Just a Number (8 page)

I press a kiss to her forehead before she rolls over onto the other side of the bed, and I make my way through her small apartment and into the bathroom where I clean myself up before rejoining her. When she gets out of bed to do the same and grab a glass of water, I watch her walk away, marveling in how beautiful and confident she is. After emerging from the bathroom, I watch her walk around her narrow kitchen from the bed, appreciating the way the moon highlights the womanly curves of her body.

“You’re staring, Owen,” she says, setting her glass on the counter.

I chuckle, my cheeks warming slightly at having been caught ogling her naked body. “Forgive me,” I say, still unwilling to take my eyes off of her. “It’s just…how can I not? You’re stunning.”

Laughing, Amelia puts her glass in the sink and rushes through her studio apartment and hops into bed, her tits bouncing in a way that only a 20-year-old’s can. “Well, when you put it that way…” She nestles into my side, pressing her naked body against mine as she yawns. “Are you ready to sleep yet?”

I’m definitely feeling like I could fall asleep now; my mind seems to have cleared up, and exhaustion is starting to set in. I nod. “Yeah. I think so.”

“Good, because I have school tomorrow, and if I don’t get a few more hours of sleep, I’m going to fall asleep in class.” She hitches her right leg over my thighs to get closer, and I sigh in contentment. “Do you have to work?”

“No,” I reply. “I took a few days off so that I could avoid…” I pause before I bring Gretchen up; something tells me that bringing up your soon-to-be ex-wife while in bed with the beautiful—and very naked—twenty-one-year-old co-ed you’ve started sleeping with has the potential to turn awkward.

Amelia catches on, though; she’s always been pretty astute. “Ah, right.” She looks up at me. “So, what are you going to do?”

I hadn’t really thought about it, to be quite honest, and I tell her as much. “I’m not sure. Maybe drive around the city, go for coffee?”

“Well—and don’t take this the wrong way—but why don’t I leave you a key to the apartment?” Her eyes widen, almost like she’s afraid of what she just said. “That way, you can come back here if you want, instead of risking a run-in with the ice-bitch at your condo.”

She’s so fucking adorable when she’s rambling.

“If you want. Obviously,” she continues before pressing her face into her hand. “
Shit.
”

“Hey,” I say, coaxing her face from her hand. “I would appreciate that, actually…as long as you don’t mind. I don’t want to impose on your life in any way.”

She smiles, her entire face lighting up. “It’s not an imposition at all. I, um…well, while I don’t know exactly what
this
”—she gestures between the two of us with her hand—“is, I know I want to explore it a little more.”

Laughing, I press my lips to her forehead. “You don’t think we’ve explored each other enough for a few days?”

“While that isn’t exactly what I meant,” she says, rolling her eyes, “I’m going to say no. There’s so much more that we need to figure out…you know, if this is something you deem worth pursuing.”

“Amelia…” My voice is low and soft. “If I didn’t feel this was worth pursuing, would I have broken the speed limit trying to get to you after you left Portland this afternoon?”

Her cheeks turn pink, and she bites her bottom lip lightly. “I suppose not.”

Glancing over her shoulder, I see that we’re closing in on two in the morning, and I pull the blanket up over us both. “Now, let’s get some sleep and just agree to let this all unfold naturally, okay?”

Amelia pecks my cheek before placing her head on my shoulder and rubbing her hand over my chest lightly. “Deal. Goodnight, Owen.”

Pressing my lips to the top of her head, I inhale the sweet smell of her shampoo and let my eyes fall closed. “Goodnight.”

11. Listen to Your Heart

I
t’s the most restful sleep I’ve ever had—even if it was a few hours shorter than what I’m normally used to—and it isn’t until an incessant buzzing on the bedside table wakes me up that I realize why.

Owen’s here. In my bed. Holding me in his arms. The events of the night before come flooding back, and I smile, turning my face into his chest and inhaling his musky scent.

