I took her hips as my balls tightened up. “That so?”
“Manning?” she asked, leaning her hands on my chest.
“Yeah, Birdy.”
“The other day, when I did that . . .”
“Did what?”
“You know.” Slowly, she ran her tongue along the edges of her teeth. Not to be sexy, but to say what she couldn’t with words. My cock stirred anyway. “Was it okay? Could I do it better?”
I watched her mouth, remembering the pure ecstasy of having it on me for the first time. It’d be impossible to describe that feeling with words. “You’re asking if it felt good when you gave me head? Did you like it when I did it to you?”
She blushed, curling her hands into my t-shirt. “Yes.”
“How much did you like it?” I asked.
She thought it over. “I never imagined sex could be that good. It’s the happiest I’ve ever been, having sex with you.”
I swallowed painfully, suddenly overcome. I knew it wasn’t the sex that made her so happy, but the intimacy of it, because the same was true for me. “Lake, I’d venture a guess that however good it felt for you, it was ten times better for me.”
“But isn’t it always like that, with all the girls?”
There was something about getting your dick sucked by the one you’d fantasized about for so long—it wasn’t the same as any other girl. Technique, capability, experience . . . it all went out the window. “You remember that night in the truck?” I asked.
“Of course.”
“How anything, even one touch, would’ve felt like the world?”
“Yes,” she whispered.
“That’s how everything feels now. You were perfect. And as we get to know each other, it’ll only get better. You’ll learn what I like over time.”
“I want to learn now.”
I pulled her down and kissed her. I was sweaty and greasy, but if I had to take her in the shower, that wasn’t a problem for me. Unfortunately, I didn’t get the chance. I heard a squeal, and Lake drew back in time for me to see Val whirl around in the doorway.
“Gross,” she said, covering her face.
“What are you doing here?” Lake asked.
“I live here,” she shot back.
Fucking Val. This wasn’t how or when I’d wanted to see her again. I just wanted time alone with Lake, who was getting up off my lap when I wanted her to be doing the opposite.
“I meant why aren’t you at Julian’s?” Lake asked.
Still shielding her eyes, Val put out a hand and felt her way to the kitchen counter. “We broke up. I need vodka. Now.”
“Oh no. Again?” Lake asked. “You can open your eyes. We aren’t naked or anything.”
Val dropped her hand and started fixing herself a drink. “Why were you having sex on the floor?”
“We weren’t,” Lake said, her voice pitching. “Manning was fixing the sink for us. He did a ton of stuff around the apartment.”
“Awesome. Now I don’t have to flash the super to get his attention.” Val turned on a small radio in the corner of the counter and switched the song from 2Pac. “If only Julian wasn’t so precious about his artist’s hands—”
“Wait, back up,” I said, climbing off the floor.
“What? Not a fan of Marcy Playground?” Val glared at me, chin over her shoulder, and raised the volume on “Sex and Candy.”
Shutting off 2Pac was an offense in and of itself, but that wasn’t what’d snagged my attention. “No—what was that about the super?”
It was the first time she’d looked at me since she’d walked in, and her eyes narrowed. Lake hadn’t mentioned any issue there, but by Val’s expression, I was pretty sure she knew my history with Lake—and didn’t approve. Val turned to face me and tried pushing some of her curls behind her ear, but they kept popping back out. “Why do you think everything in here is broken?” she asked. “The super won’t fix shit. I haven’t figured out if he’s lazy or if he’s staring so hard at my tits while I talk that his brain short circuits.”
“You didn’t seriously flash him, did you?” I asked her. I knew Lake would never do that, but I hated the thought of a perv in the building. For fuck’s sake, he probably had a key to their place. My face warmed. “Where does this guy live?”
“We can handle it,” Lake started. “We’ve been handling—”
“Lake, sweetheart.” I cut her off, cracking my knuckles. “I’ll take care of it.”
Val raised a freshly made cranberry vodka in my direction. “Apartment 6E. Have at it.”
I left the girls and headed upstairs. The super was a gangly old man, short on hair and abundant in beer gut. I was pretty sure Charles would forget his pride if he knew his daughter was relying on this man for anything.
“The building’s not up to code, which you know,” I told him as he answered the door in a wife-beater. “Let’s start with the lock to the building. It needs replacing.”