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Zach watched as Jo quickly erased everything she’d drawn.
He had zero idea what this word could be, but he was thrilled that he and Jo were close to defeating his parents. He and Amber had never beaten their parents in the playoffs. Nick and Greg had, but only once, and Zach suspected Mom and Dad had let them win.
Jo, bless her, was the perfect partner who’d gotten more into this game than he’d expected. He’d rarely seen her so animated. It warmed his heart that she fit in with his family.
But it doesn’t matter. It’s not real.
He pushed aside his momentary disappointment and focused on the whiteboard.
Jo drew a long object with two circles at the base of it. She added some wiggly lines on the balls.
Because...those sure looked like balls, didn’t they?
“Cactus,” he said, though that made no sense. That was an easy word, and she would have drawn a sensible cactus from the beginning. “Rocket?”
Then Jo drew the head of the penis.
There was no doubt now about what she was drawing.
Everyone else was snickering, but not Zach.
“Penis,” he said. “Cock. Balls. Circumcision. Erection.”
He couldn’t believe he was doing this in front of his parents and grandparents, but he was determined to win this thing.
Jo drew a circle around the center of the drawing, then turned to look at him. Her cheeks were slightly pink, her eyes wide and imploring.
“Shaft!” he exclaimed.
“Yes!” shouted Jo, pointing at him.
“Just in time,” Amber said. “I can’t believe you went there, Jo.”
“Yeah, neither can I.”
There was some uncomfortable laughter.
Ah Ma sniffed. “I thought Pictionary was a G-rated game. This is not G-rated.”
“The picture isn’t quite anatomically correct,” Greg said. “For example—”
“I think it’s a perfectly good shaft,” Zach said.
“Alright,” Amber said. “Time to move on. Mom and Dad, if you get this, we’ll have to do another round of sudden death overtime. If not, Team Hipster wins.”
When Jo came to sit on Zach’s lap, he was very aware of a certain part of his anatomy, especially when she wiggled to adjust her position.
Did she know what she was doing to him? Was she wondering if he had a perfectly good shaft?
He couldn’t help it; he rather hoped she was.
Amber turned over the timer, and Mom started drawing. There was a man with a beard and a hat. Santa Claus? And now he was drinking a beer?
Zach had no idea what this was, but he wouldn’t be surprised if his father still guessed correctly.
Next, Mom drew faces of people laughing.
“Humor? Laughter? Comedy act?” Dad said. “Christmas gone wrong? Drunk Santa?”
Zach stared at the timer and tightened his hold on Jo.
He wanted to defeat his parents, but if he was honest with himself, this was mostly about Jo. About the way she would smile when they won. She was so sexy when she was flushed and excited.
“And...”
“Boxing Day?” Dad said.
“...that’s time,” Amber said. “Team Hipster wins!”
Jo grinned as though she’d never been happier.
“What was the word?” Dad asked.
“It was ‘parody,’” Mom said. “Sorry, I had no idea what to draw. It’s hard to show ‘parody’ when you can’t use any words.”
“That’s okay,” Dad said.
Zach wasn’t looking at him, though.
He couldn’t take his gaze off Jo.
* * *
They left at ten o’clock. Zach offered to walk Jo home, like he always did after they went to the bar on Friday nights. But this time, as they made their way across town, there were a couple things different from usual.
First of all, it was slippery.
The temperature had been above freezing for much of the afternoon, and some of the snow had melted, but now the water had turned to ice.
Jo slipped and clung to Zach. To steady her, he wrapped his arm around her body.
The other thing that was different?
He couldn’t help wanting to take off her jacket and toque...and more.
They’d made out when they were skating, and he’d replayed their kisses over and over in his head, thinking about what would happen if they went further.
“What was going through your mind,” he said, “when you drew a cock and balls on the whiteboard in my parents’ living room?”
“Oh, God.” She turned away. “I really wanted to win, that’s all, and I couldn’t think of another way to get you to say ‘shaft,’ since you didn’t get ‘mine shaft’ or ‘shaft of light’ from the first two drawings. Your grandma kept giving me dirty looks afterward! I’m mortified.”
“Yeah, I figured you just wanted to win.”
“I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay, I like your competitive spirit.” He paused. “What else was going through your mind other than winning?”
“Nothing. Nothing at all.”
“For example,” he pressed, “were you thinking of that particular part of my anatomy?”
“No, your whole family was there!”
The strength of her protest was suspicious, however.
“Mm-hmm,” he said. “But my family isn’t around now. What are you thinking about?”
“Zach,” she said, as though in pain.
“I’ll stop right now if you tell me to.”
He waited a beat.
She said nothing.
“I think you want to do unspeakably dirty things to my shaft,” he said quietly.
A strange sound escaped her lips, a mixture of shock and laughter.
No one else was out on the residential street. He stopped walking and pulled her against him, each of his hands holding one of hers.
“May I kiss you again?” he asked.
She nodded quickly and tilted her head upward.
