Chapter 35
Lily
T o say I was a little bit flustered would be the understatement of the year. I hoped I was succeeding in trying to play it cool. Yes, all those feelings rushed at the sight of all of them, all hot and sweaty with their shirts either tucked into their shorts, thrown over their shoulder, or hanging around their neck like a sweaty gym towel. They were doing nothing to hide their physique, and I couldn't blame them. They were mouthwatering. And knowing what they'd like to do to me made it all the more difficult to play coy and not blurt out that they were not the only ones with those feelings.
But my eyes were on Eric. He's the one I have a history with. He's 'the one' since we're only allowed one at a time. And I hated letting him go. Now that he's here, telling me he misses me and wants to 'spend time with me,' my pulse goes into overdrive. My skin yearns for his touch, more than just a hand hold. He wants me all to himself, and I'm not going to tell him no.
No ulterior motives? Yeah, right. Just wait until we're all alone together.
"I'd love that." I smiled at him. I'm so turned on by all of them, he's going to get the fuck of his life tonight.
Pulling me into him, he grinned. "In that case, boys? I'll see you at home."
He's such an admirable type of man. Love still shines in his eyes when talking to his friends. After hearing them make that remark about wanting to fuck me, he didn't try to assert his masculinity, going on a testosterone parade. He simply got on with his day. There are some women who would say if he's willing to pass you around to his friends, he'd just as easily traffic you. Then again, I roll in very dark circles, with women who have had a lot of trauma. I don't feel that way with Eric. Maybe that makes me naive. But I trust him with my literal life.
"Okay." Matt dragged Ethan away. "See you around, Lily."
"At the fair." I tapped my nose and pointed at him.
"At the fair." He grinned.
The intensity of Ryan's attention sizzled me, and I fought the pull of temptation to look at him. I breathed a sigh of relief as all three of them turned to leave.
"Let me, milady." Eric stepped in to take control of my mother's wheelchair.
I grimaced. "Please don't ever say that again."
"What? Milady?" He skipped a little. "You don't like that?" He grinned. "What about fair lady?"
I groaned.
"Top of the morning to ya, milady. I must say, you're looking mighty fair today." Still hanging on the wheelchair, he turned sideways to curtsey.
"And I must say your sex appeal just went all the way down." I scrunched my nose at him.
"Aw damn. I guess the sexy man manual lied to me. Here I was thinking you'd be swooning by now." He grinned.
"You should've known better if it's called the sexy man manual," I tittered.
"You know, I think you have a point."
He pretends to be gobsmacked.
The walk home was easy, with light conversation. I hadn't gotten far past the house anyway, so we arrived in less than twenty minutes. I was already pumped to get out of these clothes and on his lap, but Mom had to be fed and if I'm honest, I skipped breakfast. I was starving as well.
"I'm about to whip something up for lunch. Do you want anything?" I asked, as he lifted my freshly changed mother from her bed and put her back in her wheelchair.
He looked up at me, smirking. "Lily Thornbread, are you offering to cook for me?"
I scoffed. "Uh, no. I'm making food, and I'm offering you some."
He gave his head a playful wobble. "Is it soup?" He scrunched his nose, and I laughed.
"You don't like soup?" I grinned.
"Yeah, sure," he lied as I tapped the back of my hand against his shoulder, walking away.
"It's not soup." I chuckled. "At least, not for us." I looked through the fridge, catching myself searching for something he might enjoy, and I straightened up. If there was one thing I didn't do, it was cater to a man.
But why not? He catered to me. Before I could enter into a debate with myself, he surprised me by coming up behind me.
Peeking over my bent back, into the fridge, he said, "So, what are we cooking?"
I came up so fast at the question, I hit my head on the top part of the opened fridge. Biting back a howl, I pulled my head out of the ice box. "We?" I asked, my head spinning.
"Yes. We." He washed his hands at the sink before drying them. I rubbed my head subconsciously, and he frowned. "You okay?"
