Crossing

by Stacey Wallace Benefiel

  The door to one of the two unisex bathrooms opens up and the guy that bought Liam a drink comes out of it. He meets my eyes and lets the door drop just as I’m about to grab it from him.

  “Thanks, fucker,” I say to the back of his head. He flips me off.

  I pee and then really lay the lipstick on, convinced that constant reapplication might have made my night go better. I stick my hand up my shirt and paper towel off my armpits, sniffing myself. I smell like tequila. Rightly so.

  Staring at myself in the mirror, I square my shoulders and thrust my chest out. “It’s okay if he goes home with the skank, Dani. You’ll live.”

  I turn and walk out the door to find Liam waiting for me.

  “I thought I was dancing with you,” he says, grabbing my arm as I try to walk by.

  “Sure you did.”

  “I really did!” He looks at my mouth and licks his lips. “You were supposed to keep me from embarrassing myself. I open my eyes expecting to see you, and I’m practically nose to nose with the redheaded skank.”

  Hooooooold up! “Why were you nose to nose if you thought it was me?”

  His gaze falls to my lips again. Liam takes a step forward, his hand still on my arm. He brings his other hand up and cups my face, tilting my mouth to his. He kisses me lightly and then pulls his face back. I leave my face in the same damn place, hoping he gets the signal.

  He does. This time he kisses me properly, harder, taking his time, tugging at my lips with his. Liam’s grip on my arm lessens and he moves his arm around my waist, pressing me to him.

  A little moan escapes me, and his mouth smiles against mine. I lean my head back and look up at him. “I’ve lipsticked you real good.”

  I raise my hand to rub it off his mouth, but he turns his head to the mirror and checks himself out. He brings his hand up to his lips and instead of wiping it off, he uses the pad of his ring finger to even the lipstick out.

  Of course Perfect Red would look more perfect on him than me. “I’ve got some eyeliner in my backpack if you want me to do your eyes too,” I joke.

  He raises his eyebrows at me in the mirror and then tilts his head to the side.

  Okay, he’s drunk, but if he wants some guyliner, who am I to judge? I shrug my backpack forward and open it, taking my make-up bag out and choosing a kohl black pencil. “Turn your face back to me and look up.”

  He does as I ask, and I quickly and expertly line his right eye. The instant I pull the pencil away, he’s looking at himself in the mirror. I lean into him in an attempt to get his attention. He faces me again and looks up without a word. I do his left eye.

  I step back to get a better view, but he pulls me closer again. There’s a noticeable difference below the belt. Noticeable.

  He glances at himself in the mirror again and then puts his mouth on mine, kissing me slowly, teasing my tongue with his. His hands move to my ass and he grabs it, which is good because I’m about to melt into a puddle of goo onto the nasty black and white tiled floor.

  Someone walks by us and says, “Get a room,” on his way into the bathroom.

  Liam raises his eyebrows at me again. “Whaddya say?”

  “To what?” More PDA outside of the RUMORS restrooms? Mascara? Blowjobs in the alley?

  He kisses me quickly. “To not a one night stand?”

  “Yes.” Like I had to think about that?

  “I’m hoping you live closer than I do,” he breathes, “because it’s going to be a hell of a long bus ride to my place.”

  “I live three blocks from here,” I say, playing with the hair at the nape of his neck. “How do you wanna do this?”

  “Well,” he whispers into my ear, “I thought I’d get you naked and then insert tab P into slot V, but I’m open to other ideas.”

  I take a step back and gently slap him on the chest. “No, I mean, do you want to go out first and I’ll count to ten or whatever and then meet you outside?”

  He gasps, clutches his chest like I’ve wounded him, and then grabs my hand and pulls me out into the club over to our table. He takes my coat from the back of my chair and helps me into it.

  “Are you wearing make-up?” redheaded skank snorts from the edge of the dance floor. I notice she’s dancing alone.

  “Let’s get out of here,” he mouths, grabbing me by my coat lapels and planting his lips on mine in front of EVERY. FREAKIN.’ BODY.

