Playing It Safe

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN


I wake up the next morning naked again, on my stomach and entangled in chocolate-brown bedsheets. Alex’s bedsheets, to be exact. He’s still sleeping with his arm draped across my lower back, a leg thrown over both of mine, and his head on my upper back almost pinning me underneath him. Huh. He’s a cuddler. Interesting.

Oh, yeah. How did I get here?

Well, after the afternoon f*ck-fest in his office, we decided that work was overrated and took the rest of the day off. We drove separately to his house, where we proceeded to get to know each other more intimately. In other words, we continued to screw each other’s brains out—among other things—until the wee hours of the night when my vagina started to go numb on me.

Other things means eating a quick meal at around midnight in his bed. That meal consisted of homemade ice cream sundaes. And I guess I should mention that we ate them off each other’s bodies. Let’s just say Alex really, I mean really, likes his ice cream.

That would explain why, when I try to slide out from underneath him, parts of my body are sticking to the sheets like crazy glue. Here’s the thing about using your body as a dessert plate: it’s sexy and fun while it’s happening, but the ugly truth is that it’s not anywhere near being sexy the next day. It doesn’t help that movies and books have perpetuated this illusion of glamour by having the characters suddenly fresh as a daisy the next day and not at all what you’re really going to be looking and feeling like—one giant hot mess.

Right now my hair is probably a rat’s nest, and from the few clumps I can see fanned out on the pillow, there are some rainbow sprinkles embedded in it that were used as a topping for the sundaes. Tack on to that the rancid morning breath I have brewing in my mouth and the not-so-fresh feeling down south, and I’d say this bright idea is downright disgusting in the light of day and makes you question why the hell you felt the need to lick food off of someone’s body in the first place.

So now what I really need is a Silkwood-quality shower and a toothbrush, pronto.

Don’t get me wrong, I rather enjoy feeling Alex’s warmth all around me first thing in the morning. Especially since he’s holding me under him like he doesn’t want me to get away. It makes this very Grinch-like heart of mine skip a beat or two, to be honest. But if he wakes up and takes one look at me in my current state of dishevelment, he may think he woke up with the actual Grinch instead of me.

First my legs. Ever so slowly I drag them out from underneath him until they are completely free. Next, the upper half of my body. This is way trickier. Carefully, I slide to my left and make it a full inch before I’m forced to stop because a nipple is stuck to the sheet. I have to bite my bottom lip, count to three in my head, and tear it off like a Band-Aid. Here goes nothing.

Dammit, that hurts! The next time you think about doing kinky shit in bed, remember me in this very moment. But so far so good because Alex hasn’t moved and is still sleeping, even though my tit needs a real Band-Aid at this point.

Okay, now I can start sliding again to my left ever so gingerly. It takes me another few moments until I’m finally out from under him. The lower half of my naked body is hanging off the side of the bed and I’m slithering the upper half along nicely when I dare to sneak a peek at him.


His one eye is open and staring back at me, and the side of his face that is visible is smiling wide enough that his dimple is flashing. Now that’s just not fair. He looks absolutely edible and sexy as hell lying there on his stomach with the sheet draped just below his hips to reveal a hint of his ass.

Let me just say that I saw it last night, and it’s perfection. Songs may have been written about his ass, it’s that inspiring.

“What are you doing?” he asks, amused at my current position.

“Trying not to wake you up.”

“I am awake.”

“I can see that,” I say with a smirk. “How long have you been awake?”

“Long enough.”

“Why didn’t you say anything?”

He chuckles. “Because it was far too entertaining watching you try to get out of bed.”

In the distance I hear the familiar opening bars of Diana Ross and Lionel Richie’s “Endless Love.” His brow furrows in confusion while my expression is somewhere along the lines of “the jig is up.” I’m sure it’s Sabrina calling me to find out where I am since I’m missing our weekly Skype session.

“Is it my imagination,” he says, picking his head up, “or is there a really cheesy love song from the eighties playing somewhere in my house?”

“That would be my cell phone.”

“You have that song as a ringtone?” He pauses, looking me over thoughtfully, trying to piece it together on his own. “Who is it?”

“It’s not what you think,” I answer sheepishly with a slight shrug of my shoulder. “It’s Sabrina.”

“Are you going to answer it?”

“Not right now, no.”

“Why not?”

“Because I’d really rather not explain this to her right now,” I say, motioning between us with my hand. The song stops, and I’m positive that she’s leaving me a concerned voice mail wondering where I am.

“Will you be telling her?”

“No … probably … yes,” I admit. “She is my best friend, you know.”

“And what will you tell her exactly?” he asks.

“I haven’t thought that far ahead because all I’m thinking about is getting myself in the shower.”

His playful smile comes back in full force, and he props himself up on his elbows. “Can I join you?”

