Just This Once by Evelyn Jeannie Hall

Six

So sated she could barely move, Lacey remained against Zane for several long minutes before the impact of what they’d just done started to sink in. She hadn’t intended for any of this to happen. All she’d meant to do was make some friendly chit chat with him, maybe convince herself that his pained expression at the reception had been more her imagination than anything else. Yet when he’d bitten her head off—something she hadn’t anticipated at all—everything had ignited like gun powder in a fireworks factory.

Whoosh.

Now, here they were, cemented together like two peas in a pod. Two delightfully gratified peas. The good news was that she’d kept her head despite being tipsy. They’d had fun but hadn’t been irresponsible about it. In fact, with all those endorphins flooding her system, she couldn’t quite determine why they hadn’t been doing this every weekend—or maybe even every night—since their last interlude.

Realistically she knew that wouldn’t have been feasible, but every time she lost herself in the specimen that was Zane Morrison, she felt more alive.

“Cassiopeia,” he mumbled.

“What?”

“Cassiopeia,” he repeated. “It’s that W shaped constellation up on our right.”

She studied the swath of the Milky Way, locating the cluster of stars. “Cool. I see it. And there’s the Big Dipper.”

“Nice job. How about the Pleiades?”

“Uh…” She didn’t know that one, even if she thought she’d heard of it.

“There,” he pointed, and she attempted to track the correct direction. “That group of stars all bundled together. That’s the Seven Sisters. The story goes that they were the daughters of the Greek god Atlas and an ocean nymph. When Zeus sentenced Atlas to carry the Earth on his shoulders, his daughters were sad, so Zeus put them up there in the heavens so they could be close to their father.”

“I don’t know if I like that story or not,” she told him, somewhat startled that he’d shared such a tale with her. Up till now, everything had been about sex, not conversation. “On the one hand, it’s kinda nice that their family is still together, but on the other, they can’t really ever reunite again. How do you know that story?”

“My dad. He was an amateur astronomer.”

“Did he tell you your horoscope, too?” she asked, tongue in cheek.

“Astronomer not astrologer. He liked to leave Detroit and go with my sister Tasha and I to these Star Parties out in the middle of nowhere. Everyone would bring their telescopes to some deserted field and try to see all the objects in the night sky better.”

“So, you’re the amateur astronomer now.”

“Eh, sometimes. Mostly I just remember the names of certain celestial objects. Don’t enjoy it as much since he’s been gone.”

His father was gone? Zane was volunteering all sorts of interesting information tonight. “How long has he been gone? If you don’t mind my asking.”

“Twenty-three years last month. Mom, Tasha, and I knew he had heart disease, but the embolism that took him still came as a shock. I didn’t understand the implications at the time since I was eight.”

“I’m sorry,” Lacey told him, meaning it.

“Thanks. Staring up at the stars makes me feel tighter with him. Can’t see much of the constellations in any of the cities but being out here…” he trailed off.

“Out here they go on forever.”

“Yeah.”

“I never knew my own father. I don’t even know his name,” she said, then paused, wondering what had brought that on. She and her sisters didn’t often talk about their question mark of a sperm donor. As a rule, they didn’t talk about him at all.

“Do you know what happened?” he asked.

“Mom wouldn’t discuss it, wouldn’t discuss him. Katrina, Elizabeth and I always assumed he knocked her up with us and fled. Mom was only eighteen when we came into the world.”

“Shit.”

“Yeah. Being the single mother of triplets couldn’t have been a walk in the park at that age, and we were perpetually broke. I used to resent that sometimes. Now, though, especially since she died, I think we were pretty damn lucky to have such a dedicated parent.” She paused, playing absently with his long fingers. She felt callouses on the edges of them, and the sheer masculinity of that made her shiver. “I fucked up and mentioned her right before the ceremony. All three of us got weepy over it.”

“Understandable on a day like this.”

She remembered one moment during the ceremony when she’d caught sight of her mom’s framed picture sitting there in the front row opposite Benji’s dad, stepmother, and stepsister. “Maybe.”

“Moms can be special.”

On that they could agree.

“You close to yours?”

“Yeah. Our whole family is tight. I try to get over to Michigan and visit them every Christmas, and we Zoom often.” He went quiet, and they stayed there without speaking. She turned in his arms, and his rough palms rubbed up and down her back. Then, when he did break the silence, it was on a subject she hadn’t thought he would address. The man was a dude after all. “So… I didn’t predict something like this going down again.”

“I had no ulterior motives when I left to seek you out, I promise.”

“So, you’re telling me you’re not some siren seductress from the sea in the guise of the middle Farrell triplet?” he asked, humor in his voice as his chin tilted out over the lapping waves.

“Well, I do like the concept of that.” She sat up, making the hammock wiggle. “Lacey’s not an exotic enough name for such a description, though. I’ll need to come up with something more apropos. Like Leilani or Samoa.”

