by Ella Fields
She liked her coffee served with a shit ton of sugar and never went anywhere without her mints. If she slept through her alarm, she swore like a drunken sailor who’d fallen overboard.
And she was most ticklish around her hips.
She was a puzzle but not a hard one. Yet in the brief time I’d known her, I discovered she was the greatest, most thrilling challenge I’d ever encountered in my life.
When her phone broke the silence again, she sighed and went to get up. Before she could, I reached over and swiped the soggy piece of cereal onto her cheek.
Her search for her phone abandoned, her feet slapped on the tiles as she scurried over to me. “Oh, no, you didn’t.”
I scanned the scores and the harsh review in front of me, acting oblivious. “Didn’t what?”
Pushing me back, she shoved herself between the table and my chest, staring me dead in the eye. “You’re kind of disgusting, Toby Hawthorne.”
I made my eyes bulge. “Me?”
She leaned forward, her nose butting mine. “Yes, you.”
The coffee on her breath and her scent invaded, making my heart beat faster. “What are you going to do about it?”
Her mouth was on mine as soon as I said the last word, her hands sliding into my hair. Yeah, she also had a real thing about my hair, making me rethink the upcoming trim I had scheduled.
Scooting the chair back, I tilted her head, my hand winding into her long hair while my other drifted up the back of her shirt, reaching around to squeeze her perky tit.
I lifted her top, pushing her back to slide my tongue down her throat. Her shirt needed off, so I got rid of it, my lips immediately falling to her creamy tits and sucking while my hands squeezed the soft, firm handfuls.
The sound of my phone ringing hit my ears, but I didn’t pull away. “Toby,” Pippa said, grabbing my face and plucking my mouth off her with a wet pop.
“What?” I asked through squished cheeks.
“Now your phone’s ringing.”
Groaning, I reluctantly let her climb off and walked to the kitchen counter where my phone was. “Any chance you could keep your top off?”
“That depends who it is.”
It was my dad. “Uhhh.”
“Sorry, Tobes.” She picked her top up, slowly pulling it on. “Where’s my bra? I need to get home.”
I didn’t want her going anywhere and told her so. “Answer your phone,” was all she said. “I’ll call you later.”
She went upstairs, presumably to get her bra. I smirked, wondering if she’d find where I hid it.
Sighing, I called my dad back.
“Jesus,” he breathed. “You need to text me if you feel like disconnecting. You know that.”
Cringing, I rubbed the back of my neck. “I’m not. I’ve just been …” Pippa came back down, and I scowled as she did her bra straps up then lowered her top. “Busy.”
My dad said something I didn’t catch. Pippa stood on her toes, pressing her lips to my cheek.
“One sec,” I said to the phone before dropping it to the counter with a clatter and grabbing Pippa’s hand. She came willingly, giggling when I rained kisses all over her cheeks, chin, and neck. “Don’t go.” I squeezed her to me, so hard she wheezed as I lifted her from the floor.
“I’ve got an assignment due, and you need to study. You’ve done nothing this week.” My arms let up a little, but I didn’t let go. “Toby.”
Placing a kiss on top of her head, I stepped away. “Go before I lock you upstairs.”
“Sounds kinky.”
My growl made her laugh, which only made my dick harden painfully. Just as she was about to leave, she called out through the house, “Oh, and FYI, the first place I looked was the sock drawer.”
Damn it.
“Kinky?” my dad asked curiously when I returned to my phone. Fuck, I should’ve muted that shit.
“You didn’t hear that.”
His loud belly laugh made me smile. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d heard laughter quite like that from him. “Okay, consider it wiped from my memory.” He cleared his throat. “Is this the reason you haven’t answered my calls?”
“Sorry.” I moved over to the table, collecting the bowls of cereal we’d had for a late afternoon snack, and took them to the sink to rinse. “And yes.”
“Her name?”
“Pippa.”
