Preston chimed in. “At least I did that. You never did tell me if you liked what I picked out.”
“I guess you’ll have to wait to see if I wear them or not.” I was. The underwear he chose were soft as hell, and now I had an addiction to lingerie I couldn’t afford.
“Maybe I’ll buy you some more.”
“Maybe you should listen and learn a few more tricks.”
He did. He listened to them discuss lighting candles, putting on some music, and scattering rose petals around the room.
That was when things heated up… on the DVD. Two actors entered the room they “set the mood” for.
In soft tones, the narrator verbalized, “Whisper your desires in each other’s ears, gradually building your arousal. Enjoy the closeness of each other. Deny each other kisses to increase this loveplay. Then slowly undress one another.”
Oh, shoot. I wiggled in my seat.
She continued, “Admire each other’s bodies.”
Luckily, the actors were still clothed. Maybe Preston was right, and they wouldn’t go beyond this.
Wrong.
A new scene appeared with a bath. Still, it only showed the couple under a sea of bubbles. Until they stood. Each dried the other with fluffy towels, and then it was naked massage time.
This time, Preston adjusted his position in his seat.
The narrator explained how to give a massage while showing it in high def.
“Glide your hands around the outside of the breasts, then circle the nipples with your palm. Brush past the genitals, then back again. Linger a little longer each time, then slowly begin to masturbate your partner.”
And cut. The scene ended before any fingering actually happened. Preston paused the video.
“You were scared for a minute, weren’t you?” Preston asked.
“No. I can handle seeing a peen.” Oh, my God. No, I can’t.
“Should we see what happens next?”
Strangely, I wanted to. Mainly because I wanted to see Preston’s reaction when I got to say I was right. I took the remote and pressed play.
Everything was clinical for a bit as they explained the female and male genitalia—their words. We should have made a drinking game out of this to make it more interesting. Every time they said vagina, I would have to take a shot. Every time the word penis was spoken, Preston would have to. The outcome would be an empty bottle of apple vodka and two drunk and possibly “aroused” friends.
In cartoon pictures, they showed the breasts and easy exercises to do to strengthen your female muscles. They talked about the head—not that one yet—and how hair and touching the face shouldn’t be ignored and the importance of eye contact. And how to read each other’s eyes. They explained kissing. A lot.
I couldn’t help but look at Preston’s lips and wonder what they would feel like when we actually did kiss.
Water. Definitely stick to water.
Every body part was discussed. Then the scene changed to a bedroom illuminated by candlelight with pillows and rose petals everywhere. The couple returned wearing robes that were quickly discarded.
Every touch was narrated until the couple was lying on the bed naked and obviously ready for some fun. The actors rubbed each other’s bodies with oils once again. Then they began to kiss one another from head to toe. Everything was done tastefully, but I knew what was coming next. I looked at Preston, who was blushing, even as he’d said we’d already seen movies where sex was involved. The difference was in the movies you knew it was all smoke and mirrors. This was the real deal. Penis was going to meet vagina, and they were about to have a party.
The man moved between the woman’s legs. When he positioned himself at her entrance, the screen went blank.
“Maybe this was a bad idea.” Preston had the remote in hand with his finger on the power button.
I decided to play with Preston a little bit. “I thought this was all in the name of research. Can’t we find out what happens? I’m dying to know more.”
“I think we know what happens.”
“But it was very informative, and I would’ve liked to learn more from the narrator. Her voice was relaxing.”
Preston finally looked at me. He’d been avoiding my eyes since he pressed stop. I couldn’t hold the back the laughter any longer.
He grabbed my foot and started tickling me until I was begging for mercy.
“Maybe we should stick to Star Wars tonight.” Preston stood, taking out the current movie, replacing it with the movie we should have been watching from the beginning.
Thank God.
9
Tenley
Women love a strong man.
FOR THE THIRD TIME SINCE I DRESSED, I scrutinized my outfit in my full-length mirror in my closet. It was crazy that I was testing out what clothes to wear to tell Preston I was comfortable with us attempting a kiss. I wanted, no needed, to look and feel sexy and confident when I told him. It wasn’t the whole truth about not being ready. The whole truth was I would have kissed him anytime, anywhere. But a huge part of me was terrified—terrified he would figure out what I’d been hiding for so long; terrified if we actually did kiss, I would fall even more for him; and lastly, and the most terrifying thought I had, what if he felt nothing and I felt it all.
As I turned side to side, all I could see were my imperfections. Like the extra curve on the top of my thighs just above where my shorts ended. How my boobs were never quite as perky as other girls my age unless I wore a push-up bra. And no matter how many sit-ups or abdominal engaging yoga poses I did, I always stayed a little soft in the middle.
Under normal circumstances, I was confident. I knew how to dress my body to flatter my figure. Give me a bikini and I would own it. But when it came to Preston, I felt as if I was still the thirteen-year-old brace-face who fumbled through my awkward body years. And whether it was intentional or not, he tended to gravitate toward more petite women. And petite, I was not. Which made me question why he would want me and what he would think about when he touched me. Would he be okay with my extra fluff, or would he pull away, wishing my stomach was as sculpted as his ex’s?
