by Vicky Owen
‘What?!’ she hisses.
The sound of movement outside the door causes us both to pause for a moment. We freeze, Lexi barely daring to breathe. After a few seconds, the person leaves and I turn back to her.
‘Please,’ she says, before I can say anything.
‘Please what?’ I tease, drawing out her frustration.
She looks into my eyes, trying to find the words. ‘Please touch me,’ she eventually tries.
‘I’m already touching you.’
‘Luc!’ she hisses. ‘You know what I mean.’
‘I want to hear you say the words.’
She huffs and looks away for a moment. Out the window. Trying to disengage. But I know she can’t. To prove it, I let my hand wander closer to her panties again. She immediately looks back at me, and I can’t help but grin.
She takes a deep breath. Her tone is soft and pleading as she quietly says the words. ‘Please make me come.’
I reach into her panties, feeling the full, luscious, soft wetness of her cunt. She exhales heavily as my fingers make contact with her, and I bury my face in her neck, kissing her hard.
Her body shudders as my fingers enter her, my thumb stroking her clit.
Her hips jerk into mine as she comes, and I press against her, holding her upright between my body and the wall.
‘Good,’ I whisper into her hair.
We stay like this for a minute, until her breathing calms and I know she’s OK to stand on her own again. When I pull back, I can see her cheeks are flushed and her lips pinker than usual, her hair a little more mussed up.
She looks at me. ‘Bastard.’
I grin. ‘As if you didn’t love that.’
She scowls for a second but quickly gives in to smiling.
‘You OK?’
She nods. She looks at my chest, then down to my crotch. ‘What about you?’ she says, stepping towards me. Her hand reaches down.
My cock is hard. Throbbing.
Obviously I want her.
And I fucking know she wants me.
We shouldn’t just leave, though. Not without saying goodbye.
Lexi looks at me, all dark eyes and heavy bangs and moonlit curves.
I have to have her.
Fuck it.
‘Let’s get out of here,’ I say, taking her hand and leading her towards the door.
THE LIMO IS waiting for us as we exit. I considered just grabbing a cab, but the driver will have more than enough time to get us to the airport and come back in time for when the others want to leave.
The driver holds the door open for Lexi as we approach. I hand him a wad of fifties for the inconvenience and his discretion, despite the way he checks her out as she climbs into the back of the limo.
Don’t even fucking think about it, buddy.
I can practically feel the testosterone coursing through me as I get in beside her.
My hands are in her hair as soon as the door is closed. The two minutes it took to get from that room to this car felt like at least thirty.
She presses her lips against mine as the limo pulls away, her hands fumbling for my shirt buttons, moaning softly into my mouth as she parts her lips for me.
I’m not sure we’re going to make it all the way home.
I reach out blindly, finally finding and pressing the switch to raise the partition between us and the driver.
Lexi starts undoing my shirt, her hands reaching beneath it to touch my chest.
As she pushes her body closer, I reach around behind her, finding the zip on her dress. I slowly pull it down so I can feel her bare skin.
She reaches down for my jeans. Every brush against my cock is torture as she undoes them. I pull them down as her dress—now looser thanks to the open zip—slips down her front, revealing her plump, braless tits.
I free myself from my boxers and pull her on top of me, kissing her bare skin and slipping a condom out of my wallet.
‘Luc,’ she moans in a half whisper. My cock twitches in response.
Fuck, even the way she says my name.
Her dress collapses around her waist as I unroll the condom onto myself.
‘Luc, my panties,’ she says.
Oh right. Yeah. She’s still wearing them.
I reach underneath the skirt of her dress and, finding the waistband, tear her knickers in two, pulling them away. Horror flashes across her face for a moment.
‘Don’t worry, I’ll replace them,’ I say, tossing them aside and pulling her onto me. She doesn’t look entirely forgiving, but that doesn’t stop her sinking down onto me, slowly at first, biting her lip as she does so.
She looks at me, hands on my shoulders, as she sits fully onto me, tight around me.
