Anticipation by Sarah Mayberry

gaze found the rolled-up magazine peeking out of the other woman’s handbag. How long had it taken Leanne to come up with the magazine as a pretext for a drop-in visit? An hour? A day? A week? It would be churlish of Blue to take the wind out of Leanne’s sails when she’d gone to so much trouble to win some face time with Eddie.
    “You guys don’t want me hanging around, cramping your style,” Blue said.
    Leanne didn’t bother to hide the small, relieved smile that curved her lips. Blue tucked her crutches beneath her arms.
    “Seriously. You don’t have to go,” Eddie said, his frown deeper now.
    “I’m tired anyway,” Blue said. It was the one thing she knew that would shut him up.
    “What about the brigadeiros ?”
    “I’ve had enough.”
    “Are those chocolate? I love chocolate,” Leanne said. “They look amazing.”
    “Help yourself,” Blue said, already turning toward the hallway that led to her room.
    She could feel Eddie watching her as she left, but she figured he’d get over his host-guilt the moment he noticed that Leanne had no discernible panty line.
    Blue shut the door with a firm push, then got rid of her crutches and hopped to the bed. Even though she’d planned to resume the Call of Duty game she and Eddie had been playing after dinner, she would be just as happy reading her book. Leanne turning up unannounced was no skin off Blue’s nose. It had happened more than once when she’d been hanging out at Eddie’s place, after all. Same old, same old.
    She made a pile of pillows against the wall and settled into them. It wasn’t until she’d turned the second page of her book that she realized she was holding her breath, her shoulders tight with tension as she tried and failed to ignore what was going on in the other room.
    She heard the low rumble of Eddie’s voice, followed by the thud of the refrigerator closing. Leanne’s laugh sounded too loud, even from a distance. Blue wondered where he’d met her, how many times he’d slept with her.
    Whether he was going to have sex with her again tonight.
    Blue heard them moving around, then the sound of music. Eddie creating a bit of ambience, no doubt. Not that he needed to do much by way of seduction if Leanne’s decision to arrive sans underwear meant anything.
    Leanne’s laugh sounded again, followed by Eddie’s.
    They were probably on the couch, eating the brigadeiros he’d made for Blue.
    He’s going to fuck her. You know he is.
    He was. He was going to lift her short little skirt and spread her thighs wide. He was going to lick and suck and bite her breasts. He was going to slide inside her and pump into her until she called his name. He was going to find his own pleasure inside her.
    He was going to do all the things to her that he did to the women he took to his bed, the things that had given him a reputation for being an exceptional lover. The things that meant there was never a lack of women with no underwear in his life.
    Bile burned at the back of Blue’s throat and she swallowed convulsively, desperately trying to ignore the sourness in her belly.
    She couldn’t. Her jealousy was too overpowering, too encompassing, too pure and hot and gut-wrenching.
    The thought of him touching Leanne…
    Of him being inside her…
    Blue rolled to the edge of the bed and struggled to her feet. She didn’t bother with the crutches, hopping with desperate lurches into the bathroom. She barely made it to the toilet before dinner burned its way up her throat.
    Her eyes were streaming afterward, her mouth acrid. Wiping her mouth with the back of her hand, she struggled to rise and shuffled across to the basin, carefully keeping her weight off her bad leg. Her arms and good leg were shaking from the effort - or maybe that was more to do with the aftermath of the emotion that had turned her stomach.
    She washed her mouth out four times, then brushed her teeth for good measure. Then she sank onto the rim of the bathtub.
    She could still