I prop myself up on my elbows so I can nip his bottom lip. “Maybe we should add a tie next time.”
“Trouble,” he says before kissing me again. I get lost in his mouth, in the weight of him pressing me into the cushions, in his expensive smell mingling with that of the wood, wrapping itself around my memory. With one large hand on my upper thigh, Charlie pushes my legs wide enough to settle between them. My hands move to his backside, desperate to keep him close. I raise my hips and tilt my neck back, because even just this feels incredible.
“It could be fun,” Charlie says. “Fooling around like seventeen-year-olds.” He lowers his lips to my neck and sucks. Hard.
He presses into me, and I squirm beneath him as he continues to kiss and bite and suck my neck, and then it dawns on me what he’s doing. I push him away, laughing.
“Do notgive me a hickey, Charlie Florek.”
His eyes sparkle like fireflies. “I think it might be too late.” He examines his handiwork. “You have three.”
“Is this what you did when you were seventeen? Go at someone’s neck like a vampire?”
“No. When I was seventeen, we’d probably both be undressed by now.” He huffs out a dry laugh. “Actually, we might be getting dressed again at this point.”
“That sounds fun.”
“I don’t know,” he says. “I’m having a pretty good time here at first base.”
I cackle. “Oh my god. I forgot about the bases.”
Charlie’s smile smothers mine. “That laugh,” he says, and the sound dissolves on his tongue.
I wrap my legs around his waist, and we set a rhythm withour mouths and our hips, and I hear myself gasping. The sounds I make are unfiltered and unfamiliar, breathy and then guttural. I’m not thinking about what Charlie might like. I’m not performing, like I have in the past, trying to make it good for him. I’m just me, which makes it even better. It’s liberating. I’m so into it that my kisses become clumsy, and my teeth knock against his.
“Sorry,” I say when they clack a second time.
Charlie tilts my head back. “Don’t apologize.” He drags a finger down my throat, and I shudder. “I like unraveling you.”
He keeps his hands to my face and neck and limbs, but I’m not going to last much longer. Desire is twisting more tightly inside me. It’s a multisensory experience, almost too much with the friction and Charlie’s smell, the way he breaks our kiss and looks at me like I’m someone important, the taste of him on my tongue. When my legs start to shake and my breathing turns ragged, Charlie whispers in my ear, “Just like that, Alice Everly.” My skin pebbles, and then all the tension building in me shatters.
I close my eyes as Charlie brushes the damp curls away from my forehead. He kisses me once, tenderly, and when I open my eyes, I find him staring down at me, concerned.
“I don’t think that qualified as first base,” I say, panting. Not that I’d made it even halfway to first when I was seventeen.
Charlie chuckles. “I honestly have no idea wherethatfalls.”
I reach between us, running my hand over the thick length straining the soft fabric of his pants. He pulls his bottom lip between his teeth, and his eyelids flutter closed for a moment before he takes my hand in his, kissing it.
“Not tonight,” he rasps.
“That doesn’t seem fair,” I say. “I got what I wanted.”
He leans over me, resting his forehead on mine. “So did I. And these are my favorite comfy pants. I don’t want to get them messy.”
I hum. “I do believe there are options for keeping them clean.” I raise my eyebrows meaningfully, and he laughs again.
He taps me on the nose. “Trouble.”
Quickly, I nip the end of his finger, and his eyes widen. “You just bit me.”
“Touch my nose again, and I’ll bite harder.”
“Is that so?” He kneels between my legs.
“It is.” I sit up, and he flicks the end of my nose.
“How dare you.”