I know that the two of us being together should feel wrong, but the more distance I had put between us, the more it hurt. So, if anything felt wrong, it was being apart…even if us embarking on this adventure together might seem unconventional to some people. My dad, for example.

Owen’s phone vibrates again, and he growls, his chest rumbling against my face. “Good
god
. Who the hell is calling me this damn early?”

I giggle, lifting my face and resting my chin on his shoulder as he reaches for his phone. “You’re kind of a bear in the morning, aren’t you?”

Running his hand over his weary face, he looks down at me and smiles. “Sorry. I just hate it when I’m woken up from such a deep sleep.”

“Noted,” I affirm with a nod before sitting up. His eyes trail down my body, stopping on the exposed skin of my upper body as I stretch my arms over my head. “I’m going to hop in the shower before I have to head to class.” I hold out my hand toward him, smiling coyly. “Care to join me?”

Owen chuckles, the outer corners of his baby blue eyes creasing. “I’m not sure I’m going to be able to keep up with your sexual appetites,” he confesses, placing his hand on my bare knee instead of in my hand, his thumb moving back and forth over the smooth skin.

Letting my mouth fall open in mock-insult, I stare at him. “Hey, I didn’t say we were going to do it… I mean, I hadn’t entirely ruled it out, either…I was only inviting you for some clean and
wholesome
shower-time fun.”

“Hmmm,” he hums softly, the sound moving like a gentle vibration under my skin. “Something tells me that any activity that involves you and me naked together is going to result in anything
but
clean and wholesome, Amelia.”

“Fair enough,” I concur, “but I really do need to shower and head to class.”

Owen nods. “Go ahead and start without me. I’ll join you as soon as I check my messages.”

My cheeks hurt from my incredibly wide smile, and I lean forward to kiss him before hopping off the bed and heading for the bathroom. “Okay!”

I leave the bathroom door open a crack before I turn the shower on to let the water warm, and I brush my teeth before Owen joins me, because, really, morning breath is the worst. After my teeth are clean, I hop behind the shower curtain and wet my hair before lathering it up with shampoo. I’ve just begun to rinse the suds from my hair when I hear the bathroom door creak and the latch click into place. I peek around the curtain and smile when I see Owen at the sink with his black leather toiletries bag, digging through it and producing his toothbrush, toothpaste, and shaving supplies.

“Leave the scruff,” I speak up, causing him to look in my direction and furrow his brow. “I like it.”

Owen chuckles, but he puts his razor and shaving cream back in the bag. “You got some kind of fetish I should know about?”

My laugh bounces off the tile walls of my bathroom, and my cheeks warm. “Not exactly…I just like the way it feels against my skin.”

Intrigued by my response, Owen concedes and brushes his teeth quickly and then makes his way over to join me in the shower. I can’t seem to take my eyes off him as he walks across the tile floor completely naked. He’s not only good-looking with a physique most men my age would desire, but his confidence only adds to his sex appeal.

When he pulls the curtain back to step inside, a blast of cool air hits my skin, making it prickle with goosebumps. I take a step back so Owen can stand beneath the showerhead as I run conditioner through the length of my hair. I watch, entranced, as rivulets of water stream down his body, over every muscle in his back and toward his extremely biteable ass, and I start to think that maybe this shower won’t be as clean and wholesome as I’d originally intended.

Owen turns around and catches me ogling him. “Now who’s staring?”

Channeling my inner-parrot, I smirk, adding a little sass to his earlier retort. “How can I not? You’re stunning.”

Owen advances on me, making me back up until I’m pressed against the cold shower wall. My breathing picks up, and I’m lost in his intense eyes as they bore into mine, the swirls and bursts of two shades of blue hypnotic. Speechless, I silently will him to kiss me. He advances slowly, and my breath hitches, my tongue peeking out to wet my lips, but instead of kissing me, he leans down and grabs the shampoo from the ledge of the tub and takes a step back.

