7. Sex in the Backseat
SEX IN THE BACKSEAT
CHELSEA
“We should call our wedding cocktail, Sex in the Backseat,” Rex mused between kisses and sucks down my neck and I giggled—at us, at this situation, at how ridiculously in love with him I was. And at the thought of Miriam’s high-class society friends drinking our cocktail with the name of Sex in the Backseat.
“How would that look foiled in gold on the menu card?” I laughed even more, happy with how my man had me smiling again.
“That’s it then. We’re going with that name. I’ll tell Mom tomorrow. You want this wedding to be about us? How about this?” His voice faded into a low growl, and his fingers found their way under my panties, pumping inside of my slick center and turning up my temperature.
“Yes. Just you and me.” My breath hitched, and a moan escaped my lips so raw and needy. Who had I become under Rex’s careful consideration of my needs? Like he had a beacon for when his touch would be the most effective on me.
“Sir, we’re almost there,” the driver’s voice came through the speaker, and I almost forgot we were on the road.
“My hands are a little occupied, Sweetness. Hit that button for me?” Rex nodded toward the door. I fumbled around on the panel and found the speaker button, pushing it until it buzzed. Rex commanded, “Drive around the block a few times. I’ll tell you when to stop.”
He continued his pursuit of me for several blocks, as long as it took me to come undone riding his fingers, and moaning his name.
“That’s it, baby. Relax like a good girl. You know I’ll always take real good care of you.”
“Mm-hmm.” I lingered, held by him in his arms, lost in the euphoria of Rex’s attention a little longer.
In front of Maisy’s building, before getting out of the car, I adjusted my clothes, more at ease now than earlier. “Hm. Showing up at Maisy’s door with an orgasm afterglow wasn’t exactly what I’d planned.”
“Come home with me instead. We’ll check on her tomorrow. Besides, you owe me now.” He adjusted himself as well, using a water bottle and his gym towel to wash his hands.
I reached over and gave his thigh a little pat. “I know. Maybe this is our thing. Whatever wedding argument we have, we make love immediately.”
“Deal,” he growled, about to claim my lips with his again, when a text came through from Miriam. We read it together on his phone.
Miriam: I think a sparkling raspberry Chambord and Prosecco cocktail would be lovely.
I nodded to Rex, agreeing and watching him type back an answer. This was one thing out of all the wedding plans I didn’t care about, but if it made Miriam happy…
Rex: That’ll do. And the name is Sex in the Backseat.
Miriam: What?
We laughed, and he turned off his phone just as a knock came at our window. He pushed the button to let it part way down. I expected to see the driver there, but it wasn’t.
“Chelsea? I thought I recognized Rex’s car.” Sophie peered through the opening and Rex let the window down the rest of the way.
Maisy came up behind her roommate and peered in. “Perfect timing. Can you give us a ride?”
I glanced down at their hot pink and black party dresses. “Where to, and can I come?” I ignored Rex’s low growl at this.
“There’s a new club opening, and I finally convinced Maisy she needed to snap out of the funk she’s been in since she broke up with Brooks.”
“Maisy Calhoun, you’ve been avoiding me all week. Now get in here and tell me what’s going on.” I called to her.
“She told him about leaving after graduation.” Sophie supplied this information and Maisy scoffed.
“I figured as much. So she’s not handling it well?” I could have predicted this. Back on the island over spring break, I knew Maisy had been putting off telling Brooks her news, yet every single day I could see how the man fell deeper and deeper for her.
“I’m right here, ladies. Can we just drop this? Scoot over,” Maisy commanded.
After situating ourselves with me on Rex’s lap and the two girls on the seat next to him, I asked again. “Well? How’d Brooks take the news you wouldn’t be around for the next year?”
Even in the car’s darkness, I could see her worried eyes shifting between Rex and me. I assured her. “Don’t worry. I told Rex everything.”
“What? How could you?” She nearly jumped off her seat, gaping at me.
“He’s my fiancé. I think it’s important not to keep things from him.”
“She’s been worried about you ever since we got back from the island,” Rex supplied. “And if I don’t get her to talk about it, then it affects our bedroom fun, if you get my meaning.”
“Okay—ew. I get that you’re about to become my brother-in-law, but that’s too much information about your sex life. And jeez, you must think I’m a horrible person,” she cried.
“No, I don’t. Although some of my buddies and I have a bet going. The odds at the moment are in favor of you and Brooks not sticking together. Sounds like I could win,” Rex chortled.
My jaw dropped, and I sort of playfully slapped his chest. He jerked back.
“What? It’s just a harmless wager. My friends and I bet on things all the time.”
“You’re not helping, honey,” I admonished him, and his grin disappeared. He turned his face toward the window as if that’d help remove him from this conversation.
“Maisy, I’m sure, given time, the two of you will come to see this was just a passing fling,” I said, my voice sounding a bit too much like our mother’s soothing this too shall pass speech.
“Or she could marry him after she comes back,” Sophie blurted, and Maisy jabbed her in the ribs.
I shook my head. “What are you talking about?”
“Brooks asked her to marry him and stay here instead of leaving.”
“Sophie, I swear you cannot keep your damn mouth shut. Driver, take us back to the apartment, please.” Maisy crossed her arms and clammed up.
My eyebrows hit my hairline, and even Rex appeared surprised. I almost shrieked. “I hope she said no?”
“She said she did, but I’ve heard her crying every night this week in bed, and she won’t talk about it.” Sophie’s head shaking caused her pretty dark curls to wave around her shoulders as we continued to talk over my sister.
“Ugh, you two are the worst,” Maisy spat, and launched out of the car in front of her apartment, leaving me completely devoid of any meaningful, deep conversation with my sibling. I’d chase her inside, but I knew she was done with me for the night and I wouldn’t get another word out of her.
I hugged Sophie and made plans for her to come see me at the deli to chat more about things.
While we waited and watched, making sure they got into the building before the car pulled away, Rex’s voice soothed.
“Are you sure you don’t want to go in and speak more with Maisy?” Those were his words, but his arms encircling me tight and his fingers threading with mine said he was glad I didn’t run inside after them.
“There are always two paths, aren’t there? Go one way and your life turns out just so. Go a different way and who knows what you get? Maisy could stay and be with Brooks or go off on a once in a lifetime adventure.”
Rex shifted the hair from my face behind my ear. Even though the girls left, he held me in place on his lap. “I’m glad your path led you here with me, Sweetness.”
“What if I had moved to New York City after high school to attend culinary school like I’d originally planned? What would have been the chances of us meeting or even being attracted to each other back then?”
“Without a doubt, one hundred percent, you would have hated me in my teens and early twenties. You think I have an ego now? Count your blessings you met me when you did, because every day I count my blessings for you,” he said, melting my heart as he kissed along the sweet spot under my earlobe.
His distractions proved helpful, pushing Jenna and Miriam and her thick binder of wedding planning nonsense out of my mind for the rest of the night. Until tomorrow, at least.
As for Maisy, I had to believe things always worked out for a reason, and in her case, time would tell if she and Brooks were meant to be.