Page 26

CHAPTER 25

SO FUCKING POLITE

DAVID

David Hughes stood on Sage Fogerty’s doormat, bouquet of flowers in hand.

After returning from the gym they’d parted ways, agreeing to meet at Sage’s place after they’d both cleaned up. It was their first date, after all.

David had taken the time to shower and change into jeans and a soft orange button up that he normally only pulled out for the birthday parties of his friends’ wives, which always were somewhere too fancy that didn’t serve enough food.

Sage answered the door in faded jeans and a little tank top that exposed the softness of her belly. And her nipples — goddamnit this woman was going to kill him with her hard little nipples pressed against the almost transparent white fabric. Her hair was still wet, pulled back into a braid that curved over her shoulder.

He was so fucking done for her.

“Hey,” she breathed, lips quirking up into that crooked smile.

“Hi.” David was probably smiling like an idiot, but he couldn’t find it in himself to care.

She stepped aside and pointed over her shoulder. “I have steaks.”

David slipped out of his shoes before walking into the living room. “I got you these,” David said, holding out the flowers and feeling suddenly shy standing there in front of her.

Sage took the bouquet from him, burying her nose between the blooms and taking a slow inhale. Her eyes fluttered shut and her cheeks flushed pink. “They smell amazing,” she breathed, opening her eyes and smiling up at him. “Thank you.”

“I’ll get you more,” he blurted. “Flowers. I know it’s your thing, but can it be my thing too? Or would that be too many flowers?”

Sage’s expression was so fond and her cheeks so pink, like maybe she was a little bit embarrassed on his behalf. “You’re ridiculous,” she said as she exhaled a soft snort. “There’s no such thing as too many flowers.”

She moved to the kitchen, and David followed, watching as she put the flowers into a large glass jar. Then she opened the fridge and took out a plate with two thick ribeyes stacked on it.

Jesus, this woman .

Sage wasn’t facing him; her hands were busy in a way that only someone who is able to multitask in the kitchen can achieve. She chopped, sliced, stirred, and David watched the golden light in the room catch on the dips and swells of her shoulders and her strong upper back.

He knew that he should offer to help, but in that moment he couldn’t tear himself away from the simple joy of watching her.

“I want to tell you something about me,” Sage said suddenly, her hands never faltering from their sure movements. “I think it might help. You told me about what happened with Johnny, and I feel like I understand you better now. I get you in a way that I didn’t before.” She glanced back over her shoulder at him. “I’ve never had a boyfriend, but unless all of the books I’ve ever read are based on complete bullshit, I’m pretty sure that being honest is a good place to start a relationship.”

David smiled as he leaned his elbows on the bar. “I don’t think your books were lying,” he agreed.

“My dad left when I was little,” Sage continued, turning back to her cooking. “He was a successful man who had one of those jobs in upper management with a corner office. One day he came home with divorce papers and told my mom that he’d fallen in love with his secretary, and he left us with nothing to start another family.” A sharp sizzle filled the air as she laid the steaks carefully down in a cast iron. “I don’t really remember him, but it fucked my mom up. Like really fucked her up. She hadn’t worked since she’d had Brinley, and all of a sudden she was a single mom who had to support two kids. She’d never finished her degree, and it was like all of the choices she’d made over the years to make her relationship with my dad work came back to haunt her at once.” Sage opened the oven, using a kitchen towel to protect her hand as she pulled out a pan of roasted asparagus.

“So I grew up with a single, hard-working mother who, like a broken record, constantly reminded us of the dangers of older, successful men. I understood where she was coming from, but I think it maybe hurt us — Brinley and me — more than it helped.” She flipped the steaks one by one. “I think it maybe led me to crave that forbidden thing she talked about. Maybe it led me to Evan.” She shrugged, and David noticed that the mention of him seemed easier, like maybe the grip that experience had held on her had loosened.

“Last night at the game my mom saw you looking at me.” Sage turned around, leaning her body back against the counter in a way that somehow accentuated the bare skin of her stomach leading down to her jeans. “And then she saw how I was looking at you, and then she knew, because she’s my mom and just knows things. Of course then that led to another lecture about older men and inevitable hurt and relinquishing freedom.” Sage looked at him, really looked at him with all of her attention, leaving no doubt that she was there with him. That they were together in this.

“After that I just needed some time to, I don’t know, recalibrate, maybe?” She shook her head, like that wasn’t the right word for what she was trying to express. “But it wasn’t about you. It wasn’t about how I feel about you or how you are with me, because you’ve never been anything but respectful, David.” Her lips curved up into a smirk. “Sometimes too respectful, if I’m honest.”

“I wish I’d asked what was going on,” he said, hating that she’d been struggling and he’d missed it.

