I swam to the far end, then stood. The shallow water hit just beneath my breasts, so they floated in front of me, like an offering.

AJ rose and turned, eyes fixed on me as I reached up and pinched one of my nipples. I couldn't hold back a cry, and he answered with a moan.

He made an impressive picture, his tall, muscled body naked with the starry night sky as a backdrop. For an instant, looking at him, I couldn't breathe. He was stunning. The depth of my desire for him overwhelmed me; I felt like I was going to cry, but also like I wanted to laugh. And while that desire was very much rooted in sex, it went beyond that. I wanted all of him in a way I'd never wanted a guy before. Apparently this was the difference when you had sex with a friend.

I sucked in much-needed air and reached out to him.

He required no more encouragement. He dove off the board and, while no means a sloppy dive, it lacked the earlier careful grace. The underwater lights allowed me to watch his progress as he swam to me. Yet it was still enough of a shock when his tongue speared between my legs, I cried out, then immediately put my hand over my mouth.

Except out here, I could be as loud as I wanted. The nearest neighbor was too far away to hear, and our friends weren't a risk the way they were in our apartments. So when he licked a path up the center of my body, I let myself vocalize how good it felt.

His face broke the surface and he sucked in a gulp of air. I expected him to kiss me, but instead he pulled one nipple into his mouth and sucked.

Hard.

Lights burst behind my eyelids and I dug my fingers into his shoulders. "AJ!"

His hand went to my other nipple and he worked them both, his movements impatient. His thigh pushed apart my knees, and in an instant I pressed down against the slick muscle he offered. He pushed and I rocked and he sucked and pinched and nipped and I moaned. I gasped. I yelled his name and how good he made me feel.

"Damn, that's hot." He trailed his mouth up my chest and neck until he met mine. His arms came around me, and his tongue thrust against mine as we devoured each other. I clung to his shoulders, riding his thigh, desperate for relief.

"Hand or mouth?" he murmured.

In answer, I pulled my lips free, put my hands behind me on the pool deck, and hoisted myself out of the water. I spread my thighs and used my feet to pull him into the space between my knees. Leaning back on my elbows, I offered myself to him.

He glanced at my pussy, then at my face. "Point made." With a grin, he kissed me. A wet, open-mouth kiss with lots of tongue that stroked my clit and made me see stars that weren't really there.

I tried to focus on the stars that were there, in the sky above me, but the draw of AJ was too much. So I watched him. Watched his blond head bent over my lap, my legs draped over his shoulders, his fingertips visible on my thighs while his unseen thumbs teased my lips.

Again I was so overwhelmed, I couldn't breathe. It was too good, this thing between us.

He slid two fingers inside and his thumb down to the crease of my ass. My vision dimmed and my breath returned in gasps.

No longer able to think, I flopped on my back on the concrete and ran my hands over AJ's fuzzy hair. Since he was no longer shaving it for swimming, a first in the four years I'd known him, it was starting to grow longer. It felt like the soft velour blankets some hotels had on their beds. That sensation blended with all the others swirling through me, the most prominent being the intense need to find just the right angle, just the right touch so I could come.

Fingers still working inside me, he lifted his head. "Keep talking, babe. That's so fucking hot."

I tried to nod, but my head just rolled to the side. "That feels so good. Please don't stop."

He drew a circle around my clit with his tongue. I arched and cried. He sucked me into his mouth, and pleasure speared up through the center of my body, a bright pulse of sensation that took me to the edge. "AJ, please. Please."

He responded with a murmur of approval. Then he twisted his fingers just so, and sucked and licked just right, and I exploded. The stars in my head melded with the stars overhead, joining the fireworks rocketing through my body. And he held me, stroking me, seeing me through to the end.

When my hips sagged back to the edge of the pool, part of me wanted to go limp and revel in the afterglow. But a more urgent part of me wanted more. We weren't done. I had moved past want; he'd just satisfied want. But I needed to join my body to his, in a way I couldn't explain.

I sat up, and he was starting at me, his brown eyes hot and wild and as desperate as I felt. For an instant we stayed like that, breathing hard, watching each other. Then I lifted my hand and reached for him and he yanked me into the water, into his arms, and kissed me.

Rough, desperate kisses unlike any we'd shared so far, drove us. I wrapped my arms and legs around him, needing to get closer, needing all of him.

He slid a hand under my butt, the other around my back, and started slogging through the pool.

"What are you doing?" I managed to ask between kisses.

He drew his tongue along my jaw, to my ear. "Inside. I didn't bring a condom out."

