She shook her head at him and got up. "I can't. I have to pee."
Lance flopped back against the pillows. Abby closed the bathroom door before turning on the light, but the brightness seeped out around the edges of the door, more blinding than the light from her phone.
He was still feeling the uncomfortable effects of Abby's proximity and his lack of release. After he'd made her come, he'd stripped her shirt and bra the rest of the way off, adding them and his own shirt to the pile of clothes by the closet. She'd roused slightly from her boneless state, starting to run her hand down his abs to his waistband. He'd stopped her, though, kissed her and gathered her against him again. They'd talked and kissed until they both fell asleep. He'd only wanted—no, needed—to feel her bare skin against his.
Not that he didn't want to get off. But if he was with Abby, he didn't want to get off like that, in her hand. He wanted to be inside her, feeling her tight heat clenching around him. And he'd felt just how tight she was.
He was being patient with her, though. Yesterday had been a breakthrough, and he didn't want to push too hard after that. He knew he was already pushing her as it was. He had been since they first met. Normally he wouldn't push someone like he was doing with Abby. If a girl didn't want him, or didn't want to move as fast as he did, that was fine. He didn't hold it against her. He'd just move on. But with Abby, he didn't want to move on. He didn't think that she didn't want him, just that she was hesitant about trusting him. He wanted to get her to trust him so she wouldn't regret going all the way.
He felt like he was making progress. She'd called him when she needed help and then opened up to him about the problems with her mom. With what she'd told him, it was understandable that she was hesitant with him. She'd been responsible for her mom for years. Her brother had been there to help for a while, but then he'd bailed just like their dad had years earlier. It wasn't shocking that she might not want to get involved with him knowing that he was leaving. But he couldn't bring himself to let her go. Maybe that was selfish, but there it was. He didn't feel like examining his motives any further.
He almost couldn't believe he'd gotten her to come home with him and agree to keep seeing him. Now that she was here, in his bed, he wasn't ready for her to go home yet. He had been sleeping so well with her spooned in close to him.
That was another thing different about her. He normally didn't linger with a girl, either at his place or hers, much less sleep in the same bed.
He heard Abby shut off the water in the sink, and then she opened the door. She'd turned off the bathroom light, but had turned on the light on her phone. She had one arm crossed in front of her chest, and with the other she scanned the floor with her light, finally bending down to scoop her bra out of the pile of his clothes.
Lance propped himself on his elbows. "Abby, what are you doing?"
She stopped mid-step and turned to him. "I'm getting my clothes."
He ran a hand down his face. "I can see that, but why?"
She gave him an exasperated look. "I told you I need to go home. You don't expect me to go in nothing but a pair of your boxers, do you?"
"Of course not. I wouldn't want anyone else seeing you like that." He gestured to where her arm shielded her breasts from his gaze. "But why do you have to go home now?"
Abby sighed and turned to get her other clothes. "I have to be at work to run the first language lab at 8:00. I don't want to wear the same clothes from yesterday. If I go home now, I can get a few hours of sleep before I have to get up and get ready."
Lance swung his legs out of bed and caught her by the arm when she stood back up. He took the phone out of her hand and set it down on the nightstand so the light was shining toward the ceiling and not in his face. "Or you could sleep for a few more hours here and I'll take you home with enough time to get ready and get to your language lab on time."
Abby was holding her clothes in front of her like a shield. She compressed her lips into a thin line. "Lance, I'd really like to go home now. I don't want to do the walk of shame in front of your roommates or mine. Especially since we didn't even have sex."
He pulled her closer to him, smiling down at her. "We could fix that, you know."
Abby rolled her eyes at him. He smiled even wider. She freed her hand and patted him on the chest. "Yes, I'm sure we could"—a slight emphasis there—"but we're not going to." Then she looked up at him, her face softening from the acerbic look she'd just given him. "Please, Lance. Just take me home."
Admitting defeat, Lance nodded. "Okay. If you really want me to, I'll take you home."
She relaxed against him in relief. "I do."
Lance leaned in and kissed her, then headed for the bathroom himself. When he came back out, Abby had changed back into her own clothes, leaving the boxers he'd lent her on the bed. He pulled on a t-shirt and grabbed his wallet and keys from his dresser.
Lance led Abby by the hand through the dark living room and out the front door. The night air chilled his bare arms and legs. He noticed goose bumps on Abby, and reached his arm around her to pull her into his warmth and rub them away.
