Page 97 of Canadian Boyfriend

“Yeah. There was Ian, obviously, and two guys in New York.”

“Well, I’m not that far ahead of you. My number is only seven.”

I probably should have been surprised: “Hot NHL Player’s Number Is Only 7” was quite the headline. But I wasn’t. I only said, “Really?” because I was nosy and wanted him to elaborate.

“Well, I’d only been in Chicago a year when I met Sarah. And we got together young. I had some fun before I met her, but probably not as much as you’d expect, because… I’m going to sound paranoid if I say any more.”

“You’re going to say that you don’t like sleeping with people who are starstruck by you.”

“Am I that transparent?”

“You don’t even like having passing conversations with people who are starstruck by you, forget swapping bodily fluids.”

He chuckled. “Yeah.”

I draped myself over his chest. “So. What do you say we stoptalkingabout sex and actually, I don’t know, have some?”

21—SUPERPOWERS

MIKE

I wondered if it would be different, having sex with Aurora, now that I understood I was in love with her. I considered that prior to now, Sarah was the only person I’d been with where sex and love—real, true love—had coexisted.

All it took was Aurora shoving down my pants and taking me into her mouth for me to abandon these high-minded topics. To abandon all thought. “Oh my God,” I bit out.

She smiled even as she swallowed me down. We had the tent windows unzipped, and the sunlight illuminated her freckles. I let myself surrender to the wet heat of her mouth, fighting warring impulses to close my eyes and go limp and to stay at attention, watching her as she worked me over. I watched. Heat built, and pressure, and after a minute, I had to interrupt her. I laid a hand on her cheek and guided her off me. She made a gratifying mew of protest.

“We’re supposed to be doing condom things,” I said. “You know, things that require the prevention of all those kids I want?” I adored that we could joke about that. I adoredthat I could tell her my heavy shit and not scare her off. I adoredher. I couldn’tdoanything about it, but I adored her all the same.

She grabbed a condom and had me sheathed in an instant. Then she lay back on the sleeping bag, and my God, she looked like… I don’t even know. Like a painting. Like something I could look at but not have, but somehow the universe had turned itself inside out, and Icouldhave her, at least for now.

I didn’t waste any time. I settled myself over her and grabbed her legs, encouraging her to wrap them around me. That was another thing I adored: Aurora’s legs. They were long, muscular,perfect. They’d taken her through so much life, and I ran my hands up and down them as I pushed into her body.

She sighed and gave me a lazy smile. I kept one hand on her thigh but let the other float down to her clit and pressed down on it with my thumb. That erased her smile. We began moving together. She started breathing shallowly, panting, and when she whispered, “I’m so close,” I let myself go. I snapped my hips back and forth, keeping the pressure steady on her clit with my thumb, and soon I was shouting my release. She followed a moment later.

Damn. How was I allowed to feel thisgood?

We lay there for a while, and my thoughts drifted to what life was going to be like at home this fall—how hard it was going to be to put the brakes on again. It had to be done, though. But maybe, since she seemed to have come around on sleeping with each other when Olivia wasn’t around, we had Christmas to look forward to. That got me thinking about her role in our lives, and about my increasing dissatisfaction with her refusal to take any actual money for her not-nannying.

“I wish you’d let me pay you.”

“That’s not a great thing to say to a woman you’ve just had sex with.”

I cracked up. “You know what I mean. I feel like I’m taking advantage of you.”

“Also not great.” She smirked. “You could just as well say I took advantage of you. I’m the one who took leave of my senses and jumped you last night.”

I was so glad she had. I didn’t feel taken advantage of at all. Itwasgoing to suck to call a halt to things when we got home, but for now, I feltgreat. Unburdened. “Remember the day we first met, we talked about what your superpower is?”

“Are you going to tell me my superpower is sex?”

“No, I’m going to tell you your superpower is being a really good listener. Your superpower is listening to people and reallygettingthem.”

Her eyes lit up, but then they did something else. Something that looked like shuttering. But I must have been wrong about that because suddenly she kissed me again, putting an end to all our talking.

“Oh, my poor back,” I said two days later as I levered myself into the Getaway Car. All this talk of retirement looming had not been a joke. “Sleeping on the ground is not as easy as it used to be.” Though I wasn’t sure it was sleeping on the ground that had me achy. It might have been the other activities that took place on the ground.

We never saw the northern lights again after that first night, because the clouds rolled in. But the one night had been enough. Enough for Aurora to rename herself.

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