Naked Read online

  “Will you call me?” she said at last.

  “Sure. You can call me, too,” I told her. “Phone goes both ways.”

  This must have pricked her in a place she didn’t like, because she jumped a little. “Of course.”

  What I’d said was true, and yet I could tell she thought I was saying it just to poke her. This more than anything proved to me things hadn’t yet changed so much between us that I could forget everything that had happened.

  “Bye, Mom.”

  In the car I gripped the steering wheel tightly, waiting for her to go in the house, but she stood there until I’d backed out of the driveway. I stayed quiet as I drove down dark streets. Alex turned on the radio and I let the music fill the spaces between us.

  He didn’t try to force me into conversation. The drive home went fast for me, lost as I was in my thoughts. Turning them over and over in my head, playing out the scenes of days gone by. By the time we got back to Annville my fingers were stiff, my jaw ached, my head throbbed.

  Alex helped me carry the food upstairs and put it away in my freezer. Utter silence would’ve seemed strange, but I can’t remember anything we said. Just that words fell from me, wooden replies to his questions, and nothing more.

  I lost it all when he put his hand on the back of my neck as I washed my hands at the sink. That gentle touch, the heat of him behind me, broke down the final wall I’d been struggling to keep my tears behind. One fell on the back of my hand. Then another.

  When he turned me to face him I buried my nose against his chest and sobbed. I braced myself for Alex to tell me it was all okay, but he didn’t say anything. He stroked my back and held me close, but he didn’t try to shush me. He didn’t ask me what was wrong.

  “C’mere.” He took my hand and led me to the sofa, where we tucked ourselves under the knitted afghan and snuggled deep into the pillows.

  Sometimes, talking helps. Sometimes silence is better. He gave me that, and not in an awkward “I don’t know what to say” way, but simple quiet.

  Our breathing synced, in and out. The rise and fall of his chest beneath my cheek kept me grounded even when I closed my eyes against the hot fall of stubborn, relentless tears. We stayed that way for a long time. His chin nudged the top of my head as I fitted myself in his arms. Our legs tangled. My hand came to rest naturally on his belt buckle. Every piece of me had a place to fit with every piece of him.

  “I haven’t seen my parents in about two years,” he said after a few more quiet minutes. “Haven’t spoken to my father in that long, either. Got a card from my mom on my last birthday. That’s it.”

  I held him closer. “What happened?”

  “It doesn’t matter.”

  I looked up at him. “Sure it does.”

  Alex smiled and touched my hair. “No. It really doesn’t.”

  We’d been fucking for months, and I didn’t know him. Not like I ought to know a man I’d found myself thinking about spending the rest of my life with. I knew every part of his body, I knew his favorite drink, I knew what he liked on his pizza. But what were those things? Trivia.

  “Was it bad?”

  “I don’t want to talk about it, Olivia.” Alex pushed me back, gently but firmly. “It’s the past. It’s over.”

  “You know you can talk to me about it—”

  “I said I didn’t want to.” He got off the couch. “I’m getting a drink. You want anything?”

  I watched him head for my kitchen, where he knew where everything was and had no hesitation in helping himself. I got up to follow him. He poured another glass of juice and finished half of it, then poured the rest down the sink.

  “I’ll buy you another bottle,” he said when he saw me looking.

  “I’m not worried about it.”

  He shrugged and put the glass in the dishwasher. “Fine.”

  We were having an argument, and I wasn’t sure why. “Do you want to come to bed? It’s late, and I have work to do tomorrow.”

  “I thought we’d maybe go somewhere tomorrow,” Alex said.

  “We went somewhere today. I have work to do and tomorrow’s the only day I have to get it done. Plus I have to do laundry—” I broke off at the sight of his face, mouth twisted, brow furrowed. “What?”

  “Nothing. I just thought we could spend the weekend together. Not working.”

  Annoyed, I wiped at a splash of juice he’d left on the counter. “Well, sorry, but not everyone’s a self-made millionaire with a lot of money in the bank who doesn’t have to work more than a few hours a week.”

  His expression hardened. “I worked fucking hard to build my business, Olivia.”

  “And I’m working hard to build mine!” I slapped the damp dish towel into the sink. “Jesus, Alex, don’t you think I’d rather stay in bed all day and watch movies with you than get up so I can get my life straightened out?”

  “I’d better let you head to bed, then. Like you said, it’s getting late.”

  I was so stunned he was actually walking out that I let him get all the way to the front door before I stopped him. “You don’t have to go.”

  He took a few seconds to turn. “I have some stuff to do around my place, anyway. And I don’t want to keep you up.”

  “Please,” I said. “Keep me up.”

  A reluctant smile twitched at his mouth. Encouraged, I moved in for the kiss. He opened at the press of my lips on his. His hands fit naturally on my hips. Without stopping the kiss I hooked a finger in his belt and stepped him back toward my bedroom.

  I took off my shirt when we got through the door. I started unbuttoning his next. I pushed him back on the bed and he fell with a laugh, then pulled me on top of him. We rolled among soft sheets, scattering pillows.

  He kissed his way down my body and undid the snap of my jeans with his teeth. His hand slid inside, over my satin panties. His finger probed, stroked, just the way I liked it.

  Alex, his own jeans mysteriously undone, knelt on my bed and pulled at my jeans until they slid to my thighs…where they stuck. We wrestled a little, laughing. Kissing. I wriggled and kicked to inch them off, while he helped.

  He paused when I lay in front of him in just my bra and panties. His eyes roamed my every inch, and for the first time I could remember with him, I felt shy. My fingers twitched, itching to cover myself.

  “What?” I asked.

  “You’re beautiful,” Alex said.

  Who doesn’t like to hear that, especially when almost naked? But it rang a little false to me, as if it wasn’t what he meant to say. I lifted myself up on my elbows and put a foot on his thigh, rubbing.

  “Aren’t you going to get undressed?”

  “Baby, I’m gonna smack it, flip it up and rub it down.” He bumped his crotch and smacked an imaginary ass in front of him.

  I watched him push his jeans off, along with the boxers beneath. His cock, half-hard, sprang free. Alex rolled on his back to kick off the denim, but was back on his knees in thirty seconds.

  “Turn over,” he said.

  I got on my hands and knees. The bed dipped as he moved behind me. His hands slipped over my satin-clad butt. One moved between my legs, stroking. He eased my panties down.

  “Put your ass in the air.”

  My forehead pressed the bed. I closed my eyes. I heard the sound of tearing and his soft grunt as he slid the condom on. I tensed, waiting for him to fill me. Alex took his time, using his hand to get me ready.

  By the time we got to the fucking, I was already so close I came within a few strokes. He didn’t last much longer. Short, but intense. I rolled onto my back, an arm flung over my face. Alex got up, used the bathroom, came back and turned off the lights. He sat on the edge of the bed.

  My bedroom has no windows, so the only light came from the living room, where we’d left every lamp burning. I watched his silhouette and put a palm on his hip.

  “Come to bed,” I said.

  I thought he was going to leave. His body tensed under my hand, an