Page 140 of Love Unwritten

My ears ring as I come all over my hand. Some of my release shoots out and lands on my T-shirt, making a mess of the black fabric.

I can’t find it in me to care, let alone move, as I blink up at the ceiling. “Fuck.”

I’ve pleasured myself plenty of times before, but I’m not sure I’ve ever been able to come that hard and fast before, and most definitely not just by imagining someone.

There is no way in hell I can be friends with Ellie, who can make me come without ever having to touch me. And it’s clear that she wants me just as much but refuses to act on it, so where do we go from here?

“I feel bad for you,” Julian says the next morning after I bring him up-to-speed on everything with Ellie.

I switch the call to speaker so I can start shaving my face. “I’m looking for advice. Not pity.”

“Why would you ever think being friends was the best solution to your problem?”

I grind down on my molars. “It wasn’t my idea.”

“So you kissed her, and then she suggested you should be friends?”

“Yes.”

Julian laughs.

I consider tossing my phone against a wall for a brief moment. “I hate you.”

He is still wheezing by the time he says, “Have you considered that maybe you’ve lost your touch with women?”

“Based on the way she was kissing me back, I seriously doubt that.” I don’t want to expand any more on the moment we shared, and thankfully Julian doesn’t ask for more information.

“I don’t know where you go from here.” I hear some rustling as he covers the mic, although I can make out a female voice.

“What does Dahlia suggest?” I ask with a sigh.

There is a brief pause before a little shuffling.

“How was the kiss?” she asks a little too eagerly.

“You sure you—”

“Just describe it to me. But skip the nauseating bits that could ruin my lunch, please.”

If she were here, I’d glare at her. “All I know is it physically hurt me to stop.”

Ellie brought a small part of my soul back to life and lit a fire in me that I haven’t felt in a long time.

“Well, that says it all, then.”

“Meaning?” I ask.

“You like her.”

I take a seat on my bed. “I never said I didn’t.”

“Then what’s your issue?”

I clear my throat. “I might have told her a few things that would make her not like me back.”

Dahlia groans.

“It sounds worse than it is.”