Falling Away (20 page)

             
“Oh. Huh.”

             
“
Mmm
-hmm,” he murmured. He truly looked taken aback.

             
“Oh, stop,” I said, nudging him in the arm, hoping it would knock that funky, uncomfortable look off his face. “It wasn’t that bad. Your mother’s cute.” A thousand times nicer than Robert’s mother ever was.

             
“
Cute’s
not the word flashing through my head right now with bright neon lights.”

             
“You think that’s bad?” I joked. “I’ve decided I want a romantic comedy after all.” I winked and twirled, quietly laughing over the way he dramatically sighed in defeat.
Tease me, will you?
With any luck I’ll get a sense of payback if the movie bores him to death tonight.

             
Fifteen minutes later we were climbing up the wooden stairs to his current home, which tended to complain with each step. His family had a large one story home, but in the dark, all I could tell was the brick was a reddish-brown and the siding was in shades of light and dark browns. Evan unlocked the door, flipped the light switch and closed the door behind us. Gratefully, a black curtain covered the glass, so at least his mother couldn’t sneak a peek. And I had an inkling that was why he locked us in.

             
Obviously, his mother furnished and decorated the room, and Evan merely brought a few personal items. The first thing I was drawn to was the queen-sized bed pushed against the middle of the wall to the right of us. The bed had an abstract, dark blue and tan duvet cover with tan sheets. The room was bare of furniture other than a brown suede armchair and a chest of drawers with a flat-screen, so I guessed it was just used when relatives came to town. The game console was surely Evan’s. A door on the opposite end had to be the bathroom, possibly even shared with a closet. Evan must’ve been planning on us being here tonight ‘cause the room was immaculately clean for a college guy.

             
Five minutes later we were camped out on the bed on our stomachs, watching
Sweet Home Alabama
. Yeah, I knew…cruel. We’d barely gotten past Melanie’s engagement before he started shifting a lot. I tilted my head to better see him, a devilish smile breaking through. His smile matched mine for a long minute, then we both calmed to a sweeter, softer expression. My eyes scanned the features of his face. I imagined my hand caressing his cheek, my finger tracing the jaw line down, my thumb moving to trace the lips I was dying to kiss. Like he knew exactly what I was thinking, Evan wet his lips. For once my heart was calm, the jitters missing in action. I felt at peace right now, the warmth from our sides and shoulders pressed firmly against one another seeping underneath my skin.

             
“You can’t look at me like that,” he said gently, his face turning sadder. My eyes lifted to his and met that heartfelt sadness dead on. “It makes me want to kiss you.”

             
“And you’re waiting for me to make the first move?”

             
His eyes were distracted to my lips, as I took my turn to hydrate them, and he looked like he wanted to do that for me as much as I did for him. “I want to make you mine.
Really mine
this time. So if you don’t see that happening on your end, you can’t be looking at me like that.”

             
The intensity I felt radiating off his eyes was overwhelming, suffocating almost, but I welcomed the heavy sensation as a sigh rippled through my body. What was I waiting for exactly? Sure, I lost a guy I loved. But here I had another great guy patiently waiting beside me, waiting to fill the void.

             
Okay…maybe not
patiently
.

             
But he was sweet, and loving. And he looked at me like I was his everything. So why was I trying to convince myself to wait awhile before letting him in? We’d been lovers before, and I was as sure as the sky was blue that he’d never be a rebound.

             
So to hell with my earlier ramblings on waiting.

             
I pushed up and rolled my body back up on my knees. His forehead dipped to the bed, probably thinking I was leaving, indefinitely. I maneuvered my body over his, and lightly sat on his bum as I stretched out over his back, my hands tracing his arms all the way down to his hands, where I threaded my fingers with his. I was right about the tunic fitting him in all the right places. His head turned to the side, giving me perfect access to his neck, which I softly nibbled on when he elongated it. I felt his body weight succumb to the bed, sinking deeper beneath me. He closed his eyes
and moaned
as my love bites advanced to his ear lobe.

             
Speaking softly, I said with all honestly, “Evan, my heart’s not completely healed yet, but I know I want you. And I think being with you can get me there faster, but I don’t
wanna
put you in that position unless you’re willing. ‘Cause in a way, it means I only have a shared heart to offer right now. But I think I’d be happy if it was yours wholeheartedly. So just tell me. Do you want out until I’m completely healed, or are you willing to take a mildly damaged heart?”

             
He quietly debated for a moment, and my breath caught in my throat the moment he spoke.
“I want to be the one to heal your heart,
Princess
.”

             
“Then will you kiss me?” I whispered.

             
His movement was like a slow-motion viewing of a magician yanking out the cloth beneath a table spread, in which I was now on my back being straddled and he was on top. His lips hovered just out of reach, our eyes doing all the talking, barely visible as the colors on the television dimmed. Still, I could read those eyes. I remembered every tiny glint of gold around the iris that always seemed to twinkle, and the savory shade of green that warmed my heart and seduced me body and soul. And I could see the hunger as much as the love, so much my body let out a tiny whimper.   

