular components. You treated it like a point mass.â
Your stomach sank just slightly. Not out of shame, but frustration. You dipped your head and started erasing that line.
âSorry,â You murmured, almost under your breath.
âNo need to apologize,â Bob said immediately, softer now. âThough Iâm hopinâ this stuff sinks inâŠâ
Your eyebrows knit, and you turned your head a little toward him. âDo you think it wonât?â
He shrugged, the barest lift of his shoulders. âIt takes a while to apply the theory. Knowing it in your headâs one thingâŠApplying it to a random question is something elseâŠBut being able to fix your own mistakes is the first step to understanding things a little better to apply things properly.â You nodded once, pressing your lips together. Then you went back to work, quieter now, more deliberate. He watched you fall into the rhythm of the solution again, only stepping back when you didnât seem to need his guidance. You could feel his eyes flicking down toward the test for a second before he moved behind you.
You heard the soft scrape of his hand over the textbook as he grabbed it from your desk, flipping it open with a practiced flick of his thumb. Pages whispered past each other as he navigated straight to the chapter youâd been tested onâlike heâd memorized the structure without even meaning to. His eyes scanned the problems, fingers tapping the margin of the page as he skimmed.
By the time he turned back around, you were capping the black marker with a little sigh of effort. âI think I got it?â
Bob came closer again and tilted his head to read your work. His gaze moved from line to line, his mouth twitching just slightly before he nodded.
âYeah. Yeah, you got it.â You caught the smile as it crept over his faceâunfiltered this time, soft and a little proud. He adjusted his glasses with one hand, pushing them up the bridge of his nose before holding out the textbook toward you, with his thumb slipped between the pages.
âTry number twelve,â He said, the corner of his mouth still lifted. âNew problem. Same concept. Letâs see what you remember.â Your eyes scanned the paragraph of setupâclassic physics problem: rotating frame, non-uniform mass distribution, some sly attempt to catch overconfident students slipping past the conversion factor. You clicked your tongue once and let your focus shift back to the whiteboard, grabbing the green marker this time.
He watched you moveâquiet, efficient, no hesitation as you picked apart the language of the question, breaking it into manageable parts. You leaned your hip against the desk just slightly, skin catching the late-afternoon light in the softest gleam. Your fingers danced over your phone screen, pulling up the calculator, thumb tapping with precise rhythm as your eyes flicked between the numbers and the formulas.
Bob didnât even try to pretend he wasnât staring anymore.
There was a faint shimmer along your shoulder from where the light met your skin, a dewy glow from the shower that hadnât fully faded. You were chewing softly on the inside of your cheek, eyes narrowed in concentration, and he thoughtâbriefly, helplesslyâthat he could watch you solve problems forever if it meant watching you like this.
You didnât say anything. Not for the full ten minutes it took you to work it through.
You just calculated, and wrote, and thought. You whispered a few fragments to yourself as you filled in a diagram at the top right corner of the board, then traced your logic through in smooth, deliberate steps. You stepped back finally, the marker hanging loosely from your fingers, your other hand planted lightly on your hip.
You turned slightly toward him.
âWell?â You asked. âWhatâs the verdict?â
Bob blinkedâonce, hard. Then blinked again.
âRight,â He replied quickly, moving forward, the textbook now tucked under one arm. He studied your work for a moment, leaning in just enough to squint at one portion of your substitutions. His lips pressed together.
âYou did most of it right,â He murmured, pointing to a midsection of your math. âThis partâs goodâŠBut you forgot to apply the correction hereââ He tapped gently on a bracketed term near the top. âThat throws the coefficient off. Stillâpartial credit would be earned. Itâs not like youâd lose all the points.â
You let out a breath and nodded. âGot it.â
Bob uncapped the red marker again and leaned forward, elbow bent as he carefully scribbled a correction in the margin beside your step. His handwriting was still annoyingly neat, even in red, even when rushed. He talked you through it slowly, the pace gentle but firm, breaking down the terms like a translation instead of a reprimand.
Your arms crossed as you leaned against the edge of the desk, chin tilted toward him slightly. He didnât rush, didnât sound superiorâhe justâŠTaught. Like he wanted you to understand it, not just memorize it.
You smirked.
âYou should become a professor with the way you teach.â
Bob glanced over his shoulder at you, an amused little tilt to his head. âWhy? Am I boring you?â
You let out a real laugh this time, low and warm and amused. âNo. Not yet, at least.â
He turned a little more to face you, one hand still holding the red marker.
âDonât speak too soon,â He warned, the corners of his mouth pulling into a slow, boyish grin. âIâm sure Iâve got a lot more opportunities to do that.â
And even though the whiteboard still glowed behind him, filled with formulas and diagrams and half-solved questions, all you could see was the quiet crinkle at the corner of his eyes, and the way his voiceâsoft, sincereâalmost sounded like a promise.
ââââââââ
Bobâs elbows rested on his knees, fingers loosely laced, binder long forgotten beside him on the bed.
You were pacing.
Again.
Back and forth in front of your desk, your physics textbook open in your hands like it might suddenly say something different if you glared hard enough at the chapter title.
âI donât understand,â You huffed, fingers tightening around the spine of the book. âWeâve been working through these questions almost every night for the past two weeks. Iâm getting them very close to right when I do them here. I know what Iâm doing on the whiteboard, Iâm getting partial credit in classâbut then I sit down during the quiz and itâs likeâŠLike my brain just decides to take a smoke break.â
Bob watched you quietly from the bed, his gaze flicking down briefly as your shirt lifted with your movements. The hem rose just enough to show the waistband of the boxer shorts youâd thrown on after your shower, the edge of soft cotton skimming the top of your thighs as you turned in another sharp step.
He didnât say anything. Not at first. Just watched. Like he always did when you got worked upâlike his stillness might balance out your storm.
You dropped the book onto your desk with a soft thud, dragging both hands through your hair before planting them on your hips in frustration.
âI mean, itâs ridiculous,â You muttered. âI can do it here. Iâve done it. Youâve seen me do it. What the hell happens between here and the classroom?â Bob leaned back slightly, hands now braced behind him against the bedspread, one leg bent, the other stretched long.
âDo you feel anxious when youâre writing the test?â He asked, tilting his head just a little.
You turned to look at him, brow furrowed.
âItâs a normal amount of anxiety,â You said flatly. âWhat, are you about to tell me thatâs why Iâm still not doing well on quizzes? A little test stress?â
He shrugged, his lips quirking upward like he knew he was about to toe the line. âCould be,â He replied simply. âOrâŠMaybe you just need some kind ofâŠPositive reinforcement.â
You narrowed your eyes. âPositive reinforcement?â You repeated slowly, curious and suspicious of how he was bringing up the topic.
