by Parker, Ali
“I’m ready,” I whispered.
Caden moved to his knees. He pulled his shirt over his head. Then he worked to get his jeans and his boxers off while I undid my bra. I wanted him to see all of me. I wanted him to know who I belonged to.
He gazed upon my nakedness as I lay back down beneath him and spread my legs.
“What did I ever do to deserve this?” Caden asked breathlessly.
I nodded at the box of condoms.
He tore the box open, pulled out a rubber, and tore it open. I watched with a racing heart and trembling thighs as he rolled it over his length, one inch at a time.
He settled between my thighs.
“Be gentle with me,” I whispered.
“Always.”
He dropped his hips. The tip of his cock grazed my pussy. I gripped his forearms and looked up at him when he planted his hands on either side of my shoulders. Above, the stars painted a map of constellations. It was the most beautiful sight, my Caden smiling warmly at me, backlit by a star-spattered inky sky and a pale silver moon.
He pressed the first inch inside me.
The pain was fleeting. I encouraged him by tightening my grip on his forearms. He stared into my soul as he pushed in deeper, taking more from me than I ever thought I could give. A groan escaped him that set fire to my veins.
“Deeper,” I told him.
“I don’t want to hurt you.”
“You won’t.”
I knew my body. Cheerleading didn’t leave room for doubting yourself or what you could handle. And I could handle this.
Caden gave me all of him. I whimpered against the flare of pressure and the slow snap of something inside me breaking or shifting. I assume it was my hymen. As he moved inside me with slow, steady thrusts, the pain dissipated. My body hummed with pleasure.
Then he jerked quickly. A grunt left him. He gripped my hip and descended upon my breasts with his mouth, pulling my nipples between his teeth and suckling on them. I gasped and he growled and bucked before falling still.
I stared at the stars.
Was that it? It was over just like that?
I looked down at his mop of messy dark brown hair as he rested upon my chest. I reached up and ran my fingers through it, and he lifted his head to rest his chin between my breasts. “Sorry,” he said breathlessly.
I smiled. “For what?”
“It’s supposed to be better than that.”
“It was good,” I said.
He shook his head. “We need to practice. I need to practice. You’re just so damn hot, Olivia. I couldn’t last.”
I smiled. “It’s okay. Really.”
I was a little disappointed. What was I going to tell Dana in the morning when she picked me up? The moment had lasted all but a minute and now it was over. Passed. My insides still screamed with need and I felt more hollow than I ever had in my entire life. But he was spent. I could see the fatigue settling in his shoulders and his deep green eyes.
He was probably right. People’s first time was never as grand or as romantic as they wanted it to be. It was messy. Uncoordinated. Quick.
We just needed to practice.
He rolled off me and lay on his side with his head propped up in one hand. “Did it hurt?”
“Only for a moment.”
He picked at a loose thread on the blanket, broke it off, balled it up, and flicked it away.
I rolled to face him and put a hand on his chest. I could feel his heart thumping wildly against my palm. “Caden?”
“Yes?”
“We will have other opportunities.”
He smiled, but it didn’t touch his eyes. Something was bothering him. “I know. But you waited so long for this. And I feel like I…” He shook his head at himself.
“Like you what?”
“I was pretty much a one-pump chump, Olivia. I mean, I’ve been waiting for this and built it up in my head, and now that it finally happened, I just—” He broke off and ran a hand down his face. “It should have been better. Next time, it will be better.”
My poor sweet Caden.
I shimmied into him. I didn’t care that the condom pressed against my thigh. “Don’t be silly. I didn’t have our first time imagined in my head like it would be some magical, long-lasting romp. This was perfect. This was everything I could have hoped for.”
“Really?”
“Really.” I ran a hand up his chest. He was beginning to sprout a little bit of hair. “I love you, Caden.”
His lips found mine. “I love you too.”
Chapter 13
Caden
“Can I walk you to the door?” I asked.
Olivia sat in the passenger seat of the truck with her knees pressed together and her hands resting on top of them. Her dress rested across her thighs, and for the entire drive back from the lookout point, I’d wanted to reach over, inch the fabric up, and rub her until she came.
But I didn’t want to drive with such a distraction. She was too special to take risks with.
She smiled. “Sure.”
I got out of the truck and walked around the hood to open her door. I offered her my hand, which she took and used to steady herself as she hopped down onto the driveway. She adjusted her dress and her bra straps and gave me a smile. Her cheeks were still rosy and the tip of her nose was pink.
God, she was beautiful.
I didn’t know it was possible, but somehow, I loved her more now than I had when I picked her up two hours ago.
My girl. My world. My future. My everything.
We walked hand and hand up the drive and the steps of the front porch and stopped under the light with our feet on the welcome mat that read Bless This Southern Home in black cursive writing.
Olivia fished her keys out of her purse and fumbled with them. She laughed nervously. “I don’t want the night to end.”
“Me neither.”
“Soon, it won’t have to,” she said, shifting her weight to one foot so she could lean in a little closer. “Soon, school will be done and my curfew will drop and we’ll be able to stay out late together. Maybe even all night.”
