Neighbor Dearest

He wriggled his brows. “Ah…so you’ve searched for me, then.”

“Yes.”

“Who’s the stalker now?”

“Don’t even get me started on stalking, D.H. Hennessey. What’s the H stand for anyway?”

“It’s a secret.”

“You’re good at those.”

“Ouch,” he said, poking me playfully in the rib.

“Are you feeling okay today?”

“Oh, no. Don’t tell me you’re gonna start asking me if I’m feeling okay every single hour…like my mother does.”

“I’ll try not to be annoying about it.”

“I feel great. In fact, I can’t remember the last time I felt this good.”

“Me, neither.”

“So, who was the guy hanging all over you?”

“I was hoping you’d drop it.”

“No such luck, baby.”

“His name is Craig. He’s in the show with my sister.”

“I see. Well, he almost made me lose my shit. I was ready to fly across the country.”

I decided to mess with him.

“He had asked me to go out with him. But I was too obsessed with someone else who kept rejecting me to entertain it.”

“That someone else was a real fucking fool.”

“He was, but he had his reasons. He’s a good guy.”

“He’s not that good. He wants to do very bad things to you right now.”

“He can do whatever he wants.”

“Don’t say that if you don’t mean it.”

“You’ve already done everything to me in my imagination. It’s been a long year.”

“Fuck. Really? What the fuck have I been doing to you without my even knowing? Is it possible to be jealous of your imaginary self? I want to beat the shit out of him—nasty fucker.”

“He and I…we’ve had a lot of good times.”

“Well, as of today, he’s done.”

I tugged on his hair. “We should probably get up off this floor at some point, huh?”

“I’ll never look at this floor the same.”

“Why don’t I go home and get some things. I didn’t exactly expect to be spending the night here.”

“What did you come here for again?” He laughed.

“I came here to give you a piece of my mind.”

“I got a piece of something, alright. It wasn’t your mind.”***When I returned to my apartment to grab some clothes, my phone buzzed, indicating I’d received an email. It was a notification from the dating site that I’d received a new message.

It was from Online Damien.Chelsea,I’m sorry I stood you up at the Powell Street Starbucks that day.

I’m just writing to let you know that I am cancelling my account after today, so you won’t see me on here anymore.

I had the best sex of my life tonight. It was with my best friend. And it was fucking awesome.

I should have listened to her weeks ago when she asked me to DUCK her.CHAPTER EIGHTEENBATHROOMS AND TREEHOUSESTo say we were making up for lost time was putting it mildly.

Over the next few weeks, Damien and I were inseparable. My insatiable man insisted that I spend every night at his apartment. Much to Dudley and Drewfus’ dismay, they were still banned from the bed now that I was a permanent fixture in it.

Damien and I still hadn’t had any real serious conversations about his heart condition. It remained a constant elephant in the room. I think we just needed to enjoy each other without the stress of thinking about anything else for a while. After all, his worrying about the “what ifs” had kept us apart long enough.

Sex was our distraction. We’d become addicted to it. I’d never had so much sex in my life, and yet I still couldn’t get enough of him. I’d count the minutes at work just to be able to get back to his place where he’d already be fully erect and waiting for me.

Damien and I had also developed an affinity for spontaneous fornication in public places. Maybe it stemmed from our near-miss in the bathroom at Diamondback’s way back when.

We were driving to San Jose one early Saturday afternoon on our way to visit his mother—my first time meeting her—when Damien flashed me a look from the driver’s side—a look I knew all too well.

“I want to fuck that beautiful mouth.” He squeezed my thigh. “There’s no way I’m gonna be able to keep my hands off you until tonight.”

“You’re gonna have to. I don’t think your mother will appreciate it if we excuse ourselves to sneak into the bedroom for a quickie.”

“I need something before we get there.”

“I could give you highway head.”

He grunted. “I would love that, but no fucking way. You’d have to take off your seatbelt. I’d crash the car. I’d never forgive myself if we got into an accident while you were blowing me unrestrained.” He adjusted himself. “Shit. It’s not even safe for me to drive while thinking about you going down on me.”

I rubbed my hand over the erection straining through his jeans. “Don’t think and drive.”

“No. I definitely can’t think about your wet mouth wrapped around my cock when I’m at the wheel. But now that you’ve also touched me, it’s too late.” He suddenly pulled into a rest area with a service station.