face, just slightly, he was studiously watching the blinking

white numbers showing the elevator's progress.

I had to bite my lower lip against a smile. He was seriously

eye-fucking me. Who doesn't get off on being noticed?

It took a very long time, it seemed, to reach the first floor.

He moved past me without touching me, but my skin

prickled as though he had. He stepped out of the elevator

and I let out the breath I'd been holding. I'd seen him twice

now. Three times? It must have been the charm, because

unlike al the others, this time he was the one who looked

back.

"I missed you."

I'm already diving into Austin's arms when he says it. A

week was too long to be away from him. His parents had

taken him from me, stolen him to go to visit family for a

funeral. At nineteen, he's plenty old enough to stay by

himself, but they'd insisted he go along to pay his respects.

I think it's more like they don't want us fucking our way

through every room in the house while they're away, but I

can't blame them. They'd have been right. I wouldn't have

can't blame them. They'd have been right. I wouldn't have

felt comfortable going along, even if they had invited me,

but a week is an eternity in the summer when the only thing

I have to look forward to is long hours with Austin's mouth

on mine.

His arms slip around me, hold me tight, and his hands run

down my back to grip my ass. Nobody's watching, and

would I care if they were? I'm just so frigging glad he's

home, it's worth the risk of parental discovery to have him

squeezing me. His cock nudges my bely.

He really did miss me.

"I brought you something."

"What?" I already have my hands out, expecting a snow

globe, a T-shirt. A magnet, maybe. Something he picked

up in the Pennsylvania Turnpike gift shop.

Austin hands me a smal box with a lid. Inside it is a

package of paper, not note cards but stationery. I lift a

page and hold it to the light. It's soft on my fingertips and

has a faint design of flowers pressed into the paper. I give

him a look.

How did he know?

How did he know?

"It reminded me of you." Austin gives an awkward shrug,

as if his admission embarrasses him. "You like that sort of

thing."

I do. Tablets and note cards and pretty papers. I always

have, but this is the first time someone's ever noticed or

given me something as pretty as this. "I love it."

"When's your mom getting home?"

My mom's been working weird shifts at the Hershey plant

since she got pregnant. Because it's summer, her brother

Lane is home from colege and taking over the shop, and

I've been putting in more than my share of hours there,

too. I haven't seen her much. I'm not sure if she's avoiding

me, but I know I'm trying not to hang around her too

much. She's only got another month or so before she

pops, and I can't even begin to imagine what's going to

happen then.

"Late." I snuggle closer, my knee going between his and

my cheek fitting just right into the place over his heart.

Austin pushes me so he can grin down into my face.

Austin pushes me so he can grin down into my face.

"Good."

The apartment isn't big enough to make the chase much of

an effort, but we manage to work up a sweat as I dodge

his grip and duck behind the big wooden rocking chair to

keep out of his grasping hands. Not that I don't want to be

caught. Just that it's fun to make him catch me.

When he does, his mouth slants over mine, his tongue

probing deep inside. He's got me so hot already. Hot for

him. His hand goes straight between my legs, no fooling

around now, and he cups my pussy through my thin cotton

shorts.

The rocking chair, set in motion by our mock struggle,

bumps my ass as we kiss. I grab the back of it to stil it,

then push Austin from my mouth and shuck out of my

shorts. I'm wearing the tiny bikini panties he likes, but

those go, too.

I lift my T-shirt up over my breasts, no bra covering them,

and settle into the chair. I spread my legs. He's watching,

jaw slack and eyes gleaming. He doesn't move.

He's eaten me out before, though I've never asked him to.

It's always just…happened. But it's al I've been thinking

It's always just…happened. But it's al I've been thinking

about for the past week, his mouth and tongue and fingers

fucking me until I come. Every night while he was gone I'd

lie in bed, eyes wide open to the dark, and imagine him

there with me. I'd pretend my fingers were his tongue,

flicking my clit or sliding inside me, but it was never the

same.

My friend Kira says her boyfriend won't go down on her.

Not ever. He's al about the blow jobs but refuses to dine

at the Y. He's a pussy about eating pussy. I'd break up

with a guy who expected me to suck cock but wouldn't

return the favor, but Kira says she's in love. I think she just

doesn't know what love is.

Austin's friends, the guys from the footbal team and the

men he works with at his dad's construction company,

would probably say they don't go down on their

girlfriends, either. I wonder how many are teling the truth?

I wonder if Austin tels them about me, if men talk about

their sex lives in the same detail I do with my friends. I

wonder if he'd admit he makes me come with his face

between my legs, or if he'd deny it.

"Austin." My voice is low and slow, almost not mine. His

gaze jerks up. I put my hands on my inner thighs and open

gaze jerks up. I put my hands on my inner thighs and open

myself wider to his sight. "Use your mouth on me."

He's already on his knees before I finish. I gasp when his

hot, wet mouth finds my skin. When his tongue strokes

over my clit, I grip the arms of the chair and toss back my

head, my back arching. It feels so good it almost hurts.

