Diamond In The Rough: The Complete Series

by Hart, Rebel

  She snickered. “Felt compelled? Who are you again?”

  I turned my body toward her. “I’m the Clint you’ve always seen.”

  “I’ve never seen this side of you.”

  “Do you want to see more?”

  My hand gravitated to her cheek and I cupped her soft skin. My thumb brushed against it as her eyes searched mine. Wild, and curious, and a bit mysterious. And as a grin settled across my face, she smiled up at me. I felt her nod against my hand before she nuzzled my palm. I felt myself being pulled into her atmospheric orbit. Stanzas of poems not yet penned regarding her beauty rushed through my mind. I felt her face getting closer as her body heat encompassed me. And when our lips touched, fireworks went off in my mind.

  This was the kind of girl wars were started over.

  My elbows tingled. My toes curled. I felt electricity sizzle down my spine. Her tongue pressed against my lips and I was all too eager to let her inside. All too eager to wrap her up in my arms. I pulled her close, heaving her into my lap, and she straddled me with effortless perfection. An entire epic poem spilled forth in my mind, encompassing the whole of Rae. From the soft touch of her fingertips against my jaw to the searing heat of her lips against my own.

  Even the way her body fell against me constituted its own story of praise.

  I pulled back softly. “Ever been on a bike?”

  Rae shook her head. “No. I haven’t.”

  “Want to ride on one?”

  When she didn’t answer me, I stood up. I picked her up in my arms with ease as she squealed and clung to me. I set her down on her feet, taking her hand and tugging her toward my motorcycle. She resisted at first. But then she gave way to me. Gave way to my silent command as we headed for our escape.

  “Come on. I’ll take you for a ride,” I said.

  And without a second thought, I handed off my helmet to her.

  15

  Raelynn

  Clinging to Clint around his waist as we zoomed through the streets of our hometown wasn’t something I ever thought I’d be doing. And yet, I found myself holding tighter to him with every passing mile. He took the long way around town, pointing out toward the ocean and slowing down so I could gawk at it. We stopped at a bakery that was in its closing hour and he picked us up some pastries at half price. We even stopped to get me one last green tea, while he chugged back a black coffee.

  It was a side of him I would have never imagined existed in my wildest dreams.

  I stopped questioning where we were going after a while. But once we pulled into the driveway of his home, I grew nervous. What the hell were we doing back here? I figured he’d take me home. Or back to the park. Or drop me off at the high school.

  “Uh, Clint?”

  He turned off his bike. “What?”

  I slipped the helmet off. “What are we doing at your house?”

  He put his kickstand down. “Well, you said you didn’t wanna go home. But everything else around here’s closed. We got these pastries. Figured you’d wanna go somewhere, drink something, and eat.”

  “So we’re at your house? Where your father is right now?”

  “Nah. Dad goes to the casino to blow off steam after we fight. He won’t be back until tomorrow night at the earliest.”

  “And your stepmom?”

  He scoffed. “She’s always at his side. If he’s not here, she’s not either.”

  He helped me off the bike, catching me as I stumbled. I felt myself blushing underneath the strength of his arms, but I tried not to show it. I tried not to give in to it. This was madness. This was Clint Clarke, for fuck’s sake. The boy that had swung on Michael this morning! There was no way the butterflies in my gut were for him. There was no way on God’s green earth I felt the way I did because of him.

  And yet, when he took my hand to lead me inside, I felt my stomach jump.

  Turn around. Go home while you still can.

  I watched Clint type in a password on a keypad that opened the garage. And with the bag of pastries in one hand, he led me straight through a door and into his kitchen. I gawked as I walked inside, too. His kitchen alone was bigger than Allison’s entire fucking living room. Holy shit, if I thought Allison’s and Michael’s parents had massive homes, then I’d really been an ignorant little girl.

  Because Clint’s father didn’t own a home.

  He owned a damn mansion.

  “You want the cinnamon or cheese danish?” Clint’s voice pierced my shock.

