by Nicky Shanks
My cheeks slowly heat. “You never had that to begin with—don’t push it.”
He groans playfully and grips my hip, pulling me closer to him. “I can’t spend a lot of time with you without touching you, Julie.” His voice is so matter-of-fact, it makes me shiver. “I want you—there’s no secret about that.” His warm index finger traces the spaghetti strap tank top I’m wearing and butterflies flutter around my ribcage. His lips lightly graze my collarbone as my breath thickens and I grip the back of his head. He pulls me on top of him, pressing his lips to mine and holding me against his body with force. “I want you.” He breathes the words and then we hear it.
Staci cries out Harley’s name.
Oliver’s face twists in horror. “Sorry, that killed it for me.” He slides me from on top of him to his side and shakes his head. “They need to shut the hell up!” he screams so they can hear him, then huffs, crossing his arms. I giggle at his pouty lips and roll back over, turning off the bedside lamp. In the darkness, I wait for him to slide his rough hand over my hip and graze my curves, but after a few minutes, I let my body relax into the soft mattress in defeat.
“Hey,” he whispers dangerously close behind my ear, “I like how you see me sometimes, you know? I haven’t had someone look at me like you do in a long time.”
My breathing deepens. “For someone as ice cold as you try and pull off being, you sure do wear your heart on your sleeve, Oliver.”
There it is.
His hand.
Oliver’s fingers tug at my side and he gently forces me toward him. I can feel the heat of his hard chest on my back and again, my body stiffens and I wait for more. I feel the ember inside of me growing, getting hotter the closer he gets to my center. Instead of ravaging me, he nestles himself into my blonde mess of hair and breathes in, satisfied, as his hands grip my side gently. His fingers start to slide down my thigh, and before I can push his hand away from slipping in between my legs, he swiftly turns my body and pulls me on top of him again. He presses my lips to his; he moans into my mouth, and as he holds me against him, his warmth is the most incredible thing I’ve ever felt.
“Why do you like teasing me so much?” he growls and kisses my forehead, releasing me and putting me back down next to him. “It’s frustrating.”
“I’m not trying to be.” I gasp for air, the walls closing in around me. “This is all confusing for me.”
“Why am I so addicted to you?” He cradles my head to kiss me, looking into my eyes with such intense desire that it makes me shiver. “Do I make you feel safe?” he asks me.
“Safe?” I breathe out slowly, my eyes halfway closed.
Oliver laughs low. “Yes, safe.” I can barely hear him over my own thoughts, which are racing around me faster than I can catch them. “Do you trust me?”
“Yes,” I instantly say, swatting my brain so it will shut up.
He makes that sexy agreeing sound and releases me, my body still shivering from whatever the heck he just did to me. “Good, now get some rest for our hike tomorrow.”
***
“Jules.” I hear a voice like nails on a chalkboard. “How many times have I asked you not to go to bed without me?”
Brandon.
I cringe and I can feel myself cower. “Sorry.”
His scratchy voice sighs and I feel his weight on the bed behind me. “I just wish you were better, that’s all.” I silently cry, but the bed shakes anyway. “Come on, Jules.” He throws his arm around my chest and lightly squeezes. “Don’t cry. All you have to do is be better, okay?”
“Okay,” I say in a soft voice. “Sorry.”
Brandon is annoyed. He hates it when I constantly apologize. His grip around me tightens and I wait for it—wait for the first blow. Instead, he lights a cigarette and lets go of me. I hear him breathe the smoke in and out. “Stop always saying, ‘I’m sorry.’ It’s pathetic.” He undresses and purposely misses the laundry basket. I can feel his smirk from behind me, imagining me slaving over his dirty clothes. “I’m going to take a shower; come with me,” he demands.
***
“Julie! Come on, wake up!” Oliver’s smooth and safe voice cuts through my dream and I wake up to him shaking me, terror in his eyes. He gasps and clutches me to his chest. I feel the wetness where my tears were staining his t-shirt. “What the hell was that?” He breathes into my hair and tightens his grip. “That was really scary.”