He nodded, straight-faced. âAffirmations. Encouragement. Rewards. You know. Psychology stuff.â You crossed your arms, the motion slow and deliberate, as you turned fully to face him. Your hips settled just to one side, weight shifting into that slightly challenging postureâthe kind that said you werenât going to let this slide, but not in the way he should be afraid of. Your head tilted a little, eyes narrowed like you were sizing him up. Watching.
Noticing.
And God, was he blushing.
Not a violent flush, but that creeping kindâthe kind that started at the tips of his ears and crawled slowly down the sides of his neck like embarrassment blooming from the inside out. He wasnât meeting your gaze now. Just staring down at the binder on his lap, his thumbs rubbing over the edge of the plastic like it had something important to say.
You didnât say anything at first. Just stared. Took him in.
The soft slope of his shoulders where they leaned back into the pillow. The subtle indent his jaw made when he clenched it without meaning to. The flush of red creeping into his cheeks, all while trying to keep that composed, helpful toneâlike he was still just your tutor and not someone who thought about kissing you when you leaned too close during derivatives.
The silence held for a beat too long.
Then you spoke.
âSo youâre trying to condition me?â
Bobâs head snapped up, and his eyes met yoursâwide, startled, and already bracing for the tease he knew was coming. But then, to your surprise, he laughed. A real laugh. Short and soft and so genuine that it made the tips of his ears go even redder.
âN-No!â he said quickly, shaking his head, that lopsided smile overtaking his face. âJesusâno, I wasnâtâconditioning you?â
You smirked, keeping your arms crossed like a challenge. âIt kinda sounds like youâre conditioning me.â
He laughed againâthis time accompanied by a quiet snort he couldnât quite swallow down fast enough. It made your grin widen.
âIâm not trying to train you like a dog,â He commented, wiping a hand down his face with mock-exhaustion. âI just meantâŠIf you associate physics with something good, maybe your brain will stop freaking out every time youâre handed a test.â
You blinked at him once. Raised an eyebrow.
âSoâŠâ You started, slowly, carefully, âYouâre trying to open my third eye for physics?â
Bob looked at you. Deadpan. âThatâs not what I said.â
You stepped closer, a teasing lilt curling into your voice now as you gestured with one hand. âNo, no, I think thatâs exactly what you said. You want me to transcend. Find academic Nirvana through external praise.â He rolled his eyes.
âOkay. Now youâre just twisting my words.â You raised your eyebrows.
âAm I?â You grinned. He gave you a look. A very Bob look. One part fond, one part I walked into this with my eyes wide open and itâs too late to leave now. But the pink still hadnât faded from his cheeks.
You leaned your hip against the edge of the desk again, bare thighs catching the warm glow of your desk lamp, watching the way Bobâs eyes flicked toward your legs and then immediately back up again.
âAlright, Professor Floyd,â You said lightly, âIâll bite. What kind of positive reinforcement are we talking about here? You handing out gold stars? Stickers? Should I bring a report card for you to sign?â Bob cleared his throat. It was soft but unmistakable. A nervous reflex that made him sit up a little straighter on your bed, one hand rising to push his glasses up the bridge of his nose even though they hadnât really slipped.
âI meanâŠâ He trailed off, eyes fixed on some distant point above your shoulder. âI was thinking more likeâŠA kiss.â Your entire body stilled, hands still loosely clasped in front of you from your teasing posture, your weight half-shifted against the desk. A beat passedâjust long enough to wonder if youâd misheard him. But then his eyes flicked back to yours, just for a second, and the heat in his gaze made it impossible to pretend he hadnât said exactly what you thought he did.
You could feel your cheeks warmâinstantly, helplesslyâheat blooming beneath your skin like it had been waiting for the right moment to spill forward. But you masked it with a slow raise of your eyebrows and a smirk, playful but laced with that sharp new curiosity curling low in your gut.
âYeah?â You said, voice softer now. You shifted your weight and tilted your head. âA kiss? Thatâs what you had in mind?â
Bobâs throat bobbed as he swallowed. Hard. His eyes flicked to the space beside your head before dropping to the floorâthen back up to you, like he was trying not to look too long but couldnât help it. He shifted on the mattress, fingers brushing over the edge of the binder like he needed something to hold onto. âI-I meanâŠIt was just an idea. One ofâŠSeveral.â
You stepped closer.
âIs that what youâve had in mind this entire time?â You questioned, voice low, the smile on your lips laced with something sweeter nowâteasing, but sincere. âKissing me?â
Bob let out a nervous little laugh, breath catching as he tried to string together a reply. His knuckles were pale where they gripped the binder now, eyes flicking toward your legs again before jerking back up to your face.
âIâno, I mean, not⊠I never really got that idea till today,â He muttered, rubbing the back of his neck. âI just thoughtâI donât know. It might help.â
You took another step forward.
âYou sure about that?â you asked, the words curling in your throat like heat, low and just a little amused. Now you were standing directly in front of him, and the change in height made it impossible not to notice how he looked up at youâhead tilted back slightly, wide blue eyes tracking your every move. His glasses slid a fraction down his nose, but he didnât dare lift a hand to fix them.
His mouth opened and closed once before he found his voice. âI personallyâŠThink it might work,â He murmured.
Your eyes flicked down to his lipsâsoft, parted slightly, flushedâand then back to his eyes. He was blinking slow now, like your presence this close was physically slowing his thoughts.
You bit your lip. Slowly. Purposefully.
âSo youâre telling me,â You said, almost whispering now, âThat you want to reward me with kissesâŠWhenever I get a question right?â
Bob exhaled through his nose. His legs had parted slightly where he sat, not intentionallyâbut enough to suggest his body was reacting faster than his brain. He nodded once, tentative but clear. His voice dropped lower, barely above a whisper.
âI couldâŠDo a whole lot more than kisses,â He said.
The second the words left his mouth, his eyes widened slightly, like he hadnât meant to say that out loud. Like he hadnât even known he was capable of it. His fingers fidgeted with the edge of the binder, his spine curving slightly forward as if he could fold himself up to hide from the boldness that had just escaped him.
Your breath caughtâjust barelyâand something about the way he said it, almost reverent, almost pleading, sent a shiver down your spine. You watched his throat work, his chest rising and falling in subtle, shaky breaths.
He wasnât cocky. He wasnât teasing you back with confidence.
He wanted you.
Desperately.
You leaned in, closing that last bit of space between your knees and the edge of the bed until your thighs brushed his. The binder slid from his lap onto the comforter with a soft thud, forgotten.
âYeah?â You murmured, voice warm, velvety, almost indulgent. âYou think you could do more?â Bob nodded, slowlyâeyes wide, lips parted, breath coming a little uneven now, fanning over your face.
âIf youâd let me,â He said quietly, âIâd do anything.â
The words landed between you like a weight, heavy with longing, trembling with truth.
And you believed him.