  “Um, cheese.”

  He nodded. “Cinnamon for me, then. Which is great, because I’m a cinnamon fanatic.”

  “Good to know.”

  “What do you want to drink?”

  I didn’t hear his question. I kept scanning the room with my eyes, wondering how big this place was.

  “Rae.”

  I heard the chuckle in his voice and my eyes whipped over to his.

  “What’s up?”

  He grinned. “Wanna see the rest of the house?”

  I nodded with delight and he dropped the pastries. He scooped my hand into his, and together we started through the house. He showed me the living room, with a massive projection screen on an entire wall. He showed me something called a sitting room, which was literally just a room with a bar and some chairs. He took me into a library. A legitimate library with floor-to-ceiling bookshelves that lined every square inch of wall in the damn place.

  Then he led me upstairs. To the middle of the three levels the house had.

  “Who the hell needs this much house?”

  Clint chuckled. “Dad, apparently. He bought this place before Mom even got pregnant with me. Only three people live here, but it’s got six bedrooms. And all of them have their own bathrooms.”

  I scoffed. “Seems a bit like overkill.”

  He shrugged. “That’s my father for you. Here, this is my room.”

  He reached through a doorway and turned on the light. And when his bedroom came into view, I stopped in my tracks. It was the size of mine and my mother’s put together. And then some. I slowly walked into the room, taking in the blackout curtains over his windows. The beautiful wooden frame of his massive king-size bed. The carpet underneath my feet made me feel as if I were walking on memory foam pillows.

  And yet, there was such a sinister presence within all of it.

  “I’m so sorry,” I whispered.

  I slowly turned around, watching as Clint closed the door behind him.

  “For what?”

  I shook my head. “For… everything, I guess.”

  He nodded. “It’s fine. I don’t make it easy for people to see me.”

  I snickered. “This is the part where you apologize, too.”

  “I’m getting there.”

  He made his way to me. I felt his hands against my waist, and I didn’t hate it. His green eyes sparkled as they danced with mine, and I felt him peering into my soul. His black hair fell into his face, prompting me to raise my fingertips in order to brush it away. Our skin touched. I felt my breath hitch in my throat. And even though I wanted to pull away from him, something inside me rooted me there. Grounded me, forcing me to stare into the eyes of a boy who understood me more than most.

  More than anyone, really.

  “I like this side of you,” I whispered. I cupped his cheek, and he nuzzled into my palm.

  “I’m sorry for always being a dick. It’s just easier than anything else.”

  “Trust me, I get it.”

  He nodded. “I know.”

  Our foreheads fell together and his hands slipped to my hips. I felt him gathering up the fabric of my dress as our lips slowly moved together. Our eyes met. My heart slammed against my chest. And as the backs of my legs met the edge of his mattress, his hands slid my dress up to my thighs.

  Just as our lips collided.

  His tongue met mine and stars erupted behind my eyes. I felt my body pucker for him and places on me tingle I’d never paid attention to in my life. Like the slat
s between my toes as I wrapped my legs around him. Or the crooks of my knees as his hands slid down my legs. With every stroke of his tongue, my skin prickled. With every groan of his I swallowed down, my hairs stood on end. I felt electrified. I felt myself sizzling into a puddle of nothingness. And as his hands gravitated to my panties, I felt the rest of my walls crashing down.

  Are you really about to do this?

  I slid his leather jacket away from his shoulders and quickly gathered his shirt over his head. He wrapped his arm around me, hoisting me higher on the bed before he knelt against the mattress. His muscles came into view and I licked my lips, staring at the ink that adorned his arms and torso. He was beautiful. Every part of him. Angrily beautiful in ways I understood. My fingers slid through his hair as his lips came down against my neck. I felt my thighs warming and my panties wetting. He pushed my dress up as he kissed down my neck, exploring me with a kindness and a gentleness I would have never associated with him.

  With every press of his lips against my skin, he rewrote what it meant to be Clint Clarke.

  “Oh, yes,” I whispered.