“Sorry,” I say and wince, waiting for the annoyance from him. I’d gotten his shirt wet yet again.
Oliver strokes my hair gently. “Sorry? For having a nightmare?”
No, sorry for being a mess when you want a princess.
Chapter Seven
Brandon
God, where the hell is she?
I dial her number, and again it goes straight to voicemail.
“Hey, this is Julie.”
She laughs and it makes me want to reach through the phone to at least touch her—or grab her. That rich jerk she’s hiding out with doesn’t know what he has—he isn’t going to appreciate her until it’s too late, either.
“Well, you know who this is, since you’re the one who called me.”
I smile. One of the reasons I fell for her in the first place is her ability to be such a complete nerd, but still manage to captivate the people around her.
“So, leave a message and I promise I will call you back.”
I growl and hit the end call button on the phone. I’m going to find her. I text my friend Nate, telling him to come over, and while I wait for him in the apartment I used to share with her, I stop and look around, trying to find something of hers so I can feel normal again. I’ve done some questionable and horrible things in life, but cheating on Julie with my boss’ daughter is the worst.
The. Worst.
I hate myself for even starting it.
Julie probably hates me too.
I was horrible to her the four years we were together. I want to make up for that, but she has to answer the damn phone, doesn’t she? I know she’s been living with her brother, Randy, and his little demon spawn, Clyde, over in the rich part of Rockford. Her pool house is probably bigger than this apartment. Randy and Clyde both hated me before all of this happened and would probably like to see me dead now, so I know they won’t help me find her. I have to find someone that has a big mouth and actually likes me somewhat.
Nate comes through the door, shaking his head. “Just let her go, man—don’t do this to yourself.” He’s just gotten done with a pick-up basketball game; it makes me cringe when his sweat pours over my favorite leather armchair. I can see the glisten of the wet spots as he brings his foot onto the seat to tie his shoe.
I violently shake my head. “No, I know she went somewhere with some rich guy…I got that much out of Nora, but I need to find out where they are and how to get there.”
He sighs like he thinks I’m being pitiful and I don’t like that. I mean, this is Julie we’re talking about here. Nate and Julie never got along well, but he knows how I feel about her.
“Dude, come on. Let’s just go downtown or something, get your mind off—”
“No!” My yell booms through the living room. “I need to find her.”
“To do what?” He sounds fearful. “What are you planning on doing, exactly? How are you going to talk your way out of this one? You’ve made a huge mess this time, Brandon.”
I think about what I’m going to say to him very carefully. The truth is, I was more than horrible to Julie, but that’s behind me. I don’t want…whatever her name is, the boss’ daughter. Rachel.
I want Julie.
And I want her to come home now.
When it comes to Julie, I always get what I want.
Nate sends a few texts out—one of our mutual friends has to know where she’s gone with him. Better yet, they better find out where she went, if they’re true friends at all. A few minutes later, Nate’s phone pings and he sucks in hard air through his teeth. “Okay, Chri
stian says that she went to some guy’s lake house for a few weeks.” His voice is annoyed. “They left on Friday, he picked her up, and they stopped at Rogerson’s.”
I start to laugh almost immediately. “I already knew that.”
Nate shrugs his shoulders. “Well, Lake Reed is where they are.”
“Lake Reed? That rich people lake in the middle of the forest?” My voice rises, but he’s used to my frequent outbursts so the hard look on his face doesn’t change. “So, she’s with that rich guy up in the forest?”
“I don’t know, man,” Nate says. “That’s all he knew.”
Lake Reed isn’t a big place—maybe fewer than twenty ritzy houses litter the lakefront or nestle into the thick forest around it. But it’d be like finding a needle in a haystack. A very rich, well-hidden, and heavily secured haystack with forest rangers frequently patrolling the areas and the residents heavily armed with shotguns and hunting rifles.
