The Final Act (12 page)

Gretchen moaned softly and lifted her chest toward him. Jake lavished time and attention on each breast, savoring the taste and feel of her warm flesh, before moving farther down her body. Beneath the hot tent of blankets, he crouched between her legs. Sweat beaded his forehead and Gretchen’s belly. He licked her stomach and blew across the light tangle of curls.

Her hips arched in anticipation.

Jake smiled at her eagerness as he parted her folds and dipped his tongue between them. He licked up her seam to her clit, flicking it with the tip of his tongue.

She gasped and jerked against his restraining hands on her hips.

Jake swirled his tongue over and around her clit until she squirmed, then delved his tongue deep inside her, tasting the musky, mysterious essence of woman. He lapped her strong juices and breathed in her scent, reveling in her whimpers and moans. He experienced her pleasure as if it were his and his cock ached and trembled.

He teased her clit again with light caresses of his tongue, followed by a sharp nip that earned another gasp from Gretchen. He slipped two, then three fingers into her pussy, stretching it wider as he pumped them in and out. Her sex was slippery wet and jungle steamy.

She bucked beneath his hands and mouth. “Oh, please!”

Jake continued fingering and licking her, until he was sure she was on the verge of coming, then he released her hips and her body arched upward. Her crotch knocked against his mouth, but he latched onto her clit and wouldn’t let go, riding her as she climaxed, feeling her pussy clench and gush around his fingers.

When he finally pulled away, wiping her juices from his lips and chin, he smiled, certain her high school boyfriend had never given her an experience like that.

Gretchen subsided on the bed, gasping and twitching. “Wow, oh, wow, oh, wow,” she mumbled over and over.

Jake crawled up to lie beside her and study her ecstatic expression.

“Whew!” She blew out a long breath and raked her fingers through her hair. “That was amazing.” Her eyes opened and met his gaze.

Jake lifted her hand and pressed it to his lips.

Gretchen reached over and tugged on his hip. “Come here.”

He moved on top of her, cradled between her warm thighs. Reaching between them, he positioned his cock so it rested on the groove of her slit. He thrust, rubbing her over-stimulated clit and making her hiss.

“Ah! No. Inside now.”

“You’re ready?”

She made a face. “You know I am, you tease.”

Jake reached for the nightstand drawer and got a condom. Rising to his knees, he sheathed himself, then lowered over her once more. His heart pounded with excitement, but no more fear about her virginity. He simply had to take it slow. His cock slid easily into her, gliding on a slick of come. Her tight heat surrounded him. Jake paused, letting Gretchen adjust to his girth then pushed farther into the delicious warmth. He closed his eyes and groaned, wanting to melt into her body.

“All right?” His voice sounded as rough as if he’d smoked a carton of cigarettes.

“Mm-hm. More.” She clutched his ass and pulled him more deeply inside her.

There was no resistance, no cherry to pop, but her channel was tight. He buried himself completely inside her and paused to enjoy the sensation. Lust and pleasure combined with an indefinable sense of coming home. He was right where he wanted to be and in much more than a sexual way.

Slowly he withdrew, surrendering that delicious heat by increments. He paused again, then pushed back in. Clenching his jaw, he concentrated on controlling himself when every part of him yearned to move faster, pump harder.

In. Out. Slow and easy
.

“It feels so…full,” she marveled.

He opened his eyes and grinned at her. “You saying I’m big?”

“Big enough.”

He wanted to say more. To tell her things like how beautiful she looked with her golden hair fanned out on his pillow, how good she felt surrounding him and how much he cared for her, but he wasn’t much of a talker. He wouldn’t dare to tell her everything she made him feel, not when he could hardly admit it to himself.

Gretchen rose to meet his every thrust, her legs wrapped around the backs of his thighs, her pelvis raised. “Right there,” she muttered as Jake hit someplace deep inside her. “Oh, my God. There!”

He moved faster then, pumping hard and grunting as the tension in his cock reached an exquisitely painful level. His balls drew tight and he climaxed with a long, low groan of release. His trembling arms gave way and he collapsed on top of Gretchen, burying his face in the crook of her neck and shoulder.

She rubbed his back, long, soothing, comforting strokes.

