Her stomach chose that moment to make another loud demand for food.
Adrian laughed, the movement shaking her where their bare chests were pressed together.
“I see where your priorities are,” he teased her.
“I thought we could order something. Though delivery will probably take, um,a while, in this weather,” Caroline said hopefully. “So, you know, we could order now and still have... time.”
He smirked at her. “Is that a compliment? Or a request?”
She waggled her eyebrows suggestively, making him laugh again. He paused, holding himself above her on locked arms. His dusty-blue eyes were soft and lingering as he gazed down at her.
“What?” she asked.
“You’re just the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen,” he easily replied.
Caroline squirmed and blushed. She didn’t know how to respond to that, just like she hadn’t known how to respond to him saying—what he’d said. Earlier. Out in the snow. She didn’t know if she was supposed to say it back or just wink and nod or thank him, maybe? She supposed it was her prerogative to pretend that Adrian had actually picked her out of all the women in the world to be with and that he meant what he was saying.
Because she liked to hear it. She liked tofeelit. It was everything she’d wanted to experience while watching the symphony or gazing at the most important new contemporary art. It was transporting—no, transformative. Lying there under his rapt regard, she was closer than she’d ever been to the person she had wanted to be when she left Templeton. It felt worth it, even if nothing else was working out as planned.
Caroline looped her arms around the back of Adrian’s neck and pulled him down to her again, enjoying the solid anchor of his weight on her. He nibbled along her jaw, lips so warm they felt scorching against her face. Thoughts of dinner became less pressing as he kissed her, but hermind inevitably turned to other procurement failures on her part. She hadn’t had time to go to the grocery store since Thursday because of all the performances. So she was not only out of real food butalsoout of condoms. She had only had the one that came in the welcome gift at the health insurance fair during her first week in Boston.
Well, there was a reasonable drop-in product she could substitute in this circumstance. She reached down to cup him through his jeans, and he automatically pressed his stiffening cock against her palm. Caroline grinned and began shifting down in the bed.
Adrian rolled to his side, making a half-hearted grab for her as she scooted to the level of his chest.
“I thought you wanted to order dinner?”
“I am rescheduling dinner,” Caroline said, hands resting against his bare skin. Just to make herself clear, she wiggled farther down and laid the tip of her nose directly against the short line of fuzz below his navel.
Adrian sighed and tugged on a piece of her hair. “Come back up here. You should be on top next time. I want to look at you.”
Caroline couldn’t tell if he was being sincere or noble. Either way, it was sweet. Unfortunately,on topwas one of those positions she’d wanted to research first, because she wasn’t clear on what she was supposed to do, exactly. Caroline would probably default to waving her arms like Megan Rapinoe after a soccer goal if she didn’t look up some technique videos in incognito mode first.
“I’m out of condoms,” she said, putting a hand on his zipper.
That got a more determined exhale from him, and he began to sit up.
“Right. Well, how about I go out and pick up dinner, and I’ll also buy more condoms?”
Caroline wrinkled her nose at him, looping a finger through his belt loop. She didn’t want him to get out of her bed.
“My plan still works. Consider it a bonus,” she said. “Or a fringe benefit.” She pushed her hair behind her ears in a significant way as she propped her chin on his denim-clad thigh. “You’ve been doing all the work so far.”
“Oh, I expect to do very little beyond stare at your breasts and count my blessings,” he said lightly, but she could tell he was tempted by her offer.
Caroline pressed her offer, stroking him lightly through the thick material of his trousers. “We can do the up-top thing on Tuesday,” she promised.
Adrian snorted even as he sucked in his stomach to give her better access to the button on his fly.
“Tuesday? I was already planning on round three when we wake up tomorrow, maybe round four in the shower....”
Caroline guessed that meant he was staying over, which she hadn’t been sure about. That would be lovely. Since she didn’t have class until eleven on Mondays, Sunday nights would work through the end of the semester. And they had two days before Thanksgiving, when her parents arrived, if Adrian’s schedule was clear too.
“Okay, that works for me,” she said brightly.
Something about her phrasing seemed to catch his attention. Adrian tilted his head, expression tightening as his eyes flicked around her face. His lower lip twitched as he had a thought, caught it, and then had it again. “Did you say Tuesday... you meant Tuesday like the schedule we used to have?”
Caroline froze as his eyes narrowed and he shifted away to withdraw to the edge of the bed.
