“Are you kidding! This is amazing.” I pulled out my phone to take pictures, a cotton-candy thrill brushing behind my ribs. It fastened an upturned slope to my already-aching jaw.
He stood back, watching me as I inspected every inch of the room with the fervor of my younger self. I saw some things I had forgotten about. Stopped to sing theme songs to some of my favorite shows.
His body was turned to me, open, a sparkle glinting in his eyes. “There’s plenty more to see,” he said, moving toward the next door, on the edge of a chuckle.
“Have you been here before?”
“No, but I’ve been to something similar.”
The next room played Smells Like Teen Spirit as images of teens jumping up and down from a projector covered the far wall. Hundreds of plaid shirts were suspended from the ceiling that we had to walk through, the fabric brushing against my bare shoulders. Old couches were ripped up and scattered about to sit on.
We continued through two more rooms, then I nearly screamed when I recognized the reconstructed bow of the Titanic with a painted sunset as the backdrop.
Of course, Celine Dion’s voice swam through the speakers.
I ran up to the railing and turned, facing Grayson, who stood with his hands in his pockets, studying me with an intensity that inflamed the blush that lived behind my skin.
“Come on,” I said, waving him over. “We have to.”
He made a feeble attempt to disguise his smirk with a groan as he approached. Wove his arms under mine, lifting them as if we were two birds flying. I felt something unfurling in me, blooming, the petals of my emotions exposing themselves to the sun. To him.
“I’m flying,” I whispered to him. To myself. “With you, I fly.”
He placed a small kiss to my neck, his words a soft exhale against my goose-bumped skin. “And with you, I soar.”
The moment, fleeting in its beauty, was stolen by the door opening behind us. A group of girls ushered into the room, gushing over the many pictures of Leonardo DiCaprio pinned to the walls.
Grayson took my hand in his, pulling me through another room. Soft blue and pink lights hung from the ceilings. They were everywhere. On the walls. Skimming the ground. We wove through the strands to the center of the room where a projector of waves kept crashing against the floor.
You’ve got your ball, you’ve got your chain, Dave Matthew’s voice began to croon overhead.
My hand shot to my mouth as Grayson stood behind a few strands of lights, just out of reach.
“This is your surprise.” He pushed a strand aside, moving closer. Waves continued to crash over us as he closed the distance. Every step was in sync with my heart. Wrapped in lights, slowly, he pulled me to him, then crushed his lips against mine just as the chorus began.
My hand wove through his hair as my heart seemed to pulse beneath every inch of my skin. A flood of sensations filled my blood as his tongue slid into my mouth, ever so slowly and carefully. Warm and soft. Every movement his made, I mimicked, trying to sync myself wholly with him.
The words wove around us, invisible strings tying us together. He held my face, our tongues exploring one another. He tasted of sorrow and hope. Burned with pleading and desire. I surrendered everything to the moment. All of me.
“Prim,” he whispered against my lips, running his over mine. Over my cheek. Soft kisses to my eyes.
My name was a plea off his lips. A prayer of a word.
Our foreheads came together. Rested against one another as our chests collided in uneven pitches.
Magic.
That was what this kiss was.
His hands ran up the sides of my arms. “You’re shivering.”
My teeth pulled my upper lip in as I tried to calm the swelling beat of my heart. Nervous laughter peppered the air between us. “I’ve never… I’ve always dreamed of being kissed like that.” My lids fluttered open. A soft peck placed against his lips, pouring my satisfaction into him.
Taking my hand again, he pulled me into the last room. End of the Road by Boys II Men serenaded the space, which was filled with a life-sized cardboard computer with the words Y2K painted across the screen. I wasn’t sure if it was from the nerves still fluttering in my stomach or the fact I had just experienced the most amazing kiss I could have ever dreamed of, but the knot in my stomach loosened as a cackle of laughter wheezed out of me.
Grayson was right there with me, clutching his stomach and pointing to the computer. To the expression that’d had our entire world in a frenzy, thinking our existence would end.
