Chapter 6: No Match Tonight

Devin was sitting on the edge of the bed in the dark with the bedside lamp on low.

He wore grey sweatpants and nothing else, and he had a school ledger open on his knees that he clearly wasn't reading.

He looked up and saw me in his own t-shirt.

"No match tonight, Katie," he said.

His voice was quiet, almost kind, and it shook.

"I know."

"Your rule."

"My rule," I said. "I'm breaking it."

I closed the door behind me and turned the lock.

"You should go back upstairs."

"Tell me to," I said. "Tell me and I'll go."

He put the ledger on the nightstand with great care.

He looked at me for a long time, at my bare legs, at the shirt, at my face.

"I can't," he said.

"Then stop saying it."

I crossed the room and stood between his knees.

His hands came up to my waist and stopped, trembling a little, and then his forehead dropped against my stomach.

"I've been trying to be a decent man for four days," he said into the cotton.

"I know you have."

"It's a terrible effort."

"Then stop," I said, and lifted his chin with two fingers, and kissed him.

This time there was no TV, no clock, nobody to hear.

He kissed me slower and deeper than he had on the couch, like he finally had the time.

His hands slid under the shirt and up my back, and he pulled me onto his lap, one knee on each side of him.

I felt his heat through the thin cotton of his sweatpants, and I pushed against it, and he groaned.

"Off," I said, and tugged at the shirt, and he helped me pull it over my head.

I wasn't wearing anything under it.

He leaned back to look.

"Jesus, Katie."

"Don't just look."

He laughed, low and wrecked, and then his mouth was on my breast.

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