Page 48 of On the Run
“Oh, okay.” Toby pressed a hand to his stomach and sounded a little relieved. “I was worried I was moving too fast—”
“Too fast? No way.” Once I’d given in and said yes, it was like twenty-eight years of want had suddenly been unleashed, and things couldn’t happen fast enough. And it felt good.
Really good.
Fated, even.
It wasn’t that I thought Toby knew what he was talking about when it came to understanding how the Universe worked—I was pretty sure he would’ve told me the sky was on fire in his attempt to convince me to have sex—but that didn’t mean he was entirely wrong, either. Maybe thiswasa necessary stepping stone. Weirder things happened every day, right? And the part about me having a say in how my future manifested had the unmistakable ring of truth to it. Like I’d known that, once upon a time, and I’d let myself forget it.
I shook my head again. “I told you I hooked up with guys a few times. It was a few years back now, but it happened.”
“You did say that.” He went up on his tiptoes and bit at the edge of my jaw. “Silly me.”
My breath juddered out in a rush. “Yeah, like four times? Five, even,” I reassured him.
Toby pulled back again and did not look reassured. “Wait. Fivetimes?” he repeated. “Or five guys?”
“Uh… both?” I gripped the back of my neck. “Maybe a couple extra times if you include Martin, my bunkmate from Adventure Camp.”
“Martin from Adventure Camp?” he scoffed. “My erstwhile rival? No. He doesn’t count. Ever. For anything.”
I snorted.
Toby’s expression turned sly as his fingertips danced up my arms. “But in the interest of total honesty between us as soul mates, what did you two get up to in that bunk?”
I licked my lips and pretended to hesitate. “I’d tell you… but I don’t wanna get him in trouble, what with you being a counselor and all.”
Toby’s mouth opened in an excited little O.
“For the love of Chris Evans and every single one of his abs,” he breathed. He cleared his throat. “I’m thinking you should tell me right away, Beale. No one will get in trouble as long as you give meallthe details.”
I bit my lip to keep from smiling. “Well, he snuck into my bed the first time maybe a week before camp ended? It was the middle of the night, but it was a billion degrees outside—way too warm to sleep—so I was still awake.”
“Uh-huh. You were naked and sweaty.”
“Um… no. I was wearing shorts and—”
“Shhh.” Toby shut his eyes. “You werenaked.”
“Right. Sure. Well, I’d noticed Martin before, obviously. He was cute, but kinda geeky. Small. Way, way smaller than me. Which was hot.”
“Yeah, it is.” Toby squeezed his eyes shut and sagged against me, his face mashed against my chest while his fingertips caressed the sides of my neck. “Keep going.”
I let myself touch Toby’s skin, let my fingertips trail over that smooth swath of skin just below the waist of his shorts, which felt so forbidden and erotic I could hardly remember what I’d been saying.
“I guess he’d seen me checking him out, because he stuck his hands down my shorts without saying a word, and then he kinda climbed on top of me?”
Toby whimpered, and the sound sent a bolt of lust straight down my spine.
I was glad someone was getting something out of the story because, to be honest, it hadn’t been all that great in the moment. I mean, ithad, because orgasms were nearly always good, but it hadn’t been some earth-shattering experience or even anything hot enough to jerk to after the fact. I couldn’t remember Martin’s last name, and I was pretty sure we’d exchanged a total of two dozen words if you didn’t count unimportant stuff like “fuck” and “yeah” and “oh,” which I didn’t.
“He rubbed off on me, really fast and quiet, so we didn’t wake anyone else, and then he snuck back to his own bunk. But the next night, it happened again.”
“Christ.” Toby shivered. “Gonna think aboutthatsome more later, but with me in the starring role.”
I grinned. I liked that idea better, too.
“Then after that?” Toby prompted.