The chair rocks me into his mouth again and again as he

licks and kisses and sucks. When he puts a finger inside

me, then two, I come hard with a strangled shout.

I look down at him. He's smiling, ful of himself. I touch his

hair and want to tel him how much I love him, but

something about the way he's looking at me makes me

suddenly shy. I want to close my legs, but his head is

resting on my thigh and I can't without pushing him away.

"What?" I sound nervous, because I am. "What are you

looking at?"

"You." Austin kisses my thigh.

I push him onto his back on the floor and straddle his legs

until I can get his belt open and his pants down. His cock

springs free, nice and thick. I take it in my hand and

stroke. He's already got a little pre-come dripping, and I

stroke. He's already got a little pre-come dripping, and I

lean forward to taste him.

"Fuck!" His hips jerk and his hand tangles in my hair.

"Paige, God."

"What?" I want to put him inside me, but we don't

have any condoms handy and there's no way I'll go

bareback.

"Nobody…"

I frown and sit back on my heels, my grip tightening on his

prick. "Nobody what?"

What the hel did he get up to while he was away?

"Nobody does this like you," Austin says.

He thinks he's giving me a compliment, but I let him go and

grab up my shorts. I make sure to grab my panties, too.

Don't want to leave them on the floor for my mom to find.

"Nobody, who?"

"Huh?" He lifts his head to stare, then sits when he sees my expression. "What's the matter?"

I stab the air with my finger. My throat is tight when I

swalow, and I blink away the burn of tears. "Nobody

does what like me? Suck cock? Nobody, who? Who else

is sucking your dick, Austin?"

"Nobody," he says and must realize how it sounds,

because he scrambles to his feet to come after me when I

stalk down the hal to my tiny bedroom at the back of the

apartment. "That's not what I meant, baby."

"Don't you ‘baby' me." I grab my robe from the hook on

the door so I don't have to try to get into my clothes while

we fight.

His hands come down on my shoulders and turn me,

reluctantly, to face him. "I just meant that the other guys,

they tel me their girls don't do the stuff you do."

I guess that answers my question about if they talk about

sex. I don't smile, don't lift a brow, just keep my face

stony. Austin pushes my hair off my shoulders.

"That's al I meant. That nobody…that you're so great."

"Great at sucking cock?" I frown, even though I'm glad to

know he thinks so.

know he thinks so.

"And other things." He teases me back toward the bed

and I let him until we're both lying on top of the quilt my

grandma made me.

Austin strokes down my body and kisses me. When his

hand finds my pussy again, I know I'm wet from earlier.

His fingers slide against me. His breath is hot on my neck

as he pants. His thumb presses my clit and his fingers

move inside, then out. Against my thigh, his cock presses

hot and hard. He moves his mouth to my nipple and sucks

gently, and though I came just a little while ago, desire

gathers in my bely again.

"I missed you," he says again.

"Did you?"

Austin nods against my neck. It seems stupid to be angry

with him now, or to worry about if he cheated on me while

he was gone. I know he did, once or twice, when we were

in high school. Hel. I cheated on him, too, if you want to

count the times he thought we were on and I thought we

were off and vice versa. But not since graduating, not since

we both got ful-time jobs and a ful-time relationship.

we both got ful-time jobs and a ful-time relationship.

He fumbles for the rubbers I keep in the box in my

nightstand and puts one on. I could help him, but I'd rather

watch just now. He rols it on over his cock, his teeth

clamped onto his lower lip in concentration. Then he

moves up my body and centers himself before pushing

inside me.

I groan; I can't help it. I fucking love this, the sex. His

weight. His prick so hard and thick and long inside me,

so long it hurts sometimes when he fucks me, but I like

that, too. He's got muscles in his arms from all the

heavy lifting and I grab one as he thrusts inside me.

I lift my hips to meet him and his bely presses my clit

every time we move together. Orgasm doesn't build, it

tears me down. I'm coming again when he starts to move

harder and faster, and I know Austin's coming, too.

It doesn't always happen that way, that we finish

together, so it's sort of magical and leaves me sleepy

and contented and cuddly, after. He loops an arm

around me when he's thrown away the condom. We lay

on my bed, spooning, and his breath ruffles my hair.

"Paige," Austin says. "I want to ask you something

important."

And then we're on the ocean, in a boat that's going

down.

As the cold, dark sea closed over my head, the sound of

the alarm bels ripped into my ears. I took a deep breath,

even though I was underwater. I kicked, the tight clutch of

the waves around my ankles becoming the tangled grasp

of sheets around my feet as I opened my eyes and

fumbled, without seeing, for the phone.

"What?" At this hour I couldn't be expected to be polite,

could I?

"Paige?"

I blinked, not wanting to look at my bedside clock's

numbers. It was way too fucking early to be up. "Arty.

What's the matter? Where's Mama?"

"Mama's stil sleeping. And Leo's at work," he added,

though I hadn't asked. "I'm hungry."

"Make yourself some cereal." I stifled a yawn and

"Make yourself some cereal." I stifled a yawn and