Better Than Me (18 page)

When he lifts his face from one of my breasts, I say, “Hi, Mavis.”

Davis shakes his head, “Lizard, I am never gonna recover from you.  I don’t want to.”

I have straddled his thigh and can feel the roughness of his jeans against my clit, causing me to want to grind again.  His erection is rubbing against my hipbone.

“You have got to take those jeans off.”  I tell him.

“Why don’t you help me.”  I push him up so he is kneeling above me.  Sliding up to sit in front of him, I reach up and undo this jeans, appreciating the muscular V from his hips downward.  As I slide his jeans off,  I notic
e he is commando.  I look up at him and raise an eyebrow.

“What?  this afternoon didn’t start out in a positive way, but it’s ending better than
I hoped.”

“Mavis, you are so naughty.”

“Tell me about it.”

His erection is in front of me.  Too good to pass up.  I don’t have much experience in this area, but for Davis, I am willing to give it a try.  I wrap my fingers around the base and stroke upward.  Sitting up into kneeling, I kiss the tip of his velvety hardness and then plunge my lips around it up to my fingers on the base.  Licking and sucking, I feel Davis’ hands in my hair, encouraging me.  Suddenly, he stills and
, moving his hand under my chin, pulls me up and off of him.  Hey, I wasn’t done yet.

“Yeah, Baby, I… We
…”  He’s stuttering with arousal.  He firmly slides me back onto my back, runs a hand down my body and then between my legs, pushing them apart.  Once again, he’s managed to procure a condom, evidently out of thin air.  He rolls it onto himself.  Kneeling over me, he rubs the head of his cock against my achy wetness.  I am completely ready for him and he for me.  With a slow, steady push he is in me.  I clench around him causing him to groan, and then we move.  Move like we’ve known each other forever.  Like we loved each other before we met.  It doesn’t take long for me to get close again. 

B
etween kisses, Davis orders me, “Hold on just a minute, baby.  Just a…”

He does
n’t finish the sentence as we both cry out, falling into our orgasms and grasping each other with all our souls.

***

  Lying in Davis’ bed, with our heads where our feet would usually be, Davis and I, completely naked and huddled next to each other, gaze out the window.  Snow is continuing to fall and although I haven’t looked out the window and down to the ground to check the accumulation, I know there must be a lot.  There is hardly any noise from outside, apart from the occasional scraping of a snow plow.  We’ve been in Davis’s apartment since Sunday afternoon.  It’s Tuesday morning.  We’ve gotten texts that school and work have been cancelled for the past two days.  We are snowed in. It’s the largest snowstorm this town has seen since the 80’s.  I’m under no delusion.  We have a ton to talk about, a lot of work to do to be together, but right now with him in the quiet, I have never felt safer or happier.

WOO HOO!
  My “construction worker cat call” text alert goes off.

I reach over across Davis’ chest, which puts me practically on top of him.  I kiss his chest on way back to my spot with my phone in my hand and he runs his hand through my hair.  Looking at the text, I shake my head and laugh.
  It’s Jules, checking to make sure we are still alive AND to give her opinion about my future with Davis.  Davis reaches for the phone.  I move away from him to my side, to keep it away from him, but he somehow manages to flip me over, so I am now on my back and he is on top of me, head at my chest looking up at me. 

“What’s so funny?” 

“Jules… she’s crazy”  He tries to get the phone away again and we engage in some wrestling.  It feels excellent and when he’s in just the right position, I tilt my pelvis up to his and slide it downward feeling his hardness.  His eyes spark, eyebrows raising quickly.  “It’s nothing,” I say. 

“If it’s nothing than you won’t mind. . .”
Laughing, Davis quickly pries the phone out of my hand and flops on his back beside me. 
Don’t leave. .. that was fun. 

I see Davis look at the text and I bite my lip.

HE’S GONNA MARRY YOU, YOU KNOW
.

