However, I’m not sure we’re ready to be exhibitionists.

I nip at her neck, relishing the way she squeals with delight. Her head rolls forward.

I watch her in the mirror, see how her fingers cling to the sink desperately, knuckles growing white. Her hips shimmy back and forth on me, taking me as far as I’ll go. “Caroline, look at me.”

Caroline lifts her head again and I’m struck by her expression. Her eyes are slick, almost with tears. And her beautiful lips are blushed, almost distraught. It turns me on even more, the desperation and thepainshe feels at the pleasure. My cock throbs inside her, the tightness squeezing pleasure from me with each thrust. That’s when I realize I’m inside her bare. Didn’t even think about a condom. Didn’t even mention it.

“Where do I come?” I ask. “Where should I – ” I’m cut off by a strained grunt, one I didn’t know was about to come out of me.

“I’ll take you in my mouth,” she offers. Caroline’s head lolls back on my shoulder.

“Not before you come,” I say.

She starts to protest, but I reach around her front and snag her clit between my fingers. Her eyes widen immensely and her body grows tense. “Oh God, oh God,Jake.”

Watching the way my name flies from her mouth in the throes of pleasure sends me so close to the edge I almost release inside her. “Shhh… Caroline, shhh…”

Caroline seals her mouth and eyes shut, letting out a keen that unmuffled would shake the walls. Her center clenches around me in such a way that forces me to retreat or else risk planting my seed. “I can’t –“ I balk, my cock stuttering onto her ass. “It’s – ah!” I come right there on her ass, marking her skin with the trails of my seed. There was no way I could wait for her to get on her knees before me and suck me off.

She laughs through the remains of her orgasm, glancing up in the mirror at me. I look at her apologetically, but she shakes her head. “I like that I make you feel so good.”

A smile hooks onto my lips. “Good doesn’t even begin to cover it.” I kiss her shoulder softly. “Let me clean you up.”

We are both quiet as I wipe my warm sticky cum off her ass. I try to be as tender as I can. “There, all done,” I say. I take herthong, slide it back into place, then roll her skirt back over her ass. “Like it never even happened.”

Caroline stands up, turns toward me and presses a hand against my chest. “I needed that.”

My heart falls slightly. Said truly like a woman who just wanted to get her rocks off. I can’t blame her. I don’t have less respect for her because of it. But this was a Christmas present. Nothing more. My stomach knots.

“Now, wait a couple minutes before you follow me, alright? You look all flushed,” she says, going to the door.

“You didn’t feel like you had to do that, did you?” I ask, my voice so soft I might be able to get away with not having said it at all.

But Caroline freezes.

“A Christmas present,” I say and then laugh sadly. “You didn’t have to do that just because –”

“If I didn’t want to do it, I could have gotten you cufflinks. Or a gift card,” Caroline scoffs. “Unless that’s what you would have preferred.

“No, no way,” I say, a tad too eagerly.

Caroline smiles. Warm and inviting. I want one more kiss. No, that’d be a lie, I want a million more. “Then, Merry Christmas, Jake.”

After I return to the lecture hall, I spend the rest of the time crafting my plan to make Caroline mine. Not just for a night, and not just for a quickie in the bathroom.

But for a long, long time.

Chapter 13

Caroline

“It’s… quaint,” Gram says, taking in my apartment.

Jude coughs into her hand and Chase wraps his hand around her shoulder warningly. Gram’s version of quaint is smoked salmon instead of caviar. Completely luxurious to most and yet wildly disappointing to her.

“Well, I think I’ve done a nice job with the place,” I say with a smile. I spent all last night and all morning cleaning up and making sure everything was spic and span. Gram only told me last night that she wanted to come up to Charleston and see my apartment. Seeing as it's the first weekend of the new semester, it’s not the worst time to have visitors. The workload will only increase from here on out.

Although, I’m not sure I’m going to be able to get any work done this semester seeing as Jake and I are… well, I don’t know what we are.