He saw me coming.

Charlie’s door was wide open, light pouring out from his apartment when I got to his stairs. He stood leaning against the doorjamb, with a kitchen towel slung over one shoulder and a smile on his face.

“If you’d gone the other way, I would have chased you, you know,” he said as I climbed the steps.

“Are you stalking me now?” I asked.

He held out his arms and I walked right into them, fitting my face in the crook of his neck.

He stroked the back of my hair, and asked, “Now? This isn’t a new development.”

“I don’t mind.” I pulled his mouth down to mine and kissed him softly. “And there really wasn’t a choice. I was never going to go the other way.”

We went inside, and he pulled me to the kitchen, then directed me to sit on a stool at the counter.

“I gave dinner my all. I make no guarantees it’s edible, though,” he said.

I took a deep breath, inhaling the vivid scents of the food he’d made. “It smells good. Curry?” I asked.

He rubbed the back of his neck. “Yeah. Shit. I should have asked if you like Thai food.”

I grinned at his nervousness. “I love Thai food, Charlie.”

He nodded absently and looked around his kitchen. “Rad. I know it’s not really soup weather, but I read a BuzzFeed article about dinners that would impress any date, and this one looked the healthiest, and frankly, easiest, so I made you coconut curry over quinoa.”

I had never seen Charlie flustered. And I had never been so turned-on in my life. All of my nerves were gone, replaced by hot desire. I wanted him. I didn’t think I’d be able to sit through dinner and talk about our days until I had him.

“Charlie?”

He turned to me as if I’d startled him. “Yes, Eliza?”

“Are all the burners off? And the oven?”

He furrowed his brow, but nodded. “Yeah. Hungry?”

“Will dinner be ruined if it waits a little while?” I started unbuttoning the front of my silky shirt.

He watched my fingers move from button to button, and I watched him.

“It’ll keep,” he said gruffly.

Charlie stepped in front of me, and I opened my legs so he could move closer. He put his hands on mine, but didn’t stop me from my task.

“What are you doing?” he asked.

“I really want you right now,” I said. All my buttons were undone, and I shrugged my shirt down my shoulders, leaving me in my black camisole.

“Are you sure?” he asked.

I pulled his hips until he was pressed tightly against me, his hardness right against my aching core. “Absolutely,” I said.

He skated his fingertips down my arms until he reached my hands, and then he held them in his own and kissed each knuckle, making me shiver. He wrapped his arms around my back, and our mouths found each other.

I opened for him, his tongue swirling around mine, my tongue licking and sliding along his. Charlie cupped the back of my head and held me steady while he worshipped my lips and tongue and teeth and chin and cheeks with his deep, unyielding kisses.

I pushed his T-shirt up and slid my palms up his stomach and sides. This was my first time really touching him and oh, did his skin feel good under my hands.

Charlie pulled away from my mouth and yanked his shirt over his head. My mouth watered at the sight of him. Later, I would take my time and explore every line and muscle and tattoo, but right now, I needed to have as much of my body touching his as possible. I untucked my camisole from my trousers and pulled it off, so I was topless too.

Charlie exhaled roughly. “Eliza, goddamn.”

He cupped my small breasts, his rough hands engulfing them, then he leaned down and circled the tip of his tongue around one of my hard nipples. My back arched from the sensation of his hot mouth on my body, and that seemed to be all the encouragement he needed. He pulled me closer and kissed and sucked my nipple until I whimpered.

He lavished the same attention on the other breast while I squirmed, seeking friction—anything to relieve the building ache.

“Charlie, I need more,” I said.

He brought his face up from my chest and licked from my collarbone to my ear.

“I’ll give you what you need, Eliza.” He reached for the button of my pants, but looked up at me before he went any further. I nodded once in answer to his unspoken question. He trailed a finger down between my breasts to my belly button, and then he opened my pants and I lifted my hips so he could slide them off, along with my underwear.

Charlie moved away from me a step, and I leaned back against the counter, letting him look at me. I could almost feel his eyes traveling from my feet, up my muscular legs, to the small patch of dark hair below my belly, up to linger on my breasts, so taut with need, and finally to my face. When our eyes met, my lips parted slightly, and I sighed. Without thought, I spread my legs, welcoming him between them.

“Eliza...you are...I mean, how did I get so lucky?”

I laughed softly. “Come back here.”

Then he was in my space again, his mouth molded to mine and his hands all over. I wrapped my legs around his waist, my ass barely on the edge of the stool. But I knew he had me. He wasn’t going to let me fall.

Charlie finally slid a hand down my belly into my slick folds. I moaned against his mouth and ground my core against his hand. His finger circled around my opening, then plunged inside, making me gasp. It had been a long time, like a really looooong time, since anything had been inside me. I had almost forgotten how good it could feel.

He kneeled down in front of me, and I was so out of my mind with want, I didn’t realize what he was doing until he was kissing up the inside of my thigh.

“Oh, you don’t have to do that,” I said. I tried to close my legs, but he wasn’t moving.

He looked up at me. “Does it look like you forced me down here?”

It didn’t. He looked like a man on a mission between my thighs. He looked like he was exactly where he wanted to be. And damn, if kissing him was any indication of what it would be like for him to go down on me…

I ran my hand through his hair and widened my legs. Charlie grinned and kissed my thigh again, then moved to the very center of me, running his nose and lips up and down my outer folds. I tried to watch, but my eyes refused to stay open, and all I was aware of was Charlie’s mouth and hands.

Charlie slung my legs over his shoulders and pulled me to his mouth. He worked his tongue between my folds, and when he found my swollen clit, my legs started to shake. Then he slid two fingers inside me, making my grip on his hair tighten. He didn’t stop, though. His tongue pressed against the sensitive bud while he pumped his fingers inside me.

