The Space Between Us (13 page)

I could see this because my eyes had adjusted to the dim light. I turned, leaning against the counter, and drank my water. I’d be drinking coffee or tea all day long at work, and wanted to get something else in my system. Still, it was too early for beer, even for me.

“You’re up early,” I said. “Or maybe it’s late.”

“Max had a nightmare about half an hour ago. Got up with him so Elaine could sleep. Couldn’t get back to sleep myself.”

“Ah.” There wasn’t much more to say about it than that, but I tried. “Warm milk?”

This got a laugh from him, which was good. “Um, no. Gross.”

“I have to get to work. But…” I drifted closer to let my hand squeeze his shoulder, just once. Once was always more than enough with him. “You okay? You need…something?”

He looked up at me. The square of glass over the sink had lightened. Day was coming. I could see the faint outline of his eyebrows, the bridge of his nose and shadow of his mouth. I loved this man in complicated ways neither of us understood and probably never would. But for now, all I could offer him was the squeeze of my hand.

“No. No, I’m good. Hey,” Vic said too casually, so my chin went up immediately, my shoulders squared in preparation. “How was your date?”

“Fantastic,” I told him, without even pretending not to grin like a fiend. “Best I’ve had in a long time.”

Vic’s brows rose. “Huh. Really.”

“Yes. It was awesome.” I punched the air, one-two. Did a little dance, my Chucks scuffling on the worn linoleum. “Awesome.”

Vic let out a low chuckle. “Okay. Well. Good. What’s his name again?”

I saw right through that one, but told him anyway. “Charlie.”

“Charlie what?”

“Stone,” I said, after half a second.

“Charlie Stone. I’ll keep that in mind.”

“Jesus, Vic,” I sighed. “Don’t Google him. Please? Leave the cyber-stalking to me.”

“Everyone Googles, Tesla.”

I held up a hand. “Vic, I swear to you…”

He laughed then, a real one, loud enough to wake the kids if he wasn’t careful. “You’re so easy to get riled up.”

I punched him in the biceps. Hard. “Shut up. Jerk.”

From upstairs came the creak of floorboards and the murmur of voices. If we were going to get out of here without being swarmed by Vic’s children, we had to leave now. We shared a glance, both of us thinking it at the same time and sharing a guilty grin in the gray light of dawn. He grabbed his keys. I took my purse. We were out the back door and heading for the alley, giggling like lunatics as we leaped the concrete back steps and hit the sidewalk.

He reached his car first. I got to mine a minute later. We raised our keys at each other in a mutual salute that made me laugh.

He was totally going to Google Charlie.

Chapter 17

T
hey took me to the movies next, Meredith and Charlie. He sat between us and passed the popcorn we all shared. It was a romantic comedy, one of those movies with half a dozen subplots that somehow all tie up together at the end. I’m sure it was funny and sweet and romantic and possibly even sexy, but I was so distracted by the shift of Charlie’s thigh against me, the brush of his fingers on mine in the popcorn bucket, I couldn’t have even said who was in the film, much less how it ended. There was something I did know by the time the final credits rolled.

I wanted him.

I wanted to know if he tasted as good as he smelled. How he kissed. I wanted to know how big his cock was, if it was as pretty as the rest of him. What he could do with those strong hands.

They were practically offering me Charlie on a platter. No worries about if he liked me or not. What he’d want from me…or not. Sure, there were plenty of worst-case scenarios I could think up if I were the sort to spend a lot of time brooding about what-ifs and might’ve-beens. But that was my brother’s schtick, not mine.

In the parking lot, Meredith linked her arm through mine and tugged me close, to say into my ear, “So…?”

Charlie had gone ahead of us when we’d lingered in the bathroom. He was in their car, the overhead light on, looking at something on his phone. I liked the way the light slanted over him. I liked that he had a fancy phone. I liked that he’d worn a shirt with buttons and a vest with jeans and a thick black belt to go to the movies, and I liked the way his hair was short enough to stay out of his eyes.

“So…what?” I said, just to tease.

Her grip tightened on me a little, and she turned me to face her. “So, do you want to come back to our house with us?”

She must’ve seen something in my face I didn’t even know was there, because a shadow passed over hers. Meredith pulled me a little closer, and for one breathtaking moment I thought she meant to kiss me. But she just leaned in to whisper into my ear, “I don’t want to force you.”

