“Fuck, I don’t want to,” he groaned brokenly as his hips began to stutter. “I don’t want to let go either, sweetheart.”
“Beau, come with me, please—”
“I’m right here, sweetheart. Come for me,” he gritted out, and then she was coming, detonating around him, at the same time she could feel every spurt of his own release deep inside. She cried out when he bit down sharply on the meaty part of her shoulder where it met her neck as they came together. When he set her down, their legs were trembling, and their breathing was labored. Pressing his mouth to hers again, he panted reverently, “Val.”
“I know...”
It was all she could say, her throat too thick with emotion to allow anything else. She pressed another kiss to his lips, just a meeting of their mouths, gentle and tentative and chaste. His hands slid up her shoulders to bracket either side of her head, fingers threaded through her wet hair at the back of her head, holding her still. They simply breathed together, mouths meeting in sipping kisses, over and over again, before he sighed and leaned away, smiling down at her.
He slapped one of her butt cheeks with the palm of his hand lightly, then squeezed. “Go on, I’ll be out in a minute.”
Grinning from ear to ear, she left Beau in the shower and stepped out. Drying off with a fluffy white towel, she then wrapped it around her body just as she heard a sharp knock on her door. A half a heartbeat later, she heard the quiet, unmistakable groan of the old door opening, and then, “Val?”
Val gasped and rushed from the bathroom, pulling the door sothat it was mostly closed in her haste. Skidding to a stop in the doorway of her bedroom, she gave Noelle a weak smile where she stood in the entryway. “Hey.”
“Urgh, it smells like sex in here.” Noelle made a face and then her features went blank, her eyes finally going wide with horror. “Oh my god! Oh mygod—”
“Shhh!” Val hissed, taking a step forward, then she heard the shower shut off. Noelle’s eyes flashed to the doorway behind Val and Val cringed slightly as she rushed forward.
“He’s still here?!”Noelle shrieked, her voice going up an octave. “Oh my god! Is it Beau?!”
Grimacing, she nodded. “Yes, it’s Beau.”
“Val, it’s beentwo days! Wait, is this why he called in ‘sick’ to work today?! Because y’all are busydoing the diddly—”
“Would youshut up?!” Val hissed again, reaching out and slapping a hand over her sister’s mouth while clasping the towel closed tightly with the other. She glanced behind her at the still open bedroom door. She prayed Beau wouldn’t walk out of the bathroom naked… they’d spent most of the last two days wearing little to no clothing. “I’m not sure everyone downstairs heard you!”
“’dis ish ‘ucking aweshom—” Noelle mumbled from behind Val’s hand, still clasped over her mouth. Her green eyes were twinkling with mischief. Val rolled her eyes and shoved her back toward the door. “Get iht, ‘al!”
“Go away!” Val hissed, laughing despite herself, finally releasing her sister’s mouth and reaching behind her to grab the door handle and swing it open. Her other hand still firmly holding the towel in place.
Noelle sidestepped out the door onto the landing but shouted as Val was closing the door, “—I wantdetails, woman!Details!”
The door shut on Noelle and Val sighed as she leaned back against the heavy door. She could hear her sister’s cacklinglaughter as she plodded down the stairs. Beau exited the bedroom, wearing a clean pair of sweatpants. He was pulling a white t-shirt over his head, his hair still damp where it lay on his forehead, tousled from the towel. His glasses were back on, and they did something to her belly.
Val’s face pulled into a chagrined half grin, half grimace from where she remained leaning against the door. “I think we’ve been discovered.”
He snorted a laugh and padded across the room to the kitchen, where he poured another cup of coffee. “I’d say that’s a safe assumption.”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t think she’d come up here unannounced.”
He shrugged, his shoulder muscles bunching and releasing beneath the thin material of the t-shirt with the movement. “It’s just sex, Val. Everyone does it.”
The words were innocent enough… And they were true. But the tone of his voice made Val’s eyebrows pull into a V, while her throat closed with anxiety. They were clipped and formal, so unlike the emotion-fraught moments from the bathroom just minutes prior.
“Right...” Stepping away from the door, she crossed the room and said quietly, not trusting her voice not to shake, “I’m just gonna go get dressed…”
He nodded once, not looking at her, and her chest ached. This was it; she knew. He was pulling away from her, just like she always knew he would. Because this wasjust sex, after all.
When she came out of the bedroom a few minutes later, she was dressed in a pair of olive-green jogger pants that were banded at her ankles and a cropped gray sweater that hung off one shoulder, revealing one strap of the sports bra she’d pulled on. She’d clipped half of her hair back into a claw clip, the bottom half left out to dry in waves against her neck.
He had gathered his stuff; his glasses and contacts cases, thesweatpants he’d worn the day before piled on the edge of the counter, and his slippers were on his feet. He came around the kitchen island and dropped a chaste kiss to the corner of her mouth. She hated it.
“I should head home,” he said, and even though she knew it was coming, it still hurt. Really, really bad. “I called in this morning, but I should probably go in to relieve Theo.”
“Oh. Okay… Sure,” she said, her voice cracking. She swallowed hard. Unable to meet his eyes, she just nodded, staring at the base of his throat. “I mean, of course.”
She wanted to wrap her arms around him and tell him not to go. She wanted to beg himnot to let go, because she wasn’t ready. She wasn’t ready for him to let go.