“Thank you,” I said, spinning to find the hazel of his eyes. “This was… perfect.”
Sincerity curved on his lips. “For you, anything.”
Once we were outside, underneath the velvet night sky, we faced each other, questions lingering in the air. I didn’t want the night to end. Not yet. And I thought he might have felt the same, too.
“Will you come back to my place?” he asked, chewing the side of his mouth. “I have one more surprise for you.”
He was a thorn. A shard of broken glass on the floor, waiting to slice me open.
Was that how it always went with the other women? A lovely night. An invite up?
I knew the answers. No. There was nothing about the glow of his eyes when focused on me that said he was in it for only one thing. Nothing hiding inside his kiss that warned me off.
“Yes,” I said, taking his hand. “I’d love to.”
After we grabbed a bite to eat from a sandwich shop, I found myself standing outside his front door while he put the key in the lock.
“Close your eyes.”
Smiling, I did.
A second later, I felt his hands gripping my waist, tiny electric shocks pulsing beneath his touch. Step after step, he guided me forward, laughing when I put my hands out as a precaution.
“Okay,” he said, “Open.”
My mouth fell open. The night sky was somehow covering the entirety of his bedroom wall. It was of the moon, a million stars speckled around it. More lights were strung around the area, which was littered with hundreds of pillows of every texture.
I found a spot to sit and crossed my legs, staring up at the wall. “You did all this for me?”
“You said you used to like to sit and watch the stars back home. I know there’s too much light pollution here, so I thought I’d bring the stars to you.”
“How?”
He took a seat beside me, propping an arm on one knee. “A projector. I know someone who’s tech savvy. This is what we’d see right now if there was no light pollution.”
My hands covered my mouth as warmth flooded my eyes. “No one has ever done anything like this for me before. I don’t… there aren’t enough words, Grayson. It’s absolutely perfect.”
The way his eyes danced over my face, with such tender affection, woke something inside me. A hibernating confidence. A surety dressed in desire.
Crawling over to him, I rested on my knees, leaning in with my eyes closed. Our kisses danced on the edge of modest arousal. Exploring. He was uncharted territory, and I was mapping every inch of this moment. Of him. The curve at the end of his jaw and where it went soft just below his skin. I learned he liked when I kissed there. The spark of a moment when our tongues met and he’d let out a slow-burning growl.
His hands slid up my thighs, leaving a trail of fire until they were on my face, thumb smoothing over every slope with such delicate care. I felt my bones expanding beneath my skin. Crawling, writhing to break free.
Slowly, I laid back, pulling him with me, his body moving in beside mine. For a moment, we just laid there, his gaze exploring my face, my eyes pleading for him to give me more. To teach me. To show me all I’d been missing.
“I didn’t bring you here for this.” He ran his thumb over my cheek, voice quaked with emotion and heat. “Don’t get me wrong,” he added with a small chuckle. “I’ve thought about this quite often. I just… I want you to know we can go at your pace. You don’t
have to do anything you don’t want to.”
“That’s the thing,” I said, sucking on my bottom lip. “Oh how badly do I want this.”
I pulled his lips against mine, our teeth clanging together from the force. Every sensation that filled my body was new and addictive. A surge of fire and thirst unlike anything I’d ever known.
My hands smoothed over the hills of his arms, the slope of his chest, the cavern of his back, all while our mouths danced. Every inch of him was seared into my memory, building this heat that pulsed beneath my skin like a living, breathing thing.
His knee moved between my thighs, slowly, expertly, the weight of his body resting comfortably on top of me. Pools of liquid desire formed at my center. His hand roamed under my shirt, up my side, before stopping just inches below my bra. My skin burned for him to go farther. To touch me where no other had.
I moved my lips down the side of his jaw to his neck as I arched into him, urging his hand to explore more of me. He cupped my breast, his palm large and warm, his thumb brushing over my hard nipple through the sheer fabric. A moan pushed past my lips at the feel of his hands on me. At the electric zap of his thumb as it played with my swollen peak.
