Page 132 of End Game

“Do I get a taste, too?”

“You can have as much as you want,” he says.

“In that case…” I release his hug and take his hand again. “I want the whole thing.”

“Tonight?”

“Yeah. We’ve spent basically the last fourteen years dating each other. I think it’s high time we consummate this thing.”

Barrett laughs. “I’m down with that.”

We continue on our journey back to his place. If I had a more amicable relationship with my roommates, I might consider bringing him back to mine, but we aren’t there yet. Besides, I like his house and I like his roommates. They’re a good group of guys. Sam and Mason are awesome. Mack is great. They’re my friends now, too.

Everyone is clustered around the living room when we enter the house. Wes is in his armchair and Mack is sitting on the floor near him, both of them reading their books instead of paying attention to the superhero movie on the screen. Miles and Sam are cuddling on the couch, and Tucker and Mason are canoodling on the armchair. Amir and Jill, his new girlfriend, are curled up on the floor in front of everyone. Even Greg has a date, a leggy brunette I’ve never seen him with before.

“Hey, B,” Sam says as we walk in. “You want to watch with us? We can make room.”

“We’re good,” he says. “Thanks, though. Maybe next time.”

Miles’s eyes narrow as he takes in our clasped hands. “Are you…?”

“Good night!” I chirp, way too enthusiastically, and practically pull Barrett up the stairs with me.

My boyfriend (!) laughs and follows me to his room. Once inside, he locks the door and toes off his shoes.

“Remarkably unsubtle.”

I laugh and sit down to take off my boots. “We can tell them all in the morning. Let them guess for now.”

Barrett leans down and kisses me. I have one boot on, unzipped, the other discarded. I’m still wearing my coat.

Easily he lifts me into his arms and moves me further up the bed. He unbuttons my coat and pries it off my shoulders, then kisses his way down my clothed body to reach my boot. Pulling it off, he tosses it over his shoulder and presses a kiss between my legs, over my tights and the fabric of my dress.

“You’re into this.”

“I’ve been dreaming about this for a very long time,” Barrett admits, hovering over me.

“Did you plan this out, too? Like you planned the perfect first date?”

He blushes. “Yeah. But it doesn’t… we don’t have to do it that way. We can improvise.”

“I’m interested in finding out what you think would be perfect first sex.”

“Any sex with you would be perfect,” he says. “And it was. Some other night, we can live out my fantasy, but for now, I just want to love you. Is that okay?”

“Of course that’s okay,” I tell him. “Why wouldn’t it be?”

“You might have wanted this to play out a certain way,” he says. “Have you thought about it?”

“I’ve had dreams about it,” I admit. “Of a certain nature.”

Barrett’s eyes go dark. “And did you come?”

I swallow at the hungry intensity on his face. “Yeah.”

“Good. I would hate for your dream to pale in comparison to reality.”

Twining my arms around his neck, I tug until he lowers himself onto me, his delicious weight pressing in on me on all sides, surrounding me. He’s heavy, yeah, but it’s a comforting weight that soothes the itch in my soul I didn’t even know I’ve been trying to scratch. I wrap my leg around his waist, my socked foot pressing into the back of his thigh.