“Make me come,” she whispered, as if I were doing anything-she was doing all the work, riding faster, harder, her breath coming in shallow gasps. “Oh please, oh baby, now, now, now…”
I squeezed her nipples hard and she arched, quivering as her climax began, her pussy trapping the heat of it between us, her body bucking, giving it to me, as if she could force her orgasm into or through me somehow. I held her as she came, when she collapsed onto me, breathless and still trembling, her body covered with a fine sheen of sweat.
“Oh my god,” she murmured, cuddling into me, pulling the covers up over us both. “I forgot…” She kissed my cheek, my chin. “So good…”
“Mmm,” I agreed, closing my eyes and trying not to feel the wave of guilt that washed over me suddenly, trying not think about TJ, trying to remember that he’d given me permission to be doing just this, reconnecting in just this way with an old friend…and lover.
“I don’t want to lose you again.” Gretchen’s voice was small and my eyes opened at the sound. I didn’t know what to say to her. I had no idea where any of this was going…and maybe I didn’t want to know. But I was filled with regret for hurting her so long ago, and wanted, somehow, to make it up to her.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered, hugging her shoulder, pulling her close so I could kiss the top of her head. “I’m just so sorry.”
The silence stretched and I stroked her hair, wondering what she was thinking. I didn’t know how she couldn’t hate me for finding some guy and taking off on her like she’d been some bad dream I didn’t want to remember. I hated myself for it, I realized, glad for the darkness covering the red heat of my cheeks.
“I’m going back to school starting in January,” she declared, sounding proud.
“You are?” I smiled. “What for?”
“Photography.”
I nodded, smiling now, too, remember the amazing pictures she took. The Baumgartners Christmas card was always one of Gretchen’s photos.
“Wow. Good for you, Gretchen.”
She shrugged. “Can’t be a nanny forever.”
“I guess not,” I agreed.
“I’ll be in California for two years,” she confessed, snuggling closer. “But I don’t want to lose touch again, like we did…”
I sighed, shaking my head. “It was my fault…”
“I don’t care,” she insisted, kissing the top of my breast and sliding a leg over mine. “I just don’t want to lose touch. Promise me.”
“I promise,” I whispered. “I’m so sorry.”
“Stop.” She lifted her head to look at me. I saw the glint of her eyes and wondered if she had tears in them, like I did. “I love you, Ronnie. I always have.”
“Yeah,” I choked, kissing her and feeling one of her tears-or was it mine? — slip between our lips. “I always loved you, too.”
Satisfied, she snuggled back down under the covers, still holding me close. We stayed that way a while and I wondered if I should send her to her own bed, wondered what the Baumgartners would think if they woke to find us like this… But it was silly, of course, to worry. They’d known about me and Gretchen…they’d known all along, and encouraged it.
“Goodnight, baby,” Gretchen whispered sleepily, and the soft sound of her deep breathing that followed decided me. I didn’t care who saw us, who knew.
So we’d been lovers, were lovers now, still. Where was the shame in it?
“Goodnight,” I whispered back, although I knew she was already sleeping.
I must have drifted off, because the next thing I remembered was Janie standing next to the couch bed, the stairway light on, giving the room a half-lit glow.
“Janie?” I asked groggily, shading my eyes against the light, seeing she was still wearing the same clothes she’d had on when she left with Brian. “Are you just getting in?” I wondered what time it was.
“Well, you two look cozy,” she snapped, curling her lip. “Goodnight.”
“Janie!” I stage-whispered, trying not to wake Gretchen, but Janie was gone, stomping up the stairs and slamming her door, in spite of the late-or early-hour.
I spent a long time staring up at the ceiling in the darkness and wondering what to do about Janie. It wasn’t until I had given up racking my brain for some sort of solution that I realized Janie’s eyes had been red from crying as she stood
there. But why? I didn’t know. I didn’t know anything anymore, except that it seemed like a long time until morning.
CHAPTER FIVE
“Hello?” I whispered, flipping my cell phone open and hanging half over the side of the couch bed. I’d found my ringing phone in my purse on the floor and managed to answer it just before it went to message.
“Hey baby, you awake?”
TJ. I smiled at his sleepy tone and knew he was still in bed. “I am now,” I whispered, sliding the rest of the way off the couch bed, where Gretchen was still sleeping. The girl could sleep through anything. Of course, I’d finally been sleeping just as hard, having spent most of the night tossing and turning, thinking about Janie and Gretchen and the Baumgartners and just what in the world I was doing here in Key West in the first place.
“In your own bed?”
My stomach clenched, even hearing the teasing tone in his voice.
“Of course,” I admonished, giving a guilty glance over my shoulder at Gretchen’s sleeping face, my eyes traveling over the slope of back, down to where the sheet met the curve of her hip. Damn, she was sexy.
“Alone?”
I bit my lip, grabbing my shorts from their resting place under the couch bed and yanking them on, juggling the phone.
“Not answering that one, huh?” TJ chuckled as I stood and tiptoed to the door wall, opening it to reveal the early morning rise of the sun. It was a gorgeous morning, the breeze warm on my face as I shut the door behind me.
The sky was streaked with fiery oranges and reds and I stood there for a moment, breathless at the sight.
“Come on, you can tell me,” TJ urged, his voice lowering even more. “Did you spend the night with the Baumgartners?”
“You’re hard as a rock just thinking about it, aren’t you?” I teased, walking down two short steps and across the patio to sink my feet into the softness of the beach sand.
“You know I am.” His voice was slightly hoarse. “I miss you.”
“I miss you, too,” I confessed, and I did. I could almost imagine myself in his arms, my fingers walking that sweet, dark line down his belly toward his cock.
God, I missed that, too, the feel of him filling me. “I spent the night with Gretchen.”
He actually gasped. “Really?”
“Yeah.” I kicked at the sand as I began walking toward the water. “Really.”
“…And?”
I smiled. “And it was… good.”
“Good? Just good?” TJ snorted. “You can do better than that!”
“Well…” I bit my lip, bringing up the fresh memory of the night before, the soft feel of Gretchen’s skin, the sweet, pungent taste of her pussy. I could still taste her in my throat. “She came down to my bed in the middle of the night…”
“Uh-huh.”
“You really want to hear this?”
TJ groaned. “Hell yes! Tell me.”
“Tell me first,” I murmured, feeling the gentle throb of my pussy, already responding. I hadn’t managed to find my panties and the seam of my shorts rode up between my pussy lips as I walked. “Are you hard?”
“Uh-huh,” TJ murmured.
“Are you stroking it for me, baby?” I closed my eyes and pictured him, cock in hand. The thought made me dizzy with lust.