The shirt I decided to wear, thankfully, hid all those doubts. It was tight across my chest and flowed away from the rest of me. The sales lady said it was made for my figure, and I had to agree since it gave me that hourglass shape. It would do.
Staring at myself for another thirty minutes wasn’t going to do me any good, and it would only make me doubt more. Besides, at the time, I was in desperate need of my first cup of coffee. I dragged myself away from the mirror and into the kitchen. It was way too early to be thinking negative thoughts. I was who I was, my body was my body, and I needed to be proud of what I was blessed with. If not, I at least learned how to walk with a confidence that made men’s heads turn in a good way. Except for the one man I wanted to look at me.
For as long as I could remember, which was when I discovered boys were hot, I’d wanted Preston to notice me. I wanted him to be my best friend, but what I really wanted was for him to look at me the same way he looked at Amanda when he saw her in that bikini. Wide-eyed and with wonder. He never did even after I filled out and lost the metal mouth. Then, out of the blue, this new flirtatious side of him appeared. And I didn’t know if his intentions were fake or if they were real. It was messing with my head because he seemed genuine.
For the past week, I had been holding back, but I decided I wasn’t going to anymore. Why? Because I had needs. Needs that hadn’t been tended to in too long. Needs that sparked to life when I read his list. And intimacy. God, how I missed being intimate with someone just like the video talked about. After watching what we did, it was all I could think about when I was in bed.
To say I was ready to dive headfirst and give him my all, even if I doubted my heart could handle it in the end, was an understatement. My heart would have to take a step back. For the next three weeks, I would lock it up tight, throwing away the key to protect it, and let the physical
parts of me do the navigating.
It was now or never.
I sent a quick text to Preston asking him to stop by when he could, then I dropped my phone next to the coffeepot. After I mixed in the creamer in my freshly brewed cup of java, I was ready for the caffeine to do its work. What I didn’t expect was for my heart to race so soon. Preston showed up not even three minutes after my text wearing his running clothes. His body was covered in a sheen of sweat. Drips were falling from his blond hair and running down his neck under the Dri-Fit tank.
My blood boiled and not from the coffee either. Everything inside me flushed. My body was definitely the one doing all the thinking now. The man must have been throwing off all kinds sweat induced pheromones which made me have a physical reaction to him.
Cool it, Tenley.
“Hey.” I gulped. It was all I could manage while ogling him. And, boy, was I ogling him.
“What’s up?” Preston asked, probably wondering why I asked him over. I’d had every intention of telling him until I lost my tongue. Preston lifted his shirt to wipe his face, then decided to just take it off completely. “It’s really hot today,” he stated while I tried to act casual by drinking my coffee just so he wouldn’t stop. I never wanted him to stop. He was a slow-motion stripping gif come to life.
More and more muscles made their appearance as he pulled his shirt higher and higher. The sight of him had me freezing mid sip, my coffee cup paused against my lip. From over the top, I looked at my best friend with his sweatpants hanging low on his hips, exposing what I liked to call the Promised Land.
And Preston’s held a lot of promise.
Two indentations forming a deep V along with a perfect line of hair pointed downward. It flashed like a neon sign in my brain over and over. Down here, down here. Everything you’d ever wanted in a man was down freaking there.
I couldn’t take my eyes off him until I felt something hot hit my chest. The burning sensation was mild at first, but when it reached my skin, it wasn’t so mild.
My coffee. Holy hot. I just dumped half a cup of coffee on my new shirt. And it’s going to stain.
“Shit, Tenley, are you okay?” Preston asked concerned.
I didn’t think about my skin, which had already cooled. My focus was getting to the sink to wash out my shirt in hopes of sparing it. White and coffee don’t mix. I had only bought it yesterday, and it cost me forty bucks. Forty dollars that wasn’t part of my monthly budget, but I had to have this shirt so I could wear something new when I told Preston I was ready for more. Clearly, I wasn’t in my right mind when I ripped it over my head to put it under the cold stream of water in the kitchen sink.
“Uh, Tenley?”
I ignored Preston as I squeezed some dish soap on it, then started scrubbing. “Please come out,” I begged the brown stain, but it wasn’t budging. It was mocking me. This was what you happened when you spent money you didn’t have. Karma was trying to teach me a lesson.
“Tenley?” Preston called more forcefully.
His stern voice made me look over the sink.
“When did you get those things anyway?” I pointed my soapy finger at his abdominal muscles, annoyed by their presence. It was all their fault. Those glistening bumps and lines that I had seconds ago wanted to desperately lick instead of drinking my coffee.
“When did you get those?” he asked back. And I had no idea what he was talking about until I looked where he was staring only to find my boobs full on display. Shit.
I grabbed the soapy wet shirt and placed it over my chest. The water was dripping all over. First down my shorts and legs before landing on the tile floor in a puddle. For some reason, I felt the need to explain when I should have run to my room and hid for all eternity. “In my defense, I had on a bra, but this shirt is too strappy and it looked funny. And I intended to put on a strapless bra, but it was from four years ago when I was a C cup.”
“What are you now?”