A cocky smirk graces his stupid lips, and I glare, pushing myself away from the wall and hoping my weak knees don’t betray me. Thankfully, they don’t, and I decide that two can play this game.

Turning around, I grab my coconut-scented body wash and squeeze some onto my shower loofah. I work it into a thick, sudsy lather and lift my leg, placing my foot flat on the edge of the tub and leaning over slightly to give him a decent view of my ass as I start to wash—what can I say? I’m a bit of a multi-tasker.

Owen’s groan makes me smile, and I turn my head to see him eying my ass. “See something you like?”

He steps toward me, stopping when his thighs meet my ass, and I can feel his erection pressed between us. “You could say that,” he growls, splaying his hands flat over my water-slickened back and leaning forward. His hands move up my body, over my shoulders, and down my arms until he works the loofah free from my grasp.

I hold back a moan when he takes over washing my body, turning me around when he deems my back “clean enough to eat off of.” I’m surprised I didn’t melt into a puddle right then and there, to be quite honest, because I’m suddenly inundated with images of Owen eating off my body like some kind of sexual smorgasbord.

The loofah moves along the skin of my shoulders and neck before travelling down over my sternum, but the way Owen stares at me tells me he’s not really paying too much attention to detail, and my assumptions are confirmed the minute he drops the loofah from his hands and starts using his hands to “wash” my breasts. His hands glide with ease thanks to the water and body wash covering my body, and I moan when he rolls my nipples between his fingers.

I’m excited about the idea of shower sex. I’ve always been a fan of it, and it’s been way too fucking long since I’ve had it. One more tweak of his fingers, and I throw myself at him, stepping up onto my toes and wrapping my arms around his neck as I press my lips to his.

“You win,” I murmur against his ravenous lips, and he chuckles, pulling his hands from my tits and letting them fall to my ass.

“As long as you recognize that,” he replies playfully before nibbling on my bottom lip.

I drop my hands to his waist and begin to snake them between us before wrapping one hand around his cock. He groans into my mouth as I stroke him a couple times, and then he pulls away, looking conflicted as he holds me by my biceps, keeping me at arm’s length.

“We don’t…have a condom…” he pants, staggering his words. “We should wait.”

The right side of my mouth quirks up, and I shrug. “We don’t need to have sex to satisfy each other, you know. Or, has it been too long since you’ve been creative?” I tease, pumping him to the hilt once more.

“Jesus, Amelia,” he mutters, his fingernails lightly biting into the skin of my upper arms as I continue to work my hand over his length.

I alternate the pressure of my hand as I slide it up and down, rotating my wrist upon every pass of his tip. My lips curl up into a satisfied smile as I watch his eyes close and his eyebrows furrow. He’s trying to control the movement of his hips, letting me take the lead, but he fails every so often, thrusting with purpose into my palm. It doesn’t take too long before he comes against my hand and belly with a grunt, and the water falling from the shower head quickly washes all evidence of his release away.

Quite content to end our shower on this note, I swap places with Owen so I can wash the conditioner out of my hair and the soap residue from my back while he washes his own body. He quickly lathers up his chest, legs and back, and I’ve just finished rinsing the last of the conditioner from my long hair when he steps forward, forcing me behind the spray of water and against the other shower wall. With the water raining down on his back, his lips latch onto my neck while his right hand palms my breast much like I’d instructed him the night before, and his left hand grabs my right leg and lifts it. My foot sits on the edge of the tub, and he coaxes me to spread it wider with the back of his hand before he massages his way up my inner thigh and strokes my pussy with his index and middle fingers.

“Oh, shit,” I moan, weaving my fingers into his hair and holding his mouth against my neck where he’s busy kissing, licking, and nibbling. Both of my legs begin to quiver as his fingers move with intent and experience, swirling around my clit with just the right pressure before gliding back and circling his destination. At an agonizingly slow pace, he eases them into me.