I writhed against him as his other hand wrapped around my shoulders and under my hair to hold me still.
“I want to be buried deep inside you where I belong,” he said into my mouth.
His fingers continued to leisurely probe into me as I hastily undid his pants. My impatient hands found him impossibly hard, and he sucked in a breath with my touch. I stepped back to tug his pants and underwear down, and when he squeezed me back to him, his erection dug into my stomach.
When his hand withdrew, I hopped up suddenly so he had to catch me. He smiled into my mouth right before I sank onto him, and we effortlessly came together. Frozen, we adjusted to each other, exchanging charged breaths. My arms and legs wrapped tighter around him, and I moaned from the way he completely possessed me. His hand ran up my back and gathered my hair before pulling lightly. I drew back from his mouth to look at him.
He didn’t say anything, just looked into my eyes as we stood, immobilized by the overwhelming connection. There were no words so we remained that way, breathing and kissing and feeling each other. We were so lost that once we started to move, it didn’t take long for each of us to climax. I held on to him as my orgasm swelled through me like my love for him: steadily, no end, no beginning. He rested my back against the wall right before he came with shuddering intensity, pulling my hair gently and groaning against my neck.
Later, I fell asleep with him hugging me so tightly, he was almost crushing me. I didn’t ever want it any other way.
25
At some ungodly hour of the morning, David shuffled around the room as light began to filter through a window. I threw an elbow over my eyes with a groan. “What time is it?” I asked.
“Surfing time. Sorry, baby.” The mattress dipped, and I lifted my arm. He climbed on top of me in only his board shorts and kissed his way up my neck until he reached my mouth. “Smell that ocean breeze?” he asked.
I smiled sleepily with closed eyes. “Mmm.”
He laughed. “Go back to sleep. I’ll be done in a few hours.” And then he was gone, so I rolled over and pulled his pillow between my arms.
I woke up later to a knock at the door. “Who is it?” I asked, slightly disoriented.
“Me.” In that one word, I heard Gretchen’s voice crack.
I sat up quickly and grabbed David’s undershirt from the floor. “Come in,” I said, throwing it over my head.
She entered with a red face, lifting her eyeglasses to rub her eyes. “Hey.”
“What’s wrong?” I exclaimed.
She climbed onto the bed to sit cross-legged in front of me and took a shaky breath as if holding back sobs. “He’s gone,” she said.
Greg. That fucker. “What happened?” I asked.
She shook her head, and once her shoulders had stopped quaking, she continued, “I don’t know. When we went to bed last night, we were fooling around, and he wanted to have sex. I wanted to also—we haven’t done it yet, and it’s been months. But I couldn’t bring myself to, Liv. I don’t know why. I said no, and he got pushy.”
My teeth ground together. “He gotpushy?”
“Enough for me to kick him out of the room. This morning, I heard a commotion, so I went downstairs. David and Greg were face to face, arguing about Jordan.”
My heart dropped. David wasn’t known for controlling his temper. “Oh, no. Please don’t tell me they got into a fight.”
“They didn’t,” she said. “But seeing Greg standing there, waiting for me to defend him, I just . . . I don’t know. I didn’t feel any sympathy or like we were on the same side. So I said, ‘David’s right. You were out of line.’ Greg called me a frigid bitch, and before I even had a chance to respond,Brianappeared out of nowhere and grabbed him by the shirt!”
My mouth hung open. “Brian defended you?”
She nodded quickly. “He shoved him into the refrigerator. Greg said, ‘Fuck it,’ gathered up his stuff from the couch, and left. Just left.” She looked like she was about to laugh, but she burst into tears instead.
“Jesus.” I scooted close enough to embrace her. “Have you been crying all morning?”
“Yes, but I’m not even sure why.”
I pulled back to look her in the eye. “What do you mean?”
“Greg wants everything to go back to the way it was, but . . . it can’t.” She looked at me. “He acts like you and Lucy are still his best friends.”
“Me? I’ve barely seen him since he moved to Chicago.”
