Endgame: Chapter 14 (Patreon)

Endgame: Chapter 14

It was eight at night when I pulled my old hatchback into the driveway of my parents’ two-story house. I parked behind Anna and Wayne’s SUV, relieved that they were there already because I didn’t want all the attention on Morgan and me.

I turned off the ignition, undid my seatbelt, and looked over at Morgan. “You ready?”

“Ready to ask your mom for baby pictures?” she teased. “Absolutely.”

“Nice try,” I laughed, “but I made her promise not to embarrass me the first time you came over.”

“Does tomorrow count as the second time I’ve come over?” she asked with a pout, but I set my lips decidedly until all she could do was roll her eyes and smile. “Fine.”

We got out and grabbed our duffel bags from the back seat, and then headed up the ramp to the porch and front door. I unlocked it with my key, calling for anyone inside as we stepped in and closed it behind us. Anna was the first one to appear, pushing fast around the corner from the living room with a huge grin. I dropped my duffel bag so I could hug her, and saw Wayne and my parents follow from the living room.

“This is Morgan,” I told Anna as I let her go.

Anna held out her arms, and Morgan laughed and gave her an introductory hug as I also gave hugs to Wayne and my parents. “Mom, Dad, Wayne,” I said, “Morgan.”

“Hello,” Morgan said, smiling and shaking hands all around.

“I’m glad you could make it,” my mom told her.

“Thanks for inviting me.”

“Did you eat?” Mom asked us, and started leading the way into the kitchen. Anna and Morgan followed us while Wayne and my dad went back into the living room. “We were waiting for you.”

“You didn’t have to do that,” I said, but she reached the kitchen counter and looked at me, waiting for me to answer her question. “No, we didn’t eat.”

“We ordered pizza,” Anna said.

Mom added, “Figured we’d leave all the cooking for tomorrow. It’ll be here soon if you want to take your stuff upstairs.” I nodded, and she smiled. “Make yourself at home, Morgan. Drinks are in the fridge, cups and dishes are in the bottom cabinets here.” She pointed. Even though Anna didn’t live here anymore, everything had been in the same accessible location since we were teenagers. “I’m going to help John and Wayne clean up.”

“We were playing Yahtzee,” Anna said as Mom left the kitchen.

 But that wasn’t what I focused on once Mom was gone. I grinned at Anna’s baby bump and hurried over, bending to grab her waist. “Tiny baby,” I called.

“They can’t hear you yet,” Anna laughed.

“Shh,” I cooed, “we won’t tell Mommy that I’m already your favorite person.”

Anna looked at Morgan and said, “She’s more excited than I am…”

“Oh yeah,” Morgan agreed. “She’s already talking about how she can’t wait for summer so she can babysit.”

Anna mussed my hair because she knew it would get me to back off, and I gave her hand a playful shove as I straightened up and returned to Morgan’s side.

“I’ll let you change all the diapers you want,” she said.

I stuck my tongue out at her, and Morgan asked, “Did you pick a name yet?”

Anna nodded. “Ryan, whether it’s a girl or boy.”

I gasped and threw an arm around Morgan’s shoulders. “You should do one of those little ceramic handprint things when they’re born.”

“I can do that,” Morgan agreed, but then her face lit up. “Oh! Or I could take a mold of one of you and Wayne’s hands, and imprint Ryan’s in the palms.”

“Yes,” Anna said. “Oh my god, that would be so cute! I want to tell Wayne! You guys go put your stuff away.” She didn’t even wait for us to say anything before leaving the kitchen to go tell Wayne about the idea.

“I think she liked that,” I laughed.

“Good,” Morgan said, “one impressed family member down, three to go.”

I kissed her cheek. “You’re doing fine. Come on, I’ll give you a tour on the way upstairs.”

She followed me back to the entranceway where we’d left our bags. I pointed out the living room, and the office down the hall – it used to be Anna’s room, and was still where she and Wayne slept when they stayed over. The downstairs bathroom was also down the hall, and the dining room had been attached to the kitchen. We headed upstairs, where my parents’ room was at the top, there was a guest room, a bathroom, and then my room at the other end of the hall.

