Page 31 of Blueline Baby

“Now I know you’re lying.” I climb back under the covers. “That’s not a thing I would ever ask.”

“You were pretty insistent.” He grins and pulls me in against him, nuzzling into my neck. “You sure you don’t want another look? Asleep-Chloe seemed really into it. I’d be happy to show you again.”

“Asleep-Chloe has no idea what she’s talking about.” But I’m letting my hand wander down his bare chest, and I’ve completely stopped caring that asleep-Chloe might actually have asked for something exactly like that.

It’s not like last night. Last night, my heart was hammering so hard I could barely breathe. This morning I feel loose, warm, and entirely reckless. When he moves to roll me underneath him, I push his chest back down and straddle him instead.

The look he gives me is startled, then delighted. “Well,” he says. “Look at you.”

I’ve never done this before and I’m sure it shows. I fumble rolling on the condom, but he doesn’t say anything about it. He puts his hands on my hips and lets me figure out the pace I want, watching me like there’s absolutely nothing else in the room.

“God, that’s good,” he says under his breath. “You feel so good, baby.” His hands tighten slightly on my skin. “Look at you taking what you want.”

I feel my face go bright red.

“Don’t get shy on me now.” His voice drops, rough and quiet. “You wanted to be in charge. So be in charge. Use me, Chloe.”

He grips my hips, guiding me as I figure out the rhythm, letting me set the pace, watching me with dark, completely focused eyes. When my breath starts to catch, his thumb slips between us, finding exactly the right spot. I gasp, my entire body locking up.

"That's it," he whispers, his hips surging up to meet mine. "Take it, baby.”

He keeps his thumb steady, applying just enough pressure that my vision actually blurs. The climax hits me so hard I cry out, my hands gripping his shoulders like a lifeline.

He waits exactly until the shaking stops, and then his hands close hard on my hips. He takes over, groaning my name, thrusting up into me until he finally lets go.

I drop forward, draping myself across his chest. He wraps both arms around me, moving his hands slowly up and down my back. I could go right back to sleep like this, and I think he could too.

His alarm goes off across the room. He makes an irritated noise, but he doesn’t move, and neither do I.

“I have to be at the airport at two,” he says. “I’ll be gone for five days and I’m already dreading it.”

“You’ll survive.”

“I’ll call you. Every night.” He pulls back to look at me, and he looks a little uncertain all of a sudden. It’s nothing like cocky Jack Anderson. “Is that too much? Tell me if it’s too much.”

“It’s not too much,” I say. I actually mean it, too, which is entirely new for me.

He calls the first night when he says he will, late, from his hotel room.

“We won,” he says, before I can even say hello. “I got an assist. Did you watch?”

“I had class.”

“Chloe. You have a TV.”

“I had class, and then a two-hour lab, and I fell asleep on my notes. How was the flight?”

I can hear exactly how tired he is, but we stay on the phone for an hour anyway. We talk about the game, and his travel day, and the specific dates he wants to take me on when he gets back. When we hang up it’s almost one in the morning. I have an exam I should be terrified about, and I’m not scared about anything.

The second night is a logistical nightmare. He has a flight and then a light practice. I have class and another lab. By the time his schedule finally clears, I’ve been asleep for two hours. He calls anyway. My phone buzzes at half past midnight and I answer it with my face smashed into the pillow.

“Did I wake you up?” he asks.

“No.”

“You’re a terrible liar, Backcheck Girl. Go back to sleep. I just wanted to say goodnight.”

So he says goodnight and I fall asleep with the phone tucked under my pillow, hoping he’ll call again.