  Chapter Nine

  Strangely enough, I’m not panicking. Probably because I’m not entirely sure this isn’t a super crazy tequila-fueled dream and I’m really passed out on the bathroom floor at RUMORS.

  Liam’s holding my hand, hasn’t stopped holding my hand since we left.

  “I might not be very good,” I say, looking at him sidelong.

  He squeezes my hand. “You kiss like you are. I’m not worried.”

  A block into the walk to my house I ask, “Sure you still want to hit this?”

  “Yup.”

  Two blocks into the walk I say, “Sure you still want to jump my bones?”

  “Yup.”

  One block away from my house I say, “Do you have any condoms?”

  He stops and I kid you not, he growls. “Nope. Damn it!”

  I shrug. “It’s okay, I’ve got an IUD. No alien babies will be made.”

  Liam pulls me into a hug. “Please don’t take this the wrong way, but I don’t have sex without protection.”

  I bite down on the inside of my lip. So close! Why did I have to be so stupid and ask about condoms? I could have waited until I had him naked and begging for it, unable to make healthy choices like most guys.

  “What about your roommate, would she have some?” he asks, his voice on edge.

  I shake my head. “No, but the girls next door will.” I take a step back and pretend to wipe my brow. “Phew. I thought I was going to miss out on the only non-self administered orgasm I was going to get all year.”

  “I don’t know,” he grins, “I might not be very good.”

  “Yeah,” I drawl, clicking my tongue. “You almost made me come during a backrub yesterday. It’s not going to take much. I’m not worried.”

  I pull him along the longest block of my life and then run up Kristin and Cam’s front steps. Not bothering to knock, I barge through the front door. The weed smoke is thick and Xanadu is playing on the TV. “I need some condoms,” I announce, before noticing that people other than Kris and Cam are in the room.

  Some douche stoner dude looks me up and down. “Why do you need condoms?”

  “Because I’m going to nail the hell out of her, jerkoff,” Liam says, coming up behind me and wrapping his arms around my waist.

  “Oh, Happy Day,” Cam says, getting up out of her papasan chair. “How many?”

  “One?” I say.

  “Four,” Liam says at the same time.

  Kristin chokes on her hit. “Four-or-or?”

  Douche stoner dude feels the need to give more color commentary. “Does anyone else think it’s weird we’re all sitting around talking about this guy with make-up on banging this chubby girl?”

  Cam comes back down the hall from her room and hands me four foil wrapped packages. “Use them all, I have more.”

  Liam and I back out of the house and close the door.

  “You live on the other side?” he asks.

  “Uh huh. I have the room upstairs.” I’m suddenly nervous.

  He leans in and kisses my neck just below my ear. “Lead the way.”

  X

  Elizabeth isn’t home, and I can’t recall where she was going to be, but I’m glad to have the house to myself. Hopefully, Liam will be able to sneak away without my roommate giving him the stink eye.

  I take off my coat and drop it and my backpack onto the chair by the door. Looking at the condoms in my hand, I laugh. “I appreciate your enthusiasm, but four seems a bit adventurous considering we’ve both had a lot to drink.”

  Liam takes the condoms from my hand and stuffs them into his
jeans pockets. Grabbing me by my hips, he swings me around and presses me against the front door. “Shut up.” His mouth captures mine as his hands slide down the outside of my thighs. “Oh, fuck me, are you wearing garters?” he breathes.

  “I am,” I say, hoping he’ll shut me up again.

  Instead, he gets down on his knees in front of me and lifts up my right foot, slipping my shoe off. He does the same with the left.

  I have no idea what’s going on, so I just stand there frozen, contemplating what I’m going to do if it turns out he has a foot fetish and wants to suck my toes.

  Let him. Duh.

  Slowly, Liam inches his fingers up the front of my legs, bunching up my skirt as he goes. When the material is above my garters, he holds the hem with one hand and brings my hand over, tucking the fabric into my fingers. Looking up at me, he moves his face closer to my inner thighs, trailing kisses across the top of my leg to the clip on my garter. While he repositions his mouth on my other leg, he unhooks my right garter, front and back with one hand. The left side gets the same treatment.

