5: Hanky Panky

 

Of course Hadley was waiting up for me when Eric brought me home. Aunt Lin didn’t give me a curfew of any kind, although she told my parents she would make sure I was home by ten. Even with all the freedom I was getting at my aunt’s house, I was trying not to get too out of control. Eric brought me home just before midnight. It was the latest I had ever been out with a boy. Being that I came in barefoot, holding Hadley’s boots, she had this expectant look on her face.

“What?” I played coy just to drive her nuts.

“Well, what happened?” she prompted.

“The service at the restaurant we went to was awful so we went back to his place and made pancakes together. He’s a decent cook.” I headed for her bedroom to put her shoes away.

“And? What else happened. Did you do it?” she whispered at the end.

“No, we didn’t do it,” I answered. As discreetly as I could, I started to take her dress off without flashing her. Hadley was way more open about nudity than I was.

“Did you at least kiss him again? Was it just as good sober? I don’t know how you resisted. He is a sexy man.”

“We did kiss. A lot, actually. He definitely wanted to do more than kiss.” I slipped a nightgown over my head.

“Did he make you feel like he was pressuring you?”

“No, I wouldn’t say that, exactly.” I went over to the dresser to take the pins out of my hair. “I think it was just one of those things where we’d slow down for a minute and then we’d get going again and it was just up and down.” Except for that one part of him that always stayed up.

“Gotcha. I don’t want him to make you feel like you have to do anything you don’t want to. But, Eric wouldn’t be a bad guy to lose it to.”

“No, he wouldn’t,” I admitted with a little smile and took off the clip-on earrings Hadley had loaned me.

“You’re smitten with him, aren’t you?”

“Maybe a little.” More like a lot.

“It’s cute. I like him,” she smiled. “I think you guys should get married and have lots of babies.”

“We just met each other, Hadley,” I laughed.

“That doesn’t mean anything. It could still happen.”

“I think we’re exclusively seeing each other,” I told her. No, I knew we were.

“You think? Did you guys talk about it? Wait, Eric has never had a girlfriend as long as I’ve known him.” She looked surprised.

“We did talk about it. Do you think he was just saying that so I’d sleep with him?” I didn’t want him to be like that, especially after some of the other things we talked about but he wouldn’t be the first guy to lie his way into a girl’s heart.

“I don’t think so. He hasn’t had a girlfriend, but I’ve never known him to lie about things. If he says he’s interested, I’m sure he’s pretty interested.”

“I hope so,” I sighed. “It’s just so fast, you know? Is that how it always is?”

“It’s not always like that. It doesn’t mean it’s bad though. Sometimes it happens like that, you know? I think it’s cute.”

“I’d be lyin’ if I said I wasn’t scared that Daddy would find out,” I admitted. “Is that silly? I feel so stupid for even bringing that kind of thing up around Eric. Like what in the heck does he want with me?”

“It’s not stupid, Sookie. It’s a real concern. If you two get more serious that’s something you’re going to have to discuss. Uncle Corbett will probably be pissed, but your mom will remind him they were young once. If Eric thinks you’re childish for bringing it up, he’s probably not the one for you.”

“He hasn’t said anything about it, but I feel ridiculous for it.” I sat on the edge of the twin bed I was using for the summer. “I told Eric I wanted to. I know he wanted to.”

“That’s good. It sounds like you two had a good talk and that you’re on the same page.”

“We’re trying to be. I’m going to go wash my face.” I wanted to get all the makeup off. I didn’t usually wear so much. Hadley had insisted on painting me up. Truthfully, I didn’t feel like myself, and that might have been part of why I felt so uncomfortable around Eric. It almost felt like he was meeting a lie. Next time I saw him, I was going to make sure I looked like myself and not who Hadley thought I should look like.

***

Hadley let me borrow her car while she was at work, so I decided to surprise Eric at his place. It was a risky move and I wasn’t sure if he was even home, but it was worth a shot. I went dressed in a pair of jeans I felt comfortable in, instead of one of Hadley’s mini dresses. My hair was down and I didn’t have a drop of makeup on my face. I was a simple girl. I didn’t feel like I needed all that other stuff to look good.

I parked her Bel Aire in the first space I could find, and left the window cracked open a little bit to keep it from getting too hot inside. Mama taught me to never show up empty handed, so to thank Eric for making me dinner the other night I decided to bring him a basket of muffins. They weren’t anything fancy, but they always sold out fast at the church bake sale. I hoped Eric liked blueberries.

I walked up the flight of stairs to his apartment and knocked on the door. It wasn’t too early, but it wasn’t quite lunchtime either. I wasn’t sure if he had worked the night before, but I assumed he had. Hopefully, I wasn’t waking him up. If I was, I hoped he wasn’t grumpy.

Calm down, Sookie. If he’s grumpy, you give him the muffins and a kiss and go away.

