Chronicles of a Serial Dater - Book 3: A New Adult Romantic Comedy (6 page)

Working with him from a distance was much easier than face-to-face. Fewer opportunities for me to put my foot in my mouth. He was busy in California trying to organize a new TV show idea, so our conversations were mostly email and voicemail exchanges. Okay, so what if I listened to his messages more times than necessary just so I could hear his accent? That doesn’t prove anything.

Sneaking around with Zach was far more fun than I thought it’d be. After our first afternoon on Monday, we’d managed to slip in a quickie on Wednesday and Thursday night. The sex had only gotten better the more comfortable I felt around him but that came with its own set of problems. We were becoming too familiar with each other and sometimes forgot ourselves when Anette was around. While we were watching TV one night in our apartment, I casually threw my legs over his lap, something I’d never done before. I’m not sure how long we’d been lounging like that when Anette pushed up from her spot on the floor and stared.

“Umm, you feeling okay? You get a cramp in your calf there lady?” she had asked, nodding to my legs.

Of course, I picked the absolute worst way to react and yanked my legs back like I’d been caught acting naughty. “No, I…”

Zach was quick to recover, turning the whole moment into a joke. “Why you gotta be like that? You know I have a thing for toes,” he whispered, grabbing for my feet again.

I squealed with laughter as Anette rolled her eyes. “Perving on your friends like that. Shame on you, Zachariah Richard Kesner.”

“My middle name isn’t Richard,” he said, leaning forward to grab his drink from the table.

“No? That’s weird. You definitely have some dick in you.”

When she was distracted by the TV, he’d leaned close to my ear and whispered, “You need a little dick in you?”

Smiling at the memory, I pushed the blankets away and sat at my desk. The sleepy state between waking up and my first cup of coffee was usually my most honest. I had a lot of thoughts about my one-month anniversary of jumping into the dating world again and wanted to get them out unfiltered.

I had a quick read through my post, snickering at the nickname I’d given Zach. Mr. Magic Tongue. I thought he’d appreciate that if he ever discovered the blog, God forbid. I hit publish, checked the blog dashboard, and thought my site had been hacked. There were over thirty comments waiting to be approved and if my social stats were to be believed, one specific post had been shared over six hundred times.

With a mixture of apprehension and excitement, I dug into the data and discovered my post about Mr. Make Me Your Bitch had been picked up by a relatively famous blogger.

“Chronicles of a Serial Dater is an honest look at what it’s really like for women to date in the age of Tinder. Long forgotten are the days of courtship, of wooing, of waiting to learn each other’s last name before exchanging bodily fluids or discussing our deepest, darkest kinks. Yeah, okay, if you want to go on there just to get laid, more power to you. But some of us need a little priming before that engine gets purring. The writing is fantastic, the dates are hilariously scary, and if any single ladies out there need a little commiseration, you’ve found your new home.”

I let out a little squeal of excitement. “She likes my writing. Holy shit!”

It was incredible. My post was being shared, liked, Tweeted, tagged… you name it, a complete stranger had done it. I’d started the blog for my own mental health. There’s no way I could’ve continued going on such horrible dates if I hadn’t created a place for me to vent about my new single life. When it began to garner a little attention here and there, I figured that was the nature of publishing online. Someone somewhere was bound to find it. But for it to be shared like this was a whole new thing altogether.

Feeling absolutely on top of the world, I bounded out into the living room hoping to find Anette, forgetting she was already at work. I had to tell
someone
but at the same time, didn’t want anyone to actually know. So I did the next best thing.

I knelt down in front of Pluto, his little ears perking up as he sniffed for hidden treats. I gave him a good two-handed scratch all over as I whispered conspiratorially. “My blog is famous, Pluto. But you can’t tell anyone.” He pressed his cold nose into my hands and snuffed when he realized I wasn’t going to feed him.

It was good Anette wasn’t home. It gave me a chance to dial back the excitement and remember I’d kept the blog a secret for a reason. After a cup of coffee and a long think, I still needed to share it with my friends but at least I’d come up with a clever way of doing it.

I sent a quick message to Anette and Lourdes, linking to the famous blogger’s post and not directly to my blog. I trusted that I’d been careful enough with my code names. Plus, I didn’t think either of them would actually read the entire thing let alone dig even further.

“You have to check this out. Freakin’ hilarious!”

Zach pushed the hair from my eyes, his palm resting on my cheek for a few moments. His gaze was earnest and tender. I wrapped my arm around his neck and pulled him closer, burying my face into the crook of his shoulder. He sank into me as far as my body allowed and rested there. Almost involuntarily, my pussy tightened around him, eliciting a moan from his throat.

“Christ, that feels amazing,” he whispered, his lips against my skin.

“Don’t slow down, I’m close,” I breathed back.

With a grunt, he continued with a growing pace, each thrust of his cock building the pressure deep inside my core. He swirled his hips, grinding against my clit with his own pelvis. My breathing shallowed as I drew closer to the brink. Zach pushed to his elbows and watched me as I came, his tempo increasing. Only when the crescendo of my own began to fade did he allow himself to finish. He gathered me into his arms, holding me close to his body as he tensed.

