Make It Count

by Megan Erickson

  He was lost in her smell and taste and feel, barely coherent as she muttered unintelligible words mixed with moans.

  She shuddered under his palm and placed a hand on his head. She gripped his hair and pulled hard, then said in a fluttery voice, “Alec.”

  He growled as the sweet pain lanced through his scalp and the vibration must have been the last push she needed because she came in one, keening cry.

  When her hips stopped moving and her breath quieted, he wiped his face on the sheet and raised his head.

  Kat’s eyes were closed and her amazing breasts rose and fell in gasping breaths. He unhooked her legs from around his shoulders, and they dropped to the bed like dead weights.

  As he crawled up her body, she cracked her eyes open. He held himself above her with arms braced on either side of her head.

  “That was . . . incredibly unsatisfying,” she said breathlessly.

  “Oh yeah?”

  She nodded weakly. “Don’t ever do it again.”

  He tried to keep his face serious, but he knew he was failing. “Okay, never again.”

  She smiled and grabbed his head, pulling it down until his lips met hers. She kissed him, hard, not hesitating despite the fact she could surely taste herself on him.

  Her arm shifted under him and he looked up as she reached for the drawer in his nightstand. She kept her eyes on his as she pulled out the drawer and rummaged inside. He might have stopped breathing again when she thrust a condom wrapper in his face.

  “Alec Stone, I do not want to have sex with you.” She shook her head emphatically, pursing her lips to look irritated, but the glint in her eyes gave her away.

  He couldn’t help it. He laughed. “Oh yeah? Well I don’t want to have sex with you either, Kat Caruso.”

  Her eyes crinkled and then she rolled him onto his back, straddling his hips. After tearing open the package she handed him the condom. As soon as he rolled it on, she raised up on her knees and lowered herself on top of him.

  His eyes closed and rolled back into his head and he moaned. She felt so fucking good. Tight and hot and everything he’d ever wanted.

  And then she began to move.

  He snapped his eyes open, because he didn’t want to miss this. She looked so gorgeous braced above him, with a soft, sexy smile stretching her lips, her beautiful hair draped over one shoulder, curled around a breast.

  He dug his fingers into her hips, then let his hands drift back. He cupped her ass and squeezed, something he’d never thought he’d be able to do.

  Her smile got bigger, more seductive. “Like my ass, huh?”

  “No. It’s definitely not the best ass on campus.”

  Her eyes flashed, the blue a churning whirlpool he never wanted to escape. She parted her lips, licked them and rode him harder.

  He matched her, thrusting hard with every slam of her hips. She dug her nails into his shoulders, repeating “Fuck, yes” over and over again. He would have chanted it along with her if he had remembered how to talk.

  He lasted an embarrassingly short amount of time. At least, he thought so. He actually lost track of time, in a Kat-induced time warp. So when he came, he had no idea how long it’d been. But he knew Kat lay on top of him, her skin covered in a sheen of sweat, her head tucked under his chin, breath gusting over his chest.

  Eventually he moved, shifting her so he could roll off the condom and toss it in his trash can. She snuggled into his side as he lay on his back, and he grazed his fingers down her spine, feeling each little bump, then palmed one perfectly formed ass cheek.

  She traced patterns on his stomach with soft fingers. Finally, she broke the silence. “Yeah, that”— her voice caught and she cleared it—“that didn’t go well at all.”

  He cupped her chin so she’d raise her head to look at him, then he rolled onto his side so they faced each other.

  Kat looked beautiful, with her hands folded under her head, her blue eyes clear, wide and relaxed. He ran his thumb over her cheekbone. “The last thing in the world I want to do right now is fall asleep with you.”

  She shifted closer to him and wrapped a hand around his neck. “Ditto,” she said, before placing a soft kiss on his lips.

  He tucked her head under his chin. In five minutes, her breaths had deepened with sleep and he knew he wouldn’t be far behind.

  Chapter Sixteen

  KAT WOKE, SAW an unfamiliar wall and strange sheets under her hand and waited for the panic.

