Page 19

“Hi,” I say a little tentatively as I look at the handsome face filling my screen. My chest races and my tummy flips.

“Hey.”

We just stare at each other a few beats, and I wonder why we haven’t done more video chatting since he’s been gone.

With his mom there, though, I don’t want to bother him.

“Are you outside?” I ask.

“On my patio.” He flips his phone around, and it’s mostly dark but I can see lights in some buildings and a view of total darkness. “That’s the water.” He flips it back around so I can see him again.

“I like this view better,” I admit.

“I like this one, too.”

“So…when I said that, I really thought we’d just, you know, do whatever to ourselves and listen to each other breathe heavily through the phone.”

He laughs. “I want to see your face when you come.” His voice is low and sexy with a little growl behind it. “Are you wet?”

I lift a shoulder. “I’m always wet when I’m with you. Or talking to you. Or thinking of you.” My cheeks burn with the admission.

He chuckles, and his eyes seem to glaze over with lust.

“Are you sure you want to do this outside?” I ask.

“I’m on the top floor of my building. Nobody can see me, and nobody’s out tonight. It’s silent out here, and I’d rather do this out here in the dark than risk my mom hearing when I come all over my hand in my bedroom.”

“Yeah, let’s not do that,” I say. “So…now what?”

“I assume you’re alone?” he asks.

I nod, and then I get up and lock my bedroom door just to be safe.

“Show me your tits,” he demands quietly. “I miss your gorgeous tits.”

I lift my shirt and flash him.

He chuckles. “Take off your bra and your shirt, and then show me.”

“You first,” I demand, and he lifts his shirt over his head and tosses it somewhere out of the frame. He pans down to those gorgeous abs, and my mouth waters as I think about how good it felt when his weight hovered over me.

I set my phone down, pull my shirt off, and unhook my bra. I toss it to the floor before I pick my phone back up. I pan down to show him my breasts, and he groans audibly through the chat.

“God, those look perfect. Touch one of your nipples for me,” he says, and I do. I pinch it between my fingers, and he moans. “Flick it with your thumb.” I do what he says. “Now reach down into your panties and touch your clit, but keep the phone on your face so I can see how good it feels.”

“First you have to get your dick out,” I say.

He does it, and he shows me the evidence a second later.

“Stroke it,” I demand.

“It’s real fucking hot when you tell me what to do,” he murmurs, and I hear the slide of his hand over the thick, tight skin he just showed me. “Now finger yourself while I jerk off.”

I dip a finger in and close my eyes at the feel of it, his groans in my ear, his face in my sight, and the feel of my own touch making me hot and needy.

“Just like that, baby,” he murmurs, and I drive my finger in and out a few times.

I pull it out to rub my clit, and the feel is almost too good as I listen to him touch himself. I watch the phone as he tips his neck back, closing his eyes for a beat while he pumps his fist up and down his shaft.

“Oh God,” I whisper, rubbing myself faster as the ache starts to build. I wish it was him here doing this to me, but this will work for tonight.

His eyes open as he hears my whisper, and he starts to move his hand a little faster, something I can only tell by the way the phone starts to move.

“Fuck, even in a different state you make me come undone,” he mutters.

“Right back at you,” I moan, and it’s too much, way too much as the pleasure edges in on me. “I’m going to come.”

“So am I. Come with me,” he demands. “Fuck yes, baby. Oh God, yes.”

I let out a loud gasp as the pleasure hits a peak, and we come together, my legs trembling with the brutal force of it, and as soon as the contractions start to wane, the ache is back. It felt good to give myself an orgasm, but it feels far better when it’s him giving them to me.

He grabs his shirt and uses it to clean up his mess, and I grab my shirt, too, pulling it back over my head.

“That was unexpected,” I say.

“It was your idea,” he points out.

I laugh. “Maybe I should have that idea tomorrow, too.”

“Or again in, say, forty-five minutes?” He grins, and it’s so sweet and sexy at the same time.

It didn’t bring us that much closer to Saturday, but it was still a fun way to pass the time.

It’s the only time we do that, in fact, before I head to the airport to board a plane a few days later. The week dragged for me, including the boat ride where Mia hung out with the boy who invited us and I hung out by myself in a corner wishing Cooper was with me. A few college boys flirted with me, but I had zero interest in flirting back. I let them down gently by telling them I was seeing someone, and we left it at that.

Cooper was busy between training his replacement at work and entertaining his mom while she cooked meals for him. I’m only staying the weekend since I promised the dance studio I’d sub again this week, and then school starts.

I don’t know how much time I’ll have to spend with him once I have the weight of four senior-level classes in front of me, but school has always come easily for me. If anything, I’ll have tons of time on my hands. Maybe I should look for a job, but that might interfere with my internship next semester.

It’s why I started helping out at the dance studio. I always loved to dance, and I took ballet all the way through my sophomore year of high school. That was when my mom started pressuring me to look at colleges for ballet, and I didn’t want it to be my career. I wanted it to be my hobby.

I taught one class last semester on Thursday mornings when I had an opening in my schedule, but I opted out of that this semester so I could focus on finding an internship to benefit my major.

I’m sure Cooper will find other ways to fill my hours anyway, depending what his new job is.

The flight is only about an hour long, and when I land, I practically race through the airport to get to him. I know he’s here somewhere, and it’s on the other side of security when I spot him.

He’s standing there, black Under Armour baseball cap on his head, jeans and a black t-shirt…and my memory betrayed me. He’s even hotter than I remember.

I run across the airport to get to him, and he laughs with an oof when I plow into him. He turns his hat backward to lean down to kiss me, and he really kisses me good, even dipping me at the end. I’m pretty sure some audience standing nearby is clapping for us, but I can’t be positive since the only thing I’m positive about right now is that I’m back in his arms, exactly where I belong.

The dynamic between us is exactly the same. His kiss is even more intense, his arms hold me even more tightly—everything is kicked up a notch between us including the feelings. Last weekend was about getting to know each other. This weekend is about seeing if the magic we both found last time we were together was an anomaly or if it’s still there.

And in the first five seconds he holds me in his arms, I already know the truth.

It’s still there, and it’s even better than it was before.

“You smell good,” he says, pulling back and pressing a wet kiss to my neck as he breathes me in.

“You do, too,” I say, pressing a kiss to his cheek where I take in the woodsy scent that’s all man and all him.

“Let’s get home and get naked,” he suggests. He turns his hat back around and nods at my suitcase. “What’s in there?”

“Clothes.”

“Pfft. Won’t be needing those,” he says, and I laugh as I smack him in the arm.

We head out to his silver Ford F-150, and he helps me into the passenger seat, lugging my suitcase into his backseat while I buckle in. He drives us toward his apartment, and he’s cool and easy behind the wheel, just like he seems to be in every other aspect of his life.

“Welcome to San Diego,” he says once we arrive, and I’m curious to see where he lives. It’s like I’m getting an inside look at who this guy is after we skimmed the surface last weekend, and I feel like by the end of this weekend, we’ll know each other on an even deeper, more intimate level.

I’m not sure what that means or where we take it from there, but I can’t wait to find out.