The sound of my alarm clock blaring had me bolting upright in bed. I hurriedly hit the off button as I realized I was in my own room, still fully dressed. Minus my shoes. I didn’t even remember going to bed last night. But then, everything came rushing back to me. The panic attack at Sully’s and then after with Philip. Mortification rushed through me. I couldn’t believe how forward I’d been. I mean I’d dry humped his thigh, for god’s sake. Then, he touched me and made me orgasm. I shielded my eyes with my arm and groaned.

A knock at the door scared me, and I screeched like a howler monkey. The door cracked open, and Philip poked his head in.

“Good morning. I made you breakfast. Come on out when you’re ready.” Then, he was gone.

I got up, took a quick shower and brushed my teeth. When I entered the kitchen, Philip sat at the table, drinking a cup of coffee.

“Hey, have a seat.” He rose and started plating food for me at the stove.

Bacon, eggs, and toast with jelly graced my plate. Then came the coffee and a glass of orange juice. Man, a girl could get used to this.

“Did you sleep okay?”

I finished chewing my food before answering. “I slept well. Did you…um, stay here all night?”

“No, I went home, but came back about an hour ago. I figured you’d be hungry when you woke. You fell asleep pretty early last night, and you hadn’t eaten for a while.”

“Oh, okay, thanks.” I was actually a little disappointed he hadn’t spent the night.

Philip made his own plate, and we ate in companionable silence. He was done eating first and was just finishing washing his plate when I took my last bite. I joined him at the sink. I stumbled over my words.

“Thanks, um, for last night.”

He grinned. “It was my pleasure.”

I flushed at his double entendre. “So, where do we go from here?”

He set the plate in the drainer and turned toward me, leaning his hip against the counter, and crossed his arms. “I assume we go to the same place we were heading when we began this journey. Unless you want off the train. Then, we go back to being Philip and Casey, friends for life.”

I nervously played with the end of my ponytail. “Is that where you want to go? Back to being just friends?”

Philip reached out to cup my jaw, his thumb rubbing across my cheekbone. “No, not at all. I’m on this ride for as far as it takes us. Even if it never stops. Do you understand?”

I tried to read into his words. If the ride never stopped, then that meant forever. Was he saying he loved me? After the epiphany that hit me last night, I didn’t think I could go back to being just friends. Not since realizing that, after all this time, I was in love with him.

I didn’t know what to say, so I tried to convey my feelings another way. I took his hand from my face and laid it over my heart, covering it with mine. “I hope the ride never stops.”

Keeping his hand on my heart, I moved closer and stood on tiptoes, pulling his head down to me. Our lips met for the briefest kiss before I wrapped my arms tightly around him and laid my head on his chest, breathing in his smell. It felt like coming home.

* * *

As though we’d both bared our hearts during our conversation over breakfast, there was a subtle shift in our relationship. Instead of Philip only coming three days a week, we spent every day together. We both still had to work, and I had my studies, but he came over every evening, and we made dinner together. One night, we ventured out to the grocery store together, which was interesting to say the least. I made it through without any major incident, but I was a sweaty, clammy mess by the time we got back to the truck.

Another night we went to the movies, sitting in the front row, right next to the emergency exit. Not once did Philip complain of a neck ache even though he’d spent two hours with it cranked back so he could watch the screen. We even went back to Sully’s a couple times, where he and Philip taught me how to play darts. I was definitely making progress in battling my agoraphobia. My goal was to walk across that stage at graduation and get my damn degree. I had over a month to battle my demons and win.

Philip and I also started becoming more intimate. We still hadn’t made love, but we spent our nights learning each other’s body. We’d taken things slow over the last couple weeks, and we’d only had to stop what was happening once due to a panic attack. Everything we did was for my pleasure, with Philip giving me orgasm after orgasm. I was gaining confidence and becoming bolder in asking for what I wanted. For instance, tonight I wanted to try something new. I wanted to be the one to give him pleasure instead.

