29. Clara
CLARA
I was walking on air.
I’d never felt so light in all my life. Now that things were finally back on track with Ben, it was like everything was falling into place in my life.
“Where are you going?” Ben surprised me, wrapping his arms around me the moment I came downstairs.
“Eww! Don’t hug me. You’re all sweaty.”
“Working hard,” he murmured against my throat, pressing kisses down the column of my neck. “Fuck, I could take you right now.”
“But you won’t. I have places to be.”
Groaning, he stepped away, swiping the sweat from his head. “You could always stay here and watch me work.”
“And as much as I love watching you flex your muscles, the girls are expecting me.”
He quirked an eyebrow at me. “Not sure I like the idea of you hanging out with all those women.”
“Worried I’ll switch teams?”
“Nope. Worried about what you discuss.”
I giggled, feeling like a schoolgirl again, about to run off to the nickel and dime shop for a soda. Okay, I wasn’t quite that old, but the sentiment was the same.
His hands slid down my waist, but I narrowly escaped his clutches, knowing if I didn’t leave now, I never would.
“When I get back, I expect the room to be done.”
Chuckling, he stalked toward me. “Sure. I’ll get right on it.”
“Stay where you are,” I threatened, holding up a finger, as if that single action would keep him from me.
But he didn’t stop coming. I backed up, right into the wall with no place to go. “Ben,” I warned.
He pounced, caging me in against the wall, his lips skimming my neck as his hand trailed up my thigh.
“I…have to go,” I panted.
“Mhmm,” he murmured, his lips already leaving a trail down my breasts.
God, I loved it when he did that.
“I just…so much…” Incoherent words left my lips as I tried and failed to formulate a sentence. I knew I needed to leave, but as his fingers slipped into my panties and through my slick heat, I knew I was lost to him
“Screw it,” I muttered, letting him drag me to the ground.
Panting hard, he barely had his pants down before he was thrusting hard inside me. As for my panties, they were shredded in two, just inches from my face.
“Ben!” I cried out when his hips met mine in a particularly brutal thrust that I felt all the way in my throat.
“Fuck, Clara.” His eyes squeezed closed as he gripped my leg, pulling it up to meet his thigh. “So fucking filthy, baby. Need to fuck you hard.”
I shattered in his arms, not even a minute in, and I was broken on the ground, my body a quivering mess.
But that didn’t stop him or slow him down.
If anything, his eyes darkened and his hips snapped against mine at an unnerving pace.
I was on the verge of hitting that high again, of crashing even harder the second time.
I didn’t know if I could hold on. I was desperate and needy, feeling a million different things all at once.
And as if he understood that, he thumbed my clit, growling out as he thrust hard inside me one last time as I shattered around his hard length. He cried out, collapsing on top of me and panting hard.
“Fuck, Clara,” he groaned, rolling to the side. “My knees.”
Laughing, I rolled, wincing as my back ached from laying on the floor for just that short time. “I don’t think we’re made for this.”
“We’re still young. Ish.”
“Exactly. Youngish. Between your knees and my back, we’re going to fall apart.”
“Not if I can help it. We just need more padding.”
“Are you suggesting I put on more weight?”
Chuckling, he shook his head, still staring at the ceiling as his breath evened out. “I’m suggesting we start carrying cushions around with us.”
“Then we’d just look ridiculous.”
“Then we’ll turn our house into one of those boho retreats with pillows everywhere.”
“Great, so everyone will feel welcome to come over and screw on every surface.”
He grunted in amusement. “Well, I guess we’ll just have to deny entry to everyone.”
“Including our kids?”
“Especially our kids,” he murmured, rolling over and kissing me hard. “Can’t have them walking in on us again.”
“And just what do you plan on saying to them?”
His lips slid down my neck, across the swells of my breasts. “That they aren’t welcome.”
My eyes slipped closed as he peeled my dress to the side and took my nipple in his mouth.
“That they had their time in our house, but now…”
“Now?” I gasped when he tugged my bud with his teeth.
“Now, if they come in here, they’d better be prepared to see me fucking their mother.”
I grimaced at the thought, but it was quickly cleared from my mind as he flipped my skirt up and slid his fingers inside me.
“Ben!”
“That’s it, baby. Let me hear you scream for me.”
My hands flew to his shoulders as he twisted and thrust inside me, driving me insane as he did his level best to draw a third orgasm from me. Black spots wavered in front of me as my grip tightened on him. I was so close, but it was just out of reach. I would never get there. I could feel it.