“Pippa,” my dad repeated thoughtfully. “Not just fun then, if I’m hearing about her.”
“Not just fun, no.”
“My, my. Do shut up, your information dumping is too extreme.”
I almost dropped the bowls while putting them in the dishwasher. “You’re not funny, dude.”
“Whatever.” He paused. “Serious then?”
“More serious than I’ve been before.” That didn’t sound right, so I went on. “She’s … yeah okay, I’m pretty far gone here.”
Some people might find talking to their parents about personal shit weird, but growing up, my dad was the only person who really understood me, so talking to him had always been relatively easy.
Quiet. “I see.”
I knew he was worried, and I didn’t want him to be. “I’m happy. I really am. And she knows.”
“She does, does she?” He blew out a rough breath. “You don’t need to treat it like a dirty secret, Toby. It’s more common than you think.”
I knew that, and it wasn’t some dirty secret. But it wasn’t something I’d ever walk around advertising either. “I know.”
“Okay. Well, when can I meet her?”
I paused halfway up the stairs. “You wanna meet her?”
“You’ll be home next weekend for Thanksgiving. Bring her along.”
I continued walking, grabbing the hamper of dirty clothes from my room and taking it downstairs to the laundry. “You don’t think it’s too soon?”
“Do you mean, do I think she’ll think that and get freaked out?”
I bit my lip, bending down in front of the machine and loading the clothes in. “Yeah.”
“Son …” He said something to someone in the background, his secretary probably, before he dismissed her and continued. “I can’t predict how she’ll react. I’ve never met her. But I’d really like to, so take a risk and ask her.”
Risks weren’t typically my thing. I turned the machine to the right settings. “You don’t think she’ll be worried about a marriage proposal soon after?”
He guffawed. “I think you’re overthinking it. Slow down, take a minute, and ask yourself. You know her, uh, well, I’m assuming.”
I choked back a laugh as I stood and poured some detergent in. “I’ll spare you the details. Go and get laid, Dad.”
He laughed again. We talked about the Thanksgiving game, and about how our neighbors at home installed security cameras because they were paranoid someone was stealing their new shrubs.
“It’s Gertrude,” Dad said.
I laughed, thinking about old Gertrude who lived six houses down and liked to steal things in her spare time. Things she thought no one would notice. “Of course, it is. We could’ve saved them some money.”
“Nah, I’m too curious to see how she’ll evade the cameras.”
We said goodbye, and I hung up just as Quinn walked in. “What’s up?” I tucked my phone into my pajama pants back pocket and followed him into the kitchen.
“Oh, you’ve surfaced from your den of … whatever the hell you’ve been doing in there.” He opened the fridge, grabbed a cold jug of water, and then reached for a glass from the cupboard.
“Don’t be jealous, dude.”
He scoffed, pouring himself a drink. “I’m not.”
I watched as he downed it in one go, then poured another. He was in gym gear. “Work out again?”
He downed that glass too before saying, “Needed to. It was either that or camp outside Daisy’s dorm. I swear”—he swiped a palm up his face and into his sweaty hair—“she probably thinks I’m a creeper of the wo
rst degree at this stage.”
He’d finally broken it off with Alexis, but it had all exploded in a spectacularly bad fashion. That was what happened when you slept with your ex before actually breaking up with your current girlfriend. He was trying to make it right, though. “There are degrees of creepers?”
He nodded. “Uh, yeah.”
“Right. Noted.” Pondering that for a minute too long, I wondered if I’d come across as too creepy over the past month.
Maybe Pippa liked creepy. Shaking my head, I decided to ask her later and made my way out of the kitchen when Quinn sighed. “I’m happy for you, dude. Really.”
I grinned and flipped him off before running up the stairs.
“What are you reading?” I asked, looking up from my textbook.
Toby grunted, holding up a finger.
I waited, inwardly smiling at his sprawled out, naked form. He laid there like some worn-out, satiated Greek Adonis, rubbing at his brow with a slow finger as his eyes absorbed the words on the page.
