Page 48 of Once Kissed

The room fills with my loud grunts. I try to back away, to give her room. She refuses the offer, and hell, I stop trying.

With those lips of hers and that crazy suction, I’ll admit, I don’t try very hard.

She releases me, lowering herself to rest against my lap, her breaths as out of control as mine. Spots dance in my vision, and my head lolls back. Yeah, no one’s ever rocked my world like Tess.

It takes her a long moment before she lifts her chin and speaks. “Is this—” She swallows hard and wipes her mouth with her fingertips. “Is this going to happen again?” she manages.

I brush her hair away from her face. “Oh, hell yeah,” I tell her.

She laughs when I do, but then her features soften with that look girls get after I’ve been with them. I hook my arms under hers and yank her to me, tucking the covers around us. “We’re about to have the ‘Are you my boyfriend?’ chat, aren’t we?” Her hesitancy tells me we are. And damn it all, whatever happened to just having fun?

“This isn’t something I do,” she says quietly.

“That’s what you said last time.”

Her hand smacks against my chest and I laugh. It doesn’t hurt, and she’s not trying to hurt me, but she is letting me know I’m bugging her.

“And I meant it last time,” she insists.

She rolls onto her belly and reaches for her little glasses. I’m guessing she doesn’t want to miss anything my face might give away. She doesn’t realize that talks like this kick my expression into neutral, and that’s how it’ll stay.

She wrinkles her nose, in that cute way of hers. “Like I was saying, it’s not like me to—well, I don’t usually have…”

“Hot, crazy, animalistic sex?” I offer.

Her shoulders slump. “If you must know, yes.”

“When was the last time you messed around—and don’t tell me back in college with me, because I know that’s not true.”

Her hand pauses in the middle of pushing back her wild hair. “How do you know?”

“Because you’re sexy, and not a nun, and yeah, all kinds of hot.” I shrug. “I figure at least a couple of guys, and maybe some women have tried to bang you.”

It’s a compliment, but for some reason she doesn’t seem to take it that way. “You think women have hit on me?” I nod. “Why?” She gasps at the way I’m smirking. “Because I dress borderline masculine? Is that what you think?”

“Some chicks like that shit,” I agree.

“Christ, Curran,” she says, shaking her head. She passes her hand along her pillow, as if debating what to say. When she finally speaks, her tone shifts, like she’s embarrassed about what she has to tell me. “I was seeing someone about a year ago. Howard was pleasant—”

“Pleasant? Well, with a name like Howard I’d expect no less.”

She shifts her body to lie beside me, gathering the bedcovers around us and trying uselessly to hide her small smile. What can I say? I’m hilarious.

“Don’t be mean,” she says. “Howard was a nice man.”

“How was he in bed?” She shuts her mouth tight, which tells me good ol’ Howard was eitherreally“pleasant” or really not that good.

“He was…acceptable.”

“Ouch.” I grimace on behalf of the poor bastard.

“What? I’m not trying to insult him.”

“Babe. When you describe sex with a guy, he wants to hear shit like ‘beast in bed,’ ‘he owned my vagina,’ or ‘I couldn’t walk for a week from the magic of his rock-hard co—’ ” Her widening eyes tell me I should stop right there. “You hear what I’m sayin’, right? ‘Acceptable’ and ‘pleasant’ would shrink some serious balls.”That said, thanks for the favor, Howie, ’cause you made me look that much better.

Tess rests her head against my shoulder, drawing circles with her fingertips along my chest. “To be honest, that’s one of the reasons I ended our relationship. We didn’t connect like I wanted to.” She hesitates, like she doesn’t want to say anything more, but then bites out more than I expect. “For some reason, this isn’t the case with you. You’re sexually freeing.” Her hand stops moving. “But I’m sure you’ve heard that before.”

“No,” I confess. “Mostly, I hear the examples I just mentioned.”

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