I poke at the bubbly cheese atop my lasagna at the cozy Italian restaurant on Main Street. Audrey cuts a huge, mushroom-stuffed ravioli into quarters, concentrating on her knife skills like she’s on a cooking show. We chew in silence.

When the last throes of bliss faded and we peeled our sweaty bodies apart, Audrey walked stiffly to the master bath with her panties in one hand. I hunted down my clothes and gathered hers. When she poked her head out, I was ready to hand them to her. She looked for a moment like she might speak, but she accepted the pile and ducked back inside. Once she replaced her torn blouse, which I have yet to actually apologize for, neither of us managed to say anything coherent for twenty full minutes. We avoided the sofa like it was covered in spines.

“Um, are you hungry?” I finally asked.

“Starving,” she says.

“I saw a couple places in town,” I suggested hesitantly.

“I’ll get my purse.”

“I’ll drive.”

And now we’re stuck here in this weirdly small u-shaped booth in a candle-lit corner of a romantic date spot, and I’ve got no idea what she wants from me. Or what I want. Sex with Audrey was fucking amazing. Hard and fast and mind-blowing. But now what?

“You know, I like the natural hickory on the floor.” Audrey plops a ravioli quarter in her mouth.

“Yeah. Looks good under all that natural light.”

We fall silent.

“Did you notice the custom iron work on the veranda?” I ask.

“Mmmhmm.”

When the waiter stops with water, we turn grateful eyes up to him. He’s oblivious to our desperation.

“So, you two look like you’re celebrating something special tonight. Don’t tell me, anniversary, right? I spotted it when you two came in.” He smiles like he thinks he’s done something cute. Fucker. “How about dessert? We’ve got a tiramisu for two that’s perfect for you.”

“No thanks. If you can just drop off some coffee, we’ll let you know when we’re ready for the check.” Audrey glances at me. “Or at least, I’d like coffee. Do you want some, Caleb?”

I nod, and we suffer through another silence as we wait for it.

Audrey blows over the surface of the black liquid and closes her eyes as she takes the first sip. I smile, remembering the time her coffee maker broke. She looked so miserable nursing the dingy mug full of weak Folgers from the break room that I ran down the street to the café and bought a huge cup of their strongest brew.

“Caleb, I just want to tell you I’m sorry,” she says with a sigh. “I’m sorry I didn’t try harder to explain after the argument, I’m sorry you found out about the job that way, and I’m sorry I hurt you, or whatever you want to call it. I sent in a résumé on a whim, to dip my toe into job searching. Sort of like a practice round, because I didn’t really expect to get a call. And then I did, and…I don’t know. I was afraid to tell you, I guess, because I didn’t want to think about you wanting the job, and I didn’t want you to try to talk me out of it. I don’t know, I really needed to get out of there. I needed a change so badly.”

“I just don’t get why you wouldn’t tell me that before. I mean, we had lunch at least once a week, consulted about clients, and played on the damn softball team. It’s not like I was just some asshole you worked with. We were friends, or I thought we were. What could be so bad you had to get out of there, but so secret you wouldn’t mention it? Especially after I told you I was thinking about moving on?”

She lifts her cup and takes a slow sip, the stalling kind.

“I wasn’t …focused enough at our agency. I did well, but I felt like there were clients and deals I could have handled better if I’d been able to concentrate a little more. I was reaching a point where I needed a different environment in order to succeed professionally. You can’t have a bunch of distractions all the time and still get ahead. I needed space, you know?”

She looks up at me, then her eyes skitter back over to her coffee cup. The warm glow of the candles gilds her skin; she’s easily the most beautiful woman in here. But I’ve never noticed how vulnerable her glue-green eyes can be. Something rises in my chest. Hope, maybe.

I tuck a strand of unruly hair behind her ear and lean close.

“What was so distracting, Audrey?” I ask, my lips nearly brushing against her ear.

She doesn’t reply, staring into her cup. In the small booth, our legs touch. Her chest rises with a caught breath. I move my lips close to her ear and revel in the way her hand shakes. I affect her like she does me. Even as spent as I was after being with Audrey, my dick begins to lift its weary head.

“Tell me, Audrey. What bothered you so much you couldn’t work there anymore?”

“Fine. It was you. We were friends, and I wanted more, and I thought you didn’t. It drove me crazy working with you like that. Lunches. Consults. Just walking around a corner could make me lose my focus if you were there. I’d be talking to a client and lose my train of thought, always wondering if you were looking at me. I can’t work that way. Nobody can work that way. I had to get out of there or risk my career, for what? I had to get some space. It wasn’t the ideal way to go, but I thought I was protecting myself.