             
His lips finally swept against mine, and a surge of intoxicating numbness rushed my senses head to toe. My tongue slid into his mouth, eager to engage, but he kept our kisses soft and slow. He left my lips too quickly, his scent mind-numbingly delicious, and the deep kisses at the base of my ear made me moan, made my insides explode into a fury of warm tingles.

             
Endorphins surged through my system, and it felt so good to give in to Evan’s advances, and by his rapid increase in roughness, he agreed. My hands stroked his back and my legs locked tight around his waist,
squeezing our lower halves tightly together, and I felt exactly how stiff my kisses had made him. I wanted him, more than I’d ever wanted him before. But too soon, he pulled back, far enough to lock his arms and brace himself away from me.

             
“What?” I said breathlessly, my heart feeling the burn after picking up speed.

             
“I already don’t want to stop. You take me any further and I’ll have to stand outside in the cold for a bit.”

             
“What makes you think I want you stop?” I asked seductively, biting the corner of my lower lip.

             
“Uh…” His chest silently chuckled a few times. “Because you made the last guy wait eight months?”

             
“Yeah, I did. But I was a virgin then and scared out of my mind to go there. And only seventeen. That’s not really the case anymore.” Playfully, I commanded, “So get back down here.” 

             
I hitched myself up on my elbows, trying to reach him, but he still didn’t come my way. A wicked grin slowly formed over whatever thought was running through his head right then. “Well, since the dreams ended up being real for us, then that means you really lost your virginity to me.”

             
Not physically, but emotionally it kinda went down that way. “Yeah, sorta. In a weird sense, I guess I did.” If the width of his smile counted as anything, then clearly he loved this revelation. “So if you continue to tease me, I’m truly gonna kill you. So get. Back. Down.
Here.
”

             
Boys must get really turned on when you commanded them to do stuff, ‘cause his face totally changed after I said that. His jaw and facial muscles went taut, and his eyes hardened. He was enjoying himself a moment ago, but now a real hunger took over as
he
leaned
over me,
fervently mashing
his lips into mine,
literally sucking
the air from my lungs.

             
His hand didn’t hesitate to go up my sweater now that he’d been granted a VIP pass. His entire body locked when it cupped my left breast, the touch of his bare hand against my skin both chilly and arousing, particularly when he pinched. “It’s twenty degrees outside and you’re not wearing a bra?”

             
I chuckled wickedly. “Exactly how much warmth do you think a lace bra provides anyway?”

             
His hands may have been occupied, but mine weren’t, and I took that moment to yank the softly ribbed tunic up and over his head
, followed by the black t-shirt underneath
. Yeah, it ended up removing his right hand from a very happy place, but he took the opportunity to remove my top as well, so it worked out better than I had planned. We spent a few seconds admiring the other before rejoining our lips, and then our hands began softly exploring the other’s exposed skin.

             
His kisses made their way down my neck, across my collarbone, then trailed delicately along the outside of my breast. All ten of my fingers continually combed and tugged on his locks. His hips began to rock mine, and my belly spasmed, the entire length of my spine arcing and locking in place for several seconds. It was impossible for him not to feel the rise that pushed against him. His mouth may have been busy reacquainting himself with the swell of my breast, but his eyes were free to roll my way, and in that second I knew he felt every eruption quivering throughout my body. I laughed when he asked, “You’re not going there without me, are you?” I was really glad neither of us had to work tomorrow, ‘cause I had no intention of leaving this bed until Monday morning.

Bleh
heh
heh
. Best. Sex. EVER. By far better than the dream sex.

             
I lay there happy, my insides still tingly even though we hadn’t done anything since we went to bed last night. That was the first time in a long time that I spent the entire day in bed, cuddled up with a guy eating take-out, watching random movies on the TV and having sex like ten times in one day. The more times we went at it, the more liberty he took in what he could get away with. And secretly, I kinda preferred the naughtier version that liked to have his way with me.

             
Evan was still asleep, and that hot, disheveled appearance he was
rockin
’ still had me purring inside. I liked seeing him all splayed out on the bed with a peaceful look on his face. His hair was flattened and stuck out random sections, and the way his lips lay naturally pouty had me really wanting to kiss them. The duvet cover creased right below his nicely sculpted pecks, where my finger was gently tracing circles, and the rhythmic rise to his chest amused my gaze for awhile. The smile spreading across my face wouldn’t fade, ‘cause I just couldn’t believe he belonged to me again.

             
Unable to resist the temptation anymore, I lay my body lightly atop his. I nibbled at his neck, first gently, then harder as his body began to move beneath mine, his hands tracing up my thighs to grip my hips.

             
“If you’re going to wake me up like that every morning, I’ll gladly move you in while you’re at work today.” He grabbed for my butt cheeks and forced my body to rock with his. But before we could get any further, our bodies startled when the door knocked twice. “Shit,” he muttered under his breath, and I began panicking about his parents finding me in here. I seriously doubted this is what they had in mind when they agreed to let him stay above the garage. “What time is it?” he asked, rolling me off his body as he slid out of bed. Thankful for the bulky duvet, I pulled the blanket clear up to my chin. I would’ve covered my head completely and gotten lost under the fluff, but I found myself in awe watching him slip on nothing but his jeans. Surprisingly, he wasn’t worried or in much of a rush as he went to crack the door open, which luckily faced the opposite direction of where I was.