Chapter 18

Melany

THE PAST WEEK had been a specific type of torture the likes of which I’d never known. Seven days. Seven freaking days had passed since I eavesdropped on Chance’s little self-pleasure sesh in the shower. One-hundred-and-sixty-eight hours… give or take a few minutes of pure, unadulterated Hell.

For the first time in my life, I experienced true sexual frustration, and let me just tell you, it was exhausting! I wasn’t sleeping well, because every time I closed my eyes, I pictured him. When I finally did manage to drift off and hit my REM, the graphic dreams of the two of us together would wake me up, panting, sweaty, unfulfilled.

But the hours I spent awake were just as bad. The longer I stayed with him, the more I came to realize two things. First, Chance was an affectionate guy. He liked to touch. Whether it was brushing my bangs from my forehead, running his fingers across my skin as he passed, or pulling me against him when we sat together in front of the television, he was always touching me. I loved it, even though it was driving my body crazy and made my budding feelings for him that much worse. Second, he seemed to have an aversion to wearing a shirt when he was at home. Maybe it was because he spent five days a week stuck in a confining suit, but when he was home, he was shirtless. Always. Again… something I loved, even though my blood heated every time I looked at him.

See? Hell!

“Hey.”

Chance’s voice startled a jump from me, and I twisted from my position on the couch to look over the back at him. Even though it was a Sunday, he’d gone into the office earlier that morning to get some work done on a case that was going to court soon. Constance was busy with the kids, so I’d decided to curl up on the comfy sofa for a Twilight marathon. I was on the third movie when he came sauntering through the door.

“Hey. You’re back.” Way to state the obvious, Melany.

Shutting the front door, he moved further into the apartment, his eyes focused on me intently. “Yeah. Got as much done today as I could before my eyes started to cross.” With a tilt of his chin in the direction of the TV, he asked, “What are you watching?”

“Uh…” Well, this wasn’t going to be embarrassing at all–a thirty-one-year-old woman watching movies about teenaged vampires and the humans they fall in love with. “Twilight: Breaking Dawn.”

He let out a thoughtful hum and turned back to me. “Never heard of it. But let me get changed real quick and I’ll come watch it with you.”

He was going to watch a Twilight movie with me? Dear God, could the man get any more perfect? I hit pause on the remote and snuggled further into the cushion, pulling the throw blanket to my shoulders as I waited. Sure enough, he came out a minute later in a pair of pajama pants and no shirt.

“Just let me grab a beer. You want anything?”

“Nope, I’m good.” I might have been drooling a bit at the sight of his lean, sculpted chest, but he thankfully didn’t seem to notice as he passed by on the way to the kitchen. I lay completely immobile, listening to the sound of him popping the cap off a beer bottle, then to his footsteps as he made his way back to me. I knew I was in trouble when I was more interested in listening to him move around the apartment than I was in the movie.

Sure enough, when he reached the couch, he used one arm to swipe the blanket off me and lift my legs. He sat and put my legs back on his lap. Once he was resting comfortably in the bend of my knees, he draped the blanket back across both of us and settled in, eyes on the TV as his free hand moved to my arm. I tried to suppress my shiver at the feel of his fingertips sliding up and down my bicep, but it was useless.

I knew he felt it when he pulled me closer against him and asked, “Cold?”

“N-no. Nope. I’m good. Just fine. Dandy.”

Yes, I was rambling. I just couldn’t help it when he touched me!

“So… what’s this movie about?”

“Um… vampires,” I answered lamely.

His fingers quit moving for a few seconds before resuming their lazy stroll across my arm. “Vampires?”

“And werewolves,” I added. “But the good kind.”

I felt his body tremble with silent laughter, and I turned my head to look at him. He was handsome all the time, but when he smiled or laughed, it amped his good looks up by a million. “There’s a good kind of vampire and werewolf?”

“In this there is.”

Blessed silence enveloped us as we both turned our attention back to the movie. I struggled to concentrate on what was happening on the screen, but it was like my brain was incapable of thinking about anything but Chance and his impressive body. Since the shower incident, I thought about him all the time; at work, at home, when I was with Constance, when I saw an ad with a half-naked man modeling underwear on the side of a passing bus. I felt like I was going to snap at any given moment.

“Your skin’s so soft,” he spoke in a low, hypnotic voice as he continued his ministrations.

