Chapter 29
DELIRIOUS
The two of us spent the entire day on that mattress, playing music, talking, goofing off. We didn’t fool around too much, but who cared? It was just awesome enough to be there with her, have her all to myself for a little while, just the two of us, no clock to watch, no time or space beyond that queen-sized bed. We only left to grab something to eat or use the bathroom, to change the radio station on my boombox or throw on a CD.
By the time everyone came back for dinner, we were surprised that it had gotten so late. We reluctantly came downstairs and helped to demolish the pizzas waiting on the kitchen table, then cracked a few beers before picking numbers out of a hat for the shower schedule.
Lay went upstairs when it was her turn, and I snuck away almost immediately after. This time, I wasn’t skipping out on the fun.
I gave a quick knock on the bathroom door before slipping inside. The water was running, filling the room with steam as Lay poked her head out from behind the curtain. I pulled off my T-shirt and raised my eyebrows in silent request.
“Absolutely not, Chester. Don’t you dare.”
I laughed. “Aww come on, Lay-Lay. You’re no fun.”
“I mean it. Please don’t.”
It’s not like I really thought she’d invite me in for godsakes; I was totally teasing. “Fine. I’ll just wait out here until you’re done.”
“Promise?”
She looked so adorable, her brown eyes pleading from under her wet lashes, sexy and shy all at once. “Yeah, I promise. But at least give me the play-by-play of what I’m missing out on in there.”
She stifled a giggle in response and I figured that was that. I picked up one of the decorative soaps when suddenly, a sultry vixen piped up from behind the curtain. “Wellll, the water is so hot and it’s so steamy in here. God, I’m so wet and it feels so good.”
My dick immediately sprang to attention. The rest of me froze in shock.
“Now I’m soaping myself down, running my hands allll over my body...”
Of course my mind was envisioning her slick soapy hands touching every inch of her gorgeous naked self. Oh Jesus.
She chose that moment to peek her head out and check out her handiwork. I was staring at her speechless, my jaw slack, disbelieving. “Layla, what the fuck?”
But she was far from done. She disappeared out of sight again, her voice a seductive slither. “It’s so slippery! And mmmm... it smells like Heaven. Now I’m rinsing off... the hot water spraying me everywhere.”
Holy shit. I was dying to get my hands on her. I had to see what she looked like naked. It was absolute torture knowing she was only one thin shower curtain away. I could strip down and join her. I could help wash her off. “That’s it. I’m coming in.”
“No!” she answered back in a panic. She poked her head back out to add, “You promised, remember?”
Shit. I totally did.
I groaned as I shot her a side-eye. “Oh, you little tease.” She clamped a hand over her mouth and attempted to stifle her giggling. “Oh you think it’s funny? Look what you’ve done to me.” I shifted my erection in my cargo shorts, trying to calm the thing down. No use.
She vanished behind the curtain again and shut the water. I grabbed her towel off the counter and handed it to her. I swear I was a total gentleman. I didn’t even peek. But Christ, I really wanted to.
“You sure you don’t want to help dry me off?’
Fuck! I pressed a palm against my raging hard-on, trying like hell to relieve the pressure. This thing wasn’t going anywhere on its own. “Holy crap, Lay. You’re gonna have to hurry up and get out of here. If you’re not going to finish what you started, I’ve gotta take care of this thing on my own. Now.”
She slid the curtain aside to reveal her beautiful wet form wrapped in a towel. I was drooling like a goddamned animal. There was no way I could take much more of this.
And that’s when she raised her head, revealing a playful flicker in her eyes. “Who said I wasn’t going to finish it?”
I was paralyzed as she stepped toward me, backing me against the counter, running her hand along the front of my shorts. I almost came right then and there.
Instinct took over as I grabbed her wet hair in my fists and slammed our mouths together, dying for this girl.
Our panting breaths mingled as our tongues tangled, dangerously close to combusting, already losing control. And that’s the moment she unbuttoned my shorts and slid down my zipper.
Oh holy fuck this is really happening.
