by Virna DePaul
“Come on my cock,” he growled at her looking down to where they were joined. “Show me.”
Lexi immediately followed directions, thrusting her hips up. “Oh god,” she half moaned, half screamed as her eyes glazed over. She pressed herself to him over and over, fucking him from below. God, he didn’t know how much more he could take. He buried his face into the crook of her shoulder again and rode her, hard. Each stroke pushed him further and further into the unknown.
Suddenly, she came again, convulsing around him and screaming his name. In that moment, he felt as if they could spiral off into nothingness, so he opened his mouth and clamped down on her. One hand twisted around her back and gripped her opposite shoulder. His other hand did the same for her hips. He clasped her to him in every way possible when he came.
And came. And came.
* * *
“Holy fuck,” Lexi gasped, brushing the sweaty hair off her forehead. She’d gripped his back so hard that her fingers were stiff.
“I’ll move,” Eric gasped. “Just gimme one—”
“Holy fuck,” Lexi said again.
They couldn’t help the rising laughter that came through them, shook them against each other and reminded them that Eric had yet to pull out.
“Alright, alright,” Eric muttered into her neck and reached down to take care of the condom. He slid off of her, tossed the condom in the trash and pulled up his pants. He rooted around on the ground for her pants for a second, gave up and just joined her again on the table. He collapsed again, but this time with just his head on her chest instead of his whole weight.
The action both warmed and terrified her. She hadn’t wanted him to just get right up and get dressed and walk out. But this sweet version of him, nuzzling at her breasts through her shirt, humming in contentment as their legs tangled, well it was just plain dangerous. Lexi felt the ground tilt under her. He was changing the playing field.
Quicksand.
Panic rose in her throat, gripped at her chest, and she swallowed hard against it. This was not the time to freak out. So they’d had sex again. Just because it had been the most passionate, tuned in, rewarding sex she’d ever had in her life, that didn’t have to mean anything.
Well, of course it meant something. It just didn’t have to mean everything.
She and Eric were compatible. That was all. They were two compatible people who had come to know a little more about one another and liked what they were learning.
“You freaking out over there?” Eric asked, raising his head and smiling and looking more handsome than anyone had a right to. God. He was not making this easy on her.
“No,” she answered too quickly. “Why would I be?”
He smirked, like he knew exactly how much she was lying. “Quicksand.”
She eyed him suspiciously. “Are you trying to quicksand me?”
“No,” he answered easily, propping himself up on one hand. “I just figured you’d put what we just did in the quicksand category.”
She could either freak out and make this into a big, sticky mess. Or she could take it on the chin, like a big girl, and handle it. “Sorry, but that wasn’t quicksand sex.” Liar!
He raised his eyebrows and looked mildly scandalized. She laughed and quickly corrected herself. “Trust me, that was hot sex. Deeply hot sex. Like the best sex ever actually.” His face resumed a much less offended expression. “But that wasn’t quicksand sex.”
He opened his mouth, like he wanted to say more, but then he shrugged, stood up and reached a hand out for her. “Whatever you say, boss.”
Lexi smiled tightly as she sat up, the weight of her lies silently mocking her. “You’re the boss, not me,” she somehow managed to say.
He reached down for her pants and helped her into them, one leg at a time. Then he helped her put on her socks and shoes. Lexi staunchly ignored the fluttering in her stomach at the sweetness of the act. Hot sex, she reminded herself. Passionate even. But this was not love.
Love was instant quicksand.
Still kneeling in front of her, Eric’s eyes bored into hers. “Lexi, when it comes to this, you’re the boss.”
“Deciding the rules around having sex?” she asked quietly, needing to understand.
“Yes,” he answered, rising and giving her a hand off the table. “You have needs and rules around what we can and can’t do before you leave. And I totally get it. You want a clean break in August. You deserve a clean break in August. But if it were up to me, I’d have you in my bed every night for the rest of the summer.”
Lexi slowly inhaled and exhaled. “Um...”
“I don’t say that to pressure you. At all. Really. I just want you to know where I stand. With you, I’m going to take what I can get, okay?”
She nodded. “Fair enough.”
She was relieved that her legs were holding her up, that her breath was returning to normal. But her mind was absolutely racing.
Eric’s phone dinged and he checked the text. “Do you want to join me and the gang at the old drive-in for a movie night?”
Don’t do it, she thought. Don’t spend any more time with him, not now. Not after what just happened. That’s what her head was telling her was smart. But as was often the case whenever she was around Eric, Lexi didn’t do what she knew was smart. She did what came naturally.
Eric and movies were two of her favorite things. She couldn’t pass up the chance to combine them in one special night. August was coming, and that meant so was the end of their time together. And just maybe…
Well, Lexi was definitely going to consider what Eric said, about him wanting her in his bed for the summer, even with the knowledge that she’d be leaving for L.A. soon.
Lexi reached into her pocket and pulled out her phone. “Let me text Marina, it’s her night off tonight. Maybe we can all go. What time should we meet you there?”
“I can pick you up at Marina’s in about an hour?”