“And then at the Christmas party, it was clear you wanted me. Maybe for the first time since we met, suddenly you wanted more than friendship, at least for that night. But I’d already accepted the job. And here we are.”

As she talks, some of the tension leaves her. We’ve drawn closer without realizing it, leaning in to her intimate confession. I lace my fingers in hers on the table, my skin tingling at the touch.

“You think you were the only one who was distracted?” Knowing she wanted me all that time makes me resent time lost. I tug her hand off the table, under the tablecloth, and settle it over the bulge in my pants.

“You feel that? Every damn time you walked by my desk.” I leave her hand stroking the ridge of my erection while I unhook the waistband of my pants and unzip. Her face is eager, flushed. She scoots another centimeter toward me. “I’d sit there waiting for my hard-on to go down before I talked to you. At lunch, I’d think how much I’d rather be eating you, wondering what you tasted like, wondering if you were wet for me. Picturing your face as you came.”

My fingers guide hers down and up my shaft under the table, in the u-shaped booth, at the cozy restaurant full of oblivious people. She licks her lips as her fingertips lightly massage the sensitive place under the rim. I take her hand all the way down the shaft, loving the way our fingers feel on my cock together.

“Tell me some of your naughty thoughts, Audrey. Did you ever think about me at night, the way I did about you?”

She nods first, then flicks her eyes around us. Not even the waiter cares about us right now.

“One day—you went to the gym at lunch and came back in your running shorts. That was the first time I knew how”—she lowers her voice even further—“how big your dick was. I wanted you before then, but my fantasies got dirtier after that.”

I take her hand down over my balls, showing her how I like it.

“Yes, ah, yeah, like that. That feels good, Audrey. Tell me …” I take a moment to catch my breath as her hand works back up my shaft, squeezing my in soft pulses. “Tell me you touched yourself and thought of me.”

In the candlelight her eyes spark as she starts to lose herself in the moment.

“Mmmm, oh yeah. I’ve had you every way you can imagine, Caleb. That first night when I finally got my mouth on you, I thought I was going to come just sucking you off.”

Holy shit, she upped the ante on that one. Unexpectedly.

“I never told you, but you’re the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen. Your body does things to me—no other woman has ever affected me the way you do just by being in the room. The other day, at Derek and Claire’s? I had a hard on for you the second I saw you. Even though I wanted to hate you, I couldn’t. Today killed me. Derek’s yelling in my ear about the damn property, but all I could think of was you.”

“Me too,” she admits. “I have another secret. While you were with your client and I was swimming? I fingered myself thinking of you. That’s why I missed my clients. That’s one reason I was so upset.”

“You naughty woman. I wanted to take you right there when you came in dripping wet.” I touch her thigh, watching her nose flare and pupils expand. My fingers inch her silky dress up. My fingers meet skin and brush over it with a feather touch. Audrey’s hand moves quicker, and I’m struggling to hold on to control.

“I wanted that, too.” She turns so her lips touch my ear. “And I’m dripping wet now.”

The waiter eyes us, as if he’s wondering whether to interrupt. My options: paint the underside of this table with my jizz or leave now and get her naked. No contest. I move her hand and zip up, and then I signal for our check.

Audrey looks crestfallen, but I pull her ear to my lips. “Now we’re going to get the check, and I’m going to take you to bed and do everything to you I’ve always wanted to. And I’m going to take my time. I’m going to taste every inch of you before I fuck you. And you’re going to say my name before I let you come.”

As soon as we’re inside the lake house, I pull Audrey into my arms and kiss her slowly. Passion swells and breaks like a tsunami over my head. I could drown in her. I almost want to. Before I lose my shit and fuck her on the hand-hewn hickory floor, I pull back.

“I’ve got condoms in my bag upstairs. Just a minute, okay?”

She shakes her head. “I’m on the pill.” She nibbles on my bottom lip. “And I guess I’m going to have to trust you. I guess I already did.”

“I’d rather die than hurt you. You can trust me.” I hold her face with my hand, my face serious. I want her to know I’m talking about more than safe sex.

“I trust you,” she whispers.

I lace my fingers in hers and lead her to the master bedroom. Blessing Derek and Claire for their attention to detail, I hit the lighting button on the remote. I want to see Audrey—all of her.

I make short work of my clothes, shucking them quickly. She takes in my body with an eager stare and reaches for me, but I capture her hands and give them back to her. I want to devour her with my eyes first.