Then again. And again. Her hips rocking against me. Her tits bouncing gently. Her moans and her breathing getting louder.
Yes. I need this. Need her.
I can’t help myself. I pull her closer, burying my face in her chest, biting her nipple gently, letting my fingers wander down to the top of her ass.
Tracing the line where her butt cheeks meet.
She moves faster, harder. More needy.
She smells so fucking good.
And I’m going to come soon.
She gets there first, tightening harder around me, bringing me to climax with her.
I grip her hips hard as I come, her upper body folding over mine.
And I kiss her shoulders, wondering how we ended up like this.
And not wanting it to end.
WHEN I WAKE up in Harry’s guest bedroom, Lexi’s not next to me.
Instead, I hear movement downstairs.
I give her a minute, then get up, tossing on a t-shirt and some shorts before heading down.
I find her in the kitchen, wearing my shirt from last night and some shorts she must have grabbed from my room.
Well, I did tear her panties.
‘You’re up!’ she says, noticing me at the entrance to the kitchen.
‘Uh-huh,’ I say leaning against the doorframe. She looks good in my clothes. Like when she was wearing my hoodie that night, way back in October.
‘You have tea!’ she exclaims, opening one of the cupboards to show me the tea I bought and put there. ‘Is this yours or Harry’s?’ she asks.
‘Mine.’
She looks more than a little happy at this admission.
‘Don’t get too excited,’ I add. ‘We also have bananas.’ I nod to the fruit bowl behind her.
She dismisses me with a wave. ‘Yeah, but you only have the tea because of me.’
I shake my head. ‘You want breakfast?’
‘I was going to make some and bring it upstairs,’ she says, opening another cupboard, ‘but I’m not sure what’s here or where anything is.’
I walk over to the fridge and open it. ‘We have eggs. And sliced mushrooms. Sliced peppers. Cheese.’ I turn to her. ‘Omelette?’
She smiles. ‘OK.’
I get the food out and crack some eggs while she searches for a pan to heat up.
It’s nice. Just hanging out with her. Making breakfast.
This is a couple thing, I realise as I crack another egg.
I pause for a second, considering that thought. Wondering if I should say something. That I like this. That I don’t want this to stop.
‘Found it!’ Lexi says triumphantly, setting a large frying pan on the hob. She looks at me, beaming. Then her smile drops slightly. ‘I was a bit worried Harry would be here,’ she says.
I laugh. ‘Why?’
Lexi shrugs. ‘I don’t know. I’m just some random girl poking around his kitchen.’
I gather the empty shells into some kitchen paper and wipe the surface. ‘You’re not just some random girl,’ I say, tossing them into the bin. ‘You’re my random girl.’
‘Hmm,’ she says, clearly not sure how to take that comment. She reaches for the bowl of eggs and starts whisking them with a fork.
‘I meant that in a good way,’ I cla
rify. I really do want to say something. It’s hard to find the words.
‘So, Luc. Tell me about yourself,’ she says, tossing the peppers and mushrooms into the pan with a knob of butter.
I shrug. ‘Nothing much to tell. Normal, fairly straightforward childhood. Now I’m a drummer.’
‘But you’re so private,’ she says.
‘I just don’t want to belong to everyone. Don’t want my life and the people I care about out there for everyone to pick at.’
‘Except me?’ she says, pouring the eggs on top of the mushrooms and peppers.
Walked into that one. ‘Well,’ I say, taking a deep breath, ‘that’s different.’
‘Oh?’ She picks up the cheese but looks a bit lost.
I open the cupboard and get the grater out, taking the cheese off her. ‘So I can deter Hayley.’
Lexi sighs. ‘I guess.’
I grate some cheese directly over the omelette as it cooks.
‘So that’s it?’ she asks. ‘No secrets? No nothing?’
‘Nope. Why?’
She shrugs. ‘Just that you’ve met my family. Feel like I should know about yours, at least a little. Even if we don’t know exactly what we’re doing here.’
