Page 24 of Hard To Fall
She looks up at me from under her lashes. Teasing my tip, she says, “Don’t got eight seconds in ya, Colt?”
I sit up quickly, reach under her arms, and flip her to her back. “No one said that.” I strip her of her panties and feast on her, not giving her a second to adjust. She tastes like everything I’ve been missing as she's writhing below me. For once, she’s speechless.
I lean up on my good knee and hook my hands under hers, pulling her and draping her over my hips. I tease her clit with the tip of my cock, then freeze. “I don’t have a condom.”
Her lips roll in, like she’s suddenly afraid to speak to me. I pull back from her, but she hooks her leg around me, stopping me.
“Talk to me, Lily.”
“I’m clean. And I’m on birth control. When was the last time you were tested?”
I inhale deeply, more embarrassed to say it’s been years since I’ve been with anyone, rather than that I’m tested quarterly. “I’m tested every ninety days.”
Her eyes get round, and she sits up, moving away from me, but I grab her leg and hold her still. “Not because I’m active, but because those are the rules.” I swallow hard. “It’s actually been many, many,manyeight seconds since I’ve been with anyone.”
She studies me, eyes sharp, then smiles slightly. “Like how many eight seconds?”
I shrug, running my hands up her calves. “How many eight seconds are there in three years?”
She chokes on air, laughter bouncing off the walls.
“Don’t be a jerk, Lily!”
She rolls onto her side, still laughing, and it starts to piss me off.
Wheezing, she says, “I’m not laughing at the time, Colt,” she takes a breath, “I’m laughing because I should have known. Your charming personality isn’t exactly bedable material.”
I grab her thighs. “Youwant me.”
“I’m sunshine and rainbows, we like everyone.” She busts out into another fit of giggles, and before I know it, I’m laughing right along with her. I haven’t had this much fun in quite some time, let alone with a woman.
She sits up and leans back against the headboard, and I lie next to her. We’re both naked, and it's comfortable. There’s no pretense to anything right now, and the fact that we’re still just here poking and prodding each other is a huge green flag for me.
Lightning flashes, and it lights the room. She jumps, and it’s then that I see the silvery scar on her knee.
“What is this scar?”
She hesitates for just a second too long. “Old injury,” she says.
“From riding?”
Another pause. “Yeah.”
I glance at her. “What happened?” I ask quietly.
She doesn’t answer right away. Then she exhales. “Bad fall,” she says. “Bad landing. Bad luck.”
“Rehab didn’t take?”
She laughs softly. “Rehab worked for a while, but the knee wouldn’t cooperate.”
The way she says it tells me everything. She’s been where I am now, but she’s accepted it, come to terms with the loss, and has moved on. It’s everything I know I’m supposed to do but can't.
I trace the pale, curved scar. It’s clean and surgical.
“You had surgery,” I say.
She follows my gaze. “Yeah,” she murmurs.
