But lying there, wrapped in his arms, cuddled against his side with my head on his chest, listening to his heart beat, our feet tangled together, the blankets cradling us with warmth…I was dizzy with hope, drunk with possibility.
Nineteen
Theo
* * *
In the morning, I woke up first, and for a moment I forgot where I was. It happened to me all the time because I moved around so much, but what rarely happened was the smile that took over my face when I realized whose bed I was in.
Claire was facing away from me, curled into a ball. I moved close behind her, tucking her into the crescent of my body, one arm around her stomach. Her breathing changed and she hugged my arm, wriggling back against me.
“You’re still here,” she said softly.
“I’m still here.” I was as surprised as she was, actually.
“Somehow I thought I’d wake up and you’d be gone.”
I’d done that a lot in my past. Honestly, I could count on one hand the number of times I’d spent an entire night in a woman’s bed. And I was always sorry and just wanted to get the fuck out of there in the morning.
Today was different. I didn’t want to leave her. What the hell was that about? My muscles tensed up.
Um, it’s about sex, asshole. Duh.
I relaxed again. “This bed is way too comfortable to leave. Especially with you in it.”
“Mmm.” She was quiet for a moment. “You’re the first to sleep in it.”
“Am I?”
“Yes. I’m not in the habit of asking guys to stay.” She giggled. “Now you should feel special.”
I pinched her butt. “You’re gonna pay for that, little girl.” Scenes from last night started filtering through my mind—we’d played stranger again, in the bedroom this time—and my dick decided to wake up too, tapping against her butt as it grew hard.
She took my hand from her stomach and brought it to her breast. My breathing grew ragged as I kneaded the flesh in my palm, teased her nipples into stiff little peaks, and rubbed my cock on her ass. She moaned when I swept my hand down her stomach and between her legs, finding her wet and warm. My fingers moved over her clit, rubbing gently at first and then harder and faster. I took my cue from the sounds she made, the way she moved against my hand. When she came, she cried out my name, and I nearly lost it and shot my load all over her back. Her perfect, smooth, vanilla-skinned back, unmarked except for a little crop of freckles near her tailbone.
Jesus. I want to come on her back.
Claire probably wasn’t the kind of girl who enjoyed that sort of thing, but once the thought took root, I couldn’t ignore it. Without a word, I flipped her onto her stomach and knelt above her with one knee on either side of her thighs. We’d used the last condom in my wallet after coming upstairs last night, so this would be better anyway—as long as she was OK with it. Should I ask? I glanced at her profile on the pillow and saw that her eyes were closed and she was smiling blissfully.
Nope, not asking.
I took my cock in my hand and rubbed the tip of it over each plump little ass cheek and up and down between them. Fuck, would I have loved to squeeze right in there—but that would have to wait. Instead I wrapped my fingers around my dick and moved it up and down the shaft, over the crown, feeling my lower body heat up.
“Your skin is so perfect,” I whispered, my breath coming fast. “I want to mess it up.”
Her smiled curved higher. “Do it. I want you to.”
With my free hand, I pushed her hair out of the way and ran my palm from her shoulder blade down her back over the curve of her hip. “God, I love your body.” Her skin was pale and soft, untouched even by the sun. I felt like a god that she’d let me sully her this way, that she wanted me to.
“Talk to me,” she breathed. “I can’t see you. Help me imagine it.”
Goddamn, she was awesome. “My cock is so hard,” I told her, working my hand a little quicker. “The muscles in my stomach are flexing. I’m fucking my hand and thinking about you.”
She moaned and arched her back a little, her ass rising between my thighs. “Yes…I can see it.”
“It’s the hand I just had on you. My fingers are wet.”
She moved a hand underneath her and began to touch herself. “Now mine are too.”
“Oh God.” My voice cracked. It was so fucking amazing, I was paralyzed for a moment, and all I wanted to do was watch her. But my dick was aching inside my fist, the tip covered not only with Claire’s arousal but my own. “You’re so fucking hot.”
“And wet,” she whispered, her ass moving up and down as she rubbed herself on her hand. “You make me so wet.”
My arm, giving up on my brain, seemed to move of its accord, jerking hard and fast above her. I fell forward, bracing the other hand on her headboard, my eyes wide and my breathing strained. “Fuck, I’m gonna come so hard.”
“Yes!” she cried out in anguish.
I realized she was bringing herself to climax, and it pushed me over the edge. My orgasm unfurled from bottom to top inside my body, and I felt it build like a volcanic eruption and watched it explode in thick, hot ribbons that flowed like lava over her back. I had no words to describe it, not that I could have talked anyway. All I could do was moan in agony and delight and gratitude and shock that any man should get to do this.
Let alone me.
* * *
I brought up a hand towel I’d found in the hall closet downstairs and wet with warm water. “Don’t move,” I told her.