Love and Sorrow (Small Town Secrets Book 5), стр. 30
That was the good thing about apartments: it was easy to find the bathroom.
After doing my business, I dabbed a little cool water on my flushed cheeks. I was still drunk and all I had on was my bra.
But I needed a cigarette.
Keeping the bathroom light so I could see better, I ventured into the living room and found my purse by the door. I knew I really should go outside to smoke, but the pressure I felt in my head told me to get my ass back in bed.
Nicotine first.
Making my way into the kitchen, I turned the light on and found the trashcan. If there was a tin can in there, it could serve as a decent makeshift ashtray, and I could open the window to blow smoke outside. Not the best plan, but it would do. I found a beer bottle and decided that would work as I lit a cigarette.
Oh, that first drag was always the sweetest, flipping some strange switch in my brain, giving me that jolt of satisfaction. And then my mind cleared and I began examining how exactly I’d arrived here.
Not at Justin’s apartment. In my heart.
When exactly had I started falling in love with that man? And why the fuck had I allowed it to happen in the first place? Justin was not a one-woman guy and had never pretended to be. Not once had he ever told me he was anything other than a friend.
With all the shit going on in my life, tonight had to be the last time. Not only because of Sarah, but also because my heart was going to crack if I didn’t stop right now. Breaking away at this moment would lead to the least amount of heartache.
So, in the morning, I’d say my last goodbye. After tonight, I was going to go back to being Randi Miller, single mother, assistant manager, and promising student.
After finishing the cigarette, I poured a little water in the bottle to extinguish the butt and then closed the window and shut off the light. I decided to shower, wake myself up, fight through this halfway drunk/ halfway hungover feeling, and suck it all up. Later, when Justin woke up, he could take me home and I’d begin my new life alone.
Making my way back to the beacon of the bathroom light, I found a small closet in the hallway—and, inside, as I’d hoped, there were bath towels.
Soon, I was in the warm shower, irritated by the low water pressure, remembering what apartment life was like. My little house might not have been anything exciting, but at least I didn’t have a stingy landlord refusing to fix shit that didn’t work. Now, when things fucked up, they stayed broken because I couldn’t afford to fix them. Ignoring the lack of pressure, I focused on the warm beads dropping on my skin, and I imagined myself standing in the rain in July—although the droplets from the clouds falling in Winchester were usually not so warm and not so gentle.
Still, my mind took me there and I let it—until I could hear Justin pissing in the toilet. How long had I been standing in here? His voice almost made me jump. “Can’t sleep?”
“Nope.”
After he flushed the toilet, he pulled the shower curtain aside, peeking his head in. “Want some company?”
I forced a smile, trying not to give away the sorrow weighing down my heart. When he got inside, he pulled me close and I held him tightly, burying my head in his chest as the warm water trickled over my face.
God, I was going to miss this man.
Without thought, I began kissing his chest and it wasn’t long before he grew hard from the attention. So I moved my lips to his mouth and he gave me a long, luxurious kiss. “Why don’t we get the hell out of here?”
“My thoughts exactly.”
As we stood on the bathmat, Justin grabbed my towel, but he didn’t hand it to me. Instead, he began dabbing at my flesh. As he gently nudged the towel against my chest area, he moved it to the back but bent over, kissing between my breasts before lapping at one of my nipples. A tiny moan escaped my mouth as he moved the towel down my back before drying my ass. Then he moved the towel down the backs of my legs while continuing to kiss my breasts before dabbing the beads of water off my belly. My entire body was cool, goosebumps all over my skin, as each muscle tightened in anticipation.
As he dried off the front of my body, he then began touching his lips to my belly as he dried the front of my legs, the towel brushing my skin lightly enough to ramp up my desire.
Suddenly, he stood and rubbed his hair with the towel before dropping it to the floor and sweeping me up in his arms to carry me, Rhett Butler-style, to his bed.
Like before, he moved quickly and the remnants of alcohol were still making my brain fuzzy, so I couldn’t keep up—but I really didn’t need to. After laying me on the bed, he first kissed me hard on the lips, but soon he was moving down my body—touching me with his fingers and tongue. By the time his head wound up between my legs, I was buzzing and alive and more than ready. After a few flicks of his tongue against my clit, my muscles had started to quiver, my breathing deepening in anticipation. My throat started making noises just before my brain exploded in an orgasm, shooting a chemical sensation throughout my entire nervous system.
While I didn’t know for certain, I suspected I’d just experienced