My brothers start their catcalling, and I finally have to lift my head. I flip them the bird, and she steps back from me, her cheeks all rosy and pretty. She waves at my brothers. It’s a jerky, quick move, and then she buries her face in my shirt. She’s so f**king beautiful that she steals my breath, and her blushing is absolutely adorable.

Sky grabs my shirt in her fists and jerks my gaze to hers. “Have you had lunch yet?” she asks.

I just ate, but I wouldn’t pass up a chance to sit beside her for an hour for anything. I shake my head. “Do you want to go out?”

She bites her lower lip between her teeth. “Want to go to my place?”

She avoids my gaze, and my heart does that fluttery thing again. “For lunch?”

She nods, but her cheeks go even rosier, and I have no idea what she’s thinking. I hope she’s thinking what I’m thinking, which revolves all around getting her na**d and getting me inside her.

“What’s for lunch?” I ask as I shrug into my coat. I’m wondering what her plan is, or if we need to stop to pick up sandwiches or something.

She smiles. “Me,” she says quietly. Then her smile turns into a grin, and she starts for the front door. I follow like a puppy at her heels because I can’t do anything else.

Skylar

Matt trips over his own foot as we step out into the street, and I have to cover my mouth to keep from laughing out loud. He’s so damn adorable that anyone who didn’t fall in love with him would be an idiot. And I am not an idiot. At least not today. Today, I’m Matt’s girlfriend. I am not the daughter of a drug-and-alcohol-abusing mother and a cheating father. I’m done with that for today. I’m just Matt’s girl. And Matt just tripped over his own foot to get close to me.

“Oh, you think that’s funny, do you?” he asks. He draws me into his arms and nuzzles my neck. Then he pushes back and looks down at me. “Why aren’t you at work?” he asks as he threads his fingers through mine. The heat of his palm seeps into my skin and warms me unlike any other touch I have ever experienced. He looks into my eyes. “Everything okay?”

I roll my neck from side to side. I didn’t realize how much my shoulders hurt I was until I saw Matt. I wish I were one of those people who could crack their neck; it always seems like it would help so much. Matt’s hands come up to knead my shoulders from the front.

“You’re so tense,” he says, his eyebrows drawing together. “What’s up?” He has only known me for a couple of weeks, and he already can sense my moods. I’m not one hundred percent sure I like it.

“I went to see my mom today,” I admit.

His eyes narrow as he walks around my car and opens my door for me. I slide inside and he runs around the front of the car to get in the passenger seat. “How did it go?” he asks after he buckles up. He turns the radio down because I left the volume a little loud when I parked.

I sigh. “Better than I expected. But now I don’t know what to do with it all, you know?”

He nods. But the words that come out of his mouth are, “No, not really.” He waits a minute and then says, “I mean, my family has its share of problems. But there’s no one who abandoned me and then I had to reach out to in rehab, no.”

“She didn’t abandon me,” I start.

“They both did, Sky,” he says softly. “Just as surely as our dad did, your parents did. Just because they have a bunch of money and paid people to do what they should have been doing all along doesn’t make them any better.”

“Can we talk about something else?” I ask. My head is starting to hurt, and I stretch my neck again.

Matt reaches over and starts to knead my shoulder. “I’ll take care of that for you when we get to the apartment,” he says quietly.

“What?” I ask, turning my head to look at him.

“That headache,” he says.

How did he know I have a headache? “It’s nothing,” I say.

We pull up at my apartment and park on the side of the street. Matt takes my hand as we walk inside. When the elevator doors close, he pulls me against his front, and I can feel the length of him pressed against my bottom. Goodness. He’s ready for whatever we’re about to do.

We walk through the door, and I throw my keys onto the kitchen table.

“Why did you bring me here?” he asks. His words whip around the room like lightning, striking me harder than he probably intended.

“I…” I can’t verbalize it. I can’t tell him.

“You what?” he asks. He walks slowly toward me and cups the side of my neck with his hand. He’s gentle and tender, and yet I can feel how much he wants me. I might even be able to feel how much he loves me, even though I’m not sure what that is yet. Is it real? I don’t know enough about it to be sure. “Why did you bring me here?”