  He groaned as his lips fell to my thighs. I toed my tennis shoes off, feeling him slip my panties down my legs. He rose up long enough to pull the fabric away from my body. And when my feet got tangled up in the fabric, he smiled down at me. He chuckled along with my giggles, making me feel comfortable in my own skin, even with the thick thighs and broad hips that didn’t look very much like the girls he usually stared at.

  Then I watched him unbuckle his jeans.

  It happened so quickly, I almost didn’t catch it. He crashed back down to me, our lips colliding as my legs spread for him. He reached down for something as his jeans fell to his knees and soon, something hard fell between my thighs. I felt him pulsing and dripping, his kisses becoming sloppy as his fingers explored my depths. I moaned for him, buckling underneath his touch. He nibbled at my neck as his fingers filled me, stroking my swollen walls.

  Before his girth replaced those dexterous fingers.

  “Clint,” I gasped.

  “Holy fuck, Rae.”

  “Yes. Oh, my—just yes.”

  He chuckled before his lips captured mine again. I felt his forearms press against the mattress on either side of my head. I wrapped myself around him, feeling his thickening length stroke against my walls with every thrust of his hips. I gasped for more. His bed bucked as he picked up the pace. I raked my nails down his back, listening to him growl into the crook of my neck. My toes ran down the backs of his legs. I locked onto him, feeling him growing thicker inside me. My eyes rolled back, my body shook and I quivered around him as my body began to tense.

  “That’s it. Come on, Rae. I feel you. Just let it go.”

  “Clint! Yes! Oh, Cli—”

  My jaw unhinged and my back bowed so deeply I figured it would snap. My body shook for him. Quaked for him. And a darkness overcame me. I chanted his name like a shattered prayer, a choked, wanton sound falling from my lips. I felt him pumping into me, thrusting faster and faster. Harder and harder. Begging my body to hang on just a second longer.

  Before he, too, burst.

  “Rae,” he growled.

  When he collapsed against me, I felt full. With every thread of his arousal that touched my body, I felt blanketed in him. His sloppy kisses turned to soft nuzzles of his nose as his face found the crook of my neck again. He rested against me, his muscles cradling the curves of my body. And as my arms fell away from his back, I sighed with relief.

  I smiled up at the ceiling.

  All because of the bully from Riverbend High.

  16

  Clinton

  My eyes fell open and I groaned. The smell of her still lingered in the room with me, and it made me smile. I rolled over, half expecting to see her next to me, lying there with her dress bunched up over her hips and her legs spread. Ready to go another round as the two of us woke up together.

  But when I rolled over, there was nothing but my bed to greet me.

  “Figures,” I murmured.

  As I lay there, staring up at the ceiling, my mind fell back to last night. What had gone down between me and Rae. How good it felt. How right it seemed. I’d never experienced something that calm and collected with a girl before. Usually, they were eager to suck me off for a bit before poking their pretty little asses out for me. But this was something else, with Rae. Something slower. Deeper. More sensual than I’d experienced before.

  “Fucking hell,” I said, sighing.

  I rolled over one last time, placing my face where her head had been. I drew her scent in deep as my mind pulled me back to those moments. How nice she had felt in my arms as I fell asleep. How soft her skin felt against mine. How much her body had enveloped me as we grew to fevered heights.

  “I gotta write something,” I said, groaning.

  I sat up in bed and reached for my bedside table. I pulled out another notebook and pen I kept stashed there, and my muse ran wild. I scratched down rudimentary poems and premises for short stories. I cranked them out, one after another, until the sun pierced through my blackout curtains. I ran my hand through my hair, flipping through the pages of nonsense I’d written down simply because Rae had refueled something inside me.

  “What the fuck?” I asked breathlessly.

  My cell phone vibrating on my bedside table pulled me from my trance. And for a good reason, because I didn't want to think about shit like this anymore. I tossed my notebook and pen back into the bedside table, then reached for my phone. But my muse still hadn’t calmed down. Words rattled through my mind that I hoped I’d be able to recall later. Words that could have only described the beauty and the appeal that had been Rae last night.