My room was still the same as it always was, seeing as I lived at home outside of the school year, though it was a bit bare during semesters. My closet and dresser were mostly empty, and Mom had put a fresh pair of sheets on my full-sized bed instead of it being made. There was a wall-shelf with some soccer trophies from when I was younger, a bookshelf full of novels, and another bookshelf with picture frames and my Bluetooth stereo. My organized desk only had some school supplies on it since my laptop was back at the dorms, but there was a soccer ball underneath it.

Morgan dropped her duffel bag by the door and went straight for the ball, toeing it out from under the desk and then kicking it up into her hands. She tossed it from hand to hand as she walked around, looking at the trophies and then moving on to the pictures. She picked one up to show me.

It was me and ZuZu. “The end of summer soccer camp freshman year,” I told her with a smile. We’d been best friends ever since.

“You looked like such babies right out of high school,” she laughed, setting it down.

She moved on, looking at others of me with family, or other friends, or past soccer teams. I’d started to unfold the sheets and make the bed while she explored, but eventually she turned around and noticed, and set the ball down to help me finish.

“So…” she said as she tucked the second pillow into its case, “I should go put my bag in the guest room?”

“Oh.” We hadn’t talked about what the sleeping arrangements would be for the weekend, but we hadn’t slept together yet either. And it wasn’t just sex… we hadn’t fallen asleep together. At least not in a bed. At the back of my mind, I’d known that was a thing that we’d have to figure out, but I’d kind of assumed it’d be a thing we’d both silently agree on. Only, Morgan was asking, which gave me doubts. “I mean, you don’t have to… You could sleep in here with me.”

She looked from me, to the bed, to the door. “Your parents won’t care?”

I shook my head and gestured to the bed. “Two pillows, one set of sheets. They don’t care. But it’s okay if you don’t want to, I can get more and set you up in the guest room. If you want.”

“No, I don’t,” she stammered, “I just. I’m trying to be respectful.” She paused, finally managing to make eye contact with me for more than a moment. “Do you want me to sleep in here?” I nodded, and when she gave something of a relieved smile, I couldn’t help but snicker. “What’s so funny?”

I strode around the bed and slid my arms around her neck. “You’ve never been so squirmy.”

She sighed, dropping her forehead to mine as her hands set on my hips. “It’s just that I know how big a deal it is to you when you let people in like this, and I really want your family to like me.”

It wasn’t like her to be so lacking in confidence or to care so much what anyone thought. But she cared. She cared a lot, and she was more nervous than she’d let on and I didn’t want her to worry. I gave her one soft peck, but she relaxed against me and I couldn’t help cupping her face and parting my lips. Hers parted too, closing again with mine for a long, tender moment before I pulled back to look her in the eyes.

“Morgan, I brought you here because of how much I like you. Not to see how much I could.” My eyes dropped from hers to her mouth, where I watched my thumb trace the corner of her lips. “This isn’t a test, okay? You don’t have to worry.”

She didn’t say anything, but when I finally met her eyes again, they were full of something powerful. Something deep and important, yet so vividly clear it made my heart skip. I kissed her again with the same warm intensity that I had a moment ago to let her know that I saw it. Then I pulled away and held out my hand. She took it, and together we went downstairs to find my family.

Pizza arrived only a few minutes later, and because we’d be doing so much cooking and socializing tomorrow, everyone was content to simply eat and watch a movie before bed. And when I crawled into bed with Morgan afterward, it was exactly what I hoped it’d be. Easy, and comfortable, and I fell asleep with my head on her shoulder and one arm set around her waist.

The next morning, she was pressed up against my back with her arm wrapped around me. I scooted into her a bit more and grabbed her hand, thinking I could go back to sleep for a little longer, but she shifted and gave a waking hum.

She nuzzled into the back of my neck and mumbled, “You’re awake?”

“Yeah,” I said, and turned over to face her. “I just woke up.”

She inched closer to make up for the space we’d lost when I turned. “How’d you sleep?”

“Really good,” I answered, sliding my own hand around her waist. “I like this.”

“Me too,” she smiled, and when I kissed her, she hummed again and said, “I like that even more.” I couldn’t resist scooting into her as much as I could, so that our legs were intertwined, and her hips were almost pressed to mine. “Even better,” she whispered.

Then she kissed me, and the moment her lips met mine, I didn’t want it to stop. I kissed her back, clutching at her hip to pull her against me as her arm clutched tighter around my waist. I slipped my tongue past her lips, and her hand slid down my back to my thigh, gripping as she tried to get even closer.