I breathed in her perfume, and as always, it sent tendrils of arousal all through me. “I’m not forcible. Don’t you know that by now?”

Her laugh moved over me. “So come on. Come with us.”

And I did.

* * *

It was sweet, Charlie’s hesitation. I’d forgotten he’d met me only twice, that the easy friendship I’d built up with his wife had grown during months of chatting over coffee. It was sweet and simple the way he waited for me to make the first move.

Actually, it was Meredith who made it. She put a hand on the small of my back, urging me forward inch by inch until Charlie and I stood face-to-face. I’d worn heels for this date, and their height put me closer to eye level with him. Mouth level, too.

“Tesla,” she said. “Meet Charlie. Charlie, Tesla.”

His lips curved into a smile and he drew in a breath that lifted his shoulders. “Hi.”

“Hi, Charlie.” With Meredith behind me I could smell the scent of her perfume and feel the heat of her hand, but it was only her husband’s face I could see.

His gaze flickered past me, over my shoulder, and whatever he saw there must’ve given him some courage, because he put a hand on my hip. We moved a little closer. I slid my hands up the front of his shirt.

Neither of us moved.

Not until the pressure of Meredith’s hand on me moved me toward him. My head angled. I was already opening my mouth when I kissed him. His hand tightened on my hip, and Meredith, perhaps feeling her job had been done, let go.

Then it was just the two of us, spinning in the magic of a first kiss.

It didn’t last long, and he was the one who broke it with a small sigh. His eyes were still closed when he pulled slightly away. Under my palm I felt the hard and sudden beat of his heart, the subtle tremor of his muscles. I didn’t want him to be afraid.

I slid my thigh between his, pressing upward just enough to make him give another sigh. I kissed him again. I moved one hand to the back of his neck, where his hair wasn’t long enough to sink my fingers into. I kissed him hard, then harder, and this time I was the one to break it. To pull away. And this time, Charlie’s eyes were open when I did.

“We should go upstairs,” Meredith murmured from behind me, her heat against my back, though she was no longer touching me. “C’mon, baby. Let’s take Tesla to bed.”

Upstairs, she pushed open the door to their bedroom. It smelled like her. The four-poster bed was huge and made up as though it were going to be photographed for a decorating magazine. Smooth, elegant comforter in shades of pale green and gold, a mountain of matching pillows.

It struck me then, what this meant. Asking me to fuck her husband was one thing, but to do it here in the bed they shared somehow made this all more important and intimate. And I stuttered at that intimacy, though Meredith was murmuring low, encouraging words and Charlie was holding back to let me walk ahead of him into the room.

I stopped halfway to their bed and looked back at the doorway, where he lingered. My shoes had left marks in the thick, cream-colored carpet that had obviously never suffered the presence of a child or even a pet. It still bore the crosshatch marks of a recent vacuuming, unmarred by anything but the trail of my steps.

Meredith had been the one worried about forcing me, but Charlie was the one who seemed to notice something was wrong. “Tesla?”

I gave myself a little shake and looked at both of them. “I’m just…this is…”

In three long strides, he crossed the room. He put his hands on my upper arms, his eyes searching mine. Charlie wasn’t smiling, and somehow that made it easier. That he didn’t seem to be taking this lightly.

He kissed me. Long, sweet, slow. Kind. His hand came up to cup the back of my head, and when we both pulled away, I was breathless from it. Somehow we’d moved to press against each other, his hand on my ass holding me to his crotch, where I felt the totally shiver-making thickness of his cock through his jeans.

“Your mouth tastes so good,” Charlie said, never moving his gaze from mine. “Can I taste the rest of you, too?”

I nodded, incapable of words with my mouth gone so dry. I found my voice enough to sigh when he slid slowly to his knees in front of me, his hands resting lightly on the backs of my knees where my skin dimpled. He looked up at me, those blue eyes still so serious, but then his mouth quirked. Just on one side. And he closed his eyes when he turned his face to kiss my bare thigh just below the hem of my skirt.

He kissed me there the way he’d kissed my mouth, sweet and slow, sucking gently on the soft flesh of my inner thigh before nudging his nose a little higher against my panties. I’d dressed in anticipation of getting naked, glad now I’d picked this lacy pair that let his breath and the wetness of his mouth reach me through the material. I swallowed the murmur of his name, which, like the great big bed, seemed too intimate for this first time.

