Page 117 of Just Watch Me
“Well, no,” Skylar said. “He has a few days off, because they’re off on that long tour to Safa in a couple of weeks. So, yes, if you must know, hedidcome to see me yesterday.” She forked up another bite of lamb and kumara. That was the good thing about leftover stew; it tasted even better the next day.
“And what?” Jess asked. “Bloody hell, it’s like pulling teeth. He brought you a lovely sammie to eat in the car?”
Skylar waved a hand in the direction of her face, since she was chewing meat. Once she’d swallowed, she said, “Sex in the car.”
Jess screamed. Everyone looked around, and Jess said, “Sorry. Spider down my back.” She flapped her shirt a few times. “That’s got him. As you were, people.” Then stared at Skylar with near-radioactive intensity.“What?”
“Yeh. Silliest thing you ever saw. He’s too big for sex in the car. I banged my head on the ceiling like mad. Good thing it was padded. Fell off the seat at one point, too.” She didn’t tell Jess about the way Zane had pulled her onto his lap, got his hands up under her dress—she’d worn the pretty yellow one, which was as impractical for teaching as she’d known it would be, but hehadsaid he’d come take her for a very quick lunch, and?—
Oh. Right. She wasn’t telling Jess about Zane’s hands on her bare bum under her skirt, or his mouth at her neck. Not the gasping urgency of it, how hot and hard he’d been inside her, or her hopeless lack of control as she’d cried out, there at the end. If her grandfather had come and found them, howembarrassing wouldthathave been? Unfortunately, that had only made it hotter. Was she, in her secret self, actually kinky?Wasthat kinky? She had no idea.
“I can see the headlines now,” Jess said. “All Black and kiddie teacher cited for public indecency. What were youthinking?I can’t believe I’m the one saying that to you. I don’t talk to you for three days, and you’re running full-tilt into STI territory and committing illicit acts!”
“We were in his garage,” Skylar said, with an attempt at lofty detachment. “Five minutes away. Zane is very considerate.”
“Considerate? ZaneMahuta?If he’s not Beast Mode, what the hell was I watching on Saturday night? Is there no truth in advertising anymore? He’s a sensitive and gentle lover?”
“Keep your voice down,” Skylar hissed.“Honestly.I don’t want to advertise this to the world!”
“Well, I can imagine,” Jess said, “if he’s going to be that disappointing.”
“He’s not disappointing!” Skylar forgot to keep her own voice down, and Stacey Thompkins looked over. Stacey smiled a bit, which was new. Rumor had it that she and David were an item. Skylar smiled back in a sheepish way and tried to telegraph,You won,and Stacey’s smile turned satisfied. Job done, then. “He’s not disappointing,” she told Jess more quietly. “I meant that he’s considerate at making sure I … you know.”
“Orgasm?” Jess said. “You can say the word.”
“Not in the staff room, I can’t!Yes.He … We’ve had sex, uh …” She counted in her head. “Six times in the past three days.”
“It’s not how much you’ve done it,” Jess said. “It’s how good it’s been. Of course he wants to do it all the time. He’s a man. The question is, doyouactually want to do it that much? Is it worth it? It wouldn’t be a surprise if he was pretty selfish by this point—I can’t imagine he encounters many women he hasto go out of his way for—and you don’t have much to compare him to, do you? You’re much too liable to let people off the hook in general. Men, especially. Your husband, now …”
“I don’t need to compare him to anybody,” Skylar said, possibly hotly. “I’ve had so many orgasms in the past three days, I can barelywalk.I think about him all the time, too. Like I’m sixteen. It’s bloody annoying.” Well, that or terrifying. What was shedoing?
“How?” Jess demanded. “How are you having all this sex? You have six kids between you, and you said your granddad’s spending all his time with Zane’s grandmother!”
“He’s coming over after the kids are in bed,” Skylar admitted. “Although the first night was a hotel. After the match. But since then, he’s been coming over.”
“So not exactly Date Night,” Jess said.
Skylar glared at her. “Are youtryingto rain on my parade?”
“No,” Jess said. “I’m trying to make sure you stay realistic.”
“Well, I can’t, OK?” Skylar took an angry bite of stew and nearly choked on it. “I can’t stay realistic. He’s told his grandmother we’re dating. He’s told his brothers and sister. He’s told ourkids. We did our grocery shopping together on Sunday! It’s going so fast that I …” Her hand was in her hair now, her elbow on the table. “I’m in over my head here, Jess. I am. And as soon as he leaves, all I want is to see him again.”
“So he comes over for a booty call,” Jess said. “Sky. That’s not love. That’s sex.’
“No.” She took her hand out of her hair and sat up straight. “He spends the night and goes home in the morning. He told his kids he was going to, because we want time together and they want his time too, so that’s the time he and I have, and he does. Come over.Wedo. I know it’s too fast. I know it’s mad. I try to tell myself it can’t last, but I … I …”
Her hand was shaking, and she had some tears in her eyes,too. She didn’t lose control of her emotions in public like this. What washappeningto her?
Her phone dinged, and she pulled it out, because …
“Zane,” she said. “Text.”
“Bloody hell,” Jess said. “I’m still going to tell you to be careful. It’s been, what, a few months? Have you never heard of love bombing? It’s not true love, it’s an abuse technique. Acontroltechnique. They come on strong, all the way over the top, get you hooked on them, and then it all goes pear-shaped, because once they have you, they start trying to dictate your every move. The clue is boundaries.Respectfor boundaries. If he’s insisting on coming over every night …”
Skylar wanted to say, “He respects my boundaries! I said the kids and I wouldn’t stay for dinner Sunday, and he said OK! We didn’t have sex until I wanted to! And … and …” How would that come across, though? Like defensiveness, that was how. Anyway, she wasn’t thinking about it anymore, because she was clicking on a link. And scrolling. And turning the phone on the table wordlessly.
Jess picked it up, and her eyes widened. “Is this?—”
