Breakaway (Beyond the Play, #2)(42)

“We have homework,” she reminds me. “And aren’t they like, a million years long?”

“We can multitask. Plus, that was intense. I was going to cuddle you either way, so if I were you, I’d just surrender.”

She smiles. “What makes you think I’d even like it?”

“I saw the book you were reading while you waited for class to start. It’s fantasy, right?”

“Fantasy romance,” she says, a touch of defiance in her tone. Like she’s waiting for me to make fun of her. As if I’d do that; I’m fully aware I’m a nerd where media is concerned. I’m happy to play Call of Duty with my bros, but I prefer Legend of Zelda. I’ll read Fitzgerald and Sontag and Baldwin and enjoy it, but I’d still rather read George R.R. Martin. It makes perfect sense to me that Penny enjoys a good romance novel. Judging by the couple of paperbacks I’ve noticed in her dorm room and the stickers on her Kindle, she likes ‘em sexy. I wonder if that’s what she writes, too. I haven’t gotten her to admit what the book she’s writing is about, but it’s cool as hell that she’s doing it in the first place.

“Hey, I like romance in my fantasy too. You’ll like the love story in these movies.”

“Okay, fine. But I’m using your shower first.”

I tuck my hand under her chin, looking her in the eyes. “You sure you’re good? Can I get you anything?”

She nods, biting her lip. “More pizza?”

She looks so pretty I can’t help but kiss her. I put my palm against the Celtic knot tattoo on my chest. “Ah, a woman after my own heart.”

She rolls her eyes, trying and failing to hide a smile, as she picks up her clothes. She makes a face, looking down; my come still streaks her stomach, and her inner thighs must be getting stickier by the moment. I still can’t believe she squirted; that was hot as fuck. While she’s in the bathroom, I’ll change my sheets, so she doesn’t get embarrassed about the wet spot. She grabs my t-shirt and throws it on.

“This doesn’t mean anything,” she says, poking me in the chest with her index finger. “I just don’t want to get my clothes dirty.”

I salute her. “Yes, ma’am.”

“What, no m’lady?”

I grin at her. “Turn around so I can see my handiwork.”

Right before she opens the door, she pulls the shirt up, giving me a view of her cotton candy-pink ass. I whistle, and she gives me a faux outraged look, but I just wink.

Then I get down to the serious business of queuing up The Fellowship of the Ring.





23





PENNY





“I just can’t believe he’s gone,” I tell Mia.

We shuffle forward in line. Halloween is coming up soon, so the theater in town is showing The Silence of the Lambs. I don’t really like horror, but Mia is obsessed with Jodie Foster, so the plan is to eat a bunch of popcorn and cover my eyes whenever anything particularly creepy happens. I’d rather watch the next Lord of the Rings movie, but I haven’t seen Cooper in a few days.

Mia glances at me. She’s wearing an enormous black scarf wrapped around her neck twice, giving the impression that her head is detached from her body. “I guess it was his time.”

“He was fine just yesterday!”

The girl ahead of us in line turns around and says, “I am so sorry for your loss.”

I glance at Mia, who says, “We should hold a funeral. Although I’m not sure how, it’s not like you can flush him down the toilet.”

The girl gets a confused look on her face and turns back around. I try to control my laughter. “We could have a ceremony over the garbage can down in the laundry room.”

“Or maybe we should nick a spade from the greenhouse and dig him a grave.”

“Here lies Igor,” I start. “A loyal servant.”

“Devoted to the pursuit of pleasure until the end,” Mia continues.

I bow my head gravely. “A true hero. He will be missed.”

“What the fuck,” the girl mutters with a glance back at us.

We just giggle. It really is sad that Igor kicked the bucket while I was trying to spin a really hot fantasy about a werewolf who kidnapped me and—I haven’t admitted this part to Mia—had eyes just like Cooper’s. I may have been working on my book before I abandoned it for my bed. I tried to revive him with fresh batteries and a recharge, but neither worked. Maybe his flight across my room was his swan song, and I didn’t even realize it.

I have my rabbit vibrator, the one last used when Cooper teased me out of my mind, but it’s not the same. You’d think that hooking up with someone on the regular would mean I wouldn’t care, but I’ve been hornier than ever. It’s like getting a taste of the real thing has just supercharged my fantasies; I had a wet dream the other day that involved another blue-eyed hottie spanking me with his belt instead of just using it as a restraint. Damn that dark mafia romance reading binge I went on over the summer.

“I just can’t believe he would abandon me in my time of need,” I say. “I need something to distract me from the fact I’m actually going to fail chemistry.”

We step up to the ticket booth, so Mia has to wait to answer until we’re on the concessions line. “Are you serious? I thought you passed your midterm.”