by Lara Norman
“Luna,” he mumbled against her. “I’m going to fuck you. Right here, right now.”
He was rewarded with her fervent nod and didn’t hesitate to press his advantage. He backed her to the desk and lifted her skirt, running his fingers across her panties and finding them damp. He dug out his wallet as he kissed her deeply, fumbling with his zipper and praying she didn’t change her mind. The second he had a condom on, he lifted her by the hips until she sat on the edge of his desk. Luna pulled on his tie and bit his neck in the instant he pushed inside her. She groaned and wrapped her leg around his waist, shoving at his dress shirt so she could run her hands over his chest.
Davis tweaked Luna’s nipples through her blouse, pumping in and out in a pace meant to prove to her how good it could be. She muffled her screams in his neck and he felt his balls tightening in response. He fought the ruffle of her skirt to bring his hand to her pussy, circling his thumb over her clit until she shivered and practically vibrated in his arms. When his name tumbled from her lips, lost in the fabric of his shirt, he let go and came inside her.
She laid her head on his shoulder with a heavy breath. He couldn’t let her go, despite knowing he should. He rained kisses on the side of her head and finally relaxed his hold. He pulled her face up to look in her eyes.
“Luna?”
“Mm.” She looked down to where they were still attached.
“You okay?” he asked nervously.
“Definitely.” She looked up then, and he sighed in relief. “You were right, it was better.”
“Um, we should clean up.”
She slapped a hand to her forehead. “Your door doesn’t even lock.”
“Nope.”
He stepped away, allowing her legs to fall. She stood and looked around, finding a box of tissues on the credenza. He turned away from her to see to himself and moved to his chair to give her a few extra minutes. When she remained in the corner, he got up and went over to her.
“Do you want to go to dinner, Luna?” He touched her shoulder, but she didn’t turn. “Maybe talk about this?”
“I don’t think so.”
He wanted to ask why, but he was pretty certain he knew the answer already. Dinner was like a date, and after what they’d just done . . .
“Not as anything but what this is, Luna. Not as a couple, or whatever you’re so against. Just as we’ve always been.”
“But we’re not as we’ve always been, are we?” She turned to him finally, and his heart broke at the look on her face. “For four years now, I worried what would happen when I gave in. I knew I would eventually, and I knew we would crash and burn if I did. So, I’m sorry, but I don’t want to stick around and watch the wreckage go up in flames.”
His protest died in his throat as she walked out of his office.
Chapter 4
Luna couldn’t believe she’d caved a second time. She didn’t have the excuse of alcohol in her system this time. No, she wanted to have sex with Davis while stone cold sober. What she’d told him was true; she’d spent the past four years wanting him so badly it hurt, but she was terrified of screwing everything up and losing him. If he was willing to stay at arm’s length, then that was where she would keep him. Getting romantically involved would only spell disaster. Her fears were confirmed when she watched her best friend get treated like crap by her boyfriend’s parents. The Clarks didn’t think Reagan was good enough for Hudson, and Hudson never so much as spoke to his parents anymore. Luna refused to come between Davis and his parents. It wasn’t fair.
And there was her problem. She’d crossed a line, and then crossed it again, setting it on fire and walking away. She wasn’t sure how to live her life without Davis, but she couldn’t imagine he would continue to put up with her when she couldn’t give him the relationship he wanted. He deserved so much better than Luna Moss, and the sooner he figured that out, the happier he would be. Even if it meant she would be miserable.
Tuesday dragged by in a cloud of confusion. Luna struggled to maintain an upbeat façade for her students, but her mind wasn’t on work. The afternoon lagged until she finally had the chance to hurry home. She’d come up with what she hoped to be a solution to her bad mood. She called Reagan. She had experience with Luna’s dilemma, but it would also feel better to talk to her and get it out of her system.
Reagan wasn’t free for a few more hours, meaning Luna had to attempt to distract herself. She turned on the TV, but nothing caught her attention. She worked on grading that day’s pop quizzes, but she couldn’t keep her head in the game. She gave up and stared at the wall, trying not to cry.
Finally, Luna heard the buzzer for the outer door and got up to push the button to let Reagan in the building. She stood tapping her foot until the knock. Wrenching the door open, she pulled Reagan in for a hug that reeked of desperation.
“Jeez, Luna, are you all right?” Reagan asked as she untangled herself from her friend.
“No. I screwed up big time.” Luna led Reagan to the couch, and they sat down together.
Reagan frowned. “What did you do?”
“I caved.” Luna covered her face in her hands for a brief moment before looking Reagan in the eyes. “I slept with Davis. Twice.”