They drove home in a sleepy comfortable silence, Lance's hand in its now accustomed spot on Abby's leg. She simply laid her hand on top of his, occasionally rubbing slightly up his wrist and forearm before returning to rest on top of his hand.
When they got to her parking lot, he parked the car and turned it off.
Abby stopped in the middle of unbuckling her seatbelt. "Lance, you really don't have to walk me to my door."
Lance unbuckled his seatbelt and looked at her. "Abby, I really do. I always see a lady safely to her door."
He grinned when she muttered, "Fine, whatever."
"Will you need a ride to work or back?"
She shook her head. "No. I usually walk anyway."
He nodded. "Okay, good. What time do you get home?"
Abby had her hand on the door handle, but stopped before opening it. She eyed him warily. "I usually leave at five and it takes about fifteen minutes to walk if I'm not in a hurry. Why?"
Lance shrugged. "Text me when you get home. I'll come over and check out your car, see if I can fix it."
She relaxed a little, but still seemed unsure. "You don't have to fix my car, you know. I can just get it towed somewhere."
He waved away her objections. "Abby, my dad owns a garage. I grew up taking cars apart and putting them back together. Let me at least look at it. Towing's expensive. There's no need to pay for all that when I'll look at it for free." When she didn't immediately agree, he took her hand. "Let me help you, Abby. I want to do it. I wouldn't offer if I didn't."
She studied his face for a moment before finally nodding. "Okay. I'll let you know when I get home and you can come look at my car." She pointed a finger at him and narrowed her eyes. "I'm paying for any parts, though."
In response he just kissed her. He didn't feel like arguing with her about details right then. He was glad that she'd agreed to let him fix her car without putting up a fight.
Abby responded to his kiss, pressing herself closer to him. What he'd meant as a simple touch of his lips to hers turned into something more. He found himself snaking his arms around her, pulling her closer, deepening their kiss, hanging on until she finally broke it off.
He looked down into her face, her lips red from his kiss. "Are you sure you don't want to just grab some clothes and come back home with me?"
Her lips curved into a smile. This one was different than her other smiles. It was private and knowing, and meant only for him. For a moment he thought she might say yes. Instead she said, "Tempting. But no. I need to go home and get some more sleep."
He let out a breath and loosened his hold on her. "Okay. I'll walk you to your door."
"Lance, my door is right there. You don't need—"
He missed the rest of her protest because he got out of the car and closed the door.
She scrambled out of her side before he could get there and open t
he door for her. "Lance, you can't just leave when I'm in the middle of talking to you."
He silenced the rest of that reproach with a kiss. This one was just a simple kiss, like he intended. "I can when you're talking nonsense, sweetheart. I like walking you to your door. I'm going to walk you to your door. It has nothing to do with your capability of walking to the door without me, and everything to do with my desire to see you safely inside." With that he took her hand and walked the short distance from his car to her apartment. "If I didn't walk you to your door, I wouldn't get my good night kiss." And he kissed her again.
He felt her lips smiling against his. "Is it really a goodnight kiss when it's almost four in the morning?"
Lance kissed her again. "Fine, a good morning kiss then. Either way, that was two kisses I wouldn't have gotten if I hadn't walked you to your door."
Abby pulled her keys out of her bag and unlocked her door before turning back to him. She kissed him this time. "There. That's another one. I'll see you after work. Bye."
Lance stood there slightly dazed and only managed a weak "Bye" before she closed her door. He heard her locks click into place as he turned and walked back to his car.
She had kissed him. For the first time she had initiated physical contact. The smile stayed on his face the whole drive home. He was definitely making progress.
CHAPTER TWELVE
"Hey, hoochie. Where were you last night?" Megan stood in the doorway to Abby's bedroom, changing from her work clothes into shorts and a t-shirt.
Abby looked up from her laptop. "What do you mean?"
Megan gave her a pointed look that was not at all diminished by the fact that she was only wearing shorts and a bra, having not quite gotten her t-shirt on yet. "Don't play dumb, Abby. You're not any good at it."
Abby turned back to her computer. "I texted you yesterday. You know I had to help my mom."
Megan pulled her shirt on and climbed onto Abby's bed. "What did she need? Is she okay?"
"She needed groceries and stuff. The usual. She's fine."