To display my crazy further, I answered. “Double D, sometimes an E. Strapless bra are the devil, so I decided to be free today or at least for a while. And I didn’t know when I texted you you’d show up three minutes later, post-run, all sweaty, then do some striptease and show off your…” I paused to count… one, two, three, “Eight pack. It threw me because well, you weren’t that muscly before. Then the coffee and it’s my new shirt. I panicked and forgot I wasn’t wearing a bra.”
Preston stood trying to hide his laughter with his fingers over his lips. Only he wasn’t laughing. His eyes were zoned in on the shirt, and he was rubbing his hands roughly over his scruff.
“Is that all?” he asked.
“Yes. If you’ll excuse me, I’m going to change.”
Still dripping, I made it ten steps when Preston stepped behind me. I felt his chest hit my back, and I froze for the second time. His hot breath was against my ear. It was a chain reaction for my body. Goose bumps covered my arms, blood rushed to my ears, and my nipples, wet and cold from the shirt, grew painfully hard.
“I just wanted to let you know that even though you tried to cover yourself up, your wet shirt hid nothing. And I was wondering if you knew the color of your lip gloss matches your nipples?” Then he chuckled.
I looked down. My shirt was completely see-through from the water. Damn it. I pushed away from his body. “You’re an ass.”
As I stomped to my room, both wet from my shirt and also from his words, he called after me. “Come on, Tenley. They are fantastic. Best boobies I’ve ever seen.”
I flipped the observant jerk off.
“I’m going to have to see all of you sometime.”
As I opened my bedroom door, I yelled, “I’m rethinking our agreement.”
“It’s going to happen, Tenley. And what I want to know is does what lies beneath those sexy panties you wear match your perfect pink nipples?”
Damn him. He was teasing me and I needed to regain the upper hand in this messed-up situation. It was the only way I would get my dignity back. I could have evened the score and pantsed him. Instead, I dug inside to my dresser and grabbed the ten-dollar lipstick I didn’t have money for but bought anyway. Still holding the sopping shirt, I opened my bedroom door. Preston was standing in the hallway wearing a smug look on his face. He asked, so the least I could do was answer. Even though I tossed the lipstick to him with force, he caught it with no problem.
“It’s called romantic,” I told him. He flipped over the tube to read the label.
“FYI, it’s the new thing to match your lips to your girly bits. And since you decided you were going to flash me a bit of your happy trail, I think you should know...” Was I really going to go there?
“Know what?” he asked curiously.
“Have you ever been to the Bermuda triangle?”
He was probably wondering where I was going with this. “No, why?”
“If you’re lucky, maybe real soon you will.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Think about it. Think really hard.”
Even from my doorway, I saw him visibly swallow. And when he finally realized I was talking about what lies beneath my, as he called them, sexy panties, I walked and maybe even sashayed into my room. With my back to him, I dropped my shirt on the floor and kicked my door shut.
I wore a satisfied smile as I pulled a dry shirt from my dresser and made my way to the shower.
“Oh, fuck,” I heard him say through my closed bedroom door.
And just like that, my confidence returned.
10
Preston
Every woman loves a vocal man. And vice versa.
I LEFT TENLEY’S APARTMENT and headed straight back to mine where I paced my floor from my entryway to the living room windows.
What the hell happened?
When she texted me, I figured it was about us watching Star Trek tonight and what snacks I wanted her to pick up, not to taunt me with her body. To be fair, I didn’t think she intended to flash me. Like, hey come
on over so you can watch me spill hot coffee on myself and show you my boobs.
That was my plan. Well, not the hot coffee part, anyway. I thought I’d give her a little sneak peek at the new and improved post-workout Preston. Me stripping for her was meant to be innocent. Not one hundred percent innocent, but in the seventy percent area. After all, she’d seen me shirtless at the beach a million times before. But back then, I hadn’t put much effort into my body. Surfing was my only form of exercise, and apparently, I ate more calories than I burned off.
I tried to play the whole scene out as if I was simply overheated from my run. Which I was. I figured it would look natural when I took off my shirt. But really, I wanted to see if Tenley had any reaction to me and my new physique. I wondered if she would even notice the effort I made. I wondered if she’d lick her lips as she watched me. Lastly, I wondered if seeing me would make her want to touch me in a different, non-innocent way.
I needed us to progress before our thirty days was up. Because watching that video the night before messed with my head. It made me think Chanel was right… I had been doing the whole foreplay thing wrong. What I should have done was ignore every time she told me to just take my clothes off and get it over with. I took it as she was too excited and couldn’t wait to get started when she really was saying she couldn’t wait for it to be over before we even got started. I should have slowed down and built her up to the rest.
I knew I’d never rush again. Even if Tenley told me she was comfortable with kissing and trying more, I was going to take foreplay to a whole new level.
But instead of fore-foreplay, I scared her so much she spilled her coffee, which led to her inadvertently showing me her tits—tits that would bring any man to his knees. Full tits I instantly wanted to cup in my palms. And peachy pink nipples I wanted to suck on while I fucked her until she screamed my name.
Stupid, stupid, stupid.
All the Right Moves Page 6