Reagan took a minute to respond. “Was he any good?” She grinned, but Luna wasn’t amused.
“I don’t know what I was thinking. We’ll never go back to being just friends after this. We’ll be stuck in some weird level of awkwardness.”
“Knowing Davis, nothing will change,” Reagan tried to reassure her.
“It’s not fair to him.” Luna felt the tears really bearing down on her. She tried to fight them, but it was no use. She picked up the box of tissues from the side table.
“It’s never been fair to him, but you both made the decision a long time ago that things wouldn’t progress past friendship. He was okay with that, Luna.”
“That was before I let him do things to me,” Luna whispered.
“How did all of this transpire, anyway?”
Luna sighed. “We went to dinner on Friday. We haven’t really seen each other since graduation, and we missed each other. We had wine with dinner, and then brandy with dessert. I had too much, and we were having such a good time that I didn’t want it to end. I asked him to come up, and I guess I didn’t think it through.”
“And then?” Reagan prompted.
“He said we could just have this casual thing, like friends with benefits. And, you know, I agreed.” Luna wiped her eyes with her tissue.
“But then you managed to do it a second time?”
Luna nodded. “In his office yesterday.”
“Damn, girl.” Reagan fanned herself.
“I know!” Luna buried her face in her hands. “I’ve ruined it.”
“You’re gonna have to tell me how that worked out. I want the details.”
Luna groaned. “We were arguing about the first time, and he suggested that there was no way we could blame bad sex for the reason we aren’t a couple. I said that I wanted to see how it would be when we were sober, since we were pretty tipsy Friday night. Things progressed quickly after that.”
Reagan smiled. “You’re so closed-mouth about it.”
“I don’t want to describe the sex I had with my best friend to my other best friend,” Luna grumbled.
Reagan rolled her eyes. “I tell you about my sex life.”
“You’re a hell of a lot freakier than I am, trust me.”
Reagan let out a cackle. “I know. Boy, do I know.”
Luna thought of some of the things Reagan had shared with her that she’d done when she was trying to convince Hudson they were good together. Just the idea of it made Luna blush. “It’s not that I’m against the sex. He’s superb at it. It’s the rest where we have issues.”
“Look, I know you think Hudson suffers because he doesn’t speak to his parents, but it’s been liberating for him. He spent his whole life feeling suppressed by them due to their attitude about eve
ry little thing he chose to do. Now he makes decisions based on his happiness and mine, and he’s working on not feeling guilty about it.”
“But Davis is close to his parents; at least, closer than Hudson is to his.” Luna crossed her legs and leaned forward. “He’d be unhappy without them in his life.”
“And you’re positive he’d have to choose between you and them?”
“When we met, Sophia shook my hand, but she wouldn’t really look at me. Like I was a piece of furniture she had to step around to get in the apartment instead of her son’s closest friend.”
“What about Ian?”
“He was decent to me, but you know that Sophia runs the show. What she says, goes.” Luna got up and paced around her postage stamp-sized living room. “I don’t want to be the reason Davis is unhappy, but it honestly seems like he will be no matter what I do. If I go back to being friends only, he’ll be hurt. If I come between him and his parents, he’ll be upset. Which one will destroy his life less?”
“I can’t answer that for you, Luna. You have to decide what’s right for you.”
“Ugh, that’s not at all what I was hoping you’d say.”
“I can tell you that Davis is amazing and the two of you would make a spectacular couple. Anyone can see how much he loves you. But you already know these things.”
“I do.” Luna dropped back to the couch and put her head in her hands. “If I didn’t think that I was terrible for him, I’d jump on him in a heartbeat.”
“Just remember that one day he might give up waiting for you and choose to be happy with someone else.”
“I wish he would.” Luna winced. “Scratch that, I don’t wish he would. I need to find somebody; then maybe he’ll move on and be happy.”
Reagan frowned. “Uh, I don’t know about that. You wouldn’t want to watch him with someone else. Imagine how he’d feel if he had to see you with some guy.”
“Don’t you see? If I’m happy and well taken care of, he’ll move on and be happy, too!”
“What are you going to do, hit up a singles website? The bar?”
“What? No!” Luna threw her hands up in frustration. “I don’t know.”
“I’m not really on board with this idea. I want you both to be happy, though.” Reagan patted Luna’s shoulder.
“It’ll work out, you’ll see.” Luna stared into space for a moment. “Can you stay for dinner?”
Reagan checked her watch. “I can. Let me tell Hudson I’ll be home after we eat. What do you want for dinner?”