The brief show of concern for her mom over, Megan went back into interrogation mode. "Good. Mind telling me how you got there to get her groceries and stuff? Because your car stayed here and I sure as hell didn't take you."
Abby refused to look at Megan. "I told you Lance was taking me."
"Yes, that's right. Lance took you. You and I both know it only takes a couple hours to get your mom's groceries, plus another hour and a half for driving time. You left at like five? So that means you should've been home by eight thirty or nine at the latest."
Abby shook her head. "We didn't get done at my mom's until after eight."
Megan gave her a sly smile. "Okay. You got done a little after eight. That still gets you home by nine. I'd even go with nine thirty if you stopped to grab a quick bite to eat. What time did you get home?"
Abby's cheeks heated up. She muttered something.
Megan leaned toward her, cupping a hand around her ear. "What was that?"
"I said, around four this morning."
Megan's eyebrows rose. "Four this morning. And so I repeat my first question: where were you last night, hoochie?"
"With Lance." Abby clamped her mouth shut after spitting out those two words. She knew Megan wouldn't let her get away with only telling her that, though.
Megan snorted. "Well, yeah, I figured that much. That's why I keep calling you a hoochie. What happened? Did you do it? You have to give me all the details."
Abby covered her face with her hands. "Seriously, Megan? This is why I don't tell you things."
Megan made a sound like a buzzer. "Wrong. This is why you do tell me things. I have to hound you until you do, or I'd never know anything about what's going on with you. So answer the questions. You know I won't leave you alone until you do."
Abby sighed. "Fine. No, we didn't do it."
"What were you doing until four in the morning, then?"
"We had dinner, then we went back to his place. We talked for a while and then we slept." Abby stared resolutely at her computer screen. She didn't even know what she was looking at anymore. She was just scrolling through Facebook, clicking on any random link, none of it making an impression. It was just something to do so she wouldn't have to look at Megan.
"You slept."
"Yup."
"That's it?" Abby blushed again. Megan let out a little squeal and clapped her hands. "Ha! I knew it! What else did you do?"
"We kissed."
"Where?"
"In the car. And in his bed."
"Did you do more than just kiss?"
"Yes." It came out as a whisper.
"You did more than just kiss, but you didn't have sex. Did you keep your pants on?"
Abby nodded. "Pretty much."
"Pretty much? What does that mean?"
"They stayed on, but he … touched me."
"Oooh. Over the clothes or under them?"
"Under."
"Under which ones?" Megan kept wiggling her eyebrows every time she asked a question.
Abby sighed in defeat, knowing that Megan would never let it go until Abby told her everything. Might as well just tell it all and get it over with. "All of them. Both of our shirts ended up off, but he slid his hand in my shorts and … touched me."
Megan leaned forward and lowered her voice. "And? Did he touch a little or a lot?"
"A lot. He made me … you know …"
Megan laughed at Abby's obvious discomfort. "Have an orgasm? You can just say it, Abby. It's not a dirty word."
Abby covered her face with her hands. "God, I hate talking about this. Why can't you just leave me alone?"
Megan pulled her hands down. "You never have anything good to dish about. It's all been one sided until now. I tell you everything, so you have to tell me now that you have something to tell. And it's delicious. I'm happy for you." Megan let out another squeal. "Anyway, what happened after he finger banged you?"
"Finger bang? Really? Vulgar much?"
"Don't be such a prude, Abby. We've lived together for years, and have been friends even longer. You already know I'm vulgar. Tell me what happened next."
Abby shrugged. "Not much. We talked and made out until we fell asleep. I woke up at like three thirty and made him bring me home."
"Why did you make him bring you home then?"
Abby leveled a look at Megan. "So I wouldn't have to answer awkward questions from his roommates or mine."
Megan laughed. "You had to know there was no way to avoid this discussion. I stay up late. You know I'm going to ask for details when you don't get home at a normal time. So, what's next? Are you going to see him again?"
Abby nodded. "Yeah. He's coming over in while to look at my car. He's insisting on fixing it for me. He had to work late today since he left early yesterday to take me to see my mom."
"He left work early for you? That boy's got it bad."
Abby shook her head. "He can't have it bad. We barely know each other and he's leaving in a month or two. At best it's a short term fling that'll fizzle out soon."
Summer Fling (Players of Marycliff University Book 1) Page 11