“You’re eager,” he observed.
“Sorry!” She put a hand over her face.
Jo might have drawn a not-quite-anatomical picture of a penis at his parents’ house, but she seemed a touch uncomfortable talking about this stuff. It was cute.
He pulled off his gloves and tucked them into his pocket. Gently, he cupped her cheeks and slipped his fingers under the bottom of her hat.
Then he kissed her, in the quiet of the night, his lips meeting hers over and over. He hadn’t thought of doing this with her until recently, but somehow it felt right and real, despite the lies they were telling his family.
Jo adjusted herself so that one of her legs was between his, but she lost her balance and knocked into him. He fell backward before he could catch himself, though he managed to land on a snowbank instead of the icy sidewalk.
She fell on top of him, laughing, and kissed him again.
For a moment, neither one of them spoke.
“Jo,” he said carefully, “would you want to do this indoors? Maybe on a bed?”
* * *
It was the stuff of her fantasies. Jo was walking up the stairs in her house and Zach Wong was following her, his hand resting lightly on her hip.
They were going to her bedroom.
They were going to have sex.
At least, she was pretty sure that’s what would happen.
She flicked on the lights in her bedroom and sat on the bed. She should probably strip off her shirt and give him a show, or kiss him against the door, or...something.
But though she could do those things in her imagination, she couldn’t do them now.
He sat beside her and pulled her into his lap.
“If you’ve changed your mind, that’s okay,” he said.
“No. Not at all. I’m just not very good at initiating stuff. Feeling comfortable with someone new. You know.”
Except Zach wasn’t “new.” She’d known him for ages. They were friends. Maybe that’s why she was sharing her inadequacies with him, even though she had a crush on him.
Plus, she’d already drawn a cock in front of his family, so it was hard to feel more embarrassed after that.
“That’s one thing I never told you about Matt,” she said. “He wished I’d initiate more often. I like sex, but I was always...well. Just a tiny bit awkward about how I look. Not that I think I’m ugly, but my body is more function over form. I can run 10k and play hockey and swim laps, but I hardly look like a model. Anyway, one time, I decided I would try. After dinner, Matt was on the computer, and I told him to join me in the bedroom, with a little wink, you know? I asked him to give me five minutes. I put on sexy underwear and a bra, nothing else, and lay down in bed, waiting for him. After half an hour—”
“Half an hour?”
“Yeah. He still hadn’t shown up. So I texted him and he didn’t reply. He knew how hard this was for me, and he didn’t even have the decency to let me know he wasn’t interested that night. Then the next week, he asked me again why I didn’t initiate.”
Zach held her more tightly against him. “That bastard.”
He’d called Matt a bastard before, but this time, it was different.
“Anyway,” she finished, “that was a few weeks before I ended the engagement. And I haven’t been with anyone else since. You’re much less out of practice than I am.” She shook her head. “Sorry. I’m being weird. I wouldn’t blame you if you don’t want to do this anymore.”
The confused look he gave her was, admittedly, rather gratifying.
“I’m interested, I promise,” he said, sliding his hands down to her ass. “Relax and don’t worry about anything. I’ll take care of you. Just tell me if you ever want to stop, okay?”
“Okay.”
He turned on the lamp beside the bed and got up to flick off the main light. It was dim now, the lamp only illuminating part of the room, and it made her feel a little more comfortable somehow.
As he sauntered back to the bed, he pulled his sweater over his head, followed by his T-shirt, exposing his chest. She swallowed as she took in the light and shadows playing over the canvas of his body.
It was nothing she hadn’t seen before. She’d seen him in a swimsuit more than once. But this time, he was going to bed with her.
At the back of her mind, she wondered if maybe this wasn’t a good idea. He might be physically attracted to her, but he’d never given any indication that he wanted this fake relationship to be not-so-fake, that he harbored anything other than friendly feelings toward her. As far as she knew, he still had no interest in a relationship.
But Jo was suddenly tired of only doing things that were good ideas. The man she craved wanted to be with her tonight, and she wouldn’t pass up the opportunity.
“Second thoughts?” he asked. “Want me to cover up?”
“No, that’s a terrible idea.”
He chuckled as he eased himself on top of her, his chest vibrating against hers. His cock was right there between her legs, and he was getting hard. He circled his hips against her, nice and slow, and she groaned. God, that felt nice. When he grasped the bottom of her shirt, she lifted her arms up so he could pull it off, and then he unclasped her bra and tossed it to the side.
She felt a moment of panic that he’d change his mind now, but he didn’t.
Instead, he looked at her in awe.
She swallowed past the lump in her throat. She could trust him. He would never make her feel like Matt had.
He started kissing her everywhere. All over her chest, her breasts, her stomach...as though every inch of her was important and deserved attention. She squirmed against him when he pulled her nipple into his mouth and swirled his tongue over the peak. Then he made his way down, and when he got to the waistband of her jeans, he lifted his gaze, and she nodded.
