Page 82 of The Replay

"Play with them before you decide if you like them."

I probe with my tongue. "They're sexy as fuck."

I hold her breast and lap at her nipple, feeling the texture of her skin and the sharp contrast of the smooth metal circling the tip. She moans.

"Look at the way it puckers." I lick again. "Mhh. Does it make it more sensitive?"

"Yes," she breathes.

I work on the other breast the same way. It seems the rings clip around the bit of sensitive flesh. It doesn't pierce it. My head fills with possibilities.

"Can I pull?" I ask.

"Try."

I put my mouth on her breast, taking in as much as I can, and suckle. She whimpers, and I repeat the process with a focus on her nipple now. The ring loosens and comes into my mouth. I spit it onto the mattress.

"I see." I do the same on the other breast and spit the ring out too. "Next time, they stay put. When you're riding me. So I can see them. Or when I'm fucking you hard, and the hard tips rub on my chest as I move in you."

"What else are we doing?"

"Anything that we feel like, for the next little while."

Anything that helps us forget the nostalgia, the longing, because sex can be the best distraction.

I keep playing with her breasts.

"Same rules we used to have in college?" she breathes. "When we touch?"

They were all about pushing each other. Taking turns. Going right for each other's limits, knowing we could stop whenever, and we both held power in the balance.

From the start, we discovered things with each other I never found again.

Fuck. I've missed you, Mari.

But I can't go there. I pull at my awareness, trapping it with the honey of her skin on my tongue, and all the sexy things we can do for a while.

"Hell yeah." I groan. "Same rules."

"You remember them?"

"I never tried to forget those."

"But you tried to forget other things?"

I did. I've tried— and failed— to put those memories to rest. If the way past and present keep mixing is any sign. Considering the way my heart beats morehaphazardly than sex accounts for. The fact I'm breathless already is evidence of my weakness.

It can be handled. I'll find a way.

I give her a look. "Ask me that another time. Right now my focus is on something else."

"What's that?"

"I need to taste you again."

I travel down her body. Her underwear is light blue tonight, and I get up to take her panties off. I grab her legs and pull, bringing her ass to the edge of the bed. She gasps. I get on my knees.

"I want your thighs squeezing me tight." I lick. "Your fingers digging into my scalp until it hurts."