Summer Fling (Players of Marycliff University Book 1) (21 page)

They stopped once they were in Lance's bedroom. "Oh. That was thoughtful." She looked around. The only thing left in the room was the furniture. The bookshelf and night stand were empty, the closet doors were open but only held hangers. There was a backpack on the floor next to the closet, the only thing of Lance's still inside.

Lance stripped off his shirt. "I need to take a shower. Come with me."
 

Abby looked at him standing there shirtless, his expression giving nothing away. She nodded, uncaring that her hair was still wet from the shower she'd just taken at her house. She set her bag down next to his and began undressing. Lance tossed his clothes on the floor next to their bags and went in the bathroom to turn on the shower.
 

She followed him a moment later, letting her eyes slide over the long muscles running down his back, the indent of his spine, the taut muscles of his buttocks. He turned, and her eyes met his. The neutral expression he'd worn only moments earlier was gone, replaced by desire as his eyes roamed her body. She watched his eyes move slowly down and then back up, lingering on her chest. She stepped toward him, and he ran his hands over her skin, following the path his eyes had taken.
 

He kissed her deeply, his hands still roaming over her naked skin, then led her into the shower. They took turns standing under the spray, alternately soaping and rinsing each other, fondling and kissing.
 

Abby smiled to herself when she remembered their one abortive attempt at shower sex. They didn't normally shower together because the shower stall was tiny, and didn't allow for much room. But one morning Lance had tugged her in with him. He'd tried lifting her and pinning her against the wall, but there wasn't even enough room for that to work well. He'd ended up carrying her to the bed and dropping her there, still dripping from the shower, and taking her in a frenzy. In his haste he'd left the shower running and the stall door open, so there was a giant puddle on the bathroom floor when they were finished. He'd just grinned at her and thrown down a couple towels, saying, "I'll deal with it after work."

So there was no attempt at shower sex. Just closeness and touching. There was no other choice than to touch in the tight confines of the shower, and they didn't want to be apart anyway.

Once they were cleaned and panting with arousal, Lance reached behind Abby and turned off the shower. He wrapped her in a towel and carefully dried her off, kissing each part of her after drying it, before drying himself.
 

He led her back to his bedroom and made love to her. It was slow and sweet and sensual. He drew it out for both of them, making her come twice and bringing her close a third time before entering her, sliding home in one stroke. He moved inside her slowly, kissing her deeply, reaching for her hands and lacing their fingers together, holding them next to her head on the pillow.
 

He let go to run his hand down her side, down her leg, hooking her knee to pull her leg up, giving him more leverage, going deeper, and hitting her over and over in just the right spot. His thrusts came harder, still stopping and grinding against her with each one. He kissed her jaw and then below her ear. He bit gently on her earlobe and she felt her sex convulse once. He held on there as he thrust again and again, and then he whispered, "Come for me."

And she did. She arched against him, meeting each thrust, her body growing tighter, until she came apart at his command. Her mouth open in a silent scream as he continued to thrust, drawing out her orgasm and picking up his pace. Then he thrust twice hard, and stilled, his eyes shut tightly as he came.
 

He collapsed against her, slightly off to the side so as not to crush her, and kissed her deeply again.

Abby clung to him, kissing him back, tears prickling behind her closed eyelids. She fought them back, knowing there would be time for tears later.

They made love again that night. Still tender and slow and sweet. Tasting each other, stroking, caressing, committing the feel of naked skin to memory. They finally lay down to sleep afterward. Lance pulled Abby in close, his arms wrapped around her.

When his breathing grew slow and even, Abby drew one of his arms to her mouth and gave it a soft kiss. "I love you," she whispered before closing her eyes to drift off to sleep as well.

* * *

Lance slid out of bed the next morning, Abby's whispered declaration of love the night before echoing in his head. He had been almost asleep, but the movement of Abby lifting his arm to brush her lips across it had brought him back to consciousness. He hadn't reacted, but kept his breathing steady so she wouldn't know he heard. She obviously hadn't intended him to. He wasn't going to say it back because it wouldn't be fair to either of them. He was leaving. 