Nora.
I can only imagine that Nora is with her.
Or at least she knows where Julie is.
I pick up my phone and text Nora. I wait a few minutes before texting her again when she doesn’t reply. When she hasn’t responded for over an hour, I know I’ve crossed a line. If I had just told her I wanted to apologize to Julie, she would’ve given up the information I want. Either way, I took a few days off of work to find Julie so I can bring her home.
She’s mine.
Nate frowns as he reads another message. “Christian got the address.”
I don’t bother packing—I’m bringing her straight home anyways. How can she know how sorry I am for cheating on her if she won’t let me tell her? I honestly thought I’d broken her down enough to where she wouldn’t leave me if I ever got caught, but she’s stronger than I imagined.
“Coming?” I ask Nate, not looking up to see his expression because I fully expect him to say yes. “Come on, don’t make me drive up there alone.”
“No, dude. I’m not coming. You’re not dragging me into this craziness again.” His bushy eyebrows come together when he frowns, and he pushes past me to leave. “I told you to leave her alone…I mean, I damn near begged you. We’re friends, Brandon. I’ll always have your back, but this has just gotten out of hand, man.”
I sigh angrily. “Fine, but don’t go telling anyone I’m coming. Don’t scare her off.”
Nate laughs in my face. “Me scare her off? Brandon, listen to me for a minute, okay? Julie left you—it’s over. You haven’t seen her for three months. Three months, dude. Haven’t spoken to her, haven’t even seen a new picture of her…you’ve been too busy porking the boss’ daughter.”
“Her name is Rachel,” I growl and push him away from me. I don’t need to be anywhere within arm’s length of him right now.
“Whatever,” he groans. “You made your choice and she made hers. You each need to live with that. She doesn’t want to see you, so don’t go looking for trouble, Brandon.”
I wave him off. “If you’re not coming, then move out of my way.”
Nate waits a few moments before stepping aside. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you, and don’t call me to bail you out of jail. I’m not doing it this time.” I hardly hear what he says as I leave him behind in the apartment, shuffling my feet as fast as they can go to my car parked outside. I don’t bother using the GPS to find Lake Reed—I know where it is, and it’s a long-ass drive from here. I’ll get there around midnight, so I check my wallet for my credit card before speeding off into the night, just in case I need to stay somewhere close if she says no to me.
Rachel. I think of her halfway through the drive and groan.
She’s sexy, all right. Her large, perky tits and the way she licked her lips whenever I did something she liked…it haunts me. Pair that with the way she dresses and the fact she let me do things to her Julie never would, and my desire for her was unstoppable. I knew she was trouble…I knew it, but I didn’t care. Julie was boring me at the time; it wasn’t like Rachel was the first one. She was just the first one Julie found out about—or more like, walked in on. In my defense, Rachel and I did try to get her to join us.
Maybe that was bad.
I think about Julie’s body. She’s shorter than me—a lot shorter, and rounder around the hips than Rachel. I was a loser when Julie found me, but that isn’t stopping me from having my cake and eating it now.
Screwing the boss’ daughter was definitely a mistake, though.
To be fair, she seduced me. Every time our team worked late and she brought us takeout Chinese food for dinner, everyone scattered to their offices to eat and she followed me to mine, basically ripping off my pants and having her way with me. Initially, it was just at the office, but eventually we moved to having sex at my apartment when Julie wasn’t home. It escalated to me spending the night at Rachel’s apartment and not coming home for days on end, losing time as I pounded myself repeatedly into a girl who always wanted more.
I smirk thinking about it, but I still feel bad. I’m going to get Julie back, so I need to stop thinking about what Rachel looks like naked and start thinking about what Julie looks like naked.
At first, when we met, I was faithful to her. She was all I was ever looking for, until she wasn’t for reasons even I didn’t understand. I somehow always ended up wanting more—whether it was more than she was giving me or more than she could give me, I didn’t know or care.