Slowly returning from rapture to consciousness, he remembered he was supposed to be the tutor, the considerate, careful lover. He lifted his head to look at Gretchen through tousled bangs. “Was I too rough?”

“No. Not at all.” She stretched luxuriantly beneath him and smiled, sleepy-eyed. “So…that’s sex.”

“That’s about it.” He rolled off her to lie by her side.

“I could get used to it.” Her smiled widened, and she made a soft, purring sound in her throat. “Mmm.”

Jake kissed her shoulder, then laid his head on the pillow and gazed at her profile. With the afterglow receding and now that it was too late to take it back, he began to second-guess the deflowering. If Gretchen had been waiting all her life to have sex, how had she suddenly decided he was the one to give it up to? Would she be sorry once she’d thought about it? Did she imagine he was someone different, someone better than he actually was?

“Thirsty?” He got up and padded into the bathroom, where he disposed of the used condom and filled a glass with water. He drank it down, staring into his reflection’s eyes a few seconds as he thought about what might happen next. She could expect some commitment from him. Was he ready for that? He refilled the glass and took it to Gretchen.

She drained it. “Whoa! I’ve never been so thirsty and so…” She trailed off, leaving the thought incomplete as she lay back on the bed, stretching her arms over her head. Her breasts rose high on her chest and flattened from gravity, but the pink nipples still stood up like little mountain peaks.

Jake’s cock managed a weak twitch in response as he lay beside her.

A few quiet moments passed before Gretchen spoke. “So, are we a couple now?” Her voice was light and teasing, but he knew she really wanted an answer.

Jake stared at his hand resting on her stomach. “I don’t know. Do you want to be?”

“I asked you first. What do
you
want?”

“Figured we’d just see what happens next.” He stared at the contrast of the two tones of their skin, his pale hand spread across her even paler stomach. He was afraid to look into her eyes and see what they asked of him. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to be involved with Gretchen, but he knew he’d inevitably disappoint her. She’d realize what a fuck-up he was and she’d end up hating him. Better to keep things light as long as possible.

Gretchen was silent a long moment. The afternoon rain continued to beat against the windowpane, the only sound in the silence. “All right.”

Jake felt a rush of gratitude that she didn’t push it. In fact, her acceptance made him want to explain himself better.

“I really like you, Gretchen.”
Worship you
. “But, my track record with relationships sucks.” He searched for words that didn’t come easy to him. “People start making promises and somebody gets hurt. I want to be with you right now anyway,” he finished, hoping it would be enough.

Gretchen made a quiet sound and covered his hand with hers. After another silent moment, she broke the tension.

“How about another guitar lesson?”

Jake looked into her eyes and leaned to kiss her lips, cool from the water she’d drunk. “Absolutely. I believe in nude guitar lessons.”

He went to fetch his acoustic guitar.

Gretchen sat cross-legged on the bed, holding the steel-string Yamaha. Jake knelt behind her, his hand molding her fingers around the fret board as he showed her how to make a bar chord. Cold rain lashed against the windowpane, but curved around his lover in the nest of blankets, Jake was warm, content and happier than he ever remembered being.

Michael stood in front of the window, staring at the rain sluicing down on the parking lot outside the hotel. He was restless and bored.

Behind him, Logan flipped through TV channels. “I’m bored.” He echoed Michael’s thought. “Let’s go have a drink.”

Turning from the window, Michael collapsed in a chair and picked up the book he’d been staring at blindly for most of the afternoon.

Logan stood and took his place at the window. “It’s too wet to go out. ‘Too cold to play ball. So we sat in the house. We did nothing at all.’ How about some
Cat in the Hat
action? Let’s go get smashed and make some wild and crazy fun.”

Michael glanced up from the book he wasn’t reading. “Go ask Steve or Chris. I’m reading this book.”

“You’re boring. You never want to do anything.” Logan turned from the window and searched among the strewn clothes and trash on the floor for his shoes. “You’re such a monk.”

Michael thought of Jennifer Sorenson in Chicago and smiled. “Just discriminating.”

“Later, dude.” Logan paused in the doorway. “I can’t believe I’m bored with a day off. I’d actually rather be onstage this afternoon.”

“It’s an addiction,” Michael agreed.