Sage’s smile softened. “It’s not on you. I shouldn’t have disappeared without telling you. Now that I know what that was like for you, I’m not going to do it again. We’ve got to figure each other out, right? Sometimes I need a little room to breathe when I’m sad, just like you need to know that the people you care about are safe. It’s just who we are.”

Sage turned back to pull the steaks from the pan. David watched her, considering how to say what he wanted to. Words were such clumsy things when compared to the acute truth of what he felt in his chest. “I just…Sage, I want to do this right. I already know that I like spending time with you, and I know that I’m attracted to you, but now that this is real I don’t want to mess it up.”

Steaks set out on a plate, Sage turned back to face him. “All we can do is show up and try, right?”

“Right,” David agreed, feeling light and almost giddy, like he could tip over into laughter at the smallest thing.

God. She was his. After months of wanting and imagining, he was here and she was his.

Two minutes later they sat at Sage’s small round table with plates piled high with ribeyes, mashed potatoes, and grilled asparagus. She’d pushed the vase of blue flowers to the side so that they could see all of each other while they ate, and she lit a short, golden-colored candle on the table between them.

They’d shared countless meals together, mostly while sprawled out on the couch watching game tape or hunched over whatever novels they were reading. Sometimes they’d talk, catching up on menial things like the team or Sage’s classes or whether or not Daisy liked the organic treats more than the non-organic ones.

But tonight, as they sat across from each other at the table, their silverware scraping against Sage’s colorful ceramic plates, David was painfully aware of how little he knew about her. He knew her in the way that friends know what it feels like to share a space together, but what about her ?

“What’s your favorite color?”

Oh god, David.

“Green.” Sage paused to chew before pointing her fork at him. “You?”

“Blue.” Like shallow water or pantsuits or the flowers right there on the table between them.

Sage’s smile grew. “Favorite movie?”

“ Goodfellas .”

“Seriously?” Sage laughed, her face transforming into surprised delight. “I so didn’t expect that.”

“What’d you expect?”

She shrugged, her smile turning teasing and playful. “You seem more like a Wayne’s World kind of guy.”

David laughed, leaning back in his chair and stretching one of his legs out. He glanced down, noticing how close his foot was to hers. Black Costco cotton next to colorful knit wool.

“So what about you,” he asked, right as his foot nudged hers.

For a moment she was still against him. But then, in a move that was more tentative than he would have expected from someone like Sage, she shifted so that her foot rested on top of his.

He watched her lips part, her lower lip so plump and enticing that he wanted to bite it. Lick it. Hold it between his teeth with just enough pressure to make her breath hitch.

Her voice was noticeably breathy when she responded. “ Love and Basketball ,” she said, her eyes darting down to where her foot rested on top of his.

David felt his smile spread. “Of course it is.”

Sage rolled her eyes, but her cheeks were pink and she couldn’t contain her smile.

Somehow they got from favorite movies to sports movies which then led to an in depth discussion about the best coaches in professional basketball. The food — which was delicious — disappeared from their plates as they talked, and somehow it was the same as it had always been with Sage while also feeling completely different. There was a newness and excitement hovering just under the surface, like his heartbeat couldn’t quite settle into a slow, easy rhythm.

Conversation continued as they carried their dishes to the sink. It continued as David washed and Sage dried, and as Sage tracked down glass tupperware to pack away the leftover potatoes, David washed the pots and pans.

He listened carefully as Sage told him exactly how one should and shouldn’t wash a cast iron pan. “No soap. Never soap,” she’d practically growled, stopping him before he could touch the soapy sponge to the surface of the pan.

She grabbed a beer for David — Corona, he noticed fondly — and a glass of peach wine for herself.

“It’s probably the most embarrassing thing about me,” she said as she folded her legs under herself. “I know it’s disgustingly sweet, but I love it and life is too short to waste time drinking things I don’t like.”

“Fair enough,” David said, lowering himself down to the opposite side of the couch.

He took a long pull from his beer, watching how Sage’s eyes dropped to his throat as he swallowed.

He lowered the beer to rest on his thigh, unable to take his eyes from her.

He noticed her shifting her weight where she sat, how the movement pulled at the bare skin of her stomach. The flush from her cheeks trailed down her neck and onto her chest, the skin pink and practically glowing in the golden light.

His heartbeat seemed to grow louder, the thumping sensation spreading from his chest up into his throat and down into his abdomen. Anticipation, the culmination of months of denying the way his body demanded the woman in front of him, had his cock twitching against his thigh.

He was so tired of waiting.

Sage cleared her throat. “Um,” she began, and while her voice had the slightest tremble, her eyes held his gaze, green and bright and burning. “Is there a reason that we’re not…you know…” She trailed off, waving her hand back and forth between them.