My cock was already hard again. “Maybe,” I said, running a hand up her bare arm. Her skin gave way to goosebumps. “You should go in. It’s getting cool out here.”
“I’m waiting for my goodnight kiss.”
I stepped toward her. She fell into me as I kissed her and wrapped her up in my arms. My hands wandered up her back and into her hair and she moaned softly into my mouth. The sound made my nerve endings sing. I was right back in the bed of my truck, buried deep inside her, listening to the sounds of her breathless sighs and the wetness between her thighs.
She was a goddess. I itched to lay her down again and make her come. I’d wanted to do a better job tonight but the moment was lost to me. She was too much too soon. I’d make it up to her. One way or another, I would.
We broke apart and she stood back, a smile lingering on her lips. “Well, goodnight, Caden.”
“Goodnight, Olivia.”
She slid her key into the lock and opened the door to step over the threshold. Once inside, she turned back to me and rested her shoulder against the frame. “Meet me at my locker tomorrow morning? You can walk me to history.”
“I’ll be there.”
“Okay.”
“Okay.”
Neither of us wanted to say goodnight. That felt good. It meant that tonight had been special for her too, even if I hadn’t lasted nearly as long as I would have liked.
With a tired sigh, she stepped back and pushed the door closed, pausing just when it was open a sliver to waggle her fingers in a last wave. Once she locked the door, I hopped lightly down the porch steps and walked back to my truck. I pulled out of the drive and gazed up to the second-story loft bedroom above the garage and waited for her bedroom light to flick on.
It did.
Then the sheer pink curtains were drawn back and she perched herself on her window seat for one final wa
ve as I drove away. This was our ritual. It had been the same since our beginning.
I tugged at the front of my jeans as I drove home.
I was terribly uncomfortable and was going to have to rub one out before I could go to sleep. I knew I’d last seconds thinking about Olivia’s body and her kisses and her moans and her tight, wet, sweet pussy.
“Fuck,” I mumbled to myself, still unable to believe it had happened.
A small part of me felt guilty.
Should I have told her we should wait? She’d wanted to save herself for marriage. But I knew deep down she and I would be married. I’d already started seeing to some of the steps. Like buying the ring.
I smiled at the thought.
Back home, in my nightstand, was a powder-pink ring box. In said ring box was an engagement ring. It took me nine months to save up for it. The diamond was tear shaped, small, but dazzling. The band was simple and gold, and as soon as I’d laid eyes on it in the display case, I knew it had to be hers.
My future wife.
I hadn’t decided when I would pop the question or if she would think it was all too soon. I had to feel her out and see where her head was at. I didn’t want to scare her off or make her feel like we had to take this next step. But I wanted her to know that I was ready for it. I was ready for whatever came next.
“Minus the sex apparently,” I muttered to myself as I drew closer to the ranch. My performance had been abysmal. I would improve. Eventually.
Maybe I’d have to fuck her with a blindfold on for the first little while so I couldn’t see her. Or I could rub one out before we had sex. Tonight had caught me off guard. That was all. The strawberries and the dress and the yellow lingerie, it had been too much for my heart—and my dick—to handle.
I parked the truck in the drive and let myself in the house. The estate was quiet. Soft jazz music spilled from the lounge where I knew my father and Kirsten would be sipping glasses of wine and kissing each other’s necks.
I steadfastly avoided that room and made my way silently up the stairs to my bedroom, where I kicked off my shoes and pulled my shirt off over my head, leaving it on the floor where it fell.
I was in the middle of brushing my teeth when someone knocked on my door.
“Come in,” I managed to say around a mouthful of spearmint foam.
The door opened and Luke stepped in. He closed the door with his foot as I spat and rinsed.
“How was your night?” Luke drawled.
“Good. And yours?”
He shrugged. “Boring. Hey, I wanted to talk to you about something.”
I arched an eyebrow. Luke and I weren’t the sort of stepbrothers who talked about much of anything. He ragged on me, I endured him, and that was pretty much it.
“Okay.” I left the bathroom and flicked off the light. “Talk.”
He crossed his arms over his chest. “I heard your dad talking to my mom about an hour and a half ago in the lounge.”
I waited for him to continue. Luke had a bad habit of trying to hook you with a tidbit of information he knew would make you curious and then waiting for you to ask him questions to get the rest of the story out of him. I wasn’t going to ask.
When Luke realized that, he continued. “They were talking about New York.”
Again, he was vague.
“Makes sense.” I sat on the end of my bed. “You’re all heading there tomorrow.”
“Your dad is working with a guy named Perry out there. By the sounds of things, they’re starting some sort of company. Financial management or something or other.”
“And why are you telling me this?”
“Because,” he said, rubbing the back of his head. “By the sound of things, he wants to leave it to us.”
I frowned. “I don’t understand.”
“He said it would be our legacy. And he wants me to take your last name.”
I blinked.