“Isn’t Samoa a girl scout cookie?”

She brought her pinky to her lips, considering. “Dammit, you’re right.”

“I once knew a girl named Cookie.”

“I just bet. Something tells me you’ve known lots of girls.”

“Hold up,” he said, chuckling softly. “How’d we go from finding you a new, more exotic siren name to impugning my more than upstanding character?”

“You’re right. Fair warning, I frequently get derailed and go off on random tangents. Just so you know.”

“Duly noted.”

She blew out a breath. “So, what else you got?”

“Arihi, Samaria, or Sefina.”

“What was the first one?”

“Ah ree hee,” he spoke distinctly, sounding out the name phonetically.

“Nah. Think I’ll go with Leilani.”

He gently pinched her left nipple through her dress. “You’re an imp, Lacey Farrell.”

“Never claimed to be otherwise.” To prove it, she massaged his still exposed dick until it grew hard again. Then, she lowered her mouth over him, tracing his length with her tongue from root to tip.

“Fuuuuck… Wanna come back to my bungalow? I have condoms there,” he suggested in a hurry.

She popped off of him, smirking. “Awww, my knight in shining armor.”

“You don’t need a knight since you always seem to take matters into your own damn hands.”

The thing was, she didn’t. Just because she’d taken the initiative with Zane a little bit ago didn’t mean she had all her ducks in a row. Far from it. Even if she’d been trying to improve her reputation in that regard.

“Let’s go.”

Later, after an extremely enjoyable interaction in first his shower, then his bed, Lacey sat against the bamboo headboard in the nude, his head in her lap. She traced a winding path along his shaven scalp, appreciating that before Zane, she’d never considered a man with a bald head to be sexy. But somehow, on him, it worked. All those thick muscles of his worked, too. Va va voom. Men who took care of themselves like he did floated her boat big time.

Zane Morrison was just so… hot. As the four—count ‘em four—orgasms she’d had could attest. He’d broken her all-time nightly record of three, too. A record previously held by none other than him.

All the bungalows had amazing views due to floor to ceiling windows in all the exterior rooms. And with the lights off, she could see the sliver of moon reflected in the rippling water outside. She was with this incredible guy in this idyllic location. The only thing that might be better would be if…

“I wish I could have you like this all the time,” she muttered, without thinking.

Shit.

He raised up on all fours, then maneuvered into a seated position, breaking their physical contact. She could barely make out the divine hills and valleys of his form in the lack of light, and since every inch of him should be memorized, that struck her as something to regret.

“What did you say?” he asked.

“Nothing.” She attempted to cover up what she’d let slip. Damn lack of a filter…

“Don’t be coy. I’m asking for clarification. What did you just say?”

“Just that…” God… “I wish we could do this again. But I know that’s not the way you roll. I don’t tend to roll that way myself. My mouth just ran off helter-skelter. No worries.”

“Are you trying to suggest that we make some sort of arrangement?”

“Didn’t think you did arrangements.”

“I don’t. But tonight, when I was all up in my head, you got me out. I need more of that. I need more stress relief in general. Maybe having a friends with benefits deal would make sense.”

He’d faced her, all levity gone of his tone, and she could hear how serious he felt about this. Lacey had taken on more responsibilities than ever over the past few months. Having someone to go to anytime she needed to blow off some steam? She could definitely get behind that notion.

“I know all about stress. When my classes get gnarly, I feel like banging my head against the wall. Banging you would feel a lot better,” she quipped, and he chuckled that low, base octave of his that sent chills to all her best body parts. She enjoyed listening to the deep resonant sound of him.

“We’d need to keep this on the DL considering Benjamin would probably skin me alive if he found out.”

Lacey had never been all cloak and dagger with her love life, but she also didn’t want her sisters or new brother-in-law butting in. Much as Lacey didn’t like making life choices based on how others might react, Benji had been far more protective of the three of them since their incident with Katrina’s ex. She didn’t want Zane catching any flak from him. She also didn’t want to damage the friendship between the two men. She’d feel terrible if that ever happened.

“How about this? I’m taking an economics class this semester. We could casually mention that you’re tutoring me in the subject because I’m struggling.”

He traced the bridge of her nose, and she closed her eyes. “Are you struggling?”

“Eh, I’m passing it, but unlike my other courses, I’m barely maintaining a C. Maybe it’s the online component or how this particular professor runs his class. He wants no interruptions during instruction, so if we need help, we have to email him and wait for a response.” She shrugged. “It’s not all that important to my major but doing better could help my overall GPA, I suppose.”

“I’m more than happy to help you study, and since Kat and Benjamin are so wrapped up in one another, you coming to me instead of them follows.”

“Me coming is the idea,” she teased him, and he snorted.

