I barely registered him coming — I was too high from what he’d done to me — but I could feel his fingers in my hair, the sting as he pulled, exposing my neck, making a space to bury his head as his body rocked, slamming into me with a guttural noise that made what was left of my insides turn into mush.
All I could hear was my panting and the thundering of my heart in my ears, a steady da-dum that matched the feeling of Bodie’s heartbeat against my breasts. I was surrounded by him — his arms bracketing my head, his face in the curve of my neck, his fingers threading into my hair, his body pressing me into the bed — and it was absolutely and utterly glorious.
It was the feeling I lived for, everything I wanted. Who needed love when you could just have the good? The rush, the easy rightness of being together without demand? Love only complicated things, weighing down the good until the high was gone. I never wanted the high to end.
After a little while, he shifted his face to kiss my neck, sending a warm tingle up to my ear and down to my nipple like some sort of sorcery. I smiled out of sheer instinct from the sensation, bending my neck to press my cheek to his head.
“Mmm,” he rumbled.
I clenched around him, still inside of me, and he twitched in answer.
“Seriously, where have you been hiding?” My voice was rough and lazy against his ear.
Bodie kissed my skin again. “LA. I’ve only been here a week.”
He twisted, rolling us onto our sides so he could pull out, leaving me empty. I didn’t like it, not one bit.
“What brought you?” I asked, propping my head on my hand to admire his back as he turned away.
He sat on the edge of the bed and cleaned himself up. “I got laid off.”
“Oh God. I’m sorry.”
He smiled over his shoulder at me. “Don’t be. That just made the move about a hundred times more worthwhile.”
I smirked as he lay back down next to me, mirroring my posture. “So, what did you do?”
“I was a software engineer for a start-up that was bought out. They canned all of us and replaced us with their own people.”
I chuckled, my eyes raking over his gorgeous face, his massive body. “You don’t look like a computer geek.”
He laughed at that. “Maybe not now, but back in my Diddle days, you wouldn’t have thought twice.”
“True. I still can’t get over it. I can’t even see Diddle in there.”
“You sure?”
He leaned a little closer, smiling that brilliant smile of his that forced the sexiest dimple I’d ever seen. I didn’t even know dimples could be sexy.
It was his eyes, electric blue and sparking with intelligence — that was where I saw the boy I used to know.
Just like that, I was taken back years to the boy who would pick up my pen when it rolled off my desk, the boy who would share his notes with me and give me rides home when Rodney had left me somewhere. His braces were gone, and the softness of his face had filled out into hard lines and full lips. I was left wondering just how I’d missed it, how I’d missed him.
My smile stretched wider along with my heart. “Oh, there you are.” I cupped his cheek and laid a little kiss on his lips.
But then his hand found my naked hip and pulled, bringing me closer, and the kiss wasn’t so little anymore.
I broke away after a moment, breathless. “Jesus, Bodie. I don’t even know if I could have another orgasm.”
“Is that a challenge? Because I really, really love to win.”
His hand trailed to the back of my thigh and pulled, slinging my leg over his hip — his cock was already hard again against me.
“I didn’t get to take my time,” he said, his eyes darkening as his pupils shot open.
So I did the only thing I could with him looking at me like that, with the hard length of him shifting against my piercing — I let him.
* * *
Bodie
An hour later, I found myself trying to catch my breath, lying flat on my back with a sweaty Penny splayed across my sweaty chest.
“I can’t feel my legs,” she panted, her voice gruff.
I couldn’t wipe the smile off my face to even pretend to be cool. “Then my work here is done.”
She laughed, and all I could think about was the feeling of her nipple rings against my skin.
Get a fucking grip, man.
Of course, then I imagined her gripping me, which didn’t help me stave off another boner. I wasn’t even sure how it was physiologically possible, yet there it was.
She noticed and propped herself up to look at me, incredulous and amused. “I don’t think my vagina can take any more tonight, Bodie.”
I smirked. “I can’t either, but it’s got a mind of its own.”
She laughed as she slid off me — literally, we were soaked — and starfished out next to me on her back. “God, that was good. Can we do it again?”
I chuckled. “Anytime you want.”
Penny turned her head to look at me, and I did the same, resting my hand on my chest.
“I have to warn you though …”
One of my brows rose. “You come with a warning label?”
“No, I come with your face between my legs.”
A laugh burst out of me.
She smiled. “I don’t date, Bodie. It’s not just for me — I haven’t been serious with anyone in a long time, and … well, that’s not what I’m looking for. I need you to know and agree to it before we go any further.”
I watched her for a second before answering. Her purple hair was fanned out all around her, her naked, tattooed body stretched out next to me, and right then, I knew I was in trouble.
The first problem: I’d been crushing on her since I was sixteen.
The second problem: I was officially obsessed with every inch of her body.
The third problem: There was no way I would walk away from her after that. Not without putting up a fight.
But the biggest problem of all was this: I couldn’t put up a fight, or I’d spook her.
I knew Penny well enough from high school to know that I was playing with fire. And I knew I’d probably get burned if I fell for her, but if I could hang on to her? Well, it’d be worth the risk. Because I wanted more Penny. I wanted more of her smiles. I wanted to know where she’d been and what she wanted out of life. I wanted her in my bed and in my shower and anywhere I could get her. All I had to do was convince her that she wanted the same.
So I made up my mind and stepped into the lion’s cage with a chair in one hand and a whip in the other.
“I’m in. No strings.”
That ruby-red smile widened. “Good. And if you catch feelings, I need to know.”
“Deal,” I lied, “and you do the same.”
She laughed at that, a sound that hit me right in the chub. “Oh, I don’t catch feelings. On account of my black heart and all.”
By the way she was looking at me, I didn’t believe her for a second. But if that was what she thought … well, like I’d said, I loved to win.
4
WHAT WOULD BLANCHE DO?
Penny
I skipped down the stairs of our building the next morning, whistling “Yankee Doodle” with Veronica and Ramona in my wake.
“‘Yankee Doodle’? Really?” Ramona called after me.
I jumped off the last step and spun around, making a whistle show of calling it macaroni, complete with jazz hands.