And then he was sliding off her jeans.
Zach was taking off her jeans.
She was nervous, but also excited, and his kisses had helped her relax into the mattress.
He grinned wolfishly when she was wearing just her panties, a pair that was black with a little bow on the front. He slipped his hands under her ass and rolled her over, then pressed his chest against her back. His erection was nestled against her ass, and she moaned as he swept her hair back and kissed her neck before planting a few kisses on her lace-clad ass.
“You’re amazing,” he whispered, and she smiled into the pillow.
He shucked off his jeans and boxers in one smooth move, and that was a sight she’d never seen before.
“What do you think?” He lay down next to her and pumped himself a few times. “Is it a perfectly good shaft?”
She couldn’t help the burst of laughter that escaped her lips.
“I don’t know,” she heard herself say. “I need to touch it first.”
Oh my God. Where had that come from? It wasn’t like her at all.
Zach laughed, his eyes darkening at the same time. He took her hand and brought it down to his crotch.
She very much approved. His cock was hard and filled her hand just right.
She didn’t say that, though.
“I still can’t tell,” she said. “I think I need to put my mouth on it before I can make my final assessment.”
He growled low in his throat, and she felt a surge of power.
She was doing this to him.
“Jo...” he said, as he rolled onto his back. “I won’t last long.”
“I won’t take long, then. Just a little lick...” She licked up the underside of his cock and couldn’t help squirming as she did so. “And another...” She licked over the head. “And now I’ll take the whole thing into my mouth.” Her voice shook. “Can’t make a proper assessment without doing that, can I?”
He made some inarticulate noises.
She smiled.
Then she took his cock into her mouth and sucked, and he gripped the sheets in his fists.
She released him with a pop.
“My expert opinion,” she said, “is that it is indeed a perfectly good shaft.”
“Just ‘perfectly good’?”
“Well, it’s quite excellent—does that sound better?”
“I know what would be better.” He held her gaze as he pulled off her underwear and tossed them aside. Slowly, he slipped his hand between her legs, and she tensed in anticipation. He slid one long finger inside her and moved it in and out. “God, you’re wet.”
He still sounded like he was in awe of her.
“For you,” she whispered. “Of course I am.”
I’ve wanted you for so long.
He added a second finger, and she could hear her moisture as he moved inside her body. He brought his hand up to his mouth and licked off the first finger, then the second, then his thumb. When he moved his hand back between her legs, he circled his thumb over her clit.
She needed to touch him, too. She reached between his legs and wrapped her hand around his quite excellent cock.
“You feel wonderful,” he whispered.
Jo had been anxious at first, a little self-conscious, but not anymore.
She ground against his hand. “I need you.”
Though he wouldn’t know everything that was behind those words, he could give her what she needed at this moment: to feel him within her.
He reached into the pocket of his discarded jeans and pulled out a condom. Her heart raced as she watched him roll it on.
This was really happening.
He held himself above her, and she could barely breathe. He wasn’t even inside her yet, and it was already so intense. The way he looked at her. The way it was easy to be naked with him.
She grasped his erection and positioned it at her entrance. He pushed inside, groaning as he filled her.
Yes. Yes. Yes.
“Zach,” she breathed.
He was still for a moment, as though this was almost too much for him, too, and then he started to move, pumping in and out.
He would take care of her. He would give her exactly what she needed. She trusted him.
She hooked her ankles over the backs of his thighs, opening herself up even more, allowing him to go deeper.
“Yes, darling,” he said.
He kissed her neck, and she arched up against him as he sucked on her skin. He was hitting every perfect spot inside her; she didn’t know how else to explain it, but it was like no sex she’d ever had before.
Her imagination hadn’t been up to the task of imagining how good it would feel to be with Zach—which was surprising, because she’d spent a lot of time imagining it.
When he raised his body off her, she put her hands on her breasts, pushing them up and tweaking her nipples. He tugged the tip with his teeth before he took as much into his mouth as he could.
She bucked against him, on the precipice, so, so close. If only he could...
He touched his finger to her clit, and she shattered almost immediately, shaking mindlessly and crying out his name, losing herself in her climax.
As she came back down, he gentled his thrusts and looked her in the eyes as though she had just done the greatest thing he’d ever seen.
Eventually, his thrusts became deeper, more powerful, and she felt like he was filling every inch of her, out to her toes and fingertips.
“Jo!” he said as his own climax overtook him.
* * *
Half an hour later, they were still lazing in bed, recovering. Neither of them had put on any clothes. Jo enjoyed being naked with Zach. Even if he no longer looked like he wanted to devour her, his eyes continued to roam over her, full of appreciation.
Plus, if she put clothes on, he might feel the need to get dressed, too.
And that would be a calamity.
She gathered up her courage. “Will you stay the night?”
“Of course.”
She didn’t know what would happen tomorrow, but she wouldn’t let herself think about that. For now, she would just enjoy going to sleep next to a man with a perfectly amazing shaft.