Fire Down Below by Andrea Simonne Read Free Book Online Page B

embarrassing.”
    I lay down on my stomach beside
him. “So it didn’t work out with Wendy—why is that embarrassing?”
    He met my eyes. “Because for the
longest time I thought it was me . I thought I was doing something wrong
and that’s why she was so unresponsive.”
    “It wasn’t you,” I said, putting
my hand on his arm. “Trust me. You’ve got me in such a state of constant arousal
that I can barely see straight.”
    Ben grinned and rolled towards me,
his face close to mine. “Yeah, is that right?”
    “You know it is.”
    We smiled at each other—co-conspirators
sharing the same secret.
    I leaned in and kissed him, opening
his mouth with mine, letting my tongue wander over his. My fingers ran along
his jaw scratchy with stubble. He wrapped his arms around me, pulling me in
close and rolled onto his back taking me with him. We kissed like this for a
while, my arms up, his hands roaming under my nightgown.
    I sat up to pull it off over my
head, but Ben stopped me.
    “Leave it on. I’ve never seen you
in anything like this before. It’s so...wholesome.”
    “You mean it’s so ugly.” I glanced
down at my thread bare gown. “I’ve been wearing this since I was a teenager.”
    “Did you ever wear it back when I
knew you in college?”
    “Yeah, why?”
    He smiled. “I used to wonder what
you slept in back then.”
    “Why would you have wondered
that?”
    “Because I had a crush on you.”
    “No, you didn’t. Why are you
saying that?”
    “Yes, I did. Don’t you remember
all those playlists I made for you? I used to hang out after class hoping to
run into you, so we could go have coffee together.”
    I was stunned into silence.
    “You didn’t know that?”
    “No...I thought we were just
friends. I figured I was too weird for you. Did you really have a crush on me?”
    He nodded.
    I met his gaze, but didn’t say
anything. All my memories of that year had just shifted before my eyes and been
reshuffled like a deck of cards.
    “Okay,” I said softly. “I’ll leave
it on.”
    I reached down and unzipped his
pants, putting my hand inside his boxers to feel him. “We’re not leaving your clothes on though.” I smiled.  And then I began to undress him, slowly, but not
too slowly, enjoying myself as more of his body came into view under the soft
glow of my bedroom lamp, running my hands over his legs and chest, taking my
time. I bent over him to kiss his stomach and heard him gasp softly. Encouraged
I moved farther down and took him in my mouth.
    “Yes...,” he breathed, his hands tangling
in my hair.
    I knew exactly what he liked. He
liked me to start slow and firm, no teeth, a little tongue, but mostly hands
and mouth, and so that’s what I did. Most of all he liked to pull my hair away
from my face, so he could watch what I was doing to him. I began to have this little
fantasy, almost like a hallucination really, where I was eighteen years old
again. I could even smell the flowery perfume I used to wear wafting up from
the fibers of my nightgown.
    After a while I pulled my panties
off and climbed on top of him. He put his hands on my hips guiding me as I
lowered myself down. I’d never had any decent sex back in those days, never had
a real boyfriend at all. I lost my virginity when I was nineteen, the summer
right after I dropped out of college, to this arrogant jerk named Adam that I
dated for all of two weeks. But if I had had a real boyfriend this is exactly
how I would have wanted it to be. I would have wanted my first love to be just
like Ben. I would have wanted us to have silly fights over inconsequential
things, to spend hours obsessing over each other, to laugh at our own private
little jokes, to be so into each other that we couldn’t keep our hands from
constantly reaching and touching.
    So maybe I never had it back then,
but why the heck can’t I have it now?

Chapter Five
     
    The Present Day….
     
    “You look exceptionally
pretty today.”
    “Thank you.” I smile