Because Bob Floyd didnât say things he didnât mean.
He didnât play games. He didnât flirt to win. He offered, quietly, completelyâlike giving a piece of himself to someone felt holy.
Your hands moved before your mind fully caught up, instinct carrying you as you lifted them slowlyâdeliberatelyâand rested them against the sides of his neck.
He was warm.
The kind of warmth that radiated from beneath the skin, the kind that felt like it could seep into your palms and settle somewhere inside your chest if you let it. His skin was soft under your thumbs, his pulse fluttering just beneath one, and when your fingers brushed lightly over the edge of his jaw, you felt the tiniest hitch in his breath.
Bob stilled.
Completely.
The kind of stillness that only came when something sacred was happeningâlike he didnât want to risk breaking the moment by breathing too loud.
And then you leaned in.
Not rushed. Not hungry. Just slowâmeasured. Confident in the space heâd given you. Confident in the way his knees shifted to make room for you between them, in the way his lips had parted already, waiting, hoping.
Your nose brushed his cheek softly. His glasses tilted just slightly from the nudge, slipping down the bridge of his nose in a slow, unbothered drift. You felt the ghost of his breath over your mouth, shaky and warm, and thenâ
You kissed him.
Gently. Just once. Lips pressed to his like the start of a sentence that would take its time to finish.
Bob breathed into itâexhaled a soft, shuddering hum from the back of his throat that vibrated against your mouth. His hands came up slow, tentative, like he didnât want to assume. But then they settledâone sliding to your lower back, warm and careful, the other ghosting over your hip before stilling there.
And then he kissed you back.
Really kissed you.
Slow at first. So slow it made your knees weak.
He lingered on your upper lip, plush and steady, then pulled back half an inch and tiltedâjust enough to brush your bottom lip between his with soft, seeking pressure. His lips moved with purpose, not urgency. Thoughtful. Intent. Like he wanted to memorize you in pieces, to map the shape of your mouth one breath at a time.
You made a soft, involuntary sound into himâa quiet, pleased little âmmmââand he kissed you again like he needed to drink it in. His thumb pressed lightly against the small of your back, grounding him, grounding you. Every motion of his mouth was reverent, restrained, and dripping with a kind of intimacy that made your skin burn.
You pulled back just an inchâlips brushing his, breath warm between you.
His eyes fluttered open slowly, lashes sweeping against flushed cheeks. His pupils were blown wide behind his fogged glasses, lips pink and slightly parted, his chest rising and falling with careful, controlled breaths. He looked dazed. Unmoored.
You smiled.
A quiet, knowing smile, and let your thumbs brush the sides of his jaw.
âBetter go get the next question right, huh?â You whispered, teasing but breathless. âGotta meet my end of the bargain.â
And just as you started to pull back, maybe to reach for the marker again, maybe to hide the way your heart was slamming against your ribs like a drumâ
Bobâs hand on your lower back pressed just slightly.
âWait,â He murmured, voice low and husky now. âHow about we suspend the studying for now?â
The words came quiet. Careful. But you could hear the edge beneath themâthat hunger heâd tried so hard to suppress now curling softly around the syllables.
You arched an eyebrow at him, still close enough that your noses brushed.
âHmmâŠâ You started, a smirk pulling at your lips. âNow youâre just going to end up distracting me.â
His eyes flicked down to your mouth. Then back up.
You ran a finger gently down the side of his neck, your voice warm and teasing.
âLetâs stick to the planâŠâ Bob exhaled slowly. Like it took everything in him not to pull you back in.
His hands didnât move. But he nodded.
Barely.
And when you stepped away and turned toward the whiteboard again, you could feel the heat of his gaze trailing after youâlike he was trying to sear every inch of the moment into memory.
âââââââ
By the second correct answer, you were setting a timer for yourselves.
Ten minutes. That was the new rule.
Ten minutes per problem, per kiss. No exceptions. No shortcuts.
Because the last time youâd leaned in for oneâintended to be short, controlled, just enough to make good on the dealâyouâd ended up in his lap. His hands had slipped under your shirt almost instinctively, like they knew where to go before he consciously gave them permission. And when his palms flattened against the small of your back, warm and strong and bare, your breath had hitched in a way that surprised you.
Not because it was too much.
But because it was exactly what you hadnât realized youâd been needing.
His fingers pressed into your skinânot harshly, not possessively, just enough to ground you. Like he couldnât believe he was touching you and needed to memorize the shape of your body with his hands before you slipped away again. Youâd gasped into his mouth, not even meaning to, and felt him inhale like the sound had gone straight to his chest.
And then you kissed him harder.
Your fingers tangled in his hair, wrecking the neatness of it with the kind of carelessness that only came when heat outweighed hesitation. You pulled, just a littleâtesting, exploringâand he moaned softly against your lips like it cracked him open. His glasses were crooked by then, fogged from your shared breaths, and neither of you bothered fixing them. The world could stay blurry if it meant this stayed sharp.
Somewhere in the haze, Bobâs shirt had come off. You hadnât meant for it to escalate. It had justâŠHappened. One minute your hands were sliding beneath the hem, feeling the heat of him, the tension in his abdomen, the ridges of muscle that lined his stomach, and the next, the shirt was gone. Flung off to the side without a single graceful motion. You hadnât even looked where it landed.
He was solid beneath you. Not chiseled in a gym-rat kind of way, but strong in that natural, everyday way. Like he was built for work. His skin was sun-warmed with just a pinch of colour, a faint line of tan cutting across the middle of his arms where T-shirts always stopped. You touched him like he might disappear. He held you like he never wanted you to.
And GodâŠHe was good.
Surprisingly good.
Not in the way of someone who practiced, but someone who paid attention. Someone who kissed with focus. With reverence. Like your mouth was an answer heâd been solving toward for weeks. He kissed like he studiedâslow, thorough, intentional. His tongue was gentle at first, coaxing. His teeth grazed your lip once, barely, and you swore you could feel it in your spine. When he kissed you the second timeâafter the next problem, when your timer dinged againâyou already knew it wasnât going to stay brief.
And it didnât.
He pulled you in with hands that were just slightly rough from calluses and pencil grooves, fingers curling tight around your waist, your ribs, like he needed to feel you under his hands. And when he slipped those same fingers under the hem of your shirt againâthis time slower, surerâyou let him. You wanted him to. His touch wasnât greedy. It was searching. Savoring. Like he was learning every inch of you the way he learned his formulas.
And you didnât realize how touch-starved youâd been until then.
Until the heat of his hand met the curve of your spine, and you arched into him like your body had been waiting for permission. Until he kissed down the side of your jaw, slowly, reverently, and you felt the hum of it in your chest. Until your own hand traced the broad slope of his shoulder, down over the rise and fall of his ribs, and found nothing but steady strength and gentle restraint.
You didnât say it out loudâbut he could feel it.