  I opened up the text message I had and saw it was from Roy. And as I read it, a cold bucket of ice water got tossed onto my muse.

  Roy: Get your ass over to my place. I had a great time with Marina last night. And you’ll never guess what we did in her parents’ bed.

  For some reason, I felt the need to roll my eyes. I tossed my phone onto the mattress and slid out of bed, resolving myself to a shower. Though I was hesitant to wash Rae’s scent off my body. I took an extra-long hot shower, allowing my mind to wander a little more one last time.

  Then I got out and got ready to head to Roy’s.

  Dad still wasn’t home when I got downstairs. Which didn’t shock me one bit. He and Cecilia had probably gotten a hotel room somewhere, where he could bang out his anger toward me with her body. I shook my head. That poor fucking woman. What girls like her wouldn't do for money astounded me. Money was useless. Money was almost nothing, despite what people wanted to believe. I grabbed a banana from the fruit bowl and peeled it open, eating it as I walked out to my bike.

  I tossed the peel off to the side, threw my leg over my bike, and started for Roy’s.

  With thoughts of Rae bombarding my mind.

  Oh, Clint.

  The way she said my name so sweetly made my skin tingle. Unlike the squeals and the whimpers from most girls, hers were soft sighs. Guttural groans. Less of a porn video and more of a religious experience. I didn’t believe in God and all that shit. But I did believe in angels.

  And Rae was one of them.

  I need to write that down later.

  I rode over to Roy’s and found him on the porch, waiting for me. And the second I took a look at his neck, I knew I was in for a long story. He had hickeys everywhere. Bite marks. Nail marks down his arms. I mean, he was fucking covered in evidence of her. And while I usually would’ve been interested in a story like this, I found myself not caring about the topic at all.

  “So after you assholes left, her parents stayed downstairs,” Roy said.

  I parked my bike in front of his porch and turned off the engine.

  “Uh huh. I take it you two had sex in their bed?” I asked.

  “Oh, not just their bed. Their shower. Their bathroom. Bent over their fucking dresser. It was hot, man. Marina was all
like, ‘Mom, my television isn’t working. Can we watch a movie in your bedroom?’ And the second she looked at me with those ‘fuck me’ eyes, I knew it was on. We didn’t even get five minutes into the damn credits before she hopped on this dick.”

  “Sounds like you had a good time,” I said, grinning.

  “Oh, hell yeah. You know what she let me do?”

  “I take it you convinced her to try anal.”

  “Fuck yeah, I did! She gripped those bedsheets like such a good girl for me, too. I’ll never fucking go back. That was the tightest hole I’d ever experienced. I don’t even want her pussy anymore.”

  I snickered. “Told you it was a great experience.”

  “Great? This was a miraculous experience. I’ve never come that hard in my life, dude.”

  While this would’ve been the part where I interjected with my nightly escapades, I found myself playing my cards close to my chest. I didn’t want to tell Roy what I’d gotten up to last night. I didn’t want to confide in him all the dirty, nasty secrets of the night. Usually, I did. The two of us went back and forth, until one of us outdid the other for the day. But I didn’t feel like I could confide in him with what happened between me and Rae.

  It felt wrong, for some reason.

  “So, please tell me you left some marks behind on her body, too. Because that’s a pretty bitch-ass thing for you to be marked up and for her to not be,” I said.

  He snickered. “She was all over me, dude. I got my marks in, but make no mistake. She couldn't keep her paws and her lips off me. She gobbled my cock down with ease before we even got started. I didn't even have to warm her up.”

  “Hell yeah, Roy. That’s the way to do it.”

  “Marina sure is a giver. And I think I’m gonna keep her around for a little while.”

  I grinned. “Sex really that good?”

  “Have you been listening to me at all? The sex is fantastic. I mean, yeah, she’s a bit thin. But I like ‘em thin. Less to push away to get to the holes I really want.”