A shudder ran through me, the implication of his words turning me on as much as anything he could do to my body.

As he walked, we continued to kiss and taste each other. I didn't dare move my hands from around his neck, so I was forced to simply take his explorations with no expectation of reciprocation.

One of his hands slid farther over my butt, his fingers teasing the crease. I shuddered again. He continued to torture me as we reached the patio door. Somehow, he managed to open the sliding door without ever stopping his torture. We left a wet trail on the rec room carpet as he headed for the basement guest room we'd decided to sleep in. My old room was two flights up, and we'd agreed we wanted easier access to the bed. Plus it made it easier to let Roxy in and out.

The bedroom was pitch black, so AJ fumbled for the light switch. The move jostled me in his arms, and caused his fingers to do amazing things. I arched against him and whimpered.

Finally he reached the bed and sank down on the side, holding me in his lap. He held one ass cheek in each hand and pulled them apart in a way that had me squirming.

"You really like that."

I answered with a moan, shamelessly moving against him.

"Do you want…to, like…you know…."

I stilled as I realized what he was asking. "You mean, like, have sex? Back there?"

He nodded.

I tried to read his expression, but it was carefully neutral. His body was tense, but that was because we were naked and horny.

I chewed on my bottom lip. "I don't think so. I mean, not right now. Maybe, eventually? Maybe?" He had to bring this up now. Couldn't have waited until maybe after. Because this was possibly the most awkward conversation we'd ever had.

His breath whooshed out of him. "OK, sure. Maybe…eventually."

A nervous laugh burst out of me. "I thought all guys were dying to try that."

He ducked his head and busied himself by nibbling on my collarbone. The awkward moment rapidly melted away. "I mean, it doesn't sound awful. If you wanted to, I would try it. But it's not a top five fantasy or anything."

He had a top five fantasy list? "We need to revisit the top five fantasy idea another time." I rolled my hips, my clit rubbing the base of his very revived cock.

We both moaned and his teeth grazed the side of my neck.

"I need you, Claudia." He lifted his head and looked at me. His eyes were shining, lust-coated yet clear. Like he could see deep inside me.

I stilled, unable to move when he looked at me like that. Unable to breathe. His hand came up and brushed wet hair off my shoulder, then cupped my cheek. His thumb trailed my lower lip.

"You are so beautiful." An odd expression flashed over his face, almost confused.

I couldn't find words to answer him. My chest filled with longing, so that each breath hurt.

"My purse," I blurted out.

Wait, what?

He frowned. "What?"

I shook my head to clear the…whatever the hell that just was. Not lust. I'd experienced lust plenty of times. The previous moment with AJ had been bizarre. "Condoms. In my purse."

I twisted to the side, reaching for the nightstand. A few awkward stretches with his hands both supporting and teasing me, and I had what we needed. I reached between us and rolled it on him and then, his hands gripping my hips, I went up on my knees and lowered myself onto him.

Despite his recent orgasm, he was fully ready to take me. And despite my recent orgasm, I wanted him inside me as much as I ever had. We started slow, his hands holding me, helping me move up and down him. His mouth moved restlessly over my neck and chest, then finally he took one breast in his mouth. I arched and cried, holding his head to me as he teased.

As blissful as it was for me, there was a restless tension in him that said it wasn't working for him. I cupped his cheeks and lifted his head. "What do you need?"

With a groan, he kissed me, a hungry fusing of our mouths. In the same movement, he stood, never leaving my body. He turned and laid me on the bed, coming down on top of me. It only took a moment for us to find our rhythm, still slow and languid, our mouths and tongues moving in tandem with his cock deep inside me.

Gradually, our pace picked up. I couldn't breathe, so I pulled my mouth free, one hand at his cheek, our foreheads pressed together. My lashes fluttered open to find him watching me. The world narrowed to just the two of us. His eyes gazing so deep into me, mine gazing back, feeling like I could see everything inside him. In the periphery, the sight of our bodies stretched out together, coinciding with the flood of sensation building, building, climbing.

I forced my fingers not to dig into his cheek, not wanting to hurt him. With my other hand, my nails found purchase in his back. He sucked in a sharp breath, then exhaled on a moan. When I drew them down toward his ass, and again sank deep enough to leave a mark, he pulled my lower lip between his teeth.

"That's how it is, huh?" He pushed up onto his elbows and slammed into me so hard it came just shy of hurting.

I kept my eyes open, but starbursts filled my field of vision. "AJ!"

He did it again, with the same result.

