“Yeah? You wanna finish that thought?”
“It’s a lot of thoughts.”
“I have time,” she offers, soft and breathy.
“It’s a checklist.” I swallow. The memory of that night heats my blood, tension creeping through my core. “I wanna lick you till your thighs clamp around my head and I lose consciousnessfrom lack of air. I want you to get on top and bounce you there and just rub your clit until you come, I want to be inside you when you do and feel it. And then I want you to sit on my face and smother me again.”
Lacey’s eyes grow a little wider with every new item on my list, and when I’m done, her cheeks are burning.
“There’s, uh...” She clears her throat, slightly flustered. “I don’t know that we could get to all of that in one night.”
“Well I would have come over earlier if I knew.” I sigh. It’s utterly impossible not to touch her face or lean in closer. I’m lost in her every detail. “I have dreamed about being smothered by your thighs for...probably longer than I should admit.”
“Don’t be such a romantic,” she scoffs, cheeks reddening and eyes rolling, but I spy the smile she fights against. She puts a hand on my chest, playing a moment with my sweatshirt’s strings; she looks up at me, such concern and care in her eyes. I believe her when she offers gently, “If you ever do want to talk about the other stuff, though, you know how to find me.”
“Yeah, I’ll find you.” I’d take her up on that in a heartbeat, drop by on her balcony and just talk about anything for hours.
For a moment, neither of us speak. I wonder if she’s thinking about what it would mean to invite me up to her place a second time, this time on purpose. I did promise her just the once, even if I didn’t get all the time I wanted to tease every possible delicious moan out of her. As much as I want to beg for it, to promise we won’t even do over-the-pants stuff, I just want to goddamn hold her for a couple hours—I don’t want to push her and ask for another night.
Though, I can imagine at least one place that her billionaire ex-boyfriend won’t interrupt us.
“Fine, fine, I’ll show you where the ooze comes from, you don’t gotta torture me into it.” I sigh, throwing up my hands in defeat.
Lacey blinks in surprise but doesn’t ask what made me change my mind.
Nothing’s changed. We’re still on different sides. Not friends. Foes. Not fuckbuddies either. But I want more time with her, alone. Even if it’s just talking like this.
It’s not a date with Lacey for the record, but it is something. I’m sure the feeling will dissipate the minute I have to wade through ankle-deep sludge of the city’s underground storm-drain system.
10
Lacey
After a dinner that was a little more phone-staring than actual socializing on both our parts, Adrianna gives me a one-armed hug outside the restaurant, her foam takeout box squeaking as it bumps my shoulder.
“I gotta get going, I’ll talk to you later?” I ask with maybe too much forced casualness as we wade into the parking lot.
Adrianna frowns as she rattles her overfull keyring and starts mashing her car fob, clicking the lock and unlock buttons until her car’s headlights flash. “It’s nine at night, who are you meeting?”
I backpedal slowly. I was kind of hoping to just jog off and avoid any questions. I needed her to pick me up for dinner so that Clayton would think I spent the whole night with her. The last couple days he’s insisted on dropping me off and picking me up from work.
“Do you remember the uh...um, hench-guy I told you about before?” I explain weakly. It’s not that I’ve been purposefully keeping Ellis a secret, I just haven’t told anyone. Definitely wouldn’t tell Clayton; he’d think I was doing it on purpose to hurt him. Laura would have a field day.
We talked a lot at dinner about a couple of TV shows we’d both been kind of bored by, how the lady who’s supposed to re-braid her hair keeps canceling on her, the last mutant attack leaving two roads near my apartment closed. I hadn’t been ableto find the nerve to bring Ellis up. I already know he’s another bad decision, and I don’t need to hear it.
I try to brace myself for her reaction, but the way Adrianna spends a moment staring at me with her eyes wide in shock is not great for morale.
“It wasn’t on purpose, I just ran into him a couple times,” I start to say, backpedaling, minimizing, holding back that every time I bump into him I can’t help but sink deeper into this terrible crush. “It’s stupid. Like, I know it’s not going to go anywhere—”
“Did you find out if he’s got six nipples?” Adrianna interrupts.
My laugh takes me by surprise. I half-giggle. “Uh, not yet. Should I ask?”
“No, I want you to find out and document—for science, and for meeeee,” she moans dramatically. She pops open the lid of her leftovers and grabs a couple fries, leaning against my car. “So, what’s he like?”
“He thinks he’s funny, that’s for sure.”
“And is he?”
