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7 months, 3 days and... 4 hours.
That’s how long Colin Bridgerton had been in love with Penelope Featherington. But that wasn’t right, was it? If he allowed himself to really think about it, he had been in love with her for much longer. Certainly not on first sight - she had been 14 after all and him 19, busy enjoying the newly found freedom moving out of his mother’s town house to attend university had suddenly afforded him.
No, it must have been somewhere between dangerously sweet cocktails at her 23rd birthday party, the one where she had worn that divine pink dress and gold heels, and the day he had seen her cry for Eloise at their aunt’s funeral. Next to their mother, Aunt Billie had been Eloise’s favourite person growing up, so when their father’s older sister died quite suddenly after a short period of illness, everyone had expected Eloise to take it the hardest. But his younger sister seemed to go into shock and just... didn’t react at all. It had been disconcerting, to say the least. Eloise was usually the one Bridgerton you could count on to always have something to say and be open about her emotions and to see her shut down like that had frankly scared him.
Penelope had just returned from a work assignment in Ireland that morning and it wasn’t until after the service, when the redhead had walked up to her best friend with tears running down her face, that something in Eloise finally seemed to break. The two friends had hugged and cried together in front of the small parish church. Despite his own grief for his aunt, Colin had been struck by how much his heart ached for the two younger women. Had he not been so busy worrying about how everyone in his family was holding up after losing the last tangible connection to their late father, he might have realised then and there that the feelings Pen stirred in him were entirely different from the ones he had towards his little sister.
But he had been worried, his head in too many places at once and so it took him 2 more years after that to see what had been building for a long, long time. He had known her for nearly 14 years at that point and he was ashamed to say that seeing her idly swipe on Tinder was what finally did it.
He had been back home for a few weeks between trips. His family fortune had made it possible for him to start travelling the world straight out of uni. At 33, the eternal bachelor son – much to Violet’s dismay – ran a successful travel blog and YouTube channel, the latter causing his siblings to teasingly call him an influencer and ask him when his skin care routine was dropping. One of these days he was actually going to accept the Function of Beauty sponsorship he kept getting offered just to see their stupid faces.
Anyway. He had been staying at Anthony and Kate’s, preparing for a trip to Vietnam, and it had been the eldest Bridgerton’s turn to host the monthly Bridgerton Blood Bath ™ attended by Violet, her children and various significant others. Game night. He had missed many of them over the years and as overwhelming as his family could be, he was just as competitive as the rest of them and enjoyed these gatherings immensely. A round of Betrayal at House on the Hill had devolved into Kate, née Sharma, accusing her husband of cheating, and Colin had thought it wise to get out of the way for the moment before he got clobbered with the game board.
So, he had done what he always subconsciously did - gravitated towards Penelope, a long-time attendee of all family affairs despite not being related to any of them by blood or marriage. He plonked down on the sofa next to her.
“Research for the show?” He asked with a happy smile on his face that only faltered a bit when it took his friend a few moments to look up from her phone, biting her bottom lip nervously and quickly turning the screen away so he could not see what she was doing. This was new. Whenever he saw her this engrossed in her phone, it was usually about her job as a television writer and nothing to hide.
“Ah... No. Just browsing until Kate and Anthony have decided who cheated first during the game. My guess is on Kate, but don’t tell her. She scares me during game night.”
Colin would usually have made a joke about his older brother at this point, but Penelope had looked exceptionally nervous and... flushed? He had felt the distinct urge to sink one of his hands into her open hair and gather the locks at the nape of her neck to see if the flush went further down than he could currently see... Wait, what?
Shaking his head to clear it, he had asked the first thing he could come up with: “You weren’t reading one of your smut stories, were you?”
“WHAT! No!”
Her yell had caused the rest of the Bridgertons scattered around the room to briefly pause in their own conversations. However, as soon as they had seen Colin sitting with Penelope, they all went about their business again, rightfully assuming he was winding her up like usual.
“No.” She had repeated in a lower voice and after a few seconds of what had looked like an intense internal debate, had turned her phone around to show Colin.
“I’ve been swiping on Tinder... for fun, you know?”
