"Show me."
He didn"t resist. Relaxing, he covered my fingers with his and refined my strokes, each movement longer and rougher than mine. So Rob doesn"t want gentle. Noted. Once I had the rhythm, his hand fell away, but he gave his whole body to the motion, lifting his hips to push into my hand until it felt like he was f.u.c.king my fist, and I could so imagine how that would feel for real. I ached for him, echoing each throb with one of my own. Watching his face as the pleasure blazed higher-that was the s.e.xiest thing I"d ever seen.
"You said you used to think about me naked. What else?"
"Now?" he gasped.
"Definitely now. And not the most innocent fantasy. I want your dirtiest secret."
"I can"t." But he didn"t stop moving. If anything, his hips worked faster.
"Tell me, or I stop." I wouldn"t, but he didn"t know that.
"At this point, I"d finish on my own."
"But it wouldn"t be as good." My fingers loosened, teasing him. I wanted so badly to find out what kind of s.e.x Rob fantasized about.
He groaned, thighs tensing. "You were in high school...that was dirty enough."
"Tell me."
"You come out to the garage like you did that one time. Only not to ask for a ride."
"Are you sure?" I worked harder, prompting a moan.
"Not in my truck. You have on that red dress and you"re not wearing any panties. I know, because you just...show me, without saying anything." His voice sounded hoa.r.s.e, but also eager, as if speaking the first words unlocked some secret door inside him.
"What happens next?"
"You climb up on the hood on my truck and...touch yourself. I"m just watching at first."
"Not for long?"
"Eventually I can"t stand it and I have to join you. Taste you. I go down on you right there." As he whispered the last, his body locked and he came, panting my name.
I caught the fluid in the washcloth, minimizing the mess, and then I snuggled up against him, stroking his chest gently. For long moments, his arms were unsteady as he held me but eventually, he captured my chin in warm fingers and gazed at me sternly. "I can"t believe you made me tell you that."
As dirty fantasies went, it wasn"t so shocking. I might make it come true someday; I still had the red dress. "Pfft, you need to do me now. Or would you rather I just use you?"
"I"m interested."
"Lay back, jeans off."
I didn"t have the patience for him to figure out my s.e.x b.u.t.tons right then anyway. For a quick o.r.g.a.s.m, it was better this way. Rob shucked his jeans off and tucked his p.e.n.i.s back into the briefs. "I"m yours to command."
In answer, I rose up on my knees, peeled out of my yoga pants and settled myself on his thigh. Leaning forward slightly, I circled my hips while keeping my eyes on his. He licked his lips and set his hands on my waist, not trying to control my movements but steadying me. I was grateful he didn"t do anything but watch; in fact, that got me hotter. I was already so turned on that the rubbing felt incredible; if his hard thigh was this good-oh, s.h.i.t. Yeah. His hands moved to my a.s.s, pressing me forward even more. This angle was even better. Rob tensed and relaxed his muscles in conjunction with the grinding, adding another layer, until I just couldn"t hold on. I came in my panties, just from riding his leg.
I was flushed and gasping when he rolled me into his arms. "There"s a problem with your strategy," he said. "You should"ve gone first."
"Why?" I asked dreamily.
"Because now I"m turned on again."
CHAPTER TEN.
By the time my mom got home, we were on our way out. She smiled when she saw Rob and hugged him. "How are you, hon?"
"Good. Work going okay?"
They seemed really comfortable with each other, which surprised me. My mom had been kind of a hermit after Dad left, and Rob had that whole Iron Man thing going with people he didn"t know well. Yet they seemed friendly. I was instantly suspicious.
"Yep. I might be in line for a promotion. Fingers crossed."
"Hope you get it. Ready, Lauren?"
"Sure. Just let me get my coat."
"I"ll go warm up the truck." That was sweet of him and typical of Rob.
I"d counted on his consideration because I needed an excuse to linger to ask, "Okay, what was that all about?"
"What?"
"That."
She gave in with a teasing smile. "After you went away to school, Rob came by to shovel the drive, fix anything that needed it. I thought his dad put him up to it, but when I mentioned it, Ned didn"t know anything about it."
"Then I"ll have to thank Rob for helping you out."
After studying my face for a few seconds, her eyes widened. "What about Avery?"
"They broke up."
Her brows shot up. "When? His mom didn"t say anything to me about it."
"Night before last," I admitted with a pang of guilt.
Hey, n.o.body cheated. You just...moved in fast.
"In that case, be careful. Keep it PG-13."
Smirking, I said, "Like that"ll happen. I"ll film it for you."
"Get out. You"re not my daughter at all, are you?"
"Changeling," I mumbled. "You said something about karaoke when Stuart was here. When did you want to go? And would you mind if I invited Krista and Rob?"
"You really think they"d want to?"
"We won"t know until we ask."
"Of course they"re welcome. I"ll talk to Stuart and get back to you." She seemed bemused that I"d want to hang out as a group, but this was part of giving her new man a fair shake, and it would help to have other people around, cutting some of the tension. Plus, I was dying to hear his awesome Frank Sinatra croon.
"Sounds good." I got my coat out of the hall closet, shrugged into it and paused by the front door. "I don"t know for sure if I"ll be home tonight."
"Don"t do anything I wouldn"t do." At my look, she tried, "Be safe. Make good choices."
Grinning, I swept out and down the drive. This time I caught Rob off guard and vaulted into the truck before he managed to open the door. "What"re you reading?"
