by Liz Talley
He could be stubborn, obtuse and ignorant at times, but he wasn’t stupid.
“Okay, if we’re going to do this, let’s do this right,” he said, dropping a kiss on her nose while grabbing her ass and lifting her. She immediately wrapped her legs around his waist. “First we do a little swimming, a little foreplay.”
And so he sank beneath the water, holding her tight. He came up and she sputtered, pushing hair plastered to her face from her eyes.
“That was a dirty trick,” she said, her teeth chattering though the water was warm.
“That wasn’t dirty, but you’re about to find out what is,” he said, lowering his head and nipping her lower lip as he tweaked one taut nipple on a breast he couldn’t wait to taste.
“Ouch,” she said, splashing him.
“Oh, so that’s how it is?” he teased, splashing water against those breasts he craved. They were the absolute perfect size, tipped with dark pink nipples that beaded in the night air.
He curved an arm around her waist and brought her to him so he could kiss her neck right where her pulsed raced.
“Ah,” she groaned, her head falling back. He took a moment to enjoy the salty warmth of her neck before releasing her and kicking off toward the opposite end.
“Hey, where are you going?” she called out, putting her hands on her hips.
He turned and floated on his back, his cotton underwear dragging a little as he stared at the round full moon. “I’m swimming.”
“We have better things to do.”
He stood and grinned at her while sliding his boxers off and tossing them onto the cement surrounding the pool. The impact made a slap. “Swim over and we’ll play a game of Marco Polo.”
“Marco Polo?” She snorted but started his way.
“Yeah, I’ll close my eyes and try and catch you. When I do, I’ll have to try to identify you, right?”
“I’m the only other person playing, silly.” She bumped into him, her eyes glinting. He cupped her rump, giving it a squeeze.
“Aw, come on. I want to feel around and try to guess…the feeling-around bit being the key part,” he said, sliding his other hand down her belly, fingering the strip of neatly trimmed hair he’d glimpsed earlier when she’d entered the pool.
She sighed and so he dipped his finger lower, thrilling at the slickness as he slid a finger inside her, withdrawing it teasingly. “Marco.”
“Oh, dear Bessie,” she panted.
“Wrong. You’re supposed to say ‘Polo.’”
Abigail wrapped her arms around him and kissed him. Pulling back she looked at him. “In case you haven’t noticed, I’ve been having a wonderful time. Can we skip the games? I’ve laughed and now I want to—”
“Scream?” he asked, running his hands over her bottom up to her waist and to her rib cage, where the curve of her breast began. She sighed and leaned into him.
Eyes half-lidded, Abigail smiled. “Is that a guarantee? I mean, are you really that good?”
He bent his head, caught her nipple in his mouth and bit down with just enough pressure to torment. Lifting his head, he said, “I can’t speak for how good I am. I never worry about it. I simply pursue pleasure. Unrelentingly.”
He wrapped her in his arms, lifting her again. This time when she wrapped her legs around his waist, there was no barrier. Hard, warm flesh met soft, yielding Abigail.
“Oh,” she said, wriggling against him, closing her eyes and leaning against his looped arms. “That’s nice.”
Leif leaned forward and licked the droplets from her collarbone, sucking in her flesh, nipping lightly up the column of her throat. When he reached her mouth, he fisted a hand in her wet hair, tugging her hair, willingly covering her parted lips with his.
She tasted good—a bit like marshmallow—and she didn’t hold back. Her tongue dueled with his as they indulged in increasing each other’s arousal with wandering hands.
Her hands fluttered down his back, and she raked her nails gently against his ass. He returned the favor by cupping her bottom, using his fingers to slide down to the slick heat of her, ringing her entrance with one finger. She was wet and ready…but he didn’t want to go this fast.
Breaking the kiss, he leaned away, sliding his hands to her waist. “Hey, hey, let’s slow things down.”