No. He did not.
Where was the ringing in his ears suddenly coming from, he had wondered quietly as his eyes focused on what looked like a fairly long chat session between Pen and some guy called Horatio. Before he could quite see what they were writing to each other though, she had turned the phone back around again.
“Eloise installed the App on my phone a few weeks ago because she wanted to ‘window shop’ for me... instead of herself. And then I got talking to this guy and I don’t know... He seems nice.”
As if on cue, her phone had started vibrating, alerting her of a new message and as she sat there, quietly giggling at something this Horatio tosser had said, Colin had been certain steam was starting to come out of his ears.
Horatio wouldn’t last, it later turned out, but the not so sudden, selfish realisation that he wanted to be the only man getting her this excited over a simple conversation, had cemented itself in his mind.
Now, 7 months, 3 days and... 4 hours later he was sitting in a pub in Mayfair next to his older brother Benedict, his younger sisters Eloise, Daphne, Daphne’s husband Simon and Penelope playing a game of billiards a few metres away from them. Straws had decided teams and Penelope and Simon were some kind of billiards dream team, it turned out. For someone who was so short and didn’t have a lot of reach across the table, Penelope was a surprisingly skilled player. It looked like Eloise was about to break something with her cue as her and Daph were about to lose their second round.
Speaking of breaking things. Colin’s eyes fixated on a group of guys a couple of tables over, watching the game as well. Two of them seemed to be interested in nothing else but watching Penelope bend over the table to line up her next shot. She was dressed quite casually for their night out, but her jeans were hugging her generous curves in all the right places and...
“Cheers.”
Benedict thanking the waitress as she dropped the next round of lagers off at their table took Colin’s attention away from the scene unfurling in front of him. He grabbed his pint and nearly downed half of it in one go.
“Okay, then... What’s got your knickers in a twist lately anyway?”
“I’m fine,” he grunted and finally looked at his older brother... who wasn’t buying a world Colin was saying, by the look on his face.
“You have been hanging around London for over 3 months now. You haven’t done that since graduation. Why aren’t you travelling?”
“I’m working on my novel and posting travel tips for now. No need to actually be travelling to do that.”
Colin shrugged. Only a partial lie - he had adjusted his content to a more stationary lifestyle for the moment and he WAS still working on the first draft of his novel. What he was not going to admit to was being drawn back here for a prolonged period of time because he now found himself wanting to turn around and spend more time with Eloise’s best friend every time he even thought about booking a flight.
Benedict nodded and turned around, concentrating on what was happening at the billiards table for a few moments. Colin knew better than to assume he was off the hook though. The fact that he had stopped travelling seemingly over night was puzzling to his entire family and all his friends. His mother had nearly fallen over when he had first mentioned looking for a rental in what he hoped was joy over him staying put for more than 3 weeks at a time.
Looking back at the game, he was relieved to see that Simon had finally looked away from his wife for long enough to realise Pen had a fan club and was currently blocking their view of the redhead’s behind quite effectively with his own body.
Finally, Benedict did what Colin knew he’d do: dig deeper.
“Why now, though? You could have been doing that for years, but you were always so eager to leave on your next adventure as soon as you arrived back home. What has changed?”
xxx
“You’re so drunk!”
Penelope was smiling as Colin leaned on her side. Given that he was about a foot taller than her and she was wearing flats, it seemed a bit like she was trying to prop up the Leaning Tower of Pisa. They were standing at Bond Street station and waiting for the next tube. The others had gone in the opposite direction already to their respective homes and the flat Colin was currently renting on a monthly basis wasn’t too far from Pen’s own small North Acton place. A bit out of the way compared to the posh inner-city areas his family resided in, which wasn’t exactly a bad thing in his books.
“I’m not drunk, I’m... merry,” he declared and pulled her in for a hug, leaning down to bury his nose in her hair. He felt her stiffen for a second before she relaxed and hugged him back. After standing like this for a few moments, they heard the tube arrive and Penelope disentangled herself from him, which turned out to be a bit of a bigger operation than expected as he wasn’t exactly being helpful.