Fixing my mouth to lie, laughter bubbled out of me. He looked at me, mouth open and taken aback, which made me laugh even harder. "I just hit the hell out of my head on that fridge. I think I saw the light."
"Aw, babe!" He grinned, pulling me close. "I thought I heard a thump. Where does it hurt?"
Falling into his warmth, I inhaled his scent. Yeah, he stank. He hadn't been able to take a shower yet. But I liked it. Musky. Sweaty. Eric. As he kissed the top of my head, I sighed, tilting it back and catching his lips with mine. He groaned, and I threw my arms around his neck, moaning.
"No," he grunted when I pressed my body into him, and his hands drifted toward my ass. Pressing his finger against my lips, he laughed when I kissed it too. "We're supposed to be cooking."
"It'll only take a minute," I teased.
"You know I ain't taking no damn minute." He tapped my ass, gripping it a little so a gasp left my lips.
"Okay," I purred. "Maybe only ten minutes then." My hands found their way underneath his shirt as I kissed his neck.
He shuddered. "Lily. Your mom's right there," he said, biting down on my earlobe.
"You're right. We should take it to the bedroom," I panted.
"Am I just your sex machine?" he asked, trapping me in by his arms and pressing my back into the small counter space.
"Are you complaining?" I moaned.
He laughed and shook his head. "You are something else, you know that?" He kissed my lips before pulling away. "But I'm starving. Let's get to cooking."
I balked at him as he walked toward the fridge. My body was on fire, and all he could think about was cooking? He felt my eyes on him and without looking at me, he grinned.
"Hm. Chicken looks good." He pulled out a foam tray of chicken parts wrapped in plastic and walked past me, only turning once to wink.
Groaning, I found myself pushing out my lip in an attempt to pout like those cutesy girls who pout at their men and bat their eyelashes like morons. Now, I'm the moron. Ah hell.
"You're such a tease," I muttered, joining him.
We worked seamlessly together and if I'm being honest, we're having fun. Both our phones were taking turns pumping out tunes, some of which included songs I used to listen to in high school. I hadn't heard those in forever, and he laughed over hearing the music pounding from my plastic headphones with sponge ear protectors and the CD player tucked away in my leather backpack.
"That was fake leather," I corrected him. "Oh. It peeled so badly after a while."
"Yeah, it was like your bag had dandruff flaking everywhere it went." He chuckled.
"Thanks for being my best friend and telling me." I bumped him with my ass.
"Like telling you would've made any difference," he guffawed while seasoning the chicken.
"You're right. You're right. I probably would've found a way to make it flake some more," I agreed, singing along to my old tunes, remembering every lyric. I snuck in a few of the rap songs he used to go hard for in his car, and he groaned. Still, he fell into the beat and lyrics just the same, and I laughed at us.
"Look at us. We're like old married couples, reminiscing on the good old days," I tittered.
"Aw, don't say that. We're not there yet. We're still young and swaggy," he attempted.
"Ew. See what I mean?" I teased.
Gotta say, having fun with him, loosening up and allowing myself to flow into his energy as he flowed into mine, wasn't making me want to jump his bones less. Instead, I'm filled with an easy way of being that's inviting me into his arms, preferably followed by some slow, intimate lovemaking. Even watching his hands knead that chicken and the flavors of the seasoning caused me to drool, heightening the tension. Every time I tried to get closer to him, he reminded me that he was serious about not having an ulterior motive. I reminded him that I didn't mind an ulterior motive, and he just laughed.
It wasn't until we're done eating, my mom's in bed, and he was washing up the dishes in the kitchen when he allowed me to snuggle up against his back and run my hand underneath his shirt and over his abs.
"Thanks for helping me cook." I kissed the center of his spine.
"Anytime. I'm just happy to be in your presence." He didn't stop my hand from slipping beneath the waistband of his shorts.
"And thanks for forgiving me that message," I breathed, relieved to find that he's hard.
The dishes clattered in the sink before he turned around to face me. He placed a hand in my hair and cradled my face.
