“Sweet Hell,” I said as I stepped back from the door.
She stepped in, smiling tentatively. She walked to the center of the room, turning in a circle and crossing her arms on her chest nervously. “You flunked the test,” she said quietly.
I smiled, stepping up to her, and I pulled her arms apart. “But did I pass you?”
She watched me for a moment, but she nodded. “Yes,” she whispered.
I leaned down, kissing her forehead. When I pulled back, I started undressing. Her eyes bulged for a moment, but she watched. I slipped my T-shirt off over my head, fishing the tie through the neck opening and leaving it on. Her lips pulled up at that, but then she was too busy biting her lower lip to smile when I undid the button and lowered the zipper of my jeans. I pushed them down along with my underwear, and I kicked them off to the side.
I reached for the wide belt on her dress, unbuckling it as she watched, and I tossed it on top of my clothes before trailing my hands back to the zipper and lowering it. I undid her bra, and as I pulled the straps over her shoulders, I caught the dress as well and lowered it down to the floor. She stepped out of it, and I scooped it up quickly and tossed it aside. I walked to the fireplace and grabbed the corsage that was sitting on the hearth. It was made up of small yellow flowers. I had no idea what kind they were, but they were yellow. That’s all that mattered.
When I turned back toward her, her eyes were studying my ass, and I chuckled as her attention quickly shifted up to my face. She saw the corsage in my hands, and she swallowed over a lump. Her lips trembled for a moment, and then she clamped them closed.
I leaned to her ear when I reached her. “I want my homecoming dance with my homecoming date.”
She nodded, and her fingers clutched at my waist. When I pulled back, she had tears in her eyes. It was just a teary-eye sort of day. That wasn’t terribly shocking. What was shocking was that she was still here. I was putting my Hell through hell, but she was hanging tight right there with me to the end. I ran my thumb under her eye, brushing away a tear, and then I kneeled in front of her. I slipped my fingers through the elastic wrist band of the corsage, and I opened it wide enough to slip over her slim wrist. As my hand slid the corsage in place, my mouth kissed her stomach, and my other hand inched her underwear down her hips.
The moment the corsage was on, I used both hands to slide her underwear the rest of the way down as my mouth kept kissing her lower belly. Her fingers stroked through my hair, and when I glanced up at her, she was watching me. I helped her step out of her underwear, and I tossed them aside as I stood back up.
I turned back to the fireplace again, and I grabbed my cell phone. “I searched on popular songs from back in the day,” I admitted as I pulled up my iTunes. “And I picked the most appropriate ones for us.”
Her lips pulled up sweetly.
“We now have our very own homecoming playlist.”
“What’s on our playlist?” she asked quietly as she twisted her fingers together demurely in front of her.
“Well … only four songs actually. The Reason by Hoobastank—”
“You always said their name sucked,” she interrupted.
I chuckled quietly. “Their name does suck.” I smirked. “The second one is If You’re Not the One by Daniel Bedingfield. If I recall you used to love that song.”
Her smile widened. “And I recall you saying his voice was too high.”
I bobbled my head as I hit play and set the phone back down. “I used to be a bit of a dick.” I smirked. “Then I searched for that lullaby you were singing Sienna, downloaded it which of course brought me to By Your Side by Sade too, so I had to add that one to the list as well. I’ve been very busy,” I said as I pulled her into my arms.
The sound of the most poorly named musical group in all of history filled the living room. I reached for Helene’s cheeks and held her face still as I looked down at her. Her hands gripped my lower back. The dancing aspect ended up lost on us when I got busy staring at her eyes before I’d even taken a step and her hands found my butt cheeks. We stood there staring at one another, and her palms moved over my buttocks, her fingertips grazing gently down between my cheeks.
My eyes didn’t leave hers for the entirety of the first three songs, and her fingers ran gentle, soft trails over my backside and lower back. But when By Your Side came on last, her teeth gritted, her lips trembled, and she lowered her forehead to my chest. The words of the song were a bit too perfect not to cause some reaction, and I gave Helene a few seconds to recover before I pulled her chin up to look at me. My eyes teared too as I watched her struggle, and she shook her head in what looked like frustration as she smiled and Sade sang to us.
“Tell me you’re not leaving,” she whispered.
My brow furrowed, and I shook my head. “You know I can’t do that—”