“I hadn’t thought that far ahead.” Luna went to the refrigerator and dug around. “It looks like I can offer you spaghetti or a sandwich. Or we can order in.”
The women made dinner together, laughing and kidding around. Luna felt the lift in her heart and knew she’d been right to call her friend. It was what she’d needed. When she was alone again, her thoughts turned to Davis and how they’d left things in his office. Normally, he would have called her a few days after a tiff so they could work it out. The fact that he hadn’t this time solidified in Luna’s mind the decision she’d made. She would go forward with her plan to set him free.
Luna had no idea where she would begin to look for a date, but she should have known it wouldn’t be as difficult as she feared. She’d put the other middle grade science teacher out of her mind shorty after meeting him, but she was reminded of his flirtatious ways when she found him waiting in her room Wednesday morning before class. She initially met him when she was a teacher’s assistant, and the reintroduction on the first day of school was an eye-opener. He was charming and funny, putting himself in her path as often as possible. Now she found him to be the perfect way to kick off her plan.
“Luna, how are you this morning?” he asked as she walked in the room to put her things down.
“I’m great, Luther, how are you?” She shot a genuine smile in his direction. It was hard to miss the surprise he tried to hide before he smoothed his features and smiled in return.
“I’m having a pretty good hump day, I must admit.”
Luna put her purse in her bottom desk drawer and locked it before straightening and finding him watching her. “That’s good. I’m looking forward to the upcoming field trip to the museum.”
He beamed. Luther was in charge of planning the sixth grade field trips. “That’s fantastic. I think we’ll have a good time.”
“The kids”—she stressed the word—“deserve to see what they have to offer at the Maryland Science Center.” She was interested in him, but didn’t want him to think a class field trip was the place to express this interest.
“Of course, it’s about the kids during the day. Maybe afterward, we can have dinner—”
“Luna?”
Luna whipped her head in the direction of the door. Her stomach sank to her knees as all color drained from her face. Despite wanting Davis to see her move on so she could set him free, the feeling she got from being found with a colleague, seconds away from accepting his dinner offer, made her feel nauseous.
“Davis!” She attempted to force cheerfulness into her voice.
“Could I speak with you, please?”
The fact that he hadn’t exactly entered her room did not escape her notice. “Sure.” Luna turned back to Luther. “We’ll talk about the field trip later, Mr. Dixon.”
He merely nodded and left her room, shooting a glance at Davis as he went. Davis was dressed for the office in his well-tailored suit, whereas Luther was in jeans and a plaid shirt. Luna’s legs had gone weak, but she didn’t want to have to look up at Davis; she locked her knees and remained standing by her desk. Davis came in, looking around at the walls covered with child-created art. He stopped a foot from Luna and examined her closely. She stayed perfectly still, though she wanted to squirm under his direct scrutiny.
“What brings you here?” she finally asked, attempting to sound friendly and not accusatory.
“I thought it would be prudent of me to speak to you face to face instead of attempting to call and risk you ignoring me.”
“I wouldn’t ignore you, Davis.”
He lifted his hand, brushing a strand of hair behind her ear. She trembled before she could clamp down on her muscles. “Wouldn’t you?” he countered.
With annoyance, she asked, “What did you want to talk about?”
“You, me, my office. The possibly ill-advised meeting we conducted.”
She raised a brow. “Meeting?”
He grinned. “We’re in a school, and your door is open. I’m not looking to corrupt young minds.” He leaned in, took a sniff of her neck, and murmured, “Just you.”
Her pussy clenched; she couldn’t help it. He had a way about him that had always driven her crazy. Little touches, small gestures, and whispering in her ear turned her all the way on. “Davis,” she said, trying to sound stern. “You just said we’re in a classroom, and here you are, in my personal space.”
Davis backed up a few paces. “At any rate, I want to assure you it won’t happen again. Considering how much I appeared to have offended you, I want to apologize.”
She took a deep breath. “As long as you realize that nothing has changed between us, I can accept an apology for your part.”
“Don’t lie, Luna.” His tone was sharp, so he modulated both the tone and the volume. “We can pretend nothing has changed, if that’s what you want. I told you there’s no way you can lose me, and I meant it.”
A student came in and sat down, putting his bag away and pulling books out of his desk. Luna glanced at him and back to Davis. “Okay.”
“Don’t think I didn’t notice that Bill Nye looking man-child asking you out.”
She shrugged. There was no way to determine how Davis felt about that since he kept his face blank. His eyes, though; they were heated. “And if he did?”
Davis mirrored her shrug. “As your friend, I say be careful.”
Luna hummed, watching another student arrive. “As you can see, my classroom i
s filling up.”