“Great!” She turned on her heel and was marching out of the back room before she stopped and turned back to him. She pointed at the table where he’d just fucked her silly. “I hope you’ll be using that as evidence that you’re everything I said you were, Eric. Warm. Loyal. And passionate. Definitely passionate.”
He grinned, walked toward her, pulled her into his arms, and kissed her deeply. Lexi felt herself lift, ever so slightly, off the earth.
Finally, he pulled away, kissed her on the nose, and patted her ass. “See you in an hour, Lex.”
Chapter Eight
“Are you sure I won’t be crashing your date?” Marina asked for the eighty millionth time as she fretted in front of her closet, looking for something to wear.
Lexi was sprawled on the floor of Marina’s bedroom, petting Tulip along his back, scratching him under his chin. “One, you’re specifically invited. Two, Jake’s going to be there too, so you won’t be a third wheel. And three, Eric and I aren’t dating. So it is impossible for you to be crashing a date between us.”
Marina turned, a beige sweater in one hand and a gray sweater in the other. “Not dating?” she asked with a sly look on her face. “Is that why you came home with sex hair and a bite mark on your shoulder?”
Lexi’s mouth dropped open. “What are you talking about?” She scrambled up and eyed herself in Marina’s bedroom mirror, yanking the collar of her shirt to one side. “Well I’ll be damned.”
There it was, a deliciously purple set of teeth marks right above her collar bone. Lexi ran her fingers over the mark and couldn’t help the shiver that raced through her.
“For the record, this isn’t evidence that we’re dating.” Lexi paced over to Marina, took both of the boring sweaters out of her hands and tossed them into the hamper. She started pawing through her closet, looking for something mildly interesting for her friend to wear.
“You’re just fooling around then?”
Lexi huffed out a breath. “Well, we’ve fooled around a few times. And we’re friends. That’s about it.
”
“Are you going to do it again?” Marina asked.
Lexi wasn’t usually big on sharing this kind of information with people. But there was something about the way that Marina was asking. She wasn’t asking to get the dirty details. She was asking because she didn’t understand. Because she really wanted to know how these things worked.
“I want to,” Lexi admitted. “But I also know it’s not a great idea.”
“Why?” Marina asked, leaning against the door jamb of the closet, watching as Lexi dismissed almost every piece of clothing she owned. “Eric’s such a good guy.”
“Exactly,” Lexi agreed. “He’s so good that if I get in too deep with him I might not be able to get back out.”
“You’re afraid you won’t want to leave in August,” Marina guessed, hitting the nail on the head. “Is it possible to keep doing what you’re doing with him and not get too wrapped up in it?”
Lexi turned to her, intrigued. Something told Lexi that Marina was definitely asking this question because she was trying to find similar answers for herself. Despite Marina’s determination to call a halt to anything that was happening between her and Dylan, was she reconsidering? “Do you mean is it possible to have sex without falling in love or wanting more with that person?”
Marina nodded, her eyes wide and slightly embarrassed.
Lexi shrugged and turned back to the clothes. “Sure. I mean, I’ve been doing it for pretty much my entire sex life.”
“So why can’t you do that with Eric? Have sex and still keep a part of yourself closed off.”
Lexi considered. “I think that gets harder when the sex is really good, you know? And the sex with Eric is really, really good.” Understatement of the year, there. “It’s so good in fact..” Lexi hesitated, then decided to be honest even as she continued to inspect Marina’s clothing. “You have a point, Mari. And to be honest, it’s something I’ve been asking myself. That maybe I can keep sleeping with Eric this summer as long as it didn’t get too, I don’t know what word I’m looking for… Too soft?”
Lexi turned to Marina, a pile of clothes in her hands.
“Um. Maybe?” Marina said. “You think that’s possible?”
“Yeah,” Lexi said, considering her answer and shoving a little purple T-shirt into Marina’s hands along with some cut off jean shorts she’d found shoved in a drawer. “He knows how I feel. And we’ve already set ground rules. Maybe we just need to set a few more.”
“What kind of ground rules?” Marina asked and then looked down at the clothes Lexi had chosen for her. “I can’t wear these. This shirt is so small I only wear it when I’m cleaning the house and these daisy dukes were for a Halloween costume.”
Lexi ignored her friend’s protests about the clothes. “I’m not sure of the additional ground rules. I guess we’ll have to come up with them between the two of us.” Something black and silky caught her eye. “Marina, why do you have an evening gown like this?”
It was beautiful, perfectly tailored and sexy as hell. It must have cost a fortune.
Marina’s face went bright red. “I bought it for a… fancy event. But I chickened out and never ended up making it inside.”
Something on Marina’s face told Lexi that this wasn’t the time to push. So she patted Tulip on the head, stepped out of the closet and went to change her own clothes. “The boys will be here in twenty minutes.”
Chapter Nine
As Jake drove his old pickup truck, Eric beside him and Dylan in the back set, Eric tried to ignore the feelings rising in his chest. His body was deeply sated from the incredible sex earlier. But his heart was beating like a damn jackrabbit. All because he was ten minutes away from seeing Lexi again.
Jesus, he needed to get his shit together.
