by Amelia Wilde
It’s quiet other than the thud of the ball hitting the brick as he considers everything.
“It’s just one more year, Carter.”
“A lot can change in a year.” His voice is muted, low and defeated. I know he wants a change because of his mom, but I can’t help him there. I can’t keep her from dying. The rubble beneath my feet kicks up as I walk to the cement steps and face the parking lot.
“Is that Chloe?” Carter asks me, and I have to get up to look down the street.
Just the sight of her pulls my lips up into an asymmetric grin. “Yeah, that’s her.”
“So much for picking her up,” he tells me with a glint in his eyes. I check my watch and see she’s early, then peek back up at her.
With her jeans hugging her curves, I watch as she walks up the street, not taking my eyes off her.
“Real quick,” Carter tries to get my attention, so I give him a short hum of an answer to let him know I heard him, but I refuse to look away from her as she walks to me.
“Can you come with me to give my dad that money?” His question is enough to break the stare I have on her. He adds, “Tomorrow night?”
“Yeah, of course,” I answer him with a shrug like it’s no big deal. His mom’s bills are adding up, so I’m loaning him some cash to keep them afloat. But the last time I did that, Carter’s dad laid into him, thinking he stole it and wanting to know from where.
It’s not really a loan, as I never want to be paid back, but Carter insists I call it that. For only being sixteen with not much to be proud of, he’s a proud kid.
“How is she doing with everything?” Carter asks to change the subject. I know that’s why he did it. “Is she still freaking out?”
My gaze is brought back to her as he asks. Nice timing on his part, as she’s just walking up the parking lot.
“She slept at my place last night,” I tell him. She slept easily and deep like she hadn’t slept in years, waking up with a yawn and a stretch that was so relaxed and at ease. Although the second she saw me, she blushed violently and tried to hide under the covers. “Good morning,” were the first words she greeted me with as she covered her mouth and hid under the sheets.
Carter’s chuckle cuts off any thoughts of sharing particulars. “So that’s how you deal with it,” he says and nods his head in approval with a wide grin.
If I had that ball in my hands, I’d throw it at him. But damn if the pride in my chest won’t go away at him thinking I fucked her worries away.
“Hey.” Chloe gives a hello while she’s still a good ten feet away, walking through the parking lot and to the back behind the shop where we’re standing.
Thump, Carter tosses the ball at the wall, but I don’t break my gaze from her. She’s already blushing. Her skin is so beautiful like that, with that rosy tinge creeping up her cheeks and growing hotter every second I keep my eyes on her.
“I don’t get a hello?” Carter asks jokingly, and for the first time since she’s walked up here, her attention goes to him.
“What makes you think I wasn’t waiting for you to say hello first?” she asks him, quipping back without missing a beat and with the trace of a friendly smile on her lips. I can see she’s a little tense; it’s the way she is around people. Tense at first, quiet too, but if she wants, Chloe opens up easily and what’s inside is raw and beautiful.
Carter grins back at her as he says, “Hello.” He pronounces the word carefully, enunciating each syllable and it makes her laugh although that shyness is still there.
“Are you working here too?” she asks him and the hair raise on the back of my neck. Everyone here works for Romano, but Carter needs something better than this. I keep my thoughts to myself and wait for him to reply.
“Still in school,” he answers and she’s quick to add, “I always forget you’re younger than us.”
It’s odd how she says it. Like she knows him or maybe she’s just paired us together like other people have.
“Were your ears burning?” Carter asks her with his brow raised. “We were just talking about you.”
Chloe hums a small laugh with her lips closed tight although she can’t hide her smile. “I hope good things,” she adds after a moment of the two of us staring at her and waiting for her reply.
“Mostly,” Carter jokes with her, but I can tell he makes her nervous by the way her smile slips.
“Yeah,” she says honestly. “I kind of figured you might be…” her voice trails off and she offers me a small smile although I can see how nervous she is. She picks at the hem of her shirt while she talks. “I might have been talking about you too,” she tells me, biting down on her lip after and looking me up and down.
“Is that right?” I ask her and she’s quick to shake her head. “No, I’m just playing.”
Carter barks out a laugh while I stand there looking like an asshole.
“I didn’t give you anything good to talk about?” I joke with her, but she just clears her throat, slowly letting those walls come back up.
She didn’t talk about me because she has no one to talk to. I feel like a prick when the realization hits me.
“I’ll make that up to you tonight then,” I add before she has to say anything. Her cheeks must be on fire to be that red.
I let my hand travel to the small of her back to lead her away and I nod a goodbye to Carter. He’s waiting for the bus to go to the hospital, but it’ll be here in minutes. It’s almost 5:15.
“See you later, Carter,” Chloe says sweetly, giving him a small wave as I walk her to my car.
I open the door for her, but before she can slip in, I wrap my hand around her hip and bring her closer to me. I have one hand on the door, with the other on her hip and her stance mirrors mine. It’s as if she’s waiting for what my next move will be, so she can determine hers.
Her lips are parted and her eyes dart between my gaze and where Carter’s standing behind me.