‘Fair,’ I say, nodding. Still trying to work out what exactly I want here. All I know is that I want her. Is that enough?
I watch her as she searches for the plates and cutlery.
It’s two weeks until Valentine’s Day. We should do something together.
Once she’s found what she’s looking for, she turns to me. ‘Tea?’ she says, smiling.
I nod.
Yeah, I think that’s enough.
TWENTY-SEVEN
Lexi
‘EVERYONE HAVE A nice Christmas?’
I ignore Shannen as I reach into my bag for my notes on RuBisCO, as does Tom.
Just need to get through an hour or so of this project and then I get to see Luc for lunch. Just the thought of it makes me restless with excitement.
It’s only lunch, I remind myself.
Drew picks up the slack. ‘Yeah. Good.’ He slaps a wad of his own research notes onto the table before turning to look at her. ‘You?’
Shannen beams. ‘It was amazing! I love Christmas. Parents bought me a brand new car.’
She pauses, waiting for our envious reactions. The three of us exchange glances.
‘Cool,’ Tom says eventually. ‘Exams were a bitch, though.’
Shannen’s face falls. She picks her phone up instead.
‘Yeah. Fucking plant fossils,’ Drew mutters, sorting through his notes.
‘Plant fossils?’ I ask, carefully unclipping my own notes from the folder they’re in.
Drew looks up. ‘Yeah. Palaeobotany module.’
‘Oh. I didn’t take that one.’
Shannen sniffs, scrolling through whatever she’s looking at on her phone. ‘Thought it was compulsory?’
I shake my head. ‘I did bioinformatics instead.’
Tom recoils in faux horror. ‘That sounds even worse!’
I can’t help laughing at his reaction. ‘It wasn’t so bad.’ I hope.
‘Fair,’ says Drew, nodding. ‘OK, so I thought we could—’
‘Ooh Lexi, you’re mentioned in this article,’ Shannen interrupts.
Drew pauses. ‘What?’
‘Look.’ She holds her phone out to us so we can all see the photo of me with Luc. ‘Shall I read it?’ she says.
Please no. I’ve been trying to avoid all this stuff. I don’t want to know what they’re saying about me. It’s easier to not care if you don’t know. I take a deep breath. ‘Uh, I’d really rather we ju—’
‘“Luc and his new squeeze Lexi stepped out on the red carpet this weekend in London at the fundraiser for cystic fibrosis,”’ she starts loudly, regardless. ‘“The raven-haired student wore a tight crimson dress, reminiscent of the outfit worn by Luc’s ex-girlfriend Hayley the last time the two were seen in public together last summer.”’
Shannen pauses, and the three of them look at me.
I open my mouth to say something, but there are no words.
They think I’m trying to imitate Hayley.
My stomach turns as Shannen looks back at the article, her lips curling into a smile. ‘Look! There’s even a photo here comparing you both.’ She holds out the phone again, and there I am, side by side with Luc’s petite ex, who is also wearing a tight red dress. ‘Think hers was Prada or something though,’ Shannen adds. ‘Not some high street thing.’
The silence after her words only lasts for a second or two, but it feels like an hour.
I avoid Shannen’s probing gaze.
‘Who cares?’ Tom says. ‘It’s just a dress.’
‘Who the fuck would even remember what someone’s ex-girlfriend wore last year anyway?’ Drew adds.
I worry my lower lip. Maybe Luc.
‘Still though!’ Shannen protests. She looks at me. ‘Still weird of you to copy her like that.’
I frown, remembering why I wore the dress. ‘I didn’t.’
‘You can’t deny it. The evidence is right here,’ she says, putting her phone face-up on the table, the photo still visible on its screen. ‘Of all the colours and styles you could have chosen, too.’
Defensively, I respond before thinking. ‘I didn’t choose it—he asked me to wear it.’
Shannen’s expression is unbearably smug. ‘He asked you to look like his ex-girlfriend?’ She says the words slowly, like I’m a clueless child who needs help understanding.
‘No! Just the dress. I was wearing it when we met.’