Lexi had made it clear on countless occasions that they were not dating. That they were nothing more than friends. And just because they’d had sex on two occasions didn’t mean—
Eric’s phone buzzed in his pocket and his heart leaped when he saw it was a text from Lexi.
-I’m considering doing it again.
-Doing what?
-Letting you fuck my brains out.
Eric let out a long thin breath.
-Oh yeah? Great, really clever answer. She was just going to fall into his arms now. He rolled his eyes at himself.
-Yeah. But with a few ground rules.
-Quicksand protection?
-Bingo.
-Alright. So what are these rules?
-No beds, for sex or sleeping together. No goo goo eyes. No acting like a couple.
Her rules simultaneously aroused and irritated him. But he wasn’t about to look a gift horse in the mouth.
-Done.
By then they were pulling up to the house and she and Marina were already waiting on the front porch. He watched Lexi read his last text. She looked up and caught him in the bright dark burn of her eyes. She nodded once. And Eric couldn’t help but feel like his fate had just been sealed.
The girls slid into the backseat, with Marina sandwiched between Lexi and Dylan.
“You look nice,” Dylan said in a low voice to Marina.
Marina went bright red. “Lexi made me wear it.”
“You can expect a thank you card in the mail sometime in the next three to five business days, Lexi.”
Lexi caught Eric’s eye in the rear view mirror and the two of them grinned.
Just a few minutes later, they were pulling into the drive-in and Eric could sense Lexi’s excitement from half a car away.
“Ah!” she exclaimed the second she saw the big board telling what movies they were playing. “Silverado!? That’s one of my favorite westerns EVER!”
Eric puffed out his chest. Weirdly proud of himself even though this whole thing was Jake’s idea. But still. He was really glad he got to be part of Lexi’s happiness right now.
Jake pulled the truck into the spot backwards. “There’s cushions and such in the back. Though I wasn’t expecting quite so many people. We’re going to have to get comfortable, y’all.”
His grin was large and infectious. They were all smiling at one another as they climbed into the bed of Jake’s truck, the movie screen splayed out in front of them. The men went to get refreshments and the women stayed behind to get the cushions and blankets all set up.
About two steps away from the truck, a redhead strolled past and Jake was gone, already dissolving into the crowd and talking pretty in her ear. Eric couldn’t help but roll his eyes and smile as he made his way to the concessions.
Dylan jammed his hands in his pockets and strolled alongside Eric. “You’ve got a little bit of a shine going for her, huh?”
Eric ran a hand through his hair and weaved his way through the crowd. He considered lying. But to what end? Sure, he wished that Lexi were a bit more into the idea of actually dating him. Given his history, he was amazed he felt that way, so certain that if he had the green light, he wouldn’t hesitate to get involved with Lexi even after all that had happened with Gabe and Brianne. But it had been a year, and Eric had obviously healed enough that he could recognize a good woman when he saw one. It was nothing to be ashamed of.
He sighed. “Sure seems that way. She’s pretty great.”
“You’re together?” Dylan asked.
Eric shrugged. “For now, at least. She’s leaving in August, and it’s an expiration date she’s been very clear about.”
Dylan furrowed his brow. “How’s that work, then?”
Eric wasn’t sure if his friend was being purposefully obtuse or if the situation was really just that confusing. “We’re hooking up for the summer is how it works.”
“Alright.” Dylan raised his hands in surrender, obviously not looking for a fight.
Eric took a few more steps. And couldn’t help himself. “Why do you sound so skeptical about it? People hook up temporarily all the time.”
“Sure, Eric.” Dylan scraped a hand over his jaw as they got in line at concessio
ns. “But not when they’re looking at each other the way you two do. And I know you. You’re a one-night stand or a committed-relationship kind of guy. I’ve never known you to find something in between.”
Eric’s annoyance with his friend immediately flagged. Dylan knew him very well. And he was well-meaning. Skeptical in the best way.
“You’re not wrong, D. But she’s moving to L.A. in August. And it’s her dream. The kind that she’s gotta make work or else she loses a part of herself. You think I’m going to get in the way of that?”
Dylan’s eyes searched Eric’s. “Dreams can change, Eric. Look at yours.”
Eric laughed hollowly. “Dylan, for somebody who had to fight and scrape for every last penny he had, you sure are kind to the poor little rich boy.”
Dylan brows rose. “You’re saying that your dreams had the luxury of changing because you’re rich?”
Eric shrugged his shoulders. “Of course. I had an entire life that I just up and left. I had my year off and now I’m moving on to ranching. If it doesn’t work out, I’ll be bummed, frustrated, embarrassed. Not destitute. But Lexi… well, if L.A. doesn’t work out for her, she doesn’t have anything else left in the basket. This is her whole life she’s putting on the line here. Who am I to get in the way of that just because I happen to really, really like her? Just because it makes me sick to think about her leaving in August? I could never do that to her. That would be beyond selfish. Unforgivable.”
Dylan’s eyes flickered at something over Eric’s shoulder and he almost imperceptibly shook his head, just once. Eric looked back but saw nothing, just the swirl of the crowd behind him.