"Thanks for agreeing to let me come over here," he murmured before kissing me, equally hard and soft at once.
My body came alive, given the permission to indulge in its nasty desires again. I moaned as his kisses deepened and became more electric, spiking charges through my body that left me unable to catch my breath. My shirt was over my head faster than I could blink, and I trembled under his gaze as he unhooked my black push-up bra. When he popped the button of my jean shorts off, air rushed back into my body, and I licked my lips, reaching for his shirt and licking the saltiness from his chest. Forcing my shorts over my hips, I watched as he stepped out of his, and his dick sprang free.
I groaned, falling to my knees in my black thong, mouth open and ready to pull him into me. He swore upon impact, my warm breath and silky wet tongue moving over his shaft. "Lily," he groaned. "Shouldn't... we... have... showered... first? Fuck," he bit out. I watched his eyes roll over.
"Mm-mm." I lifted my mouth off him, spitting on his dick and massaging it with my hand. "I like you dirty."
"Fuck. Lily, I love you so damn much." He reached down to trace my lips with his thumb.
I sucked it into my mouth before lowering my head toward the bigger target, noting just before my mouth covered him, that pre-cum was settling at his tip. My clit jumped in reaction, and I closed my eyes in bliss, sucking him until he could no longer take it. He pulled himself from my mouth, lifting me up off the floor and carrying me over to the burgundy couch.
"Think it's about time we break this couch in," he said, lowering me onto it, flipping me over onto my knees with my ass up in the air.
He knelt behind me, licking and fingering me as I screamed into the matching burgundy pillow, Ethan, Matt, and Ryan's faces popping into view. I could see the wall they fixed from this angle, and I shuddered against Eric's face. His tongue intensified my orgasm, and images of his friends shirtless and panting brought me to a second peak. I'm howling into the pillow, biting down onto it when he flipped me over onto my back, and it's just me and him again. His darkened, hungry gaze made my stomach flip as he inserted himself into me.
When he brought his lips to mine, I shed a tear. "Oh! I love you. I love you so much, Eric," I moaned.
He fucked me harder at that, grunting my name. I let myself be taken by him, surrendering the need to control our pleasure. My nails dug into his back, my fingers pulled on his hair, he sucked on my titties until I erupted into another release. This time, the pillow was thrown who the hell knows where, and my hollering provided erotic surround-sound background music to the soft evening twilight filtering through the window and painting the room in hues of pink and yellow.
He came soon after, jerking and spilling himself inside me. I wrapped my arms around his hard, sweaty body as he wiped his hand through his hair, flipping it off his forehead. He sighed against me, kissing my cheek before climbing into the large couch behind me. With him pressed up against my ass, I could feel that he hadn't completely softened yet.
"Wait. Put it back in." I reached behind me and grabbed his ass.
Panting, he grinned. "What? Babe. I'm spent." He kissed my shoulder.
"I know, I just want to fall asleep with you inside me." I locked my fingers with his; his arm was slipped beneath my head.
He obliged me, and I gasped as it pushed past my swollen pussy lips, slipping along our juices. Kissing our interlocked fingers, I pressed my ass closer into him.
"Mmm," he groaned, kissing my neck. "If you don't watch it, you might have me hard again in a minute."
Shortly after, his snores confirmed that he'd be needing more than a minute. I smiled, shifting into a more comfortable position, closing my eyes against the thump of his pulse against my ear.
"Please, don't ever leave me again," I murmured.
He surprised me when he hugged me closer and responded with a murmur of his own. "Just don't keep pushing me away, and I'm here to stay," he promised, and you know what? I believed him.
For the first time in my life, I dreamed of marriage and a stupid white dress and a stupid grin on my face like Ann-Marie had on hers. With Eric at the altar, beaming at me, and tears falling from both our eyes. He made a joke to ease the overwhelming emotion. Along with his best friends. They're standing there too. As groomsmen? And it's not awkward at all between the five of us.