Page 62 of One Day

I squirm under his hold when he moves to the spot between my legs where I want him most. He runs his tongue over my slit, his grip on my thighs tightening as he pulls me forward.

Nothing could have prepared me for how good Walker Bodie is with his tongue. I keep trying to wrap my head around it, but it never quite latches. Each time I’m taken for a trip around the sun, stars fill my vision and tip me over. He unravels me, and I happily let him.

“Walker,” I whine, his name an echo in my chest.

“Just like that, Sunny girl,” he says, adding a finger to the growing pressure in the pit of my stomach as he works me over to make a meal out of me. I move my hips up, trying to find more friction, and he lets me. I feel it in my toes at first, working all the way up my body as he sends me over the edge. Licking me through my orgasm until I’m a spent puddle on his bed.

I inhale slowly, trying to catch my breath as he presses one last kiss to my thigh and moves to stand up. “Wait,” I say, reaching for him before he can get too far. “Come back.”

“I’ll be right back,” he says, grabbing his clothes from the floor and pulling his boxers and sweats on before heading for his dresser. He opens the top drawer, grabbing a shirt out before turning towards me. “Arms up.”

“Since when do you like me better with clothes?”

He dips down, pressing his lips to mine. “I mean, you’re more than welcome to walk around naked, but just know Flynn will be home eventually, and she likes to walk in unannounced.”

“That must be fun for you,” I say and lift my arms, letting him dress me. His fingertips leave an electric trail along my skin. “She should have to see me naked, and you,” I say, reaching for him again, unable to help myself when he’s right there. “As punishment.”

“We both know that she’d lose her mind if she saw you naked, Sunny,” he says, a knowing look in his eyes. “You are a walking fucking dream.”

I grin at the possessive look that takes over his face. “Oh, you don’t like that very much, do you, Cowboy?” I ask, scooting back to watch him. “Are you jealous of me and Flynn?”

“Are you suggesting you have a thing for my roommate?”

“Flynn? Oh, yeah,” I say, nodding my head. “This whole thing with you and me?” I point between us. “It’s totally just a way to get closer to her. You didn’t know?”

He shakes his head, wrapping his fingers around my ankle, and pulls me forward. “You are such a brat. What am I going to do with you?”

Dragging my finger over the thin line of hair trailing beneath his sweatpants, I dip my fingertip into his waistband. “You’ll probably have to punish me. I do very well with reinforcement in the form of reward.”

“That so?”

I nod my head and pull at the elastic band, hoping he’ll get the message that I want his body weight on me. It’s a comforting presence when my chest grows too tight, and all I need to keep me from spiraling out of control is him surrounding me. To my dismay, he pulls back until my finger is out of his waistband, and he’s lying on the bed next to me.

I push out my bottom lip. “Hey!”

“I believe you promised me a conversation.”

“I was hoping you forgot about that.” I scrunch my nose up.

The hope I had that he wouldn’t bring it back up fades to nothing, because of course, he didn’t forget. He’s Walker. He remembers everything. Especially when it comes to me, particularly when it’s something that upsets me. He’s a fixer and always has been. He wants to make it better.

I just don’t think he can fix all of the idiot men that exist in this world.

“Come on, Sunny.” He taps the side of my thigh, his fingertips rubbing over my skin until his hand is wrapped gently around the inside. “Talk to me.”

“There’s this guy in a few of my classes. His name is Topher, and he found out that I’m changing my project, and he made sure I knew I couldn’t use my body forever.” My chest tightens a little further at the reminder of his words. “Which is so fucking stupid, and I know he’s like this, so I don’t even know why I’m upset right now but reducing me down to my body? It’s not fair because, according to him, I can’t possibly be intelligent and pretty.”

A frown presses to his lip, absorbing my words. “You know that’s not true, right? You are by far one of the smartest people I know,” he says, running his finger over the top of my ear to tuck some of my hair back before dragging the heel of his hand down my jaw. “Scratch that.” He leans in, his forehead touching mine. “You are the smartest person I know.”

“You’re just saying that because I’m sleeping with you.”

“No, I’m saying that because it’s the truth.” He slips his fingers into the hair at the nape of my neck, brushing his thumb now the length of my neck. “The sex is just a bonus.”

“Thank you for saying that. I know I’m smart.” A weak laugh falls from my lips. “I mean, I have one of the highest GPAs in the program, and Professor Andrews even said she thought I had the drive to earn this huge opportunity. I just…it sucks, you know? That I have to put up with comments like that. That he thinks it’s okay to say something like that to me because I’m a woman. He would never say that to a man.” I swallow the pain in my throat, knowing that this frustration I feel is always going to be a weight following me around. It’s going to hook on and try to anchor me down, to drown me. “It’s not fair.”

“It’s not, but it won’t be like that forever, Sunny,” he says, leaning on his side. “One day, it won’t be so hard.”

I turn on my side to face him, slowly walking my fingers up his chest and over his collarbones. “That’s a sweet sentiment, but you and I both know that it’s not true,” I say, my chest loosening with the acceptance. “It’s going to take a lot more than some mean words to take me down, though, even if I’m a little in my feelings about it right now.”

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