“Take off your blouse,” I direct her. “Slowly. Then your skirt.”

She lifts her shirt over her head and then unties her skirt, letting it drop around her ankles. My dick bounces. She stares, lust in her eyes, but I plan to make her wait.

“Now panties.” My open palm skims along my cock as I watch her bend over to slide them down and off. “Bra.”

She unhooks her bra and lets it fall free. She stands in front of me completely unashamed, as she should be. She’s flawless. Her full breasts point toward me, their rosy nipples hardening under my gaze. I drink her in, but don’t move toward her. Not yet. I let the pressure build in me before I let myself touch her.

“Show me how you touched yourself when you thought of me, Audrey.”

She climbs onto the large bed, stretching out on her side to face me. She caresses her breasts, rolling her pebbled nipples between her fingers. One hand sneaks between her legs, and she rolls onto her back, her face still turned to me. As I wrap a fist around my cock and pump slightly, her breath hitches. She watches me with darkened eyes, and her hand dives lower. So many times I thought of her while I jerked off, wondering if she was alone, wondering if she ever pleasured herself thinking of me. Knowing it’s true is as satisfying as I hoped. I want to be the one between her legs now. Since she’s been so compliant, I push further, to see how much control she’ll give me.

I step to the bed and capture her bobbing hand, lifting it over her head. She’s spread out on the coverlet like a work of art, both arms raised, waiting for me to decide what happens next. I bend over her to take her mouth with none of the rawness of earlier today. I lick at the seam of her lips, and probe gently when she opens for me. As my tongue dances with hers, I run my hands down to her breasts and knead lightly. Pulling away for a breath, I trace up to her collarbone and cup her chin.

“You’re so beautiful, Audrey. I’ve waited so long to see you like this, to touch you here—” I rub the pad of my thumb over her nipple. “—and here…”

My palm skims over her stomach and all the way down her leg to her toes. She’s still laid out under me, legs spread, arms up. It’s almost a mystery how we got from this morning’s angry resentment to this moment, with her body and soul bared to me. I want to mark every inch of her flesh. My fingers linger on her upper thigh, and I bend to kiss her there. Her breath hisses through her teeth as I suckle the velvety soft skin. She smells like sex. Like us.

With a gentle nudge, I roll her onto her stomach and climb onto the bed beside her. God, I love this view of her, too. Her curves seem almost impossible, the tiny waist and luscious round ass I can’t get enough of. The kind of lines painters love. I move over her and worship her with lips and tongue and occasionally teeth. She squirms beneath me, her breaths fast and shallow. I work down to her calves and back up to cover her with my body, relishing the pure joy of her skin on mine. My rigid cock nestles into the valley between her legs, and her fingers flex in the covers. I rub the head of my cock along her folds, and she whimpers. My muscles tremble with the effort of holding back, but I’m not ready to end this good hurt.

So I roll her back to face me for another long, searching kiss as I angle my hips so the hard ridge of me glides over her clit.

“Say my name,” I whisper in her ear. “Do you want me, Audrey? Tell me you want me as much as I want you.”

My head moves over her breast. She grips my head as I circle her nipple with a flattened tongue, then harden it to flick over the hard peak. “Yes, oh my god, yes, I want you. I want you in me, filling me up. Fuck me, Caleb. Please fuck me now.”

“Unh uh, not yet. Not before I get another taste of you. Your voice is so sexy. Tell me what you like, Audrey.” I pepper more kisses over her skin, still just a little salty with sweat from our last encounter. My dick throbs as if it remembers the way she feels around me. At the top of her mound I pause.

“Kiss my thigh.” She’s hesitant, testing the waters.

I place my mouth on her inner thigh and suck gently, my tongue tasting the slight saltiness of her skin. I lift her knees and then press them to the side so that she blooms under my gaze. The petals of her sex glisten, wet and ready.

“One finger,” she breathes. “And then two.”

I comply.

Her chin lifts and her eyes close as I slip in the second finger. I curl them upward and stroke along her upper wall. I don’t wait for permission to add three. Her hips strain toward me.

“Now kiss my clit. Take it between your lips—gentle, Caleb—and suck. Now your tongue, but keep it soft. Oh god, yes. Like that.”

My balls draw up and my dick jumps. Her voice, raspy with desire, telling me exactly how to touch her, is almost more than I can stand. My free hand grips my dick in a vise. I squeeze the base of the shaft, applying pressure to stem the rising tide of my arousal. I need more time.