  But none came. Instead, the warmth of a hand at her naked hip spread throughout her body.

  Alec.

  The steady rhythm of his breath tickled the hairs at the back of her neck and the strong tha-thump of his heart tapped a beat down her spine. She rubbed her eyes and Alec’s fingers flexed at her hip.

  “Hey,” his voice rasped.

  She shifted onto her back and rolled her head to the side to face him. He lay on his side, his features sleep-softened.

  “Hey,” she whispered.

  Alec raised his hand and cupped her cheek, his thumb swiping her cheekbone. The possessiveness of the gesture pierced her in the heart like a harpoon and she knew already, no matter how hard she tugged, she wasn’t going to be able to pull Alec out without a whole lot of pain.

  “What are you thinking about?” he said softly.

  Like she could tell him the truth. “I’m thinking about how you need a pillow-top mattress, because I think I feel a spring in my butt.”

  Alec threw back his head and laughed, his face unguarded in a way she’d never seen before. He bent his head back to her, pressed a kiss to her lips, and murmured. “You are such a princess.”

  And then he tickled her.

  The big, major jerk.

  She fought back, using all the dirty tricks she’d learned as an undersized female with an older brother. She pulled hair and an earlobe. Scratched with her manicured nails and aimed a knee right at the spot between his legs that she had come to really love the night before.

  Before she could hit any of the goods, Alec tucked and rolled, protecting himself—she wouldn’t have actually hit him there, how cruel did he think she was?—but she took the advantage, rolling him onto his stomach and straddling his upper thighs.

  She pinned his arms on either side of his head. He was still laughing, his face turned to the side so he could peer at her out of the corner of his eyes.

  “Don’t ever call me princess.” With each word, she bounced, eliciting a groan with each descent.

  “Fine, you win.”

  She took her hands off of his wrists and leaned back on her haunches, admiring the muscles of his upper back. “I like the view up here. I think I’m going to stay awhile.”

  Kat’s eyes strayed down to admire the cheeks of his ass, which was when she noticed his tattoo.

  “Oh. My. God. You have a tramp stamp.” She ran her hands over the justice scales on his lower back.

  Alec surged up, toppling her onto her back with a squeal. The tickling began again, a vicious attack on her rib cage. “Uncle! Uncle!” she cried.

  Alec stopped immediately and wrinkled his nose. “Please do not cry ‘uncle’ while we are in bed naked together. That feels creepy.”

  “Well it got you to stop, so it’s effective.”

  Alec’s eyes narrowed.

  “Okay, so can we discuss your tramp stamp? Or . . .”

  He let out a long-suffering sigh “Please, don’t call it a tramp stamp.”

  “I’m calling it like I see it.”

  “You’re mean.”

  “I want the story, Stone.”

  Alec rolled his eyes. “I got really drunk one night last summer after something shitty happened. I woke up with that. All I can say is, I’m glad I chose something I actually like rather than . . . I don’t know . . . a butterfly or something.”

  “Tinkerbell would look fantastic on your ass.”

  Alec’s fingers curled, a clear warning that she was in a vulnerable tickle position.

&nb
sp; “I like your tattoo!” Kat protested. “ But it’s in an unfortunate location.”

  “I can’t disagree with you.”

  “So, what crappy thing happened?”

  Alec’s amusement faded. He bit his lip and rubbed his eyes. “Um, I had a girlfriend all through high school and into college. Last summer, she cheated on me. We broke up.”

  Cheat on Alec? Who would . . . Oh. “Was your girlfriend’s name Carrie?”

  He frowned. “Yeah, how do you know that?”

  “I was in the coffee shop with Max and some girl named Carrie talked to him. She asked where you were and after she left, I asked Max who she was. He said she was an old girlfriend of yours.”

  Alec nodded, and the melancholy in his eyes made her stomach hurt. “I’m sorry,” she said, running her fingers through her hair. “But I’m not completely sorry because then I wouldn’t be here, in this uncomfortable bed, right now.”

  Alec’s smile came back, full force. “For the first time since Carrie broke up with me, I’m not sorry about it either.”

