24.
Leo
The end of the semester was always a happy time—it either meant the start of winter break, or a nice, long, summer break. In this case, it also meant that Tessa was no longer my student and we didn’t have to worry about who happened to see us when we went out. Which didn’t mean that we were skipping down the street holding hands or making out right in the middle of the green, but it did mean we’d go out occasionally to places right around the school, and it didn’t really matter who saw us.
Tessa had managed to pull off what she had thought was the impossible, and she got her grades back up, finishing the semester and her junior year with a 4.0. I could tell by the expression on her face how relieved she was.
And the first issue of the Benton Daily Journal would have to wait to be published until next semester, as there was simply a lack of quality articles submitted for consideration. It had pained Shannon to make that announcement, though the truth of it had become painfully clear not long after Carla and I had our talk. She had been the one to talk with Shannon about postponing the project, and when Shannon sent out the email announcing that we were going to hold off, I think that everyone was relieved. Out of all the articles, though, Tessa’s really was the best of the bunch.
I could hear the water running in the shower. Tessa and I had slept in and she’d just gotten up. I was still lounging in bed, though after a few more minutes, I got up and went into the bathroom. She was in the shower, soaping herself up. I pushed the curtain back slightly and was hit with a waft of steam and the sudsy smell of the botanical soap.
“Mind if I join you?” I asked.
“Of course not,” she said, taking a step back.
I got in and felt the water running in rivulets down my torso. My dick was already half hard and getting harder just at the sight of her, the suds of soap clinging to her wet skin, her hair slicked back. She turned to face me, and I pulled her close. I started kissing her neck, running my hands down her sides, over her breasts, feeling her nipples get hard underneath my fingertips. She groaned and raked her fingernails down my back.
I pushed her back into the corner and spread her legs apart, the warm water cascading down on me as I knelt in front of her. I buried my face between her legs, kissing and licking her, feeling her run her fingers through my hair. I put one hand on her inner thigh and then brought the other up and slid a finger inside of her. Her whole body trembled, and she was whimpering, grinding her hips against my hand while my tongue worked on her clit.
I stopped when I could tell she was close to coming, and her eyes flew open and she gave me a look of such longing that I almost came myself. I lifted her up a little higher and pushed my dick into her, the water actually making things less lubricated. The head of my dick was right there, sort of in but not quite, but then I pulled her hips down a little, and I slid all the way in, all the way where she was nice and wet and warm and her muscles clenched around me, and she wrapped her arms around my neck and pulled me close.
I could’ve been done in about two minutes, if I just went for it, but I wanted this to last because it felt so fucking good. How long could I make it last for? How long could I stand it? I kept my eyes open and I tried to watch her and gauge how close she was—I wanted to prolong it for her, too. Every time one of got close to coming, I’d slow way down, sometimes stop completely. Even when I stopped though, she’d contract those muscles of hers around me, and a couple times it almost sent me over the edge. I gritted my teeth and growled into her hair, and I tried to take deep breaths. And then I’d start again, and with the water cascading down on us and the steam all around, it was like being in some sort of cocoon, where the only thing you were aware of was how fucking good you felt.
I could only prolong it for so long. We got into a rhythm, and I knew that we weren’t going to stop this time, and as the feeling started to peak I tried to just keep going, but then the most amazing thing happened. Instead of the feeling reaching its apex and then falling, it kept coming. It was like being on a rollercoaster and thinking that you’d reached the highest point, but then it just keeps going and going. It was like a wave that had no end. I just kept thrusting myself into her, and she was scratching my back and biting into my neck, and her legs were now wrapped around my waist, and she was squeezing me, and time seemed to have stopped. I had no clue how long we’d been in there, how long this feeling had been going for, if it had been seconds or minutes, or maybe even hours. It just kept going.
And then finally, there was the crest, and slowly, the intensity began to ebb. It was sped up when the water suddenly went cold. I let out a yelp, and she shrieked as we both scrambled to shut the water off, the cold drops feeling like needles against our hypersensitive skin.
“How long were we in here for?” Tessa asked. “I can barely even stand. Oh my God.”