  My stockings slip down my legs and he skims the length of them to my ankles, where he lifts my feet up one at a time, sliding the black silk off and rubbing it against his cheek.

  I make like I’m going to drop the hem of my skirt, but he shakes his head no at me, his gaze pinned to mine. He puts his hands on my hips and scoots me over to the arm of the chair. “Sit down. Open your legs for me.”

  I’m mortified. I’ve thought about what he’s on the verge of doing, but in this moment I feel like putting my coat over my head and giggling. I sit down and lock my knees together. “I can’t,” I whisper.

  “Would you feel more comfortable on the couch? Because this is happening.”

  I can tell from the way he’s looking at me, his eyes all glazed over, he ain’t lyin’.

  “It is, isn’t it?” I stand and walk sideways to the couch, leaving him on his knees by the door. Reaching back, I unzip my skirt and tug it off over my hips. Next off, my underwear.

  I feel him watching me and it takes everything in my power not to make a quip or a self-deprecating comment to cover my nervousness. I kick aside my skirt and sit on the edge of the couch, my knees still together. Taking a deep breath, I lie back, close my eyes, and let my legs fall open.

  Moments later, I feel him near me, kissing a path across my lower belly. I tense up, wishing I’d turned the lights off so he can’t see my stretch marks and jiggly tummy. I open my eyes and find him looking at me.

  “Relax,” he says as he lowers his mouth. My whole body shivers with the first flick of his tongue. Liam kisses his way from my center down my leg, lifting my knee up and draping it over his biceps, back to center and down the other leg.

  I needn’t have worried about his rhythm because he has me whipped into a frenzy in no time, not caring one bit what I look like or remembering to be embarrassed.

  I tilt my hips up, pressing myself to his mouth, willing him to draw my desire out of me. As that happy pressure builds, I gather up handfuls of the electric blue fake fur couch cover, wishing for something a little less whimsical against my bare ass.

  Squeezing my eyes shut, I let out a low moan as intense heat floods my body in waves of pleasure.

  But before I have time to recover, Liam is on his feet, pulling me up and walking me down the hall and up the stairs to my room.

  “The bed’s a mess,” I murmur, my body blissed out. “There are clothes all over it.”

  He kicks the door open. “I don’t care.”

  Liam leads me over to the bed and lays me down on top of a dozen outfits I’d tried on a million years ago in preparation for my audition. How did I get here?

  He strips completely, a little too quickly for my liking, and tosses three of the condoms on the bedside table, unwrapping one and rolling it on. Kneeling on the bed between my legs, he leans forward and slides into me. I nearly come again.

  “Take your sweater off,” he says, his breath stilted.

  I whip that sucker off in record time.

  Liam lowers himself down onto his elbows and buries his face in the crook of my neck, kissing and sucking on my skin. “Jesus, you feel good,” he whispers into my ear, thrusting into me more powerfully.

  “You too,” I manage to get out, as his mouth travels down my chest and finds my nipple through the fabric of my bra. He sucks on it hard and I arch my back to meet his touch.

  I can’t get enough of him. I want him deeper inside me. I rake my fingernails down his back and grab his ass, my hips rocking with him.

  Liam takes my other nipple into his mouth and we come undone, slamming into each other, tensing up, and then letting go. He collapses on my chest, resting his face on the pillow next to mine.

  He laughs, sounding exhausted.

  I take a deep breath and ready myself for his quick dismount and exit out the door. Instead he shimmies his arms under my shoulders and settles in like he’s going to fall asleep. I bring my arms up and hug him to me.

  “Am I crushing you?” he asks dreamily. “You’re nice to sleep on.”

  “Cushy, huh?”

  “Mm hmm, especially these lovely breasts of yours. I barely even paid them their due. I’ll be more attentive next time.”

  I wiggle underneath him. “As nice as this is, I have to pee.”

  “Okaaaay.” He reaches down and takes hold of the condom and pulls out of me.

