Page 113 of Sit, Stay, Love
She reluctantly broke their kiss. ‘Out, Stinkface,’ she hissed at the horrified dog. ‘Sorry,’ she said as she shut the door and turned back to Ethan. She breathed out an ‘Oh.’ His lips were pink and pillowy from being kissed, and his eyes were hooded and dreamy. He looked like sex on a pair of muscular, long legs.
He quickly stepped forward and gathered her into his arms, and she gasped as his lips met hers again, full of so much heat her knees almost buckled. He tugged her closer to his body, enveloping her in his strong arms, almost wrapping completely around her. Her heart thumped and tripped and leaped as he shuffled backwards towards her bed, pulling her with him, his lips caressing hers.
A heady mix of confusion and full-blown desire flooded her mind. They shouldn’t be doing this. Hadn’t they just talked about not doing this anymore? Hadn’t they sat getting soaked by the rain, talking about cooling it and pumping the brakes and how he definitely shouldn’t ask her to go steady? But then there were his lips and his tongue and the warmth of his mouth, and the heat in her stomach simmered to the boil.
Ethan sat perching on the edge of the mattress and moved her so that she was in between his thighs, leaning her entire weight against his body, her neck bent to meet his kiss and her fingers grabbing at the back of his neck, twisting in his hair.
He slowly dropped to the mattress and took her with him. She squealed as she fell forward onto his chest, with her feet lifting off the ground.
He gazed up at her, pushed a strand of her hair behind her ear and whispered, ‘Let’s get more comfortable.’ Ethan shifted them both, easily lifting her until she was lying on top of him, in the middle of her grandparents’ old bed. Then he kissed her again.
She shivered. They were going to do it. The big It.
In her twenty-eight years, Sera had only had three serious boyfriends. Whatever Linda said about everyone wanting her boobs in high school, only two high school boys had seen them, and that was as far as she’d allowed it to go. She was old-fashioned that way. When she committed to something, whether to love, friendship or to building a successful rescue shelter, she committed fully. Casual sex had never been her thing. She was nineteen when she lost her virginity to Bevan, the poet with blue-black hair and bright green eyes, and twenty-five when she’d split from boyfriend number three, Stephen, the son of one of her mother’s friends. It had been over two years since she’d been with a man, and she hadn’t noticed how much she’d missed it until she felt Ethan’s taut muscles flexing below her, his stomach, his chest, his thighs, hard and pulsing.
He moved his mouth to her throat and ran his tongue along her delicate skin until she quivered and buried her face into his chest. She inhaled deeply… and froze, her heart suddenly pounding and her mouth dry. What was that scent? It was so familiar.
Oh no.
It was the sweatshirt – Toby’s sweatshirt. It smelled just like him. Like his body. Like his house. A mix of deodorant and antiseptic – soft and clean and soothing, as if he was right there in the bedroom with them, whispering in her ear, telling her to hold back, reminding her not to go too far.
Guilt rushed over her. ‘I think we should stop.’
‘Is everything okay?’ Ethan asked through a shuddering breath. He stared at her with blown-out pupils.
Well, you smell like Toby, so…
This was bad. This was really bad.
Ugh.
She rolled onto her back and dropped her arm across her brow. ‘It’s just—’
‘Shit. I was supposed to be giving you space.’ He ran a palm down his face. ‘I’m so sorry.’
‘Please don’t say sorry. I was right there with you. I’m the one who’s sorry.’
‘No. You were right to stop it.’
‘I was?’
‘Yeah. We were supposed to be pumping the brakes. My brilliant idea.’ He laughed and knocked his fist on his forehead.
‘It’s just… if your lips muddle me, I can’t imagine what your…’ She put her hand over her mouth and laughed. ‘Oh my god. See?’
He laughed too. ‘Well, I don’t want my… anything to muddle you.’ He kissed her temple. ‘I think I better go.’
‘Um.’ She glanced at his crotch. ‘Maybe you should wait a bit?’
He followed her gaze. ‘Aw, geez.’ He grabbed a pillow that’d been flung to the floor and put it across his lap. ‘I probably should have worn something under the doc’s sweatpants, huh?’
Her eyebrows shot up. ‘I won’t tell him you went commando in his sweatpants. He’ll have some kind of ceremonial burning.’
‘Please tell him. And let me watch.’
They laughed.
Sera sighed. ‘I’m sorry, Ethan. I feel like I keep starting something and never finishing it.’
