"Uh-huh," she said, totally oblivious to what she’d done to him. "You put pressure on one part of the body to elicit a response from another part."
"You know other places?" he asked, nonchalant, like she wasn’t rocking his world with her knowledge right then.
"You want a lesson?" she asked, cheerful as all hell.
"Uh-huh," he said, because yes, yes he did.
"Then you should probably take off your shirt." She said it casually, as though this was a normal thing for two people to do with each other on a platonic night in, after days of verbal foreplay and a spectacular kiss at the beach. "I have some lotion."
She stood and moved to her suitcase, turning it on the side.
Quick as he could, to the sound of her suitcase zipper, he pulled his shirt over his head and lay back down, so he didn’t embarrass himself any more than he’d already done with that squeaky noise from before.
Darla returned to work her magical spells on his muscles, and by the time she was done, he was a mushy ball of Mach.
He was still aroused, sure, but now it was more of a resigned arousal. Like his dick understood that it didn’t get to play tonight, but it wasn’t quite ready to give up the ghost entirely.
"Better?" Darla asked, patting his shoulders like she hadn’t just rocked his whole world into submission.
"I can’t move," he said into the cushion. "I’m going to have to sleep here tonight."
"You want a blanket?" she asked with a laugh.
But he twisted and rolled to his back so he could get a better look at her. During the massage, she’d pulled her hair up on the crown of her head in a clip. She was flushed, her cheeks red, and had he not been there with her the whole time, he would’ve thought that was the glow of a woman thoroughly fucked.
"What are you staring at?" She frowned.
"You," he said, going with simple.
Going with the truth.
A grin toyed with the edges of her lips. The air crackled between them and he traced the line of her arm with his fingertip.
She cleared her throat. "Do you want to…uh…you know?"
Yeah, he was pretty sure he knew. And, yes, he did want to… you know.
"Is that option on the table?" He lifted his hand to her temple, brushing his fingers through her hair.
"I mean, maybe?" she said, sort of asked. "That’s a really crappy reply, isn’t it?"
He didn’t say anything because that was one of those questions he was pretty certain didn’t have a right answer.
"I figure it’s just best to ask the question so everyone can be on the same page," she continued.
Then she let her cheek fall against the rough ridges of his palm.
She didn’t move. He didn’t move.
"I’m so conflicted," she said, falling back, ass to ankles. "I don’t want to mess up."
She would not mess it up, he could guarantee that.
"This is your call." He lifted her palm to his mouth and kissed there where her hand and wrist connected. "If you want to rest, then I’m going to take some Advil and crash. If you want to take things further… I’m game."
She bit at the inside of her lips.
"What do you want to do, Darla?" he asked. "This is your adventure." She got to choose what came next, those were the unspoken rules.