She’s noticed my inattention as I attempt to wrestle my body into line. “Faster, Caleb. Can you go faster?”

I comply.

My hand strokes inside her as my tongue circles and flicks over the swollen nub. She’s moaning now, her hips jerking involuntarily when my fingers skim over the place inside that rests under her clit, double stimulation at her body’s most intense pleasure center. And I’m not done.

Kneeling at the altar between her thighs, I release my dick and angle my thumb into her slit, under the hand still fucking her, bathing it in her natural lubrication. Then I press against her asshole, gently moistening the opening with her own juices.

“Oh my god.” I think for a minute she’s going to freeze up, but she doesn’t. She trusts me. “I’m so close, Caleb. Don’t stop. Please don’t stop.”

She’s so wet, dripping. I moisten my thumb again, then circle her asshole until I feel it relax. I gently press in a couple centimeters and stop all motion, letting her adjust. Her body quivers. Her chest heaves with gasping breaths. And then one at a time, I move inside her, then flick my tongue over her clit, and then gently rock my thumb against the rim of her asshole. One breath. Two. And then her back arches off the bed and she chants yes in a building crescendo until the band snaps, and she crashes in on herself, shuddering in fading waves. I pull my fingers out of her pussy and replace them with my tongue, lapping up her essence.

Her eyes drift open, and she lifts an arm sluggishly, drunk on pleasure. It falls back to the bed. “Caleb, I can’t move,” she slurs thickly.

I grin wolfishly as I tug her legs down straight, massaging and caressing the tight muscles.

“Oh no, we’re not done. Now I’m going to fuck you, Audrey, since you asked so nicely.”

Her eyes flutter closed and her lips part, as if the last traces of her orgasm linger in her system. As she drifts, I stack pillows in a wedge against the headboard, and then I wiggle my arms under her and lift, propping her on the fluffy incline. Her thighs part almost instinctively, urging me home. Despite the care I’ve taken, urgency takes me now. When I kiss her roughly, she holds me tight, nails digging into my nape. My cock swells again. I’m so hard I feel like I might shatter. The only thing for it is her softness, wet with the pleasure I gave her.

I lift her knees and fold her legs against her, high on either side of my waist. She has enough strength to brace against me, gripping my sides with her knees.

“Good,” I whisper. “Are you ready for me?”

She nods, staring into my eyes. The infinite depth in her blue green irises hypnotizes me. I want to tell her other things, things I shouldn’t think. Things I’ve denied. But instead I concentrate on physical pleasure, mine and hers together. I hold her intense stare as I enter her, just the head, and circle my hips. Her lips fall open. I push farther in and stop again. My arms tremble as I work my dick in a circle inside her, sinking deeper until I’m flush against her, riding high so the motion stimulates her clit. I’m holding no tricks back to pull another climax from her tonight. But I need it fast, because there’s no way I can last. It’s like her pleasure was mine; making her come brought me so close to my own release.

Need consumes me, and I give in to the need to thrust. I pull out slowly at first, then pick up speed as my control falters. I fill her, stretching her body around me. Bowing my hips forward, I let go, let her have all of me. Her knees tighten around me, and she gulps air.

“Caleb, you’re so big. Oh, fuck, you’re so deep, I can’t—oh my god, I didn’t know it could—oh god, yes. Don’t pull out, Caleb. Ah—stay with me. Let me feel you come inside me.”

The room recedes around me. It’s like we’re fucking in the middle of a cloud, floating on nerve ends sending bursts of pleasure throughout my body. Then the sensation comes back together in one place. Me. Inside her. The feeling builds like a coming storm, rolling in with raw power. I want to hold on but I can’t. And then she arches against me with a final cry, just as my dick swells with the load pulsing through it. The climax rips through me, and I keep going, pushing through, plunging forward as I spill into her. Panting, I slump against her and ease out. I press my forehead against hers, and I smile as she lays a hand on the side of my face.

I drop a quick kiss on the end of her nose and retrieve a washcloth and towel from the bathroom. I clean her gently with the damp washcloth and lovingly dry the light sheen of sweat off her body. I revel in another chance to admire her. She smiles at me gratefully as I towel off as well, and then I peel the covers back and slip between the crisp sheets. She mumbles a protest, but climbs in too, snuggling against my chest with a sleepy little squeak. I smooth her hair.

“Good night, Audrey.”

“Mmmm night,” she says.

Warmed by afterglow, I float to sleep on a golden haze with the most beautiful woman in the world tucked in my embrace.