Chapter 24 #2
She practically flies off the mattress.
“Oh, fuck. Oh, fuck. I don’t know what you did but I think I died and heaven is real and you should probably do that again.”
I smile against her seam before giving her exactly what she wants, repeating it over and over again.
Nothing she’s saying is coherent, just sounds of pleasure coming out of her with reckless abandon. She’s close, and I’m nothing but determined to get her there.
I stroke and lick, moaning as my tongue fucks her.
My dick is impossibly hard. I might come before she does.
She’s a goddess, writhing and grinding her pussy, chasing it.
She doesn’t need lessons, she just needs me.
“Cole,” she cries out.
Her body fights to move, but I keep her in place as the orgasm rips through. Waves of pleasure roll off her body and I feel every single one of them like an aftershock.
When everything finally subsides, leaving her wrung out and breathing rapidly, body loose and pliable, I scoot my way up to meet her face.
She smiles at me, sated and so fucking sexy.
Some of her release is on my lips and my tongue pokes out to lick the remnants, her eyes focused on my mouth as I do it.
“Delicious,” I tell her.
She slaps her hands over her face, trying to hide. “Oh my God. Did we really just do that?” Her voice is a mixture of laughter and groaning.
She’s so fucking cute, suddenly shy as if she wasn’t feeding me her pussy moments ago.
“We did,” I confirm. “And it won’t be the last time.”
Her hands slowly lift off her face and come back down to her sides. “You’re very good at that.”
Before I can respond her eyes land on the bulge at my zipper.
“Wow, I’m so selfish. I’ve never—but I can learn.”
Her gaze is so earnest, her concern for my hard-on adorable.
“I’m fine,” I tell her before she can make any moves to help with my situation. “It’ll go down. Tonight was about you. We’ll go over that lesson another time.”
She hesitates for a moment before settling back next to me.
We stay like that for a long moment, neither of us moving. Neither of us speaking.
At some point, my pinky reaches out and curls around hers, both of us staring up at the ceiling.
Strangely, lying next to her like this with nothing but our shoulders brushing and our pinkies connected feels more intimate than everything we’ve done leading up to this.
It’s not sexual, it’s not a performance.
It’s us, existing together, and some part of my brain makes a note of this moment.
And I know it’ll be a memory I’ll hold onto long after this is over.
I’ll come back here and wish I could experience it again for the first time.
I’ll chase this feeling forever, the highest of highs, but I’ll never reach the peak again with anyone else.
I swallow roughly, unhooking my pinky and forcing myself to sit up before it becomes overwhelming.
Ariana follows my lead, sitting up too.
I glance at her and she looks beautifully wrecked. Her hair’s a knotted mess, makeup smeared, eyes heavy like she’s still coming down from the rush of euphoria.
“It’s almost midnight,” she says. “One of them will probably come looking for us if we’re not there when the countdown starts.”
It’s a lie. We both know her siblings are smart enough not to come snooping around, risking walking into something they definitely don’t want to see.
For all they know, we’re doing everything imaginable behind this door.
But I know it’s her way of saying she wants to go back out, and I think it would do me some good to get out of this room for a bit.
Help me get my head on straight before I start wanting more than I deserve.
I stand and offer her my hand. “Countdown’s in about ten minutes.”
She takes it and lets me pull her to her feet.
She’s slightly unsteady, and I feel a little proud that I’m the cause of it.
Pulling her panties from my pocket, I hand them to her before she can even think to ask, then watch as she smooths her dress and reaches up to fix her hair, putting herself back together.
“How do I look?” she asks.
Like someone who just came on my tongue. “Gorgeous,” I say.
She narrows her eyes slightly like she doesn’t entirely believe me but decides to accept it anyway.
I tuck a strand of hair behind her ear that she missed. She goes still at the touch, her eyes coming up to mine.
For a beat neither of us says anything.
Then from across the house voices rise above the noise of the music, breaking the spell and pulling us both back to reality.
Ariana presses her lips together to hold in a smile.
“Come on,” I say, and take her hand, leading her out.
We slip back into the game room like we never left, but I’m sure our absence was noticed.
I’m even more sure when Ariana’s sisters look her way with knowing smirks.
I find us a spot on the sectional and settle Ariana down beside me, close enough that her shoulder is against mine, and she tucks her feet up under her and leans into my side. My arm goes around her like we’ve done this countless times.
The countdown starts.
Ten. Nine. Eight.
Ariana tips her head up to look at me and I look down at her and around us everyone is shouting numbers.
Three. Two. One.
I kiss her before she can say anything—before she can frame it as a performance or anything other than what it is, which is me wanting to kiss her at midnight on New Year’s Eve because there is nowhere else I want to be and no one else I want to be kissing.
She kisses me back.
When we break apart the room is still celebrating around us. The way she’s looking at me feels different. Like maybe she really sees me.
I think it’d be foolish to let myself believe that. This will come to an end, and she’ll move on, and I can’t get stuck here, living in a fantasy.
“Happy New Year, doll,” I say.
“Happy New Year, Cole.”