"The Fallen Throne, obviously." With a sly grin, he held up the binder he"d somehow smuggled out of my room.
"Are you kidding?" I smacked his arm.
But I didn"t try to take it away from him. As he backed out of the drive, he added, "This is riveting. I really feared for my/Robert"s life in the first few pages."
"Because the story is punishment enough, I"m letting you keep that."
"I"d fight you for it," he said.
"Hey, don"t discount me. I"m sc.r.a.ppy." Then it occurred to me to loop him in on the nascent plans. "So...my mom has a boyfriend, and he"s apparently the karaoke king. Would you be interested in going along? I plan on inviting Krista, too. Remember her?"
He thought for a few seconds, then shook his head. "Sorry. Unless they played sports, I didn"t know many undercla.s.smen when I graduated, basically just you and Nadia."
"Irrelevant. Karaoke, yes or no?"
"I don"t promise to sing, but I"ll go."
It occurred to me that we"d spent a lot of time together, and he never mentioned hanging out with the guys. "What do you usually do for fun anyway?"
"Sports bar. Every few weeks I meet up with some old teammates who"re still in Sharon. My best friend, Russ, works a couple hours away, but we get together when he visits his parents." Thoughtful, he added, "I have a few gym buddies, but we don"t do more than grunt and nod while we work out."
"Deep and meaningful."
"That"s not really what I"m known for," he said. "Anyway, I had plenty of male bonding in football, basketball, baseball-"
"Okay, I get the idea. Now you"re a lone wolf who does lone things. Alone."
He slanted me a look through his lashes, so I could only glimpse a sliver of blue. "It doesn"t have to be that way. There comes a point where a guy"s kind of tired of f.u.c.king around with other dudes, and he just wants one woman instead."
"Is that right, Spartacus?"
He flushed when he realized how that sounded. "No. I mean-no. Not that there"s anything wrong with-if that"s what you"re into, but that guy wouldn"t ever want a woman, oh, unless he"s-"
"It"s okay, I know what you mean." I resolved never to tease him like that again. His knuckles showed white from gripping the wheel too hard, likely frustrated at his words for coming out clumsy, making him sound dumb. "It"s fun to go out drinking but after a while, you get the urge to settle down."
"Basically." Quiet tone.
"I"m sorry, that was rude."
"You"re funny, Lauren. I knew that. Very sharp and witty." But his look said I"d made him feel bad by pouncing on the connotation rather than accepting his words as intended.
"Yeah, but humor only succeeds if you make the people you care about laugh. If you hurt them, then it"s mean-spirited. Therefore, I"m an a.s.shole."
He smiled, though it didn"t quite reach his eyes. "This is when my dad would call me a wuss. I love the guy but he doesn"t always make it easy." Then he seemed to recall my paternal situation. "d.a.m.n. I shouldn"t be complaining about how I have it when you-"
"It"s not a contest. Me having a sucky dad doesn"t mean n.o.body else can talk about theirs without me playing the abandonment card. So are we okay?"
"Yeah. Was that our first fight?"
"Only if we start yelling and one of us flounces off afterward."
That night, Rob was quiet when we worked on the house, not unusual, but after the exchange in the car it had me worried. We ate dinner together, worked some more, and around ten, he said, "I"ll take you home."
"Oh."
It wasn"t like I"d a.s.sumed he"d invite me to sleep over, though I had been confident enough to give my mom a heads-up. Was this the opposite of the walk of shame? The walk of no-game? I lacked the courage to ask him why; I mean, we"d already fooled around once today. Maybe he just wanted to sleep, or he was tired from the renovations. Possibly he thought that would be rushing the main event or he was just sick of me.
"I won"t be around tomorrow," he said, pulling into my driveway. "Or the next few days, for that matter."
If things weren"t a little...weird, I"d have asked why not. But with the silent tension in the air-and I didn"t know how to fix it, other than apologize, which I"d already done-it felt like overstepping. So I just nodded.
"Okay. Have a good weekend." I jumped out of the car, not wanting to learn the hard way if he"d come around to get me.
Wow. One day. This went pear-shaped fast.
I was unlocking the front door by quarter past ten, much to my mother"s surprise. "No dice, huh?"
"There"s something going on with him."
With an inviting smile, she patted the other end of the sofa. "I have cookies."
"See, this is why I eat my feelings. I"m following your example."
"So talk about your problems instead. I will fall on this cookie-grenade for you." Mom crammed a whole chocolate chip cookie in her mouth and mumbled, "Sehowmuckiwubu?"
It was impossible to brood when I had my cheerful, fun-loving mother back. After my dad left, it was literally years before I saw her smile again. At the moment, I could hug Stuart if he were responsible for this transformation. But no, Nadia"s mom had said the change started a while back, longer than they"d been together. So he was a happy side effect, not the cause.
In the end, I ate two cookies and watched a few episodes of Storage Wars. Though I felt like a dips.h.i.t, I kept an eye on my phone, but it never buzzed. That weekend I hung out with Krista, as promised. Feeling like a loser, I borrowed my mom"s car since she was with Stuart and drove to the nearest theater, half an hour away. Krista talked the whole time about the travails of pregnancy, which didn"t increase my desire to reproduce.
"Pull over," she yelled, twenty minutes into the trip.
Worried, I did as she ordered and she opened the door in time to upchuck all over the gravel shoulder. I looked away, but the smell was horrific. "Should I take you home?"