About a minute had passed and there was no answer. I knocked one more time. If there still wasn’t an answer I’d take my muffins and try again another time.

Another minute passed before I heard the lock turn. When the door opened Eric was standing on the other side. His hair looked like a messy mop on top of his head. He was rubbing his eyes like he just woke up… and he was in his underwear…

“Mmm, hi,” he greeted me with a sleepy smile.

Too bad my round sunglasses with orange lenses didn’t do a very good job of hiding my eyes. I was probably looking at him a little more closely than I should have been.

“Good morning.” I held up the basket. “My way of saying thanks for dinner the other night. I hope you’re a muffin person.”

“There isn’t much I don’t eat.” He stepped back so I could come in. “I would kiss you hello but I have morning breath.”

“I could make you coffee while you brush your teeth,” I offered as I stepped inside. “Assuming you drink coffee, that is.”

“I do. Make yourself at home. I’ll be right out… should I put on pants?” he asked, looking down at himself.

“I don’t know… I kind of like this view.”

“No pants it is,” he smiled. “I’ll be right out.” He turned to leave me alone in the entryway so he could go brush his teeth.

I took it upon myself to go into the kitchen. I set the basket of muffins on the counter and then started looking for the coffee filters when I took note of the coffee maker sitting on the countertop. I found them in the same cabinet where I’d found the flour, sugar and baking powder a few nights before.

When I heard his footsteps behind me I said, “I hope you don’t mind me dropping in on you like this. I’m sorry if I woke you up. I don’t have to stay if you want to go back to sleep.”

Eric wrapped his arms around me from behind. I felt his lips on my neck. “This is the best wake-up call I’ve ever had, gorgeous.” I felt his lips turn up in a smile against my skin.

“Oh, well, good.” I couldn’t help smiling myself. “How do you like your coffee?”

“With a little milk and sugar,” he answered. “Did you make the muffins yourself?”

“I did. They’re Gran’s recipe.”

“They look delicious.” He nibbled my earlobe. “You look delicious too,” he whispered.

“Thanks. I left my Hadley costume at home today,” I giggled quietly. I put the fresh filter into the little cup/tray thing and asked, “Where do you keep your coffee?”

“I like you better like this.” He stretched up above my head to get the coffee out of the cabinet.

“I like me better like this too.”

Eric stepped away from me so he could grab a muffin. He didn’t hesitate to take a huge bite right off the top of it, letting out a deep groan.

“If you bake everything like this I might be following you home,” he warned.

“Those muffins are always the first thing to sell out at the church bake sell. Gran’s pecan pies are the second.” I took the coffee pot to the sink to fill it with water. “How much coffee do you want?”

“One cup is fine. I may try to talk you into coming back to bed with me. I bet you’d be comfortable to snuggle up with.”

“It looked like you had plenty of pillows back there,” I teased.

“Those aren’t the pillows I want.” His eyes flicked down to my chest.

“Something tells me if I get into bed with you, I’ll be stuck there the rest of the day.” I put the pot back in its place and added a scoop of coffee into the filter before I started the machine.

“Is that a bad thing?”

“I don’t know yet. Depends on if you’re any good at the snuggling thing.”

“Why don’t you come back to bed with me and find out?”

“What about your coffee?”

“I can take it with me. Take some sips between snuggles,” he smiled.

“You could do that. You can freeze those muffins, by the way. Although you might be able to eat them all in two days,” I chuckled.

“Oh I know I can,” he chuckled too. “Are you going to strip down to your underwear too?”

“I think I’ll stay fully clothed, if that’s okay with you.” I wasn’t ready to be naked in front of him yet.

“I can give you a big T-shirt if your jeans get uncomfortable,” he offered.

“I’ll keep that in mind.” I wasn’t sure where the mugs were for the coffee, so I started peeking in other cabinets until I found them. I took one down and set it on the counter so Eric could fix his coffee up the way he liked it. It didn’t take long for just one cup to brew.

He went to the fridge to get the milk out. He took his time putting in a little milk and some sugar into the mug as he finished his muffin. By the time he was done with the muffin his coffee was done brewing. He poured the coffee into the mug before he took a sip. He let out a subtle groan when it hit his tongue.

“Come on, let’s go to the room.” He had his coffee in one hand as he held the other one out to me.

I took his hand and followed him back to his bedroom. His bed was all unmade since he’d been sleeping in it when I showed up. The shades were shut so the room was pretty dark. Eric set his coffee cup on the nightstand. I slipped my shoes off before I climbed up on his big bed.

Eric climbed up after me. He immediately pulled me into his arms and nuzzled into my neck.

“Mmm, this is much better,” he whispered, wrapping his long leg around mine.

“You like snuggling?” I didn’t know many guys who did if there wasn’t sex involved.

“I love snuggling,” he admitted. “You’re so warm and soft…”

“Finally my flabby bits pay off,” I chuckled.

