by Maya Hughes
“What else? Tell me. What things can’t you tell me?”
About Venice and…
“And things like, I like you. I’ve always liked you and you don’t feel the same way about me. So there. How about those new bits of information?”
His head dropped a fraction of an inch, eyes darting back and forth like he was running numbers in his head. He slammed his eyes shut.
Stupid. It was a stupid thing to confess.
I spun, facing my bedroom window and scrubbed my hands down my face.
“Marisa…”
“What?” I turned to face him.
A pained, bordering on tortured, expression cast a shadow across his face.
His arms wrapped around me, holding me tight against him, and his lips were liquid fire crashing down on mine.
15
Marisa
Breathing heavily, blood pounding, my heart ramming into my ribs, I jerked back staring at him.
“What—?” My anger transformed into confusion.
His fingers gripped my face and slipped around the bottom of my ear, holding me to him while he delved deeper into the kiss. His tongue flicked against mine and I whimpered, drawing a groan from him, lost to the thumping beat of the blood coursing through my veins.
He let me go and stared into my eyes. There was no hesitation or confusion in them, only a hunger.
And my confusion reversed course and shifted straight into passion. The raging fire of anger was channeled into a need. The flood gates had opened, only this time it wasn’t water—it was fire.
My swollen, aching lips transmitted a signal radiating throughout my body. The need crawling under my skin was hungry for more.
“I’ve wanted to do that for so long.”
Panting, heated with a mental shout of ‘finally,’ I stared into his eyes, seeing the truth of his words. My heart was finally free to let all those feelings loose, and the tears almost made their return. This was pure, unadulterated bliss. “What the hell took you so long?”
His hands slid down my sleeves until they got to my hands and he intertwined his fingers with mine.
“When I’m standing here with you like this—” he lifted our hands and held them to his chest. “I have no freaking idea.”
There were so many things to sort through, but now the need was winning out. “Then kiss me again.”
He kicked my door closed and went in for another kiss. The first hadn’t been a fluke, not by a long shot.
This wasn’t a daydream. This wasn’t a fake out. This was happening.
Before long, needy sounds filled the room. It took me far too long to realize they were coming from me.
I dropped my head to his shoulder. A nearly-silent prayer for him not to stop whispered across my lips.
His lips danced along the curve of my neck, intensifying the heat humming through my body.
My hands ran along his back, shoving at the sweater and t-shirt underneath.
He stilled and rocked back, cupping my cheek. “I want you, Marisa.” An extra-long blink and his gaze was back on mine. “I need you.”
A lightness in my chest unlike I’d ever felt before. He needed me. He wanted me. He’d have me.
“And I need you too.” I stepped back, grabbing the hem of my shirt and swept it over my head in one smooth motion.
His gaze tracked straight to my chest.
The pulse between my thighs deepened, sending sparks of anticipation through my body. Then a small curveball. “Shit, do you have any condoms?”
Without a word he rushed out of the room and I heard one of the drawers in his room slam shut. He had a box stashed there. I’d found them when we’d been sharing a room and a little flare of jealousy had burned in my chest, but now I was glad he had them. I wouldn’t let jealousy ruin this moment.
Bursting into my room, he glanced down at the small unopened box, he cursed under his breath.
No, no no. What if he was backing out? I reached for him. “What’s wrong?” I trailed kisses along his neck and slid my hands toward the buttons on his pants.
“They’re expired. Dammit.” He groaned.
“You’re joking.” I grabbed the box. This was not happening. They gave handfuls of condoms away in the student center every week. Sure enough, the date stamped on the box was more than a year ago.
“Shit.”
“I’ll be right back.” He bolted from the room so fast there should’ve been a plume of smoke behind him.
I sat on my bed. Why were his condoms expired? Now wasn’t the time. And before I could let any doubts or fears creep back in, he was back with a strip of condoms.
“That’s a lot of condoms.”
He flung them on my bed behind me and ran his fingers along my chin. “I don’t want to have to go back for more later.”
The sparks turned to flares.
“Well aren’t you a planner.”
“I’ve been waiting for this for too long.” His fingers skimmed along my back, slowly running under the heavy straps of my bra and camisole.
Tingling anticipation charged my skin.
I repeated his movements. A mirror of longing and hunger.
My breath hitched. “How long?”
His fingers trailed down the side of my neck.
Goosebumps trailed down my arms and the tempo of the throb between my thighs increased. “Too long.”
Just how long exactly? Another thing to tuck away for later. It couldn’t have been as long as I’d wanted this. I’d all but given up hope of one day feeling him like this, of being close to him as anything more than his friend.
His smell made me heady. It made me think of hiking on a sunny day in a forest. Fresh. Earthy. Real.
I tugged his shirt overhead, breaking the hold neither of us wanted to lose on one another.
He turned, tugging me forward by the loops on my jeans. His fingers grazed my waistband and slid under the camisole. Taking his time, his damn sweet time, he drew my camisole up.
The rough touch of his hands skimming along my sides and unhooking my bra sent dizzying desire radiating through me.
