Chapter 27
YOU SHOULD KNOW
BJ
The morning after the move-in/welcome party, I make Winter and me egg sandwiches on English muffins with bacon and cheese and bring them back to my bedroom with coffee.
Quinn’s already left for work, and I’m pretty sure Rose will be sleeping well into the afternoon based on the selfies she was sending to our group chat at three in the morning, but I have a couch and a coffee table in my bedroom, and this means Winter doesn’t need to put on more clothes, since I plan to take off what little she has on once we’re fed.
She’s sitting cross-legged on the couch, wearing one of my T-shirts and a pair of black underwear. And that’s all.
“I need to tell you something,” I blurt.
She’s in the middle of a bite of egg sandwich, so she covers her mouth with her hand and mumbles, “Okay.”
I nod a couple of times and run my hands up and down my thighs.
She frowns and sets her plate down. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah. Fine. I mean, good.”
Winter swallows her bite and gives me a skeptical look. “Everything about your body language says different.”
I stop with the leg bouncing and stretch an arm across the back of the couch, adopting a more relaxed stance.
“You’re making me nervous,” Winter says.
“I’m making myself nervous,” I mutter.
“Are you a serial killer?”
“What?”
“Serial killer.” She makes an ee-ee-ee sound and accompanies it with a stabbing motion. “Are you?”
“No. I set spiders free, and junior year bio when we dissected the fetal pig was not my fave. I don’t think I’d be a great murderer.”
“Okay. So whatever is making you all sketchy and anxious over there can’t be that bad. Just spit it out.”
I drum on the edge of the couch, then wrap my fingers around it so I don’t keep fidgeting. “Well, you know I haven’t been in a relationship with anyone since my senior year of high school.”
“Uh-huh. I haven’t dated anyone since around the same time, so we’re in the same boat. It gets kind of incest-y when the options are limited to local guys. At least in high school we were bussed into Lake Geneva, so it expanded the dating pool.” She picks up her sandwich and takes another bite.
Maybe this isn’t as big a deal as Lovey thought. Although last night was a bit of an eye-opener. “Right. So I’ve spent the past three years of university not taking much seriously, apart from skating and my classes.”
“And?” She makes a go-on motion.
“And I’ve had a bunch of one-night stands.”
Her brows pull together. “Yeah, you already told me this. After the whole Lovey sleepover when we talked about Caroline, I asked if you’d had a relationship since her.
You asked if I meant one that lasted more than twenty-four to forty-eight hours, which I took as a no.
Logically, that implies that you’ve had some meaningless sexual encounters.
There’s no shame in that. You’re an athlete and a dude, basically a walking hormone.
And you’re exceptionally proficient with your tongue, your fingers, and your gloriously blinged-out cock.
You didn’t learn how to fuck like a champion by watching porn. ”
I clear my throat. “Right. Yeah. So that doesn’t bother you?”
“Should it? I mean, I avoided relationships because there was no way I was going to introduce anyone to my dad, and half the time we lived in a trailer with zero privacy. It doesn’t mean I never had sex, though. Sometimes you just need to feel something good.”
“Yeah, exactly.” I nod. I have a feeling Winter’s number of one-night stands or regular hookups or whatever happened for her is a lot different than mine, but I don’t want to keep beating a dead horse, or turn this into a thing when it doesn’t need to be one.
She sets her sandwich down again. “Unless you’re telling me this because you don’t want to be tied down to just one person now that you’re back at university.”
“No. That’s not—I want to be tied down. Not literally.” I think about that a moment. “Or like, maybe literally—depending on the mood and the setting and maybe a safe word. Lavender and Kody use duct tape, but I feel like that would not be great for arm hair.”
Winter half chokes and coughs into her elbow. “I’m sorry, what?”
“Forget I said that. It was supposed to be under the cone.”
She shakes her head. “Oh no. You can’t say things like ‘Lavender and Kody use duct tape’ and expect me not to ask questions. Are you telling me Kodiak Bowman, rookie NHL player for Philly, uses duct tape on his girlfriend? Isn’t she like, tiny?”
“Yeah, she’s tiny.” I shake my head. “But, no. It’s the other way around.
Fuck. This is seriously cone. I’m not even supposed to know, but last year I found all this duct tape in his garbage and made some connections, so I’m about ninety-nine-percent sure she taped his arms to the chair.
I don’t know where it went from there, and I prefer not to think about it because Lavender is my cousin, but good for them that their kinks match. ”
Winter looks a little stunned. “I honestly don’t know what to do with that information. I’m going to go ahead and say right now that I probably won’t be into duct taping you to anything.”
“I kinda like my arm hair where it is. And Lovey once took a wax strip to my leg, which hurt like hell and took weeks for the patch to fill in. I spent half the summer in jeans.”
“What did you do to warrant a wax strip on the leg?”
“Why do you automatically assume I did something wrong?”
She gives me a look.
I debate how honest I should be and decide Winter doesn’t need another bullshitter in her life.
“I might have hooked up with one of her sorority sisters sophomore year. In my defense, I didn’t know she was a sorority sister until afterward.