“I haven’t seen any flabby bits.” His hand rubbed over my hip before sneaking under my top so he could rub my stomach.

“You will, don’t worry.”

“I’m looking forward to it.”

Eric wasn’t bad at the snuggling. His bed was comfortable. To my surprise and his delight, I didn’t smack his hand away when it found its way further up to my chest. He wasn’t too rough or anything, so I saw no reason to tell him to knock it off. At first I wasn’t sure what the big deal about him touching me there was, but then Eric found the right pressure and those lips of his were doing their part on my neck…

“Tell me if it’s too much,” he purred against my skin. He gave my nipple a gentle tug, making my back involuntarily arch. Eric’s hips rocked forward, allowing me to feel how hard he was getting.

“It feels good,” I breathed. My head turned to the side to give him a little more room, that is until he turned my face back toward his so his lips could land on mine. I liked kissing him. It felt natural, like he belonged there like that and like I belonged there with him.

His heavy body shifted so he was lying on top of me. Even with the denim on my lower half, it was still easy to feel how turned on he was by all the kissing we were doing.

His elbows settled on the pillow on either side of my head, caging me in. Eric’s hips rocked back and forth, rubbing his hard-on over my center as we kissed. “Lift your legs,” he whispered between kissed. When I hiked my legs up over his hips he started rubbing over a spot that made me gasp into the kiss.

It was an unexpected little thrill, but I wasn’t complaining and I didn’t want to stop. I blocked out any negative thoughts that might have derailed the train. We were going places, and I liked where we were heading.

“Take my shirt off,” I said between kisses.

He sat up on his knees, pulling me with him so he could pull my shirt over my head. He let out a deep groan when he saw my bare breasts for the first time. When he pushed me back down he arched over my body and didn’t hesitate to dip down, wrapping his lips around my nipple. Eric’s eyes flicked up to lock onto mine as she swirled his tongue around my sensitive peak.

“Ohhhh… wow, that feels better than I thought it would,” I said. My fingers tried to work their way through Eric’s tangled hair, but they didn’t get too far. It didn’t matter, though, Eric didn’t seem to be moving anytime soon.

His eyes fluttered closed as he suckled and licked my breast. He brought one of his hands up to play with with my other nipple. After a few minutes he did move. He placed warm, wet, open mouthed kissed along the underside of my breasts, working his way to my stomach.

I let him keep going because it felt good. Thinking too much wouldn’t help anything, besides, I reminded myself, I had to choose based on what I wanted and not what others expected of me. It was my life, not my parents’.

“Is this okay?” he asked as he reached up to unbutton my jeans. He kept his eyes on mine as he flicked his tongue around my bellybutton.

Be brave, Sookie.

“It’s more than okay.” The only way to get rid of my anxiety or fear was to face it, right? I lifted my butt so Eric could pull my jeans down over my hips.

He tossed my jeans onto the floor as he looked down at my little white panties. He left them in place when he leaned down again to continue his trek down my stomach. Eric’s tongue slithered back and forth along the top edge of my underwear. It surprised me when I felt his fingers rub over my center through my panties.

I felt that same thrill run through me, but it was more intense. I reached down and tried to coax Eric back up toward my face. He moved up slowly, dotting my skin with soft kisses on his way to my mouth. My legs hitched up again over his hips, and it didn’t take long for him to resume rocking against me. The friction it caused was even better than I could have tried to describe. I never felt anything like it.

“You are so, so beautiful,” he whispered as he leaned down to kiss my lips again. He rocked forward, swiveling a little. I could feel his full length and thickness rubbing against my center.

He was very big. Big enough that I started to worry about whether or not he was too big.

“Than… thank you,” I stammered.

“Are you okay?” he asked. His hips never stopped moving.

“You’re really big,” I blurted out.

He gave me a soft smile and said, “It’s going to hurt the first time, but I promise to make it as gentle as possible for you.”

“What if you’re too big and it won’t fit?” It could happen, right?

“I’ll fit,” he promised. “I promise to… prepare you properly.”

I was curious about how he planned to do it, but then something inside me felt like it reached the tipping point and over the edge I went.

“Eric!” I cried out. My fingertips dug into his back as the waves washed over me. Oh wow…

“Stunning,” he breathed. His hips continued to rock and roll right through my orgasm. “Would you mind if I licked up the mess you just made?”

My breath caught when I figured out what he meant.

“Oh, um, I don’t know if I’m ready for that yet.” I didn’t want to move too fast. Heck, I was already much further down the trail than I thought I would be so soon after meeting someone.

He dipped to kiss me. When he pulled back he said, “Say when. The more orgasms you have before we have sex, the easier it’ll be when we finally do it.”

I had to trust that was true. I hoped it was. The last thing I wanted was for either one of us to end up disappointed with the experience. Knowing that Eric had much more experience than I did, I hoped I measured up.