“Grayson,” I said, pushing into him. Wanting more.
My brain was adrift in the sea of pleasure. Lost. One crushing wave away from giving in to it all.
His hand slid the soft fabric of my bra aside, the warmth of his touch sending a shuddering thrill beneath my skin. I couldn’t explain the quaking desire that rewired my every train of thought. All I could focus on were his hands, and how I wanted more of them.
He sat up, pulling my shirt over my head. Leaned forward, his hands slipping behind my back. His lips played with my neck as his fingers undid the clasp of my bra.
When he pulled back, he sucked in a tight breath. “You’re beautiful, Prim. Fucking perfect.”
I tugged at the hem of his shirt, wanting to feel his chest against mine. Wanting to be closer.
Laying back, he kissed the soft slope of my neck. Took his time blowing warm heat over the edge of my collarbone. I was shivering from the inside out. A melted mess of desire beneath him, surrendering everything.
When his kisses trailed closer to my breast, I couldn’t stop the shaking. The hot, liquid anticipation. He took his time, tasting every inch of my skin, until his tongue flicked over my nipple.
I cried out at the sensation. At the surge of heat between my legs.
His mouth sucked and tugged, my mind spinning with glorious need as he slid a hand under my skirt, slowly sliding up the inside of my thigh. With his eyes on mine, he continued forward, almost as if checking if it were okay.
Another flick of his tongue and I lost eye contact, moaning with need to quench this thirst I’d only just realized I’d needed. His fingers reached my center, a thumb sliding up and down the outside of my wet panties.
“Grayson!” I cried, hips bucking on their own will. “Please.”
He brushed my panties aside. Continued the slow sensual pace of pressure against the ache building in me as my world seemed to split in half, with him at the center. When I felt his finger pressing against the outside of me, my nails dug into his back. I needed him. This.
Slowly, he slid his finger in, the tightness of the fit pushing me closer to the edge.
“Jesus, Prim,” he said before pressing his lips against mine. His kisses were brambles tearing into my skin. Marking me. My love bubbling to the surface.
On instinct, I reached for the hard length inside his unbuttoned pants. Trepid and shaking, I slid my hand over the smooth skin wrapped around stiff desire. The growl that rushed past his lips only added to my pleasure as I began to pump, wanting to make him feel everything I felt.
He filled my palm, hot and hard, the smooth skin against steel feeding my hunger.
His finger moved in and out, the slick sensation melting my thoughts into frenzied need. My hips moved with him. Against the palm he smoothed over my center. He pushed into my hand, our chests colliding with uneven breath.
“Prim.” The strain in his voice matched what I felt. “You’re gonna make me come.”
“Good.”
When his mouth sucked in my nipple, colors burst beneath my skin.
I moaned his name repeatedly as I rode the wave he’d created. A pillow fisted in my hand.
He bucked once, then twice, into my hand. A throaty moan shuddered past his lips as a warm, slick wetness dripped down my wrists.
When he collapsed beside me, my thoughts slowly returned. I was shivering and slick with sweat. His finger still inside me. His lips still whispering secrets against mine.
“You’re so sexy when you come,” he said, his lips trailing just below my ear.
When he pulled his finger out, I already missed the connection. The intimacy of his touch. I was taking it all in. The way he felt in my hands. The onslaught of come covering my wrist.
He grabbed his T-shirt and wiped it off for me. We both laughed at the subtle shock I didn’t hide very well, then he pulled me against him. We laid there, chest to chest, as a sated calm washed over me.
“You make me feel things I’ve never felt before,” he said, his lips against my hair.
“So do you,” I said with a sly smile.
His head withdrew just enough so he could see my face. “It’s more than that, Prim. It… it scares me how easy this is. With you. I’ve never felt what I feel for you before. I think I’m… Hell, I don’t even know how to say this.”
My heart froze in place at his admittance. At the truth of why I was there. What drove me to pursue him in the first place.