I dip my head and push my forehead against his chest. I breathe in the scent of him and hold it deep inside me. I don’t want to exhale and let it go. It’s woodsy and manly and clean, and it’s all Matt. “I feel like I have been emotionally assaulted, Matt,” I say quietly. “And when it was all over, I needed someone who could make me feel safe.” I look up at him, and his blue eyes don’t even blink. “I needed someone who cares for me.”

Matt scoops me up in his arms, one arm beneath my knees and the other behind my back. I squeal in surprise. He laughs and carries me into my bedroom. He kicks the door shut behind us. “How long do we have before you have to pick up the girls?” he asks. He sits down on the side of my bed and takes off his boots. He’s moving quickly, and he grins.

I kick my sneakers off and pull my shirt over my head. “Hours,” I say. I unbutton my jeans and push them down my legs, stepping out and kicking them to the side. Matt licks his lips. He tugs my arm when I reach behind my back to unfasten my bra. “Slow down just a little,” he says. “I’m not going to rush the first time I get to love you.”

My heart trips a beat. “Okay,” I say quietly. I sit down on the side of the bed and cross my arms over my chest. I’m feeling a little self-conscious, particularly since I’m not wearing sexy undies. I’m wearing everyday panties and my ratty, old comfy bra.

Matt taps my chin with a crooked finger, and I look up at him. “Stop thinking,” he says. He stands up and unfastens his belt, then pulls the belt from the buckle. He shoves his jeans down over his hips, and I can’t jerk my eyes away when I see that his boxers are tented by his… God, he’s huge. “Stop thinking about that, too,” he says over a laugh.

“Lie down on your stomach,” he says. He walks into my bathroom and comes back with a bottle of lotion. I crawl across the bed and lay my head on my pillow, my arms crossed beneath it. I watch him as he walks slowly toward me. “God, you’re so beautiful,” he says quietly. He sits down beside me and squirts some lotion into his hands, then rubs them together briskly to warm it up.

“What are you doing?” I ask.

“Taking care of you,” he says. His hip touches mine, and then his warm, slick hands land on my na**d shoulders. He applies pressure with his slippery fingertips, and it feels so damn good that a moan leaves my throat. “This okay?” he asks.

I moan again and nod my head, jamming my face into my pillow. “Please don’t stop.” I say.

He chuckles. “I won’t.” He does lift his hands for a minute, though, so that he can climb up to straddle my bottom. He doesn’t put any of his weight on me, but I can feel him, heavy and hard on top of my lower back. “Can I undo this?” he asks quietly, his voice suddenly rough and abraded when he pulls gently on my bra fastening.

“Yes,” I squeak into my pillow.

“What?” he asks with a laugh.

I turn my face and say quietly, “Yes, please.” Then I bury my face in the pillow again so he won’t see how flushed my skin is.

He unclasps my bra and pulls it out of his way, and then his thumbs begin to do miraculous things up and down my spine. I sink into the mattress after a few minutes, going almost limp as he attacks my muscles one by one, moving from my neck to my shoulder to my back and down to my bottom. He stops when he reaches the elastic of my panties.

“Don’t stop,” I whimper.

“Tell me what happened with your mother,” he says when he has me sated and happy.

“I don’t want to,” I mutter.

He lifts his hands from my body. “I’ll stop now, then,” he says. Then he waits.

I heave in a breath. “Please don’t stop,” I beg. I have never had anyone take such great care with me. I’ve never had anyone who wasn’t paid to give me a massage try to do so. I have ever felt such…affection? I don’t even know what it is, but I do know it’s foreign.

“Talk to me, Sky,” he says. He lifts himself, and I immediately turn to see where he’s going, but he just moves farther down my legs. I sigh with contentment when he starts to rub the backs of my thighs.

I talk. I tell him everything that happened with my mother while he works his magic on my body. He grunts when it’s appropriate to the story, and his hands get harsh when he’s angry, but then they gentle. He listens. And he takes care of me, all the way down to my toes.

