Chapter 34
34
L ucas was going to perish. He was sure of it. This was the most perfect torture. Jesus, he wanted to sink inside of her. It was so bad he walked the razor’s edge of not being able to stand it. But he wouldn’t, not until she was ready, if she was ever ready. He would do anything for her, even submit to this sublime torment.
“It’s almost too much,” he gritted out, in the interest of honesty. “But I’m okay.” He swallowed as he glanced down at where her legs wrapped around him, skimming his hand along her smooth thigh. “But damn, you’re sexy.”
“Can you come this way?”
“Not easily, I don’t think.”
“Me either.”
She stopped him and rolled him onto his back. She started kissing a path down his chest, and when she took him in her mouth, he tangled his hand in her hair, shutting his eyes against the wave of intense pleasure. Thank God she was going to put him out of his misery now. She sucked him and he started to rock against her. As she took him deeper, he bit off a choked groan. When he felt his climax coming on, he couldn’t stay quiet.
“Fucking hell, Joan,” followed by a string of other expletives, and then his orgasm tore through him. He cried out.
She clamped a hand over his mouth, then, and stopped to listen for the others. When no one came stomping down the stairs, they fell together. A sheen of perspiration dotted her hairline, her ponytail had come undone, and her chest heaved. She’d never looked hotter.
“Do I need to take care of you again?”
“I’m fine,” she said, settling into the crook of his arm.
She trailed her fingers up and down his forearm. He could get used to having her in his bed every day, but that wasn’t their deal. He kept getting flashes of what could be, though. Sometimes it seemed like it could be so good. He felt at peace with her, like the insecurities plaguing him quieted, and he thought she would say the same thing. Maybe they truly were better as friends, but it was hard to imagine anything more fulfilling than what they’d had the last few weeks.
He awoke to Joan trailing featherlight kissed along his bare shoulder.
“Sorry,” she said. “I wasn’t trying to wake you.”
“You were just creepily kissing me, hoping I would stay asleep?”
“Your face was tense. Looked like you needed some affection.”
He pulled her to him. A nightmare may have intruded on his sleep, but having Joan with him, waking up next to him, made him ache in the best way. He wasn’t sure how they’d gone so long without this, but it seemed inevitable somehow.
She threw her leg over him, and his fingertips skated up her calf. The remnants of last night’s mascara rimmed her eyes, and her old T-shirt sported several threadbare spots.
“I didn’t wash my face, I know.”
“You’re beautiful.”
“You say that to all the girls, I bet.”
“Nah. I prefer the one next to me.” He was skirting close to where he’d gone before, down a boyfriendy path, so he shifted away from her a bit. He didn’t want to scare her, even if his own thoughts kept screaming at him to take action. His brain was likely trying to urge him toward his usual pattern in this scenario. As he pulled away, though, she grabbed the front of his shirt and kissed him.
It didn’t feel like a prelude to the therapy stuff, either. She traced her tongue along his bottom lip, and he responded in kind, tangling with her until they were both diving for one another, heads shifting back and forth as they devoured one another.
“I fucking knew it!” someone shouted from the door. They broke apart. Joan’s eyes widened.
Kendall stood at the door with her eyes covered.
“I’m sorry it’s me, guys, and not Maria. Someone with more tact would have quietly slipped back out.” She uncovered her face. “But what the hell?”
Joan stared, as though she’d lost the capacity for speech. “Give us a minute. We can chat,” she said.
Kendall backed out, but not before delivering one last barb. “For the record, I’m pretty sure I did know. You guys have been eye fucking each other for weeks.”
Joan threw a hand over her face after Kendall closed the door. “Ugh. That wasn’t how I wanted them to find out.”
“Are you upset?”
“Surprisingly, no. She’s one of my closest friends.” She rolled toward him. “I wish it hadn’t gone down like that, but it won’t change much.”
“Want me to come with?”
“Nah. This feels like a girl conversation.”
He nodded while she moved off the bed to get dressed. “Alright, well. Good luck.”