He immediately knew what she was asking.

Relief was instantaneously replaced by a raging, torrential need to touch her. He could finally loosen the hold on himself, let his body do what it had wanted to do for months now.

“Thank god,” he said with a ragged laugh, setting down his beer and reaching for her. “Come here.”

There was a sudden flurry of movement, legs and arms and the cushions dipping and then suddenly Sage Forgety was in his lap again. Her strong thighs bracketed his hips, her weight settling on him, and then her mouth was on his.

Sage kissed him like she knew exactly what she wanted. Their lips slotted together, her plump bottom lip trapped between his, and fuck , somehow it was even better than he’d remembered. Even better than the kiss in his doorway that had played over and over in his head.

Her body softened against his as he hardened beneath her. She tasted like peaches, and beeswax and mint from the chapstick she wore, and he pressed his tongue forward, groaning as she opened for him.

But her tongue was there and ready, immediately tangling with his. He tried to slow down, to let their bodies move slowly together as they eased over this final barrier between them. He wanted to savor this moment, when Sage became his in a way that he’d only imagined.

“Is this okay,” he asked, resting his hands on her ass.

Sage hummed in response, and then they were kissing again, only this time David used his grip on her to pull her hips toward him, fitting her snuggly over the front of his jeans where his cock strained against the fabric.

David drank down her moan as her center met him, and he felt her long fingers reach up and tangle in his hair, tugging and pulling, using her hold on him to find a rhythm, rolling her hips against him.

His body was on fire. Energy hummed through him, his muscles straining with everything he wanted to do with her — to her. Every brush of her core against him — even through their clothing — had him closer to detonating, to coming in his pants like a goddamn teenager.

One of his hands slipped up her back, meeting nothing but soft, bare skin. “Is this okay,” he whispered, dropping his mouth to her jaw, where he kissed and licked and, carefully, nipped with his teeth.

Suddenly he was wrenched away. Sage gripped his face between her hands, and she glared at him with a combination of heat and annoyance. He noticed, with satisfaction, that her lips were already swollen and red from his attention. “Remember when I told you to treat me however you want?”

David swallowed. “Yeah, Lefty. I remember.”

“Then stop being so fucking polite,” she commanded, bringing their faces together so that their foreheads barely touched. “I want you.”

Maybe it was what David had been waiting for — confirmation that she was as ravenous for him as he was for her. Her body communicated the same thing: flushed skin, shallow, panting breaths, green eyes taking on the dazed look of someone driven by insatiable want.

And so he stopped holding back. He let go completely, a low sound rumbling from his chest as his thumbs brushed over her nipples. He decided then that he lived for the little hitches of her breath when he touched her.

Her hips continued to work against him, but he could tell that it wasn’t enough. That even though her body and his cock were meeting, she needed more.

And it was his goddamn job to give it to her.

In one move, he shifted Sage so that she was straddling one of his thighs. Immediately she responded with a gasped “Fuck,” and a shiver went through her entire body as her center met his broad leg. Maintaining his tight grip on her hips, he guided her to resume the rolling rhythm of forward and down, then back. Forward and down, then back.

Each roll forward elicited a desperate whimper. She tossed her head back, revealing her long neck and closed eyes as she took from him. He’d never been so happy to provide, fucking euphoric at the idea that she was using his body however she pleased.

“Oh, fuck, David,” she gasped.

Leaning forward, he drew one of her tight nipples into his mouth, sucking at her through the thin fabric of her shirt. He felt her shudder against him, and David doubled his effort, sucking and licking, alternating between breasts as he felt her rhythm begin to falter.

“You’re going to come, aren’t you, Lefty?” He almost didn’t recognize the rough voice as his own, but once the words started, he couldn’t stop them. “Fuck, you beautiful girl. Look at you.” He scraped her nipple with his teeth, never taking his eyes from her flushed face. “Never seen something so good. You’re going to come on my leg and it’ll be the prettiest thing I’ve ever fucking seen.”

He felt the exact moment when she tipped over the edge.

Her body tensed, went suddenly still, and then tremors wracked her entire body, starting from between her legs and radiating outward. Her mouth opened and damnit he’d been right, unable to hold back his own choked shout as she came with a silent scream.

“Take it,” he panted, hands steady on her hips as she rode out the orgasm, feeling the throbbing demand of his own body that begged to follow her. “Take what you need from me.”

Her movements slowed, the sound of her labored breaths filling the thick air between them.

He needed to come. Fuck, he needed it. He glanced down at where his hard cock stood lewdly at attention behind his fly. Looking back up at Sage, he found her glazed eyes were on him.

“Can I,” he began, removing a hand from her hip and moving to the button at his waist.

Sage inhaled sharply. “Fuck yes,” she breathed. “Show me.”