We’d been naked for well over an hour, but the door was locked, and I needed to finish studying for a biology quiz tomorrow morning.
“The Disappearance of Susie Westmore.”
“I know that,” I said, rising onto my elbows so my boobs stopped getting squished. “I can read the title. I mean, what’s it about?”
“It’s supposed to be a mystery, though I think it’s more of a mind fuck really. I’ve read it loads of times.”
“Oh.” I crept closer on my elbows, and he patted his chest, lifting an arm for me to settle into his side. “A favorite then.”
“It is.” He paused a second. “Want me to read some to you?”
Wow. My stomach flipped at his soft-spoken question. “Sure.”
I settled half on him, half on the bed, my head on his shoulder and my fingers tracing the indents of his abs as he started at the beginning of the chapter he’d already been reading.
“The air breathed hot down her neck, as though it was a silent alarm telling her to be careful. Susie ignored it. How stupid, she thought.”
I snorted. “That was her first mistake, wasn’t it?”
He reached around my body to cover my mouth with his hand. “Hush, wait.”
I bit his palm, and he hissed. I licked it, and he groaned, then groped my boob.
“The street was quiet, save for the scampering of rats among the dumpsters, and a baby wailing somewhere in the apartments that loomed high above. The wind picked up speed, tossing leaves around Susie’s ankles.”
His voice, already capable of doing things to me, was decadent as he read in a soft timbre. My heart melted, oozing into my arteries and rendering my limbs limp.
“Just as she was about to reach her apartment, a faint whistle reached her ears. ‘Just the wind,’ she whispered beneath her breath.”
“Oh, bullshit. Wake up, lady.”
Toby grabbed my nipple between his thumb and forefinger, slowly pinching. I wasn’t a fan of too much pain in the bedroom, and he knew it. “Ouch.” I laughed, squirming. “Okay, okay. I’ll shut up.”
He released my nipple, his thumb soothing the sting with a few gentle brushes.
“Gone were the days where one could feel safe walking down a back alley in the slums of New Davensville. Susie thought it ridiculous to imagine a time where she once played outdoors with her friends growing up, long after the sun had gone to sleep. The world only seemed to get more dangerous. Frightening things happened every day. It was a stupid idea to take Bridgett up on her offer for a drink after work, knowing her car was still in the repair shop.”
“Of course, it was.” The book snapped closed, and he dropped me to the mattress, rising over me like a pissed off god. “Sorry?” I offered, my voice a squeak.
“Really?” he asked, a thick brow quirked.
I mulled over how to play this. “That depends.”
“On what?” His voice got lower, his eyes dragging over my bare chest.
“On what you’re going to do to me if I’m not.”
His laugh sent shivers attacking me. He ducked his head, shoving it into my neck, and blew a loud raspberry that had me pushing at his shoulders. His hands swept down my sides, stopping at my hips. Then his pointer fingers dug in, and I squealed, flopping side to side underneath him as tears of laughter leaked out of my eyes. “If you didn’t like me reading to you, all you had to do was say so.”
I stopped moving as soon as his hands did, wiping my eyes and breathing heavily.
“What?” The playfulness had left his features, making way for uncertainty. “Toby, no. I loved having you read to me.”
“Really?”
He didn’t sound convinced, so I grabbed his hand, directing it between my legs for him to see for himself. “Really.”
He stared down at me while his fingers explored, some of his dark hair spilling onto his forehead. “I think I believe you.”
“Believe it, baby.”
With a smirk twitching his lips, he removed his finger and brought it to my lips, his pupils dilating as he watched his thumb and pointer finger drag over them. “I love it when you wear what I do to you.”
“You really are filthy,” I whispered, my breath hitching when he settled between my legs, grinding himself into me.
“You like it,” he rasped, licking me from my lips.
I didn’t disagree.
