Parental Guidance (Ice Knights #1)(37)

“I’m never gonna live that down.” He said it as if he was laughing with his mom, but there was a tension in his jaw that belied his tone.

“Doubtful.” She did a good-natured one-shoulder shrug. “So what was it like cooking with Zara?”

Caleb’s smile went from perfunctory to genuine, and it was enough to make Zara’s heart beat faster.

“It was really fun,” he said. “She has a way of making things that I would normally not be into really fun.”

“So dinner and then what? A movie?”

“Sorta.” The tips of Caleb’s ears turned pink, and he looked down at the coffee table in front of the couch that someone had decorated with oversize photography books about Harbor City. “We watched some TV.”

His mom, obviously picking up on his telltale body language, leaned in. “And that’s it?”

Zara stiffened.

Hello, Miss None of Your Business Even Though He’s Your Son, you can just back off now.

Caleb must have been thinking the same thing because he didn’t mince words. “I’m not having this conversation with you, Mom—especially not when it includes the entirety of Harbor City.”

Britany Stuckey, though, didn’t seem to be fazed. “Because you like her?”

It was just another invasive question from Caleb’s mom, who didn’t seem to understand personal boundaries very well, but it came out different than the others. Softer. Concerned. Hopeful.

Zara couldn’t have looked away from Gemma’s phone screen if Anchovy had started eating the just-finished, one-twelfth-size doll of Kamala Markandaya. She held her breath, not wanting to miss a syllable of his answer.

“Because it’s the right thing to do and, yeah, because I like her,” he said, the words coming out strong and sure. “She’s really amazing. I just want to hang out with her as much as possible, even if that means learning to cook. Zara’s special.”

For a few seconds, Caleb and his mom just looked at each other, saying so much without uttering a word. Zara’s skin was hot, and her lungs felt ready to burst, but still, she couldn’t look away. If she had, she might have missed the quick one-two-three tap of Britany’s finger on Caleb’s forearm.

“And to think, I was the one who set up this play,” Britany said with a wink.

Instead of rolling his eyes at his mom’s outrageousness, though, he just said, “Thanks, Mom.”

The tip of Britany’s nose turned red, and a bright splotch of color appeared at the base of her throat as she stared at her son for a moment, speechless. It was the first time Zara had ever seen Caleb’s mom like that, but Zara could understand the feeling completely. Her own brain was in meltdown mode while her body was in heat-up mode, a totally inconvenient and unacceptable reaction to watching her not-dating partner talk to his mom about her on a video stream.

The video ended and the logo for Harbor City Wake Up appeared on the screen. Zara looked at Gemma, whose eyes were as big and round as saucers.

“Oh. My. God,” Gemma said. “You slept with him.”

Cheeks. Burning. Lava. Flames. “I did not.”

But only because Caleb was the type to give orgasms and run, which was followed by a string of texts over the past few days that she’d ignored because she was a big, embarrassed chicken. What do you say to someone after you come all over his face like a woman who hasn’t had a non-self-induced orgasm in literally forever? Was she supposed to text back “WYD?” Pour her heart out? Tell him her clit was usually broken when other people touched it? Demand he gets back to her apartment so she could tie him to the bed?

Gemma narrowed her eyes and crossed her arms, giving Zara a long, hard look. “You did something more with him than hold hands.”

Zara folded like cardboard in the rain. “I might have ended up naked.”

“You might have?” Gemma clapped. Literally. As if Zara had just won a spelling bee. “What about him?”

“Totally dressed.” The work that zipper must have done, though…judging by the hard length of him that she’d dry humped.

God, her cheeks were burning even more just thinking about it—in both a good and a bad way.

“And what happened while you were naked and he was fully clothed?” her bestie asked, because she, too, had never had a question she didn’t need to air.

“He went to town downtown.” Her core clenched just remembering the feel of his tongue against her.

“And…?”

Zara waited for a beat, screwing up her face, and prayed for courage because this next admission was going to cause shock waves. “I had an orgasm.”

Gemma set down her mug on the counter with a loud thunk. Her jaw dropped, and she just stared at Zara, blinking occasionally as the truth of the matter sank in.

“Oh my God. Oh m-my God,” she finally sputtered. “This is huge.”

It wasn’t like Zara went around telling everyone that she’d never had an orgasm with another person before. That kind of humiliation didn’t need to be shared. Really, who wanted to know that her body was defective unless she was by herself grinding out a toe-curler? The only person she’d ever told had been her best friend. Together they’d pored over sexual health books, the internet, and Gemma had even tried to get her to go to a therapist. None of it had worked.