Slowly We Trust (14 page)

I woke the next morning to someone nibbling my ear and something hard pressing into my back.

I groaned and rolled to face Will, who stared at me with eyes puffy from sleep, but with a smile on his face.

“You’re not trying to talk me into morning sex, are you?” My voice was raspy, and I cleared my throat. Judging by the quality of the light, it was still early and a glance at my clock confirmed that I had plenty of time to get ready for class.

“Hey, I can’t help that you were snuggled up against me all last night and you smell amazing and you’re warm. My cock has a mind of its own.” He pointed down at said cock, which was making its presence known.

“Do you think you could, you know, help me out with it?” I wanted to roll my eyes at him and tell him no way, but he gave me big begging eyes and was so disheveled and sweet that I couldn’t resist.

I went down on him since I wasn’t all that comfortable with using my hand. I always felt like I was doing it wrong.

He came so fast I had no choice but to swallow, which I was able to accomplish, despite my limited experience.

“Fuck, Aud. I keep thinking you’ve done something that’s so sexy, I don’t see how you can top it and then you do something like that. I’m pretty sure my ex used hand sanitizer as lube once when she gave me a hand job.” The more I heard about this girl, the more I wondered why Will ever stayed with her. But when you were young and stupid you tended to do things that were young and stupid.

I just smiled and then crawled out of bed.

“Where are you going?” he whined, grabbing me by the waist and trying to drag me back to bed.

“I’m going to brush my teeth. I’ll be right back.” He just shook his head and tugged harder.

“No teeth brushing. More cuddling.”

“I thought guys hated cuddling,” I said, still trying to pull away from him.

“Like I said, guys who aren’t with you.” He tugged and I fell back on the bed on top of him.

“Will, come on,” I whined as he wrapped his arms around me and clung like a koala. A very large koala.

“Nope. Never letting you go.”

“I just gave you head and swallowed. Can I please go brush my teeth? You can come with me if you want.”

“Oh, right. Sorry about that.” He let me go, but I grabbed his hand and pulled him up with me.

I gave him a kiss on the cheek before grabbing some clothes and throwing Will’s back at him.

“You know, I should just keep some clothes here, if I’m going to be spending the night,” he said, putting his shirt over his head and covering up his chest and stomach. I almost pouted at the loss of the visual.

“Oh, so you’re moving in now?”

I put on a bra and a tank top, then a pair of panties and a ratty pair of shorts.

“You look so good like that,” Will said, staring at me. “I mean, if I hadn’t seen you naked, this would be my favorite look for you. Have I told you how much I love your ass? Like, seriously love it.” He stood in front of me, reaching around and grabbing said ass, squeezing and massaging so much that I wanted to throw him back in bed. Hadn’t we had enough of each other for 24 hours? How could I still have the energy to want him inside me again?

“Hey, I have a crazy idea. How about we skip class today and go have breakfast and then do . . . whatever we want.” I had a feeling I knew what he would want.

“That is a crazy idea and, while I love it, I can’t. I can’t miss class, Will. Remember our New Year’s resolutions? There’s no way I’m losing.” I really wanted that money.

“One day isn’t going to sink your GPA, Aud.”

“They also said an iceberg couldn’t sink the
Titanic
and look what happened there.”

He sighed, and I smelled defeat.

“Please? It’s Friday. No professor does anything on Friday. Please? Please?” Oh, if only he hadn’t said please. I looked up at him as he rubbed his hands up and down my back.

“Please?”

He kissed my cheek and then lowered himself to his knees, lifting my shirt and dipping his tongue into my bellybutton.

“Please?”

He kissed lower, his hands slowly dragging the shorts and underwear I’d just put on down my legs. And then his mouth was busy and I was the one begging.

I should have felt bad for making Audrey miss class. A little part of me did. But she had a tendency to be, hmm, a little, uptight? Not that her being academically driven was a bad thing. I loved how smart she was and how she cared so much about school.

Sometimes, though, you needed a break. A day to be young and foolish. A day spent in bed with ice cream and bad movies, or running around outside, or driving around and listening to the radio.

I didn’t care what we did today, as long as I got to do it with her.

“You are such a terrible influence,” she said as she ran a brush through her hair after her shower. I’d begged to shower with her, but she’d finally said no to me.

“What would everyone think?” she’d said.

“That you have an awesome boyfriend?” It was the first time I’d called myself that, out loud to her face.

“Be that as it may, I don’t want to be one of
those
girls who takes a shower with her boyfriend in the dorms.” With that, she’d skipped off and I’d been left waiting in her room for her.