Abigail stilled her hands, her mouth bruised from his kisses, her eyes dilated with passion. At that moment, he knew he’d never seen anything as primitive as a turned-on Abigail. She was sheer beauty with breasts swelling above the water, moonlight highlighting her incredible bone structure, that silver streak glowing against the midnight of her dark hair. “No, let’s not slow down. Later we’ll slow down. Right now I want—” she slid a hand down between their bodies to grasp the erection jutting against her “—this inside me. Please. We’ll play later.”
Leif lifted her, blindly wanting to serve her, to give her what she needed. What they both needed.
But then his brain kicked in.
“I need a condom…and I don’t have a frickin’ condom.”
*
ABIGAIL FELT LIKE she was on fire. Yes, water surrounded her, but inside a need so encompassing had built up to the extent she felt half-crazy.
Maybe she should have used that damn vibrator more, because if she didn’t get off soon, she might come undone.
Never had she felt like this.
Maybe this was what all those magazines had meant about a woman’s peak sexual arousal happening in her late thirties/early forties. ’Cause she was aroused all right. A damned nitroglycerin plant awaiting the stroke of a match.
“We don’t need one,” she panted, pulling his head down so he could kiss her and take her to that realm of molten mindlessness.
“Are you sure?”
“I haven’t slept with a man in a year and a half. I’m disease-free, on the pill,” she said, sliding her hands over his chest. He really was amazing. So damn beautiful. How was a guy so manly and beautiful at the same time? It didn’t compute, but she loved the way his nipples puckered and that six-pack was like icing on the cake. “What about you?”
“Uh, I haven’t slept with anyone in seven months and I’ve never had sex without a condom so I’m pretty sure—”
“Perfect,” Abigail said, lifting herself slightly, allowing all the parts to align correctly and then sinking down on his length. “Ohhh. That’s, oh, wow.”
He filled her, stretching her tight, hitting that perfect spot. The air hissed out of his lungs and she peeked as he closed his eyes, pleasure slacking his face. “Oh, you’re tight and so wet…so good. I’ve never felt this. Condoms suck.”
She pulled him to her, head falling on his shoulder as she nodded. Her feet sagged around his thighs as he walked toward the edge of the pool. Her bottom hit the side and then she didn’t feel anything except Leif moving inside her.
His body thrusting within hers sent her to a new place of pleasure. She leaned away, arching her back, laying her head against the cold cement. Opening her eyes, she watched the universe sparkle above as the passion within her gathered into a colossal storm.
Leif cupped her breast with one hand, his breath ragged, as he anchored her hips with his other hand, tilting her so he could plunge deeper inside her. And then his head lowered and he sucked her breast into the heat of his mouth.
“Yes,” she hissed, closing her eyes, the pattern of the night sky seared into her brain. She moved faster against him as the sensations grew, rising, building into something that consumed her.
“Come for me, baby,” he murmured against her damp, chilled skin.
So she did.
The wave crashed over her, sheer pleasure radiating from her center to every fiber in her body. She rode the wave and a mewling sound ripped from her as sweet joy pulsated in her body.
Her eyes flew open and she saw the glittering stars again and then she saw Leif, his blue eyes triumphant before he closed them. He kept moving, not allowing her body to rest, taking her yet again to
another crest. She stretched her body, much as she did when dancing, reaching up, up, up.
Then she took hold of elusive pleasure again as another orgasm ripped through her body. This time she kept her eyes open, her gaze meeting his. Two becoming one, and with a guttural groan and a slight shudder of his body, Leif joined her, finding his release.
Breathing hard, she wrapped her arms around him, holding him to her as he jerked slightly, emptying himself. She silently thanked those stars above for the awesome experience she’d just had.
It had been a long time since she’d felt the awe of a knee-weakening, effervescent orgasm like that.
Leif fell against her, his breath puffing warm against her shoulder.
“Whoa,” he muttered, dropping small kisses atop her breast.
