0215543001348293036 vaughn piper oshea m.j. (21 page)

Piper Vaughn & M.J. O’Shea

Chapter 11

Rue

I FELT different. Like somehow over the weekend I’d become something
more
than what I’d been before, like my skin could barely contain everything that was growing inside of me. I kept closing my eyes for little brief moments, picturing us, him… his face when he was about to kiss me, how he looked when he was touching me, trailing his fingers all over my body and driving me out of my mind, the way our skin looked together—pale white twined around light honey gold.

The way we touched was beautiful. I couldn’t believe how different simple touches could be from everything I’d ever known. I hopped over a curb in the parking lot outside of school. Like seriously hopped, all giddy and full of bubbles. I probably would have done a heel click, too, if I hadn’t caught Dusty out of the corner of my eye. He chuckled and raised his eyebrow at me.

“Um, I got you a latte, but I’m guessing you don’t need it,” he told me when we met by the front door.

“Yum, what kind?”

“Cherry almond. I forgot to get sugar-free, though.”

“That’s okay!” I took the coffee and sipped appreciatively. Dusty just looked at me.

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“Are you going to tell me why you’re acting like someone body-snatched you over the weekend?”

All it took was the word body and I blushed. Then I blushed even harder because I was blushing.
Me
, blushing. Dusty could’ve walked in when I was blowing one of the other guys I’d dated, and I would’ve been less flustered and embarrassed than I was at that moment.

“Um, well, Erik and I. We….” I didn’t know how to say it. Plus, I didn’t want to hurt Dusty. I knew there were feelings involved.

“Did you have sex with him?”

“No, it’s not like that.” I squeezed my eyes shut, and a flash of Erik, leaning over me and smiling, filled my head. I sighed.

“Rues, you’re kinda freaking me out. What’s going on?”

“That thing you asked me before. It’s true, okay?”

“What thing? Just spit it out so you can stop acting like you’re someone else, and be my smartass Rue again.”

“I’m in love with him, okay? I’m in love, and I’m scared to death.” I dragged a deep breath in. It had been hard to say it, but it felt good once I had it out. And I knew it was real—both the love and the terror.

“Why are you scared?”

“You know me, Dust. What if I do something dumb and fuck this whole thing up? I don’t want to lose him.”

Dusty’s eyes grew wide when I swore. I didn’t do it much. He looked worried. “Hey, hey, it’s okay. You’re going to be fine.” Dusty cupped my face in his hands. “Does it feel right to be with him?” I nodded.

“Are you even thinking about other guys?”

“No.” And I realized at that moment that I
hadn’t
thought of another guy since the day I met him. Even when I thought he was a weirdo who I’d never understand. He’d somehow managed to seep into my cracks and fill all the odd, empty spots in my heart.

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“Then it’s going to be fine. Just take it slow and make sure he knows how you feel every single day. That’s all you can do.” My eyes got a bit teary at that.

“I love you, Dust. You’re the best friend in the world. Are you sure this is okay? I mean, are things good between us?” Dusty pulled me into a hug. “Of course things are okay between us. I had a crush on the guy, Rues. You’re in love with him. There’s a big difference. Mine’s out there somewhere still, right?”

“Yeah. Of course he is.”

“HEY, did you eat all my cherries?” I was searching through Erik’s fridge for the cherries I thought I’d left there. They were early, it was still only April, but I’d been so excited to find decent fruit that I’d been looking forward to eating them all afternoon.

“I put them in the fruit drawer!” Erik called distractedly from his room. Of course he did. Fruit goes in the fruit drawer. My haphazard style of refrigerator organization probably wasn’t quite up to his standards. I grabbed my carton of cherries and wandered back into the bedroom where Erik was sprawled on his bed watching an old episode of
Battlestar Galactica
and holding a sleeping Alice. I felt the crinkle of cash in my pocket when I leaned over to kiss my baby on her nose.

Oh, yeah.

