“Yeah.” Her voice was flat. Void of its usual color. “Nothing that matters. It’s not the kind of thing that would bug me this much if I wasn’t so stuck.” All the frustration and sadness she worked to hide clung to that one word. Her body sagged as if it had taken her strength with it. “I hate not knowing how to change it.”
I’d been right there after every bad match. Nothing was more frustrating than feeling like all your efforts added up to nothing.
“Taking care of yourself is a good place to start.” I kissed the side of her neck. “Letting me take care of you is even better.”
From this angle, I could make out the edge of her smile. A small one, almost too small to see, but still there.
“Is that why you came?” she asked.
“Mostly.” I trailed my hand up her forearm to play with her fingers. “Jase gave me a piece of your mail that got sent to the restaurant by mistake, but I would have dropped it in the mailbox if you were out with Evan or something.”
“You said you talked to him?”
“Yeah.” I flexed my hand over hers. “He knows about us.”
“I know. He asked me yesterday, and I admitted it.” She craned her neck to look at me. “I’m sorry. I should have told you. I know I was the one who wanted to keep it a secret, but it didn’t feel right lying to him directly like that.”
“No need to be sorry.” I whispered against her ear, “It’s whatever you want, remember?”
She nodded and squeezed my hand. I shifted to rearrange the blankets so I could get closer, and as she adjusted her hips to help, my hand brushed her chest. She hissed through her teeth.
“Shit, sorry.” I moved my hand away.
“No, it didn’t hurt,” she said quickly. “They’re just…” She motioned in the general direction of her breasts, her hard nipples visible through her sweatshirt. “Really sensitive right now. Touching them almost relieves the ache.”
“Yeah?” I resettled behind her and let my hand find her breast. It was heavier than usual. When my thumb brushed her nipple, she made a noise into her pillow that sounded encouraging, so I fit the pebbled tip between two fingers and gave a gentle tug.
That got a moan.
She twisted her torso enough to grant me access to her other breast, and I moved my hand to give it the same attention. I alternated between both breasts, lightly squeezing and pulling, tweaking her nipples and massaging with various pressures.
Her sounds got louder with every touch, and soon her hand was on mine, urging my grip tighter as she worked her ass against my crotch.
Even dulled by the blankets, the sensation was enough to get me hard. Mainly because I could tell how good this felt for her.
Wanting to give her more, I pulled away and rolled her to her back, tugging down the comforter enough to remove her sweatshirt and straddle her hips. She let me do both without complaint, arching her back as I lowered my head to take the tip of one breast into my mouth.
Her long sigh filled my ears. “That feels so good. Suck on it?”
She groaned as I did.
I switched to her other breast, taking the nipple between my teeth as my fingers took over the one I just left, still wet from my tongue. I pulled on them both.
The noise she made this time was deep and guttural. Her eyes were heavy in a haze of pleasure, her head tipped back, hips rocking between my knees in nothing but a pair of plain black panties, searching for something more.
“Can you come from just this?” I asked, then swirled my tongue over her nipple. An orgasm would help with her cramps, maybe better than Advil would.
“I don’t know,” she said, breathless. “I never have before, but…maybe?” Another soft moan. “Oh, more of that.”
I sucked on her breast again, holding the suction while my tongue circled the tip, and her eyes fell closed with a sigh. I switched to her other side before drawing my mouth away.
She blinked up at me, confused as to why I’d stopped.
I dropped a kiss on her lips. “Wait right here.”
As close as she was to the edge, I couldn’t hold her there without knowing I could get her over the line. She needed to come, and I knew a surefire way to do it.
Chapter Twenty