“Incredible,” she whispered, stroking his damp hair, still arched uncomfortably on the cement, stars winking at her from above. We know what you just did, sister.
Abigail smiled at the stars.
Leif lifted his head. “That got out of control. I had wanted to go slower, to give you something better than—”
“Seriously? How was that not good?” She pushed against him because her back hurt like hell. Nothing like pain to jar her into the here and now. She rubbed the indention from the concrete. “Ow.”
He straightened, lifting her with him and walked to the steps of the pool. “And, God, your back has to be killing you. Sorry about that, too.”
And then he walked up the stairs, still carrying her, still inside her.
“Uh—” He looked down, as if trying to explain. “Well, since there’s no condom.”
Abigail smiled. “Yeah, a little messy.”
“But worth it,” he said, bussing her mouth with a kiss before loosening his hold on her.
She dropped her legs as they reached the patio, praying like hell Birdie hadn’t climbed a tree and watched. She wouldn’t do that. Not at night. Not when her father—
Hell. Cal and Birdie were yards away and here she’d gone at it like a deranged rabbit with her neighbor in the pool. Great role model, Abi.
Leif handed her a napkin from the tray and silently they both did their postcoital cleanup. As she slid on her panties, shivering in the night, she reminded herself that she was not going to regret or be ashamed of what she’d done. She was a normal woman. Normal women had sex when the opportunity arose. And according to the Cosmopolitan she’d picked up at the store yesterday in order to see precisely what Birdie had learned, they hooked up with guys who were their friends quite often. Booty calls.
Ugh. Horrible name for what she and Leif had shared, but she wasn’t going to be embarrassed about climbing him like a monkey.
“Hey, you okay?” His voice sounded soft…and knowing. “You said you wouldn’t hate me.”
Abigail snapped her head up after hooking her bra closed. “I don’t hate you. Don’t be silly.”
“But you’re feeling guilty. I can see it on you.”
“I’m not—” Abigail shimmied into her jeans. “It’s cold out here.”
“Come over by the fire.” He already wore his jeans and shirt and held a folded blanket she’d seen earlier. “We’ll snuggle and get warm.”
Except she didn’t want to snuggle. She wanted to go home and wrestle with what she’d done. But that was silly. And rude. And would make Leif think she had regrets.
She didn’t.
Or at least she didn’t want to have regrets. Because she needed this. Okay, maybe shucking her clothes and having sex on the first date was drastic, but her life was stale. Each day she ate the same cereal for breakfast because it was easy.
And then a big stack of bananas Foster pancakes came into her life. She’d eyed them for a while. Then they landed on her plate. She had a fork in her hand. She needed ooey, gooey goodness. Those pancakes were her reward for plastering a smile on her face every morning and pretending life was good.
She looked at her pancakes. He watched her, the fire casting flickering shadows over his face. The blanket hung suspended between them. Abigail tugged on her shirt, leaving it unsnapped, and stepped into Leif’s arms. He enfolded her, tucking her head beneath his chin.
“It’s okay, Abi,” he whispered, dropping a kiss on her head. Slowly he pulled her down to the pillows, tucking the blanket around them. And like that moment when Cal had come traipsing back into her life, Leif remained quiet, merely holding her. Absently, he stroked her still damp hair, his torso warm against her.
Minutes ticked by as they lay there, lost in thought.
Abigail had no clue how Leif felt but she drew on everything she knew about relationships and realized she might not be prepared to handle being a modern woman who answered a booty call. No. Wait. She’d been the asker. Leif had answered.
Great.
It was as though the shocking things she’d read in Cosmo—about threesomes and “How to Go Down on Him…and Make him Beg for More”—had influenced her psyche. All those articles that made it seem as though sleeping around, or “hooking up” as they called it, was no big deal. So why did it feel like a big deal?
Probably because she’d slept with only three guys in her lifetime. One of whom was Leif.