“It’s my lotion. It has milk in it,” I blurted idiotically. His body started shaking with humor again, but I refused to allow myself to look this time. Instead, I tried my best to focus on the movie.

Chance shifted his position on the couch, scooting me closer to the edge so he could sprawl out behind me. His arm came around my waist, pulling my back tighter against his chest. As Bella and Edward began to kiss on the screen, Chance’s fingers began toying with the small strip of exposed skin on my belly above the waistband of my shorts.

Shit. My entire body was already a livewire because of Chance. Watching the headboard-breaking scene that was seconds from playing out on the television most certainly wasn’t going to help any.

My breath hitched, and I swallowed thickly as Chance’s index finger dipped below my waistband. “You okay?” he asked, his breath blowing against my ear, causing me to tremble as I gave a shaky nod.

The music in the movie grew louder, drawing his attention back just as Edward began to move over Bella, but all I could think about was that I could feel Chance’s erection poking into my back. Oh God. We were watching a sex scene on TV and he was getting hard! I was seconds away from going up in flames, and he. Was. Getting. Hard.

His hand flattened on my belly, and my hips shifted of their own accord, twitching backward and pressing deeper into his hard-on.

My body began to shake with need. A tiny gasp left my lips just as Edward reached up and snapped the headboard with his bare hands.

“I’ve broken a headboard a time or two myself,” Chance whispered, a smile in his words.

I did my best to speak past the sudden dryness in my throat. “I-I… I didn’t know that was possible,” I said so quietly I wasn’t sure whether he’d heard me or not.

“What?” he asked. “Breaking a headboard?” He put pressure on my belly, pulling me closer as he chuckled. “Oh, it’s possible. Believe me.”

“N-no. Not that. I meant… it’s just… I d-didn’t think…” God, I couldn’t even get the words out. I could feel the heat scorching my cheeks and I squeezed my eyes closed in embarrassment.

Chance moved from behind me, and I felt him reach for the remote on the coffee table. Seconds later, the living room was enveloped in silence as he paused the movie. “Hey,” he said softly, shifting me to my back and using a finger to turn my head. “Melany, look at me.”

I didn’t want to; I wanted to melt into the fabric of the sofa and disappear, but I pushed past all my insecurities and opened my eyes anyway. “You didn’t think what?” he asked once I was looking at him. His pupils were dilated, his eyes a shade darker than normal. Something unfamiliar shone in their depths as he studied my face. “What were you going to say?” he pushed.

“I-I didn’t think it was p-possible…,” I stuttered, “to feel that much passion. You know… during.”

His forehead wrinkled in confusion. “You didn’t…” Then I watched, horrified as understanding, and something strangely close to sympathy, softened his features.

“Honey, exactly how many men have you been with?”

I was going to die from humiliation. At any second now, my heart was just going to stop, unable to bear the epic level of discomfort. I slapped my hands over my face in an attempt to hide. “God,” I groaned beneath my hands. “This is so embarrassing.”

But he wasn’t having any of it. “You don’t have to be embarrassed with me, Melany,” he said, as he pried my hands from my face. “You can tell me anything.”

I scowled up at his handsome face as he hovered over me. “You’re wrong, Chance. This is completely humiliating.”

“How many?” he repeated.

I knew trying to change the subject was pointless; he could be insufferable when he wanted something, so I blew out a breath in frustration and answered quietly. “Two.”

“And did either of them get you off?”

I squirmed against the cushions, my body still twisted up with a mixture of arousal from his touch and discomfort at our conversation. “No,” I breathed.

He regarded me silently for several painfully intense seconds. Then he asked a question I hadn’t been expecting. “Do you trust me?”

That was a no brainer, so I answered without even thinking. “Of course I do.”

Without another word, Chance lifted up on his arms and slid against me, the weight of his body forcing my legs to spread to accommodate his hips.

“Wh-what are you doing?” I stammered, eyes wide at the feel of him pressed against my most intimate area.

“You deserve to know what it feels like to have a man get you off,” he answered.

“I don’t… I can’t… I don’t know if this is such a good idea,” my mouth spoke even though my body was yelling at it to shut the hell up.

“Consider this the next phase of the plan. We’re friends. We trust each other. Let me do this for you.”