We gingerly got out of the shower, and I wrapped her in a towel, and then I did the same for myself.
“Probably quite a long time,” I said. “Seeing as we used up all the hot water.”
She grinned. “I hope no one else in this building was planning on taking a shower anytime soon. Shit, I actually feel kind of bad.”
“Don’t feel bad.” I kissed her. My whole body was still buzzing. “Do you know what I feel like doing right now?”
“What?”
“It’s really the only thing I think I’d be capable of doing, actually.”
“And what is that?”
“Going to bed.”
“Bed? It’s like 9 o’clock in the morning!”
“I know. I’m not saying I’d go back to sleep or anything like that, but I don’t think I’ll be physically capable of doing anything for at least a couple of hours.”
She patted at her face with a corner of the towel. “My legs really do feel like Jell-O.”
“Let’s do it, then. School’s out. We don’t have anywhere we need to be. I’m not saying we have to stay in bed all day, though if we do, I certainly won’t be complaining.”
I didn’t wait for her to respond; instead, I picked her up and carried her into the bedroom. I couldn’t remember a time when my bed had looked more appealing.
We lay down next to each other, the cool sheet on top of us. Tessa snuggled up next to me, and I kissed the top of her head, her hair still damp. I had said I wasn’t going to fall asleep, but I could feel myself starting to drift off into some sort of half-awake zone, and I certainly wasn’t going to fight it.
“You know,” Tessa said, “I’m really glad that I took you up on that offer.”
“I’m really glad that I made you that offer. I almost didn’t. And when I did, I didn’t think that you were actually going to do it.”
“I know that school’s out now and everything, but I want to keep seeing you.”
“I’d be pissed if you didn’t. I’d feel used, actually.”
She laughed. “Would you? I thought I was the one who was supposed to be the sex toy.”
“You are definitely so much more than that. Of course I want to keep seeing you. You’re living here now, aren’t you? That doesn’t have to change just because school’s out. The only thing that I think I’d like to see change is for you to go from being my student to my girlfriend. How does that sound?”
She snuggled closer to me, draping her arm across my chest. “I think that sounds lovely,” she said.
“Good.” I hadn’t been planning on saying that, on asking her if she wanted to be my girlfriend, but it seemed like the natural progression of things. She was going to keep living here, and we were going to keep having amazing sex, so of course she should be my girlfriend. I wanted that, and I was glad that she did, too.
We both must have drifted off to sleep, a little bit, anyway, because the next thing I knew I could hear a phone ringing. For a second, I thought it was part of the very lucid dream I was having, but then I felt Tessa stirring next to me. I opened my eyes as Tessa was groping for her phone on the bedside table.
“It’s my dad,” she said blearily, looking at the screen. “I should probably answer this.”
She sat up, the sheet sliding off her, her bare shoulder exposed. “Hello?” she said tentatively.
I lay back and let myself doze, half-listening to Tessa’s side of the conversation.
“Thanks,” she was saying. “Yeah. It was a lot of hard work. But I’m happy with all the grades I got, too.”
There was a long pause.
“Um . . . well, sure,” she said, sounding surprised. “If that’s something you want to do. Tonight? Uh, yeah, I think we could . . . hold on one second.” She brought the phone down, and I pried one eye open and looked at her.
“What’s up?” I said.
“Soooo . . . my parents are coming to the city this afternoon to see some friends, and then they want to take us out to dinner.”
“Us? As in the two of us?”
She nodded. “Yeah. Is tonight okay? Are you cool with that?”
“Sure,” I said. It was probably a good sign, an extending of the olive branch, if her father was calling, wanting to take us both out to dinner.
But when Tessa got off the phone, I could tell she was anxious about meeting up with her parents tonight. She tried to lay back next to me but her leg started fidgeting and then she started chewing on her cuticles, and finally she wriggled out from my arms and got up.
“Are you freaking out?” I asked. “Because it kind of seems like you’re freaking out. You look hot, but I don’t want you to be stressed about this. It’ll be fine.”
She was wrestling with her T-shirt, which had gotten twisted and turned half inside out. “Of course I’m freaking out,” she said. “My dad calling like that was probably the last thing I ever expected. And him wanting to take us out to dinner is . . . I don’t know, kind of weird, don’t you think?” She yanked the T-shirt over her head.