Davis throws the phone on the bedside table and is on top of me again in a flash.  He is right back where I want him.  He is looking at me so intently, it is bey
ond hot and I already have that  heavy feeling in my lower belly and wetness between my legs.  “See… I told you… Jules is crazy..”

He cuts me off sharply, “Lizard!”  Then his face softens, his voice changes and he mur
murs, “Biz.  Jules… ”  Then breaking into a huge smile says, “Is RIGHT!”

My eyes and mouth open wide as I inhale.  My hand comes up to my mouth at the same time.

It’s a good thing I’m already lying down. . . .because he could have knocked me down with a feather.

Bonus:
  Charlie Boxwood

Man, I shoulda known when I showed them the picture, one of them woulda fallen for her.  Biz.  She had no idea how much people liked her.  Completely unaware of how fucking cute and funny she could be.  Smart assed.  Inappropriate.  Like a guy friend, but nothing like a guy friend ‘cause she was so obliviously sexy.  I told Jake and Davis all about her.  How I felt bad ‘bout how that guy fucked with her head last semester.  How she was so quiet now, compared to last year. 

I told’
em straight up, “Man, when she’s okay, she’s a lot of fun.  She was the coolest RA.  We both worked part-time as bartenders at The Lum last year after we turned 21.  We had read that book, you know, from the eighties?  Less Than Zero.  For modern lit class.   Biz was always talking about how the movie wasn’t nearly as good as the book.  How Robert Downey, Jr. was awesome as Julian, but she just couldn’t buy Andrew McCarthy.  How she kept expecting him to say, “I Love You” in that really breathy voice and for Molly Ringwald to show up in a pink dress.  Biz has a funny way of looking at things.  After we read the book, we hatched a plan to save up all our tip money and buy cocaine and have non-stop sex, like in the book.  That’s right, me and Biz.  Don’t look so shocked.  It coulda happened.  But it didn’t.  We never bought the coke.  And I only ever kissed her.  When it happened we both agreed it was like kissing a sibling.  So… sex would have been pointless.  We just drank up our tips anyway and never saved anything.  But planning it and talking about it for months—Fun.  Shit, we laughed our asses off about it afterward.  If that kiss had gone better, I bet we would have had a great time.”

I don’t know, it seems like Jake took my story as a challenge.  To get the girl the bad guy had dumped.   To make himself out to be better at getting girls than me or any other guy.   He sure fucked that up.  Now, I have to find another damn guitarist for Boxwood.  Jake sure as shit isn’t getting near me
or Jules or any of mine again.  Especially Biz.  We may have never hooked up, but now she’s like a sister to me.  Nobody fucks with my sister.

Davis was totally different. 
Davis saw that picture and said nothing.  Just looked at it like he fell in love right in that moment.  It was so weird.  I had to drag him out of my room to go to rehearsal.  I guess I knew one of them would wind up with her.  Biz seems happier now, so I’m glad it’s Davis, but I am not above going after him if he ever hurts her.  In my gut, I get the feeling he won’t.

Davis: Five Years Later

Hearing the front door close, I can finally breathe.  I stop pacing and sit back
on our bed, trying to recreate the relaxed position I was in earlier this evening.  Propped up against a bunch of pillows with my legs out straight on top of the quilt.  I throw my phone on the bedside table and mute CNN.  I yell out to the hallway, “Hey Baby, you’re back.  How was it?”  I haven’t seen her face yet.  Once I do, I’ll know how it went, no matter what she tells me.

She walks into our bedroom and hangs her purse on the
back of the desk chair.  She tips her head to take off her stud earrings and tosses them into her jewelry box.  I haven’t seen her face yet. 