  I lean over the side of the bed and grab the little trashcan I’ve got stashed in the bottom of my nightstand. I hold it up for him and he tosses the condom into it.

  “Alien sperm, zero,” he says, eyeing me. “Orgasms…two?”

  I bite the inside of my lip. “Three counting you, I hope.”

  He picks up a corset that’s jabbing into his knee and raises one of his eyebrows at me. “Had I known about this, you and I might have been even.”

  I shake my head at him and grab my robe off the back of my bedroom door. “Back in a sec,” I say, all super casual like I didn’t just get expertly boned by one of the more beautiful guys I’ve ever known.

  Downstairs in the bathroom, I pee and then take a facial inventory. There isn’t any lipstick on my actual lips anymore, but the area around my mouth is pinker than normal. My eyes have raccooned just a touch. I swipe a cotton swab underneath them and clean it up. I don’t have a supernatural glow or anything, but I make myself smile and it feels natural. I brush my teeth. As I’m turning off the water, I hear my bedroom door open with a creak.

  Hey, it is what it is. Good while it lasted. I don’t know why I expected Liam to be any different. I mean, he was way more into my finishing than anyone else had ever been, so that’s something. We’ll do the awkward “did it” dance during class and the play for a couple of weeks and then things will segue back into normality. I can handle being the rebound. It wasn’t the first time and won’t be the last.

  I jump when there’s a knock to my left.

  “Do you keep the ibuprofen in there?” Liam asks from out in the hall. I open the bathroom door to a completely, deliciously naked Liam, with a glass of water in each hand. He holds them up. “Preventative measures. Although, we’ve probably sweated out most of the tequila by now.” He smirks. “Your skin tasted sweet and salty.”

  I grab the bottle of Advil from the medicine cabinet and shake two out in my palm. He leans forward and sucks them into his mouth.

  “Three,” I say, clearing my throat.

  “What?” he says, but then he smiles. He knows, the fucker.

  I take a glass of water from him and down it and then fill it back up again in the bathroom sink. He waits for me to top my water off and then we head upstairs.

  Back in my room, I see that Liam has taken all of the clothes off my bed and placed them into two neat piles on the floor. He sets his water down on the bookcase on the other side from where I usually sleep and gets under the covers. He points to one pile of clothes. “Clean.” And then to the other. “Suspect.” I
notice a few of the items weren’t even on the bed to begin with. Time to do laundry.

  I walk over to my side and put my water down on the nightstand. Pulling back the quilt, I climb in, realize the light is still on and get back up.

  “You really should get The Clapper for situations such as this.”

  I clap my hands twice and then swiftly hit the switch.

  “The Clapper!” We say in unison.

  “Take off your robe and bra before you get into bed while you’re at it,” he says, his voice all husky.

  I don’t know what to say to that suggestion, so I just mutter, “The Clapper,” again and take off the rest of my clothes.

  I get in bed, enjoying the coolness of the sheets against my skin. Liam scoots over next to me and turns onto his side.

  “Hey.”

  His breath tickles my ear. I giggle. “Hey.”

  “How’re you doing?”

  The question hangs there in the air until I give in to the need to give my blanket answer. “Fine.”

  “Fine as in satisfied and spent or fine as in freaking out and thinking I’m going to sneak out in the middle of the night?”

  I clear my throat. “Second choice.”

  He kisses my shoulder and threads his arm underneath my neck, rolling me toward him. “Goodnight, Dani.”

  I sigh. “Goodnight, Liam.”

  X

  I open my eyes to the gray light of pre-dawn, Liam’s fingertips brushing lightly across the tops of my breasts. I’m on my back and turn my head to look at him. He smiles and then moves toward me.

  “Sorry, my breath might be gross.” He kisses me, and I could care less about his breath. He stayed!

  “You stayed.”

  Liam rolls on top of me, propping himself up on his elbows. He takes my top lip between his, tugging on it lightly. He continues kissing his way down my chin, across my jaw line, over to my earlobe. “As a general rule, I find it’s better to wake up next to a naked girl and entertain her naked bits with my naked bits than to wake up alone.”