“Babe, here’s your Alice money.” I tried to hand him the six hundred I’d been paying him to watch Alice since the fall. He shook his head and waved it away. “What?”

“It seems…
wrong
for you to be paying me. We’re together now.

We buy each other food, and we’re splitting the cable bill too. I spend as much time in your place as I do in mine.”
Oh.
I smiled. He was right. If I kept paying him as a babysitter, we’d never be a real couple, equal in every way.

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“Well at least let me buy the food from now on, since I’m the one with the expensive taste.”

He smiled. “Sure, but you can’t tell me not to get pinwheels.”

“I won’t.”

“And licorice. I still want licorice.”

I chuckled and bent over for a kiss. “Babe, I’m not going to try to change you—although I might sneak some green things in every once in a while.”

“I like lime Jell-O.” He looked up at me hopefully.

I shook my head. It was hopeless. “Let me take Alice in and put her to bed. It’s getting late.” I set the cherries on the nightstand and leaned over to give him another kiss before taking Alice to her crib in the corner of Erik’s office. In the past couple of weeks, Erik, Alice, and I had sprawled out between the two apartments. I kept some of my

“hippie” food at his place (which he somehow managed to eat even as he was mocking it), and Alice’s stuff was everywhere in both apartments, which seemed to actually be okay with Erik. He’d left about half of his DVD collection in my room, and our clothes—and my makeup—were all over. It was a weird setup, but it worked for all of us, even Dusty, who was there most of the time. We had our own little gay commune, right there in the middle of Wilmington.

Of course Alice woke up when I went to set her in her crib, but I sang to her and petted her nose until her little eyes closed again. She’d gotten so much bigger lately. I felt like if I blinked my eyes, something changed about her in the short time I’d not been looking. I couldn’t wait until I got to see her every single night when I got home from my regular nine-to-five job.

When I was sure Alice was asleep and I’d turned on her monitor, I shuffled back across the hall to Erik’s bedroom in his too-big flip-flops. Mine had gotten shoved under the bed somewhere, and I hadn’t felt like digging under there until I found them. Erik lifted the covers for me, and I crawled into his bed and snuggled up next to him. He was shirtless, which was my favorite, and I ran my fingers over his chest and belly while he watched TV. I wasn’t really paying attention, just

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listening to the voices in the background. My hands slipped lower, under the waist of his sleep shorts, and he lifted his hips easily for me to remove them.

We’d gotten more comfortable with each other’s bodies. It had become instinct for him to lean into touches instead of away, and second nature for us to be naked and cuddled together. We hadn’t taken it any further, though. I was busy enjoying Erik’s touches and the way he looked at me like I was the only person in the world. I
almost
didn’t miss the rest of it. Notice I said “almost.” My touches got a little more adventurous—less explorative and more focused. As tired as I was, I wanted him. He reached for my pajama bottoms too, and started to tug on them. I looked pointedly at the TV, and he laughed and turned it off.

“Yeah, yeah,” he joked, then did an actually pretty spot on impression of me. “You’re not going to get off on Lee Adama’s voice while your dick is in my mouth.” (I’d said that once, and he had laughed for days. After he was done laughing he told me that he’d never get off on anyone else while I was in his bed. I’d given him my best naughty smile and dragged him back to his room to reinforce that point.)

The TV was off, and we were both naked, lit only by the dim light of his glowing alarm clock. Erik had his hands all over me, touching me in that reverent way he knew drove me nuts. He was using his mouth too, kissing and sucking at my nipples, licking my hipbones, and making my cock all hard and weepy and ready for his attention. He did that too, and amazingly well. Turned out that his intense brand of concentration transferred itself onto sex in the most amazing way. He knew how to make me lose my mind like no one I’d ever been with before—and there was still so much more we had yet to explore.

Something I was going to have to change soon, before my eyes started to cross.

I moaned at the wet heat of Erik’s mouth all tight and
gahhhd
amazing. He’d made me come like that so many times. It was time for more. I pulled gently on his hair until he released me with a small
pop
.

