There was one from her new friend Candi-with-an-i, asking how she was liking the new wardrobe, and more importantly, how Liam liked it. Which led Katya to look at his messages. They were mostly all asking how her sex life was doing without him, and if she missed him yet. She smiled and felt bad that she hadn't called him. Then she remembered the stuff she'd said the night before, and her smile fell away. She frowned and started dialing his number, suddenly desperate to talk to him, to explain how she felt. Before she could push the last button, though, her bedroom door burst open.
“Mom!” she snapped, dropping the phone and scrambling to cover herself with some blankets. “You could knock!”
“Why would I knock? I've seen it all before, Tocci,” Wulf chuckled as he kicked her door shut behind him. He walked over to the bed and held out a coffee mug. She didn't take it. Just gaped up at him.
“What are you doing here?” she asked. He pulled the cup away and started drinking out of it.
“I've finally fucked you stupid, I see. It's a problem I have, I should've warned you. We had sex last night, which happened in this bed – for the first time ever, apparently – and then we fell asleep, and then you woke me up with an inexperienced yet still incredible blow job, after which -” he prattled off their adventures from earlier that morning. Katya growled and smacked him in the chest.
“Shut up, you know what I mean! I thought you'd left, gone home!”
“Clearly, I didn't.”
“Wait a minute,” she gasped, her eyes bouncing between his face and the coffee mug in his hand. “Wait a minute. Where were you, just now?”
“The kitchen. If you tell me there's a coffee maker in here, I'll be pissed.”
“No. No, no, no. What time is it?”
“Almost noon.”
Katya dropped her face into her hands, then peeked at him through her fingers. He was wearing his pants, thank god, but nothing else. No socks, no shoes, no shirt. His hair looked wild and crazy, as if someone had been pulling it all night.
Probably because someone had.
“Jesus. Tell me you didn't -”
“Your mother says hi. She's going to some charity meeting. She left some lunch in the fridge for us.”
“Oh god. My mother. My mom saw you like that,” Katya clarified, finally dropping her hands and staring up at him again.
“We had a nice chat. She makes a good cup of coffee.”
“I'm so glad for you.”
“Hey, I offered you some.”
“Wulf.”
“Yes?”
“You're half naked.”
“Hardly.”
“Did she say anything? About all … that?” Katya asked, waving her hand in a circle, gesturing to his bare chest.
“No, we talked about landscaping. Did you want your mom to hit on me?” he asked. She resisted the urge to gag.
“No. I just … I don't know. I didn't want to her to know what we'd done last night,” she struggled to explain. Wulf chuckled and moved to kneel at the foot of the bed.
“Cat's out of the bag, Tocci, cause I'm pretty sure she had a good idea of what her daughter had been up to,” he warned. He started crawling up the mattress and she felt her mouth go dry. She finally looked away and stared out the window.
“I didn't want that,” she sighed. She felt his arm wrap around her waist, over the sheet, and then he was dragging her into him. Pulling her down so they were laying side by side. She still refused to look at him.
“You're an adult. We're adults,” he informed her, tapping a finger against her chin before pushing, forcing her to look at him. “We did nothing wrong.”
“You don't understand, Wulf. She … she's one of those moms, she's always trying to set me up. Always asking me when I'm going to settle down, get married, have babies. She sees you, and she sees hope. She sees the good looking, successful, rich, boy next door, and then she sees us together, and then she's going to start thinking about all that other stuff. Thinking you're perfect. Perfect for me,” she told him in a soft voice. He chuckled and leaned close, kissing her softly on the lips. It didn't make her feel better, though. It made her heart pound and constrict, warning her that what she was about to do was irrevocable.
“I am pretty perfect, Tocci.”
“Please stop.”
“You stop,” he sighed, rubbing his nose against the side of her jaw. Kissing along the side of her shoulder. “We just had an amazing time together, didn't we? Yet here you are, trying to tell me I'm not perfect.”
“I'm not saying that,” she said, finding it hard to breathe. Everything was already too difficult – she wanted him to stop touching her.
Don't want him to ever stop touching me.
“Then what are you saying?”
“I do think you're perfect for me, and that scares me.”
“Why?”
“Because I've never felt this way about somebody,” she whispered, placing her hand over his. “I don't want you to break me.”
He had no sharp comeback for that, no smart ass response. The kisses stopped, but he didn't move away. His forehead was pressed against her jawline, his breath hot against her neck. His hand stretched and flattened against her skin, then slowly slid out from underneath her own hand. She closed her eyes, preparing for him to leave her.
But he didn't. His hand moved over the top of hers, his fingers splaying wide apart. He took a deep breath, then fit his fingers into the spaces between hers. He squeezed tight and balled his hand into a fist. Linking their hands together. She gripped as tight as she could, wanting to hold onto the moment forever.
They always go away too soon. Give me this one, for just a little longer.
“You're right, Tocci. That is very, very scary,” he breathed.
She was pretty sure he'd never spoken truer words to her.
They laid like that for a long time, neither moving as the room grew hotter and hotter in the noon sun. She tried to move away at one point, so full of nerves and tension, she was afraid she'd burst out crying if she didn't get away from him. But Wulf wouldn't allow it, wouldn't let go of her. As she rolled away, he held her in place with their hands against her chest, then scooted up close behind her. Spooning her. He was on top of the sheet and she was under it, but still. It was the closest she'd ever felt to him. When he sighed and kissed the shell of her ear, it finally happened. A tear escaped, running down the length of her nose. It balanced on the bow of her lips for a moment, then dropped sideways to the bed.
What happens now?
16
The sun had become too much, the heat oppressive. Despite her best efforts, Katya fell back asleep, warm and comfortable with Wulf pressed against her from behind.
When she woke up an hour or two later, it was to find herself alone in the bed. She sat up, holding the sheet to her chest. Wulf was sitting on a chair near her bed, bent over with his elbows on his knees, his hands steepled together. He was completely dressed, even looked showered. She wondered how long he'd been sitting there, watching her. She glanced around the room.
“Your mom is still gone,” he offered.
“Oh. Thank you.”
“Are you alright?”
“Yeah. Hungry, but alright.”
“Katya ...”
She stared at him with wide eyes, her hands clutching the sheet in a death grip. Usually when Wulf said her first name, it made her heart dizzy and her pulse pound with happiness. Now, though, it made her worry. Something in his tone.
“Yes?”
“I have to go back home.”
“Oh. Okay.”