I was in pure disbelief as her warm hand wrapped around me, sending me into a spiral of mindless oblivion. My mouth crashed to hers again as my hips impulsively thrusted toward the motion of her hand, fucking her palm. Groaning. Dying.
She moaned against my mouth and I almost lost it. I pulled back, an attempt to get my breathing under control. My hands braced in a white-knuckle grip against the counter as I tipped my head to the ceiling and hissed through my teeth. Layla’s hand kept up its pace, working me over, up and down my shaft... and fuck if it didn’t feel phenomenal.
Her head lowered to my neck to nibble along my skin and I was pretty much done for.
“Layla.” My brain wasn’t in control any longer. The only thing on my mind was her and how good she was making me feel. I wanted to tell her. I wanted to fuck her. I wanted to whisper my agony in her ear while I was buried inside her. But the only word that left my lips was, “Layla.”
I couldn’t hold on any longer. My world was coming apart. Every nerve ending twisted inside of me, every muscle tensed under my electrified skin. She gripped me harder and sped up the rhythm of her hand, and that was it.
I was gone.
“Layla. Oh man... just keep... oh holy Jesus...” I cursed and prayed and let out with a booming growl as I shot my wad against her towel, my body almost folding in half from the force of coming so hard.
My hand wrapped around hers as the aftershocks surged out of me until it felt as though every ounce of my soul had been drained. I collapsed against her with my face buried against her neck, my arms around her waist. Kissed her skin. Smelled her hair. I was exhausted, standing there with my shorts around my ankles, so euphoric about what we’d just done. Giddy, even. I couldn’t contain my chuckles.
I was still snickering when her tiny whisper tickled against my ear. “I’m in love with you.”
Every molecule in my body went numb at her words. In my defense, I was kind of dazed right at the moment from a mind-blowing orgasm. My brain had just been liquefied. Plus, I wasn’t really sure I’d heard her correctly. I mean, I was pretty out of it.
The seconds stretched into hours as I stood there, suspended in disbelief. I didn’t know how to react to the words I wasn’t even sure she’d actually spoken. No way she really said that. And if she did, there’s no way she really meant it. Right?
Right.
I let out with an awkward chuckle and gave her a chaste peck on the lips before getting dressed and washing up at the sink. I still needed to take a shower, so I told Lay I’d meet her downstairs when I was through. She pulled the towel tighter around her body before silently exiting the room.
I turned on the water and stepped into the tub, her last words to me running in a loop through my brain: I’m in love with you.
She definitely said it. I may have been in an altered state at the exact second she did, but I knew I’d heard her correctly.
I was hoping she meant it.
I was terrified she meant it.
Because either way, I couldn’t believe I missed my chance to say it back. There I was, presented with the perfect opportunity to tell her how I felt... and I choked.
Blew my opportunity right along with my load.
But come on. She probably didn’t really mean it anyway. Just something she said during a very charged moment. She didn’t love me, she loved what we’d just done together. People say crazy things in the heat of an emotional release. It’s not as if something like that had never happened to me before. Sex opens up the floodgates and lets the insanity wash in.
I never had a girl tell me she loved me, though.
Damn, those words sounded amazing coming from her lips. Sure, they were just words, but they still sounded cool. It would’ve been way cooler if she meant them.
Why’d she have to go and say something like that after hooking up, for godsakes? Why couldn’t she have said it when we both had our wits about us and I could know for sure that it wasn’t just sex-babble?
There I was, so focused on my feelings about the matter when I suddenly realized Layla must’ve been mortified. Judging by the way she awkwardly scurried out of the room a few minutes ago, I was pretty sure she was regretting the outburst.
I tipped my head back into the hot water, thinking about everything Lay and I had just done together, finding myself hard all over again. I didn’t hesitate to fist one hand against the tile wall and the other around my cock, pumping furiously as I envisioned every second of our hookup from start to finish: The memory of Layla’s soft, choppy breaths against my skin. The mischievous look in her eyes as she unzipped my shorts. The feel of her fingers around my dick.
But it wasn’t until I replayed her shy whisper against my ear... I’m in love with you... that I came.
I collapsed against the wall as I attempted to pull myself together. The rushing water baptized me of my sins, allowing my brain to regain function.