One arm wrapped around her, they stepped into the carriage as the doors opened and sort of stumbled into a pair of free seats with no armrest between them.
Ok, maybe he was a bit ‘merrier’ than he wanted to admit.
“We should have a sleepover.”
The words were out of his mouth before he even knew he was planning on saying them. Something he would never have suggested to any of his female friends besides her... but this WAS her, they were comfortable with each other and he didn’t have any motives besides spending more time with her and hugging her and...
He inwardly groaned. He really had it bad. If he had learned anything in the last 7 months, especially since he had decided to spend more time home and with her, it was that he was a complete coward and fool who would spend the rest of his life just being her constantly present best guy friend rather than losing her.
His suggestion caused her to stare at him in disbelief and then laugh. “You’re 33, you don’t have sleepovers with friends.”
“Not true. We have both stayed the night at my mother’s and also Anthony’s houses before. And that one time at Eloise’s after she broke up with Tina. That counts as a friend sleepover in my book. We were both sleeping over at the same place and you are my friend, are you not?”
“Yes, Colin, I am”, she agreed with what seemed to be some reluctance. “But staying in different wings in one of your family’s massive houses after a gala or sleeping on the sofa with a chocolate and tears covered Eloise snoring between us is hardly the same thing. What, you want me to stay over at your place and watch The Princess Bride while we talk about boys?” Again, with the adorable giggling - seemed like he wasn’t the only one who had had a pint too many.
“No boy talk”, he quickly said and cringed slightly when he heard the petulant tone in his own voice. “And we can stay at your place, whichever you prefer. I just... I don’t want to be alone.” And he didn’t. He hated the thought of going back to his lonely flat now, only sparsely furnished and with boxes and bags that he never got around to unpacking stacked against the living room wall.
Her mouth formed a silent ‘Oh’, causing his eyes to flicker down to her full lips for a split second.
“Ok then. My stop comes up first.”
By the looks of it she was just as surprised as him by the turn of events - and maybe a little concerned for him after his last admission.
Half an hour later he was standing behind Penelope in the dark hallway of her block of flats as she fiddled with her keys in the lock.
“Lucky for you I just bought a pack of toothbrushes as your sister has a habit of refusing to bring over her own stuff whenever she comes over to get drunk even though she knows she always ends up spending the night.”
Colin couldn’t see her face as her back was to him and it was dark in the hall anyway, but he could clearly hear the nerves in her voice. For some reason she seemed to be nervous around him. Well, she did that around him from time to time, but this seemed to be a bit more severe. He didn’t like it and it made him worry that he had impulsively overstepped a boundary in their friendship after all.
He did what he did best and deflected with a joke: “I feel much safer knowing you have experience with harbouring drunk Bridgertons.”
He could hear her snort in amusement and then she finally managed to open the front door and stepped through, turning on a light inside.
xxx
Not for the first time in the last few months Penelope half expected Rod Sterling to come around the corner and start narrating.
‘An unexpected turn of events in Ms. Penelope Featherington’s otherwise predictable life. A moderately successful television writer who runs a more than moderately successful anonymous advice column on the internet, she is about to find out that her own subjective reality is not what it seems. Who will be able to give her advice… in the Twilight Zone. ‘
Or something to that effect. Up until earlier this year her life had seemed to follow a predictable path: Hopelessly fall in love with best friend’s older brother at 14, spend the rest of her teenage years and early 20s pining for him while she completed a degree in English at the University of Bristol, and he travelled the world seeing beautiful sights and even more beautiful women. Have a few OK dates that sometimes turned into OK-ish short-term relationships. Start a career as a writer, move as far away across town from her mother as she could, have fun with her friends, eventually decide to accept the fact that best friend’s older brother was never going to happen and… shortly after he suddenly pops back up from a trip and decides to stick around seemingly out of nowhere.
And if it weren’t surprising enough to have Colin hang around London for what would soon be 4 months in a row now, he also seemed to have adopted her as his new best gal pal. Not that she was complaining – they had always been friendly and, yes, friends, whenever he spent time in the country. Due to her close relationship with the rest of the Bridgertons she was always sure to see a lot of him whenever he visited back home, but that always happened within clearly determined timeframes and bigger groups. They rarely spent any time alone together, something that would have been near impossible anyway with his large family always hanging all over each other… which she loved, truly.
