Ali inhaled and buried her face in her pillow.
“Dylan.”
“Ali. Don’t go shy on me now,” he teased, voice honeyed heat. “I want you to think about it, too. About how good you made me feel. About how fucking proud I was of you.”
Her breath caught.
“I could hear it in your voice,” he continued. “You wanted to please me. And baby… youdid.”
She didn’t know what possessed her to say it, but the words slipped out before she could stop them.
“I want to do it again.”
His sharp inhale crackled through the line. “Yeah?”
“Uh-huh.”
He groaned softly. “Then don’t make me wait too long. Because next time… I’m going to takemytime.”
Ali squeezed her thighs together, biting her lip.
“Goodnight, Ali.”
“Goodnight, Dylan.”
“…Sweet dreams, baby.”
She hung up with a stupid grin still spread across her face.
She’d been staring at the same page for over an hour.
The book was good— great, even— but her brain wouldn’t settle. Not when every time she blinked, she could still hear his voice in her ear. The things he’d said. The way he’d said them. It was like her body was still tuned to the exact frequency of his voice.
She sighed, flipping the page even though she hadn’t absorbed a single word. The soft glow of her Kindle illuminated the room, casting faint shadows across her ceiling.
She should sleep. She had an early meeting. She’d already brushed her teeth and double-checked the alarm and fluffed her pillow five times. But her brain wasn’t cooperating.
Then her phone buzzed on the nightstand.
Her heart jumped.
You awake?
She bit her lip, pulse quickening. She reached for the phone.
Yeah. Still up. Can’t sleep.
Three dots appeared almost instantly.
Me neither. I tried. I even made tea like an eighty-year-old man.
She smiled in the dark.
Did it help?
Not even a little. Kept thinking about that call. And how I was semi-hard just hearing your voice.
She dropped the phone on her chest for a second, palms pressed to her burning cheeks.Gawd.
