One Night With Her Best Friend (5 page)

She
reached up, tangling her fingers in his disheveled hair and then pulling his
face down so she could kiss him. As they kissed, he started to move above her,
inside her, building a steady rhythm that she couldn’t help but match with her
hips.

As
their hungry motion intensified, the kiss fell apart. Kate arched her neck and
closed her eyes, focusing on her building need, while Aaron lowered his face to
the crook of her neck as the speed of his thrusting accelerated.

“Kate.
Kate. This is what I want.”

Her
heart and her body felt so good she couldn’t help but whimper in pleasure. “I
want it too.”

His
motion above her was hard, steady, almost primal. “This is what I want.”

She’d
never imagined Aaron would be like this in bed. So fierce and passionate. She’d
never imagined him in bed at all.

“Me
too. Me too. So good.” She clawed at the back of his shoulders as she felt a
climax tightening. She pumped her hips shamelessly, trying to get as much
friction as she could.

She
cried out as the orgasm crested.

He
groaned as she shuddered beneath him. When he froze for a moment, she thought
he would come too.

But
he didn’t. Even as she came down from climax, he started his rhythmic thrusting
again, repositioning himself slightly.

“Oh
God, Aaron,” she rasped, her body torn between sated exhaustion and renewed
desire. She’d never felt like this before—like this was all she needed but like
she could never get enough.

His
eyes held hers as they moved together. He was obviously enjoying this. He was
obviously totally into it. But she knew him so well—better than anyone else.

And
she suddenly realized something.

Lifting
her hand to cup his cheek, she murmured, “Aaron, why are you holding back?”

His
motion faltered briefly, but he didn’t respond.

He
didn’t have to.

“I
want this. I want
you
. Please don’t hold anything back.”

He
closed his eyes to mask whatever his expression would have revealed, but something
changed when he stared down at her again. He straightened his arms and braced
himself above her before he started to move in a different, rougher rhythm.

It
might have been what he needed, but it was what she needed too. He thrust into
her hard and fast, and the pleasure rose until it was almost unbearable. She
kept trying to get her legs higher around his back, and every adjustment made
it even better.

Soon,
Aaron was grunting as he drove into her, and she was crying out in silly,
shameless sounds. She wasn’t usually so uninhibited, but she couldn’t seem to
keep quiet. Everything was too good, too deep, too much.

“Gonna
come again,” she mumbled as she felt the pleasure rising. “Gonna…gonna…”

“Come,”
he grunted, his face damp with perspiration and a wild, hot look in his eyes.

She
came then with a sound like a sob. She clawed lines down his back as she tried
to process the feelings, and the pleasure was finally easing when Aaron froze on
a rough sound for just a moment. She was aware enough to watch as his face
twisted helplessly. Then his motion fell out of rhythm completely as he let
everything go.

She’d
never seen anything like it—like the sight of Aaron’s release. It was just as
overwhelming to her as her own climax.

She
gasped in pleasure as she felt his release inside her. Then gasped with a
different kind of pleasure as his elbows buckled and he collapsed on top of
her.

She
wrapped her arms around his hot, relaxed body, loving the feel of it, loving
how fully he’d let go.

She
felt him mouth at her neck almost clumsily, as if he didn’t have energy for
concentration or even to lift his head. His bristles were scratchy against her
skin. His body was so hot it seemed to burn her.

He
was Aaron. For fourteen years, she’d loved and trusted him more than anyone
except her mother. She’d thought she’d known him in every way.

But
she’d never known him like this.

Kate didn’t think she fell
asleep, but a few minutes later she was groggy and disoriented, as if she’d
dozed off.

She
was hot, cramped, and just a little sore—and after a minute she registered it was
because Aaron was still lying on top of her.

He
breathed deeply, slowly. She could feel every inhale as his chest pressed
against hers, every exhale as his breath blew against the skin of her neck.

When
they were sixteen, they’d stayed up until dawn one night watching the entire
first season of a sci-fi show. Kate’s mother had been working a night shift at
the hospital, and when she got home she’d been very upset over finding them
both asleep on the couch. Kate and Aaron had been embarrassed and awkward at
the time, but afterwards they’d laughed hysterically at the idea of doing
anything naughty together.

So
many years ago now.

Aaron
wasn’t that same boy anymore. He was a man now. A man who’d made her feel more
pleasure than she’d ever experienced before.

Not
the boy—her best friend—anymore.

A
slice of panic ripped through her chest at the recognition, and she inhaled
harshly in response.

Aaron
hadn’t said a word since he’d come, but now he raised himself up on
straightened arms to look down on her. His eyes were steel grey again in the
dim light of his living room. They were strangely urgent. Intense in a way that
didn’t match the sated languor of his body.

“Are
you all right?” he asked quietly.

She
wasn’t all right. Since she’d been fifteen years old, her world had been neatly
arranged with everything clearly and safely in its place, the only way to
prevent the chaos and instability of her early years. Aaron had always been
part of that life—the good life she and her mother had built away from her
father.

If
you had something good, you didn’t risk it. Not in thoughtless surrender to a
momentary impulse.

In
a momentary impulse twelve years ago, her mother had accepted her father back
into their lives, and they’d almost lost their good, secure world as a result.

In
a momentary impulse an hour ago, Kate might have destroyed everything good and
secure she’d had with Aaron.

She
wanted to push him away and run, but she couldn’t bear to hurt his feelings that
way.

