I dropped my head back on the mattress, threw my forearm over my eyes, and lost myself. The pressure that had been building inside of me every time he kissed me and then stopped now built higher and higher, taking over my thoughts. My body. My mind.
Me.
When he rolled his tongue over me even harder, his teeth scraping against my sensitive flesh, I cried out hard. My whole body tingled, frozen in time, and I let out a whoosh of breath as he dropped me back to the mattress. He stood up, ripping his shirt over his head as he went. Even though my body was still humming with pleasure, I raised myself on my elbows so I could watch him strip.
His hard muscles flexed as he undid his pants button, the veins more pronounced than before. His defined abs tapered down to that enticing V that I’d thought real men didn’t have, and his pants hit the ground. Sweet baby Jesus, but his gray boxer briefs hugged his erection with mind-numbing detail.
His narrow waist had one of those happy trails that led to…
He took the boxers off and my breath caught in my throat. “Holy shit.”
The heat in his eyes as he looked me up and down stopped my heart. For a minute, I’d forgotten I lay there naked, too. I’d been too busy staring at him to care. Grinning, he opened a drawer, pulled out a condom, and came back to my side. He lowered himself on top of me. When his bare skin brushed mine, we both groaned.
I trailed my fingers up his bare back experimentally. He was hard and smooth all at once. I hadn’t thought that was possible.
“Jesus,” he said, his voice almost reverent. “Taylor.”
He kissed me, ripping the condom open as his mouth moved over mine. He tasted like hot male, sex, and me. Before he could cover himself with a rubber, I closed my hands over him, running my fingers across the smooth skin. He deepened the kiss, pressing against my hand with a grunt.
So, he liked that, then? I wondered if…
I closed my fist on him, jerking slightly.
His abs jumped, and he buried his hand in my hair and pressed even closer to me, his teeth scraping against my lip. I repeated the movement, tugging harder this time, and he moaned into my mouth. He groaned and moved his hips restlessly. When I did it again, he broke the kiss off and hissed through his teeth. “Enough.”
He pushed me back onto the bed by my shoulders, grabbing the condom and ripping it open the rest of the way with a jerky movement. I watched, half torn between nervousness and excitement. After rolling it on impatiently, he crawled up my body and caught my mouth again. I clung to him, letting myself forget all about the future and what would happen next. For once, I didn’t want to care. I just wanted to feel.
He gripped my hips, lifting me slightly. I felt him against me for a brief second, and then he thrust into me in one quick, hard movement. I whimpered into his mouth, squeezing my eyes shut tight. This was it. This was what it felt like to have Chase freaking Maxwell buried inside of me. I’d watched him seduce all the girls he met with a grin and a come-fuck-me smolder, and now I was one of them.
“Taylor.” He froze, every muscle going hard and tense. “What. The. Hell?”
Well, crap.
Chapter Fourteen
Chase
I hadn’t expected this. Out of all the years me and Taylor had been apart, I just assumed she lived the kind of life I had. Parties. Drinking. Fun. Sex.
She wasn’t supposed to be a fucking virgin.
I shouldn’t be the guy who took her virginity.
I pulled back; sweat rolled down my forehead and into my eyes, stinging and blurring my vision. She lay beneath me, breathing heavily, cheeks flushed. She looked absolutely gorgeous, and 100 percent mine. I took a deep breath, pulling my thoughts together before I said another word to her, or messed anything up worse than I already had. Despite the fact that I hadn’t realized I was her first, I was her first, and everything I did from this point on would shape her first experience with a man.
No pressure or anything.
Jesus.
She shifted beneath me. Her tight body squeezed my throbbing cock, and it felt too damn good for her to be doing shit like that.
“Stay still,” I demanded through clenched teeth. “Don’t move.”
She froze, eyes wide. “Why not?”
“Because I said so,” I gritted out.
Jesus.
