Page 22 of Coping Skills

Chapter Ten

Elena had to wait several days until Daniel got back from his latest away game before she could approach him about their relationship. And she decided to take a head-on approach to test things out. They’d gotten home Sunday, but he’d been exhausted and needed to catch up on homework, so she waited until Monday evening, even though the wait had been agonizing. The good part was that agonizing over Daniel and how things might go when she saw him provided sufficient distraction from the phone call with her mom, which reported no change in her dad, and the hint that the doctors thought he was likely as good as he would get.

In that way, Daniel was doing his job of distraction without even being there. Not that he knew that was why she spent so much time with him. Well, at least in the beginning. And she still went over there if he was home after talking to her mom, needing him to turn off her brain, make her feel something other than grief and sadness and guilt. But she enjoyed his company too. They talked a lot, and he would vent to her when his dad called, making her feel like they had an even exchange of sexy distractions, even if she called upon that more often. They playedMario Kart, especially if his roommate was still around when she got there. They seemed to have worked out an unspoken agreement that Coop wouldn’t linger when she showed up, though. He’d finish whatever he was doing and head out. She didn’t know and didn’t care where. She was just glad she got time alone with Daniel.

When Daniel opened the door to her knock, she didn’t even wait for him to say hello or see if Coop was around. Going up on tiptoe, she reached behind his neck and pulled his mouth to hers, thrusting her tongue past his lips. He didn’t react at first, too stunned by her aggressiveness to do anything. Then he came to life, his hands gripping her hips, pulling her hard against him, bending her back, sucking on her tongue before sliding his against it, dueling with hers while he took control. He pushed her into the doorframe, trapped between the uneven wood digging into the column of her spine and his growing erection digging into her belly. But she didn’t care, didn’t want him to stop, welcomed this response to her onslaught, loved provoking the fierce beast lurking inside the nice guy cover.

The sound of a car door slamming and neighbors’ voices drifting up from the parking lot below had him pulling back, his hands reaching behind his neck to disengage hers, his chest heaving like he’d just run a full practice worth of drills.

“Hi.” His lips curved in a sexy smile, his pupils dilated.

“Hi.” Even though he’d disengaged her hands, he still had her pressed against the doorframe, and she squirmed, growing uncomfortable now that she wasn’t lost in his kiss.

He noticed, and moved back, pulling her inside by the hand. Closing the door, he leaned against it and looked her up and down while running a hand over his short, coarse hair. He’d let his beard grow out a little again, like he did sometimes. He’d told her that he just set the clippers to the lowest setting and used it on his face and head when he did that. It made it easier to do it all that way, and he only had to do it every few days. Based on the beard rash on her face, it seemed like he was due to trim it again soon.

She didn’t mind, though. She liked when he’d go down on her like this, the sensitive skin on her thighs bearing the reminder of him for a day or two afterward, making her smile when she noticed it.

Rubbing his hand over his chin, he pushed off from the door, stalking toward her, backing her through the apartment into his bedroom. Once there he closed the door, which gave her a twinge of concern.

“Is Coop home?”

He shook his head and pulled his phone out. “No. But he wasn’t going to be gone long.” His thumbs moved over the screen before he put it on the top of the dresser. “I let him know you’re here, but he might need to stop by before he goes wherever.” He paused, stepping closer to her. Her breathing picked up when he trailed his fingers up her arm, over her collarbone exposed by the V-neck of her sweater, tracing the edge of her bare skin down to the point where her cleavage peeked out. His eyes followed his fingers, but flicked up to meet hers. “What brought this on?”

Her nipples hardened in her bra as his fingers teased the tops of her breasts. She took a deep breath, lifting her breasts so they pressed against his fingers more firmly, hoping for more—more contact, more kissing. “I missed you.”

That sexy smile was back. “Did you?” He made a low rumbling sound, like a cat purring its happiness. “I missed you too.”

She smiled. “Yeah? Wanna show me how much?”

That was all the encouragement he needed. His mouth covered hers again, and his hands slid under the hem of her sweater, skating over the bare skin underneath, reaching up and undoing the clasp of her bra, then lifting his head so he could strip both sweater and bra off together, leaving her in her jeans. Which didn’t last long. His hands fell to her waist, popping the button and unzipping the fly, pushing inside under her panties so that he gripped her bare ass, pulling her hard against him for another kiss designed to make her lose her grip on her sanity. Since she hadn’t had a firm grip on that in quite a while, it didn’t take much to get her to let it go altogether.

Pushing her back on his bed, he pulled her boots off before stripping the rest of her clothes, then dispatched with his own T-shirt and sweatpants in a blink. He crawled over her, reaching into his bedside table to get a condom out for when he needed it, and she enjoyed the sight of his firm pecs over her face, taking the chance to run her thumbs over his flat nipples, just a shade darker than the rest of his skin.

He hissed in a breath as his nipples firmed under her hands, and he looked down at her. Grabbing her hands, he pinned them over her head. “Am I going to have to restrain you?” A shiver went through her, and his face took on that analyzing look that he got when she revealed something new to him. “Hmm. I’ll have to keep that in mind. I don’t have a handy way to do that, and I don’t want to take the time to figure something out.” He pushed the hard length of his cock against her hip to illustrate his point. “So for now, leave these here.” He pressed her hands back into the mattress above her head and let go, running his hands down her arms, over her breasts, smiling when she squirmed as his touch tickled in her armpits and over her ribs.

His smile got a more wicked edge. “Hmm. That might be fun.”

“What?” She couldn’t help the breathlessness of her question.

“Tying you up so you can’t get away and tickling you. Doesn’t that sound like fun?”

She groaned and twisted as he tickled her ribs again. “No. That sounds awful.”

He leaned in close, his breath blowing hot over her ear as he tongued the lobe. “But I’d make it so good for you after. If you let me do that. You’d end up enjoying yourself, I promise.”

She whimpered, shaking her head.

He sat back up, still running his hands over her body, circling her breasts but avoiding her nipples. “We’ll talk about that later. When you can think clearly.”

His fingers circled around her nipples again, and she tried to move to force him to touch her there, but couldn’t.

“Getting impatient?”

She nodded. “Yes. Please touch me.” She was afraid he might tease for longer. He did that sometimes. But not today. Though he didn’t touch her with his fingers like she’d asked. He did better, leaning forward and running his tongue around and over one nipple, then the other, before taking one into his mouth, biting gently with his teeth, sucking and using his tongue on it at the same time.

With a moan, she arched against him, trying to drive further into his mouth. When she brought her hands down to clutch his head to her breast, he sat up, that wicked gleam she’d gotten to know in his eyes, pressing her hands back above her head. He clucked his tongue at her. “I thought I told you to leave these here.”

With a soft whimper, she nodded. “You did.”

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