All I wanted was to give her a small kiss. So, I do, just a short one on her lips. Pressing my mouth to hers and making sure to run the tip of my nose over hers. The cops already know; people are already talking. Might as well give them a show.
That shy smile I love plays on her lips and she can barely look me in the eyes.
“You nervous?” I whisper against her cheek before pulling away. Her wide eyes stay on mine as she settles into the seat and answers honestly in a single breath, “Yeah.”
15
Chloe
My heart’s being stupid. It keeps fluttering and flipping all sorts of ways like it’s trying to escape or run away. I try to swallow again, but I can’t. Instead, I snuggle closer to Sebastian on the sofa, although every inch of his side is covered with mine right now.
It’s just sex.
I keep reminding myself. Every time the nerves work their way up from my heart to my brain, I have to remind myself. It’s just sex.
Not just that, but every part of me feels like it was supposed to be this way. Like Sebastian was meant to have me. Even the little bits of me hidden away in the pages of my books, all the way down to the marrow in my bones; it was supposed to happen like this.
I haven’t told him, although I almost did earlier. We were sitting on the sofa, but not cuddling like this, sitting cross-legged, and eating Chinese food from the cartons. He’s been good at keeping the conversation going and giving me those cocky smiles. I think he’s drawing it out on purpose.
First dinner and now a movie, although it’s almost over.
And thus, my heart is doing that stupid thing knowing the movie will be over soon. I swallow it all down as best I can and nestle my head into Sebastian’s chest.
“You comfortable?” he asks me although it sounds like he’s picking on me. I only hum a response.
“You can’t go to sleep,” he tells me, and instantly my eyelids fall shut just to fuck with him. He shrugs his shoulder and I give him a look.
“Stop moving,” I complain in as flirtatious of a voice as
I can and feel pride rise when he rewards me with that charming smile of his that drives me wild.
He smells like fresh woods, the kind you want to get lost in; his body is hard and dominating. Every piece of him chiseled like Adonis. I splay my hand on his chest and revel in the fact that he’s letting me.
Back in school, I thought that he was avoiding me because he was older. At least at first. Then when I realized who he was and why everyone else avoided him, I wondered how a boy like him could be interested in a girl like me. The more he avoided me, the stupider I felt.
When the only piece of reality you crave is revealed to be all in your head, it does something awful to you.
“I like you coming to me after work, but I could have picked you up.” Sebastian starts up a conversation as the credits to the comedy scroll on the screen. If someone asked me to repeat a line from what we just watched, I’d come up with nothing. All I’m thinking about is how Sebastian is going to fuck me.
I’ve masturbated but I don’t know if I have a hymen or not. I’ve used a few toys I’ve read about in books although I don’t often feel the need to do that. Not unless I read a steamier romance. Or one where the hero reminds me of Sebastian.
“I wanted to leave work early. It was a short walk.” I answer him with a shrug and try to keep my train of thought on the fact that he hasn’t made a move yet. He hasn’t done anything other than to put his arm around my shoulder and pull me to close to him under the covers on the sofa.
“You sure like to walk everywhere,” he remarks like he doesn’t like it.
“I don’t mind it.” It’s one of the things that took me a long time to do alone. I don’t know if it’s because I was old enough to understand what happened to my mother, or if I was always afraid of walking alone, but learning to accept the fear and proving it wrong is one way to cope. “Sometimes it’s nice,” I add, swallowing down the memories that beg to ruin this moment.
Sebastian shifts on the sofa and it dips, making me fall slightly.
“You ready for bed?” he asks me, pulling me back up by my waist and shifting me into his lap. His warm breath tickles my shoulder as he kisses me for the first time since we came back to his place. Right on the crook of my neck, sending shivers down my body and hardening my nipples.
My body feels alive with need. Every nerve ending is waiting to go off and sitting on an edge that feels so close.
With both of my eyes closed, I hum a response. “I was wondering what was taking you so long,” I tell him as he stands, leaving me with the chill of his immediate absence and forcing me to open my eyes.
He offers me a hand and I take it to stand but he only smirks at me, not giving me any words in the least.
Cue my stupid heart.
It’s just sex.
That ball of nerves threatens to suffocate me as I walk in time with Sebastian to the bedroom. He doesn’t waste any time stripping down to nothing. So, I follow suit. First my shirt and then my pants, but by the time I’m left in my bra and underwear, he’s already naked and stroking his erection.
Oh, my God.
My pussy heats and clenches around nothing. Fire blazes inside of me. I can’t take my stare away from him as he strokes himself.
He’s cocky as he asks me, “Need a hand?”
A voice inside of me begs me to tell him I haven’t done this before, but instead, I meet his gaze steadily and unhook my bra, letting it fall carelessly to the floor. Then I easily step out of my thong, even though I know he’s let his own gaze wander to my body.
He doesn’t say anything. No comment on my body at all as I walk to the bed and get under the covers. It’s dark in his bedroom, but there’s enough light enough to see. There’s hardly any light from the windows with the curtains drawn even though there are streetlights close by. And he left the hall light on, which he didn’t do yesterday, so that had to be on purpose. So, he could see.
Adrenaline races through my veins as the bed groans with his weight and dips.