I was just getting into it, really into it, when a knock on my door sent Morgan flat onto her back as she yanked the blanket over her head.

“Audrey,” my mom called through the door, “breakfast is ready.”

“Okay,” I told her, “thanks.”

That was it, she didn’t say anything else and I imagine she walked away, but it had scared Morgan so bad that she was barely peeking out at me over the edge of the blanket.

I snorted with laughter. “Oh my god,” I snickered, “you got so scared.”

“What if she walked in?” Morgan hissed.

“She wouldn’t,” I said. “Not without asking. And, you’re not going to believe this, but… they know we’re dating.”

She lowered the blanket a little more, took in the amusement on my face, and gave an embarrassed smile. Her cheeks were a deep shade of crimson, and she still looked so nervous about almost getting caught kissing that it was adorable. I grabbed her face and planted quick pecks all over her forehead, cheeks, and nose.

“You’ve been in one too many precarious situations, huh?” I asked.

“A couple…” she admitted, blowing a relaxed breath through her lips as I let her go.

“Okay, then tomorrow morning I’ll make sure to sneak you out the window.”

She gasped. “Audrey, you rebel.”

I feigned nonchalance. “What they don’t know won’t hurt them.”

“It’s actually nice that they don’t mind.” She pushed up onto her elbow and leaned over me to kiss me one more time. “But now that she said breakfast, I can smell it.” She inhaled deeply through her nose. “Cinnamon rolls?”

I took a breath too. “I think so.”

“Yes,” she groaned, and jumped out of bed completely. “Let’s go!”

Neither of us bothered changing out of our pajamas before heading downstairs. My parents and Anna were already in the kitchen, sitting around the dining table with coffee and breakfast.

“Good morning,” I said happily. “Where’s Wayne?”

“Sleeping in,” Anna said. She pushed away from the table with her coffee cup, and brought it over to Morgan and me as we reached the pot. “Top me off?”

I filled her cup, and Morgan asked my parents, “Anyone else need a refill?”

My mom shook her head, but when my dad said ‘yes, please,’ Morgan went to get his cup and brought it over too. We filled up our coffees and took them over to the table, delivering my dad’s and sitting down. Mom passed us each a plate so we could take cinnamon rolls from the baking sheet on the table, and Morgan was practically drooling as I scooped one onto her dish.

“I love these,” she whispered, with nothing short of euphoria.

“Have as many as you want,” my mom laughed, “there’s more in the fridge.”

Morgan nodded and smiled her thanks, and my dad said, “We’ve been watching every game of yours that they’ve played on TV.”

I already knew that, but Morgan gave a surprised grin. “Really?”

“He likes soccer more than Audrey does,” Anna teased.

“I don’t believe it,” Morgan laughed.

“Don’t test him,” I whispered.

“Too late,” Dad joked. “You win your game next week and you’re going to the championship. I bet-”

“Here we go.” Anna rolled her eyes.

Dad wasn’t fazed. “You’ll be up against New York in the semis, and then you can beat Arizona in the championship.”

“He makes it sound easy,” I said.

Morgan shrugged. “I like his confidence. But,” she gestured to my dad, “I think we’ll be playing Washington in the finals and I’ll tell you why.”

Anna and I exchanged a look, and she cupped a hand to the side of her mouth and said, “Dad just met his new best friend,” and I laughed and nodded.

“Let’s hear it,” my dad said, as if neither of them could hear Anna.

“One word,” Morgan answered, “Lyons.”

“Okay,” Dad conceded with an amused smile. “This is her season. I’ll give you that.”

My mom said to Morgan, “You should ask how Audrey told us you were together.”

Morgan looked at me, but I groaned and buried my face in my hands.

“She called us up, oh…” My dad began to explain, pausing to look at my mom. “A month ago?” She nodded. “A month ago, to talk about a game. I said, ‘you haven’t said anything about the new girl, she’s really good.’ And what’d you say, Audrey?”

“Dad,” I whined.

My mom laughed, “She says, ‘oh yeah, about that… we’re dating.’”

Morgan snorted. “That sounds like Audrey. She didn’t want to make a big deal out of it, huh?”

“I’ve told Anna stuff!” I protested.