The hunger in the way you kissed him. The gratitude in the way your hands explored him. The desperate edge that slipped into your breath every time you whispered his name between kisses like it wasnât something youâd meant to do.
And maybe it wasnât about physics anymore.
Maybe it never really was.
Because as Bob pulled back, breathless and flushed, his glasses still askew and hair mussed into soft waves from your fingers pulling and tightening, he looked at you like youâd changed something fundamental inside him. Like youâd opened a door he didnât know was locked. Like he couldnât stop even if he tried.
Your timer buzzed again in the background. Neither of you moved.
ââŠYou got that one right,â He whispered, lips brushing your cheek âThink you deserveâŠA break.â You let out a breathless little laugh, your chest still rising and falling with the aftermath of the last kiss. Your hair was a bit mussed from his hands, your lips slightly swollen from the soft, reverent press of his mouthâand you were dizzy, absolutely dizzy with the way he looked at you.
âBobâŠâ You murmured, voice playful, warm, âIf I didnât know any better, Iâd say youâve got some sort of ulterior motive.â Bob, still slightly breathless, hand still planted firm and reverent on your thigh, sat back just a little. Enough to give you a look. One of those boyish, guilty-but-not-really guilty grins that curled slow at the edges and made your heart skip.
He pressed a hand flat to his bare chest, wide-eyed in mock innocence.
âMe?â He said, lips twitching. âNoâŠDefinitely no ulterior motives here. Iâm justâŠâ He leaned in again, close enough for his breath to dance against your jaw, âTrying to do something Iâve been thinking about for a long time.â Your brows lifted, pulse tripping.
âOh?â You murmured, teasing but curious. âAnd whatâs that?â He pressed a kiss to your jawâso gentle it nearly didnât register as a kiss at all. Just warmth. Just intent. Then another, lower, slower, right beneath the curve of your ear. And then:
âGoing down on you,â He whispered.
The words landed hot, like theyâd been spoken directly into your bloodstream.
Your breath hitched audibly. You swore you could feel your pulse flutter in places you didnât think could react to words alone. Heat pooled low in your stomach like syrup spilling into something hollow. Still, you managed a quiet, almost incredulous laugh, voice tightening as you tilted your head to look at him again.
âNow I need to know,â You said, fingers threading back into his hair, âHow long youâve been thinking about that.â Bob let out a soft laugh, one hand splaying open against your hip, the other bracing himself still, like he needed to keep steady before he admitted anything to you. He kissed down your neck again, slower this timeâeach inch of skin passed over with the kind of devotion that said this wasnât some spur-of-the-moment confession.
And when he reached the collar of your shirt, where the fabric hung loose from earlier tugging, he nosed at it gently. Not greedy. Just wanting more.
You tugged lightly on his hair, not to stop him, but to coax him to pauseâjust enough to get him to look up.
âHey,â You said softly, a smile tugging at the corner of your lips. âHow long have you been thinking about doing that?â
Bobâs eyes flicked up to yoursâblue and wide and already glassy with the weight of how badly he wanted you. And then his face turned a shade deeper, that telltale blush painting up his cheeks and crawling behind his ears.
âSinceâŠâ He paused, like the words were too embarrassing to say. âSince the first day of class. When you came in lateâŠDressed in that skirt.â
You blinked, lips parting slowly.
âThe black one?â
He nodded, eyes darting to your mouth like it might give him the courage to keep talking.
âIt rode up just a little when you walked past. And you sat a few seats down and didnât look at me once. And Iââ He broke off for a second, laughing nervously. âI dropped my pencil because of how you smelled and how your legs looked and because you didnât even notice me looking.â
You stared at him.
Then grinned, slow and wicked.
âWell,â You murmured, leaning in again until your lips were just barely brushing his, âGuess itâs a good thing youâre getting your chance now.â Bob exhaled a shaky breathâone of awe, of disbelief, of absolutely overwhelmed want.
And then he kissed you again.
The kiss that followed was nothing like the first.
It was deeper. Hungrier. Your lips opened beneath his without hesitation this time, and he drank in the permission like it was oxygenâhis hands curling tighter around the backs of your thighs before lifting you effortlessly into his lap. You gasped softly against his mouth as your knees bent around him, your weight settling against the solid warmth of his thighs, your hands sliding up the broad slope of his bare shoulders.
He kissed you like heâd waited for this.
Like every moment youâd spent leaning over equations, brushing fingertips, trading teasing words had led to this exact pointâand now he had you here, soft and open in his lap, your legs bare and warm against denim, your breath stuttering into his mouth every time he tugged you closer.
His hands slid beneath the hem of your t-shirt again, palms hot against your back, and this time he didnât hesitate. The fabric peeled upward in one smooth motionâup, over your ribs, brushing your chestâuntil you lifted your arms and let him tug it off completely. He tossed it somewhere behind you, neither of you looking to see where it landed.
His eyes dropped.
The moment he saw what you were wearing underneath, his breath hitchedâand for a second, he didnât move. A soft cotton sports bra in a worn, dusky pinkâsimple, comfortable, a little faded from wash after washâbut the way it hugged you? The way it molded to the curve of your breasts, straps digging gently into your warm skin?
Bob Floyd looked like heâd forgotten how to speak.
He swallowed once. Then again. His glasses had slipped slightly lower on his nose, giving him that boyish, dazed expression he got whenever something completely wrecked his train of thought. You watched his eyes trail over you, caught between reverence and want, and thenâ
He hummed. A soft, breathy sound from deep in his chest. Something unfiltered. Something warm.
Then he looked back up at you.
And kissed you again.
His hands gripped your hips now, anchoring you down in his lap like he didnât want you to shift an inch. He kissed you harderâopen-mouthed, deep, letting out a quiet groan as your hips rocked forward ever so slightly. He didnât say anything. Just let the noise fall between you, ragged and raw, swallowing your gasp as he shifted his grip and guided you until your back hit the mattress.
The room spun gently with the motion, soft yellow light from the lamp catching in the lenses of his glasses as he leaned over you. His body followedâbroad shoulders, warm bare chest pressing down as he settled between your legs. He braced his hands on either side of your ribcage, framing you like a question he couldnât stop asking. His eyes searched your face for just a second, but you noddedâsoftly, wordlesslyâalready reaching for him again.
He dipped his head.
Kissed your throat.
Then lower.
And lower still.
He took his time.
Every press of his lips trailed down the line of your collarbone, across the top swell of your breasts where the fabric cut gently across your skin. His glasses slipped again, nearly falling offâbut he didnât stop. Didnât even lift a hand to adjust them. He kissed you through the blur, lips brushing the tops of your breasts like they were something sacred.
You let out a quiet soundâhalf gasp, half moanâand threaded your fingers into his hair again. His tongue flicked out, tasting the salt of your skin as he groaned softly against you.