“Did you know that you’re the only woman I know who seems to have a sex drive as high as any man’s?”

“Is that an insult or a compliment?” Lacey kept her tone light, but it wouldn’t be the first time she’d been slut shamed.

Once in high school, a coach had caught her and a football player smooching behind the bleachers after a practice. He’d proceeded to tell his player—Jimmy? Johnny? Jasper?—that he couldn’t let “pussy” distract him from giving it his all on the field. The coach said it right in front of her like she wasn’t even a person, just some vessel for his precious quarterback to get off in.

She’d never been so furious or humiliated in her life. Chérie had always been a sex positive parent, encouraging safety rather than abstinence. It was probably why she, Katrina, and Elizabeth had never had any accidental teen pregnancies unlike some of the other Butterfield families she knew.

“Compliment, definitely. It’s awesome,” Zane replied with so much enthusiasm in his tone, she felt instantly vindicated.

Take that, Coach Adamson, you misogynistic bastard.

Who she’d made out with back in high school and who she had sex with now shouldn’t matter to anyone but her and the person with whom she chose to have it. Not that she didn’t understand Zane’s point of view when it came to Benji. A little subterfuge in this instance made sense.

“How often are we talking?” she asked. “Do we need to set specific dates and times or play it by ear? My final will be in May, if that makes a difference.”

“Weekly would work for me.”

Her schedule stayed almost as busy as his, though hers had a bit more leeway since she could watch a recording of her class on her laptop should she miss it.

“Okay. How about Fridays at around 8pm?” Was it peculiar that they were negotiating a semi-bogus study session that would actually be covering for some extremely explicit naked time?

She felt him nod.

“That sounds doable. One more nuts and bolts thing. Do you need exclusivity?”

“No,” she replied slowly, feeling the tiniest of pangs at her answer. But this wasn’t about roses, candy in a heart shaped box, or romance. If anything, it’d be more like a regular exercise routine, even if crunches and sit-ups wouldn’t be a part of the program. “Not as long as we keep things safe.”

“Fair enough.”

“We’ll need to go to your place, or Elizabeth will be underfoot. I’d rather not put her in the position of having to keep our secret for us.”

“Agreed.”

“If one of us has to cancel—or maybe makes impromptu plans for that evening—I think we should have a cutoff time. Say, six o’clock?” she suggested. He raised his shoulders in a nonchalant shrug as if this were a negotiation over what toppings they would have on their pizza or something. “And if you don’t like pineapple, the deal’s off.”

“What?” he gawked at her in confusion, and Lacey realized she’d just thrown out a complete non sequitur.

“On your pizza. If we order in a pizza, I think it should have pineapple.”

He shifted in the moonlight so that she could make out his lips ascending upwards in an ironic smile accompanied by his burning gaze, and she felt the space between her legs growing damp. Again. Damn him and his Smolder.

“I had a flash of something much dirtier taking up residence in my head, like pineapple rings going right here.” He fingered the areolas of her nipples, and she shivered at the thought.

“Could just be that you’re hungry.”

“Could be,” he whispered, and she shivered. Needing to wrest control of this conversation, she changed tack.

“So, what is your stance on pineapples on pizza?”

“Oh, I’m against it. That’s a hard pass,” he said.

She jerked her knees upward, making him sit up. “If you’re anti-pineapple, I don’t know if we can be friends with bennies after all.” She was kidding, but also distracted by the image of him eating pineapple rings off her boobs.

He laughed, a long, loud series of guffaws that shook his thick frame. “I’m joking,” he finally got out. “I order my pizzas with a cauliflower crust—pineapple, mushrooms, sausage, peppers, and pepperoni on top. Though I maintain that having the pineapple here sounds better…” Zane traced her nipples again, this time with his tongue, and her next exhale left her at a shaky pant.

After another exceedingly enjoyable interlude, she checked her phone. It was 3:33 in the morning, and the sun would be rising in less than three hours. Probably best to hightail it back to her bungalow. No use putting all these plans into motion, only to get caught prior to starting them. Zane flicked on the small lamp attached to the bedside table and watched her dress with his glittering gaze. Feeling like an exhibitionist, she did a racy little backwards strip tease for him, loving it when he gave his erection a few obvious strokes right in front of her. It made her feel like a siren seductress for real.

Letting her eyes dip to what he was doing, she whispered, “I look forward to spending more quality time with that very appendage, Zane. Even if I do have to be going for now.”

“Happy to be of service. Here’s something to remember me by.” With that, he scooted across his mattress, reached out to take a handful of her dress in one big hand, and yanked her down for a toe-curling kiss. The man was a machine. Nonetheless, she broke the lip lock and sashayed away while she still had the willpower to do so.

Opening his door, she waved at him. Then, Lacey treaded out onto the plank wood pathway and hurried off into the pre-dawn darkness.