EVENTUALLY AJ AND I climb back into his car and blast the heat. He lets me wrap the blanket around myself as the dark settles in and the air gets a lot colder, quickly. The rain stops as we drive back to my house. “The petrichor smell is getting stronger,” I say, biting my lip as he pulls up outside my house.
I want to invite him in. I don’t have time to invite him in. But I want to invite him in. He smiles in the glow of the streetlight. “Soon it’ll just be miserable when it rains. There’s nothing more dreary than rain in November.”
“But rain in autumn is fine?”
He nods. “Petrichor,” he repeats, reaching out and touching my face. There doesn’t seem to be any purpose to his touch, other than a desire to feel my body.
“Come inside?” It comes out as a plea and I feel myself clenching, desperately hoping he doesn’t turn me down.
He smiles and nods, turning off the car. I climb out and look at the damp blanket I had wrapped around me. “I could put our things in the dryer,” I tell him.
“Then I’d have to stay for the whole cycle,” he says, leaning on the wall next to my door. “Don’t you have to work tonight?”
“I can spare an hour,” I tell him. I hand him the blanket and unlock the door. He follows me inside and I stoop to unlace my sneakers. He does the same and then follows me up the steps to the laundry, where I toss the blanket into the dyer. “Want me to dry your…shirt?” AJ grins and strips off his shirt, standing in my laundry room topless and hairy.
I feel suddenly bashful, and I grab a robe, tossing it on as I drop my damp clothes into the dryer. This is all really unexpected, both the vulnerability and my desire to have him stay but not fuck me right now. He just leans on the dryer, grinning, like he’s perfectly content to stand in my laundry room half dressed while I’m in a robe. I clear my throat. “Will you tell me about your ideal tool for recording the bird migration observations?”
He arches a brow and tilts his head, like the question took him by surprised. “Ideal tool? I guess.” I head down the stairs toward my living room, where my laptop is nestled on the coffee table amidst a heap of my homework from Audrey and Shane and Logan. AJ follows and plunks onto the couch, reaching for the blanket I have draped over the back. He wraps it around his shoulders and then drapes it over both my knees when I sit next to him.
He runs his fingers through my hair. “We need to track the date, number of birds observed, a space for behaviors…oh and the number on the tower.”
“There was a number on it?”
He nods. “There was.”
I sigh, leaning a little more deeply into him. “Okay, well what are you hoping to note with all these observations?” As he lists out info about migration patters and population health I realize it’s like a lullaby for me. Never in my life have I snuggled on a couch with a man as he talked data and correlation to me. “God, this is nice,” I blurt out, and then touch my fingers to my lips. I hadn’t intended to say that out loud.
But AJ nuzzles closer and presses a kiss to my temple. “This is nice.” His voice is a gentle, low lullaby. I reach for my laptop and pull up the Vinea web-based program. With a few clicks, I’ve got a simple bird observation tool set up, and with a few clicks more, I’ve got it labeled for Public Schools of Pittsburgh with AJ as the project administrator.
“There,” I say, gesturing at the screen. “Your students can make bird notes and share them. Or not share them. But based on your project goals, it seems like you’d want to share them with other birders, right?”
He stares at the screen for a long time, and without saying a word, he pulls the laptop from my hands and sets it gently on the table. “What are you—“ He pivots on the couch so he’s facing me, his body twisted around mine. He cups my cheek with one hand and leans in, kissing me so gently, so slowly and deeply.
A sigh escapes my lips as his tongue explores my mouth. He pulls back and looks into my eyes, his thumb caressing my cheek. “I love that you did this for my kids,” he says, letting the blanket drop from his shoulders.
“It’s nothing,” I breathe. “It’s what my software already does.”
“It’s everything,” he says, and then he slithers down to the floor, on his knees on the area rug as he peels open my robe. “I want to thank you properly.”
“You don’t have to do that.” My words are punctuated with gasps as I feel his hands on my thighs. My skin is still a little cool and his is so warm, so delightfully warm against my body.
“Have to? Samantha.” He kisses my thighs, his hands stroking and gently nudging my legs apart. “This is my pleasure.” He lifts my hips and tugs my underwear down my legs. I gasp as he yanks them all the way off and tosses them over a shoulder as he situates himself between my legs. His hands and lips are everywhere—except where I’m growing increasingly desperate for them to be. My mind races, thinking of all the things I should be doing, of how he probably doesn’t actually want to be doing this.
“Samantha.” He takes my hand and presses a kiss to my palm, setting it on his shoulder. “I want to do this. I want to make you feel good. I want this very much, beautiful.”
“Oooh.” I think my spinal column explodes when he calls me beautiful. My body collapses into the couch as he finally dips a tongue between my legs, his mouth hot and so wet, his touch delicious on my needy skin. I keep my hand where he placed it and drop the other hand into his hair, burying my fingers in his messy, dark mop as AJ licks and strokes my body.
My hips rock up to meet his mouth and he groans in approval, goading me on as I thrust against his knuckle. “You taste amazing,” he moans, “Exactly perfect.” I don’t have time to doubt him because I start coming on his tongue. I gasp and jolt, digging my hands into his body as waves of pleasure break through me. The room fills with light and my head snaps back as my orgasm rolls on and on. Somewhere I hear his voice encouraging me. “Yes, Sam. Just like that. God, you’re so sexy when you come for me.” He presses the heel of one hand against my clit as I spasm around one of his fingers.
I don’t know how much time passes, or if I passed out or what, but when I gain awareness of my surroundings, AJ is kneeling in front of me, tucking my robe back into place and groaning a bit as he stands. Somewhere in the house, I hear the buzzer of the dryer finishing its cycle. He grins. “I should let you get back to work.”
Before I can protest he jogs up the stairs and when I see him next, he’s tucking in his shirt with his picnic blanket draped over one shoulder. He comes back in the living room and sits on the arm of the couch, leaning forward and kissing the top of my head. “Are you going to be okay or did I break you?”
That makes me laugh and snaps me a little bit out of my orgasm-coma. “It will take more than one of those to break me, Trachtenberg.”
He grins again, a crooked half-smile. “I’m up for the challenge of seeing what pushes you over the edge.”
I groan and let my head flop back. “This public offering. That’s what’s going to push me over the edge. If I even get that far.”
AJ starts tying his shoes. “What do you mean?”
I shrug. “There’s been a lot of bad press about me lately. Did you see the article in Forbes?”
He laughs. “I’m not sure what made you think I’m the kind of guy who reads Forbes.”
“Fair. Well, they basically implied I’m a huge ditz.”
AJ frowns. “That couldn’t be further from the truth.”
“Well, thank you, and I know that. But…” I flip my hair back out of my eyes and gesture at my piles of work. “Let’s just say I need all the good news puff pieces I can get right now. I wouldn’t hate it if your school bragged about me on social media, for instance…”
As soon as I say it, I know it’s the wrong thing to say. AJ purses his lips and his demeanor shifts. “I should go,” he repeats, standing.
I bite my lip. “I didn’t mean I expect that. That’s not why I made the bird page for you.”
He nods. “I know. But thank you for saying so. And I really should get going.”
“I really should let you.”
He looks at me for a few beats, nods, and turns. When I hear the door click shut I can’t help but worry that my big mouth just messed up the best thing I’ve had going for me in a long, long while.