Her chest rose and fell rapidly, and I couldn’t look away from her tits. I now knew that they fit into my hand perfectly, and her pink nipples were hard and begging for me to close my mouth around one of them. I didn’t move, though.
Hesitating, she licked her lips, then asked: “Did I do something wrong? Did I hurt you?”
I’d just fucking barged into her with a battering ram when she’d never had sex before, and she was worried she’d hurt me? How typically Taylor. “No. I’m the one who hurt you. You should have told me…”
She shifted beneath me. Son of a bitch. “I didn’t think you’d be able to tell.”
“I felt it,” I muttered. “Does it still hurt?”
She lifted her hips, wincing slightly. “Not really. It just feels…different.”
“Do you want me to stop?” I asked, wanting to die because if she said yes—
“No.” She shook her head and gripped my arms. “Don’t you dare.”
“Thank God,” I whispered.
This was her first time. I had to do my best to make it memorable.
Slowly, gently, I moved inside her.
She gasped, tightening her hold on my biceps. “Oooh.”
Okay. She liked that. Good.
Clenching my jaw, I readjusted my weight on my hands, keeping myself from touching her completely in case she needed room to breathe. Shit, I didn’t know how to do this. I had never been anyone’s first for anything.
“I’m going to take it slow now.” Like I should have in the first place. “Let me know if you need me to stop, okay?”
She nodded, skimming her fingers over my back. Her touch was soft. Teasing. “Okay.”
Lowering my head, I pressed my mouth to hers, tasting her as I pulled out, and slowly thrust back inside her. Her walls squeezed me tight, making it harder to go slow, but so help me God, I would keep my pace the same.
She moaned into my mouth, closing her legs around my hips and holding on tightly. Feeling her holding on to me like that, closing her body around mine in every way, made my heart quicken and my blood heat. I was her first. Her only. Her choice.
It wouldn’t be something I took for granted.
Ever.
I cupped her face, softening my mouth on hers and taking the time to seduce her properly. I might be a little late in my gentleness, but she deserved it. She deserved more.
“Taylor…” I whispered against her lips, running my knuckles down her cheek. Her eyes had closed at some point, and her long lashes cast shadows over her pale cheeks. I couldn’t look away. I’d never forget this. Never forget that she had trusted me to be her first.
The twist in my chest was more ruthless now, making it harder to breathe. I kissed her again, worshiping her body. She was my goddess, and I was her faithful servant, and I wouldn’t stop until she was completely satisfied. I would do anything, sacrifice anything, to give her what she wanted.
I could tell she was close by the way she clung to me, gasping for breath with each move she made. Sliding my hand between our bodies, I pressed my fingers against her, swirling in circles as I moved inside her. Sweat rolled down my face, and my whole body ached with the effort it took to hold back, but I refused to hurt her again.
Gasping, she broke off the kiss and cupped my face. “Chase.”
“Yeah?” I asked, freezing immediately.
“Harder.”
I hesitated. “I don’t want to hurt you.”
Her bare skin against mine was heaven and hell, all wrapped into one. “Stop holding back, Chase. I’m here. I’m yours. Take me.”
That hold on self-control I had?
Yeah, it snapped like a broken r
ubber band.
Growling low in my throat, I closed my arms around her, repositioned my hold, and did as asked. I gave her all of me.
When she orgasmed, I moved inside her once, twice, and then bam, I was right there with her, trembling and shaken and lost as hell in her arms.
I’d fucked other girls. Made out with a lot, too.
But never, ever, had I felt like this.
Lost. Found. Confused. Enlightened.
All because of Taylor, and what we’d done.
She shifted beneath me, groaning and running her hands down my spine gently. Even that soft touch, the brush of her fingers, was too much for me to handle after that. I buried my face in her neck and inhaled deeply. “Wow. Is it always like that?”
I swallowed hard, torn between honesty, and the fear of being honest and what that might mean. But she deserved the best, so I ignored my fear and boldly clasped onto honesty, all the while hoping it didn’t screw me over in the end. “It’s never been like that for me before.”