âAre you always this sensual?â you whispered, voice thick, dazed, breathless.
Bob let out a quiet sigh, like your question made something in him ease and deepen at the same time.
âLetâs just say I love givingâŠâ He murmured, kissing the center of your chest. ââŠA lot.â
The way he said itâlow, quiet, honestâmade your legs clench involuntarily around his waist. Your mind flooded with images far too filthy for someone as sweet as Bob Floyd to inspire.
But then again, the way he looked right nowâglasses fogging, lips red and glistening, his chest moving in slow, hungry waves with every breathâmaybe he wasnât that sweet after all.
His fingers reached for the thin straps of your bra.
âHope you donât mind,â He whispered against your skin, lips still pressing hot kisses between every word.
You shook your head quickly. âI donât mind at allâŠâ
With a reverent kind of care, he slipped the straps off your shoulders. One. Then the other. His fingers brushed your arms on the way down, the backs of his knuckles ghosting over your skin like he was memorizing it. Thenâslowly, carefullyâhe tugged the fabric down, baring you to him inch by inch.
His breath hitched.
Your breasts, soft and flushed from heat and touch, rose with every breath you took. Bob didnât reach for you right away. He justâŠLooked. Let himself take it in. His hands slid up your sides againârougher now, purposefulâand when they cupped the curve beneath your breasts, his thumbs brushed upward, stroking slowly until your nipples tightened under the attention.
His glasses fogged completely.
Still, he didnât take them off.
He leaned in and kissed the soft mound of your left breast, then your right, each kiss dragging slower than the last. His lips were gentle, his hands firm, and when he finally brushed the tip of his tongue over your nipple, your hips bucked without warning.
âGod,â You whispered, your hands fisting in the sheets beside you. Bob just smiled. Quietly. Like he knew exactly what he was doing.
âSensitive?â he murmured, lips hovering just over your nipple again, breath warm and teasing.
You shook your head slowly, fingers curling into the sheets. âI call it anticipation.â
His low laugh rumbled against your skin. âDidnât know we were calling it that now⊠but okay.â
Then he kissed you againâthis time firmer, lips wrapping around your nipple with a slow, aching pull that made your hips twitch beneath him. His tongue was wet and warm, lapping slow circles around the soft peak before closing over it again, sucking just a little deeper nowâjust enough to make you moan quietly, enough to send a thrum straight between your thighs.
His hands didnât stop, eitherâbroad palms sliding up and down the sides of your ribcage, thumbs sweeping in careful, reverent passes. He alternated between breasts with the same kind of concentration youâd seen in study sessions: deliberate, measured, like he was solving you.
And when he finally pulled away, lips red and glistening from worship, he blew a soft, chilled stream of air across your saliva-slick nippleâthen the other.
Your entire body arched. He watched it happen with wide eyes, completely entranced.
Thenâwithout a wordâyou sat up.
He blinked in surprise, hands still resting on your sides as you reached behind yourself and unhooked your bra the rest of the way, slipping the fabric down your arms and flinging it off the bed. The second it landed somewhere behind you, you laid back downâbare, flushed, and completely open.
Bobâs breath hitched hard. His glasses had slipped lower again, fogged beyond all reason now, and he still hadnât touched them. He didnât even seem aware of the state he was inâjust that you were laid out beneath him, chest rising in unsteady waves, eyes soft but daring.
He exhaled shakily.
And then he moved lower.
He kissed the center of your sternum once, then again, trailing down past your navel with slow, reverent care. When he reached the waistband of your boxer shorts, he paused. His hands came to rest just above your hips, fingers curling slightly under the band.
He looked up at you, eyes glassy and dark behind the silver frames.
You noddedâslow, sure.
That was all he needed.
He pulled the fabric down just an inch. Then another. Just enough to reveal the top of your hips, the soft line of your lower stomach. His lips followedâkissing each inch as it was exposed, trailing warmth into places that had never felt this kind of attention before. The contrast between the heat of his mouth and the cool air made your thighs twitch, and he hummed softly against your skin.
âGod, youâre beautiful,â He whispered. âYou donât even know, do youâŠâ
You didnât respond. Couldnât, really. Your fingers were tangled in the sheets again, breath catching every time his lips brushed lower, every time he said something in that breathless, reverent voice that made you feel like he was seeing you for the first time.
When he reached the base of your hips, he gave the waistband a firmer tug, and you lifted your hips to help himâknees bending slightly, thighs parting as he pulled the shorts down your legs. He slid them off with practiced care, and you watched as he tossed them aside with the same nonchalance heâd flung his shirtâlike every barrier between you was one more step toward something sacred.
He paused there.
Just knelt between your legs for a second, hands resting on your thighs, eyes locked on yours like he needed to anchor himself before continuing. Thenâwithout saying anythingâhe pushed your thighs up gently, spreading you open just enough.
His mouth pressed to the inside of your knee.
You gasped.
It wasnât just a kiss. It was a claim. A promise. His lips lingered there for a second, and then they movedâtrailing up the inside of your thigh in slow, wet presses, each one firmer than the last.
âYouâve got no idea,â He murmured against your skin. âHow long Iâve wanted to do this⊠How many times Iâve imagined being between your thighs just like thisâŠâ
His teeth grazed the sensitive skin just above your inner thigh, and your hips jerked slightly at the contact. He didnât move away. Just kissed the spot heâd grazed. Then again. Higher this time.
âWanted to take my time with you,â He whispered, voice low, breath hot. âMake sure you know what it feels like when someone actually wants to do thisâŠâ Your hands gripped the comforter.
âI want to hear the way you sound when itâs good. When itâs real. When itâs slowâŠâ
He kissed the top of your inner thighâright at the edge of where you needed him most.
Then, finally, he glanced upâhis glasses slightly crooked, cheeks flushed, mouth slick with his saliva and swollen.
âIâm gonna take such good care of you,â He said softly. âYouâll never forget it.â
His tongue moved with devastating precisionâslow, savoring, like he had all the time in the world and wasnât about to waste a single second.
He started with a kiss-low, just at the edge of your folds, then dragged his tongue up in one long, warm stripe that made your legs twitch. You gasped, hands flying instinctively to his hair as he groaned into you, deep and low, like heâd been starving for this.
âJesusâBobââ You whispered, voice cracking on the edge of a moan.
He didnât answer. Just licked you again, slower this time, tongue flattening against you with such gentleness it made your stomach tighten. Then he did it again. And again. Until the room dissolved into heat and breath and the wet, obscene sound of him eating you like you were the only thing heâd ever wanted.
And maybe you were.
He used his mouth like a worshipperâlike this wasnât about getting you off, but about tasting everything heâd been dreaming of for weeks. He kissed your clit softly at first, then circled it with his tongueâjust enough pressure to make you cry out, just enough to leave you chasing more. Your hips rocked against his mouth before you could stop them, and instead of pulling back, he moaned again, deeper this time, and grabbed your thighsâholding you open like a man possessed.