Both of us were naked from the waist up, standing in my bedroom, and my heart was beating so fast, I expected to look down and see the imprint.
“You’re beautiful. And you’re sure about this?” Did he always have to be so damn earnest and sweet?
But a beat hit. This would change everything. This wasn’t a kiss. This wasn’t an errant almost-hand-job. This was sex. A big first. It might be our last, the last of everything built over the past fifteen years of friendship. But I couldn’t stop.
I wouldn’t stop. I needed to know.
“Let me show you how sure I am.” I shoved down my jeans and kicked them off before tugging the buttons of his and pushing them off his trim hips and down his muscled thighs.
They hit the floor like mine.
His eyes were closed like he’d slipped into a quick meditation, but his cock certainly wasn’t relaxed. It stood up straight, thick, heavy. His lips moving, saying silent words.
My body hummed in anticipation. A flare of worry was quickly smothered by my hope and want.
A bout of hesitation hit me and then his eyes snapped open. “Just trying to calm myself down. I thought I was ready to see you like this, but holy shit, Marisa.”
I chuckled, preening at the words. “If you like what you see, then come get me.” I spread my arms wide.
He shot forward, spinning me around until I flopped onto the bed.
My hair fell into my face.
His warm, weighty body settled over mine.
I parted my thighs, letting him in. Letting him closer. The tension and worries I’d anticipated weren’t there. There was nothing except the not-so-gentle hum of anticipation. My hummingbird heartbeat might as well have been one continuous beat making my skin flush and glow.
His corded muscles flexed, like it was taking all of his strength to hold back.
I didn’t want him to hold ba
ck anymore.
He dropped his head and laved one of my nipples, rolling the other between his fingers, while rocking his hips against me. The slow, steady rub of his cock against my clit coaxed moans from deep in my throat.
I held onto his head.
The tongue-and-teeth combo was working wonders on my breasts. I hadn’t ever thought they were all that sensitive. Apparently, they just hadn’t met the right guy. LJ was that guy.
Heat and quivers coiled in my belly.
The charge running through my body heightened, and the sounds from where his hips ground against mine bordered on obscene. Even the tiniest particle of reservation evaporated. I wanted this. I wanted him.
I felt around on the bed and snagged the condoms. “LJ, here.” I tore one off and held it up to him.
He stopped and looked up at me with rosy cheeks and a flicker of confusion. “Right.” He chuckled and lifted up, rolling the latex onto his shaft.
A happy sigh rushed past my lips when he dropped back down and nudged at my pussy.
His fingers brushed the hair back from my face, and he stared into my eyes.
If there was a time to not be a gentleman, it was now, but LJ being exactly who he was, it was why I loved him like I did. He ran his thick mushroom tip up and down my entrance.
“Come on, L.” My heart tripped, stripping away all the layers between us.
He met my lips and drank from them in hearty gulps.
I clung to him.
My toes scrunched as he pushed inside. So much pressure. Full. So full. My mouth opened in a silent scream.
His head pushing inside. Stretching and spreading me.
I gasped, squeezing my eyes shut at the intensity, breathing through the pain.
He stared into my eyes, watching every breath. “Are you okay?”
“Mmhh.” I nodded, not trusting my voice, and the sharpness of his invasion eased into a throb.
The feeling of fullness gave way to ripples of pleasure.
His thrusts built slowly, until they rocked into me harder and faster. Measured. Methodical. Maddening.
A tease after the wait. The pain was completely gone now. My breath hitched as the electric current increased.
“I thought the phrase was cock tease.” I shifted my hips to get him to sink in deeper, faster, completely.
Each half stroke was torturous pleasure. And with one thrust, he buried himself in me.
I yelped and my back arched off the bed. Helpless lust crashed into me and stole my breath. But I needed more.
He glanced up from looking down between us. His pupils were massive and he shuddered, rocking me along with him.
Staring into my eyes, he raised up and I shifted my hips, opening my legs wider.
The breath was stolen from my lungs as his slow thrust invaded me, an invasion that sent sizzling pleasure rolling down my spine. The bliss blooming from deep within me turned to a euphoric moan as his slow, steady drive reached depths I relished and wanted to never stop.
“Are you okay?” His fingers brushed the hair from the side of my face.
Sweat beaded on his forehead. His control and caring, never wanting to push me further than I wanted to go, made it hard to keep my heart from swelling. He was watching me like I was the most precious thing in his life.
“I’d be even better if you stopped holding back.” I shot him a lopsided grin and urged him on with a tilt of my hips.
He dropped his head back and hissed like he was in pain. An excruciating pleasure he couldn’t get enough of and couldn’t escape.
My bed rocked and banged against the wall like we were trying to demolish the place.
He wasn’t holding back now.
How little he was holding back was written in the sweat coating both our bodies.
If anyone came home they’d think there was a drumline in my bedroom, but we weren’t stopping.