After we took a minute to recover, he slipped from me and walked naked across the room to dispose of the condom. It was always these few minutes just after sex that were the strangest. It was almost like there were two versions of him now. There was Sexy Zach, Mr. Magic Tongue but after our session ended, he immediately flipped over to Friend Zach again. And the period in between while his dick was still a little hard and I could smell his sweat on my skin, left me vulnerable. And what do I do when I’m feeling like that? Ramble to fill the silence, of course.

I pulled my top on as he walked back into the bedroom, his cock bouncing with every step. “You aren’t at all what I thought you’d be like in bed,” I said.

“No?” He flopped down on the side of the bed, seemingly uninterested in clothing himself and happy to lay there naked. He held his head in his hand as he watched me get dressed.

“I don’t know what I expected since I never thought of you like that, but…” I stood to pull up my shorts and sat back down on the bed facing him. “I don’t know how to put this nicely.”

“Oh man, that doesn’t sound good,” he laughed. “Go on, I can take it.”

“I didn’t expect you to be so… good. No, not
good,”
I quickly corrected. “Caring? Thoughtful? No, that’s not any better,” I muttered, starting to get flustered at how badly I was flubbing this compliment.

His eyebrows rose as he let me stumble over my words. “No, it’s fine. It’s difficult trying to find a nice way of saying you assumed I’d be a selfish lover. It’s cool. Take your time.”

“That’s not it,” I protested, throwing the blanket over his waist to cover his groin. “I just…” He poked me in the side and I fell down beside him with a sigh. “You know what I mean.”

“I do,” he conceded softly. “It’s my version of the bait and switch. Girls think a guy as smart and handsome as me can’t possibly be good in bed, I get it.”

“What did you think I’d be like?” I asked thoughtfully. In all the time we’d been fooling around together, we hadn’t actually talked about it as friends.

Zach shifted a little uncomfortably. “I don’t know. I mean, it’s not like I ever thought about it either. But, yeah. You’re fine.”

“I’m fine,” I replied flatly. “Fine.”

He laughed and sat up, resting his back against the wall. “What? What do you want me to say? I’m shocked that sweet little Talia can suck cock like a pro?”

“I can?” I cried too loudly. “Really? I never thought I was that good at it.”

“What you might lack in skill you more than make up for in enthusiasm,” he replied with a smirk. “And if you want to practice, I’m always available.” He pulled the blanket away to flash his package.

I grabbed a pillow and slapped it over his lap, Zach fake grunting in the process. “What else? Rate me! How good am I in bed?”

“Uh-oh,” he muttered, grabbing the pillow. He started toying with the corners, pulling them into hand holds before swinging it around like a backpack.

“What the hell are you doing?” I giggled.

“Getting my parachute ready ‘cause I’m bailing out of this conversation,” he said as he leaned over the side of the bed.

“Come on, please?” I whined. “I would rather hear it from you than go on for the next couple years doing something wrong.”

Zach dropped the pillow and became more serious. “You’re amazing in bed and any man who says otherwise doesn’t know what the hell he’s talking about.”

I frowned, picking at invisible dirt under my nails. “Really? Cause Kevin used to say…”

“Kevin is a little man-child. He cheated on then dumped the best girl in the world, so I wouldn’t trust his opinion,” he spat angrily. He glanced up at me, his eyes almost golden in the light. I was surprised to see him embarrassed. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to…”

I gave him a wet kiss on the cheek before flinging my arms over his neck. “No, that was exactly what I needed to hear right now. What Kevin did really knocked my confidence. I trust you.”

His strong arm wrapped around my waist and pulled me closer, half shifting my weight onto his lap. I could feel a certain part twitch below. “Seriously? Again?”

He gave his lower lip a long lick as he let his gaze fall to my own mouth. “All this talk about how good you are in bed has me thinking… things…”

“You’re insatiable,” I laughed, pushing away from his grasp. “I’m gonna die of exhaustion. I’ve gone so long without sex, it must be bad for me to go on such a big binge. I already feel like I’m walking bowlegged.”

“Only one way to find out,” he growled as he pushed me onto my back. With a smooth and sexy move, he climbed over me, straddling my hips. Within seconds, he was nipping at the tender skin on my neck and kneading a breast with one hand.

“Really, I can’t. I might have a date tonight and if I go again, I won’t be able to later,” I said, almost convincing myself. Truth was, it didn’t take a lot of persuasion to get me into bed with him.

But Zach’s kisses on my neck paused. He lifted his hips and stared down at me. “Tonight? You have a date tonight?”

I frowned at his reaction. “Well, yeah. It’s no big deal. Just a Tinder guy I’ve been talking to here and there.”

“Ah.” He slid from my body, physically deflating as he began to get dressed.

A sense of foreboding sunk into my stomach, like I’d done something wrong but didn’t know what. “What? Zach, what is it?”

“Nothing, it’s fine,” he replied with a weak smile.

“We still can if you want to.”

He snorted. “Come on, it’s not like I’m gonna pressure you or anything.”

I touched his shoulder, leaning in with concern. “You’re still going on dates, right? Wasn’t there a girl you were seeing pretty regularly?”