Maybe she was too old-fashioned to play this game.
Then again, maybe she had to be different than what she was. If she wanted to spend time with Leif, she had to accept it would be as part of an affair. Wait. Was that even the right term?
Maybe it was casual fling.
But she knew one thing—she didn’t want everyone knowing she and Leif were doing whatever it was they were doing. Her parents were pillars of the community, running the First Presbyterian Church and serving on boards for the local food pantry and pregnancy crisis center. Abigail couldn’t throw her indiscretion with Leif in their faces. Plus, Leif was an instructor at the school where her brother was the principal. Jake would be tossing his hat in the ring for fire captain. She couldn’t burden them by acting like a fool the way Cal had a few years ago.
So it was either hide what she had with Leif…or end it. Friends on the outside, something more on the inside.
Was that too selfish? Or maybe it was crazy.
“Hey,” he whispered. “Are you asleep?”
“No, just thinking.”
“About?”
“How we’re going to do this.”
She felt his body stiffen…and not in the good way it had earlier. “Do what?”
“Well, I guess I shouldn’t presume you’ll want to see me again.”
“Of course I do.”
Abigail closed her eyes, briefly savoring the thought. “I’m the PTA president, you’re the art department head and my father is a preacher.”
“So?” he said, relaxing a bit.
“I can’t conduct an affair. It’s a small town and people still talk.”
“About your sex life?”
“That and more. I have a daughter and there are other people who could be hurt if I tossed all my good sense out the window and started, well, having sex in swimming pools in the middle of the winter.”
He didn’t say anything for a while. She waited because she knew she’d tossed the ball in his court. What would he do with it?
“So you don’t want to see me?”
Easy lob.
“It will be hard not to see you. I’m taking your class and we’re serving on the Laurel Woods Art Festival committee together.”
“You know what I mean.”
“I want to always stay friends.”
“No problem with that.”
Abigail blew out her breath. “Thing is, I don’t jump my friends’ bones like I jumped yours.”
She felt him smile. “How about we not define this? We can see each other as friends in public, but in private, as long as we’re both feeling it, we become a little bit more than friends.”
“In Cosmo, they call this FWB…and another term I won’t say because it sounds really crass.”
“And frien
ds with benefits sounds…genteel?”
“Compared to that, yes.” She turned so she could see his face. His chiseled jaw tensed and his eyes looked serious for once. No teasing or boyish charm. “So what do you think?”
“I think you’re not like most women. Most want some sort of commitment. You don’t want one and you don’t want anyone to know about us. I don’t know how to feel about that.”
“It’s easier to know what to expect.”
“You like rules, don’t you?”
“Why does everyone say that?”
“Because you do.”
As warm, comfy and sated as her body was, her emotions were turning as fast as spokes in a wheel. “Of course I like parameters. They make things easier. I’m not running away from you and what we’ve started. I just want to have it straight in my mind so I don’t misstep and screw things up.”
“Did you bring the label maker, too?”
She laughed. “I didn’t have time. I wasn’t planning on you, Leif.”
Turning her in his arms, he gave her a soft kiss. “Unexpected things can be really awesome. I’m going to have a hell of a good time being your FWB.”
Abigail kissed him, hoping like hell she could keep this man within those parameters, but knowing how hard it would be. She wasn’t like the women in Cosmopolitan who made relationships seem so simple. Your Terms: Making Dating Work.
Still, this relationship with Leif was on her terms. Friends with benefits. Hot sex with no strings. Hanging out. Wasn’t permanent. No need for the heart to get involved.
“I need to get home,” she said.
“A few more kisses, okay?” he said, doing just that, sweeping her into that place where reason seemed silly. Don’t think. Just feel.
So for a few more minutes Abigail fell victim to the man who’d helped her let go…if only for a little while.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
ABIGAIL TALKED LEIF into staying put and letting her walk home alone. The fire pit couldn’t be left burning unattended.