“I knew they’d met,” Matt admits. “I didn’t know it was a secret,” Matt says when I tell him about Kendra and my mother having lunch. “She liked your mom, and she really regretted the situation she was in.”

Matt’s fingers hook in the h*ps of my panties, and he gives a gentle tug. He stops. “Is this okay?” he asks as he pulls my panties down under my butt cheeks. He takes in a quick breath, and my heartbeat jumps.

“Yeah,” I whisper, smiling into my pillow. I lift my hips, and he pulls them all the way down my legs. I know he can see my ass, and then suddenly his hands are there. “God.”

He pulls back. “Too much?” he asks.

“Not enough,” I tell him.

He sucks in another breath, and his hands settle on my ass cheeks again. He squeezes and lifts and rubs, and he lets out a groan that seems so much like the one stuck in my throat.

My muscles feel like rubber, like I couldn’t stand if I wanted to.

“Roll over,” he says quietly. He pats my bottom. “Wait,” he says when I hesitate. He slides his fingers up my inner thighs and parts my flesh. “Thank God,” he says.

“What?” I ask. I look at him from over my shoulder.

“You’re wet. I was hoping it wasn’t just me,” he says. “You got me so turned on that I don’t know what to do next.” He parts my lower lips with his fingertips and slides a finger inside me. I push back against him.

“You can keep doing that,” I suggest. I gasp as he pushes forward, adding another finger. I lift to meet him.

He chuckles. “I can’t get to anything from here,” he says. He pulls out of me and slaps my butt with his wet hand. “Roll over.”

I pull the sheet to cover my middle and roll over. Matt comes up to kiss me. God, he takes like everything I ever wanted. He tugs playfully at my sheet.

“This has to go,” he says with a laugh.

I clutch it to me. “I’ll be na**d,” I whisper.

“That’s what I’m going for,” he whispers back playfully. He tugs the sheet again, and I let it slide away from me. I pick up the pillow and put it over my face. I’m embarrassed, but I don’t want him to stop. I would stab him if he stopped right now. My cl*tis thrumming so hard that I can feel it in my entire body.

He whistles like a dockworker when my body is bare. His hands slide up and down my sides, gentle and soft, but with an intensity like I’ve never known. It’s almost as if he’s memorizing the lines of me. He pulls my hands back and says, “I’m so sorry. I think I just drooled on you.”

I laugh and lift the pillow to look down at him. But his eyes are on my breasts. He cups them in his big, tattooed hands and plumps them.

“God, they’re so perfect,” he says. Then he takes my nipple into his mouth. It’s not a gentle lick. It’s a pull that reaches the very center of me. He laves my nipple, rolling it against the roof of his mouth as he toys with the other breast with his fingertips. I pull the pillow back over my face because if I keep looking at him as he looks into my eyes and plays me, I’ll explode.

“Matt, please,” I beg.

He lifts the pillow from my eyes and tosses it off the bed. His eyes are deep blue, his pupils wide and intense as he kisses his way down my stomach. “I told you I’d take care of you,” he says. “Patience.” His breath tickles my belly button just before his tongue dips inside.

Matt pushes my legs apart and settles between my thighs, his exhales teasing the little strip of hair at the apex of my thighs.

“I like this,” he says as he brushes it with his thumb. I arch my h*ps toward his pressing fingers.

“Matt,” I beg. I’m going to be a quivering, pleading mess if he doesn’t get on with it. “Please.” Oh crap. I already am.

His thumbs part my folds, and he slides two fingers inside me. I lift my head to watch him as he licks across my clit. But it’s not enough. I squirm, and he rewards me by pushing his fingers deeper. He crooks his fingers and presses down with his hand just above my pubic bone, and his lips latch on to my throbbing clit.

“Oh my God,” I breathe.

He lifts his head just long enough to say, “Nope. Just Matt.”

I thread my fingers through his hair and push his head back to where I want it. He latches on again, and licks against my cl*tin time with the thrusts of his crooked fingers. I grip the sheets in my hands, squeezing tightly, because Matt is about to break me. I can feel the build up. I keen and cry out and arch my h*ps to meet him. Then he starts to hum against my tender flesh.