Still, I feel like he can see everything. Even as I’m hiding under the covers.
“No covers,” he says with a playfulness I wasn’t expecting. “I get to have you my way tonight, Chloe Rose,” he teases me.
“I’m cold.” The excuse slips easily from my lips as my heart pounds furiously in my chest.
His lips find mine in a slow, languid kiss. His hot tongue dips into my mouth as he pulls back the covers.
Suddenly, I actually am cold. In every place, he isn’t touching me, and I feel like I’ll freeze to death if his hands don’t find every inch of my body right this second.
He breaks the kiss, towering over me and climbing on top of me to tell me, “I’ll warm you up.” I expect another kiss, but his lips fall to the dip below my collar. One kiss there, then one an inch below. I can’t breathe.
Goosebumps flow down my arms and the heat burrows itself in the pit of my stomach.
“I’m hot,” I moan out into the air and then my eyes open wide, realizing what I said. Sebastian could tease me, taunt me for being hot and cold, but all he does is kiss lower and lower, fueling the fire that licks over my body.
By the time his stubble is tickling my inner thighs, my hands are on his shoulders, my blunt nails digging into his skin. I’m at war with myself, not knowing if I want to push him down that last inch or push him away for fear of being inadequate.
A single languid lick from my entrance to my clit has my back bowing.
Sebastian chuckles and the vibrations nearly send me over. My cheeks are hot with embarrassment, but the threat of pushing me over so soon is looming larger and more aggressively than anything else I could feel.
His tongue flicks my clit and again I buck my hips, but his hands are already there, pushing me down and keeping me in place. Panting, I struggle to breathe and to know where to put my hands. So, I grab the sheets and fist them as he sucks my clit and massages it with his tongue.
My toes curl and a strangled sound is forced from me. With my eyes closed, I don’t see him, but I feel all of him. He shoves his fingers inside of me and a pool of desire ignites in my core when he does it, forcing my back to arch and sending waves of heat through my body that feel uncontained.
With his mouth on my clit and his fingers inside me, I scream out his name from the pleasure that rolls through me. I push myself into his face shamelessly.
He finger fucks me brutally and doesn’t let up on either ministration until I’m biting down on my lip hard enough to hurt and cumming on his hand.
The paralyzing pleasure rolls through me in waves like a vengeful tide, taking from me ruthlessly. I can’t breathe or even move as he leaves kisses along my curves and guides the head of his dick to my entrance.
The battering ram in my chest is at it again and I force my head to turn, to look him in the eyes and nearly tell him.
But his eyes are filled with shades of blue so bright, so filled with the frenzy of passion, that even if I could stop him at this moment, I wouldn’t. I won’t take this from him. He was meant to have me. And this is how he wanted me.
“I want to feel you,” he says, and his plea is a deep rumble of desire. He nudges the tip of his nose against mine. “No condom?” he asks.
No words come to me, so I simply nod my head and kiss him, eager to feel him too.
His large body is hot against mine and I shut my eyes as I’m inundated with emotion as he hovers over me, but without my eyes on him, he growls. It sounds like a growl. Deep and low in his chest, primal and threatening.
My eyes whip back to him and he crashes his lips to mine. With a gasp, I open for him and he uses that moment to spread my legs wider, nestling his hips between my legs and pushing himself inside of me just slightly.
I’m overwhelmed. Unable to come back from the high of my pleasure, from the high of knowing Sebastian wants me, and from the all-consuming kiss that he devours me with, I’m completely at his mercy.
I brace myself, ready for him to shove himself inside
of me in one swift stroke. For him to tear through me and take me how I’ve always wanted him to, but as his heart slams against his chest and in tandem with mine, he pulls away from our kiss and nudges the tip of his nose against mine once again. My lashes flutter open and I stare into his gaze as he slowly pushes himself into me.
His lips are parted, and they widen just slightly as he lets out a deep breath and moves deeper inside of me.
I can’t help that my lips part as well, that they form an O as he stretches me and the sharp pain of it mixes with the sweet, lingering pleasure. As he rocks out of me and then back in, he mutters with his eyes closed, “You’re so tight,” and I don’t know what to say.
I should tell him, but I don’t. I don’t want to change anything.
“Take me,” I beg him in a whispered plea and reach up to grab his shoulders while wrapping my legs around his hips.
I wasn’t prepared for him to slam inside of me. For him to lower his lips to the crook of my neck as he fills me completely and stretches me beyond what I can handle. He groans a deep masculine sound of satisfaction as he tears through me, breathing me in and taking my virginity in a single movement. The pain makes me close my eyes tightly, it makes me tense and dig my heels into his ass. I feel hot and full, and it’s too much. It hurts. Fuck, it hurts. It’s more than I can handle.
But with my teeth clenched and no words spoken, Sebastian moves out of me slowly, giving me slight relief. It only lasts for a split second before he savagely slams back into me. My eyes close tight and I bite down on my lip to keep from screaming.
Again, and again, he thrusts, each time picking up his pace and each time the pain mixes with pleasure.
Each time I think it’s too much, but every time he pulls away, no matter how briefly, it feels like a loss. I want this, I want him. I want more.