“Hardly,” Anna laughed. “I know you’re an art major. You’re really nice, and… Oh, yeah, she actually likes that you’re cocky.”

“I hate you,” I mumbled.

“It’s okay,” Morgan said with a smirk, but she set her hand on my thigh under the table, “I already knew that.”

I rolled my eyes, but not without letting her catch the endeared smile on my face.

“So, you’re an art major,” my mom said. “Sculpting?” And Morgan nodded.

“What do you do with a sculpting degree?” my dad asked.

He didn’t mean anything by it, but I complained anyway, “Dad, she gets asked that all the time.”

“Really? Sorry.”

“I do,” Morgan said with a friendly smile, “but it’s okay. And you’d be surprised. The people who make prototypes for industries’ new products – sculptors. They make props and stuff for movies and TV too. There’re lots of options.”

“What do you want to do?” Anna asked.

Morgan explained about opening a studio, and my dad said, “I think that’s a great idea.”

“Thanks,” Morgan grinned.

“Do you plan on opening one near the college?” my mom asked. “Or are you going back to…”

“Oregon,” Morgan supplied, but her hand gave an affectionate pat on my leg as she looked at me and smiled. “But I don’t think I’m going anywhere.”

Despite my face turning red from my mom asking such a loaded question, I couldn’t help grinning too. We hadn’t talked about where Morgan wanted to go after college since that night in the diner. I’d been afraid to bring it up. But she wanted to stay here, with me, and I grabbed her hand and dropped my head on her shoulder.

“That’s adorable,” Anna teased.

I stretched my leg under the table and pushed the frame of her chair, and even though her new brakes kept her from rolling back, she felt the jerk and laughed.

Wayne strolled in a minute later, and kissed Anna’s temple as he sat down beside her. We kept talking while he ate breakfast, and then went back upstairs to get ready for the day. There was a lot of cooking to do for our late Thanksgiving lunch, but with everyone helping, it was easy and fun.

Even better than my hope that Morgan would simply get along with my family, they seemed to genuinely enjoy each other. Morgan had gotten over her nerves, and she was so outgoing and confident that within a couple of hours she was talking and joking with them as if she’d known them for years. Every time she made one of them laugh, she’d look over at me and grin. Every time my dad found something to connect with her on, he winked at me. And every so often my mom would stop at my side, long enough for my eyes to find Morgan again, and then she’d give me a squeeze or a kiss on the side of the head as if to say she was happy for me. It was everything I could’ve wanted out of bringing Morgan home, and then some.

By the time the evening rolled around, everyone was full of food and exhausted from it. My parents were the first to head upstairs to sleep, and left the rest of us downstairs playing Uno. Anna tapped out next, and even though Wayne had slept in, he said goodnight and followed Anna to their makeshift room in the office.

After Morgan and I got ready for bed, I slid under the covers beside her, and scooted in to bury my face against her collarbone as she rolled to face me.

“I’m glad you came,” I said against her chest.

“Me too.” Her arm wrapped around my back to hold me close. “They like me, right?”

“Definitely.”

“I like them too,” she said, and met my eyes when I pulled back enough look at her. “Your dad’s really cool, and I could tell your mom was going out of her way to make me feel welcome.”

“Anna really likes you too. She thinks you’re a good match for how competitive I am.”

“She said that?” Morgan asked. I nodded. “Well, that’s bullshit because I’m way more competitive than you.”

I inhaled to tell her there was no way she was more competitive than me… only to realize she was being sarcastic. But I’d given myself away just by the look on my face, and she snorted with laughter.

“You’re such a brat,” I giggled.

She grinned at me, and we both lay there for a few moments, smiling at each other until the goofiness passed, and we locked eyes. I reached up to cup her face and trace her jawline with my thumb, thinking about how much fun the day had been with her there. About how much deeper my affection for her had grown. And that it couldn’t get much deeper before it wasn’t just strong affection.

“Are you really going to stay?” I asked. “And open a studio here?”

Her eyes dropped from mine to my lips and then came up again. “Yes.” Her embrace left my waist so she could reach between us and set her hand on the back of mine, the tips of her fingers trailing down the back of my arm. “I don’t think my mom’s going anywhere, and I’ve been thinking about it. I can see a future here.” She glanced down to watch her fingers make another gentle run up my arm. “With you.”