His fingers dug gently into your hips as he sucked on you now, lips wrapped around your clit with wet, deliberate pulls. His glasses were fogged beyond saving, the lenses glinting in the dorm light as they slipped further down his nose. He didnât stop. Didnât lift his head once. Just kept tasting and kissing and groaning like your body was the only thing he needed to study for the rest of his life.
You whimpered.
âF-Fuck, Bobâtoo goodââ
That finally earned a reaction. He groaned again, louder, like your words were gasoline, and thenâGodâhe slipped two fingers between your thighs, slick with your arousal, and pushed them in with a slow, practiced ease.
Your back arched.
The stretch was perfect. His fingers curled immediately, searching for that spotâand finding it like heâd mapped it out ahead of time. His mouth never left your clit, tongue flicking faster now, suction intensifying just slightly, just enough to send a full-body tremor through you.
âCâmon,â He murmured between strokes, voice ragged, lips brushing against you with every syllable. âThatâs it⊠Just like that. Let me hear you.â
You did.
You let go of any remaining shred of restraint and moanedâloud, broken, lost to the rhythm of his fingers and the warmth of his mouth. Your thighs shook, your body tightening, unraveling. The dorm room felt like it might dissolve around you.
âG-Gonnaââ
âI know,â he whispered, breath hot, eyes glassy as he looked up at you from between your thighs. âGo ahead. I got you.â
And then he did something devastating.
He sucked harder.
Curled his fingers deeper.
And moaned into you like your orgasm was his reward.
You shattered.
Your hands clutched his hair, your legs tensed around his head, and your breath broke into a stuttering cry as he licked you through itânever stopping, never letting up. He worshipped you all the way through your high, his mouth messy, eager, lips slick with you as he kept kissing, kept groaning, like your pleasure was the only thing that mattered.
When you finally slumped back, shaking, panting, spentâhe didnât move right away.
He kissed your inner thigh.
Then again. And again.
Then trailed up your body with soft, slow presses of his mouth, leaving a trail of your own taste on his lips as he made his way back up. His chest hovered over yours, his weight warm and solid, and when he finally kissed your mouth againâfull and deepâyou could taste yourself on his tongue.
And he let you.
Let you feel it.
Let you know exactly what heâd just done to you.
He pulled back from the kiss, hovering above you, mouth swollen from all the work he had done, lips slightly parted. He looked wrecked in the most beautiful wayâhair mussed from your fingers, flushed cheeks, chest rising with the weight of restraint.
Then, like a flicker of light through the haze, he let out a breathy laugh. Quiet. Disbelieving. Joyful.
You laughed tooâsoft, breathless, dazedâyour palm dragging slowly down his bare chest before reaching up to push his glasses back up his nose. The lenses had slipped almost entirely off his face, smudged and misted at the edges. You caught the little fingerprints and streaks near the bottom and smiled, chest still heaving slightly as you murmured:
âWhereâŠThe hell did you learn that?â
Bobâs laugh deepened this time, short and warm, his entire face flushing deeper crimson. He covered his face with one hand for a second, then dropped it to your waist, eyes shining with both amusement and bashfulness.
âFromâŠMy past partners?â He said, half like a question, half like a confession. âI told you Iâm a giver. I may look timid butâŠAs you can tell, I know my stuff.â
You grinned, your heart skipping at how proudâbut still modestâhe sounded. You leaned up, catching his mouth in another kiss, slower now, languid. He hummed against your lips, eyes fluttering shut as his hands pulled you just a little closer.
âBit surprising,â you whispered against his mouth.
He nodded, kissing you again, hands smoothing down your sides. âI know.â
And it wouldâve stayed gentle, dreamy, lazy like thatâuntil your hand drifted between your bodies.
You hadnât been trying to tease. Not really. But when your palm brushed over the thick bulge in his jeans, the way his breath hitched immediately had you curling your fingers lightly around him, just enough to feel the weight of him. The heat. The hardness pressing insistently behind the denim.
You smiled, eyes soft but mischievous. âYour turn?â
But to your surprise, Bob flinchedâbarely, but it was there. His hand caught your wrist gently, not to push you away, but to pause.
âItâs okay,â he said softly.
You blinked, your palm still resting against him. âWhat?â You tilted your head. âYou donât⊠even want to have sex?â
âItâs not that,â he said quickly, eyes darting to yours before lowering again. âI justâŠItâs really okay. You donât have to.â
You sat up slightly, just enough to bring your faces closer again, concern slipping behind your smile.
âAre youâŠâ Your voice gentle. âAre you nervous?â
His lashes fluttered. A breath stalled in his throat. And that was all the answer you needed.
You reached for his cheek, thumb brushing gently beneath his eye. His skin was hot, his jaw tight, but he leaned into your touch like he needed it.
âBob,â You said softly, a smile curling into your voice. âHow can you be nervous after you just gave me the best orgasm of my life?â
That made his eyes shoot openâjust a little. You watched his expression shift. Like heâd heard something he hadnât expected. Like praise landed harder than touch ever could.
âSeriously,â you continued, your voice warm and slow, âThat was unreal. No oneâs ever touched me like that. Not like they wanted to. Not like they wereâŠMemorizing it.â
His mouth parted. You didnât miss the way his breath trembled now. His hips shifted slightly against yours, and when you glanced down, you could see he was getting harder from your words alone.
You kissed the corner of his jaw. âYouâre incredible, Bob.â
A sound left himâbarely a sound, more of a low exhale, like it physically knocked something loose in him. His hand tightened slightly on your waist.
âYou made me feel so good,â You whispered. âSafe. Wanted. Perfect.â
His eyes closed, lips parting with a shaky breath, and his hips rolled the tiniest bit into your palm. You could feel how much he wanted it now. How much he wanted you. He just hadnât known if he was allowed.
And God, the way he responded to praiseâit made something ache inside you.
Your foreheads rested together, breath shared in the quiet space between words, between heartbeats.
âLetâs do it together, hm?â You murmured, your voice warm and coaxingâsoftened with affection, laced with intent.
Bob let out the tiniest breath of a laugh, and his lips brushed yours as he smiled. âOkay.â
The word was nearly a whisper, but it carried weightâan unspoken trust folding itself into the syllables.
You leaned back just enough to reach between your bodies, your fingers brushing against the button of his jeans. He inhaled, shaky and quiet, watching you as you popped it open, then tugged the zipper down. The sound broke the hush of the room, loud in the stillness.
Bob shifted, lifting himself up just enough to hook his thumbs into the waistband. He wriggled out of his jeans with a little bit of awkwardness, and when the denim bunched at his ankles, he kicked them off with a grunt.
