Page 74 of Off the Stick
Contentment steals over me while he rolls off me and onto his back, fitting me underneath his outstretched arm.
Something awakens inside me as I curl into his chest, burying myself in his warmth and masculine scent.My heart lurches and I bask in the sensation of being held.
I tilt my head up to peer at Dane, who breathes in deep and even breaths, his eyes closed, a look of contentment on his face.
“You’re staring.”
I jerk away and bury my face into his side.He chuckles but lifts my chin with his thumb and finger, so our eyes meet again.
The question has been stirring inside my head since something he said earlier.It’s a humiliating need to know, even though I’m scared of the truth.
“Can I ask you something?”
Dane runs a hand over the top of my head, brushing the wild hair from my eyes.Amusement bubbles in his tone.
“If the question is whether we can go again right now, the answer is, give me five minutes to rebound.”
“I’m being serious here,” I grouse, pinching his side—which is difficult to do because the skin is so hard over his ribs.But I get my point across with it anyhow.
Then I run my finger along the smooth center of his torso, stopping at his navel, circling it, and returning the journey back to his pecs.
“Is the sex you’ve had with other”—I swallow and feel a blush rise over my face—“women the same?I mean, does it feel the same way?”
He pins me with a wicked and teasing grin.“Is it like this with the other men you’ve been with, Cherry?”
The bitter truth gets lodged in the back of my throat, and I cough.
Do I come clean and tell the honest but embarrassing truth about my nonexistent sex life?Or laugh it off like this is totally chill and just another day in the life of me.
“Well?”he prods, shifting to his side to face me, both our heads sharing the pillow, noses and mouths inches apart.
His fingers gently feather over my collarbone, my shoulder, and then down the slope of my arm, leaving goose bumps in their wake.This intimacy is so nice.We rarely, if ever, had this opportunity in the past, moments where we could enjoy each other’s company post-coital.We were usually in a car or a location where we could’ve been discovered.
I suppose the same applies now, but in this case, it wouldn’t be my dad or brothers who would barge in.It would be a sweet little girl who would ask a whole lot of questions about why her friend Ax is naked in my bed.
The blush deepens.Dane brushes hair from my face and tucks it behind my ear.
Okay, here goes nothing.
“I don’t have any other experience to compare it to.You’ve been the only one.”
His head rears back and his nose scrunches.“Seriously?”
“Yes.”I push my face into the pillow and cover my head with my hand.
“Hey, don’t do that.”He places his hands on my shoulders and rolls me back over, prying my thighs open with his knee to position said erection between my legs.“I think it’s fucking hot, and makes me hard knowing it.”
He lowers his lips to mine and kisses me deeply and thoroughly.“What’s embarrassing to me is that I went through one after another, trying to find something I couldn’t.”
I peer up at him with wide eyes.“What was that?”
Dane skims my cheek with his thumb and then rolls it over my lips.I shiver at the touch.
“I was always looking for you.”
* * *
“That’s all it took?”Carmy chokes out in disbelief, squawking at the pitch a prepubescent boy’s voice.“Cookies?”