‘Oh. Maybe that’s what attracted him to you. That you dress like his ex, I mean,’ she says, like she’s solved some epic fucking mystery.
For the first time in my entire life, I want to smack someone. My hands squeeze into fists and I have to consciously relax them. I take a slow, controlled breath.
‘For fuck’s sake, it’s just a dress,’ Tom mutters. He takes the phone and shrugs. ‘It looks good. And all sexy dresses are black or red or whatever.’ He slides the phone back to Shannen and looks at me. ‘It’s probably just coincidence.’
But I have a black dress, I think. Why didn’t he ask for that one so I wouldn’t look like a fucking idiot to the entire world?
‘If he wanted to be with his ex, that’s where he’d be,’ Drew adds, distracting me from my thoughts. ‘Now can we sort this fucking presentation out, please?’
I nod, looking down, concentrating on getting my notes in order.
I’m not going to let this get under my skin.
It’s me he’s meeting for lunch, not Hayley.
It’s just a dress.
It means nothing.
Like the handholding and the sex and his teasing.
He just likes hanging out with me and pretending to people that I’m his girlfriend and dressing me up like his fucking ex.
Shannen picks up her phone, smirking.
TWENTY-EIGHT
Lexi
‘HEY.’
Luc sees me before I see him. He’s standing outside the diner. The same one we met at after that disastrous first drunken night.
Like last time, my stomach is a fluttering mess as I approach him.
Unlike last time, he immediately pulls me into a kiss.
Are there cameras here?
Pulling back, I glance around.
He grins. ‘Just us,’ he says, reading my mind.
OK, I nod.
I will not ask about the stupid dress thing.
Forcing a smile, I let him take my hand.
It’s nothing, I tell myself as he pushes the door for us to enter. Just a damn dress.
‘You hungry?’ he asks as we approach the counter.
No. I have a belly full of butterflies.
Obviously I don’t say that, though.
‘Yeah,’ I reply, nodding a bit too enthusiastically.
I glaze over as Luc orders us milkshakes. Same as the fir
st time. Banana thing for him. Strawberry thing for me.
At least this time I’m not dressed to match the milkshake.
A squeeze of my hand snaps me back.
Luc’s looking at me.
The woman behind the counter—younger this time and smiling patiently—is waiting.
I look at Luc blankly.
‘What do you want to eat?’
My mind remains blank for a second before I clock on.
‘Oh.’ I look up at the menu board behind the counter. ‘Hot dog and fries, please.’
Luc orders his own meal and hands the woman some money. As she’s getting his change, he looks at me and lowers his voice. ‘Are you OK?’
I nod. ‘Yep.’
He doesn’t look convinced.
Stupid fucking Shannen.
I need to ask him.
Two minutes later, our food and milkshakes are handed to us on a tray and we find a table.
‘How was uni?’ Luc asks cautiously as we sit.
I nod. ‘Yeah, OK.’ My foot taps the floor under the table uncontrollably. I look down at the food.
Not sure I can eat this.
At least not until I know.
I can feel Luc watching me for a moment. He reaches across the table and takes my hands in his. ‘Lexi.’ His voice is low. Soft. ‘What’s up?’
I keep looking down, staring at the hot dog. Screw it. I’m just going to ask. ‘Why the red dress?’
Luc hesitates. ‘I…what?’
‘That cystic fibrosis thing.’
‘No, I know what you’re talking about. I don’t know what you mean, though.’
I sigh. ‘Why did you want me to wear the red dress?’ I raise my head to watch his response.
He shakes his head and speaks carefully. ‘Because I thought you looked really hot in it the first time we met.’
I raise an eyebrow.
‘Hot enough to get your number and risk pissing off Jake by meeting up with his girlfriend’s best friend the next night,’ he adds with a grin.
‘So nothing to do with what Hayley used to wear?’ I wonder if this is the first time I’ve said her name out loud to him. I think it might be.
His expression tells me he doesn’t have a clue what I’m talking about.
