Part 22 (1/2)
”I've never fastened I've always unfastened”
”I'll bet”
I felt his hands at ly deft with the tiny hooks They moved to my waist He hadn't kept his eyes closed They ide open, taking in my reflection I flushed, embarrassed at e I could have been a Victoria's Secret irls who does the clearance sale catalog, but still, this long-line thing was not just a waist-whittler; it was an ego-booster
”I don't think I can breathe,” Labeck choked out, eyes s”
His hands splayed along ”
”Boning?” His eyebrows zinged upward; I could see hih Deep, booious, and itI started laughing, too It ht; we both possessed the raders Out in the hall,
Labeck put his hands oneach other
Oh, very bad idea
There wasn't going to be any hanky-panky, I reminded myself It had beenhanky-panky with Kip Vonnerjohn, Mr Priapis but the vacuum cleaner I didn't think I even remembered how to commit hanky-panky
Labeck slid his hands up and down ooseflesh
”You're incredible,” he murmured in my ear, and the hairs inside my ear, hairs I didn't even know I possessed, stood up on tiptoes
Then I wriggled out of his grasp, pulled on oversized flannel pajamas, and went out to sleep on the sofa
That's what I did in my mind's eye
What I really did was slide Labeck's shi+rt off his body, runthe sculpturedbu his face down to mine, and kiss him
He was a wonderful kisser His lips arue into my mouth I lost every last ounce of resistance I wanted him with painful intensity; every fiber of ered our way to his bedroo clothes He kicked the door shut I kneas to keep ly cavemanlike in thebehind ht” He started frantically going through his dresser drawers ”Where did I put them?”
”You mean condoms?”
”Isn't that what you ulate my periods” Twenty-one days on; seven off Today was the seventh day I was pressingthe birth control equivalent of ju out of a barn My pills were back at Taycheedah Hoas I going to get a new prescription without being turned in by a pharmacist?
A sood boy,” he whispered ”So no worries”
”I irl side ofme that all men were the saoing to be a next day, you irl Last chance Offer expires at ed breath He stroked my back, kissed my neck ”Don't you want to?”
”I don't know”
He kissed the spot between my neck and collarbone
”Mmm-m-maybe”
He kissed , awakening
This was probably the only chance I'd ever have to be with a gorgeous male, I reminded myself as every corpuscle of blood drained fro away this last opportunity for rapture? All I kneas that I desperately wanted Ben Labeck and was going to die if he didn't s”
Labeck laughed deep in his throat More growl than laugh ”I'll take my chances with bristle burn”
Oh, so will I, hot stuff, bet on it
We kissed again He kicked off his shoes He unzipped his zipper and stepped out of his jeans He pulled off his shorts He stood there fully sprung and vibrating like a tuning fork and he et to fret It all came back, the incredible sensation of bare skin on bare skin, the urgency It cained it could be There was nothing but hi in me We acclimated to each other, we found our rhyth turn-on-not that I needed to be any more turned on-and when I came I screamed and Labeck ca outside the door
After what see slowed We were sprawled sideways at the foot of Labeck's bed His chest was shi+ning with sweat, his lips were swollen frorab hiain
He traced the curves of my face, my lips, touched his sweaty forehead to er,” he said, sers over ht I'd explode When you'd bend to pick up ot to be painful to walk”
”Why didn't you say so?”
”I didn't knohat to say I'ood chance you'd punch me”
Labeck may not have considered hiuy by any means He left the roo his tuxedo Well, part of it anyway-just the culy around his waist so he looked like a cross between a buccaneer and a porn star He was holding a bottle of wine, two glasses, and an opener ”It's just El Cheapo sparkling,” he apologized ”If I'd knoas going to get lucky I'd have had Cristal Brut on hand”
Get lucky?
I'd just had the most fabulous sex ofAddress in French andas bubbly as that chah splinters of brassiere boning were jabbing through my veins
In the old days, with Kip, I'd have sed downI didn't want to be a drama queen I'd just simmer in quiet resentment for days, afraid to explain why I was upset But over the past few days I'd outfought rapists, outfoxed killers, and outsher than I'd dreaht to say I waslucky? Suddenly I ell and truly steaht I stood up on the bed I was naked, and I didn't care ”Getting lucky is talking a wo home with you tenin a shot in a stupid hockey ga Is that what this was about-scoring?”
Labeck's Adam's apple bobbed up, down, up The dark eyes blazed into e to flinch away fro lucky,” Ben Labeck said in a quiet voice, ”is finallylove to the woman I've been crazy about for four years”
I folded my arms across my chest ”We've only known each other four days”
He approached the bed, keeping a wary eye ondistance of his uess we should have had this conversation before you jued you? You were the one who-” I was getting lint of pure devil to cla you Are you done yelling yet?”
”No”
He did that rubbing the back of the neck thing guys do when they're e to make me say it, aren't you?”