Her breath caught in her throat. Now that she was there... Well, now that she was standing here she didn’t know what to do next. Her certainty was gone, and he was so often her source of certainty that feeling this way about him was... It was terrifying. But the only way was through; she knew that.

So she had to make a choice.

She wrenched her shirt up over her head, and then pushed her skirt down her thighs, so that she was wearing only that pair of lace panties.

Then she heard him stir.

“Sammy?” His voice was rusty from sleep, and there was something in his tone that made it sound like he thought he might still be dreaming. And so she just did what she’d done so many times before. She crept over to his bed, lifted the covers and climbed beneath them with him.

His body was stiff beside her, and he was rigid, looking up at the ceiling, and not at her.

“If you think that you’re going to climb into bed half-naked with me just so we can lie together...”

“That’s not what I’m here for,” she whispered.

She put her hand on his chest. His bare chest.

He had always worn clothes to bed before.

And then... Then she wondered.

“Do you always sleep naked?” She assumed he was naked. Suddenly, it was like a torment to keep her palm still where it was on his chest when she wanted to let it drift down, explore more of his body.

“Yes,” he said gruffly.

“So when I used to get in bed with you...”

“When you started coming to my room I made sure that I was always dressed. I slept that way until after you quit coming.”

She blinked into the darkness. “For me?”

“I always wanted you to trust me, Sammy. But this... We can’t share a bed like that. Not now. It’s too late. It changed already and it can’t go back.”

“Well, I didn’t take my clothes off for fun,” she said. Then she laughed. “Actually, I did.”

“What are you doing?”

“No one’s ever made me feel like that before. And I want to feel it again.”

“I’m not just going to give you an orgasm and let it be done.”

“I didn’t expect you to.”

“Sammy...”

She scrabbled across the mattress and threw her thigh over his body, so that she was sitting on top of him. The hard length of him was settled between her legs, and she gasped.

She had a much better idea of his size in this position than she had last night. But then, she had barely touched him last night. And she could touch him now. All over.

She had never... She had never been with a man like this.

And moreover, she had never been with her friend. Both of those things combined to make this feel entirely new and different. Frightening and exciting and exhilarating.

She slowly let her fingertips drift across his chest. Across his chest hair. And she shuddered.