She
still loved him more than anyone else.

“Yeah.”
Her voice cracked, despite her attempts to hide her panic. “I just need to go
to the bathroom.”

He
heaved himself up to let her out from under his weight, and she stumbled as she
scrambled off the couch.

She
could still feel him inside her. The length and breadth of him. The gush of his
release.

She
grabbed her dress from the couch. She’d somehow ended up lying on top of it,
and the dress had suffered the consequences.  She pulled it on over her head as
she walked to the bathroom so she wouldn’t be naked.

She
tried to move normally but utterly failed.

She
could feel Aaron’s eyes on her as she turned the corner to the hallway.

Then
she ran the last few steps to the bathroom, locking the door behind her.

She
started to clean herself up, but it wasn’t enough, so she turned the shower on
hot, peeled her dress back off, and step beneath the spray.

The
sight of his soap and shampoo—the kind he’d used for the last fourteen years—tightened
a sob in her throat.

Things
could never go back to the way they had been. Aaron could never again be who
he’d been to her all these years. Her life might never fall back into place.

And
it was her fault. For being weak. For being stupid. For turning to him selfishly
because she’d been needy and insecure. For turning their friendship into
something it wasn’t.

She
started to sob for real, her body shaking so violently she had to bend at the
waist, the hot water pounding down on her back.

She
stifled the sounds as much as she could, although the effort seemed to crack
her chest. She didn’t want Aaron to hear.

It
took her a while until she pulled herself together, and she didn’t turn the
shower off until she had.

She
dried herself off with a clean towel, which had been haphazardly folded with
several others on a shelf. The clothes Aaron had worn to work were strewn on
the bathroom floor. She was always picking up after him. Sometimes, when he got
too busy or distracted, she’d do his laundry for him.

Instinctively,
she picked up a slate blue dress shirt so it wouldn’t get any more wrinkled
than it already was. She lifted it to her face. It didn’t smell bad. In fact,
it smelled warm and pleasant—like Aaron.

“Kate?”

Her
throat tightened dangerously at the sound of his familiar, worried tone. “Just
a second.”

She
thought she’d sounded natural, but evidently he wasn’t fooled.

“Please
don’t be upset all by yourself in there. We can talk about it.”

“I
know.” Her voice cracked in a way she hated. Why the hell did he always have to
be so thoughtful? Why was he always able to read her so well? “I just need to
get dressed.”

“Okay.”

She
had to fight off the impulse to cry again as she pulled her dress over her
head. It smelled like sex and made her stomach ache, but she didn’t have
anything else to wear.

She
wasn’t the kind of person to fall apart like this. She could always make a plan
and fix things.

Maybe
there was some way to get their lives back into order without losing what
they’d always had.

She
towel-dried and finger-combed her hair as best she could. Her bra and panties
were still in the living room somewhere. The memory of Aaron’s taking them off made
her face flush hot.

When
she came out, she found him sitting on the sofa, staring down at the floor.

He’d
pulled on his t-shirt and pants but still looked like he’d just rolled out of
bed. His hair stuck out in all directions, and he desperately needed to shave.

And
she wanted him. Viscerally. She
wanted
him. Not just in her life but in
her bed. In her body. Again.

She
couldn’t look at him like a friend anymore.

Her
face crumpled at the realization.

Aaron
had looked up as she entered so he saw her reaction. “It’s not that bad,” he
murmured.

“Yes,
it is.” Her knees were suddenly weak, so she hurried over to sit on the hard
chair in the seating group. She couldn’t sit beside him on the couch—not after
what they’d just done there.

“No,
it’s not.” Aaron’s voice was calm, controlled, utterly natural. His eyes met
hers evenly. “It was sex. Just sex. It doesn’t have to change things. It doesn’t
have to matter.”

She
gaped at him, bewildered and now irrationally hurt that what meant so much to
her apparently didn’t mean anything to him.

Evidently
he could fuck her and just forget it—like she was any other woman.

She
couldn’t let him see her reaction, though. Not if they were ever going to get
through this. “Okay. It was just sex. It didn’t mean anything. That’s fine then.”

She
took a shuddering breath as she stood up and then leaned over to pick up her
bra and panties. She had to get out of here soon.

“Come
on, Kate—I didn’t mean it like that. I just meant—“

She
couldn’t let him finish. She walked out of his apartment before he’d finished
his sentence.

When
she crossed the hall to her apartment, she locked the door behind her. It was a
good thing, too, since Aaron started pounding on it a few seconds later.

“Kate,
let me in.”

His
outraged tone made her want to cry again, but this time she didn’t indulge it.
Ruthlessly, she stifled the emotion.

Needing
to do something constructive—when there was absolutely nothing constructive to
do—she pulled on a pair of clean underwear, an oversized t-shirt, and a pair of
yoga pants and then took her wrinkled dress, bra, and panties to the closet
with her stackable washer and dryer.

She
turned the washer to the delicate cycle and started the water. She checked the
tag in the dress to make sure it was washable—although she already knew it was—and
then just stared blindly as water filled up the basin.

She
wasn’t surprised when she heard a key in her front door. They’d always walked
into each other’s apartments without invitation. There was no reason to assume
that would change now.

She
was adding expensive detergent to the water when Aaron found her, but she
didn’t turn to look at him. She just put her clothes into the water, wishing
she could wash away the entire night.

She
sensed a strange, tense vibe to the way he watched her, but she couldn’t turn
to check his expression.