  A knock at his door rattled the hollow wood. “Yo, Alec?” Cam’s voice was muffled.

  Kat and Alec froze. “Yeah?” he said.

  “I gotta run Trevor home and I’m gonna stay there tonight. Be back later tomorrow.”

  “ ’Kay!” Alec called.

  They stayed silent until double sets of footsteps drifted down the stairs and the front door opened and shut.

  That knock and a third voice was like a gas, seeping under the door, surrounding them with the reminder there was a real world. Kat didn’t want to bring it up. She wanted to stay in this moment forever where it was she and Alec in a little room in a crappy apartment and no one else existed. Especially ex-boyfriends.

  “Do you feel guilty?” she said slowly, wanting to know the answer but hating herself because she already knew it.

  Alec rolled onto his back and dug his palms into his eyes. “Yeah.”

  “I don’t want to come between you and Max.”

  “Honestly, I’m not sure how that’s not going to happen, seeing as Max told me if I didn’t stay away from you, he wouldn’t talk to me again.”

  Kat’s stomach dropped and the harpoon in her chest pulsed painfully. “He didn’t.”

  Alec rolled his head on his pillow. “He did.”

  She squeezed her eyes shut, and then peeled the covers back, crawling to the end of the bed and searching for her bra and underwear.

  “I can’t come between you,” she said. “I just can’t. I’d feel guilty and then you’d resent me and that would drive a wedge between us—”

  “Whoa, whoa, slow down.” Alec wrapped his arms around her where she sat on the edge of the bed, trying to hook her bra. “ ’Drive a wedge between us?’ You sound like a movie trailer.”

  She smacked his hand. “This isn’t funny.”

  His sigh gusted a hot breath over her shoulder. “I know. I just . . . don’t leave, okay? Can we be together today and worry about everything else tomorrow?”

  She clipped her bra and placed her hands over his.

  “You know, with Max—”

  Alec’s arms tightened, and he choked on a breath. “I don’t want to know.”

  “No, but I want to tell you—”

  “Kat, seriously—”

  “We never slept together,” she confessed in a rush. And then waited. The tension in his arms didn’t ease and the heat of his chest on her back was making her sweat.

  “What?” he said quietly.

  “I wanted you to know. That Max and I never had sex.” Something told her this was really important for him to know. “And even if we did, it wouldn’t have been anything close to what we did.”

  His chest rose and fell against her back. His nose nudged along her neck and his lips touched on her ear. “I’ve only ever been with Carrie,” his voice was pained, as if he had pulled the information out of himself with a rusted fish hook. “And it was never like it was with you.”

  “I guess that tells us something. About this. About us.”

  His arms finally loosened, and he exhaled slowly. “Yeah, I think it does.”

  They sat in silence, both staring ahead of them out the window in Alec’s bedroom, which had a view of the brick wall of a nearby building. She was sure neither of them paid much attention to the view.

  Finally, he pressed a kiss to her temple. “Let’s get some breakfast.”

  Kat rose and pulled on her underwear, grabbed a T-shirt of Alec’s and slipped it over her head. “Are you going to make me breakfast?”

  Alec tugged on a pair of sweatpants and paused while pulling on a shirt. “Uh, sure. I make a mean omelet.”

  “Really?”

  “Yep. Cooked a lot when I was a kid because my mom worked weird hours.”

  She smiled and headed toward the bathroom. “Great, I like double cheese and bacon.”

  “Princess,” he muttered behind her back.

  She whirled around to give him a much-deserved smack, but he was already halfway down the stairs, laughing.

  ALEC WHISTLED TO himself while he poured the whisked eggs into the pan. He took a sip of his glass of chocolate milk as Kat walked into the kitchen. She yawned. “Coffee?”

  “I think it’s in the fridge.”

  Her brows puckered. “You drink cold coffee?”

  He tilted the pan so the egg could cook evenly. “Kat. The grounds are in the fridge. I didn’t make any coffee.”

  “You didn’t make coffee.”

  “No.” He took another sip of his chocolate milk.