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“What’s s’matter?” I loved the way his eyes got all sleepy and slow when he was turned on. I bit my lower lip.

“I want you.”

He chuckled against my stomach. “You have me. You know that.”

“No, baby. I want you inside of me. I think we’re ready.” I hadn’t bottomed in a long, long time, but it was something I wanted with Erik.

“Like…?
Oh
.” His eyes went a bit wide.

“We’ll take it slow, okay?”

“It’s not going to hurt you?”

Probably a little at first. He was pretty thick, and like I said, it had been years since I’d even considered being anywhere but on top. But as long as we went slow I’d be fine, and I didn’t want to freak him out, so I shook my head. “It won’t hurt. You want to try?” Erik grinned. “Do or do not. There is no try.” Only Erik would quote Yoda in bed. I laughed and shoved at his chest. “You’re a dork.”

“Yep. You love it.”

I could only smile and wrap my arms around his neck to pull him down for a kiss. We kissed for a long time, just like that. Him sprawled on top of me, my thighs open to make room for his hips. The kisses started sweet and got hotter, more intense, the touches more intimate.

His fingers drifted behind my balls to press softly at my entrance. He’d never touched me there before. I pushed against his fingers, looking for pressure.

“Wait,” he murmured and leaned over toward his nightstand. He came back with a bottle of lube and a sheepish smile.

“
You
bought this?”

Erik nodded. “I thought maybe eventually….” I took the lube from Erik and set it on the bed beside us. “What about condoms? Do you want to use them?”

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“Do we have to?”

I shook my head. I knew he was fine (obviously), and I’d been tested a few times since my one stupid night with Natalie all those months ago.

“Then show me what to do. I want it to be good for you.”

“No research?” I tried to tease, but the intense look on his face made it hard to breathe.

Erik smiled. “Lots of research. I just want you to show me how you like it.”

I handed him the lube. “Use some of this, and touch me like you were before. We’ll start there.”

After he slicked up his fingers, the kisses started again, and the touching, and it didn’t take me long to be arching into his fingers and moaning, trying to get him to go inside. I was about to tell him to do it when one long digit breached me slowly. I gasped and then shivered.

“Like that?” he whispered. I could feel the heat rising on the back of my neck. He rubbed his finger up against my prostate, and I choked on a gasp.

“Yeah.”
Oh, hell, I forgot how amazing that feels.
“Just like that.”

“You’re so hot inside,” Erik murmured, his voice filled with awe.

I love you….

I gasped when he pushed harder on my sweet spot. “Another finger, babe, add another one.”

He did, delving in with two of his big, slick fingers. My whole body shivered uncontrollably, like I was coming but somehow not.

God, it felt like I was. The heat flew through me, intense and lightning quick. I was afraid I would lose it without him inside. I didn’t want to come before he was in me. I ground my teeth together and reached down to still his hand.

“I’m ready,” I gasped. “I want you in me now.” Erik paused, his fingers deep inside me. Eyes that had been heavy with passion flew

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open. Poor baby looked a bit scared. I knew I needed to take over. “Lie back.” I smiled at him. “I got this one.”

Erik lay back against his pillows. He was flushed and achingly hard. I knew it wouldn’t be long before he lost it completely. I wasn’t expecting our first time to blow my mind, but it was sweet how much he wanted me. Made me feel a bit unworthy. I took the bottle of lube and poured some into my hand.

“It’ll be a little cold,” I warned him. Then I coated him in the slippery stuff and slung my thigh over his. “Remember, slow. It’s been a long time for me.”

With that I sank, tight inch by tight inch, down his slick shaft until he was all the way inside me.

Erik

TIGHTNESS. Heat. Pressure.
Oh God….

My eyelids fought to slide shut as Rue seated himself completely in my lap. It was so intense I could hardly breathe. So hot and slick and
good
. But it wasn’t just the physical sensation that overwhelmed me.

No, it was so much more.