So why, now, had he decided to spend so much time with her? Over the last few months he had joined her and Eloise on their weekly coffee dates countless times, was eager to organise group outings every weekend and now he had suggested a sleepover of all things. Clearly something was wrong. And all the headway she had made in getting over him had long been lost. As much as it puzzled her, she would gladly be by his side as his friend for the rest of her life rather than not have him in her life at all.
She just really, really needed to get back on that dating train. And get laid. Several times over. Whatever needed to happen for her to get over this stupid crush for good.
She toed off her sneakers and shrugged out of her jacket.
“We should have some water, or we’ll absolutely hate ourselves in the morning,” she said over her shoulder as she made her way over into the kitchen. She wasn’t too drunk, the way home had sobered them both up quite a bit, but she still wanted to pre-empt any possible dehydration headache. Filling two glasses with tab water, she brought them over into the living room where Colin was flicking through her vinyl collection. He had been over a few times before, always with Eloise, and while her small flat was a far cry from what the Bridgertons were used to, she had made a cosy home for herself that she enjoyed having people over in. Considering how often Eloise crashed in the one bedroom flat rather than her own small townhouse that she had inherited from her aunt, at least one Bridgerton seemed to think so as well.
Colin took the water from her with a crooked smile that made her stomach do an annoying flip flop and she busied herself with downing the contents of her own glass and walked over to the large window behind her two-seater leather sofa. It was pitch black out apart from a few streetlights dotting the walkway below them. She was about to ask Colin something when a realisation hit her.
“Uhm… I guess you won’t fit on my sofa.” She turned around and was frowning down at the two-seater. “I’ll take it.”
He looked up from the FKA Twigs album sleeve he had been inspecting and looked at her like she had grown a second head: “I’m not kicking you out of your own bed, Pen. I’ll be fine. I invited myself over knowing I’d be doing the pretzel on that thing.”
She felt extremely stupid giggling at the mental image – he had been making her giggle way too much tonight, she really needed to get a grip – and his joking demeanour was what finally made her decide to ACTUALLY get a grip and stop acting like this was anything else than her having a friend stay over.
“We’re both silly. We’ve known each other forever and we’re friends, as you said earlier… When Eloise or Edwina stay over here, they just share my bed. There’s no reason we can’t just sleep next to each other.”
She wasn’t sure what it was she saw on Colin’s face – confusion, consternation, surprise or maybe all at the same time – but she didn’t even give him a chance to reply. Suddenly she was determined to prove to herself that this was all they were – friends. He might as well be sleeping next to a tree trunk, that’s how exciting it would be for him to share a bed with her. And then, tomorrow morning, she would maybe finally get it through her thick skull and truly understand in her heart, that he would never see her as anything but a surrogate sister and close friend at best.
“First in the bathroom.” She sounded cheery to her own ears as she quickly walked past him and went to get ready for bed. While removing her makeup and brushing her teeth, she kept telling herself that this was perfect. She really should have thought of this before and asked him to have a buddy sleepover. This way she would have proof that he wasn’t interested without having to be outright rejected by him. Then, she could go back on Tinder and find someone to distract her.
Ignoring any thought that pointed to the fact that this could only end up hurting her, she left the bathroom and once again walked past Colin who seemed to be rooted to the same spot she had left him at.
“I’ve put a fresh toothbrush and a towel out,” she advised as she entered her bedroom that adjoined the living room. It took a few moments before she heard Colin lock himself in the bathroom and letting out a deep breath, she slipped into a pair of pyjamas, a T-Shirt and boyshort combo and quickly hurrying under the duvet on her queen-sized bed.
Over the last few years, she had learned to embrace her curvy figure and accepted the fact that she would simply never be skinny or even very thin. Dating had helped her realise that there were men who were physically attracted to her. But Colin… No matter how much she intended to get over him, she clearly wasn’t there just yet, and the thought of him seeing her in her sleepshirt without a bra on, made her feel slightly horrified. Colin was lovely and nice and would never say anything mean about how she looked, like so many people had done as she was growing up. Including her own mother. But knowing that didn’t help her feel any less self-conscious in front of him. Like all Bridgerton men, he was strikingly good looking, and she didn’t even want to imagine the kind of women he met on his adventures and was attracted to.