“You feel it, too, right?” The hesitancy in his voice was unlike him. “Tell me I’m not insane.”
I sat up, feeling like a fraud. Like a heartless jerk. As I put my bra on, he sat up with me, handing me my shirt.
“What’s wrong?” The worry in his tone only dug my hole even deeper.
“Nothing.” I tried to fake a smile, but it was no use.
“Did I go too far?”
“Grayson, I… no. This was perfect. You’re perfect. I just… I have to go.”
I ran for the door, sliding my shoes on in between steps.
“Prim, wait!”
Before he could stop me, I was out in the night, running down the sidewalk as a stream of tears slid down my face.
The problem was, I felt it, too. Maybe even more.
In hindsight, that was the moment I should have told him everything.
Instead, I ran.
Girlfriend Material
I barely had my shirt on as I rushed out the front door after Prim.
She was already gone by the time I made it outside. A ghost. A shooting star I had no business trying to catch.
I didn’t understand it. What had I done wrong? Had I said too much? Had I scared her off with my almost… my almost what? Confessions to feelings I had been denying for quite some time?
I couldn’t believe that because I knew Prim. She wasn’t like that. I could see it in her eyes. She felt the same.
Pulling my phone out, I dialed her number. Cursed when it went to voice mail. Instead of trying again, I opened a text and wrote: Whatever it is, we can talk about it. Please, just don’t shut me out.
I tucked the phone into my pocket and headed inside, a gaping hole ripping through my heart. I hadn’t realized how much I’d fallen for her until the other night, when she’d stayed over. When we’d danced at the memory of my mother.
Waking up to her in my place had done something to me. It was the first time I’d ever let a girl stay over, and it had never even crossed my mind. Not until after she left and Finely decided to lay his two cents on me.
“You’ve got it bad, man.”
“What are you talking about?” I’d said as I loaded the dishwasher.
He raided the fridge, pulling out a beer.
“It’s eight in the morning,” I’d said, knowing good and well it didn’t mean shit to Finl
ey.
“Don’t change the subject. I know that look in your eyes. I’ve seen it in myself. You’re in love.”
I snorted at the thought, though the snort died off as his words sank in. As every fiber in my body seemed to embrace the truth my brain was still trying to deny. I knew I was into her. More than I’d ever been with anyone. But in love?
Sitting on my couch, I stared at the projection on the wall. Tonight had all been for her. To show her how I felt. I hadn’t expected her to give herself to me like she had. Fuck. She was so achingly sexy. Pure and good. Making her come was just the start of what I wanted to do to her. And when her hand had rubbed my dick, I hadn’t expected to come as hard as I had, either.
She had a power about her. A pull I didn’t want to ignore.
I wasn’t sure when I drifted off, but sometime in the middle of the night, my phone buzzed in my pocket. Pulling it out, I cracked one eye open at the brightness of the screen. It was a message from Prim.
I sat up.
I’m sorry for leaving like I did, Grayson. I just… I needed time to think. It was all so much, and you’re so good to me. What happened tonight was nothing short of amazing, and I’m glad those firsts were with you. I’m just going through something right now. Something I need to explain to you, but it has to be in person.
I typed back: Whatever it is, we can work through it.
I was so glad she texted me, but I couldn’t even begin to imagine what it was that had her running. Was she religious? Had she broken a vow with me? Was she sick? My stomach lurched at that thought. What if she had something terminal? The thought of this earth spinning without her on it didn’t make sense. My mind raced with an onslaught of reasons, but none added up.
The following morning, I made it to work earlier than normal. Since I couldn’t sleep to save my life, I’d decided to get up and go for an early morning jog. I moved through the day with countless meetings distracting my thoughts from Prim.
Until Harrison paid me a visit…
“Who is she?”
Harrison pushed an iPad in front of me. On the headline was a picture of Prim and me at the pop-up museum. Her lips pressed to mine as she stood on her toes. My hands on her waist, eyes squeezed shut.
Virginal Headlines: Love Between The Headlines Page 16