My other hand found his ass, and I yanked him to me again. Over and over he pounded into my body and over and over I climbed higher and closer to those starbursts. I gripped him with my nails, pulling him tighter with each thrust. We grunted and groaned like animals and it was amazing, pleasure like I'd never felt.

He pounded and thrust and I clawed and climbed and then I burst on a sob and he grunted and shoved deep and together we shook and panted and gasped and even as we soared, we clung to each other, stroking and kissing and murmuring words I didn't understand but didn't care it was so good and it never seemed to end and I'd never felt more alive and free yet AJ was right there with me and it was perfect and I never wanted the feeling to end.

But of course it did. Because how awkward would it be to live in a state of suspended orgasm? "Hi, Mom, what's for di—Ooh!"

And because my thoughts and feelings were so jumbled and chaotic, I laughed out loud at the idea. I was still trembling from what was possibly the most amazing, definitely the most emotionally intense orgasm of my life, AJ still inside me and trembling in my arms, and I was laughing.

And not just a light chuckle. No, a full-on belly laugh that rolled through me, swirling into the aftereffects of orgasm, so that the humor brought shudders of pleasure and mirth. I clung to AJ, wanting to share my joy with him, plus wanting to get every last bit of pleasure I could find.

"What?" he asked, breathless.

I couldn't speak, so I shook my head and kissed his shoulder and continued to laugh. I pictured going to class while having an orgasm. Working in the greenhouse and pausing to let a wave of bliss roll over me. Watching Friends on my couch with AJ and…

OK, that one wasn't so far off.

As laughter can be, this was contagious. AJ started to chuckle, and his too turned into deep laughs that shook his shoulders. He slipped out of me, and we lay on our sides laughing. Tears squeezed out of the corners of my eyes.

Five minutes must have passed before we finally calmed. The room was silent save for the gasping sounds of our breath. Orgasm plus a long laugh made for empty lungs. I was light-headed and I knew very little of it was due to AJ.

"Why were we laughing?" he finally asked.

I looked away, and if I could have blushed, I would have. But I was already flushed from the sex and the laughing. I drew an absent pattern on the quilt with my finger. "I, well." It sounded really dumb in my head. It was going to be even worse when I said it out loud.

Which was so stupid. When had I ever cared about sharing stupid thoughts with AJ? "I thought how I didn't want this to end, because it was probably the best orgasm I've ever had, and then I thought how weird would it be to actually have an orgasm that never ended, and you're walking around always having an orgasm. That would just be so weird, and…."

He was staring at me so I stopped talking. "Yeah, dumb. But my mind wasn't exactly functioning at its best. Fantastic orgasm and all."

He still didn't say anything. Just watched me, corners of his mouth twitching.

Without warning, he slid his hand behind my head and pulled me in for a kiss. It was firm and relatively chaste, and over before I could sink into it. He pulled back, hand still holding my head, grin splitting his face. "Best orgasm ever?"

Of course he focused on that part. I rolled my eyes. "Don't let it go to your head."

Chuckling, he sat up. "Too late." He headed for the bathroom.

I grabbed the throw blanket from the floor — we must have kicked it off — and went to let Roxy in. Except AJ hadn't bothered closing it when we came in, so I had no idea if the dog was inside or out. Wrapped in the blanket, I wandered the pool deck, collecting AJ and my discarded swimwear and calling for Roxy. She had an electronic collar that would jolt her if she tried to cross the border of my parents' property, so I wasn't worried she'd run off.

After a minute she came bounding out of the bushes, barking a greeting and running for the house. She paused for me to scratch her head, then ran inside and headed upstairs to her food and water.

Back in the bedroom, I found AJ stretched out on the bed, hands behind his head, totally comfortable in his nakedness. As he should be, with a body that beautiful. I wanted to be that comfortable too, so I swallowed the tangle of nerves in my throat and tossed the blanket on the foot of the bed.

He made a low sound of appreciation, and it warmed me more than the blanket.

"You tired? Or you want to watch some TV?" he called as I went to the bathroom to hang our suits.

I returned to the bedroom and pulled my toiletry bag out of my small suitcase. "I need to take a shower. The chlorine is murder on my hair." Did I ask him to join me? We'd fooled around plenty in the shower, but after two killer orgasms, I wasn't up for round three yet.

He scooted to the edge of the bed nearest me. "Mind if I join you? I could use a rinse too. Your parents use a lot of chlorine. I promise, I am in no way up for harassing you more." He grinned, and winked in a way that was so corny and over-the-top, I laughed.

"As long as you promise to behave."

He swatted my ass as I started for the bathroom.

"Hey!"

"I in no way promised I'd behave."