It took her a few moments to finally look at me again, and there was a tiny smile at the edge of my lips when she did. It made her smile too, but she watched me patiently while she waited for me to say or do something. Only, there was so much I wanted to say or do. I wanted her to stay, and I wanted to hug her to show her how happy it made me. I wanted to tell her how much it meant that she would, and I wanted to kiss her.

It took me so long that her warm smile changed into an amused one, and she said in an almost whisper, “Your move, Caplan.”

But words didn’t seem good enough for what I was feeling, and they weren’t what I excelled at anyway. So I shifted instead, guiding her onto her back as I rose, and slid one leg over her hips until I was straddling her. I leaned over to set my forehead against hers, feeling all the air between us disappear when she inhaled and didn’t let it out again. I kissed her once. A slow, tender peck that finally brought the air out of her lungs, and then put barest amount of space between us.

Her hands landed above my knees as her eyes met mine, and then she looked toward the door and murmured, “Here?”

I followed her gaze to the door, and then pursed my lips with a mischievous smile as I buoyed my eyebrows at her. “Your move, Bailey.”

She hesitated just long enough to caress her hands up my thighs. To round my hips and set them on my waist, and then she pushed up so her lips could catch mine in a deep, open kiss that sent a burst of yearning through my chest. I braced one hand against the bed while my other slid to the back of her head, but we’d been here before. At the Halloween party. In the hall. A few times afterward in her bedroom.

It was her taste, and the brush of her tongue. It was the familiarity of this course that made my body skip the buildup entirely and go straight into burning desire. I didn’t wait to slide my hand down her neck to her chest. I was already so eager to feel as much of her as I could that I cupped a breast through her shirt, smoothed my palm across her ribs, slipped my hand beneath her back to complete the arc of her waist. Searched for any part of her body that might feel new. 

And she was just as eager to feel me. Her hands found the hem of my shirt and slipped underneath, following the outline of my hips up and around to my back. One kept course and traced up my spine, stopping between my shoulder blades to pull me down against her. The other sought lower, gliding underneath the back of my shorts and underwear to grab a handful of bare skin, and that was new.

I responded instinctually to that grasp by pushing my hips down into hers and earned a hard breath against my lips. It made her other hand join in the clutch beneath my clothes, guiding my hips against hers once more, and then twice, until the pulse of our bodies was automatic, and she could explore elsewhere. Oh, and she did. She touched my thighs. My ribs. My stomach. She caressed the tender flesh between my hips while her thumbs grazed a line beneath the hem of my shorts. It stirred me in ways that were so hard to ignore, but I hadn’t had nearly enough of her to want this to be over, or to beg for release.

When I almost couldn’t take it anymore, I shifted the attention to her, leaving her lips and dropping lower while I pushed the bottom of her shirt up. My mouth landed beside her naval, and gave another open peck between her ribs. I glanced up to meet her gaze as my hand slid up her side, taking in the desperate way she shifted between watching my eyes and my lips, and I couldn’t resist trying to draw as much hunger from that look as possible. The next time I kissed her stomach, I let the tip of my tongue touch first as my hand worked under her shirt to her breast. It made her eyes roll shut as her head fell back, and even though I’d started this to distract myself from the growing ache between my own legs, I should’ve known it wouldn’t work.

Because exploring her was every bit as exhilarating as her exploring me. The way her breath quivered when I kissed a particularly sensitive spot on her ribs. The way her hand set lightly over mine to encourage my effort on her chest. The way her hum bordered on a whimper when my free hand pulled the front of her pants down, so I could kiss low enough between her hips that I felt the bare tickle of hair against my chin. And I don’t know how long she could’ve lasted before needing more, but I gave in first.

I left her stomach to find her lips, kissing her deeply while I cupped her face, guiding her to rise with me as I sat up and back in her lap. My hands dropped to her shirt, and she lifted her arms so I could slide it up and over her head, and not a moment after I threw it to the floor did she reach for mine. Our mouths met again after she discarded my shirt, but only briefly before her arms wrapped around my back and she kissed away from my lips and along my jaw.

The heat of her mouth reached my neck, and my head lolled sideways as her hands stroked down to my waist, pulling me into her so I could feel the press of her chest against my stomach. All I could do was tangle my fingers in her hair, hoping she’d understand that there was no such thing as too hard when her lips sealed around the muscle beside my pulse. Hoping she’d feel by my grinding in her lap that, even if I was content with this, she could have me the very moment she wanted to.

