She smiled again and lifted her head to meet me with a kiss. Her arms wrapped around me and she held on tight, ready for this to happen.

I pulled out, and eyes still focused on Evie’s, I pushed back in, all the way. But not hard. Not yet. Her eyes widened but she squeezed her legs tighter around me as if she was telling me to keep going. So I did. This time I pulled out and thrust in a little harder.

Fucking hell, Evie’s pussy was tight. This could be over fast.

I pulled out again and thrust hard. My release teased the edges of my consciousness and I dropped my head into her neck as I continued to pump into her.

She moved her hips with me, and fuck, I was so fucking close. “I’m gonna come, Evie,” I grunted through hard breaths, almost at the point where I wouldn’t be able to hold back any longer.

She didn’t say anything but just squeezed her legs around me tighter, her pussy squeezing tighter around my dick. I took it as another sign to keep going and a minute later, I came. Harder than I’d ever come before.

Once I’d wrung every drop from my orgasm, I lifted my head to look at her. She smiled up at me, and I apologised, “I’m sorry you didn’t come.”

“I did earlier so it’s okay.”

“No, it’s not, but I promise the next time you will.”

Surprise flared in her eyes. “Next time?”

I frowned. “You thought this was a once off?”

“I thought this was you showing up to help me celebrate my eighteenth and then taking me home for a one night stand.”

“Fuck no,” I said as I pulled out of her and pushed up off the bed to dispose of the condom. When I came back from the bathroom I brought a cloth with me to clean her up, but she’d pulled the sheet up to cover herself.

I sat on the bed next to her and frowned. “Why did you cover yourself?”

Her face flamed red. “You turned the light on.”

“Yeah, cause I want to clean you up so I need to be able to see for that.”

“Oh my God, Kick, I can clean myself up!” She seemed embarrassed and I couldn’t figure out why.

“Evie, we just fucked . . . I just had my mouth on your pussy, and you’re embarrassed for me to clean you up?”

She covered her hand with her face for a moment and then she sat up so our faces were level. “It was dark and you couldn’t see my body,” she whispered, her eyes reaching out to me, to understand.

And I did fucking understand, and it made me fucking angry.

I moved her hand, the one clutching the sheet to hide her body from me. When the sheet fell, I ran a finger across the top of her breasts. With my gaze fixed to hers, I said, “Don’t let those bitches from school make you believe you’re not beautiful. Just because they told you you’re ugly or whatever the fuck they told you, it doesn’t make it true. And it’s not fuckin’ true, Evie.” I leant my face down to whisper kisses over her breasts. When I’d finished, I said, “You’re the most beautiful woman I know.”

Tears threatened to fall, but she held them back. Swallowing hard, she said, “Thank you. I’m such an idiot for believing them.” Her voice drifted off as she spoke so that the last few words were almost a whisper, and she hung her head.

I placed a finger underneath her chin and tilted her face up with it. “You’re not an idiot, you’ve just had so much shit thrown at you that you’ve started to believe it.”

As I sat and watched her take that in, my chest tightened. Evie had been through so much and yet she was the best person I knew. Even though people had been so mean to her, and nasty, she was still the kindest and most caring person in my life. And I’d been an idiot last year after I finished school. While she finished her final year, I’d joined Storm and focused all my attention there, neglecting our friendship.

I was fixing that mistake now because if I was truly honest with myself, I’d wanted Evie for years.

I wanted her in my life.

And in my bed.

***

I leant against the doorway of my bedroom and watched Evie sleep.

Peaceful.

Fuck, she was beautiful. I had a permanent fucking hard-on for her and, she had no idea. Not fucking her last night had been one of the toughest things I’d done in ages.

She stirred and a moment later her eyes came to mine. “Morning,” she said, and then she winced, placing a hand to her head.

I pushed off from the wall and walked to her side of the bed. Sitting on the edge, I passed her the water on the bedside table and two aspirins.

“Thank you,” she murmured, taking the pills from me. Once she’d swallowed them, she gave the glass back to me.

I stood and asked, “Do you have to work today?”

“Yeah.”

“Okay, I’ll take you home so you can get ready and then I’ll take you to work. And then I’ll pick you up after work.”

“I can drive myself, Kick,” she said, her voice off. I thought we’d made progress last night but uncertainty now hit my gut.

“No, you can’t. You’ll be over the limit.”

She stared at me, in obvious pain from her headache, and I was sure she was about to argue with me again when she surprised the shit out of me and said, “Fine, you can drive me.”

“Good, that’s fuckin’ settled. I’ll wait for you in the kitchen.”

I left her to it, and a moment later I heard her crashing around in my bedroom. Relief hit me, thank fuck she’d agreed to let me drive her because she was definitely in no state to be driving.