Luke grimaced. “I know, dude. It’s kind of fucked. And I know we don’t talk about shit that actually matters, but this felt—I don’t know—weird. Even to me. And I’m not saying I’m opposed to the idea. I’m just saying it wouldn’t be right for me to take your father’s last name when I don’t really feel like I’ve earned it.”
“So earn it.”
Luke studied me. “I don’t know how. I don’t have an academic history of success. I’m a—”
“Party boy with no prospects?” I asked.
He realized I was joking around and cracked a wry grin. “Yeah, you get me, Caden.”
I shrugged. “It’s never too late to change your tune. If my dad wants to leave something to you, I suggest you get your shit together so that when the time comes you can step up.”
“He wants to leave it to us.”
“I’m eighteen.”
“Yeah. Right now. But give it a few years. This could be something big, Caden. This could be life changing. This could be a life we never imagined could be ours. If your old man wants to set us up with something like this, I think we should take it.”
“In New York?”
“Yeah.”
“My life is here.”
Luke chuckled. “Nah, your girl is here. There’s a difference.”
“I won’t leave her behind.”
“So bring her with you.”
It wasn’t that simple. Olivia wouldn’t move away from her family. Or Houston. Or Dana. She loved this place. The south ran deep in her veins and in her heart, and I couldn’t imagine her ever trading in the rolling green fields for concrete high rises.
“Listen,” Luke said as he joined me on the end of the bed. It sank a little beneath our weight. “I’m sorry I took your truck tonight without asking. And I’m sorry I’ve been a bit of a dick to you.”
“A bit?”
He scowled. “Sure.”
I laughed.
He laughed, too. “But we’re family now. There’s no sense fighting it. So if you’re ready, I’d like to consider you my brother for real. I’d like to take your family name.”
“What about your own family name?”
“My father was a drunken bastard with a foul temper.” Luke’s gaze hardened. “I don’t want his name. Levy means nothing to me. Or to my mother. But Taylor? I can wear that proudly. If it’s okay with you.”
“You’re asking my permission?”
Luke nodded.
“And if I say no?”
He shrugged. “Then I won’t take it.”
“Really?”
“Really.” He pushed himself up. “Think about it. Our parents are picturing our futures together, man. And I can’t say I hate the idea of having a brother. Someone to have your back.” He moved to my bedroom door and paused with a hand on the handle. “It goes without saying that I do have your back, Caden. No matter what. You got that?”
I nodded. “Yeah, I got it.”
Luke slipped out of my room without another word, leaving me on the end of my bed contemplating what it might mean to share my name with my stepbrother. Could we be more than two guys who bickered endlessly? Who irritated each other to no end? Who avoided each other in the many rooms of my father’s estate?
It didn’t seem like such a terrible idea to me.
Chapter 14
Olivia
Present Day
You’re just a cute little cheerleader from the country trying to play with the big boys.
Caden’s snarky comment rang in my ears as I watched him leave the dance floor. I stood there like an idiot with my arms hanging by my sides, wondering what the hell had just happened. I felt like I’d been struck by a meteor and nobody around me seemed to notice.
Then my temper began to burn.
Oh fuck no, he didn’t. The big boys?
I was one of the big boys.
“Asshole,” I growled.
“Hey! There you are.” Dana appeared on the dance floor and grabbed my arm before stopping dead in her tracks. She searched my eyes. “Oh no. What’s wrong? Did
something happen? Did you run into Caden?”
“Yeah. You could say that.” I tugged my hand from her and walked to the bathroom to try and get myself together. He looked like sin in his pressed black slacks and dark blue button down. Everything about him left me wet and aching for more than I’d ever have again. And I hated myself for even considering a future with him.
Well, maybe I hadn’t been considering a future per se, but I couldn’t deny that white-hot fleeting thought of letting him lead me upstairs to one of those private sex rooms Luke had been prattling on about all night. Would he pin me up against a wall and bite my lip like his older brother loved to do? Or would he be a gentle lover? Would he lay me down and trail kisses down my body until he reached my sweet spot and—
“Hey, I’m your best friend and this isn’t junior high. Tell me what’s going on.” Dana stared expectantly at me as I leaned over the bathroom sink and turned on the cold water. She moved up beside me as I tugged a paper towel from the dispenser and wet it. I pressed it to the side of my neck and took a shaky breath as I glanced up.
“I knew I was going to run into him tonight. I just didn’t expect it to be so…” I trailed off, searching for the right word.
Electric?
Painful?
Soul destroying?
“It’s just been a long time,” I said. “I knew it was going to be hard, but I guess I wasn’t expecting it to feel like this. Like I just got thrown under a parade of horses or something.”
“Oh shit, boo. I’m so sorry.”
I turned back toward the mirror and closed my eyes as I worked to pull air back into my lungs. “I never wanted this moment to happen, no matter how bad I might have wished for it. In reality, I never wanted to come face to face with him again. He tore my fucking heart from my chest.”
“And you tore his out too, Olivia. You know a lot of what happened was hearsay.” She brushed her hand over my back and moved closer. “Jake told me that Caden never said anything to the football guys about you two having sex.”