LUCKY KISS

by Kidman, Jaxson

  Dammit… she’s cutting through the black ice, man… she’s getting to…

  I growled and moved faster.

  Harder.

  Lauren moved her hand to my stomach and pushed.

  “Fuck, Asher,” she purred.

  I quickly stopped. I took a deep breath. “Shit. The baby…”

  Lauren turned her head and looked at me.

  No. No. No. No.

  “It’s fine,” she said. She gasped for a breath and smiled. “You’re not going to hurt anything. Don’t stop again until you’re done.”

  I moved again, but I didn’t look down at myself. I looked at Lauren. Her eyes through the lens of her glasses. They were so dorky but so sexy. The past and present somehow smashing together inside of me.

  I couldn’t look at her anymore.

  So, I kissed her.

  Our tongues fought, and I let her win for a few seconds. Only to bring myself to finishing. I eased my right leg over her body and rolled her to her stomach. I didn’t put my weight on her though, just in case.

  Because of the baby. Because you fucking care, Asher. You know you fucking care. About the baby. About Lauren. You love…

  I grunted and pumped faster until the feeling was too much to take.

  I buried my nose into the back of Lauren’s hair. I smelled her shampoo. Dried sweat. A hint of sleep.

  My back was arched to keep myself from leaning on her back which would add pressure to her belly. My lower half rocked with a slow precision as her core throbbed against me.

  She let out purring whimper after purring whimper, each time I pulsed.

  My hands were curled around the sheets so tight, I wanted to dig my fucking hands through the mattress and scream.

  When I looked down and saw the angle of her back… that beautifully exposed, bared skin… I started to lose my mind. For a second, I started to count freckles. Who the fuck does that?

  I never knew she had freckles on her back.

  I finally moved away from her and put my right hand to her front and pulled her tight against me.

  I lifted my jeans and in a matter of seconds, it was like nothing had happened.

  We were just spooning. Falling asleep.

  Like this was something more than it was.

  Fuck.

  I did my best to hide how badly I needed to breathe heavily to catch my breath.

  I waited for Lauren to fall asleep before I slowly crept out of the bed.

  I stood there and stared down at her.

  She was the mother of my unborn child.

  That was it.

  Anything else and I would hurt her.

  Because it was all I knew.

  And that lesson she was going to learn again.

  I left the bedroom and didn’t even bother to look at the couch.

  I had to leave.

  Even if that meant pushing my damn motorcycle down the block so I didn’t wake her.

  I just had to fucking leave… falling in love with her was not an option.

  19

  (Lauren)

  THEN

  I had the apartment to myself for a little while. Gram was going out to play bingo. She joked and told me no boys were allowed over. That made me blush, which annoyed me because I couldn’t control my blushing. It was just something that happened. And the whole boys thing was worse than ever. Gram laughed, always thinking it was cute. She kept telling me stuff about being innocent, but in all honesty, I was just confused. I didn’t understand why Asher was such a jerk. Or why I always went looking for him. Like I really cared about him or something. I had heard the yelling from his apartment so many times, knowing things weren’t good there. So that’s why I cared.

  No other reason why.

  And then the whole kissing thing.

  I knew girls in my grade that had kissed boys. They didn’t have babies.

  So, the kissing boys and having a baby thing was probably a stupid lie.

  But I wasn’t sure of it.

  I had no interest in kissing any boys though. That was gross. Someone’s lips touching mine. No thanks.

  Unless it was Asher.

  Oh, god, why?

  It was just stuck in my head about him.

  Only because he was such a mystery. And he bothered me so much. Gram’s one friend - Margie - told me that I should just kiss him. Go right up to that snot nose punk and plant one on his lips. My cheeks never burned so hot when Margie said that. Gram swatted at Margie’s arm and told her to never say that again.

  Margie was kind of wild.

  Gram just winked at me and then whispered later to never listen to Margie.

  All I knew was that when Gram and Margie would drink whiskey together, they would laugh for hours. Margie had a million stories. Gram didn’t have many, but Margie always teased saying Gram had a lot more to tell, but never wanted to.

  There was nothing like seeing those two sipping whiskey like tough truckers or something. They could probably out drink any guy out there. And probably fight better than them too.

  But I was alone.

  At home.

  Gram told me not to touch the microwave or the oven.

  So, I had chips to eat.

  But I wasn’t hungry.

  I sat on the couch and wished Sarah was home.

  But she wasn’t.

  I looked to my right and saw one of the old throw pillows.

  I grabbed for it and stood up.

  I looked around as though people were around me.

  But I was alone.

  Slowly, I stuffed the pillow under my shirt.

  It wasn’t something new.

  Sarah and I had done this a hundred times.

  We would play house together and sometimes we’d decide who was pregnant. For fun. Or we’d be pregnant together. And we’d have a coffee party and talk about our lives.

  Anything to be like a real grown up.

  This was different though.

  I stood there with the pillow under my shirt.

  There was no way this could really happen from kissing a boy. No way. There was something else to it all that I didn’t get.

  I looked down at the awkward shape the pillow made under my shirt.

  The apartment door opened, and I turned and ripped the pillow out from under my shirt.

  “You crazy bitch!” Margie’s voice yelled.

  “That word!” Gram yelled back.

  “What are you doing home?” I asked.

  “Your Gram got us kicked out,” Margie said.

  “That Annie was cheating,” Gram said.