She blinked up at me, her forehead wrinkling slightly. “Is that a bad thing, or good?”
“I don’t know,” I answered honestly.
She said nothing, biting down on her lip.
Now she was probably as confused as I was.
Pushing her hair off her damp cheek, I tried to find the words to explain the way she made me feel, without coming on too strong. This was new, this dynamic between us. “It’s not bad in a way that the sex was bad or anything. It’s possibly bad because that was the best damn sex I’ve ever had in my life, and that scares the hell out of me.”
Her cheeks flushed, and a small smile lit up her face. “The best?”
“By far,” I agreed, kissing her gently. I couldn’t resist it, with her underneath me like that, looking up at me with her bright blue eyes. “I meant what I said.”
“And that scares you?” she asked breathlessly.
“Absolutely,” I said immediately. “Even more than clowns—and you know how much I hate those assholes with their big red noses and creepy makeup.”
She choked on a laugh.
Since I was still buried inside her, this had an unwanted effect on me. My cock hardened, and I forced myself to calm down. This had been her first time, chances were that she was sore, and the last thing she needed from me was an attempt at round two.
Smiling, she closed the distance between us and kissed me. It was soft. Sweet. Short. When she pulled back, she was still smiling. I did that. I made her smile. It was a powerful, heady feeling. In this moment, with her naked in my bed and smiling at me with glowing blue eyes, I made a vow. It would be my mission to make her smile as much as possible, from this moment on, for as long as I lived.
It was a vow I wouldn’t break.
She toyed with my hair. “So now what happens?”
“Something that should have happened long ago,” I said, kissing the tip of her nose. “Taylor Selmer, will you by my girl?”
Her eyes widened. “Seriously?”
“Seriously.”
“Like you even had to ask,” she said, her eyes filling with tears as she kissed me again, holding on to me and not letting go.
I broke off the kiss, smiling because I couldn’t help it. After months of fumbling around, feeling like a failure, right now, I felt like a goddamn winner.
Like I could do anything.
Be anything.
“On one condition,” she added.
I tensed. “What?”
“You throw yourself into life again. No silence. No keeping your head down in class. No avoiding your sling, or pretending like you don’t have a chance to get better. I want you to raise your hand in class when you know the answer. To say hi back to the people who say hi to you. To show no fear.” She locked eyes with me, holding her breath. I could tell it took a lot for her to ask these things, because maybe she was terrified I’d walk. “If you want to try with me, you have to try with everything.”
I stared at her, speechless.
She was asking a lot of me, and yet…she really wasn’t.
For months now, I’d walked around in a daze, fully cocooned in my armor in case some asshole took another stab at me. I’d been living half a life, terrified if I took any chances again that I might lose something else, like I’d lost Joey and my football career.
Letting out a shuttering breath, I pulled her close, hugging her. “All right. We have a deal.”
Chapter Fifteen
Taylor
Hours later, we still lay in bed, wrapped up in one another. We’d been talking about school, our past, our dreams. Everything. In between words, when we tired of speaking, he kissed me, and rubbed my back, and made me feel like the most beautiful woman in the world. Throughout it all, I held on to him like I was never going to let go.
We knew I would, though.
It was only a matter of time.
He shook his head, as if he could hear my thoughts, and rested his hand on his stomach. His flat, toned, tanned, six-pack stomach. I couldn’t take my eyes off it. Or him. “We should probably get some sleep soon.”
“Probably,” I said, rolling onto my side and facing him. I rested my hand on his heart. It sped up under my touch. “Your shoulder?”
“It’s fine,” he said immediately. “It’s just a little sore after the appointment, then the whole taking a guy down in an alley, and us…” He broke off, running his fingers through his hair. “But the doc told me to listen to it when it’s telling me to take it easy, so I figured I better do so.”
I smiled at the fact that he was listening to doctors now, burying my face into his arm. He smelled good. Like Old Spice. “That sounds pretty smart to me, too. What did you think of him?”