“It might be a good sign,” I said. “It’s not like he called and is wanting to meet just me down some dark alley or something. I think enough time has probably gone by that your father realizes how much he misses you, and now that school is out and he’s seen you’ve managed to keep your grades up, he’s probably going to apologize for being so hard on you. That’s what I think.”
She tried to force a smile. “I hope you’re right, then.”
All right, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a little bit nervous about the dinner. I was never that interested in doing the whole meeting of the parents thing, but if things went well tonight, I knew it could go a long way in repairing Tessa’s relationship with her mom and dad.
We met them at Sunset, which was a nice, bistro-type place, though not too over the top. They were waiting out front for us.
“Nice to meet you,” Tessa’s dad said, firmly shaking my hand.
“Likewise,” I said. There was an awkward silence.
“Great,” Tessa’s mother said, clapping her hands together. “Why don’t we go inside. This is one of my favorite places.”
Inside, the hostess led us into the dining room, and we were seated at a linen-covered table. Tessa sat to my right; her father was directly across from me. Wine was immediately ordered, and when our waitress brought the bread basket over, Tessa snatched a roll out and started pulling it apart.
I reached underneath the table and put my hand on her leg, not to be frisky but to help try to calm her down.
“I’m glad the two of you were able to come out with us tonight,” her father said, after the waitress returned with the wine. He took a sip and then looked at Tessa. “It’s been a while since we’ve talked, and I’ve certainly missed that.”
Tessa nodded. “Me too, Dad,” she said.
He turned to me. “And you, Leo. I originally wanted this dinner to just be with Tessa, but seeing as you seem to be a part of her life now, I wanted to meet you as well. I might not necessarily approve of the way you two first got together, but since you are a part of Tessa’s life, I’m not just going to pretend you don’t exist.”
“I appreciate that,” I said. “I really do. And while our relationship might not have started out the most orthodox way, I want you both to know how much I care about Tessa.”
“I’m glad to hear that,” her father said. He looked at her. “I might not approve of the way you do everything,” he continued, “but that’s normal. Your mother and I were both very pleased that you managed to get your grades back up and we hope that you’ll keep them that way, not because we want you to, but because you want to do it for yourself, to give yourself the best possibilities when you graduate.”
“Thanks, Dad,” Tessa said. “I want that, too.”
The rest of dinner went by smoothly, probably helped by the fact that we killed two bottles of wine, but I think everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. And when we were standing back outside again, Tessa’s dad shook my hand, and this time, he smiled and clapped me on the back.
“Do you golf?” he asked.
“Badly,” I said.
“Well. We’ll have to get you out on the course sometime, if you’d like.”
“I think that sounds like a lovely idea!” Tessa’s mother said. She hugged Tessa, and then came over and hugged me. She was a little tipsy, I could tell. “I’m so glad we were able to all get together and enjoy a meal like civilized people! I just had a good feeling about tonight.”
“I love you guys,” Tessa said, giving her dad a hug. They said goodbye once more and then started to walk down the block toward their car. We watched them go, waving when they finally took off.
“I’d say that went pretty well,” I said as their taillights disappeared around the corner.
Tessa had a smile on her face. “It did,” she said. “It went way better than I thought it was going to. I’m actually really surprised. Though the fact that my mom is a little buzzed probably helped.”
“Your dad’s not a bad guy. I can tell that.”
“He’s not. And he wants to take you golfing. Definitely a good sign. Though don’t feel like you have to go or anything. I’m not sure how you feel about golf.”
“Eh . . . it’s a little . . . boring. But I could probably manage for a day.”
“We should do something,” she said.
“Right now?”
She shrugged. “Not right now—I mean, we should go do something different. Get out of the city for a while. See somewhere new.”
“I sure as hell wouldn’t mind that. We could take a road trip up north or something. No real destination in mind—just a map and our suitcases.”
She put her arms around my neck and looked up at me. “I would love to,” she said.
I smiled and leaned down to kiss her, excited for whatever adventures lay in store for us.