face. It made his breath catch.
Eventually she moved, rolled her hips a little. It woke him up, and he moved with her, letting his own hips move forward and back, but slowly, as seemed to be in keeping with the rhythm of everything between them this evening.
He wasn’t going to last very long, but his ego wanted her to come again. He was aware that it might be too soon, but why not go down trying? He made room for his hand to slide between them and used two fingers to seek out her clit. He had no idea what was going to work here, but he tried to mimic what he’d done with his mouth earlier, asserting a moderate amount of pressure and setting up a regular stroking motion even as he kept moving his hips, sliding in and out and letting himself grind into her at the top of each stroke until he was buried to the hilt. Pleasure radiated through him as pressure gathered. They kept up the eye contact. With lovers past, he’d always found intense eye contact awkward, but with her it wasn’t. He had the sudden, absurd notion that maybe all their years of staring contests had been about preparing them for this moment.
Her breathing shortened, and she adjusted her hips, relocking her ankles at his lower back. The change in angle let him slide in a little deeper and, oh shit, he couldn’t hold back anymore. He’d meant to keep up the pressure on her clit, but he faltered as his orgasm barreled down on him. She slid her own hand down and picked up where he’d left off as she continued to roll her hips and stare at him. The smile was gone, replaced by a slight furrowing of her brow. She was concentrating—on this, on them, on her own pleasure. Had he ever seen anything so hot?
With a groan, he ground into her one last time and emptied himself into the condom. She kept going, her breathing growing shuddery. He teased one of her nipples. It seemed to be the nudge she needed. She cried out and her eyes slipped closed—she lost the staring contest—as she surrendered.
And there was that feeling again, that vague sense of rightness he couldn’t quite name.
He rolled off her, grabbed a tissue from the nightstand to deal with the condom, and rolled back. She hadn’t moved, just remained splayed on her back, half propped up on his pillows. He copied her posture, stretching out next to her and staring at the ceiling as his breath returned to normal. He wondered when the no-talking rule would be lifted. Wondered what to say when it was. Thanks? Can we do that again soon? You are the sexiest person I’ve ever seen?
“When was the last time you had sex?”
The question, and the sudden shock of her voice ringing out over the silent, charged air, startled a laugh out of him. “It’s been a while.”
“What does that mean? Like, it’s been two weeks or it’s been two years?”
“It’s been…” He thought back to the tourist Sawyer had been harassing him about. She’d left town after last year’s Mermaid Parade. “About a year.” Probably not a great look, but he was beyond caring.
“Really?”
He kind of liked that she was so shocked. “When and with whom do you think I’m having sex? You live across the street from me. You’re in my bar all the time. You’re in my face all the time.”
She cracked up. “Point taken.”
“What about you?” Did he really want to know, though?
“About the same. You remember my production of Grease last summer?”
“Yep.” She’d been one of the Pink Ladies in that one, the beauty school dropout with the blue hair. She’d rocked that hair.
“Well, let’s just say Danny Zuko was really good at the hand jive.”
It was his turn to crack up. “Ah, so you do sleep with your leading men.”
“Only the ones who aren’t douchebags,” she joked, but then she grew serious. “No, not really. I usually have a policy against it. It’s kind of gross to be in charge of someone, even in a small-potatoes theater like mine, and get involved with them. But I don’t know, Danny Zuko was persistent. And hot. He was quite a bit older than I was, too, and unlike a lot of actors, he had no problem taking direction from a younger woman. So…” She shrugged.
“But you and Pearl are always comparing Tinder matches.”
“Yeah, but that’s just a hobby. I