He hadn't planned to take her again before he left. But when he leaned over her after his shower to kiss her awake he couldn't help himself. She was all warm and sleep rumpled in his bed, naked and still smelling of sex from the night before. He gave in to his hunger and his need to mark her, to make her his one last time. Because as much as he'd hoped to work her out of his system in the last month and a half, he'd only succeeded in embedding her firmly under his skin.
 

Abby responded to his kiss, and her eyes flew open when he yanked the sheets back after dropping his towel on the floor and grabbing a condom. He wanted to claim her, taste her, and feel her once more so that he'd leave with her taste in his mouth and her scent on his skin. He moved his mouth over her body, rougher than normal, nipping and sucking hard enough to leave marks.
 

She met his roughness with her own, digging her nails into his shoulders when he sank his teeth into her flesh and raking them down his back when he entered her hard and fast. She bit his shoulder, her teeth sinking in hard enough to give him an edge of pain to mix with his pleasure.
 

Their climax was explosive when it happened. She screamed into his shoulder and he collapsed on top of her, almost blacking out from the intensity. He moved off to the side when he came to himself again, and pulled her into his chest once more.
 

Eventually he couldn't ignore the fact that he had to let her go, had to leave. They got up and dressed slowly, without saying anything. A couple times he caught Abby looking at him, taking a breath like she was about to speak, but then she'd just let it out without saying anything.
 

Lance stripped the bed and tossed the sheets in the washer. He was leaving them here along with the bed for whoever took over his room. He gathered his towel, his clothes from the day before, and the few remaining things in the bathroom, stuffing them in his backpack and taking them out to the car.

When he came back in the house Abby was filling his cooler with drinks and snacks for the road. He helped her finish in silence, then set his house key on the kitchen counter for Chris and Matt to find when they got home.

He closed the cooler and picked it up, leading Abby outside by the hand for the last time. He locked the door handle behind him, and placed the cooler in the passenger seat of his car.

When he finally turned to look at Abby, there were tears glittering in her eyes. She smiled at him, and he pulled her in, wrapping his arms around her, burying his face in her hair.
 

He held her for a moment, and then lifted her chin to kiss her. He could taste the salt of her tears on her lips.
 

He broke away and looked into her eyes. "Goodbye, Abby. I—" He stopped, warring with himself over what to say next. He swallowed. "I'll miss you."

She kissed him once more. "Goodbye, Lance. I'll miss you, too."

She pulled back, and walked to her car. He watched her climb in and pull away with a wave. He held up his hand and then got in his own car.

Looking in the direction she drove away, he said what he'd almost said to Abby. "Goodbye, Abby. I love you."

* * *

Abby heard a groan when she opened the door to her apartment.
 

She flipped on the light switch by the door and the groaning doubled. "Dude! Turn off the lights!"

Matt was the one who'd spoken from his place on the floor. He rolled onto his side and pulled Megan's fuzzy green blanket over his head.
 

Chris was moaning on the couch, covered by the comforter from Megan's bed, with his arm thrown over his face.

Abby took pity on them and turned off the lights again, plunging the room back into gloom. Chris and Matt both let out moans of relief.
 

A thud came from the direction of the bedrooms, and then Megan walked into the living room. She leaned against the wall, taking in Abby's messy hair and puffy red eyes. She didn't say anything, just walked over and put her arms around Abby, pulling her into a hug.

The show of concern was all it took to push Abby over the edge again, and the tears began to flow. She'd only made it a few blocks from Lance's house before she had to pull over because she couldn't see through her tears. She'd sat on a side street in a random neighborhood sobbing. She didn't know how long she'd sat there waiting for the worst of it to pass so she could drive the rest of the way home. She'd managed to hold back long enough to get home, but now she couldn't any more. She didn't need to.
 