I’d been surprised she’d given in so easily to my plan for playing hooky. Granted, I had gone down on her to make her say yes, so I’d played kind of dirty to get what I wanted.

“So what are we going to do today?” she asked, running a brush through her silky hair.

“I didn’t plan that far ahead,” I said. “But I am hungry and I’d like to get something to eat.”

“Okay.” She looked over her shoulder at me, a towel loosely wrapped around her. All I’d need to do was tug a little and she’d be naked in front of me, her skin still damp from her shower. Breakfast could wait.

And then my stomach growled.

“We should probably hurry. I wouldn’t want you to starve.” She turned on her hairdryer and that drowned out conversation for a minute. I decided that I should probably take a shower as well. And clothes. I needed new clothes. Simon was already in class, so I could definitely sneak back to my room without anyone knowing.

I’d already texted Simon that I’d stayed over at Lottie and Zan’s. He knew how much I hated sleeping in a room by myself. I was going to have to come clean tonight at dinner, but for today, I wanted it to just be Aud and me.

“I’m going to go shower,” I said loudly. She nodded and I grabbed a towel from her closet and her shower caddy. I definitely wouldn’t mind smelling like Aud today.

A girl was also leaving her room at the same time I left Aud’s and she gave me a look as I headed to the shower. I just grinned at her. Earlier this year, I would have found her attractive, but now it was like I had blinders on. I could appreciate that other girls were pretty, but it was like they all dimmed in comparison to Aud. She glowed like a firework.

After I’d washed with all Audrey’s products and rinsed, I wrapped the towel around my waist and headed back to her room.

“Hey,” I said, closing her door. She was in the midst of putting her hair back in a ponytail. Her mouth dropped open.

“What?”

“You walked back here like that? Why didn’t you put your clothes back on?” She seemed horrified.

“Uh, yeah. I didn’t want to put my clothes back on because, you know, they’re from yesterday; but then I was thinking that the only way to go get more clothes is to put these ones back on because my other clothes are back at my dorm, and then I thought maybe I could borrow something of yours, or something, and then I just decided to wear the towel.”

Audrey shook her head and burst out laughing.

“You’re so much like your sister sometimes,” she said, giving me a kiss.

“I am not. She rambles all day. My rambles are an isolated incident.” Her hands dragged down my still-wet chest.

“I can go get some clothes, if you want to wait here. I don’t mind. As long as you don’t care what I pick out.”

That could be interesting. Aud always looked nice and I definitely didn’t care about fashion.

“I don’t want to make you walk all the way up the hill to get me clothes.” That would be stupid.

“No, really. It’s fine. I think I need a walk anyway.” She’d been so
there
with me since she’d told me she loved me and now, all of a sudden, I could feel her pulling away again.

“Aud?” She just smiled at me as she slipped her boots on and her heavy peacoat. Shut up, I know what a peacoat is because my sister wears one.

“I’ll be right back.” And then she was out the door.

I sighed and sat down on her bed before picking up her towel and using it to dry my hair. I loved how it smelled now.

My phone buzzed with a new text.

I know what you did last night, you virtue stealer.

Of course it was from my sister and of course she knew what I’d done last night. She knew everything, just like I knew everything about her.

There was no virtue stealing, Lot. Calm your shit down.

I could visualize her glaring at me through the phone and furiously typing a response.

What the hell are you talking about? You totally had sex with Aud.

This really wasn’t the kind of thing I wanted to talk about via text, or at all, but I knew Lot wouldn’t let it go until we’d hashed this out.

Are we really going to do this via text?

Her response was so quick, it was like she’d anticipated what I’d say and had pre-typed it.

Nope. I’m standing outside Aud’s building waiting for someone to let me in.

Of course she was. Because she was my sister and it was her mission in life to ruin mine.

I’m walking up the stairs . . .

I ran to the door and flicked the lock, but I knew it would only be a matter of time before Lottie found a way in. She was obsessed with roofs, and I could picture her rappelling down the side of the building and coming in through the window.

I stood by the door and waited. I could sense her coming closer, even though I couldn’t hear footsteps.

“I can hear you out there, Lot,” I said through the seam of the door.

“You’re such a liar. Let me in,” she said after a few seconds of silence.

“This twindar thing works both ways. You can try to use it against me all you want, but you forget that I have it too.” I knew the look she was giving me, and probably the finger as well.

“Will. Just let me in.”

