me when I stalk down the hall to my tiny bedroom at the back of the apartment. “That’s not what I meant, baby.”
“Don’t you ‘baby’ me.” I grab my robe from the hook on the door so I don’t have to try to get into my clothes while we fight.
His hands come down on my shoulders and turn me, reluctantly, to face him. “I just meant that the other guys, they tell me their girls don’t do the stuff you do.”
I guess that answers my question about if they talk about sex. I don’t smile, don’t lift a brow, just keep my face stony. Austin pushes my hair off my shoulders.
“That’s all I meant. That nobody…that you’re so great.”
“Great at sucking cock?” I frown, even though I’m glad to know he thinks so.
“And other things.” He teases me back toward the bed and I let him until we’re both lying on top of the quilt my grandma made me.
Austin strokes down my body and kisses me. When his hand finds my pussy again, I know I’m wet from earlier. His fingers slide against me. His breath is hot on my neck as he pants. His thumb presses my clit and his fingers move inside, then out. Against my thigh, his cock presses hot and hard. He moves his mouth to my nipple and sucks gently, and though I came just a little while ago, desire gathers in my belly again.
“I missed you,” he says again.
“Did you?”
Austin nods against my neck. It seems stupid to be angry with him now, or to worry about if he cheated on me while he was gone. I know he did, once or twice, when we were in high school. Hell. I cheated on him, too, if you want to count the times he thought we were on and I thought we were off and vice versa. But not since graduating, not since we both got full-time jobs and a full-time relationship.
He fumbles for the rubbers I keep in the box in my nightstand and puts one on. I could help him, but I’d rather watch just now. He rolls it on over his cock, his teeth clamped onto his lower lip in concentration. Then he moves up my body and centers himself before pushing inside me.
I groan; I can’t help it. I fucking love this, the sex. His weight. His prick so hard and thick and long inside me, so long it hurts sometimes when he fucks me, but I like that, too. He’s got muscles in his arms from all the heavy lifting and I grab one as he thrusts inside me.
I lift my hips to meet him and his belly presses my clit every time we move together. Orgasm doesn’t build, it tears me down. I’m coming again when he starts to move harder and faster, and I know Austin’s coming, too.
It doesn’t always happen that way, that we finish together, so it’s sort of magical and leaves me sleepy and contented and cuddly, after. He loops an arm around me when he’s thrown away the condom. We lay on my bed, spooning, and his breath ruffles my hair.
“Paige,”Austin says. “I want to ask you something important.”
And then we’re on the ocean, in a boat that’s going down.
As the cold, dark sea closed over my head, the sound of the alarm bells ripped into my ears. I took a deep breath, even though I was underwater. I kicked, the tight clutch of the waves around my ankles becoming the tangled grasp of sheets around my feet as I opened my eyes and fumbled, without seeing, for the phone.
“What?” At this hour I couldn’t be expected to be polite, could I?
“Paige?”
I blinked, not wanting to look at my bedside clock’s numbers. It was way too fucking early to be up. “Arty. What’s the matter? Where’s Mama?”
“Mama’s still sleeping. And Leo’s at work,” he added, though I hadn’t asked. “I’m hungry.”
“Make yourself some cereal.” I stifled a yawn and pondered giving in to a hangover that wouldn’t have bothered me with just a few more hours’ sleep.
“There isn’t any.”
“No Cheerios? No Raisin Bran?”
My little brother, the only other sibling I’d ever actually lived with, made a familiar noise of disgust. “I don’t like those kind.”
“Then I guess you must not be that hungry.” I was hungry, but didn’t feel like getting out of bed at the butt-crack of dawn to fix toast. “Arty, it’s too early to call me. What did I tell you about that?”
“Can’t you come over and make me some pancakes?” His little-boy voice sounded very far away. I pictured him in his Spider-Man pajamas, bare feet swinging because his legs weren’t long enough to reach the floor. “Please?”
Maybe if I kept my eyes closed I’d fall back to sleep. I snuggled deeper under my soft blankets. “Buddy, I don’t live there anymore. I told you that. I told you I couldn’t just come over whenever you called.”
Silence.
“But I miss you,” Arthur said in a tiny voice.
I sighed. “I miss you, too, buddy. How about I come down and take you to the movies sometime soon?”
“When?” At nearly seven, the kid had been reading since he was four and could tell time on an analogue clock, a skill that sometimes stumped me. There wasn’t much that slipped past him. “Today?”
“Not today, no. Maybe later this week.”
“When? When?”
I couldn’t think straight and just tossed out a day. “Wednesday?”
“Saturday. Sunday. Monday. Tuesday. Wednesday. That’s a week!”
He sounded so dismayed I hated to laugh. Laughing, in fact, hurt my head. “Not quite. Five days.”
“That’s too long!” Arthur’s voice pitched high enough to drill my tender ears.
“You’ve got gymnastics on Tuesday, and Monday I’ve got an appointment in the evening. Sorry, buddy. You have to wait until Wednesday. Besides,” I said, offering an incentive against despair, “the new Power Heroes movie comes out on Wednesday. How about that?”
“Okay.” He didn’t sound convinced, only resigned. “But I’m hungry now, Paige.”
“Cereal. Or have a snack from the drawer.”
“Mama says no snacks from the drawer until after breakfast.”
“Aren’t there any cereal bars in the drawer?” I bit back another yawn. If I didn’t get back to sleep in the next ten minutes I was not going to be a happy camper.
“Yesss…” Even Arthur knew where I was going with this, but he sounded like it might be too good to be true.
“Have one of those. They’re cereal,
