Seriously, he liked that too.

She stayed stiff then her body seemed to like, melt, or something, into his.

Jesus, God, he liked that too.

Before he did something stupid, he ended the kiss. Lifting his head away but not letting her go, he looked down at her.

Her face soft, her eyes a little hazy in a cute way, Fin thought she’d never looked prettier.

“Ask your Dad,” he muttered, “I wanna come over for dinner tomorrow.”

“Okay,” she said and it was all breathy.

Yeah, unbelievably cute.

His hand slid out of her hair and he took his time, his skin liking the feel of it gliding through. Then, gentle-like, he tugged her hand in his and guided her back to the gate. He opened it and led her through. Then he led her up her yard. He heard her dog, Layla, woofing excitedly and he could see her shaking at the door.

He liked Rees’s dog. His family had one for years but she died a couple of months before his Dad did. His Dad had said they were gonna get another one, maybe two. He just never got around to doing it. Maybe they should get one. Something for his Ma to think about.

Mr. Haines was on the couch, arm wide resting on the back, head twisted, eyes on Fin and Reesee. Fin felt their sharpness even through the cold dark.

He lifted up his chin. Mr. Haines lifted his in return but didn’t tear his eyes away from Fin with his girl.

Parts of that sucked, obvious ones, but at least Reesee had a Dad who gave a shit considering her Mom didn’t.

He walked her up to the back deck to the backdoor and stopped. He squeezed her hand, looking down at her. She looked up still hazy.

Christ. So f**king cute.

“Dinner, tomorrow night,” he said firmly, giving her hand another squeeze.

“Right, Fin.”

“I liked you at my house tonight,” he told her, flat out. No more games. She wasn’t playing him. She wasn’t working it. She was shy. He got that now. It was time to throw that other shit away.

Her lips parted like she was shocked or something. Then she smiled.

“I liked it too.”

He was right. It was time to throw that other shit away. No more games. Mainly because she didn’t know how to play them and something in Fin said he never wanted her to learn.

He gave her hand another squeeze. “See you at school tomorrow.”

“Right,” she whispered.

“You sit with me at lunch,” he ordered and she blinked. “All through,” he finished.

“Uh…okay.” She was still whispering.

“All through, Rees. You want, I’ll meet you at your last class before lunch and walk you to the cafeteria.”

“I have Mrs. Layne.”

She wanted him to meet her there.

Good.

“I’m down the hall. I’ll meet you outside Mrs. Layne’s door.”

She nodded.

He squeezed her hand again and this time he didn’t release the pressure.

She held just as tight.

Then he whispered, “’Night, babe.”

“Goodnight, Fin.”

He let her go, looked to see that Mr. Haines still had his eyes on them and Fin gave him a chin lift. Then he gave Reesee a smile. She smiled back.

Then he tipped his head to the door to indicate she should go through. He didn’t start walking away until she was through, the door was closed and Layla was attacking her.

Then he walked home thinking he’d given Clarisse Haines her first kiss and thinking it would far from suck if he was also the guy who gave her her last with no one in between.

Chapter Thirteen

Sex Zone

I was on my back in Mike’s bed, Mike on me and in me, his mouth on mine and he’d finally gone full-throttle on the slow burn kiss.

Delicious.

Unfortunately, as it has to happen eventually so we could both breathe, his mouth broke from mine. His lips slid down my cheek to my jaw to my neck and stopped so he could work there. I liked the work he was doing so I didn’t move. Just let him be and let what he was doing with his mouth wash through me.

We were done. As usual, we were in Mike’s bed and we finished with Mike on top. Control. As creative as he could get, he brought it home with me on my back, knees shoved high, Mike powering deep. Now that it was over, I’d swung one calf in at his back and slid the other one down to curl around his ass. My arms around him, the fingers of one hand drifting over the skin and muscle of his back, the fingers of the other gliding through his hair.

If you told me I’d eventually have a guy who would end every session the same exact way, this would not thrill me.

Having a man who did that and that man being Mike, I loved it. I couldn’t wait for it. Knowing it was coming. The intimacy of it. The feel of it. The familiarity of it. It was Mike and I wanted to know everything about him, I wanted him to give me all of him and all of it was a treasure.

It was like coming home.

It was Sunday. Yesterday I’d had my day with Clarisse. This ended with Clarisse and Fin in the living room at the farm in front of a movie Fin rented and me playing video games with Kirby in his room so they’d have privacy. Rhonda, as usual, was hanging out in her room.

But Mike called this morning with the excellent news that No was unexpectedly off with some buds doing something and Rees was at some girlfriend’s house likely talking non-stop about how awesome Finley Holliday was.

Or I hoped so.

On Thursday, I had opened the door and Fin didn’t saunter through. He charged. Study-time, dinner and TV-time with Clarisse at the farm on Thursday. He went to dinner at Mike’s on Friday then left before Scary Movie Friday Night commenced. She came over for dinner and a movie last night. I was surprised today he hadn’t claimed her. Maybe he was trying to play it cool. Or maybe she’d had these plans with her girlfriend for a while and he didn’t want to cut in. Or maybe she was at her friend’s but they were texting non-stop because she didn’t feel she could cancel to be with Fin but they were still connecting.

The way I saw he’d snuggled her into him last night on the couch when I was on my way to the kitchen to get Kirb and me refills on drinks, my guess was door three.

Whatever way, it left Mike’s house free for hours and he wanted me over for “sandwiches”.

I hightailed it across the field without delay. It was lunchtime but we had yet to eat.

“I think you need to feed me,” I informed him and he lifted his head.

His eyes caught mine and his were warm, sated. Mike had beautiful eyes but they were never more beautiful than after we’d made love, he was still inside me, his body covering mine at the same time mine was wrapped around his and his eyes told me there was no place he’d prefer to be.