Logan shut the door behind him, and Michael shut his book. He got up and walked over to the window again, imagining how he’d spend a long, lazy afternoon with Jennifer if she were here. He didn’t really miss the woman, hadn’t called to talk to her since he left Chicago, but at least she’d been something to do.

What he needed was exercise. He should use the weight room and swim laps in the hotel pool, grubby and noxious with chlorine fumes as it was. Michael grabbed a T-shirt off the floor and slipped it over his head, glanced down at the sweat shorts he wore and decided they’d do. He stepped into a pair of flip-flops and made sure he had his key card.

Padding down the hall, he reached the alcove where a couple of vending machines stood, humming quietly. Elena was there, filling a bucket with ice.

Michael perked up. She was the most interesting thing he’d seen all day, especially wearing a stretched out tank top with no bra underneath. He could see the sharp points of her nipples pressed against the fabric. One strap had slipped down, baring the curve of her shoulder. He swallowed then dragged his gaze to her face before she caught him staring at her tits. “Hey.”

“Oh. Hi.” Her brown eyes widened like a startled doe’s. A shard of ice fell from the machine and skittered across the floor.

Michael bent to retrieve it. “Having a party?”

Elena stared at him blankly a moment, then at the ice. “Oh! No. I’m icing my foot. My toe still hurts from when Denny stomped on it last performance.” She indicated her sock-clad foot.

“Oh.” Michael tossed the ice chip back and forth between his hands for a moment before throwing it into her bucket. Considering how much time they spent in each other’s company, talking with her shouldn’t be this awkward.

Elena held the dripping bucket.

Michael struggled to think of something to say. He gestured down the hall. “I’m, uh, going to the weight room.”

She nodded. “Well…I’d better get back to my…” She pointed the opposite direction and started to walk past him, clearly favoring her left foot.

“Wow, you’re really hobbling. Did you get that looked at? Your toe might be broken.”

“I doubt it. Probably just bruised.”

“Let me take a look.” Michael took the ice bucket from Elena’s hands, giving her no choice, and walked with her to her room.

He held the door for her then followed her into the room. Quiet acoustic guitar music played on the stereo. Cara wasn’t there.

“Sit down on the edge of the bed,” he ordered.

“Are you a doctor now?” Elena said, but did as he bid.

Setting the ice bucket on the floor, he knelt at her feet, lifted her foot and peeled off the fuzzy rainbow striped sock. “Christ! That looks terrible.” Cradling her heel in his palm, he grasped the black and blue big toe between his thumb and forefinger and moved it gently.

Elena hissed and tried to jerk her foot away. “Ow! Don’t touch it!”

“Let me tape it. That’s all a doctor would do if it’s broken.”

“Except you don’t know what you’re doing. I’m just going to put an ice pack on it to make the swelling go down.”

Michael cradled her small, warm foot in his hand a moment longer then set it gently on the floor. “I’ll make you an ice pack.”

In the bathroom, he dampened a washcloth and wrapped crushed ice in it, then brought it out to her. After arranging pillows at the head of the bed for her to lean against, he elevated her foot on another couple of pillows and positioned the makeshift pack on her foot.

“There.” Michael sat on the edge of the bed, holding the ice in place on her foot. “Do you want the TV remote?”

“No. I’m fine. Thanks.” Her voice was quiet and sounded almost shy, not the usual bossy, brassy Elena he was used to. She smiled at him, then glanced away. Her bashfulness was adorable and somehow made him feel more confident.

Michael searched for a reason to prolong his stay. “Do you want to play cards?”

“Um. Sure. I think Cara has a deck in her nightstand.”

Michael checked in the drawer, moving aside a vibrator with a grimace to get to the Shrek-emblazoned deck. He sat on the edge of the bed, smoothed the blue bedspread between them and shuffled the cards.

“What do you want to play?”

“I don’t know a lot of card games. Rummy?” she suggested.

“Gin is almost the same, but better.” He explained the rules as he dealt.

Elena quickly got the hang of it. She examined her hand and discarded a three. “So, how are things back home? Have you talked to your father yet?”

Michael wished he’d never mentioned being estranged from his family. He shrugged and picked up her three. “No. Not likely to either.”

“That’s too bad. I hope you can work things out. Family’s family. My mom drives me crazy, but I never stay mad at her for long.”