I think I’d like anything, but only if it was with him.
“He asked you to go home with him after the game?” I turned the page of my book.
Daisy was getting ready for work, tying her hair into a messy bun. “He did.”
“And?”
Her sigh was overly dramatic, and I shook my head with a small smile. “And he can’t just boss me around. Take me home and make everything okay.”
Her hesitation was understandable, but we all knew what’d happen. No matter what he’d done, Quinn was making up for it, and she was crumbling slowly. “Yet you’re going to go.”
“Am not.”
I turned the page. “Uh-huh.”
I looked up when she stayed silent. She bit her lip, fidgeting with the buttons on her shirt. “It’s too soon. What if Alexis finds out?”
“Yeah, well.” Glancing back down, I made a face at my book. Daisy caught it, tossing a pen at me. “What?”
She gave me a look that said I was being unfair. “She’s probably still really upset.”
“She got what she deserved. Now, if she’d kindly vacate campus so we didn’t have to run into her uber tall, backstabbing friend self, that’d be great.”
Daisy tried not to laugh, but I could practically feel it bubbling out of her without even looking. “Pippa.”
“Yeah, yeah. I’m sure she’s heartbroken.” Daisy walked around the room, and I tried to focus on my English reading, thinking about how I’d probably retain the text quicker if Toby read it to me instead. “That’s what happens when you steal someone’s boyfriend,” I muttered to the book.
“Heard that.”
“Not even sorry.”
Daisy sighed, plopping down on my bed and sending the highlighter and pen to the floor. Ugh. I reached down, slapping my hand around on the carpet until I found them, then hauled them up.
“You act like you’re lifting a brick.”
“Energy. I got none.” I got comfortable on my stomach again. “And thanks for picking them up, by the way.”
She checked her purse, huffing humorously. “No worries. Why no energy? Toby keeping you too busy?”
Giving up, I capped the highlighter and flopped down onto my back. “Kind of. We’re supposed to be taking it slow, right?”
Her laughter made me scrunch my nose. “Sorry, but what you’ve been doing isn’t slow,” she pointed out. “Toby wouldn’t know slow if his life depended on it.”
“Real helpful.”
“Aww. Come on.” She reached down, pinching my cheeks, her brown eyes filled with the vibrancy of her smile. “You can de
al. Or you would’ve stepped off that sexy train by now.”
“Sexy train?” I mumbled as she straightened.
She waved a hand. “Whatever. How’s he doing? Now that you guys have talked about his depression.”
“I don’t know if he’s even got depression.” Letting out a breath that made my body sag, I admitted, “We haven’t really spoken in depth about it. As much as he says I can ask him anything, I’m …”
“Scared?” Her voice was soft.
“I guess.” I didn’t think I was, but despite feeling comfortable around Toby, more than comfortable, a part of me felt like it was waiting for the right time to ask this stuff.
“Does he take the medication you found?”
“I don’t know for sure, but I don’t think so.”
Daisy went quiet, then got up and put her shoes on.
“I should talk to him about it, right?”
“You already know the answer to that.”
Blowing out a raspberry, I said, “Why does being mature about things feel so sucky?”
Daisy opened the door. “When you find out the answer, let a girl know.”
The door closed behind her, and I stared up at the ceiling a long while, knowing I needed to finish reading two more chapters before tomorrow but not caring anymore.
My phone buzzed, and I reached over to grab it from the nightstand.
Toby: I’m so fucking bored. Send me a picture of your tits?
Laughing, I responded.
Me: Um, no. Where are you?
Toby: Team meeting. Wanna hang after?
I glared at my book, but I knew if I’d spent more time working on it rather than with a certain blue-eyed boy, I’d have finished with it days ago.
Me: Gotta study. Call me before bed?
Toby: :( :(
Me: xoxo
Toby: All right. If I survive.
I put my phone down and returned to my reading, trying to push thoughts of him from my head.