You both laughed. Low and breathless, the kind of laughter that came when something was too intimate not to be a little bit funny.
His glasses slid further down his nose.
âSexy,â You teased, bumping your knee gently against his side.
He rolled his eyesâblushing, flustered, but grinningâand settled back between your thighs, his hands bracing himself on either side of your hips now. The closeness allowed you a better view of him, and you didnât waste the opportunity.
Your gaze drifted downward. His boxer briefs were tentedâstraining. You could see the thick outline of him pressed against the fabric, the darkened patch of wetness at the tip where he was already leaking.
Your hand slid slowly down the middle of his torsoâover the soft rise and fall of his stomach, the faint ridges of muscle, the trail of hair beneath his navel. Bob held perfectly still, his breath shallow, watching you.
When your fingers ghosted along the inside of his waistband, just above the swell of him, he sucked in a breath through his teeth.
âTease,â He muttered, voice tight.
You didnât deny it.
Instead, you slid your fingers a little deeper. Tugged the fabric down just enough to expose him.
He sprang free with a soft, needy sound escaping his throat.
Your eyes widened slightly.
He wasâŠBig. Thick, flushed, already glistening with precum. The head was ruddy and swollen, shiny with need, and your stomach fluttered at the realization that heâd gotten like this just from pleasuring you.
He looked desperate.
You wrapped your fingers around him slowly, your palm sliding up his length with soft pressure. His breath hitched immediately, head tilting back slightly. His glasses slid another fraction down his nose, but he didnât move to fix themâjust closed his eyes for a moment, his chest lifting in a shallow, shivering inhale.
You stroked him againâlong, slow, deliberate. Your grip was just firm enough to make him twitch, your thumb swiping over the slick bead at his tip.
His hips bucked. He gasped, and then let out a shaky laugh.
âSensitive?â you murmured, lips tugging into a knowing smirk.
Bobâs head dropped forward a bit, cheeks flushed to hell. His voice cracked slightly.
âN-noâŠAnticipation.â He corrected jokingly, using your own words against you.
You laughed softly. So did he.
But you didnât stop.
You kept stroking him, slow and sensual, your hand gliding up and down the length of him, savoring every tremble in his thighs, every shift in his breath, every twitch of his fingers against the mattress beside you. He was fully braced now, arms trembling slightly as he rocked into your touch.
His voice came out thin, frayed at the edges.
âIâm reallyâŠReally not gonna last if you keep doing that, andâŠâ He swallowed hard, voice dropping to a whisper, âAnd I really do want to have sex with youâŠâ
His eyes met yours. Wide. Pleading. Vulnerable.
Like he wanted to say more but couldnât figure out how.
You leaned up slowly, hand still wrapped around him, lips brushing his ear.
âNo need to begâŠâ You whispered, voice thick with heat. âBut if you want to come inside me, BobâŠThen you better hurry up and get these off.â
His whole body jolted.
A groanâlow, raw, helplessâescaped him.
His boxer briefs were gone a second later. Pushed down and kicked away without a single thought, like he couldnât bear another second of distance.
He came back over you with reverent slownessâclimbing the length of your body like he was rediscovering it inch by inch.
His bare chest skimmed yours, warm and solid. His hips dipped low, the hard length of him brushing against the inside of your thigh, and your breath hitched at the contact.
âGod,â he whispered, voice raw as his lips brushed against your neck. âYou feel so good already.â
You arched into him just slightly, your hands finding his shouldersâbroad and warm beneath your palms, still trembling faintly from restraint. His glasses were fogging again, slipping lower, but he didnât seem to notice. Didnât care.
He kissed the side of your neck.
Then your jaw.
Then your cheekâlingering there with a kind of gentleness that made your stomach twist.
And then he kissed your mouth again. Slow. Sweet. Deep.
You moaned softly into him.
The tops of his thighs pressed flush to the backs of yours now, his cock resting heavily between your legsâleaking precum that smeared slightly against your inner thigh as he shifted to fit himself against you perfectly.
His hand rose to your cheek, cradling it, thumb stroking lightly against your skin as he pulled back just enough to speak.
âYou sure?â He asked softly, voice shaking with the weight of everything he was holding in. His eyes searched yours, pupils blown, cheeks flushed.
You nodded. Slow. Certain.
âIâm sure,â You whispered. He let out a shaky breath, then he reached down between the both of you, eyes never leaving yours.
You felt the warm glide of his knuckles against your folds first, then the soft, slick drag of his cock as he slowly ran the tip of himself through your arousal.
Your breath caught.
He swirled it over your clit once, twiceâjust enough to make your thighs twitch.
And God, the way he looked at you while he did it.
Eyes locked. Lips parted. Worship written into every line of his face, made you feel dizzy.
âYouâre so wet,â He murmured. âYou feelâŠUnreal.â You whimpered, your nails digging lightly into his shoulder as your other hand wrapped tighter around his bicep.
âBobâŠâ You whispered, voice already trembling. âPlease.â
He leaned down, pressing a kiss to your lipsâsoft and slow and steady.
Thenâfinallyâhe began to push in.
You both moaned.
The stretch hit immediately, slow and burning, a delicious ache that made your spine arch and your mouth fall open.
âF-fuck,â Bob gasped, his forehead dropping briefly to yours as he sank in inch by inch. âGod, youâreâyouâre so tight. So warm. You feel so goodâŠWowâŠâ Your hips shifted, trying to take more, and his hands immediately gripped your thighs, grounding you.
âEasy,â He said, kissing the corner of your mouth. âI got you. Just breathe.â
You nodded, your head swimming.
He pushed deeper.
You could feel every inchâevery throb of him, every shudder in his breath as your walls stretched around him.
âJust like that,â He murmured. âDoing so good. Taking me so well.â You whimpered, and the sound cracked open something in him.
âYou like that?â He whispered, kissing your cheek again, his hips rolling just the slightest bit deeper. âYou like hearing how perfect you feel around me?â
âYes,â you gasped. âGod, yes, Bobâkeep talkingâpleaseââ
âFuck,â He breathed, his voice breaking again. âYouâre gonna kill me.â
He rocked forward the last inch with a soft, helpless moan. Your body trembled beneath his as you adjusted, your thighs hugging his hips, your hands gripping him tightly. Bob groaned into your neck, voice ragged.
âGodâŠYouâre perfect. I swear, youâreâJesus, I donât even know how to describe thisââ You turned your head, catching his mouth again in a deep, desperate kiss. You could feel him trembling above you, his muscles taut, breath stuttering with the effort of staying still.
âYou feel so fucking good, Bobâso fullâso deepââ His breath hitched.
âSay that again,â He whimpered, âPlease.â
You kissed his neck, your voice thick with heat.
âYou fill me up so goodâŠGod it feels amazing.â Bob let out a deep moan.
Then he began to move.