And just as she was sitting in bed, the duvet pulled nearly up to her chin, trying not to imagine Colin walking along an exotic beach with a gorgeous Victoria Secret model on his arm, the man in question entered the room. His hair looked a bit crazy, she noticed, like he had been running his hands through it repeatedly. And he was obviously still wearing a pair of jeans and a dark grey button-down shirt.
“Oh, uhm…” Ok, this was so much less awkward with Eloise and Edwina. “I have a couple of T-shirts in my wardrobe that were left by one of my exes. I sometimes use them to sleep in. I think they should fit you… Do you want to use one?”
xxx
No, he fucking didn’t.
What kind of hell had he suddenly landed in? First Penelope offered him to sleep in the bed with her and of course he couldn’t say no, because that offer was just too tempting and he was, clearly, an idiot. He’d happily spend the night lying next to her, not sleeping a wink, wishing he could touch her and kiss her and then go home tomorrow morning still feeling like he had just had the best night of his life.
But while inviting him to share her bed, she had also made it clear that it wouldn’t be any different for her from doing the same with Eloise or Edwina. Ouch. And now she offered him one of her stupid exe’s shirts… likely Horatio’s. He fought back the urge to find those stupid shirts and toss them out of the window. He’d cheerfully bring her an entire bag of his own shirts in the morning that she could wear whenever she wanted.
“No, thank you,” was all he eventually replied when he realised that he had been staring at her with a blank expression for way too long to be comfortable. “I usually sleep without a shirt, if that’s ok with you?”
She hesitantly nodded, pulling the duvet impossibly higher and he wouldn’t have been surprised if she decided to fully disappear beneath it. What she was hiding from he had no idea, but since they were being such good FRIENDS here, he figured he might as well show her how relaxed he was about everything that was happening here.
So he walked around the bed, unbuttoning his shirt and dropping it on a chair in the far corner of the room. When he was left in his boxershorts, he walked over to the bed and slid under the duvet himself. Penelope was now lying down on her back, eyes trained on the ceiling and she only turned off her bedside lamp and turned to face him in the dark once he was fully under the covers as well.
“Well… this is nice,” she offered quietly, and he felt a grin stretch across his face despite how tense things had been just a moment ago.
“It is,” he agreed. “Thank you for letting me stay. I really… didn’t want to be alone tonight. It’s still a bit weird for me to have an actual flat to return to and not stay with one of my siblings.”
“Hm… Understandable. You’ve spent so many years travelling, I guess it’s weird to be in London for so long. But… I’m glad you decided to stay put for a while.”
He was pretty sure he was grinning like a total lunatic by now and was thankful for the darkness surrounding them. Without even thinking about it, he scooted a bit closer to her. The arm that wasn’t curled under his head bumped into one of hers and he took her hand in his.
“Yeah?” He probed, clearly fishing for compliments, but he didn’t care. And neither did she, it seemed, as he could feel her small hand squeeze his before she said:
“Yeah. I have always loved reading your travel blog and watching your videos from abroad, but it’s much more fun to actually have you around. You’re pretty much my favourite Bridgerton apart from Eloise… and Benedict.”
“Hey!” He gave a surprised laugh. “How come Benedict is everyone’s favourite? I’m so lovely and charming.”
“Eh… it’s all the artistic sensitivity. You can’t compete with that. Seriously though… I am happy you’ve decided to stay for a while, for whatever reason. You… You’re really special to me.”
And just like that he felt like she had simultaneously destroyed him and given him something he hadn’t known he was missing. He was lucky in that he had always been popular and had never had a shortage of people telling him they liked or loved him. But these words from Penelope felt special. If someone as amazing as her who had seen him in some embarrassing and unfavourable situations over the last 14 years thought he was worthy of holding such a special place in her life… Then maybe he wasn’t as much of an idiot as he sometimes thought.