Fuck it. Maybe I should just tell her how I felt about her, how I’d been feeling all year. Let the chips fall where they may.
I dried off quickly with all intentions of barging right into her room and telling her everything. I knotted the towel around my waist and practically sprinted across the hallway. When I was met with a closed door, I gave a soft knock before cracking it open.
Layla was already asleep.
Yeah, fine, I admit it, I was discouraged. But I was also a little relieved. I mean, maybe it was better that way. We were just back on track after all those months apart, and I didn’t want to do anything to ruin what we had going. I shouldn’t have been looking to press the situation. What would be the point? To hear her tell me that I was getting way too serious way too soon? It wouldn’t exactly be the smartest move to put myself out there just to get trampled.
In other words, I simply wimped out.
The only thing left to do was to go downstairs and join my friends.
I wasn’t halfway through my first beer when everyone decided to go up to the boardwalk. The scene was completely different than the one I’d been introduced to the day before. Layla was right when she said the place came to life on the weekends, and I pivoted my head around, taking it all in.
The blinding neon lights flashed above the prize booths, arcades, and every ride along the pier. Actual crowds of people walked along the endless stretch of boards. On every inhale, I was graced with a mouth-watering perfume of pizza, cotton candy, and fried everything... It all combined to create a perfect sensory overload.
The metal shutters had been raised on a bunch of the booths, the thwapthwapthwap of their prize wheels spinning away. Bells and whistles and blaring music provided a background track to the carnival barkers who called us over to try our luck.
When I spotted the jewelry booth, I directed our group over to try and win a mood ring for Layla. But after five dollars’ worth of quarters, I was no closer to my goal than when I started. Cooper won one for Becca instead. It would’ve been infuriating if he wasn’t so damned cool.
I ended up buying a candy necklace for her from the confectionary next door.
Rymer, however, had no interest in trying to win anything other than the girl working the candy stand. He was really giving it his all, and rather than call him out, we all sat back and watched the show. It was pure entertainment. After crashing and burning with a few cheesy pickup lines, he finally went for broke and told her to come to the house after her shift.
Like that was going to happen.
But sure as shit, about two hours later, there we were back at the house, listening to music, playing Quarters at the kitchen table... and what do you know. She showed up.
Rymer didn’t even offer her a drink before he escorted her into the next room, and within minutes, we were subjected to the sound of those two making out on the couch.
After a half hour of their exhibitionism, Cooper couldn’t take it, finally pinching the bridge of his nose in frustration. “Jesus Christ, Rymer! Just take my room for fucksake!”
We all laughed our asses off as Pick asked, “What was that thing he said before? His ‘expert’ advice?”
“That thing about dealing with girls after sex?” Coop asked as he bounced a quarter into the glass. “He said, and I quote... Anything a chick says post-orgasm doesn’t count.”
I thought about how I’d reacted after Layla’s I’m in love with you, and had already come to the same conclusion myself. It didn’t really make me feel too great to find that I was in agreement with Rymer about something, but I was glad for the seconded opinion just the same. “Hate to admit it, but the guy has a point.”
Sarge snorted. “You actually believe that shit?”
“It’s true!” I said, looking to the girls for confirmation. Heather refused to meet my eyes, Becca was too busy stifling her giggles to offer commentary, but Lisa shrugged and nodded in reluctant accord.
Sarge’s brows furrowed as he asked, “Does it still count if I’m the only one that had an orgasm?”
We were already snickering at his question when Lisa piped in. “What I don’t believe is Rymer was actually capable of giving anyone an orgasm. Himself included.”
We all sputtered out a laugh as Pick threw an arm around Lisa and chuckled into her hair. Lay had said they were fighting but they both seemed to be in a pretty damn good mood. Maybe they made up.
Becca leaned into Coop. “Hey. If Rymer is taking over our room, where are we going to sleep?”
Our room? We? I guessed the guys must have changed up the room assignments at some point. Huh.
Coop leaned back in his chair and threw an arm around Becca’s shoulders. He let out with a sympathetic sigh as he offered, “Sofa City, sweetheart.”