I throw my leg over her, and she grabs me around the waist, pulls me on top of her. My attention catches on her biceps, the shadows created by the warm light of the bedside lamp.
I press my hands against the mattress on either side of her head, push myself back an inch, and smirk down at her. “I like your arms.”
“You like my arms? Really?” she asks, sounding shy for the first time maybe ever.
“Nicest arms east of the Mississippi.” I give them a squeeze and she turns her face into the pillow to stifle a giggle.
I lean right back down to her again and tilt her chin back to me until her mouth reconnects with mine. She unbuttons my pants and runs her hands over the bare skin of my thighs and back up toward my underwear.
A sound escapes my throat that surprises me, makes me pull away an inch, but Nora stretches her neck up to kiss me again.
She slips her thumbs through my side belt loops and tugs me closer, her hips bucking up under me with the same force.
I push myself back, sitting up straight, my chest heaving as I slide my hands under her tank top and over the warm skin of her abdomen.
I need to be closer.
“Nora?” I say, stopping at the bottom of her sports bra.
“Yeah?” she asks, her stomach expanding and contracting under my palms with each heavy breath.
“I, uh…” I slide my hands back down and slip my fingertips into the waistband of her shorts. “I don’t know how to do this.” I laugh, embarrassed and nervous and excited.
“Are you sure you want to?” she asks.
I laugh differently this time. “Yes,” I reply. I’m absolutely positive.
“Just do whatever feels right,” she tells me, sitting up underneath me and unbuttoning my shirt before slipping it off. She drops it onto the bed and then slides her hands up my back, holding me there up against her.
I don’t know much about sex, but I would know what to expect if I was with a guy right now. I mean… I wouldn’t know what to expect, but I would at least know what goes where. Pretty straightforward. Butthisis different.
“Do whatever you want, Stevie,” she adds, maybe sensing the panic on my face.
“I want to kiss you again,” I reply, wrapping my hands around her head as she looks down at my bra, making me wish I had worn a nicer one. But then she kisses the bare skin of my chest and I see that she wasn’t really looking at it anyway.
She pulls my face down to hers again while we both shuffle under the covers. I motion that I want her to take her bra off, so she does, and she takes mine off too. And the feeling of settling back on top of her is completely dizzying.
She slips her leg in between mine and I press all my weight against her. A loud breath escapes her lips, which only makes me want to do it again.
Layer by layer, we take off the rest of each other’s clothes, and she rolls us over so she’s on top of me now. I’m glad for it too, because unlike me, she knows what she’s doing. Her lips begin moving across my jaw, down my neck, and over my collarbone. Each kiss starts another little fire on my skin as her hand trails down each rib, across my stomach, and then down farther.
Andoh my God.
A crack of thunder roars all around us.
She leans into the crook of my neck. I can feel her smile against my jaw as every muscle in my body tenses and I squeeze my eyes shut, trying to make this moment last forev—
“What the fuck is going on in here?”
My heart feels like it both stops and beats through my skin all at once as I register the sound of someone else’s voice in the room. I pick my head up to see Mrs. Martin standing frozen in the doorway.
Shit. Fuck.FUCK.
Nora’s hand clamps down on my forearm in a vise grip under the comforter, her fingernails digging into my skin. But I can’t bring myself to look at her.
“Put. Your. Clothes. On,” Mrs. Martin hisses through her teeth as she looks toward the side wall and then doesn’t move a muscle.
“Nora?” I whisper, my eyes coated with tears.