I looked at Meredith, who’d crossed to the bed and pulled the comforter away to reveal plain white sheets. She smoothed them with her hand as she pushed the pillows aside. She unbuttoned her blouse and shrugged out of it to stand in her skirt and a black satin bra. Watching us, she unhooked it at the back and hunched her shoulders to let the straps fall forward, though she held the front of the bra with one hand so it didn’t come off.

Charlie moved his hands from the backs of my knees up my thighs, fingers hooking in my panties to pull them down my legs. I stepped out of them, looking at him. My skirt covered me, but I could still feel the air on my skin. He pushed my skirt up, slowly revealing me to him, his eyes on mine until the last moment, when the material gripped in his hands bunched at my hips. Then he returned his face between my thighs, and I felt the pressure of his lips on my clit.

I bit back a cry, one hand going involuntarily to his head as my hips bumped forward. The wet swipe of his tongue against me made my eyelids flutter, my feet shift apart, my pussy tilt toward him so he could access every part of me. Charlie made a low, satisfied noise, muffled against my flesh.

I couldn’t stop myself from looking at Meredith. She’d tossed her bra to the side, and her breasts were high and round, with cherry nipples standing up hard and tight. I wondered what sort of noise she’d make if I sucked them as sweetly as Charlie was working my clit. The thought forced swirling heat all through me, fierce enough to spin the world a little bit.

I didn’t say a word, but Charlie looked up at me. He licked his lips, then got to his feet. “Come to the bed.”

Meredith had slipped out of her skirt and lay on those clean white sheets in nothing but a pair of tiny black panties. Her fingers idly stroked her clit through the satin. She reached for my hand.

“Come here, Tesla.”

I’d thought fucking the Murphy boys had prepared me for this. I’d figured the few times I’d gone to bed with girls would make this easy. I’d believed my crush on Meredith, the fact that her husband was sweet and handsome, and I was horny, meant I was ready.

I was wrong.

Oh, how I was wrong.

I shook when Meredith took my hand and linked her fingers through mine. I shivered when Charlie slipped my blouse over my head and unhooked my bra, then covered my breasts with his hands from behind, the heat of him all along my back and his cock nudging my ass. I got up on the high bed next to her on my hands and knees. The sheets were smooth and clean and crisp under my palms and against my shins.

“I want him to make you come with his mouth. I want to watch,” Meredith murmured.

I looked at Charlie, his mouth still wet, his face flushed and eyes bright. His hair had finally become mussed. He’d loosened his tie and undone a few buttons at his throat, but was still fully dressed. He looked at his wife when she spoke, then used the back of his hand to wipe his mouth.

“Do you want me to?” he asked me.

It was Charlie who made it easy.

In answer, I rolled onto my back and hooked my thumbs in my waistband to push my skirt down. My head rested just next to her bare, smooth thigh. I spread my legs, offering myself to him.

Charlie smiled. Our eyes met. Something wordless but completely understood bridged the space between us, made the distance disappear. He crawled up on the bed and settled on his knees between my legs. He ran his hands up my legs, over my belly, no longer looking at my face but exploring every inch of me with his gaze.

I shifted just enough to look up at Meredith, but she was watching her husband as he ran his mouth along my shin and knee and thigh. When he reached my pussy, her eyes fluttered closed just for a moment. Her hand moved up to cup her breast, to tweak the tight, red nipple. Her mouth opened and the tip of her tongue snuck out to touch the center of her top lip.

At the heat of Charlie’s mouth on my clit it was hard to keep my eyes open, but I managed. I didn’t want to miss any of this, not a single second. Charlie had been kneeling, but now he eased his body down flat on the bed. He slid his hand beneath my ass, lifting me just a little.

“Oh, baby, that’s so good.” Meredith’s eyes were open now. She watched him, not me. Her hand caressed his hair. “That’s right, baby, lick her clit. Make her come.”

Charlie’s mouth was working magic, no doubt about that, but I wasn’t even close to coming. I had an instant of alarm—I could get to orgasm swiftly enough, but I’d been with lovers who thought women’s bodies were like machines. Push the button, get the prize. It would take me a little more than that.