Her eyes crinkle at the corners. “Exactly, but minus the stomping part. I want the kind that lasts. The kind that loves you for you, not because of what you can do for it. The kind that sticks around no matter what. That kind.”

“I’m sure you’ll find it. And I hope it doesn’t rip your heart out and stomp on it. I’d hate to see tears running down this beautiful face.” I rub my index finger from the corner of her eye to the corner of her mouth. A dimple forms just beneath my fingertip, a wry half-grin.

“I hope so, too.” She pulls her eyes away from mine, busying herself with examining one of my knuckles like it holds the key to life. “Can you please not tell anyone that you know about Momma? I just… I don’t… It’s such a private matter. I don’t like Lance’s people knowing so much about my life. I like to keep him separate from home. As much as I can. Do you understand?”

Oh, I understand all right. She’s telling me more than she knows. Probably more than she intends to.

“I won’t say a word,” I tell her solemnly, sincerely. “Thank you for sharing it with me. For trusting me.”

“Well, it kinda takes the trust out of it when you already knew,” she snorts lightly.

“Not really. You could’ve lied. Made something up. But you didn’t.”

She looks shyly away as she shrugs one shoulder. “I told you I wouldn’t lie to you.”

“I’m not sure I believed you.”

Her eyes come back to mine. “I can see how that would be the case. Trust goes both ways, I suppose.”

“I already trust you, so get on with it! You’re holding up progress.”

Her smile is big enough to bare teeth this time. “I am? Heaven forbid I hold up progress. The nerve!”

I eye her narrowly. “Are you making fun of me?”

“I wouldn’t dare.”

Her eyes are twinkling with mischief and I’m pretty sure I’ve never seen anything cuter or more appealing. Well besides her face when she moans during an orgasm. That look’ll be hard as hell to beat.

“Did I tell you what the punishment for making fun of me is?” I ask, moving slowly out from under her.

Folding her arms protectively over her front, she replies, “Noooo, I don’t think so.”

“Well, let me fill you in on how that works.”

The last thing I hear before I smother her mouth with mine is a squeal.

********

I jolt awake when I hear the little ziiip noise of a text being sent. I find Tommi standing near the door, holding her jeans in one hand and her phone in the other.

“What’re you doing?” I ask groggily.

“Texting Lance.”

A discomfort registers in my chest. A spike of jealousy. Irritated, I push it away. I have nothing to be jealous over. Lance is an obligation, a means to an end that I know nothing of. She’s here with me because she wants to be, because she couldn’t stay away.

But still, I don’t like her talking to Lance. Or texting him. Or thinking about him. I don’t like it at all.

“I’d told him that if I couldn’t make the party that I’d be there by ten tomorrow unless I wasn’t feeling better.”

“So what did you tell him?”

“That I’d see him by ten.”

Another spike, this one of irritation. Mixed with jealousy. Dammit.

“Why didn’t you tell him you still weren’t feeling good? We could’ve spent the day together tomorrow.”

“I don’t want to make him suspicious.”

She’s very matter of fact about seeing him tomorrow. I mean, who the hell knows what he might have planned? He could have an orgy on the books. And I’ll have to drop her off at it.

She climbs back onto the bed, but not in it, like she’s planning on staying. I don’t want her to go yet. I feel a bizarre need to keep her here until I’m the only concern she has, until I’m the only one she can think about. Like I’m branding her and blinding her to all others.

My hands streak out like flashes of lightning in the dark. They wrap around her ankles and tug until she’s stretched out on the bed beside me, still naked as a jaybird. She screeches her surprise.

“I didn’t tell you everything before,” I admit.

“You didn’t?”

“Nope,” I say, pulling her arms out to her sides. “I didn’t tell you that there’s more.” I nuzzle the soft spot under her ear with my nose.

“More? More of what?”

“More of me. More to me. More than just the animal part.”

“There is?” she asks, her voice dreamy as she arches her neck.

“Mmmm, much more. Did you know I can be gentle?” I ask, my whisper as much a part of the wind as the touch I place on her cheek. “So gentle.” To prove my point, I drag my fingertips across her chin and down her chest, circling each nipple with a caress that’s feather light. I feel her shiver in response, her body already attuned to my touch and oh-so-ready to respond. “And I can go slow. So slow.”

I bend my head to lap at each tight peak with long, leisurely swipes of my tongue, like a cat washing its fur. “I can worship your body like no one has ever worshipped it before. Every dip,” I say, spreading butterfly kisses over the curve of her waist. “Every dent.” I swirl my tongue in her navel, causing her to arch her back. I can almost feel the way she’d clench my finger if it were inside her. But all things in due time. And this time, right now, is for slow. “Every hot, wet crevice,” I say, nudging her legs apart with the slightest of pressures. I spread the folds of her pussy and put my mouth as close as I can get to her without actually kissing her, close enough that she can feel the heat of my breath and the tickle of my lips. “Can I show you?” I ask, enjoying the way her hips tilt toward me.

Her breathless moan is all the answer I need.

********

My sleep schedule is still jacked from all the different shifts I’ve been working until recently. I guess I’ve gotten in the habit of catching a few hours here and there and making do with very little in the way of good sleep. Tonight is no different, only it actually comes in handy this time.

Just before daylight, my eyes flick open. They go first to the still form of the woman next to me. My cock reacts immediately. Hell, I never thought I’d be as horny at the ripe old age of twenty-five as I was during high school, but damn! Tommi’s making my dick feel like a kid again.