Dash pulled a condom out of his bedside-table drawer and rolled it on. Then he pulled her to him. “You’re sure?” He stroked a little circle across the apple of her cheek.
She would end things with Carla because she wasn’t willing to say goodbye to Dash. She’d tried to force a spark with her, but the way she felt for Carla was so drastically different from the passion she had for Dash, and that couldn’t be ignored.
Even if what she had with Dash wouldn’t be forever, all she needed was to be tangled up with him for as long as they could be. He didn’t want a relationship, but she would take what he could give and then figure out the rest once they’d ended. Like Dash’s tattoo—You Chose—that would be her choice.
Dash grabbed Sophie’s ass, lifted her, and wrapped her legs around his hips. He pinned her against the wall, and his erection pressed against the opening of her lips.
“I must’ve been really good in a past life,” she said. How else to explain this situation where she was about to have sex with the man she’d had a crush on since she was a teenager?
He brushed hair behind her ears and held on to her thigh with his free hand. Then he pulled her chin up slightly with the tip of his finger. “Tell me if any of this is too much, okay?”
She laughed. “For the record, I’ve had sex before, like, a lot, so you don’t need to be gentle.”
He gave enough of a smile that the dimple in his cheek showed, even through the dried clay that dotted his face. “Good girl. Then put me inside you and go slow. I want to feel every inch.”
Sophie opened her mouth to say something, but there were no words. She made a kind of strangled noise that was satisfaction because, really, if her knees weren’t already locked tightly around him, they would’ve melted into a puddle on the floor. She reached her hand to meet him, and his cock throbbed against her palm.
“I just want you to know that I’m really going to enjoy this,” she said.
Dash bit his lower lip as she pushed back against the wall, giving herself room to accept him. She rubbed his tip in a circle against her clit, then lowered him down, down, until his head met her entrance. She was already so wet from his words that when she began to slide onto him, there was no resistance.
She sighed as his cock inched inside her, and he moaned as her hand guided him all the way in. Eventually he pressed the full length into her, and they both grunted as he settled there. She was so deliciously filled by him but ground her hips to try to get more.
“Oh, my God, Soph, you feel so fucking good. And you tightened that pussy for me, didn’t you?”
She had.
He pushed into her again, and her arms wrapped firmly around his neck.
“Just fuck me already, please,” she practically begged.
He placed a hand on one of her knees and pushed it up against the wall, so she had one leg wrapped around his waist, and the other hiked up. And then he pinned her in place while he drove his cock in, then out. He circled his hips as he entered, and she moaned loudly. So then he did it again, and again, bouncing her up and down as he drove into her.
“You are fucking me so good,” Sophie breathed into his ear.
“Say my name. Say it.” He ground faster and harder, demanding the words.
“Dash,” she breathed into his ear, and he drove harder. “Oh. My. Dash.” She took every single bit of him. She wrapped her leg tighter around his waist and bit the top of his shoulder. “You’re going to make me come.”
At those words, he pulled them both back from the wall, and carried her to the bed. “I want you to look at me as you come,” he said.
He laid her down on the bed and spread her legs wide. He settled in between them and dipped his cock into her, again and again. His index finger found her clit, and he rubbed light circles around her bud as he thrust. His other hand rested next to her hip, and she clung to the crashing-wave tattoo inked there.
“Dash, Dash,” she repeated as the pressure began to build. “I’m going to come on you.”
“Look at me,” he ordered. His mouth met her nipple, and he sucked her in sharply.
Sophie did not have a problem looking at Dash as her body tightened around him and wave after wave of pleasure rolled through her. Only when she twitched from the aftershocks did Dash say, “I’m coming.” She grabbed his ass, and he pushed himself farther inside as he came.
They stilled there, and the only sound in the room was their deep breaths. Eventually, Dash kissed her forehead, then each of her eyes, and moved away from her before rolling the condom off. He lay on one side of the bed, and she was on the other. She reached her hand out toward Dash and their fingertips met. They lay side by side and held each other’s hands. This could be enough, just the feel of him next to her.
Though, perhaps the fact that they could never be in a relationship should’ve worried her more. Because, really, what Sophie felt for Dash went beyond friendship. When they were apart, the nudging reminder that she was missing something rose up. And when she was around him, she wanted to touch him, or hold his hand, or feel the press of his lips against hers. She’d started to daydream about the simple act of exploring his tattoos with her fingertips.
“What does this tattoo mean, Dash?” She turned on her side and traced the ink that wrapped around his forearm with her middle finger. “Why is there a little seagull flying above the waves?”
“That birdie is called a tern, actually.” Then Dash sat up and extended his right arm to give her a closer look. There was one enormous swell of inky black and dark blue with sea spray all around. She rubbed her thumb across the lone bird just above the tip of the wave. “I got this one after being sober for a year. One of the people I met in AA was an ornithologist. She was always talking about birds she’d seen. She told us that whenever terns are threatened by high water, they furiously collect objects and vegetation to raise their nests and protect themselves. And I liked the idea of that. These small but mighty birds who will just adapt and do whatever it takes to build a wall of protection from the chaos around them. So the waves, for me, symbolize the chaos, and the tern is a reminder that I can stay above it.”
Sophie admired Dash, her little tern, all the more then. She’d wanted to get a tattoo but had never been able to settle on what design would be meaningful. She’d had a hard time landing on something that would always bring joy when she looked at it. Plus, she hadn’t thought as deeply about a tattoo as he clearly had.
She propped herself up on her elbow. “If I got a tattoo, I’m pretty sure I’d get something really ridiculous that I’d be embarrassed about.”
“Oh, you mean like this?” Dash brought his leg up, grabbed his foot, and lifted his big toe to reveal a little smiley face inked on the underside. The face had one winking eye and a floppy tongue hanging out playfully from the side of its thin mouth.
She bit her lip as she inspected the sweet drawing. “Oh, Dash, I want to laugh so much, but I honestly think the winking eye makes it very endearing.”
“I don’t really remember getting that one. All I know is I woke up the next morning with saran wrap on my foot and couldn’t put any pressure on it for a good twenty-four hours. Which the director of the movie I was working on loved, obviously.” He looked down at the bedspread, maybe embarrassed by the memory. “But at least I didn’t get it on my ass?”