Sweet Caroline

#5 The morning after

Waking up the next morning is a strange sensation. We're both still naked and completely wrapped around each other. The only reason we wake up is the fact that Nathan's phone is blaring at us. He curses and untangles himself from me, but not before giving me a short kiss. He gets out of bed and turns off his alarm.

"Fucking hell," he grunts, running his fingers through his hair. He's standing next to the bed, looking down at me with hunger in his eyes. "I've got to get to work."

What? I almost can't believe he's actually saying this. The moment I opened my eyes and saw him, I wanted nothing more than to repeat everything we did the night before. Seven orgasms in one night – that's a first for me. And we never even actually had sex.

"Don't look so disappointed," he tells me with a smirk. "You knew what you got yourself into."

"You obviously don't," I tell him, sitting up and throwing my legs over the edge so that I am now facing his penis directly. He's already starting to rise, just from me having my eyes on him. "I think you're gonna be late today." Surprising myself with my boldness, I grab his hips and pull him closer so I can press a kiss to the tip of his cock.

"Jesus fucking Christ." He grabs my head and grunts when I take him into my mouth. He tries to dictate the pace, but I won't let him. I pull his hands away from me and tease him by slowing down until I'm almost not moving at all. He makes a sound somewhere between a moan and a whimper and I can feel his body tense, trying to keep himself from grabbing me again.

After a while, I decide I've teased him enough and pick up the pace, taking him as deep as possible. I can feel him trying to hold back, enjoy this as long as possible, but eventually he has no choice but to let go, groaning as he comes, filling up my mouth.

"It's so fucking hot when you swallow," he says when I pull back. "So. Fucking. Hot."

He kneels in front of me and kisses me hard and demanding. I open my legs without thinking about it, giving him full access. He rubs his fingers over me, grunting into our kiss in approval of my wetness. I can't help it. Memories of him biting and smacking me last night wash over me and I moan, getting close already.

He moves his mouth to my ear and takes my earlobe between his teeth, making me shiver. One of his hands makes its way up my body, tugging at both of my nipples before wrapping around my throat, tightening slightly. Nathan pulls back so he can look at me, making sure that I'm okay with this. I moan his name and grab his face so I can pull him back in for a kiss. He smiled against my lips and tightens his grip on me, choking me.

This is a first for me. I've never felt so completely and utterly powerless and I strangely enjoy it. I don't need to think or do anything. I only have to keep breathing and enjoy the orgasm that I feel from my toes to the top of my head.

"We'll have to settle for one time this morning," Nathan says when he lets go of me and standing back up. "I hate to do this, but I really need to get to work."

"Okay," I grunt, still shaky. "I'll grab my dress and I'll be out of here."

"Out of here?" he repeats, cocking an eyebrow at me. "I don't think so, Caroline. I'm going to work because have to, not because I want to. We're only just figuring out what the other likes. We didn't even get to fuck. You're staying right here and when I'm done with work, I'm getting us a huge box of condoms and coming right back here to continue this."

"Okay," I agree immediately before I can stop myself.

He laughs loudly and leans down to kiss me again. "Good girl."

He throws me the shirt I had on last night and a fresh pair of boxers. It's all too big on me, but better than having to be naked all day. Nathan pulls on his sweatpants and a shirt, tucking his phone into his pocket. Before he leaves, he puts his number in my phone and kisses me one last time.

"See you later, sweet Caroline." That's the last thing he says to me before putting on socks and shoes and leaving the apartment.

There I am, standing in the hallway, still shaken up from his hand around my throat and his fingers working wonders on me. What the hell am I supposed to all day? I'm more than ready for him to come back and push me up against the wall and take me, but I guess I'll just have to wait until that moment comes.

The first thing I do is call Shaughna, because I really need my keys. She grunts in annoyance when I tell her what happened – leaving out Nathan completely – but she promises to drive down today to let me back in.

"You need to find someone closer to give a set of keys to," she tells me sternly. "I love you, Car, but I'm not doing this every week and we both know how you are when it comes to keys and shit."

Yeah, this is not the first time this has happened, but usually I could just walk over to my parents' house or call Danny – the ex, who hadn't been my ex back then.

With that problem taken care of, I send Nathan a message, asking him if I can do anything for him while he's gone.

Stay horny, he replies, making me roll my eyes.

I mean around the apartment, I text back. You said you only have a week. Is there anything I can do to help?

He tells me where to find the moving boxes and asks me to start in the kitchen. Apparently, his sister already removed all the stuff she wanted – photos, personal items, jewelry – and the kitchen seems like a safe place for me to start packing without doing any harm. I feel good now that I have a purpose. At least I won't just have to sit around all day, waiting for him to come back.

Of course, I start with some breakfast and a cup of coffee. Once I feel a bit more awake and my body isn't screaming for Nathan to come back anymore – at least, not so much that it stops me from functioning – I walk around the apartment, opening doors and snooping around just a bit. The apartment is laid out exactly like mine, with two bedrooms, a bathroom and a living room with an open kitchen attached to it. Unlike mine, it isn't empty. While I only have the bare necessities, this place is packed. There are side tables everywhere and books piled on every single one of them. There's an unfinished crossword puzzle on the nightstand of what must have been the master bedroom. I realize that the room we slept in last night was the guest bedroom. That makes sense. It would be a bit strange if Nathan had taken me to the bed his parents slept in every night. That's a bit too kinky, even for me.

Speaking about kinky... I am still surprised by yesterday. I've never had a one-night stand before. I'm not a virgin, of course, not by a long shot. Nathan is the sixth guy I've ever slept with and I slept with the other guys way more than just one time. With all five of them, I had trouble reaching an orgasm, but Nathan seemed to know just which buttons to push. Or should I say, when to bite and smack and choke me.

I didn't even know I liked that stuff. Okay, the biting, I did know that. Danny and a two others had done that and it had excited me then too, helping me reach the orgasm that often eluded me. I felt certain that Nathan must have had rough sex before me, but I didn't mind. At least he'd helped me figure out what I liked, even if that knowledge made me uneasy.

The best part is that while I liked it when he had taken control over me, he hadn't done anything without making sure I wanted it. That fine line between force and tenderness had been what undid me, for sure. A shiver goes up and down my spine just thinking about his eyes boring into mine as he tried to figure out what made me tick. I'm having a hard time remembering the last time someone had bothered to do that. Danny had tried to, he really had, and he'd succeeded sometimes, but he had always ended up so frustrated when it didn't work right away that I just ended up faking it.

I spend most of the day singing along to the radio as I went through all the cupboards in the kitchen. I start by sorting out all the food first, throwing out everything that had expired. I put all the products that were still good on the table so I could go through them later to figure out what to cook. I collect all the old papers in the apartment – and there were many – so I can use them to wrap the plates and cups with when I place them in the boxes. It takes me all morning to put everything into boxes and after lunch, I move on to cleaning. The kitchen finally ends up spotless when I'm done and I only leave a few dishes so we'll be able to eat and drink for however long we need to. I know that I'll be able to get into my apartment today, but Nathan may stay here this week.

I hope he will.