Looking at him right now has me momentarily speechless; his dirty blond hair is a beautiful mess and has that morning-after-great-sex look, his crystal-blue eyes are sparkling, and his muscular and gorgeous naked body is barely covered by the sheet.

“Julia?”

“What?”

“I thought I lost you for a minute there,” he says, noticing how I spaced out for a second or two.

“Nope, still here. But if you don’t mind, I’d like to shower alone.”

I know. I’m such a Debbie Downer, right?

Alex raises one eyebrow in surprise. “Of course, go ahead. I’ll wait until you’re done.”

“Thanks,” I mumble, because it feels awkward all of a sudden. “Do you mind turning around?”

“What?” he asks incredulously.

“Do you mind turning around? I’m naked.”

“I know. I like it.”

“Alex, on top of being naked, I probably look like Medusa right now.”

His hand darts out and cups the side of my face tenderly. “You have never looked more beautiful to me. And as for the naked thing, you do remember last night, right?”

I blush. Can you believe it? I blush and feel a flutter of butterflies in my stomach remembering some of the things we did last night in this very bed. “So you’re not turning around?”

“Nope,” he says with a boyish grin. He rolls over then and puts one arm behind his head. The sheet somehow continues to cover the bottom half of his body, but the part that I can see is even better in the light of day. Much better.

I roll my eyes, and he laughs at how uncomfortable I obviously am. “Fine. Have it your way.”

With the grace of a bull in a china shop, I flop my legs down until my toes touch the hardwood floor. My palms are facedown on the mattress and ready to shove off the bed at the right time. To the untrained eye, I probably look like I’m about to do some kind of push-ups. What’s strange is I’m normally not timid like this. For some reason with Alex, even though he’s become more than familiar with my body over the course of the last twenty-four hours, I feel incredibly self-conscious.

Just like disengaging my nipple from the sheet, I stand up and start strutting over to the bathroom with all the fake confidence in the world. Alex makes a low whistle of appreciation, and I throw him a deadly look over my shoulder, which only serves to make him laugh as I close the door behind me.

I make quick work of turning on the knobs in his shower, and I step back while waiting for the water to get hot. While I’m waiting, I decide to look for toothpaste to take this god-awful taste out of my mouth.

HOLY SHIT! When did I become Dee Snider from Twisted Sister?

I can’t even bear to look at myself in the mirror for too long, that’s how scary I look. Jesus. And he thinks I look beautiful like this? It might be time for Alex to get his eyes checked. My eyes scan the sink area until I find the tube of toothpaste. I squirt some on my finger and use it to brush my teeth quickly before turning around and stepping into the shower.

It’s just what I needed.

Not wanting to take too much time in here, I shampoo and use his bodywash—no conditioner because he’s a man and doesn’t understand the importance of it—and stand under the streams of hot water hitting me from every angle due to the multiple shower heads for a few more minutes before turning it off. I squeeze out the excess water from my hair before opening the glass door, and then I grab the nearest towel to dry off. After I wrap it around me, I step back into the bedroom to find Alex in the exact position I left him in.

A small smile is playing at the corners of his mouth—just enough for him to look impossibly sexy and irresistible. I can’t believe I’m thinking what I’m thinking right now. My freshly scrubbed clean body is wondering the same thing. Even my vagina is in disbelief since I just started to regain feeling down there.

To hell with it. You only live once, right?

I slink over to the foot of the bed, holding up a towel that barely covers me. Alex goes to move, but I raise my hand and wag my finger at him. “Don’t move.”

He settles back to his previous position of sitting up against the padded headboard. His erection is already straining underneath the sheet, and it brings a rush of warmth between my legs. When my eyes come back to his face, he smiles unabashedly at the fact that he’s ready, willing, and able before he drops his vision to my hand holding up the towel.

“You sure you want to get all dirty again?” he asks, his voice thick with desire.

I answer him by dropping the towel, letting it pool around my feet and allowing him to get a good long look at every inch of my body. Placing one knee on the bed, then the other, I start crawling my way to him. When I reach his chest, my tongue starts a trail from the smattering of light hair below his navel all the way up to his right nipple. I take it in my mouth and suck hard before releasing it. The taste of him is so very familiar now as my tongue swirls across it once more and I keep licking my way up to his neck.

I’m straddling him but still perched on my knees when he wraps my wet hair around his hand and pulls back roughly, forcing me to look at him, bringing his mouth to within a breath of mine. We’re both breathing heavily; his eyes are a darker shade of blue and full of lust.


“You didn’t answer my question,” he whispers. “Are you sure you want to get dirty again?”

“Absolutely filthy.”

I dart my tongue out to lick his bottom lip, and a low moan escapes him. My God, that moan of his is enough to kill me. Death by ridiculously hot sex with Alex, what a way to go. He kicks the sheets lower and completely off of him. His cock is perched at my entrance, but instead of impaling myself with it, which takes an unbelievable amount of control on my part, I take it in my hand and start rubbing it against my *.