He raised their intertwined hands to his lips and pressed a kiss to her knuckles. He could feel her scoot a little closer to him herself now, close enough that he could hear her breath stutter in her chest. Next thing he knew, their legs brushed and became tangled. Slowly letting go of her hand, he rested his free arm in the dip of her waist under the covers, splaying his hand on her lower back. He could feel the warmth of her skin through the thin cotton and his heart started hammering when she didn’t pull away.
“You’re really special to me too, Pen. You have no idea how special.”
He knew he was toeing a dangerous line here. If she pushed him away now, or even worse, if she felt like she couldn’t push him away, things would get more than complicated between them. But try as he might, he couldn’t bring himself to let go of her just yet. Just a few more seconds of her chest lightly brushing his and the smell of lavender shampoo in his nose and then he would give her room again and go back to-
“Oh, what the hell…”
He heard her quietly mutter and before he could ask her what was wrong, she wound the hand he had just kissed into his hair and pulled his head towards hers. He had obviously been kissed before and still, when her soft lips met his, he was dumbstruck. Whatever he had been expecting her to do – headbutt him? – this clearly hadn’t been it. It didn’t take him too long to catch up though and he pulled her even closer towards him, turning slightly to hover over her, never breaking the contact.
He licked into her mouth and answered her gasp with a low moan of his own. Nothing had ever felt like holding Penelope in his arms and kissing her like she was the very air he needed to breathe. Nothing had ever even come close to this. He had always felt confident in his performance as a lover - but this... this might very well have brought him to his knees if they weren’t already on her bed and felt more like a first kiss than any other ever had.
Somewhere in the back of his mind he was starting to realise that for all his experience he hadn’t known what true desire was until now. With every passing second, every caress of their tongues against each other and each little noise he managed to draw from her lips, Penelope was utterly ruining him. For the longest time he hadn’t spared other women even a second thought and now that he knew that it was like to kiss her, he already felt in his bones that nothing would ever compare.
His hand slid under her shirt, slowly making its way up her ribcage he trailed kisses down the side of her neck.
“Oh, Colin… don’t stop, please don’t stop,” she whispered feverishly, and he playfully nipped at the nape of her neck.
“Never.”
Sitting up, he was now able to let both hands wander up her torso, stroking the sides of her full breasts. He grew impossibly harder at the prospect of cupping her and how she would spill over his hands. In one swift movement he helped her pull the shirt over her head and tossed it over his shoulders. Leaning down again to press a gentle kiss to her lips, he whispered: “Please let me see you, Pen.”
She was breathing harshly and just when he thought she had changed her mind, she reached over to the side and turned her reading light back on. His eyes roamed over her lovely face, all flushed and eyes slightly glazed over, down the elegant curve of her neck and finally further down.
“God, you’re perfect.”
Biting her lips, she averted her gaze: “You don’t have to say that.”
“It’s true,” came his prompt reply and deciding that he wouldn’t give her the chance to feel anything less than perfect again, he sealed their lips in another kiss, lightly licking along the seam of her lips, coaxing her to open.
She slung her arms around him, running her fingers up and down his back. He began working his way down her throat again, not stopping this time. Cupping one of her breasts and rolling her lovely dusty nipple between forefinger and thumb, he sucked the other into his mouth, circling it with his tongue.
Even before tonight he had been struck stupid a few times at the mere sight of her chest in a form fitting top. That time she joined the family for a pool party a few months ago, he had nearly slipped and hit his head on the stone floor when she walked out of the house in a slightly lowcut red one piece with a towel wrapped around her hips. Anthony still made fun of him for that.
He had always preferred more shapely women and as he switched position to lick at the other nipple and let a hand run down the soft skin of her stomach, he felt dangerously close to losing all self-control and come in his shorts like an inexperienced teenager. She really was perfect for him. So soft and responsive with dips and curves in all the right places.
By the time he finally slipped both her shorts and knickers down her legs, she was clutching at the sheets and looking up at him with pure fire in her eyes. Spreading her legs and kneeling between them, he lazily let his fingertips glide down the insides of her thighs.
