Her focus never leaves my mouth, fixed on watching me enjoy her. I am, a little too much. My jeans are killing me. But I daren’t take them off. They’re a reminder that Pace Junior will be met with my right hand later and that’s all.
As she writhes beneath me, greedy, I slide her panties down and off her legs. “Fuck me, Annie, every single part of you is flawless.”
“At this juncture, any man would say that.”
I decide to let that almost self-deprecation go without a verbal response, because I’m going to show her exactly how exquisite her pussy is.
I nuzzle my head between her legs and draw my tongue from the base up to her clit, and the noises she makes are better than sitting in the Grand Ole Opry.
The way she moves her hips, rakes her fingers through my hair and her nails down my back, the way she says my name over and over, all brings me to the brink as I can feel her getting right there.
“Come for me, Annie. Let me taste you, baby.”
As if my words are the final push she needed, she detonates, writhing and calling out, pinning me to her like she can’t get enough of the way I’m touching her.
And watching her is too much for me, too. More than I’ve been imagining. Better than any sex I’ve ever had.
Like a fucking kid in high school, one last grind against her has me seeing stars. “Fuck, Annie,” I grate out as I ruin my jeans.
31
ANNIE – LATE OCTOBER
Tanner and Tequila
He came in his pants.
I cannot fathom how much that makes me want to go again, though my breathing is still labored and I’m still seeing stars from the best orgasm I’ve had in my life. I’ve only been with one other man and mostly for quickies in secret, so I don’t have much of a comparison.
But the way Tanner touched me and spoke to me, the way he made this entirely about me, is making me feel a wicked concoction of emotions. I want to laugh and cry and jump on him for more but also lie on his chest and let him cuddle me to sleep. I’m… confused. Happy and satisfied. Utterly terrified that I somehow drew him in to ruining our friendship.
All while my brother is staying in the same hotel and I have a baby,Auston’sbaby, at home. While knowing Tanner has so many codes and lines and rules that we just obliterated.
I could deal with it all, if it wasn’t for the way he’s sitting on the end of the bed now, dragging a hand back through his hair. Like an oil painting of regret.
“Annie…”
My name is suddenly very different on his lips – a sound I feel deep in the pit of my stomach. If I was tipsy before, I’m stone-cold sober now. The only regret I have is that the earth clearly didn’t move for Tanner the way it did me.
He’s right, my heart hasn’t been completely broken all this time I’ve worried it was because another piece of it is cracking now.
He turns to look at me across his shoulder and I bring the bedcover over me. “I’m going to clean up,” I tell him, tugging out the sheet from under him, though he eventually has to stand to let me have it.
We’re facing each other as he looks down over me and says, “Are you okay? This isn’t— That wasn’t— It was unexpected.”
“Tanner, please.” I pat his chest – aloof, nonchalant,totallycool. “Let’s not make this weird. We’re two buddies, who shared an orgasm. We’re grown-ups. No need to make it a thing. Right?”Correct me. Tell me I’m wrong.
He clears his throat. “That’s what you— Buddies.” He rubs that perfectly groomed beard that perfectly rubbed my thighs. “Right.”
I swallow through the tightening of my throat, needing to leave the room before the pins scratching the backs of my eyes puncture a hole and Tanner sees me cry. I don’t have more tears for men. Not after Auston. Even if Tanner is nothing like my ex, this hurts as bad.
I gesture to the wet patch seeping through his jeans. “You should probably go clean up, too.”
He grimaces. Genuinely, grimaces. Talk about the straw that broke the camel’s back. This is me witnessing the other side of Tanner. The one other women know. The player who wants to run right after the deed, but in this case he can’t, because it’s me, his friend, his housemate Monday to Friday, his best friend’s sister.
“I’m sorry, Annie. I don’t usually— This isn’t how I wanted tonight to go.”
Ouch.