I ran my fingers along the side of his face, reveling in the stubble and traveling up to tickle my fingers through his hair. “I’m all yours, L.” It slipped out, I swiveled my hips to distract from the words. Stay in the moment.
This spurred him on. Rolling, grinding thrusts and the sounds of our bodies battling toward the peak now within view heightened every touch, taste and smell.
Rippling waves crested over me, dragging me to the depths of bliss with each thrust stripping away my ability to do anything other than feel.
A brutal climax ripped through me and my moan was lost to a scream. I buried my face in the crook of his neck and held on as my walls clamped around him.
LJ hissed and kept going, his thrusts getting harder and sloppier. The silent mantra was back, only now I could hear it with my cheek rubbing against his chin, the short hairs tickling my skin.
“So fucking beautiful. Make it good for her. So fucking beautiful.” On repeat.
A chuckle caught in my throat at the most LJ thing ever said during sex. I rode the waves, moving from peak to peak before he thickened inside me, triggering another oversensitive orgasm.
This time, I wrapped all my limbs around him, trying to stall the movement. It was too much. He was too much and even more might be the death of me.
He collapsed on top of me and I basked in the weight and heat of him. After so many times sharing a bed, I had to say this was my favorite position. Glowy, tingling, and blissed out, I held onto him, not wanting these feelings to wane and the rest of the world to barge in on our moment.
Instead of moving off me, he slid his arms under me and squeezed me hard against him. “That was…”
I laughed and hugged him back. “It sure was.”
He hopped off the bed and got rid of the condom before jumping back into the bed with me.
This time, his strong thighs were on the outside of mine and he molded his body to mine again, sliding his arms behind me.
His not-nearly-as-deflated-as-I’d-expected cock was nestled in the hair on top of my pussy.
I was blanketed by his body, his strength, his lo—
Now was not the time to put words out into the universe, but I couldn’t back up. And suddenly, the panic of someone downstairs having heard us sent an elbow straight to my stomach.
“Is anyone home?”
He drew his head back and rested his fingers against the side of my neck. “No one’s here. They won’t be back for a few hours.” His fingers trailed down my shoulder, and the goosebumps pushed through my skin.
The cooling of my body was stopped and reversed by the growing appendage between us.
“Then we have time for another round.” I grabbed his ass and squeezed a cheek.
“I’d say we have time for at least another couple, if you’re game.”
I grabbed the strip of condoms half-wedged under my lower back and waved them in front of his face. “How many do you think we can make it through before anyone comes back?”
His lips twitched. “I have no idea, but I’m ready to start this race in five.” He took the strip from me.
“Four.” I wiggled out from under him and got onto my knees.
“Three?” He got up onto his and tore open the package.
“Two.” I pushed against his chest and he fell onto his back.
“One.” He straightened his legs.
I threw mine over his and gripped him before lifting up and guiding him inside.
“Blast off.”
16
LJ
Marisa rode me, her hips dropping and rotating. Teeth-grinding pleasure was injected straight into my veins.
I cupped her breasts, toying with her nipples. She found her rhythm and I added my own thrusts timed to draw the moans, gasps and looks of surprise from her.
After so long holding back, I couldn’t anymore. I didn’t want to, not when she felt this good and made noises that tapped into a baser, primal side of me that didn’t want to let her go. Not after we were finally together.
With the right tempo, it wasn’t long before my focus shifted from making this goo
d for her to holding back. It was too good. Watching her made it even harder to keep the reins on.
My silent chant resumed and I squeezed my eyes shut only to snap them open. I didn’t want to miss a second of her parted lips and hooded gaze.
She stared down at me like I was a superhero who’d showed up with a basket of orgasms to hand out. Damn, I wanted to run out onto the roof to see if I could actually fly.
I gripped her hips, pulling her down harder and grinding up into her.
This set her off. Her head dropped back and she screamed my name before falling forward onto my chest.
Sweaty, sex-drunk, and satiated, I held her against my chest and brushed her hair to one side, massaging the dents in her shoulder from her bra.
Coming down from the sex high was happening faster than I wanted. All the reasons and roadblocks lined up in the back of my head, ready to unleash a downpour on our first time.
She kissed my cheek and let out a sigh of contentment.
I didn’t want to move from this spot, but I had to get rid of the condom.
When I slid back into the bed, she had her thinking face on.
The door opened to the reservations, which lined up in a nice orderly fashion.
“Your condoms were expired.”
“Yes.” I’d hoped she’d have forgotten that. And I didn’t have more than a few brain cells left after round two to come up with a good excuse.
“But they’re good for like, five years.”
I dragged the blankets down, my heart beating wildly for totally different reasons than a few minutes ago. She should know. Also, it was a solid cover, if I’d botched it for her.
“Yes.”
“Was it a box you got from someone else?”
“No.” I chuckled. “I bought them myself.”
She moved under the blankets, the wheels turning and gears grinding even louder. “When?”
“Senior year of high school.” I faced her with my head propped up on my arm, wishing I had another distraction cookie to shove in her mouth, but not wanting to hide this from her anymore.
