I nod absently. “Yeah, sure.”
Daisy yaps a few more times, looking slightly demonic as her beady little eyes focus on me. Her entire body convulses as she yips.
“Maybe we ditch the canines, though.”
“I was planning to ditch a whole lot more than just them.” She looks at me with an inviting smile, and my body internally wages a war so fast my thoughts can’t keep up as lust and desire work to conquer this strange devotion I can’t seem to shake.
“My house is six blocks south of here. Why don’t I give you my number you can drop her off and give me a call.”
“Sounds perfect.” She smiles again before leaning forward and pressing a kiss to my cheek. I swallow the scent of her perfume. It’s a thick, musky vanilla that makes my lungs feel slightly polluted.
I look over at Erin lying beside me, and a cold wall of discomfort hits. I’m balanced on the very edge of my bed while she lies on the far side, asleep on her stomach. Her dark hair covers most of her face and is fanned across my pillow. What in the hell am I supposed to do now? I can’t just leave her here to wander downstairs and chance her meeting the others. What will she be like if I wake her up? Will she be pissy or embarrassed?
My alarm clock says that it’s nearly six. I really need to get up and get her out the door before the others start waking up.
“Hey,” I say softly.
She doesn’t move.
“Hey,” I try again, reaching forward to gently nudge her shoulder.
Still nothing.
“Erin,” I say, gripping her shoulder and rocking her to consciousness. Her hand slowly raises to her face and pushes her hair aside so her eyes focus on me. Her makeup has been smudged from sleeping, leaving traces of it on my pillow.
She lets out an exaggerated yawn and reaches her hand forward then trails it down my shoulder, over my bicep and to my bare chest.
“You wore me out,” she says with a grin.
“I’ve got to get going.”
“I’ll help you forget about those plans,” she whispers, scooting closer to me, exposing a small hint of her cleavage. “You know you want to. They like you too,” she whispers, leaning closer and pulling the blankets back, showcasing her large, naked chest. My body instantly reacts as her hand trails further down and grips me, holding me almost aggressively in her fist.
“He says you want to play,” she whispers.
I push forward on the bed, knocking her back, and cover her body with mine. Then snake a hand down to prime her. She moans against my shoulder as I insert a second finger and pump them inside of her a few times, not focusing on her reactions to my touch, just looking for a result. I slide them out, leaving her mewling and scratching at my chest, as I reach behind her to open my nightstand and produce a condom.
I tear it open and slowly slide it on without even seeing her. As I close my eyes and reposition myself above her, I see blond hair splayed across my pillows, large brown eyes holding a look of love and desire with a tinge of self-consciousness. Her lips are parted and her chest rises and falls with anticipation.
My eyes squeeze shut, and when they open, I see Erin’s steel eyes are closed, her face slightly contorted, and her mouth open in a small “o” as she breathes a moan. Looking down, I realize that she’s working on herself. This should be hot. I should be feeling half crazed with the sexual confidence and desire she exudes.
I never realized how much I craved Ace’s excitement for me, for what I could do to her, for the brief timidness that turned into carnal desire within a few lustful moments that transformed her into a confident sexual minx.
I grip Erin’s wrist and pull her hand away, earning me a string of profanities and objections before I press into her in one hard move.
When we finish, she heads to the bathroom and I reach for the clothes that I’d worn yesterday. I sit on my bed, debating excuses for Erin to leave. When the bathroom door opens, a wave of coconut impales me. It’s the same familiar scent that escaped the bathroom when she would shower. The sensation makes my chest ache with guilt.
I’m hoping she’ll tell me she has to leave so we don’t have to do a song and dance routine. I already know Kendall’s going to be pissed. As soon as she saw me arrive home with Erin last night, I’d heard her bitching to Jameson, begging for him to intervene because otherwise I’d lose Ace. I wanted to ask her what in the hell she thought had happened.
“You have some great shampoo in there, too bad you don’t use conditioner,” Erin says, combing her fingers through her hair, causing the scent to roll over me like waves.
I shake my head in disbelief. My shampoo sure as hell doesn’t smell like that. Am I imagining the scent? “That’s not my shampoo, where did you find it?” I can specifically remember raiding the bathroom and throwing her things away. It was one of the first rooms to be swept.
“It was on the edge of the tub, behind the shower curtain. You like, don’t care that I used it, right?”
I look at her for a moment dumbfounded. She’s still haunting me six months later!
I shake my head again. “I hate the way it smells,” I lie.
“Really?” She pulls a few strands to her nose. “I guess it is kind of strong.”
I nod and grab a sweatshirt. I need to get out of here before my head starts to cloud with more thoughts of her.
“I need to go. I’ve got classes,” I lie again. It’s a little frightening how easy it is for me to lie to this girl, and slightly more, how much I don’t care.
“Okay, well, here, let me give you my number. We’ll do this again.” She winks at me as she grabs for my phone. I could lie again or tell her to leave, but maybe this is a good thing. Maybe this is what I need. I let her enter her number and stare at the smile pasted across her face for a moment, waiting to feel a sense of accomplishment or relief to conquer the nerves I’m feeling.
“By the way, what’s ace mean?”
“What’s Ace mean? What are you talking about?” My heart hammers against my chest as my breaths quicken and my stomach curls in on itself.
“Oh I swore I heard you say it a few times.” She giggles a loud giggle that makes her chest swell. “Maybe I heard you wrong. I was a little distracted.” She winks at me again as I will my heart to slow down. It’s not that I fear being caught; it’s that I can’t believe I said her name while sleeping with another woman.
I just slept with another woman. My mind begins sifting through images like I’m just now seeing Erin in my bed from last night. Her expressions were exaggerated and almost rehearsed. Her words sounded like something that came from a porn video. My stomach turns violently as I work to keep my knees from buckling.
“This was fun, Max. Call me.” She seems either oblivious or undeterred by my silence as I stiffly nod my head. I follow her as she brazenly descends the stairs, avoiding the fact that one of my roommates is in the living room, shooting her death glares.
When we reach the front door, Erin turns and kisses me, pressing her chest against mine before she breaks away and smiles at me a final time.
“See you soon, Max,” she purrs, and then turns and leaves.
Landon walks in the living room, holding a bowl of cereal and looks from Kendall to me and back.
“What did I miss?” he asks.
“He’s ruining everything!” Kendall screeches, throwing a new pillow she recently bought to replace the ones I’d gotten rid of. She stands without saying another word and stomps down the hall to hers and Jameson’s room then slams the door.
Landon’s eyes follow her and then turn back to me. “What in the hell did you throw away this time?”
“Nothing.”
“Then what’s she so pissed about?”
“Life,” I reply, turning to head back up the stairs.