Philip had brought over Chinese takeout for supper. We sat on pillows on the floor around the coffee table with slow, romantic music playing in the background. I turned the lights down and lit candles all around the room. The smell of apples from the wall air freshener was faint beneath the aroma of dim sum and orange chicken. Philip had tried teaching me how to use chopsticks, but my skills were hopelessly lacking and didn’t appear to be improving anytime soon. As I repeatedly dropped my piece of chicken, I gave up. Snatching up my fork, I dug in.

“I think this even tastes better using a fork.” I moaned as the citrus burst of orange peel spread across my taste buds. “I’m not meant to use chopsticks, I’m afraid.”

Philip pulled his noodles out of the little cardboard box like a pro with the wooden sticks, sending me a mocking salute with them.

“Yeah, yeah, bask in your skill. Some of us are just not as adept with their hands.”

Philip winked at me with a seductive tilt to his lips. “Oh, I have no complaints with your hand adeptness.”

He shoved the noodles in mouth as I almost spit out my piece of chicken.

“I think it’s your life’s goal to make me blush.”

Philip bopped me on the end of my nose with his chopsticks. “Not at all. It’s my life’s goal to help you find the sexy, confident woman you are. I fully compliment you on all your skills.”

I could only roll my eyes at his teasing. “Thank you, I guess.”

Except I couldn’t stop thinking about my so-called skills and how I wanted to improve upon them. Since I wasn’t quite ready to ask outright, I figure I’d wait until we went to bed and ease into it. Something told me Philip wouldn’t have any objections.

“I spoke to Clarissa the other day. She wanted to know if you were free for lunch Wednesday. I didn’t know if you were ready for that, or if you’d even want to, so I told her I’d ask.”

I thought about it for a minute. Other than catching Uber rides with Kelsey over to my sister’s house, every time I’d ventured somewhere, it had always been with Philip. This was a big step, and it was time to make it.

“I’d love to have lunch with her. You can give her my number, and she’s welcome to call me. That way you don’t have to play middle man.”

Philip’s eyes lit up with pride. “Perfect. I’ll text her your number tomorrow and you ladies can chat and plan.”

We finished eating and moved to the couch to watch a movie. Tonight’s choice was Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2. It certainly wasn’t the sexiest movie I could have chosen for my seduction, but I’d been wanting to see it for months. Besides, between that Chris guy and Philip, there was enough man-candy to quietly rev my engine.

Idly, I drew patterns on Philip’s chest, and I realized I wasn’t paying much attention to the movie. Instead, my focus kept drifting elsewhere.

Obviously sensing my attention was no longer on the movie, Philip tipped my chin up with his finger. “Is something bothering you? You’ve barely looked at the TV for the last twenty minutes. You’re missing Chris without his shirt on.”

I snorted. “I think I’ll survive another day.”

He felt my forehead with the back of his hand. “You’re not coming down with something are you?”

I batted his hand away, giggling. “I’m perfectly fine. My mind is just elsewhere.”

“Care to share?”

“Let’s go to bed.” I avoided directly answering Philip’s question.

He stared at me for a moment, before reaching for the remote and shutting the movie and TV off. After rising off the couch, he helped me to my feet, and we headed to the bedroom.

“I’m gonna brush my teeth real quick,” I announced suddenly before I escaped to the bathroom. I could hear Philip moving around in the bedroom. I quickly cleaned my teeth, then sniffed my pits before fluffing my hair. Hand on the doorknob, I inhaled deeply and walked back into the bedroom. Philip had shut off the ceiling light and turned on the lamps on the nightstands. He lay reclined in the bed, shirtless, muscles bulging as his arm crossed behind his head, against the headboard.

He patted the empty spot next to him.

“Why do you look so nervous?” he asked as I crawled into bed and pulled the covers up to my chest.

“Do I?” was my evasive answer.

Philip turned on his side and leaned on his elbow. “Yes, you do. What’s going through that mind of yours?”

He patiently waited as I thought of the best way to frame my response. Finally, I just blurted it out. “I want to pleasure you.”

His forehead wrinkled in confusion. “What do you mean? Casey, honey, I’m always pleasured whenever we’re together. I hope you don’t think otherwise.”