My heart gave a little pang of pain. I knew he had no clue how I was really starting to feel about him, and I knew admitting to it would only ruin what we had, but I couldn’t help feeling disappointed at the mention of that stupid, stupid plan.

He must have seen my warring emotions on my face and misinterpreted them, because he leaned in, his lips a whisper against mine as he said, “Nothing will change between us, I promise you. It won’t be awkward or weird. Just…” His eyes closed tightly, his forehead falling to rest against mine. “Just let me do this for you, please. Let me… touch you.”

I didn’t fully understand it, but in that moment, I knew that this was just as important to him as it was to me. And discovering that made the last of my defenses crumble to the ground. There was no way I could deny him what he was asking for. I wanted it just as badly as he did.

“Okay,” I whispered. I trusted him with everything, every part of me. If he promised this wouldn’t change us, then I believed him. Deep down in my gut, I knew that Chance would never do anything to hurt me. He might not feel for me the way I did him, but I’d rather have him in my life as my friend than not have him in it at all.

Relief clouded his expression as his hips thrust forward. The feel of his erection dragging against my clit yanked a gasp from my lungs that quickly turned into a guttural moan.

“That’s it, honey,” he murmured as he continued to move against me.

Bolts of electricity shot from my core throughout my entire body as his dick continued to slide against me, setting my blood on fire. “Oh God,” I whimpered as I fisted the soft material of the couch cushion. My eyelids dropped to half-mast as my breathing accelerated. Sparks of pleasure burst in my body with his every thrust. I couldn’t think. All I could do was feel as my hips began to move against his thick, hard length. I wanted more. I needed more.

“Chance. Oh, God. Chance,” I gasped and moaned.

“Touch me, Melany,” he panted against my lips. Unable to deny him, my hands quickly moved to the warm skin on his bare back. The pleasure was so intense, so acute, that my nails dug into his flesh, raking down his back. I grabbed hold of his firm ass as he continued to rock, forcing him harder, faster. “Oh Christ,” he gritted out between clenched teeth. Then his pace picked up. “Fuck, Melany. Fuck.”

“Don’t stop. Please. Don’t stop.” My head fell back, eyes closed. My back arched off the couch as I met his driving hips with my own. “I’ve never… it’s never… God, Chance. It’s never felt like this.”

Who knew that dry humping like horny teenagers could feel so… delicious? If this was what it was like with our clothes on, I was almost scared to think of how it would feel if he was inside me.

“I’m close,” I breathed, my eyes flying open wide as something deep in my belly began to coil tighter and tighter. It was so intense it actually frightened me as it built stronger. “I can’t… I don’t…”

“Give it to me, honey,” he demanded, his face positively savage as he moved harder. “I want to hear it. Tell me how good it feels.”

At that very moment, that thing inside me snapped and every muscle in my body locked up. My mouth dropped open as I spiraled into oblivion crying out, “Chance. Fuck. Chance!” He continued rolling his hips, rocking against my sensitive clit as the waves slowly began to dissipate.

By the time the last tremor left me, I was a boneless, gasping mess. “Shit, honey,” he hissed, pulling me back to reality. I opened my eyes as far as my heavy lids would allow to find him staring down at me in wonder. “Do you have any idea how gorgeous you are when you come? Fucking beautiful.”

The lazy smile on my face disappeared when I felt he was still hard as steel against me. “You didn’t—”

“This wasn’t about me,” he cut in gently, brushing my bangs back. “This was for you. I wanted to do that for you.”

My brows furrowed. He was being so thoughtful, so sweet. “But…” I paused to get my words straight. I didn’t want to stutter with what I was about to say next. “I want…”

“What do you want, honey?” God! So sweet!

“I want to make you feel as good as you just made me feel.”

He rested his forehead against mine as his chest expanded with a deep inhale. “Are you sure?”

I stopped to consider his question. Was I really sure? There was only one way to know. “You promise this won’t be weird? I don’t want to lose you.”

“I swear on my life,” he answered reverently, “you’ll never lose me.”

That was all I needed to hear. “Then I’m sure.”

Apparently, that was all he needed. I let out a startled yelp as he knifed up from the couch, taking me with him. “Where are we going?”

“To the bedroom,” he growled. “I need room to move if I’m going to do everything I want to you.”

I wrapped myself around him as he carried me like I weighed next to nothing, the only thought in my mind being…

Yes please.