Masquerade by Lace Daltyn

whispered.
    “I love you back,” Beth
said.
    They slept, he thought,
although only for a few minutes, until Beth suggested she shower.
    “I’ll join you,” Tony
said as she got out of bed.
    She turned to him,
holding out her hand. “I hoped you’d say that.”

Chapter Twelve
     
    Warm water shushed over
Beth, washing away the last vestiges of doubt about her ability to turn a man
on, and to be turned on by him.
    Tony poured shampoo in
his hand and looked at her. She turned her hair to him and he worked it in
methodically, taking his time, both relaxing and invigorating her. Never had a
shampoo felt this exotic and sensual.
    After her hair was rinsed , she turned to him, feeling like she needed to be
completely honest.
    “Steve called me a frigid
bitch.” When Tony’s hands fisted, Beth pulled them to her mouth and kissed them
open. She tried to quiet her heart, knowing this was something she’d never told anyone. Steven may have intuited it, but she’d never validated his belief. “He wasn’t right about the bitch
part. I know that. But the frigid comment was pretty
much spot-on. I couldn’t climax with him, not even once.” Beth cupped his face
in her hands. “Apparently, I was waiting for you.”
    Tony turned the shower
off and pulled her into his arms. “You haven’t got any issues, honey. Not a single one . I can attest of that.”
    Beth smiled into his
chest. “Thanks, but at the time, I thought I did. I’m so grateful to fate for bringing us back together.
    Tony stiffened, and Beth
looked up at him in confusion. “It wasn’t exactly fate,” he said.
    “What would you call it?”
    “I’d— well, I’d call it an application, not fate.”
    “Huh?”
    “I saw this ad in a
newspaper. It was very cryptic, saying something about healing, but I figured
what the heck. Might as well give it a try.” He
smoothed her wet hair. “I had tried to find you for so long, I’d run out of
options. So I filled it out, sent it in, and nothing
for a few months. Figured I’d been conned. Then one
day, I got an email saying I needed to start working at Masquerade on a certain
day. Turns out that was the day before your arrival.”
    Beth bit her bottom lip,
wondering if she should tell him everything. He took the words from her with a
deep, sensual kiss.
    “I owe whoever I sent
that application to one huge debt of gratitude. When you first walked into the
bar, I wanted to rip the mask off my face and show you who I was. It took
everything I had to keep it on.”
    “Why did you?”
    “A
couple reasons, neither of them good. First, I was
told to. And then , I got cold feet, I guess. I
wanted time to make sure you’d return my love before I outed myself.”
    “I can understand that.”
    “I’m so glad I found you.”
    “And I,
you. I love you, Anthony. More than I could fathom. We’ve lost so much
time.”
    A gleam entered his eyes.
“Then we have a lot to make up for.” He proceeded to show her how much he
wanted to make it up to her.
    Beth, who had spent too
many years wondering what was wrong with her, learned again, right there in the
shower, that she wasn’t frigid. In fact, she had a
very healthy libido, one that had a lot of catching up to do. When Tony turned
her to face the wall and reached around to tweak her nipples, Beth shivered,
not from the cold, but from a need that rose so strong in her, she couldn’t control it. She gave in to desire, spread her arms
out along the tile, giving him better access. She arched her back, reaching out
for him with her ass.
    Tony had other plans.
Instead of the cock she expected, his hand stroked her. Slow,
methodical strokes, as if learning every dip and crest. It was heaven. Sweet, excruciating heaven. He didn’t stay in one place long enough for her to find relief and she vibrated with
desire. Instead of pounding into her, of giving her the satisfaction of
release, he maintained a maddening pace just shy of satisfying.
    She turned, or tried to,
but he