“It was weird…
at first… and then… fine.  No drama.”  She continues to remove her watch and is beginning to pull her t-shirt over her head, when she finally turns to face me and give me a smile.  I have to admit, I’m distracted by the prospect of her t-shirt coming off.  It’s been five years and I still get so turned on watching her undress. The t-shirt comes off as she says, “He’s…sweet.”  I don’t like hearing her say that.  “and really a little sad.  He’s had two failed marriages and no kids.”  I am holding back, but his sad life gives me satisfaction.  I know it shouldn’t.  I should be the bigger man.  I just don’t think I will ever forget how he treated her.  When he contacted her on Facebook and asked her to “friend” him, we talked about it for a long time.  She is still so trusting and wants to believe the best in people.  Now that I think she finally believes the best about herself, she is less vulnerable.  So she friended him.  Any time he talked to her through the site, she shared it with me.  He asked to meet her for coffee.  I wasn’t happy about it, but it’s her decision.  I told her if she felt sad or uncomfortable at any point to just get up and leave.  If she felt scared or unsafe to call me.  I held my phone and paced in our bedroom the entire time she was gone.

“He apologized about 20 times in the course of an hour.  How he was so sorry if he hurt me.  How he couldn’t believe what an ass he was, cheatin
g on me.  All I could say was, ‘Hey, it’s fine.  It was so long ago.  Things are the way they are supposed to be now.’  He shook his head like he didn’t agree.”

She has removed her capris and is walking around the room, throwing her clothes in the hamper and stretching a bit.

Staring at her, all I want to do is forget about her meeting with her ex, Jake.  I want to make her forget it.  All of it.  It was difficult when she had to testify to send Neil to jail.  She was so beautiful and brave through it all.  If that OTHER guy, that motherfucking scum, Randall ever shows up again in her life, it will be a different story altogether.  He’s out there, evading arrest.  I can never, ever forgive or forget what he did to her….or me.  I push all thoughts of them out of my head and focus on Lizard.

“Jake
still wants in your panties.”

“What, these?”  She turns her cute little ass toward me, looks over her shoulder and reaching around with her index fingers, snaps the bottom of both sides of her black boy shorts.  That’s it.  I’m a goner.  She moves to go toward our bathroom and I launch my
self from my sitting position, grab her arm and not so gently pull her over to me.  I am ready to go. “Grrr, It..Kills…Me…when you do that.”

“Tell me about it, Mavis”

So I do.  Three times.

Acknowledgments:

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you:

Sharon K
orn, my Editor extraordinaire!  You are truly The Cleaner.  Thanks for taking care of my baby.

The awesome women of The Just Right Book Club.  Your excitement and support helped me take the final leap.

My Beta readers: Cathy A. (my “Alpha” Beta), Linda, Brian, Kevin and Julie.

Anne Wathen, my legal
consultant.  Thanks for keeping me organized and legal.

And some amazing authors and book bloggers, I’ve never met in person, but
who have inspired and helped me even if they didn’t know it.

Jamie McGuire-
for your FAQs for Writers page on your website.  It saved me a lot of pain.

M. Leighton-t
weeting with you helped me see that writers I love are just like me and spend time fooling around just like I do.

Jennifer Probst-y
ou followed me on Twitter two minutes after I told the first person ever that I was writing a book.  It felt like a sign.  So I kept going.

Izzy at Fict
ional Boyfriends Facebook page-the first to ask for more info about BETTER THAN ME and Davis Brandon.

The supremely hilarious and inappropriate ladies of Book Boyfriend Reviews-Sandie, Dee and Shannon for doing a cover reveal for an unknown author.

Zoe at The Book Lover’s Blog and Laura at Blame it on the Rain Blog.  You are my UK Twitter girls.  Thank you for the UK Cover Reveal.

And last-the loves of my life, BC and The Connor Boys.  I swear I am buying t-shirts that say, “My Wife/Mother Writes Dirty Books,” for you.

About the Author

Emme Burton is the author of Better Than Me, her debut novel.  She lives in St. Louis, Missouri with her amazing husband, two teenage sons, and her “fur boy.”  Emme has never, ever been lost in a mall either as a child or an adult.  Her mother, and now her family, have always known where to find her.  At the bookstore.

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