Page 60 of Holly Jolly Cake Fight
Candace doubted at this point that she’d even be able to walk in the morning.
Laurin draped himself over her bonelessly, and she teased the curl of black hair clinging to his sweat-slicked brow while he caught his breath. “Wait, if you’re only thirty-two,” she said, and he grumbled happily at theonly, “then, okay, this math isn’t working.”
“Mmm.” He stretched down to land a weirdly chaste kiss right on her nipple. “Are you really doing your mathletics things right now?”
Candace giggled. “Please remove that word from your brain.”
“Never. What’s this math?”
Candace scooted her butt around in the sofa cushions until he was back on top of her, enjoying his weight there. When she relived this day in her memories, it wouldn’t be the sex that would fill her with warmth, it would be this absent, comfortable cuddling, how familiar their bodies were, the way they could have perfectly meshed.
They wouldn’t, though. Every time she started to think about how good a life shared between them could be, it hit her again that there would never besharing, she could only ever be absorbed, and she couldn’t put herself through that again.
“Vivvy is six, right?”
“Turning seven soon.”
“And she wasn’t born until after your injury?”
Laurin nodded silently and tucked his arms under her better.
“But you said you were intwoWorld Cups, and those are every four years. If you were, what, twenty-six? Twenty-five? When you were injured, then that means—”
“I was nineteen my first World Cup, twenty-three for the second, and my career was over at twenty-four.”
He said it evenly, matter-of-factly, like it wasn’t any big deal, but it was devastating to Candace. She made a weak sound of distress and hugged him fiercely as she thought of herself at twenty-four. And younger. At nineteen, she wasn’t married yet,but she was already on that route to the worst decision of her life. She couldn’t imagine being a shining star like that, only to lose everything before twenty-five.
“It’s okay,” Laurin whispered. “I lived that life, and now I’m living this one.” He chuckled dryly and said, “I only wish an actual adult had been managing my money back then. The amount of money I spent at clubs alone could have completely rebuilt the bakery.”
“How bad is it?”
“Bad,” Laurin admitted. “We have to do some serious downsizing. The money I’ve made the last couple weeks here will help, but we may have to sell the house, move into something smaller.”
Since he didn’t say what he really meant, Candace did. “Unless you win.”
He grunted in assent.
They were going to be going head-to-head in another month, and they both needed the money desperately. This wasn’t a competition of needs, but that didn’t change the fact that no matter who won, the other one would be hurt by it.
“We should probably get cleaned up,” Candace said, gently nudging him.
Laurin only tightened his grip. “No, not yet. Don’t think about that right now, okay? Just be here with me. This is our own world, just the two of us, no one else, nothing else.” He made a soft, growly sound against her throat. “I need you again.”
Candace chuckled but continued to nudge him. “We’re out of condoms.”
Which made Laurin rumble in intense satisfaction. “I have some thoughts on other stuff we can do to pass the time.”
“Like what?” she asked, and she did mean that question sincerely, her logy, sex-muddled mind conjuring thoughts of taking showers or finishing that puzzle or raiding the kitchen for supplies to make their own candies, just to show they would have gone to the finale even if they’d had to compete today. She didn’t understand his dark chuckle.
Until he spun them both about until his already stiffening cock was right in her face, and he didn’t bother giving any instructions on what she should do there before he was burying his own face in her pussy.
Having only had two sexual partners before, neither of whom were particularly adventurous, Candace had never done anything like this. She thought it’d be more novelty than effective and suffered her first bout of performance anxiety with Laurin. She was surprised that she ended up enjoying the easy intimacy of it, the detached freedom to enjoy his cock in her mouth as he explored her pussy with his tongue, to absorb and respond without the extra layer of too-intense eye contact and too-tender kissing to muddle things. And after everything else they’d done to get themselves to the point where they were out of condoms, his sweet kisses on her stretched and swollen flesh were very nice.
Laurin was very respectful and not at all mocking when she did wobble a bit heading into the pavilion that afternoon. He hooked his arm with hers to give her the extra support while presenting a unified front to everyone still there waiting for them. Only the slight twist upward at the corner of his lips and the puffing up of his chest showed how proud he was of wearing her out.
Patty, meanwhile, looked thoroughly pleased with herself when her eyes met Candace’s. Candace’s steps slowed as she whispered, “Oh, no.”
“We look just the same as when we left,” Laurin murmured.