“Why? What business is it of yours?” I knew the answer to the question even before the words left my mouth.

“You’re being an idiot. Open the damn door.” Audrey would be back fairly soon, and it would be weird for her to find Lottie here, but I didn’t think Lottie was going to take no for an answer. So I flicked the lock and opened the door.

“Seriously? You’re in a towel?” She motioned to my attire.

“I took a shower and didn’t want to put my clothes back on. Aud’s gone to get me some more.”

Lottie smacked me in the chest, hard.

“You have sex with her and then make her get you clothes? Are you trying to be an asshole?” I grabbed her arm, dragged her into the room and shut the door so the entire hallway couldn't hear her ream me out.

“Look, you should probably slow your roll and stop judging before you know the entire situation.” I put my hands up and backed up until I sat down on the spare bed. The other one was still messed up from last night. Did that seriously happen? I still couldn’t believe it.

Flashes of how Audrey had looked arched above me, riding me until . . .

“You’re sick, you know that?” Lottie snapped her fingers in front of my face. “I’m ashamed to be related to you.”

“How about you shut up for a second and listen?” I turned toward her as she crossed her arms and glared at me.

“Not that I should even be telling you this, but Aud’s not a virgin. She let you think that, but she’s not. And whatever we did, which is none of your business, was consensual. Do you really think she’d let me take advantage of her?”

“Well, no. But you have ways, Will. You’re very convincing.”

“Are you fucking serious right now?” At first she’d been irritating but now she was pissing me off. And wasn’t she the one who wanted us together in the first place?

“What is your deal? This clearly isn’t about me and Aud.”

Her anger faltered for a second.

“I was just thinking about what happens if you two get together and it doesn’t work out. I mean, I did a week of trying to go between you two and it sucked ass. She’s my friend and you’re my brother and I love you both and I couldn’t deal with you breaking up and I’m just scared that it’s going to end.” I knew it had nothing to do with me supposedly taking Aud’s “virtue”.

“Dude, you gotta calm down. You’re going to give yourself an ulcer.” I worried about her excessive worrying. Which was pretty sick, if you thought about it.

“Don’t call me dude,” she sniped, just as the door opened.

“Oh, hey, Lottie.” Audrey set my backpack down on the floor. “What are you doing here?”

“I think I’m going to go change and give you two a minute,” I said, getting up and going to get my backpack. I was a little tired of being the only one wearing a towel.

“Don’t run away. You know I can find you,” Lottie said, pointing at me.

“Yeah, yeah,” I said, waving my hand as I opened the door and headed for the bathroom.

The short walk up the hill to get Will’s clothes hadn’t done much to clear my head. Then again, a two-hour walk probably wouldn’t clear my head right now. All I could think of when I let my mind wander was Will. On top of me, under me, with his head between my legs, on his knees . . .

I couldn’t stop myself from blushing every time I thought about it. Who was that girl who’d been so free with her body? I’d felt like a completely different person last night. At the same time, I’d felt more myself than I had in a long time. Was it possible that a side of me I hadn’t known existed had been dormant and just awakened?

I looked down at my hands. They didn’t look different. I clenched them both into fists. The memory of Will’s hot skin lingered on them. I’d showered, but I swore I could still smell him.

Madness. This was madness.

I kept walking and used Will’s card to get into his building and then headed down the hall to his room, praying Simon was indeed, gone. I didn’t think I could face anyone right now. I needed to understand how I felt about the situation before I tried to explain it to anyone else.

The door was locked, and I knocked just to be sure, but the room was empty. I’d only been in here a few times. Normally I tried to stay as far from Will’s room as possible. Being around all his things made it much harder to think and see reason.

Of course his side of the room was a wreck. Clothes everywhere, notebooks, pens, a few soda bottles. Will wasn’t dirty, he was just, what would be the best word? Messy. Haphazard. Simon’s side of the room looked like it was arranged by a professional organizer. Or at least some diligent house elves. Everything was in clear plastic tubs that had labels. Their new entertainment center took up most of the far end of the room.

Stepping over a pair of sneakers, I went to Will’s dresser and opened the top drawer, which was filled with underwear and socks. I shut my eyes, grabbed a pair of undies and a pair of socks and tucked them under my arm. I looked around and found his backpack and shoved the undies and socks in it before I grabbed a t-shirt, pants, a hoodie and a jacket. That would be enough, right? Or maybe he wouldn’t like what I picked. I went back and got a second outfit, just in case, before I snuck out of the room like a burglar, closing the door behind me.