“No, I know that,” I rushed to assure him. I sighed because I was just going to have to spit it out. “I want to see all of you. Touch all of you.”

Understanding lit up his eyes. “Sweetheart, you can touch me anywhere, anytime. You don’t even have to ask.”

Philip shifted onto his back and flung the covers off him, exposing his body to my view. He crossed his arms behind his head again as I looked my fill. I’d been utterly shocked the first time I’d seen him without a shirt on. Through each of his nipples was a barbell. I’d never pictured Philip as a piercing kind of guy. He’d said he’d done it on a dare from one of his old Marine buddies, but after they were done, he’d kept them.

My gaze followed the trail of hair as it bisected his chest and led downward. I counted each of his abs during my inspection. My eyes widened at the ever growing bulge behind his black boxer briefs. I’d felt it while we were in bed, pressing against me, and it was impressive.

“Will you take them off?” My voice was hushed.

Leisurely, Philip lowered the briefs inch by glorious inch until his cock sprang free of its constraint. He tossed the underwear on the floor and returned to the relaxed pose that now wasn’t so relaxed. I stared in awe at his thickness laying on his tight stomach, its base surrounded by short, groomed hair. Wetness leaked from the purplish tip, and my eyes followed the long vein down his length. My mouth watered, but I was also a little trepidatious. The sight of his penis was intimidating.

I started to stretch my arm out, but hastily pulled it back with a glance at Philip. “Can I touch it?”

He swallowed hard and nodded. Ever so slowly, I reached out and with just a fingertip, traced that fascinating vein from base to tip. Philip sharply inhaled, and a shudder coursed through him. A sense of power surged through me that I was the one making him tremble. Courage growing, I did my best to encircle his engorged length, but my fingers didn’t make it the whole way around. Velvet encased steel was the only way I could describe what Philip felt like in my hand. He sucked in another breath when I squeezed. I immediately released my hold on him

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt you.”

Philip hissed out air. “It only hurt in the best possible way.”

“Oh. So, that was okay?”

He nodded again. “More than okay. Do you want me to show you what I like?”

I let him move my hand back to his cock. Again, I wrapped my hand around him, with Philip’s hand over mine, guiding me as we began to stroke up and down his length. He squeezed my hand so I grasped his erection tighter. He encouraged my grip, and our rhythm increased. Philip’s eyes were closed, his head thrown back, and he arched up into my downward pulls. Our breathing was loud, and I squirmed as my arousal ratcheted up. My mouth instantly started watering, and my body craved a taste.

No sooner had the thought crossed my mind that Philip growled out a curse as his body tensed and jerked, and beneath my fingers, ropey spurts of come erupted from his cock, covering both our hands and his stomach. A sigh of satisfied pleasure came from him. When I looked at his face, he stared back at me through hooded eyes.

“Sorry about that,” Philip said, although I didn’t hear a sincere apology in his tone.

“For what?” I was confused.

He held up our hands coated in his cream. “For not warning you it was happening.”

“I thought it was hot to tell the truth.” Some inner vixen urged me to do what I did next.

Curiously, I lifted my fingers up to my mouth and tentatively licked them, tasting his essence. I wasn’t sure what it would taste like, but it was a slight mix of sweet and mostly salty. Philip’s head dropped back, and he let out a moan. “Fuck me. That’s the sexiest thing I’ve ever seen. And as much as I hate to move, I need to get a washcloth.”

Philip crawled out of bed and stumbled into the bathroom. After hearing the water run for a minute, he returned with a wet towel. I noticed his stomach was cleaned off already. He used the warm cloth to wash my hand off before throwing the cloth in the dirty hamper on the side of the room.

He slid back into bed and pulled me against him. “You didn’t have to do that, you know?”

I curled into his warmth. “I know I didn’t, but I wanted to. I want to experience it all. So far, everything we’ve done has been for me. I wanted to do something special for you.”

“That was special all right.” He kissed the top of my head.

I got the impression he wanted to say something more, but he remained silent. I stayed wrapped in his arms as I drifted off to sleep, content that life was perfect.