It didn’t take long until one of her hands set solidly against the center of my back, while her other braced against the bed. She pushed up against the weight of me and turned, shifting us over and laying me gently on my back in one fluid motion. She pressed a slow kiss to the center of my chest as she sat back on her knees, dragging her hands down my stomach to the line of my shorts. And she paused. Her eyes met mine as she lingered there, waiting for some kind of consent. I gave it readily by lifting my hips, making it easier when she finally slid my shorts and underwear down my thighs, past my calves, over my feet, and tossed them to the floor.

Her hands and eyes landed on my knees, and even though she didn’t push, I let them fall open as I watched her pull her bottom lip between her teeth. Watched her chest rise with a slow, deep inhale. Watched her stare linger between my legs for several long seconds before moving up my torso and face to look at me again. She smiled with her lip still gripped between her teeth, and along with the kindled glimmer in her eyes and her sitting half-naked in front of me, it was the sexiest thing I’d ever seen.

I smiled too, and let my gaze fall deliberately to her pajama pants. “Your turn?”

She huffed with laughter, and with an almost giddy excitement she shimmied her pants down to her knees, then dropped onto her rear between my legs so she could pull them completely off. It wasn’t nearly as elegant as her taking my clothes off – she almost fell backward when she lifted her feet to pull her pants past her ankles – but it made me smile even wider, and the lack of grace and the fact that she could be this adorable even during sex was more endearing than anything so far.

By the time she threw the last of her clothing to the floor, I was beaming, and she narrowed her eyes as she laid over me with her hips between my legs. “We’re about to have sex,” she said with feigned annoyance, “and you’re laughing at me.”

I slid my arms around her neck and pulled her forehead to mine. “It’s not my fault you manage to be the cutest and sexiest at the same time.”

“You think I’m sexy?” she teased.

Instead of rolling my eyes or making a witty comeback, I uncurled my arms from her neck and reached for one of her hands. She let me take it. Let me guide it between us until the tips of her fingers set against the moisture at my core.

“That answer your question?”

She let out a heavy sigh and dropped her head into the crook of my neck. “Fuck, Audrey.”

But it was all the encouragement she needed to know that I was ready, and her middle finger dipped down for more of that moisture, bringing some with it when she circled my clit and made me draw in a shallow gasp.

“What do you like?” she asked into my neck.

“Anything,” I whispered. I reached up to set my hand on the side of her face, guiding her head back up. “Everything.”

Her eyes lingered on mine for only a brief moment before her lips were back on mine and her finger set into motion against me. And this – being able to lie here with her for as long as we could want, being able to kiss her, and feel her in a place where there wasn’t even a thread of clothing between us – it was worth the wait. Because when the depth of her kiss made my hands itch with desire, I could run them down her bare back. When she had to put some space between us so she could keep touching me, I could fill that space with a roll of my body or my continued exploration of hers. And when the stroke of her finger robbed me of air and I had to leave her mouth, I could let my open lips tease her earlobe with every hot, panted breath.

She didn’t have to try. She didn’t have to spend time figuring out the perfect way to touch me because it didn’t matter. All that mattered was that it was her. It was Morgan, and she’d already done the work. She’d been doing it since the day we met, and my body answered to every stroke, every circle, every graze. I was vibrating with building tension, and the only thing that could’ve possibly made it better was if it was shared.

So I slid one appealing hand down her stomach and kissed the corner of her mouth between gulps of air, until I had the breath to say, “I want to touch you too.”

Her hand paused, but only long enough for her to shift to the right, moving one leg to the outside of mine so she was straddling it, and had created enough space for my hand. Her lips hovered above mine as I familiarized my fingers with her. As I slid a finger down to her entrance to discover how wet she was, and as I grazed several slow circles upward to memorize the shape of her. I added more pressure to every stroke, gauging her reactions to try and find the place she liked best, and eventually it drew a quiet moan from her throat as she nodded.

I focused on that spot as her finger picked up its circles against me and her lips returned to mine, and this was better. It was perfect. Because I got more sensitive to her touch any time she reacted to mine. Whenever she dipped her finger for more moisture, my body ached so badly for her return that my breath hitched when she did. And when that got me so caught up in the pleasure that I slowed my hand, she’d grind her hips or nip gently at my bottom lip, and I’d answer with a redoubling of effort that earned another moan against my mouth.