As David brought both hands up to free himself from his jeans, Sage shifted back to straddle his thighs, leaving enough room between them for them both to have a perfect view.

A groan rumbled in his throat as he took himself in hand, shoving his briefs down and out of the way.

This wasn’t the time for slow and indulgent, even though with Sage’s gaze fixed on his fist a part of him wanted to put on a show. To make it good for her.

But he couldn’t hold back. He began to stroke himself, rough and quick, gripping tightly enough that it hurt a little bit. Just the way he liked it.

He wasn’t going to last, so he watched Sage, letting her fuel the pleasure that already burned through him. He took in the dark, damp circles over her nipples where his mouth had been on her. He took in the pink flush of her bare skin. He took in the way she watched his fist like she was committing his movements to memory. Like she wanted to learn what pleased him as much as he wanted to know how to please her.

David came with a strangled moan, sharp heat searing down his spine as his release coated his fist. Pulse after pulse of pleasure leaving him stuck in that timeless place just after orgasm for what felt like entire minutes.

He hadn’t realized that he’d closed his eyes until he opened them and found Sage staring at him with rapt attention, her tongue licking across her lower lip as she glanced between his face and the absolute mess he’d made of himself.

David watched, frozen, still trying to convince his lungs to work properly, as Sage reached down and grabbed his wrist where he still gripped his softening cock. He let her lift his hand up, not fully comprehending what was happening until she drew two of his fingers into her lush mouth.

She held eye contact with him as she licked his hand clean — finger by finger.

If he was a younger man, he’d be hard and ready to go again, but as it was his cock barely mustered a half-hearted twitch as her tongue worked against his skin.

When she was done, she pressed a tender kiss to his palm.

“You’re fucking incredible,” David breathed, slumping back against the couch to enjoy the view of her above him.

Her swollen mouth curved up in a smile that was almost shy. “You’re not so bad yourself,” she said, and then immediately was overtaken by a yawn.

David squeezed her thighs. “You tired?”

“Mmhm.” She tilted toward him, laying her head on his shoulder and nosing against his throat. “Want to stay?”

Of course he wanted to stay. But he had plans with this woman.

“Yes,” he said, kissing her mussed hair. “But not tonight.”

“Why not?”

“Because I want to take you on a real date first.”

She huffed. “Lame.”

David pinched her thigh, grinning when she squeaked in protest. “Shut up, Lefty.”

Sage climbed off of him, obviously reluctant to separate them. Standing between his thighs, she leaned forward and braced herself on his knees. Her lips brushed his in a soft kiss. “I’m pretty fucking happy right now,” she whispered.

Before she could move away from him, David wrapped his arms around the back of her thighs. He wasn’t ready to end the closeness between them.

“Me too,” he replied, resting his chin against her stomach. “So we’re doing this?”

“Dating?”

“Mmhm.”

One of her hands came up to comb through his hair. “Yeah, David. We’re doing this.”

David smiled. Somehow his chest grew even warmer, even more full and content. He pressed a quick kiss to her exposed hip before looking back up at her. “Every year my buddies from college make a trip out to Lake Murray over spring break. We rent a big house and grill out and swim and a few of us make fools of ourselves trying to fish. Will you come with me?”

Sage blinked down at him. “Are you sure?”

“I’m sure,” David didn’t hesitate to reply. “Please?”

She looked at him like she couldn’t quite believe that he was serious, as if asking her was something unexpected. “Okay.” She paused, seeming to consider her question before she spoke. “Do you think it would be alright if I invited Maggie?”

“Of course,” David said, confident that his friends would welcome both Sage and the fiery bartender with open arms. “She’ll drive Keaton nuts,” he added, already imagining his tightly buttoned friend clashing with Maggie’s brash and unrestrained sense of humor. “It’ll be perfect.”

Sage smiled. “I’ll ask her tomorrow,” she said.

David pressed another kiss to the skin of her belly, already imagining Sage stretched out on the hot wood of the dock with miles of bare skin for him to explore. How her blonde hair would look catching the pinks and oranges of the sunsets.

“Breakfast tomorrow?” David asked as he got up, tangling his fingers with Sage’s just because he could.

“Deal.” She went up on her toes, silently asking for another kiss.

David smiled even as he kissed her, their tongues meeting for a brief moment before he pulled away again.

“Goodnight, Lefty,” he said, still not quite able to believe that this was real, that he was kissing Sage Fogerty after she’d come so beautifully on his leg and cleaned up his mess with that perfect mouth of hers.

He was still smiling when he walked into his apartment and was greeted by Daisy, whose tail wagged hard enough that her entire body wriggled. Leaning down to scratch at her ears, David whispered, “We did it, Daisy. We got the girl.”