Not Until You: Part V by Roni Loren Read Free Book Online

remember me telling you about, Ms. Briarstone, my junior year math teacher?”
    Foster leaned forward and slid his computer onto the table, annoyance pumping through him. “Yeah, you never shut up about her back then. You said she wore skirts that inspired even
you
to learn quadratic equations.”
    Pike gave a wistful sigh and got a far-off look in his eye. “Ah, those pencil skirts. When she’d lean over her desk to grab her notes, you couldn’t see any panty line. Not one. I lost days of my life wondering what was beneath—something sexy or nothing at all?”
    “What does this have to do with anything?”
    He brought his gaze back to Foster. “Because the night of my junior prom, I didn’t fuck the girl I’d taken to the dance. I lost my virginity to Ms. Briarstone at a shitty little motel she drove me to outside of town.”
    Foster’s brows dipped. “You told me you did it with Laurel Woods freshman year.”
    “Yeah, well, I lied. Laurel was my first blow job.” He pulled his feet off the table and braced his forearms against his thighs. “But my point is that I lost my virginity and fell in fucking love, dude. I thought that was it. No one could ever be as hot or perfect as her. I mean, she wore thongs and garters and shit. No girl in high school was going to top that.”
    Foster sniffed, having trouble picturing Pike with hearts in his eyes.
    “But of course all that rush of feeling wasn’t real. It was just me being young and stupid and horny as shit. We fooled around a few more times, but the novelty eventually wore off and we moved on.”
    “Man, that’s kind of fucked up. She was a grown woman, and no offense, but you were a pretty screwed-up kid back then. She shouldn’t have messed with you.”
    He shrugged. “Fucking a beautiful older woman was the least of my potentially psychologically damaging experiences back then. And hell, if I was with her, at least I didn’t have to go home to sleep.”
    Foster sighed and leaned back against the couch, Pike’s warning echoing his own worries. “For the record, you’re not telling me something I’m not already worried about. I know I’m a novelty to Cela right now, and that on some level, I represent all the bad in her good-girl world. But it
feels
like more, Pike. When we’re together, there’s this sense of . . . rightness. Like she’s supposed to be mine. And she chose to stay here. But, don’t worry, I’m keeping myself in check about it.”
    “Sure you are.” Pike shook his head, but there was a smile there. “You’re so fucked, my friend.”
    Monty barked, as if seconding that remark.
    “No, I’m serious. I’m not letting myself get too deep yet. I’m just seeing how it goes.”
    “Uh-huh,” Pike said, obviously unconvinced. “Just be careful.”
    There was a loud knock at the door and a shout of, “Delivery!”
    Pike glanced toward the sound as Monty scrambled toward it in full guard-dog mode. “What’s that about?”
    Foster pushed off the couch. “You don’t want to know.”
    But Pike was already hopping up from his chair and beating Foster to the door. He swung it open. The guy on the other side handed Pike a clipboard. “Delivery for Ian Foster. We wanted to make sure you were home before we brought it up.”
    Pike looked down at the paperwork, obviously scanning it to see what was being delivered. He turned to Foster with his jaw slack. “Tell me you didn’t.”
    “Shut up.” He grabbed the clipboard from him and signed.
    Pike laughed and put a hand on his shoulder. “So. Fucked.”

Chapter 25
    I walked up the stairs to my apartment Tuesday afternoon with butterflies the size of mutant bats in my belly. Foster had emailed me informing me that we’d be going out tonight, and that he’d left instructions for me in an envelope he’d slipped under my door.
    When I unlocked my door and saw the innocuous white rectangle lying atop the rug I’d knelt on the last time I’d seen him, a frizzle of anxiety went