Alex’s hand tightens in my hair as the friction intensifies. “Make yourself come for me,” he growls against my mouth.

I’m good at directions too, for all of you keeping score at home.

Using Alex’s dick, sliding it up and down and all over the intended target has me on the verge already. What makes it even more intense is watching him watch me while I do it. His eyes burn through me as I use his body to fulfill my need.

“Alex, God, I’m so close.”

He takes my bottom lip between his teeth and then sucks on it with the perfect amount of pressure. When he lets go, he swipes his tongue across it slowly. “After you make yourself come, I’m going to f*ck the shit out of you.”

And that’s all it takes. Seriously. He barely gets the words “of you” out of his mouth before I’m shattering into a million pieces and panting his name out loud.

He cups my face in his hand and ravages my mouth with his, our tongues dancing to a rhythm all their own while my body comes down from its high. When we break off the kiss, our foreheads rest against each other’s.

“You’re so f*cking beautiful when you come, Julia.”

His whispered words make me feel all warm and gooey inside, but I don’t have time to dwell on it. He hugs me to him as he sits up and starts moving us to the side of the bed with my legs wrapped around him until his feet are on the floor. I climb off of him and go to stand, but he stops me.

“Get on your hands and knees on the bed,” he instructs me, his voice laced with authority and hunger.

After I arrange myself like he wants me to, I look over my shoulder at him poised behind me, slowly stroking himself. I bite my lip and watch as he settles himself into position and takes hold of my waist before thrusting into me without any mercy. He keeps plowing into me, over and over, setting an unforgiving pace of straight-up, balls-to-the-wall f*cking, and God how I love it.

I throw my head back and meet him thrust for thrust. I grip my hands like a vise onto the ice-cream-stained sheets when I feel his hand skim down my spine until he reaches my waist. The next thing I know he smacks my ass with his open palm. Not hard, but hard enough that it stings for a second. At first I’m shocked, but I have to admit, it feels so good that I want more.

“Do it again,” I say through clenched teeth and look over my shoulder at him. His brow furrows in concentration, and he draws his hand back and slaps me again, this time a little harder.

He slaps me one more time, not any harder than the last time, but the lingering sting is beyond pleasurable, and mixed with his cock slamming into me, it’s the perfect combination. Alex grabs hold of my hair in a tight fist and grips my waist tightly with the other hand. I can’t believe it, but I’m going to come again, and hopefully I get to before he does because I know he’s close.

He yanks my hair back and drapes his body over my back. His mouth hovers over my ear when he says, “Hold on, baby.”

Alex lets loose behind me and turns it up a notch. When he reaches around with his hand to start rubbing my *, I lose myself in a blinding orgasm, and not a second too soon either, because he follows closely behind me. His movements slow down until he pulls out entirely and wraps his arm around my waist and drops down beside me on the bed. I’m already flat on my stomach when I turn my head to find him staring right back at me with a pleased look on his face.

He leans forward and kisses my temple while his fingers trace my back delicately. So different from the sex-crazed Alex from a moment ago. But I like it, a lot. I could get used to this, whatever this is.

“You’re dirty again,” he points out.

“I know, but it was totally worth it.”

He lightly chuckles. “You’re not so bad yourself.”

I yawn and stretch my limbs before propping myself up on my elbows. “I need to shower again and maybe take a nap. And not for nothing, but you really need to wash these sheets.”

“I will,” he says and places a kiss on my shoulder. “After we get out of the shower.”

“We?” I ask with a raised eyebrow.

“Yes, we. I earned it.” He sits up and drags my tired body along with him as he pulls us up to standing. “Let’s go, sleepyhead.”

“I’m not sleepy,” I say through another yawn, causing him to laugh. “You should take it as a compliment.”

“Trust me, I do,” he says proudly. “But I’d like you to stay awake a little longer. You never know what could happen in the shower.”

“Fine. I’ll stay awake.”

When we start walking toward the bathroom, he lightly slaps my ass in the same spot as before, and I rub my cheek to soothe it.

“Hey! What was that for?”

“Just making sure you stay awake,” he says, and winks before ducking into the bathroom ahead of me.

I follow closely behind, thinking to myself about how many personalities Alex seems to have. There’s at-work Alex, friend Alex, sex-crazed Alex, tender Alex, and now this, this carefree and fun Alex. All of them add up to one hell of a man, and I’m starting to think that maybe I didn’t really know him at all before. That this Alex that I’m slowly getting to know is more than I gave him credit for and definitely more than I ever could have hoped for.

Stop it, Julia. Don’t get your hopes up. Something always goes wrong.

Huh? Where the hell did that come from? Jesus, I need to get a grip and stop thinking the worst is always around the corner.

“Are you coming in?” Alex asks, breaking me out of my thoughts.

Sweet Jesus.

I can now add soaking wet Alex to the list, and I have to say, it’s probably my favorite out of all of them.