After a few moments, Abby felt another pair of arms slide around them from behind her. They were muscular and a little hairy. The smell of stale beer and the feel of a large body pressing into her made her lift her head and look over her shoulder. Chris smiled, and gave a little squeeze. She managed a slight curve of her lips in return.

Then Matt was there, wrapping his arms around all of them, and Abby let out a choked laugh through her tears.
 

Megan pushed the guys off. "Alright, alright. Let's give the girl some room to breathe."

Chris and Matt dropped their arms and backed up a couple steps, Chris unashamedly scratching himself before heading to the bathroom. Abby watched him walk off while Matt dropped onto the couch to lie down again.

Abby managed to muster up a little curiosity. "What are they doing here?"

Megan shrugged. "We were at a party and they said they couldn't go home. I figured we could do an exchange. Since you were at their house, they came to ours."

Abby nodded as though that made perfect sense. Then she looked Megan over again. She looked tired, but without the usual wince that occupied her face the day after a party. "Why don't you have a hangover like they do?"

Megan smiled. "I was the DD. I figured you'd need me today, and I'm useless with a hangover."

Abby felt more tears gathering in her eyes at Megan's thoughtfulness. Megan reached out and rubbed her arm. Then turned her head and shouted, "Hey! You guys can go home now."

Matt flinched in his spot on the couch. "Shit, Megan. Why so loud?"

Megan went and yanked her comforter off him. He reached out for it, but she flicked it out of reach. "Because if I'm loud, you'll be more likely to leave just to save yourself."
 

Matt sat up, running a hand over his face, grumbling to himself. Megan went over and banged on the bathroom door. "Move your ass, loser! My girl's home, so that means you can have your place back. Go piss and moan there."

Chris opened the door and gave Megan a death glare. She just smiled brightly at him. He retrieved his shirt from the corner of the living room and put it on. He picked up his keys and wallet from the kitchen table. "C'mon, Matt. Let's get out of here before she starts bitch slapping us to make us leave."

Megan laughed loudly, and both guys winced. They groaned at the sunshine when they opened the front door, but left without further protest.
 

"Alright, the boys are gone." Megan pushed Abby onto the couch, took the keys out of her nerveless fingers, and the flip flops off her feet. She put them into Abby's bedroom. "So, what do you need? Ice cream? Wine? Beer? Something harder?"

Abby just leaned her head back against the couch with her eyes closed, letting more tears slip out. Megan made a low sound of distress and climbed onto the couch next to Abby, pulling her into another hug and rubbing her back. "Let it out. You'll feel better if you just let it out."

Abby clung to Megan, and did what she said.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

"There you are."

Lance pocketed his phone and turned to face his mom. "Hey, Mom. What's up?"

She closed the door to the home office behind her then stood there, eyes searching Lance's face. "I looked around and couldn't find you. It's your welcome home party. Why are you hiding out in here?"

Lance shrugged and looked away, clenching and unclenching his teeth, trying to keep his frustration inside and not take it out on his mom. It wasn't her fault he felt like this. "I told you I didn't want you to set me up, but you've been running girls at me all night."

She crossed her arms in front of her chest, looking up at him. Lance had been taller than his mom for years, but she still gave him that look that made him feel like a misbehaving little boy. "I was trying to invite people your age. Some of them are young women. I've never known you to be unhappy about having attractive young women talking to you."

He looked away again, not knowing what to say.

"Who is she, Lance?" Her voice was soft and knowing.

His eyes snapped back to his mom. "What do you mean?"

"Don't play dumb with me. You know exactly what I mean. You've been home for a week now, and grumpier than I've ever seen you. Except sometimes you're looking at your phone when you think no one's watching, and you have this smile on your face. You look so happy. And now you're being almost rude to the young ladies here that are trying to get to know you. The only thing I can think is that you met a girl this summer that you didn't bother telling me about. So, you're going to sit down and tell me now. Who is she?"

His mom's soft voice held an unmistakable command, so Lance sat down in the desk chair, his head in his hands. He waited for her to pull out the folding chair they kept in there before he started talking. "Her name's Abby."