I resist fanning my face.
“It sounds like your prolonged emotional distance led to your reunion being quite … intense.”
“You could say that.” We couldn’t get enough of each other. It was thrilling.
“And then?”
“And then…” I look down at my hands. “We had to stop being alone and start being around other people.”
“And that was a problem?”
“It was the start of our problems, yes.”
On Sunday night, we know our little cocoon can’t last much longer. We have to shower soon and get get ready to pick up Ruby from the airport. She doesn’t know we’re back together. I can only imagine how thrilled she’s going to be. Also, classes start back tomorrow, so Ethan has to sleep in his own bed tonight.
All the bits of reality we’ve been ignoring are starting to press their pointy edges into our delicate bubble.
I’m tense. It’s quite an accomplishment given the number of orgasms I’ve experienced this weekend.
I press myself against him and, I listen to his heartbeat.
“What are we going to do tomorrow?”
“What do you mean?”
“At school.”
His heart rate stays reasonably steady. I’m surprised. I trace a pattern on his chest. He hovers his hand over mine, fingertips brushing my knuckles.
“Well, call me crazy, but I thought we might go to class. You know … learn stuff. Get good at acting. Perhaps even graduate.”
“You know what I mean.”
He rolls me under him and frames my face with his hands. He’s heavy, but I like the weight. It’s somehow reassuring. Like he’s all here and not half somewhere else.
“Well, if you’re asking if I think we should hide that we’re together, then no. I want every guy at that school to know. Maybe then they’ll stop sniffing around like a bunch of horny mongrels.”
“No one sniffs around me,” I say as I stroke his back.
He snorts. “Sure they don’t.”
“Who?”
He kisses my cheek. My jaw. My neck. “Everyone. Every prick-wielding cock jockey at that school wants a piece of you. Lucas, Avery, Boring Nick, that weird kid that looks like Matt Damon. They’re always making comments they think I don’t hear. And don’t even get me started on fucking Connor—”
“Oh, I see.”
He stops kissing me. “What?”
“This is about Connor.”
He kisses back up from my neck to my face. “He’s a douchebag.”
“No, he’s not. He’s never made sexual comments about me.”
“Exactly. That’s the problem.”
He leans on his elbow and brushes my hair away from my face. “I can cope with all those other dicks talking about how much they want to sleep with you, because that’s all it is: talk. But Bain? That asshole doesn’t just want to bang you. He wants more. He genuinely likes you.”
He says it with so much disdain, I laugh. “That bastard! I can see why you hate him so much.”
He smiles and shakes his head. “Oh, you can laugh, but every time you talk, he gets a sappy expression on his face that makes me want to punch him. He’s crushing on you big-time, and I swear to God, he needs to stop.”
He goes quiet, but I see the cogs of his brain turning. I trace his eyebrows, trying to get them to unfurrow.
“Ethan, I’m not interested in Connor. I’m interested in you.”
It feels strange to reassure him. It used to come so easily to me, but now the words scrape like sandpaper in my throat. Still, it must work because his attention is now fully back on me.
He lifts an eyebrow. “How interested?”
He cups my breast. Gently rubs his thumb across the nipple.
I inhale, quick and shallow.
“Very.”
It’s getting hard to breathe. He does this so easily, it’s scary.
He bends to kiss the swell in his hand. Soft lips. Open mouth. “Tell me again how much you missed me over the summer.”
I try to form words. “I missed you a lot.” Too much. Don’t make me regret it.
The other breast isn’t forgotten. He’s just as gentle there. “On a scale of one to touching yourself and picturing my face?”
“It was up there.” I grip his hair, needing more.
“How high?” He adds teeth. Just a little. Just enough.
I arch, and my voice is tight as I say, “It hovered around I-missed-you-so-much-I-renamed-Buzz-Ethan.”
He comes back up to my face. “Good. Just the right amount, then.”
I kiss him, and he pushes between my legs as he breathes hard against my lips.
“Do you see what you do me?”
He kisses me, deep and slow, then moves down to where my neck meets my shoulder.
“I’m thinking if I use my tongue in exactly the right way, I can give you a hickey that reads, ‘Cassie belongs to Ethan. Step the fuck off.’”
He starts sucking, and I squeal. “Ethan Robert Holt! Don’t you dare give me a hickey!”
“Shhh. I need to concentrate to get this right.”
“Ethan!”
He sighs and rolls off me, and I laugh when I see the massive tent that is now formed above his crotch.