  “What’s that?”

  “What does it look like?”

  “Chocolate milk.”

  “Great detective work, Kat.”

  “What are you, six?”

  He pointed his spatula at her. “Don’t insult the cook.”

  Kat took a step closer, walking right into the spatula, one corner of her lips quirked up. “You drink chocolate milk. That’s so cute.”

  He glared at her. “No bacon for you.”

  She laughed and turned away, heading to the fridge. “Fine. I’ll have to make my own coffee.”

  Instead of eating in the kitchen, they took their plates upstairs. Alec sat on his desk chair, legs propped up and crossed at the ankle on his desk. Kat sat on his bed, one leg tucked under her.

  Wearing his T-shirt, her tangled hair spilled around her shoulders and face fresh of makeup in his bed, Alec was so far past gone for her, he didn’t know if he’d ever come back. She moaned around a forkful of omelet, which now became his absolute favorite food.

  “This is so good,” she said.

  “Thanks.”

  She picked at her food. “So, what did your mom do that she worked weird hours?”

  “She’s a day-care worker. So, she was out of the house super early and sometimes she got home late if parents didn’t pick their kids up on time.”

  “You two get together at the diner a lot?”

  “Um, not really. She . . . well, she had some news for me.”

  Kat cocked her head. “Yeah?”

  He put down his fork and rubbed his face. “Uh, the guy . . .” he blew out a breath. “The guy that killed my dad is up for parole. Mom wanted to know if I wanted to write a letter to protest his release for his parole hearing.”

  Kat pushed her plate aside and leaned forward on the bed, her attention on him. All her energy focused on him was soothing and exhilarating at the same time. “What do you want to do?”

  Alec twitched his lips back and forth and tapped his fingers on his desk. “I don’t know.”

  “Well, what would you get out of writing the letter? If he was released, how would that make you feel?”

  He squirmed, because this was territory he’d made a major effort in his life never to visit. It was like Alec’s Area 51.

  “Well, if he was released, I’m not really sure how I’d feel. I mean, he served his time and he’d be almost seventy now. I don’t really th
ink about him anymore.”

  Kat nudged his leg with her bare foot, her eyes wide with sincerity. “I think you need to do what’s best for you now. Don’t do what you feel like you should do, to honor your father or something. You’ve honored your father by being who you are.”

  She was beautiful, all big eyes and open heart and her words tore at that trap in his heart where he housed all his bitterness, begging to be let free.

  “Come here,” he said, and held out a hand. Kat unfolded herself from the bed and took a step toward him. He tugged her onto his lap and she came willingly, knees on either side of his hips, arms around his neck.

  “You’re incredible, you know that?” he said, running his thumb over her cheekbone.

  Her eyes blinked slowly, once. She cocked her head and gave him a smirk, a look he was starting to recognize as an act, a defense mechanism when she was feeling too much. “I thought I was here because I was hot.”

  He grabbed her face with both hands. “Don’t do that, Kat. Don’t make jokes when I’m trying to be honest with you.”

  Her smirk immediately dropped and a cautious hope shone over her face.

  “I want you here with me, first, because you’re fucking incredible.” He smiled then. “And second, because you’re hot.”

  Kat chuckled and tightened her arms around his neck. She bent her forehead to his. “Ditto,” she said softly.

  Chapter Seventeen

  THEY SPENT THE day in his room, wrapped up in each other on Alec’s bed, watching movies on his computer, talking and eating. And definitely not bringing up a certain best friend/ex-boyfriend.

  Even though they were in the same room, Alec touched her a lot. Just a brush of her hair over her shoulder that made her gasp or twining his fingers with hers that raised goose bumps on her arms.

  He lay on his back on his bed in a pair of gym shorts and she lay on her side in her underwear, bra and one of his T-shirts. They were watching a movie, her legs tangled with his, head on his shoulder. Their joined hands lay on his chest and Alec idly played with them, rubbing her palm or stroking her fingers. She raised her head and met Alec’s eyes. “Are you watching the movie?”

  He paused. “No.”