I think the hookup part was less the problem, and more that her sorority sister felt the need to constantly share unnecessary details with Lovey—stuff she couldn’t unknow. ”
“Ah. Well, that makes sense. You definitely deserved a wax strip for that.”
“Yeah. I’d like to say I took it like a man, but I screamed and swore a lot.”
Winter grins. “Hence your aversion to duct tape.”
“I’d be open to silk scarves—much softer and far less likely to leave marks or take off hair.”
“Yeah, because I have an abundance of those hanging around in my mostly athletic-wear wardrobe.”
“A neck tie would work equally as well, and I have plenty of those.”
Winter smirks. “Your hands are far too talented to restrain.”
“Lots of other uses for a silk tie besides restraining, though.” Winter has had enough of feeling powerless to last a lifetime. I can’t see her ever wanting to be tied up.
“Such as?”
“A little sensory deprivation can heighten the experience.”
“Like a blindfold?” Her eyebrows pop, and her voice drops to a whisper as her fingers drift along her cheek. “You or me?”
“Either. Both. Neither.” I slide closer and move her empty plate to the coffee table, patting my thighs. “Come here. I have an idea.”
She shifts to straddle me. “What kind of idea?”
“Close your eyes for me, please,” I murmur.
Her eyes flutter shut, her hands resting on her bare thighs, lips slightly parted.
I take her hand and kiss each fingertip, then her palm, before I slowly make my way along her wrist and up her forearm until I reach the bend, my eyes on her face the entire time. She whimpers softly when I stop, and her eyes flutter open.
I gently close her eyelids and drag my fingers down her cheeks. “Keep them closed and focus on how you feel.”
“I feel like you’re doing a lot of teasing.”
I set her palm on my shoulder and pick up her other hand, grinning as my lips brush across her fingertips. “That’s because I am.”
She laughs and then sighs as I kiss a path from the inside of her wrist to the crook of her elbow. The fingers of my free hand skim along her thigh until I reach the hem of her T-shirt. “Should I take this off and keep going?”
“Yes, please.”
“Can you raise your arms for me?”
She lifts them above her head, and I remove her shirt.
Her breasts are at eye level, but I don’t go for a nipple.
Instead, I press my lips to the center of her collarbones.
Then I work my way from one side to the other, her nipples brushing against the fabric of my T-shirt. “How does this feel, Snowflake?”
“Good. Nice. Like it’s not enough.”
I nip at the skin above the swell of her right breast. “Good. It’s not supposed to be enough.
” I skim her ribs and follow the waistband of her panties with a single finger until I reach her navel.
“Should we go back to bed?” I kiss a path to her neck.
“I want to touch every inch of you, put my mouth where you ache the most.” I circle a nipple with my finger, and she sucks in a sharp breath. “I could start here.”
“Fuck, yes. Please.” Her eyes pop open, and she slides off my lap.
Before she can make a beeline for the bed, I catch her hand and pull her close.
I wrap an arm around her waist and cup her cheek in my palm.
Her eyes fall closed again, lips parted in anticipation.
I drop my mouth to hers, and she moans when our tongues tangle.
Her hands slide into my hair, gripping at the crown, angling my head so she can deepen the kiss.
We’re both breathless when she finally breaks away.
“You could get a tie,” she whispers.
“Why don’t you help me pick one out?” I lace our fingers and tug her toward my closet.
It’s a small walk-in, like all the closets in this house. Hanging on the back of the door is a tie rack with a half a dozen options. Winter brushes her fingers over the soft fabrics and chooses a black satin one.
When we reach the bed, she tosses the tie on the rumpled sheets and hooks her thumbs into her panties. I cover her hands with mine. “Why don’t we keep these on for a little while longer?”
She tips her head. “You’re really going to drag this one out, aren’t you?”
I laugh. “We have limited days left before our schedules are full of classes and practice. I want to make the most of them.”
“Hmm... Good point.” She sits on the edge of the bed and shimmies back to stretch out. “Let the teasing resume.”
I climb up after her and wrap the tie around my fist until only a foot of fabric dangles.
“Should I close my eyes?” she asks.
“Up to you.” I brush the silk from her knee all the way to the top of her thigh. Placing one of my knees between hers, I drag the silk over her stomach, then lower, skimming between her thighs.
“Oh fuck.” She gasps. “You’re going to kill me softly.”
“Mm...” I drag it higher, between her breasts. “We should get some feathers.”
“Feathers?” Her eyes flick between me and the tie moving over her skin.
“Imagine how nice they would feel right here.” I let the tie sweep over her nipple, then across her collarbones. “Or here.”
She sucks in a breath. “Feathers would be a great idea.”
Eventually I cover her eyes with the soft fabric, and she ties it behind her head.
And then I kiss every inch of her, murmuring hot words against her skin, bringing her to orgasm with my fingers and then my mouth.
It isn’t until I’m about to fill her that I remove the blindfold.
Her eyes meet mine as I push inside, and she comes in violent, glorious waves.
I wish we could stay here, in this perfect bubble of bliss, where it’s just her and me. But it has to break eventually. I just didn’t realize it had the potential to shatter.