Free The Wright Brother by Marie Hall Page B

swimmer’s body, she’d almost drooled on herself the first time he’d smiled at her. That’d been almost five months ago now, and they’d been inseparable ever since.
    His keen blue eyes looked up. “You ready to go home?” His deep voice always made her shiver.
    They’d been dating for a while now, and Elisa was trying to decide if she was ready to go all the way. Some days she was sure she was ready, and other times, she wasn’t. She didn’t know why she kept holding back, he was hot, smart, and could swim his ass off.
    They got along great.
    She smiled.
    Maybe tonight would be that night.
    “Yes.” She grinned wider when his blue eyes twinkled.
    “What are you thinking, little fish?”
    His pet name for her was probably the most unattractive thing about him. She rolled her eyes. “Seriously, Tom, call me something else.”
    He tapped his pencil on his books. “Like what?”
    “I don’t know.” She kicked out her foot, tracing the length of his calf with her sneakered foot. Not nearly as sexy as it would have been had she been wearing sandals, but it was the second week of December and there was no way in hell she’d be walking around a snow-covered campus in sexy sandals just for her boyfriend. No matter how much she adored him. “Dolphin, or mermaid, or—”
    “Barracuda!” He chuckled.
    “Ssh.” The librarian glanced up at their loud laughs.
    Giving him a long eye roll, she got up. “Let’s go before the ogre throws us out, and if you call me a barracuda, I’ll—”
    Running around to her side of the table, he wrapped his arm around her waist and planted a kiss on her lips.
    Thomas kissed like he swam. With passion and intensity.
    Heart racing out of control, she broke off the kiss before she made a fool of herself, like going into full-on porn mode in the library. Not cool.
    Tonight would be the night, she was decided.
    She was nineteen, it was time to pop the cherry at some point, and preferably before she hit twenty. She hadn’t been hanging on to her virginity because she was scared, or because morally she felt it was wrong; mostly she’d hung on because she’d wanted to make sure that whomever she did it with for the first time would still respect her in the morning.
    “Come home with me,” she whispered, tapping her finger on his chest.
    Chastity was already home for Christmas break. Elisa would have joined her, too, if it wasn’t for the fact that her econ professor, Mr. Richards, had postponed the final for two days after Chas’s last class because of some sort of filing mix-up.
    The campus was pretty much cleared out and there really wouldn’t be a better time than now.
    “Fuck me.” He groaned, closing his eyes.
    “What?” She wrinkled her nose, because that had definitely not sounded like a yes.
    Elisa took a step back and hugged her books to her chest. But Thomas latched on to her elbow and moaned.
    “Baby, if you’re inviting me over for what I think you are, I think I might cry. Any other night and I would, but I have that stupid meeting to—”
    “Oh dammit,” she groaned, only now remembering that as Treasurer of the Phi Sigma Kappas it was his job to allocate funds for the back to school social scheduled the second week of January. This was his last day to do it before campus officially broke for break. “I did forget.”
    Tugging her into his side, he tickled her ribs and she smiled. “Later tonight? I’ll come over right after—”
    It was already almost ten. Her exam was scheduled for seven tomorrow morning. He wouldn’t get to her apartment until closer to midnight. She sighed. “No. My test is too early in the morning.”
    He grimaced. “Are you still going to be here tomorrow?”
    It was at least nice to see that he actually did want to. “Yes. I’m not leaving until Sunday morning. I have too much to pack up still.”
    “Okay.” He grabbed her wrist and placed an enthusiastic kiss against it. “Tomorrow then. My test is over by noon, we can