It was a give and take that made me conscious of every firing nerve in my body, from the heat of her lips on mine to the desperate throbbing between my legs. There was nothing short of her stopping that could’ve stopped the building tension at my core, because everything she did brought me closer, and I didn’t want it to stop.

It had been a month of knowing we were both ready for this and not finding a moment to. A month of carrying the desire for deeper intimacy that neither of us had another outlet for. I’d felt it whenever she stopped holding my hand to caress my palm. Or whenever she kissed me and it took her a few extra moments to pull away. Or certain times when her eyes caught mine, and even though I could tell she was trying so hard not to give her thoughts away, she surrendered one longing look at my lips or my hands. And that accumulation of desire was just as evident in her. In her ragged breathing. In the desperation of her kiss. In the tremble of her lower stomach against my forearm.

I stopped kissing her so she’d pull back and look at me. I wanted to know if she was as near to the end as I was, but her eyes met mine and everything between us froze. I could still feel her fingers moving. I could still feel the tightening coil of pleasure between my hips and knew that I was still touching her too. But there was an intensity in the quiet of her gaze that I felt mirrored in my own chest, and it was so much more than desire.

It was familiarity. Comfort. It was a shared understanding of how intimate it was to be looking – staring – at each other in a moment like this. And I wasn’t self-conscious about the fact that I felt vulnerable under that stare, because with that intimacy came an understanding of the trust in this. It was trust we’d worked for. Trust we’d built. We were looking at each other because we were in this together. Giving ourselves together. Falling in love together.

It was the significance of that intimacy that took me from close to right on the edge in a matter of moments. My eyes lidded with the battle between pleasure and patience, but Morgan lowered her head to press a delicate kiss to my cheek and whispered, “Go ahead.”

I couldn’t hold it back. My chin tipped up as the fingers of my free hand dug into her shoulder blade, and I hit the peak. My body tensed as my back arched away from the mattress, and my breathing stunted as waves of euphoria rolled out from every continued stroke of Morgan’s finger. It was those waves that set the rhythm for me to keep moving my own finger, and her climax followed as I was halfway through mine.

Her head fell beside mine, and while she tried to stay quiet and not moan, she let out hard, fast, hot breaths against the crook of my neck. Her body pressed so close to mine that I felt each matching wave of pleasure roll through her. Felt each tight jerk of her hips against my hand. Felt each of those hard breaths from her chest to mine.

My climax ended first, but she kept pressure against me while I drew as many pulses from her as I could, enjoying how every gasp and every tense of her body put jolts of lingering excitement in my own stomach. It made the euphoria last well after I was done, until she finally had no more to give and not even a stroke against the perfect spot could earn another. 

I withdrew my hand, and she pulled hers out from between us and set her hips back between my legs, and then she collapsed on top of me. She let out a satisfied hum and kissed my cheek while she shoved her arms beneath my back to wrap them around me, squeezing me hard and then relaxing into an affectionate embrace. I smiled and wrapped my arms around her too, happy to continue lying there for a minute as we finished coming down from it, content to keep enjoying the feel of her bare body on mine.

It took a bit, but she eventually murmured without lifting her head, “Is it safe to sleep like this?”

“You mean without putting our clothes back on?”

She rose, bracing herself on her elbows to look down at me and give a toothy grin. “Yeah.”

I laughed and tilted my head up to look at the door. It wasn’t likely anyone would walk in… “Sure.”

She pressed a playful peck to my lips and dropped off me to lay at my side. I turned to face her, scooting in close when she slid her arm over my waist, folding my arms between us to tap my finger against the side of her chin. A handful of comfortable seconds passed as we admired each other, and then a remnant of that intimacy turned it into something even softer. She looked at me looking at her, her fingers tracing their range of motion up and down my spine, my hand settling against her jaw, and I couldn’t help but smile too.

“What?” she asked.

And somehow, I found the simple words to say what I’d felt before this started. “I’m glad you want to stay. I want you to stay too.”

“Good,” she said, inching forward until we were pressed together, “because you’re stuck with me.”

“No, not stuck.” I wrapped my arm around her and tucked my head under her chin, blanketing myself in her warmth. “Happy.”