Ask, Tell, page 30
Now, she’s in bed doing a job application on her laptop
while I lie beside her and read the same sentence of my
book over and over. I can’t concentrate, because I’m
suddenly thinking about how cute she looks with her glasses
sliding down her nose.
I’m thinking about random things like the precise way she
cuts vegetables for dinner and sets the table with my knife
and fork the other way around. The hitch in her voice
whenever she asks if I want to talk about anything. The
taste of her. How she looks in jeans. The crease in her cheek
just before she gives me a smile and turns it into a dimple.
The way I remember her feeling inside me.
It’s going to be okay. She won’t let me be hurt.
Rebecca seems caught off guard when I suddenly set my
book down, shift her laptop to my bedside table and climb
over to straddle her. I kiss her hard and she responds with a
soft groan. “You’re sure?” she asks.
I answer her by pulling first her glasses then her tank top
off. “I’m sure. I want you, honey. I need you so badly.”
Her hands are under my tee and tugging it over my head
before I can say anything else. She pulls me down and
kisses me, tender and gentle but I feel her desperation as
we rediscover each other. We help each other out of our
clothing with fingers clumsy from pent-up desire and when
my foot catches in my pajama bottoms, we laugh together
as I try to kick them off.
Bec places a hand on my leg to stop me from moving. “Let
me help.” She slides down the bed, her lips softly trailing
down my stomach before she frees me. I watch her pause,
as if she doesn’t know what to do or where to go next. She
hooks her fingers in my panties and tugs them down,
tossing the scant fabric aside before she slides her own off.
I let my eyes roam to take all of her in. Her landmarks,
those delicious dips and curves. I reach a hand out to her.
“Come back.”
She settles on my left side, away from my healing injures,
half on and half off me. Bec brushes too-long hair from my
eyes. “I’ve missed you, Sabine.”
“I’m sorry,” I whisper.
“That’s not what I meant.” Her voice catches. “Don’t
apologize. Ever.” She leans over, her hand on my neck and
our lips meet again. This time it’s my tongue that gets in
first and when hers meets it, my stomach twists and I know
we are back in the place we belong. We fit together the
same way we did so many months ago, as if no time has
passed. I’m overwhelmed by the sensation of having her so
close again, but it doesn’t matter because my body
remembers hers and how to be with her.
Bec makes love to me with her hands and her lips,
reclaiming my every inch and when I move, she pins me
down. “Wait. Let me…” She spreads me and I feel the wet
heat of her tongue against my throbbing clit. “You taste
exactly the way I remember,” she says throatily.
The thought of her tongue inside me makes my body
clench and brings a fresh flood of arousal, but now isn’t the
time. I have a more pressing want. “No,” I murmur, reaching
to try and pull her back up.
She climbs carefully over my torso and settles beside me
again. “No?”
I hold her face and pull her in for a kiss, tasting myself on
her lips. “I want you up here. Here with me.” I guide her
hand downward, moaning softly as she cups me and dips
her finger inside my wet folds. She has hooked her leg over
mine, locking us together as if she actually thinks I would
want to be anywhere but here with her. She plays me
expertly, pushing me toward my release.
Bec bucks underneath me when I reach and gently circle
her with a finger. She’s so wet that I slide right into her, my
thumb slipping over her clit. Bec bites my neck but it
doesn’t stifle her cries. She stops vocalizing long enough to
murmur, “I love you, I love you,” into my neck.
I tense and cry out hoarsely, fingers moving reflexively
against her and Bec joins me moments later, adding the
sounds of her climax to mine. We lie tangled together, damp
with sweat and trembling, and I wonder why I had been
concerned at all. There’s no longer time to worry about the
unknowns, not after everything that’s happened.
Rebecca runs her hand over my stomach and breasts, her
touch light yet so decisive. I shiver involuntarily as her
fingers pause near the patches of healed skin over my ribs.
She lifts herself up on her elbows. “Are you okay?”
I crane my neck to watch her. “Yes. Perfect.”
Her lips brush over the ragged pink skin of my scars.
* * *
I drop the pile of mail onto the kitchen counter, curious
about the disappearance of my girlfriend. When I went
outside to quickly check the mailbox she was in the kitchen.
Then I got caught talking for half an hour to our neighbor
about my deployment and our Thanksgiving plans. Now
Rebecca is nowhere to be seen. “Bec?”
“Yep, I’m in here,” she calls from upstairs.
I lean against our bedroom doorframe enjoying the sight
of her in an old pair of cut-offs and a tank top, both
splattered with paint drops. The floor and furniture in the
room are covered with drop cloths. She’s painting the walls I
prepared so many months ago. How much things have
changed. It seems like another lifetime.
Her tone is cautious. “I hope you don’t mind, I found all
this in the spare room closet while I was putting some out-
of-season clothes away.” She reaches for me as I step inside
the room.
“It looks great.” I take her hand, running my finger over
her palm. When I bend forward to kiss her she responds
eagerly, careful not to let the paint roller touch me. I rub the
tip of my nose softly against hers. “You know, I think I finally
figured it out.”
Her forehead wrinkles. “What exactly have you figured
out?”
I take a deep breath. “I figured out what you taste like.”
It takes her a moment to connect the dots from that night.
Our first night. “And what’s that?” Her voice is quiet, her
head tilted as she studies me.
“Home.”
The word catches in my throat. I try again.
“You taste like home.”
Bella Books, Inc.
Women. Books. Even Better Together.
P.O. Box 10543
Tallahassee, FL 32302
Phone: 800-729-4992
www.bellabooks.com
Document Outline
Synopsis
About the Author
Acknowledgments
Author’s Note
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two
E. J. Noyes, Ask, Tell