“Ben…it’s not—”
He slid down my body, and then his lips were there, pressed against my soaking pussy. I cried out, spreading my legs wide to accommodate his broad shoulders. My finger slid through his hair as he devoured me, tearing my orgasm from my body, when just moments ago, I thought it would never come.
As I laid there panting, desperately trying to regain my breath, I swore I would return the favor just as soon as I could breathe again.
“Better?” he murmured as he crawled up my body.
“Yeah,” I huffed out, barely moving.
“So, time to get to your girls’ thing?”
I nodded, but my eyes were already closing, and I was drifting off to sleep.
I hobbled into the shop a half hour late and smelling like sex.
Everyone knew. They all saw it on my face and in my eyes.
“Somebody got lucky,” Lila laughed, pouring a glass of wine for me.
I took it from her, my face flushed red from not only the multiple orgasms, but also from the way everyone was staring at me.
“Isn’t it a little early to be drinking?”
Lila shot a pointed look at the clock. “It’s…” She waited for the little hand to move, then grinned. “It’s five o’clock somewhere. Or, at the very least, mid-afternoon.”
Lisa hummed as she swallowed a mouthful. “East Coast. It’s two o’clock there!”
“See? It’s really not that early.”
I lifted my glass in cheers, then took my first sip. It wasn’t the margarita that I desperately needed, but it would do.
“Please tell me this is a fun injury,” Mrs. Abernathy said, walking over to me, leaning heavily on her cane.
I was slightly disturbed that the eighty-year-old woman was interested in my love life, or that she was referring to it as a fun injury, but I smiled at them. “Hardwood floors are not for women our age.”
A round of cheers went up in the bookshop, and despite my humiliation, I laughed along with them. Burying my face in my hand, I tried and failed to find this just as hilarious as they did. I was not used to talking so openly about my love life, or women cheering me on like it was an Olympic sport.
“Okay, okay!” I called out, hoping to calm them all down. “Yes, I had sex before I came over!”
Another round of cheers went up, even more mortifying than the last.
“What position?”
“How long did it last?”
“I bet he’s hung like a horse!”
Shaking my head, I took my seat next to Georgia, who thankfully was not calling out any embarrassing questions or comments.
“That’s what you get for showing up looking like you’ve been tossed around the room,” she whispered.
“I tried to leave,” I hissed. “I was going to slip out, and then he was there…doing things. I barely escaped with my life!”
Chuckling, she kept her voice low. “I followed your advice.”
My head whipped to hers, surprise and excitement lightly inside me. “And?”
She blushed bright red. “Well, I doubt it was as exciting as your morning, but still…I can’t complain.”
“So, what does this mean?”
“I’m not sure yet. He’s not really in the state of mind, considering what’s happening.”
I understood that.
“Don’t let him back out.”
She sighed heavily, her shoulders sagging with the weight of everything going on. “It was hard enough to convince him to even have a serious conversation with me. But when he finally kissed me…”
Her face flushed as she thought back to that moment.
I knew the feeling all too well. At our age, when something like this happened, it was like falling in love all over again.
It had been years since romance had truly touched either of us, and now that it was back, trying to hold onto it felt like a monumental task.
One wrong move, and it could all fall apart.
“Okay!” Cassidy called out. “Our book this week…who wants to start?” Then she turned to me. “Clara?”
God, this was embarrassing. “Um…I didn’t have time to read it.”
Again, a round of cheers and catcalls went up, further humiliating me.
“I bet you didn’t!”
I glared at Lila Cross, but there was no heat behind it.
I tried to pay attention for the rest of book club, but I was too busy thinking about my own sex life to listen to what happened in a book.
I never thought my love life would be more interesting than what was on the page, but now that I had it, reading about it wasn’t nearly as enticing.
By the time we were done, I was ready to get home to Ben, but before I could scramble out the door, I was pulled aside by Lisa Lawson.
“Clara, could I ask a favor of you?”
“Of course.”
She glanced over my shoulder, keeping her voice low. “Could you take care of Ellie? We don’t have the best relationship, and I’m afraid she’s had a bit too much to drink. I don’t think my interference would be accepted.”
I turned, scanning the room until I found her. Stumbling over near the books, she looked like she’d been drinking for half the day instead of the last hour.
“I’ll take care of it.”
“Thank you. And please, keep this to yourself.”
“You don’t have to worry about that.”
I skirted around the room, doing my best not to draw attention. Cassidy caught my eye and got everyone’s attention, making an announcement about the next book club.
“Ellie, how about we head out to my house for some coffee?”