The combination of how long it had been since I’d been with a man, being with Charlie, and the way he played my body so expertly had me on the edge in minutes.

“Charlie, oh my god, Charlie!” I panted.

He hummed against me as he licked, and I let go. My legs clamped around his shoulders and my hips lifted off the stool as my entire body clenched. My orgasm came quickly, but it lingered, cresting and crashing over and over. Charlie rode out the wave with me, keeping constant pressure on my clit until finally, my body fell limp.

He stood, kissing up my belly as he went, all while supporting me. He lifted me up, and I wrapped my legs around him as he carried me to the bedroom.

“You are far, far sexier than I even imagined. And fuck, in my imagination, you were sexy as all hell,” he whispered into my ear.

I wrapped my arms around his neck and ran my hand up the back of his head.

“I still need you, Charlie. So, so much.”

He put me down on the edge of the bed and stood in front of me. I ran my hands down the outside of his thighs and around to his hard ass. Then I looked up at him as I unsnapped his jeans. He nodded down at me, so I pushed his jeans and underwear down his hips.

I looked up at him again, and he pushed my bangs out of my eyes tenderly. Wrapping my hand around his length, I watched him watch me. He groaned softly when I slid my hand up and down his hardness.

Taking him in my mouth, I slid my tongue against the ridge along the front. Charlie’s hips moved with my mouth, forward and back, as I went up and down.

“Eliza...damn, so good. I gotta be inside you, though.” He pushed my mouth off him, not that I resisted. I was going to go crazy without Charlie inside me.

I lay back on the bed as he took his pants the rest of the way off before joining me. He kneeled between my open legs and gazed down at me.

He shook his head. “Look at you.”

Squirming, I reached for my breasts, kneading them, and then I used my legs to pull Charlie down on top of me. His shaft was perfectly aligned with my clit, and I rocked my hips up, rubbing myself against him.

He reached over to his bedside table and pulled out a condom.

“You want to?” he asked, holding the package out to me.

I shook my head. I was entirely out of practice at putting on a condom. He ripped it open and reached between us to slide it on. Then he was back, his hips pressed to mine, his cock nudging at my opening.

Our eyes met as he slid inside me. He was big, and I was tight, so he eased out, then slid back in again, this time all the way. He stilled, watching me as I adjusted myself, getting used to the way he filled me.

My friend, my Charlie, was inside me. Charlie in me, over me, around me, was all that mattered in the world at that moment. He was my world at that moment. He was all I saw and felt. The rightness of what we were doing hit me hard. This was how it was supposed to be.

I squeezed his sides with my knees and tilted my hips up, letting him know he could move. And he did. He started with long, deep thrusts, leaning down to kiss my lips and neck and breasts while he moved.

I spread my hands over his strong arms, gripping the tight muscles as I met him thrust for thrust.

“I’m sorry, Eliza, but there’s no way I’m going to last,” Charlie panted.

He got on his knees, draping my legs over his shoulders, his eyes never leaving my body.

I couldn’t believe it, but I was close again. I never came more than once during sex, yet here I was, already starting to tremble. I reached down my body and rubbed slow circles on my clit.

Charlie groaned and kissed the ankle next to his face. “Keep doing that. You’re so fucking hot. You feel so amazing,” he said.

With my other hand, I pinched and rolled my nipple, as much for Charlie to see as it was for me to feel.

His thrusts became frantic, but somehow, still controlled. I could tell he was concentrating, trying to stave off his orgasm, but I wasn’t as disciplined as he was. I circled my clit faster and threw my head back as I came around Charlie’s thrusting shaft.

I cried out his name and any other word that popped into my head as my body squeezed his. He let out a bellowing groan as he pounded into me hard, stilling himself deep inside.

Charlie let my legs down and collapsed on top of me while his dick pulsed inside me. I wrapped my arms and legs around him, holding him tight against me.

“Am I crushing you?” he asked into my hair.

“You are, but I like it,” I said.

We lay wrapped in each other for a while before Charlie sighed and rolled off me, pulling me with him so I was snugly by his side. Once he got rid of the condom, he held me with both arms, stroking my back as I rested my cheek on his chest.

“I can honestly say I did not see that coming,” Charlie said.

I giggled. “It wasn’t planned. See? You’re rubbing off on me.”

“In more ways than one.”

I bit the side of his chest, making him laugh. “Hilarious.”

He tilted my chin back and looked at my face. “How is everything so natural with you? It’s just so...good.”

I smiled softly. “I don’t know. But yeah, that was...good.”

“Can we do that a lot more times?” he asked.

My smile grew. “I think we should. Just to make sure that wasn’t a fluke and it’s always so...good.”

“Hey, Eliza?”

“Yes, Charlie?”

“You liked when I went down on you, right?”

I rubbed my lips together. “Couldn’t you tell?”

He lifted up on his elbow and searched my face with his eyes. “I could tell. And I don’t need to know why you thought I wouldn’t want to do it. I just gotta tell you, I fucking love going down on you. I will lick and kiss every inch of your body if you let me. Every part is gorgeous and delicious. You never have to worry that I’m not into any part of your body. Got it?”

I sucked in a breath, surprised, but I nodded. “Got it, Charlie. And thank you. Sometimes I need some straight talking. I’m not used to having a man like you.”

He kissed me softly, sucking my bottom lip between his, then leaned his forehead on mine.

“Get used to it, Eliza. You’re not escaping me. This is the real deal.”

“The realest,” I agreed.

“Hungry?”

I giggled and said, “Starved!”

“Then let’s get you fed.”

Just one night ago, I’d been out to dinner with Alex, having the most awkward date of my life. And here I was with Charlie, my friend and now my lover. It should have felt rushed or weird. But he was right, nothing had ever felt more natural, more sure. This was the realest.