My phone buzzed like a phantom somewhere under the damp, tangled sheets, relentless as a guilty conscience. Dylan's musky cologne still hung in the air, pulling me back to the shower--his mouth searing my throat, hands gliding over my soapy skin. Of course it was Mom, her Catholic panic kicking in before she'd even made it back to New Hampshire. Four hours wasn't enough distance to stop her from checking if my first taste of freedom met her saintly standards.
I should have answered before, but my priorities had been...
elsewhere
. My skin still tingly from his touch, those strong yet gentle hands sliding up and down my soapy back, the memory alone enough to send a shiver low in my belly. And then there was the undeniable dampness between my legs, a blatant reminder of rhythm we'd found pressed together against the cool tile.
I had to come up with a believable lie, a saintly narrative of making friends and settling in, because the truth--the gloriously messy, sticky, orgasm-fueled truth--would send my mom into a full-blown rosary recitation.
If Mom ever found out that my first night of college involved being intimately wrapped around Dylan--first under the steaming spray of the coed shower, our bodies slick and urgent as we explored every curve and crevice, the sweet taste of his lips and the salty taste of his manhood still on my tongue, and then back into the privacy of my tiny dorm room where that spark detonated into a full-blown inferno on my sheets--she'd probably try to enroll me in a convent. No way could I confess that I'd ignored her calls because I was too busy exploring every inch of Dylan's body with my fingers, tongue, and much more intimate parts, that I was consumed by his orgasmic releases, first in my mouth and then, more intimately, inside me.
Finally, I located the noisy culprit, fishing my phone from the chaotic aftermath. Mom's name blazed accusingly across the screen. Taking a deep breath, I swiped to answer. "Hey, Mom!" I chirped, injecting an upbeat tone that felt miles away from the lingering warmth and stickiness between my thighs.
"Carly! Thank God! I've been trying to reach you. Is everything okay? I called before but you didn't answer." Her voice was tight with that familiar, suffocating worry.
"Yeah, yeah, everything's great." I lied smoothly, my gaze drifting over to Dylan. He was stretched out on my bed, still naked and deliciously relaxed. His dark, powerful eyes flickered open, meeting mine with a knowing smirk that sent a fresh wave of heat pooling low in my abdomen. Sweat trickled down from his not-so-perfectly formed, yet incredibly sexy abs and then lower, near his perking up manhood. An urge, almost desperate need to drop the phone and take him again...in my mouth, in my pussy.
"I just got back from a freshmen get together." Dylan's smirk widened, a flash of white teeth, and he reached a hand toward me. I had to throw a pillow at him, a playful swat that barely conferred the renewed desire tightening in my chest, before my mom heard him.
"Oh, that's good, honey! Making friends is so important," Mom said, the tension in her voice easing slightly. "Did you meet any nice girls?"
"Yeah, Mom. Lots of...nice people," I managed, a blush creeping up the side of my neck as I recalled the decidedly un-nice things Dylan and I had done together. "It was fun. Everyone's really friendly." The line went quiet for a moment, and in that silence, the image of Dylan's face when we first met at orientation flashed in my mind...
The July sun beat down on the campus lawn, turning an orientation icebreaker into a sweaty blur of name tags and forced smiles. I was half-listening to some girl drown on about her AP credits when I saw him--tall, lean, cutting through the crowd like he owned the place. Dark hair flopped over his forehead, and his half-smile hit me like a punch in the gut. My boyfriend back home, Aaron, suddenly felt like a distant memory.
He stopped a few feet away, chatting with a group of guys, his voice a low rumble that carried over the chatter. I couldn't stop staring--those broad shoulders, the way his tee shirt clung to his chest. Then his eyes flicked my way.
Caught
. My cheeks burned, but I couldn't look away. Neither did he.
"Hey," he said, breaking off from the pack and strolling over, hands shoved into his pockets. Up close he smelled like sunscreen and something faintly spicy. "You look lost."
"No, not lost," I managed, my voice steadier than I felt. "Just...observing." My gaze dipped to his lips, then snapped back up.
God
,
Carly, chill
.
He grinned a slow, knowing curve that made my stomach flip. "Dylan," he said, nodding as if it was a gift. "You?"
"I'm Carly." I tucked a strand of hair behind my ear, suddenly hyper-aware of the sweat beading on my neck.
"Cool. You here with someone?" His tone was casual, but his eyes lingered, sizing me up.
"Uh, no. I mean, not like that. I have a boyfriend back home, though."
Why did I say that? It sounded pathetic, even to me.
His grin faltered, just for a second, and his hand lifted to rub the back of his neck--a quick, restless twitch before he dropped it. "Right. Well, see you around, Carly." He gave me a lazy salute, then turned back to his group, leaving me with the echo of his voice and a stupid, giddy buzz I couldn't shake.
I hadn't expected to see him again so soon, if at all. Orientation had been a whirlwind of faces and names. But a few weeks later, with the official start of college looming and my parents having just deposited me in my very own dorm room, the campus held a welcome get-together for us freshmen.
Stepping out onto the lawn, the sheer novelty of being alone, truly alone, washed over me. It was a heady, slightly intoxicating feeling, like that first taste of real independence. This was
my time