“How do you want me, Penelope?” He asked huskily, letting his eyes roam all over her face and body once more. She opened her mouth like she was about to answer, but the only sound emerging was a long moan when he let a single fingertip run up her glistening slit. Fuck. Her body was primed and ready for him, but he wasn’t about to turn this into a quicky.
“No? Maybe I should tell you how I want you instead?”
He had always been very vocal during sex and by the looks of it, Penelope was extremely turned on by it.
“Yes… Yes. Please.”
“First, I want to bury my face between your pretty legs and make you come so hard on my tongue you see stars. Then, I want you to ride me. I want you to take your pleasure on my cock and lick your pretty tits as I come inside of you.”
xxx
She was going to die. Or she had already died. She wasn’t sure which one and she didn’t really care so long as he didn’t stop.
Kissing him, having him caress her body and hearing him say such beautifully filthy things to her… and that look in his eyes. Oh God, he was looking at her like she was the sexiest thing he had ever seen and that seemed to be enough to make her forget about any insecurities. However this had come about, she wouldn’t question it for now. All she wanted was for him to follow through on his promises.
She gave him a nod, not trusting her voice and with a slow grin he lay down slightly sideways on the bed to align his face with her centre. She was no virgin, of course, but her experience was limited, and the few times guys had gone down on her, she had been too worried about her own taste and smell and what they thought, to really enjoy it. Now though she was too turned on to even put a sentence together, let alone worry. The first touch of his tongue running all the way up her from opening to clit, had her cry out and bury a hand in his hair.
He gave a low moan, obviously approving, spread her folds wider open with his fingers and began working her over in earnest. Circling the tip of his tongue around her clit, never quite touching it directly, making her nearly cry out in frustration only to make her keen again when his tongue dipped lower, entering her.
Oh. This was new.
Finally pressing down and circling on her clit with a thumb, he kept licking and pushing into her wheeping entry, mimicking the steady in and out rhythm he would soon set with his cock.
Chanting his name and lifting her lips to grind against his face, she finally came apart and it almost felt like an out of body experience. Again, not her first orgasm, but none had ever felt so intense.
Maybe he was just that much better than any man before him… Or maybe that was just what sex was like when you loved someone.
The thought came unbidden, but she accepted it. It was hardly news to her after all.
Colin was pressing kisses to her thighs, around her stomach and between her breasts, all the while murmuring words of endearment.
“So perfect… mine… beautiful… been wanting this for so long…”
His words registered when he reached her face again, giving her a soft kiss. She could taste herself on his lips, but she didn’t care. If she was being honest, it was pretty damn sexy.
Pulling back, she searched his face and all she saw was adoration and happiness.
“How long?”
If it had been possible for her heart to beat any harder, it would have. Without missing a beat, he whispered his reply:
“Looking back… years. I was an idiot.”
She didn’t know what to say to that. Whatever his answer meant; she was still sure she had him beat in terms of how long she had been pining after him. She also had no idea how and why… but that was a discussion for another time. They had other things to do right now.
“You get to make it up to me. I believe you said something about me riding you?”
She couldn’t quite believe what she was saying. Dirty talk or really talking at all during sex had never seemed appealing to her, but with Colin everything felt so natural and she loved the gleam in his eyes as she repeated his words back to him.
Slipping her hands under the waistband of his boxershorts, she slid them down and her eyes zeroed in on his member as he kicked the fabric off. He was hard and heavy for her, the tip already leaking. Usually, she would have been tempted to repay the earlier favour, but she was just about as impatient to feel him inside of her as he looked.
“Condoms in the bedside table.”
“I have a condom in my wallet.”
They both spoke at the same time and started laughing.
“Your wallet, huh? Very 2000s teenage movie of you.”
“Always prepared.”
He winked at her and pulled her down on top of him. One of his arms stretched out to the side to fish around for the beforementioned condoms in the drawer. Pulling out a strip of 8, he ripped one of them off with his teeth and tossed the rest to the side.
“The weekend’s just started, we’ll need to get more tomorrow.”