Just a tiny thrust at firstâbarely pulling out before pressing back in, the friction slow and hot and devastating.
Your mouth fell open.
His lips ghosted over your cheek as he whispered, âGonna make you come on me just like thisâŠâ Your back arched at the words, your cheek bumping against his glasses. âYou like the sound of that?â He added. Your fingers curled into his shoulder blades, nails dragging softly over warm skin as you nodded, breath catching on a moan.
âYesâŠYes, please.â
The quiet plea cracked something open in him.
He kissed you againâmouth hot, searching, needier this timeâand his hips began to move.
Slow at first.
A deep roll forward, dragging his length out almost completely before easing back in, the friction molten, smooth, aching. You gasped into his mouth, your body lifting slightly to meet the next thrust. Bob groanedâlow and huskyâand pulled back just enough to look at you.
His pupils were blown wide, sweat dampening the hair at his temples, glasses fogging up again from your breath. Still, he didnât take them off. He looked wrecked. Gorgeous. Reverent.
âGod, you feelâŠâ He whispered, voice thick and ruined as he rocked into you again, a little harder this time, âSo goodâŠSo tight around me, babyâoh god.â Your breath stuttered. The nickname, unintentional or not, hit low and warm and made you clench involuntarily around him.
He felt it.
He swore softlyââJesusââand dropped his head to your shoulder, the next thrust coming sharper, more instinctual.
Your hands roamedâup his back, over the rise of his shoulders, down to his hips where your fingers dug in just slightly. He kissed your neck between thrusts, then bit gently just beneath your ear, and the second his teeth grazed your skin, you gasped.
Your body clenched again.
Bob moaned, full and broken.
âFuck, thatâYou like that?â He murmured, voice hot and desperate against your ear. âYou like when I do that?â
âY-Yeah,â You whispered, trembling, lips brushing the shell of his ear. âYou feel so good, BobâŠYouâre hitting every part of me.â
He groanedâlong, low, filthy in how soft it sounded. His hips began to move faster now, deeper, each thrust dragging a moan from your throat, and his hands slid beneath your thighs, hiking them higher around his waist so he could sink in even further.
âGod, youâre perfect,â He praised. âYouâre so perfect for me. Every inch of youâI swearâfuckââ
Your head fell back against the pillow. You were gasping now, barely able to respond, but you tried. You wanted him to hear it. You wanted him to know.
âYouâre so good at this,â You panted, voice trembling. âSo good at making me feel goodâGod, youâre incredible, Bobââ
His whole body stilled for half a second, as if praise struck something too deep.
Then he moved faster.
A rougher thrustâstill controlled, still measured, but heavier now, thicker with want. He let out a moan against your neck, raw and hot, and your back arched at the sound.
You could feel him everywhereâhis chest brushing yours, his lips at your throat, his hands gripping you tight like he needed to feel every part of you at once.
You cried out, hips lifting into his, clenching around him with every thick, slick stroke. He felt it. Groaned again. Slid one hand up your body to cradle the side of your face.
âLook at me,â he breathed, voice hoarse.
You did.
And the second your eyes locked, his pace stutteredâjust for a heartbeatâlike the sight of you, soft and dazed and open beneath him, was enough to make him lose rhythm.
Then he started thrusting again. Deep. Steady. Hot.
âI want you to come on me,â He whispered, voice cracking with the weight of it. âI want to feel you come againâwant to hear how good it feels.â
Your lips parted. Your thighs trembled.
âBob,â You gasped, desperate now. âYouâre so goodâplease donât stopâpleaseââ
He kissed you again. Deep. Desperate. All tongue and breath and heat. His thrusts got heavier, faster, until you could feel your climax curling up your spine like a fuse.
âYouâre close, arenât you?â He murmured, hips stuttering with restraint. âI can feel it, baby⊠Youâre so tightâso fucking wetâcome for meâpleaseââ
You shattered.
With a cry that broke in the middle, your walls clenched around him, waves of heat and release rolling through you so hard your vision blurred. Bob moaned your nameâragged, reverentâthrusting into you a few more times before he groaned loud against your shoulder and came with a shuddering, broken gasp. Bobâs entire body tensed as he cameâhis cock pulsing deep inside you, hips stuttering against yours in involuntary thrusts as thick, hot ropes of cum filled you.
You felt everything.
The way his muscles tensed above you, taut and trembling. The low, broken sound he made as he buried his face in your neck. The way his arms curled tighter around your waist like he needed to hold onto something to stay connected to consciousness
âF-Fuck,â He choked out, hips giving one more weak, slow push. His release was hot and endless, spreading warmth low in your belly as his body finally started to give in. His breathing was ragged, the heat of it ghosting over your skin. He didnât pull out right away.
Didnât move at all for a long moment.
Just slumped forward, his bare chest sticky against yours, the last tremors of orgasm still rolling through him. His forehead pressed into your shoulder, and you felt him exhale with all the weight of a man undone.
Even the frames of his glasses were warm.
You let your arms slide around his back, hands splayed wide across the muscles there, sticky with sweat, anchoring you both. The only sounds in the room were your shallow, echoing breaths, and the soft hum of a distant hallway light buzzing just outside your dorm door.
Bobâs weight against you felt right. Heavy in the best way. Settled. Natural.
Your fingertips traced slow, thoughtless patterns over his back as you both lay tangled together, letting the afterglow settle around your limbs like warm syrup. Your heartbeats synced slowlyâyours still fluttering, his gradually calming.
And thenâ
He shifted.
Lifted himself slightly on one trembling arm, the other brushing your hair back from your forehead. His cheeks were flushed, his lips pink, and his glasses crooked beyond saving. His smile was dazed. Soft. Glowing.
He leaned in and kissed you again. A soft kiss. Lingering. The kind of kiss that said thank you, and also more, and also stay.
When he pulled back, still breathless, still inside you, he murmured:
âWeâre gonna have to start going to the library to study.â
You blinked. Confused. Flushed and blinking at him through the haze, your breath still catching a little in your throat.
ââŠWhy?â You asked, voice hoarse but amused, one hand reaching up to gently smooth the short, light brown strands of his hair that were now sticking out in every direction.
His smile widenedâlopsided and boyish, just a little cocky.
âBecause weâre never going to get any studying done if weâre near a bedâŠâ He murmured, pressing a kiss to your jaw. âThe temptation will be too strong.â
You laughedâlight, breathless, your chest shaking under his with the sound.
âWell,â You teased, trailing your fingertips down the curve of his back, âThere goes that positive reinforcement idea, then.â
Bob leaned in and kissed your cheek. Then the tip of your nose.
âIâm sure we can figure out a replacement,â He replied, âSomething that can be done in public spaces.â
You burst out laughing.
He did too.
And you stayed like thatâwrapped up in each other, laughter echoing soft and breathless into the quiet room.