“Now you,” he breathed. “Now, Jett.”
I lined up. The blunt head of me pressed against him, slick meeting slick. I pushed in slow, one full stroke, the metal sliding through the tight ring of him, the PA pulling a small ragged breath out of both of us at the threshold. Ellis’ cry came out of him whole, more sound than word, the kind of noise the wall took with him. I bottomed out. My hips against his ass. My cock buried to the base. The heat of him gripping every inch.
Then the sound came. Metal scraping metal at the front door. A key turning in the lock. The spare under the fake rock, the world’s most obvious hiding spot, which all four of my friends knew about because I’d never bothered to change it.
The door opened.
“Jett? Are you okay? I heard…”
Sierra stood in the doorway.
For one horrible second, nobody moved. Sierra in the entrance, hand still on the doorknob, eyes the size of satellite dishes. Ellis againstthe wall. Me behind him. Both of us naked and frozen mid-everything, like someone had hit pause on the most embarrassing moment of our collective lives.
“Oh my GOD!” Sierra spun around so fast she almost fell. Her hands flew over her eyes. “I’m so sorry! I thought you were hurt! I heard noises and I…”
“SIERRA!” My voice came out strangled—half mortification, half the breathlessness of thirty seconds ago.
“I’m leaving! I’m leaving right now! Pretend this never happened!”
The door slammed. Her footsteps pounded down the hall.
Ellis’ forehead dropped against my shoulder. He was shaking. I thought for one horrible second he was upset, but then I heard it. A muffled, hysterical sound pressed against my skin.
He was laughing.
“This isn’t funny,” I grumbled.
“It’s objectively the funniest thing that has ever happened to me.”
“My best friend just saw us. She saw everything, Ellis. Every single…”
“I know what she saw.” His shoulders were heaving. He pulled back and his face was red and wet, tears from laughing or maybe tears from before, maybe both. “She’s never going to look at me again.”
“She’s never going to look at either of us again.”
He kissed my forehead. “Call her. I’ll put pants on.”
I found my phone on the nightstand where I’d left it after the call with my mom. Two different phone calls in one night. One that broke something. One that was about to be the most mortifying conversation of my life. I dialed Sierra from the bedroom while Ellis retreated to the bathroom.
She picked up on the first ring.
“Before you say anything.” I’d already found the far corner of the bedroom. “Ellis is never going to look me in the eye again.”
“I am SO sorry. I heard what sounded like someone getting hurt, and I panicked. I should have knocked louder or called first or literally anythingother than barging in with a spare key.”
“It’s fine. I mean, it’s mortifying, but it’s fine.” I sat on the edge of my bed. The same spot where I’d called my mom two hours ago. Different world. “How did the dinner go? Please tell me it went better than this.”
“Well, I didn’t accidentally walk in on any family members having sex, so yes.”
Despite everything, the phone call, the tears, and the fact Sierra had just seen more of Ellis than she’d ever wanted to, I laughed. Actually laughed. “Details. I need details to distract me from my shame.”
She told me. Her parents, the confusion, her dad’s disappointment, Thalia’s fierce backup. It was rough. Not catastrophic, but rough. They were struggling with it, but they were still talking to her. Still loved her, even if they didn’t understand yet.
“How about you?” she asked. “How did it go with your mom?”
The laughter dried up. “Not great.”
“Oh, Jett.”