She giggled as she took the little foil of him and sat up with one hand on his muscular chest. Careful not to slide her centre over his no matter how tempting it was in this moment, she scooted back and began slowly pumping him.
“Fuck,” he moaned, closed his eyes and it took all her willpower not to bent down and take him in her mouth. Enough foreplay, she wanted him.
Rolling the condom on him, she felt the need to clarify: “I’ve never done it like this before. It always felt too… exposed. You’ll have to tell me if I’m doing it wrong.”
Slowly opening his eyes, he looked up at her and cupped the side of her face and stroked her cheek.
“We don’t have to do anything you don’t feel comfortable with. You have already given me more than I thought possible… But just for the record: There is no way you’d be doing this wrong.”
Biting her bottom lip, she shrugged off the last of her insecurities. The fact that she was already so comfortable being naked around him, something she had never achieved with anyone before, was enough to give her the confidence to slowly sink down on top of him as he held onto the base of his member to help her.
“Oh… Oh.” Sliding into her he hit all the right places and sitting on top of him, his hands wandering over her hips and up to cup her breasts, she had a feeling this was going to be a new favourite position of hers. Experimentally she began rocking back and forth, up and down, never letting him fully slide out.
“Penelope…”
Her name sounded like a prayer falling off his lips and he eventually began thrusting upwards, meeting her at every downward stroke, causing her to fall forward with a moan. He wasted no time in latching onto one of her nipples and grabbing her butt with both hands, kneading her flesh there, all the while lifting his hips to pump into her.
When she felt a hand sneak between their bodies and he started circling her clit again, she lost her rhythm somewhat, but she barely noticed as her body started to crest once more, muscles fluttering around his thick member.
Her second orgasm crashed over her in strong waves and Colin was quick to follow, pressing her torso to his and moaning her name as he followed her over the edge.
xxx
Never.
He didn’t care what happened from here on out, he would never be able to go back to just being friends with her.
That was the first thought that came to his mind as his heartbeat gradually slowed down and he opened his eyes. Penelope tried to move off him, but he tightened his hold on her.
“Just a moment longer,” he whispered hoarsely.
“I’m too heavy-”
“Don’t be silly. If you say that again I’ll start carrying you to and from work from now on.”
She snorted and he felt like his chest was about to explode with tenderness. Pressing a kiss to her temple, he begrudgingly began to disentangle himself from her and got up to take care of the condom. He was back in the bedroom not even a minute later and caught Penelope trying to put her pyjamas back on.
“Na-ah.”
He grabbed the shirt out of her hands and chucked it to the other side of the room.
“New rule: Our sleepover are strictly no clothes allowed.”
Dropping back down onto the bed, he pulled her into his arms and arranged the duvet over them.
“So… You want this to become a regular thing?”
Her voice sounded kind of small now and insecure, not at all like just a few minutes ago. Silently cursing himself he realised that he had probably not been very articulate in the last hour. Arranging them so they were lying face to face again like earlier, he pulled one of her hands to rest in the middle of his chest.
“Yes. What I said earlier is true… I’ve wanted this for a while now and I was ready to accept that you didn’t see me this way and just remain your friend, but… I don’t think that will ever be enough.”
He expected her to not believe him or maybe straight up tell him she wanted this to just be a one-night stand. What he didn’t expect was her full on laughing in his face.
“Oh, I’m sorry.” She hid her face in the crook of his neck and pulled back when she had managed to control herself. “Colin, I have been telling myself to just be happy I get to be your friend for what, 10 years now? Trust me, I do see you ‘that way’. Very much so. You must have known.”
“What… no.”
Ok, maybe he had been aware of the little teenage crush she had harboured for him when they first met through Eloise. He had thought it was cute back then, but he had also assumed she had simply grown out of it by the time she was a young adult herself. Did anybody else know? He hoped not… least of all because the teasing would be merciless. Worth it, but merciless.
“Looks like we are both idiots.” He finally said with a slow smile, pushing her back on her back and peppering little kisses all over her face, causing her to complain that he was tickling her.
“That reminds me. I should find out all your ticklish spots right… now.”
With that he disappeared under the blanket and Penelope’s happy laughter filled the apartment once more.