“He was pretty cool.”
“Good.” I lifted my head, bending my arm and resting my cheek on my palm so I could look at him. “What else did he say?”
“That I might never get the full use of my arm back, but he could get me as close to it as possible if I did the exercises he gave me and came to him twice a week.” He shrugged, his forehead crinkling. “I don’t think I’ll ever be back in the game, but I’m willing to give it a shot, I guess. See what happens.”
My heart swelled with joy. “Good.”
“And if that doesn’t happen, then I might have a plan B.” He glanced at me nervously, wiggling a bit on the mattress and then shifting back to where he’d started in the first place and letting out a long sigh. “Something I’ve never told anyone.”
“Yeah?” I asked, my heart thudding loudly in my head, drowning out all other thoughts. “What is it?”
“I was thinking of entering the service.” He glanced at me again, his face red. “Like, the military or even…maybe become a detective, instead.”
I swallowed hard. I pictured him running toward that man with a gun again, no fear or doubt. Just plain old bravery. I thought of him trying to stop his friend from making a huge mistake, and losing so much of himself in the process. If anyone was meant to be a hero, then it would be Chase. “I think you’d be good at that.”
“Really?” he asked, surprise in his voice.
I nodded once, even though the idea of him putting himself into constant danger terrified me. “Absolutely.”
“My dad would hate it,” he said slowly, staring at the ceiling. He traced circles on my bare back, and my lids fell down slowly. Lazily. “Like, really fucking hate it.”
“That’s his problem, not yours,” I said, my anger at his father not having faded over the last six or so hours. “He’s an asshole.”
He choked on a laugh, his fingers stopping. “Yeah, he is.”
“He doesn’t get to say what you do.”
He frowned. “I know.”
“Screw him.”
He eyed me. “What did he do to get you so fired up?”
“N-Nothing,” I said quickly, avoiding his gaze. “What exercises did the doctor say you have to do?”
“Stretches, mostly.” He shifted
underneath of me. “I’ll do them in a bit.”
“I’ll watch,” I said, yawning. It wasn’t even eleven yet, but all the ups-and-downs of today had worn me out. We were silent for a while, and I started to drift off.
“Who were you talking to earlier?” he asked, his voice rumbly under my ear.
I yawned again, forcing my eyes open. “Huh?”
“Earlier you said you made a friend when you were waiting for me to come get you.” He pushed my hair off my face, his touch gentle. “Who was it?”
Just like that, I was wide awake.
I’d forgotten all about that.
“Oh.” I looked at him, watching him for any signs of…well…anything. “Her name’s Amanda. She’s a cheerleader.”
He stiffened. “Amanda?”
“Yeah.”
I waited, not letting him know I knew who she was. It was up to him whether he wanted to open up to me about that or not. I wouldn’t force the issue.
“Amanda Rogers?”
I pursed my lips. “I think that was her last name, yeah.”
He said nothing.
Just sat up and slid off the bed.
I watched him head into the bathroom. He washed his hands, and then padded out to the main area again, still naked. His muscles were flexed, and he held himself stiffly. “What did Amanda tell you?”
“Not a whole lot. Why?” I asked slowly.
“No reason,” he muttered.
“She seems nice.”
He swallowed hard. “Yeah. She’s great.”
“Is she?”
He nodded once, stepping into a pair of gray sweats. “Yeah. We used to… She’s my ex-girlfriend.”
“Oh?” I sat up, found my shirt, and slid it over my head so I wasn’t so naked. “What happened?”
“I broke up with her. She wasn’t for me.” He sat down beside me, pulling me into his arms and dropping a kiss on the top of my head. “But you’re right. She’s a nice girl.”
“Would you want to be friends with her again?”
He snorted. “She wouldn’t want to be.”
There was something about the way he said that, the emptiness behind the words, that made me think he wished otherwise. Did he still have a thing for his ex?
The Backup Plan Page 12