Together We Heal by Chelsea M. Cameron Page B

her blush.
    “Yeah, I guess so.” I resumed my place on the chair, even though I wanted to sit next to her. I was worried about invading her space.
    “I’m not really sure what I feel right now,” she said.
    “Yeah, me neither. Except that I’m one hundred percent sure I’ve never come that hard in my life. I thought the top of my head was going to come off.” We both sort of laughed nervously.
    “I… I haven’t come in a long time,” she said, so quietly I almost didn’t catch it.
    What? I mean, I knew we hadn’t done anything below the waist together, but I guess I assumed she was just satisfying herself on her own. I knew I was. I couldn’t be around her and not be turned on all the fucking time.
    “Yeah?” I said. I definitely wasn’t uncomfortable talking about this. If we were ever going to trust each other and be together physically, we were definitely going to have to talk about it ahead of time.
    “Yeah,” she said, twisting her fingers together. As open and blunt as Trish was, there were a few touchy subjects for her and this was clearly one of them.
    “Do you… I mean, are you upset that it happened?” Fuck, I didn’t know what I’d do if she was. Get on my knees and apologize and do whatever I could to make it up to her. It almost scared me what I would do to keep her. Anything. Absolutely anything. It might not be healthy, but I didn’t care.
    Her eyes flicked up to meet mine in alarm.
    “No, no! I’m just surprised. I didn’t think I could… do that anymore. I thought that part of me was busted.” She laughed a little hysterically.
    “Clearly not,” I said.
    “Yeah, guess not. I’m relieved, actually. And it was good for me too. More than good. Mind-blowing.” I finally got a real smile and it made the tightness in my chest loosen. Thank God.
    “So, are you saying that you think we might get to do it again?” I asked.
    Her smile turned flirty and sexy.
    “I think that could be arranged.”
    Glory fucking halleluiah.

 
     

    MY BRAIN WAS still a little melty from the orgasm. I’d told Max that I hadn’t come in a long time, and that was the damn truth. A really long time. I honestly couldn’t remember when. And I was pretty sure it wasn’t like that.
    It wasn’t bad and I didn’t regret it. Not even a little. But I was so confused right now. I’d avoided physical contact of that sort with anyone because I’d thought my past would come up and then I’d have to explain and it was a lot easier to just avoid the whole thing.
    Max was different. Everything about being with him was different.
    The crazy part was that neither of us had even gotten naked. I wasn’t sure if I was ready for that yet.
    “This has been pretty much the most amazing two days in the history of days,” Max said as we snuggled in bed later. He’d kept his distance until I’d motioned for him to get in bed with me.
    “Yeah, they pretty much were,” I said as he stroked my hair. I loved it when he played with the wisps at the base of my neck. They always grew out first, showing my natural ashy-blonde color. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d actually had hair my real color. I’d started dyeing it when I was pretty young. A therapist would probably say it was me outwardly expressing my inward pain or something.
    “Every day with you has been amazing,” he whispered and kissed the very top of my spine. When we first started sharing the bed, I’d pretty much worn a similar outfit to a nun. I covered up as much as possible.
    Gradually, I’d gotten more and more comfortable with showing skin around him. Tonight I just had a tank top and thin shorts on. We both pretended that I didn’t notice when he popped a boner, but it jolted me a little every morning. Sometimes I thought about what he would do if I went ahead and touched him.
    Heated thoughts ran through my head and it took me a long time to calm down and finally get my mind to stop and let me sleep.
     

     
    AS USUAL, I woke up