Page 142 of The Moment You Know

“Yeah, the lube,” he said, straight-faced.

She hid a smile and asked, “So, you didn’t know what it was going to be like?”

“No. Hearing shit in the locker room after gym class didn’t prepare me for the reality of coming all over the place. Or the reality of how much there was.”

“Oh. My. God.”

“The worst part was that when my mom came home and saw me putting my bedspread in the washing machine, she got this look on her face, like she knew exactly what I’d been up to. Of course, the fact I was doing laundry for the first time in my life was probably a huge clue.”

“Your poor mom,” Paige sputtered.

“Poor me,“ David swiftly corrected her. “I was shitting myself, thinking she was going to ground me.”

“Ground you for … jerking off?”

“I didn’t know what she’d do. But I didn’t want to find out, that was for goddamn sure.”

Paige pictured a teenaged David squaring off with Valerie over jerking off and wiped at her streaming eyes; she was pretty sure all of her mascara was gone. “Please. I can’t take any more.”

He waited until she’d pulled herself together, before steering the conversation back to her again. “Quid pro quo.”

“Quid pro quo?”

“It’s only fair.”

Considering she’d done the majority of the sharing that evening, she thought ‘it’s only fair’ was a bit outrageous, and told him so. His response was to simply shrug and make a ‘Come on’ motion with his hands.

“All right,” she said. “But I’m warning you right now, that my story isn’t nearly as good as yours.” Leaning forward, Paige waited until he did the same, then made a pretense of glancing around, as if to make sure they wouldn’t be overheard by anyone before looking him in the eye. “Vibrator. Porn. Orgasm.”

Finished, she straightened up and resumed her original position, curled up in the corner of the loveseat.

His eyebrows drew together as he waited for more details. When none were forthcoming, David asked, “Is that it?”

She shrugged. “Well, I did it a few more times to make sure it hadn’t been a fluke, but yeah, that’s basically it. Now we’re all ‘quid pro quo’d’.”

“That’s the worst quid pro quo I’ve ever gotten in my life.”

“I did warn you.”

David picked up his beer and settled back into his original position as well. “So … now that you know what your clit is for, what’s next on your agenda?” he inquired, before taking a drink of his beer.

Without thinking, Paige answered, “To find a man who’s going to make me want sex so much that I’m not afraid to fuck his brains out.”

Chapter 54

David choked on his Cardigans of the Galaxy Double IPA at her bluntness and immediately began coughing.

“Oh, my God, are you okay?” Paige asked, slapping him on the back.

“Yeah. Yeah, no worries,” he told her, when he’d finally stopped.

“You sure?”

“I’m sure. I was just taken by surprise, that’s all. You’re, uh, really good at that complete honesty shit, aren’t you?”

“I think I might have been a little too good, there. Sorry about that.” Paige made a face, thinking how uncomfortable he must be, now, after she’d detonated that nuclear bomb on his ass. It hadn’t been her intention to take their conversation down such a rabbit hole, and now she wasn’t sure how to climb out of it.

David saw her discomfort, and it gave him pause. He didn’t want her to be embarrassed at voicing what she wanted, especially since it was the biggest indicator of her recovery. Wanting to find a man and fuck his brains out was a very good thing, and even though it crushed David a little to know that man wouldn’t be him … it was still a very good thing. “Don’t be sorry. It’s fine,” he insisted. Then, adopting a curious expression, he asked, “So … have you been actively looking for this man?”

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