But all I know now is that Julie is mine.
Not his.
Mine.
If she doesn’t want to come back and be with me, I’m not sure what I’ll do. I do know that whichever rich snob she’s shacking up with can’t stop me from dragging her home.
Kicking and screaming if I have to.
And I might have to. But it’ll be worth it—I can still remember the moment I fell in love with her. We had just started dating; it was halftime at our high school football game, and I watched her leave the sidelines with the other cheerleaders. I placed myself where I could see her when she passed me, then grabbed her arm. “Hey, Jules,” I said and kissed her cheek. She gently pressed our palms together. I liked the way she held my hand and smiled at me—it made me feel like I was the only person in the world. The cheers of the crowd roared through the stadium, but I hardly cared about any of that. I didn’t come to the football game to actually watch it.
I came for her.
“Hey, yourself.” Her blonde hair was braided into pigtails down both sides of her head. The short blue-and-white cheerleader skirt she wore grazed the tops of her curvy thighs, and all I could think about was how good her skin was going to feel on mine. I thought about how warm her body was going to be when she’d finally let me go all the way with her, and it chipped away some of the ice around my heart that had been gathering over years of such a shitty life. “I see you’ve put aside your hate for organized sports to watch me cheer.”
I’m sure I was blushing; my dirty hair fell into my face and I was embarrassed to even look into her endless blue eyes. She was absolutely gorgeous: everything I ever wanted in life, wrapped up in a tight little cheerleader uniform. Except there was just one huge problem.
The entire school was against us because we didn’t have the same social status. Julie didn’t care, but she was popular. And I was a loser.
I wasn’t in a good place in life—my parents were strung-out addicts and it was public knowledge. We were dirt poor and sometimes I went days without eating—or talking to anyone, for that matter. People in Rockford just loved to gossip about my family.
“It’s okay to be shy.” She giggled and brushed my hair back into place. My insides stirred when her fingertips touched me; I was so much better when her grace touched me. “Some of the best people are the ones who can’t always find the words to say.” The world exploded in fireworks as she intertwined her fingers with mine and nestled herself against my lanky body.
“Julie, how can you be like this?” I whispered. “How can you be this real? You’re a cheerl
eader.”
Her bright smile set my insides on fire. “I don’t throw people into categories, I don’t believe that anyone’s the same. You wearing black t-shirts all the time and always having a sour look on your face doesn’t define who you are.” She winked and stood directly in front of me again. I got too much bold courage for a moment as my free hand found the bottom of her skirt and I rubbed the fabric between my fingertips.
My head was going to explode.
“I like you,” she whispered into the air between us. “Why is that so hard to believe? That someone like me would be into someone like you?”
My hand slid under the bottom of her skirt carefully—she didn’t swat me away or get flirty. Instead, her eyes burned into mine as I gripped the flesh underneath the bottom of her perfect ass. I could tell she wanted me to tear into her—her eyes were begging me to take her home.
But I wanted much more from her.
“Julie…” My voice was rough and strained from trying to fight the need for her in my chest. “We graduate this year. What happens if you fall in love with me? I can’t go to college—”
Her soft lips pressed onto mine and I latched onto her, sliding my tongue against hers and squeezing her tight. “Don’t worry about things in the future you can’t control.” She played with my bottom lip. “I know you need me, Brandon, so just let yourself need me.”
She was right.
I did need her.
I needed someone to show me a better way.
I was so tired of always being alone, not trusting anyone.
“You can trust me,” she whispered, and her curvy little body fit against mine like a puzzle piece. “I will never leave you.”
I laughed as she tightened her grip around me, her arms reaching toward the back of my shoulder blades and holding me against her as best as she could. It was in that moment that I knew Julie was going to be the one to fix me. That was the exact moment my entire soul fell in love with hers. All of the bad shit in my life—my parents getting high every night, my friends ditching me one by one, and now, finding out that I might not graduate on time because of one bad grade—