  “They were going to fight,” Margie said.

  “You were going to fight someone?” I asked Gram.

  “No,” Gram said. “Don’t listen to Margie. She’s crazy.”

  Margie put up wrinkled and vein filled fists. She punched the air and winked at me.

  “I’m going to go for a walk,” I said. “Play outside.”

  “Be back in an hour,” Gram called. “I’ll cook.”

  “I’ll order pizza,” Margie said.

  I hurried outside to catch my breath.

  I felt guilty but I wasn’t sure why.

  I sat on the large front steps of the big house that was converted into apartments.

  When I heard voices, I leaned forward.

  There was Asher, with his football gear. And two other guys.

  They were laughing, pushing at each other.

  “Nothing I haven’t seen before,” one of the guy’s said.

  “Bullshit,” Asher said.

  He cursed. A lot.

  It always left me uneasy.

  But it was kind of cool that he cursed without worry.

  “I’m with Asher,” said the other guy.

  “You two are stupid,” the first guy said. “Under my dad’s bed… he’s got a secret stash of magazines…”

  “Bring one then,” Asher said.

  “No way,” the first guy said. “If Coach catches me…”


  “Wimp,” the other guy said.

  “You’re a wimp,” the first guy said.

  “Not me,” Asher said.

  They all started to laugh.

  Asher finally saw me.

  He was sweaty, hair messy, wearing some of the football pads. A super tight white shirt that I wasn’t sure why I kept looking at it.

  He grinned at me and held up four fingers.

  I gasped and ripped my big glasses off my face.

  Now I couldn’t see a thing.

  But I could hear them.

  “You actually kissed her?” the first guy asked.

  “Of course he did,” the other guy said. “He’s Asher.”

  I gasped again and put my glasses back on.

  I stood up.

  Now all three of them saw me.

  The two guys didn’t notice me. Asher looked but looked away fast.

  “It’s what I do,” Asher said. “Cute girls… they should be kissed.”

  “That’s crazy,” the first guy said. “You have guts.”

  Asher shrugged his shoulders.

  They went into Asher’s apartment building and I stood there, feeling empty.

  My heart sinking.

  My stomach flipping around.

  Asher kissed another girl? Did that mean they were having a baby? No. That was impossible. That stuff was all junk. Asher only ever said that to mess with me. And Gram agreed to keep me away from boys.

  But… Asher kissed another girl.

  He didn’t kiss me.

  He wanted to.

  I ran away.

  I sat back down.

  And for some reason… I started to cry.

  20

  (Lauren)

  NOW

  Marissa was sick and it had been three weeks since I’d seen Asher last.

  Not that those two things were connected in anyway at all, other than they were burning in the back of my mind.

  I was tired and sore.

  I was always sore.

  My stomach was bigger.

  I felt the baby kicking.

  That fluttering feeling… for the first time… alone.

  I sent a text to Asher.

  He text back at three in the morning.

  With the words that’s awesome and nothing else.

  I was half tempted to text him and tell him I was horny, just to see how fast he’d show up.

  Which wouldn’t have been a lie either.

  Whatever my body was doing… I craved Asher.

  And yet he was a dumbass fool.

  Peggy tried to carry the slack for PB, but she wasn’t fast on her feet either.

  It was turning into the morning from hell as the line was long, people were getting antsy, and I wanted to throw up, cry, eat ice cream, and watch the cheesiest of all cheesy romance movies. Then I wanted to go write ASH-HOLE with my keys into the side of Asher’s truck.

  And then when he got it fixed, I would do it again.

  And no cop or judge or whatever would do a thing about it to protect Asher. Because when I told them what he did to me, they’d hand me their damn keys and tell me to keep going.

  The line got bigger and I got more and more tired.

  I touched my belly with my back to the counter. I was pretending to do something but all I wanted to do was cry. I couldn’t figure out how this was going to work.

  “Excuse me, miss? I’ve been here for ten minutes. I’m sure you know you’re not the only place with shitty coffee, right?”

  I lifted my gaze and swallowed hard.

  I wanted to turn and throw coffee at the suit and tie asshole attacking me, but I needed to play nice.

  Peggy was running around the front of the cafe, checking on tables and offering free sweet treats to the waiting customers.

  “Oh, please tell me she’s ignoring me now,” the same man said.

  I started to turn when a second voice entered the conversation.

  “Did you ever think maybe she’s having a rough morning too? Maybe she’s pregnant and she’s exhausted from running this business? Maybe she just doesn’t want hear some fucking punk bully her…”

  When I saw Asher standing behind the counter, I blinked a hundred times.

  He looked back at me and nodded.

  Then he addressed the man again.

  “Now, what the fuck do you want?”

  * * *

  Customer service wasn’t his thing, but I needed the help.

  The second Asher showed up, the man with the big mouth calmed right down. Maybe because Asher was twice his size and I was pretty sure everyone knew Asher would have no problem punching him in the mouth if he didn’t calm down.

  I prepared the man’s coffee and handed it to him.

  “How about an apology to her?” Asher threw at the man.

  “I’m sorry,” the man said. “Rough morning for all of us.”

  “Empty the pocket, buddy,” Asher said.

  The women in line all giggled.

  They were all like teenagers around the hottest boy in school with Asher.

  The man left a very generous tip.

  I wasn’t sure if he’d ever come back though.

  I looked at Asher and he raised an eyebrow.

  Oh, the questions that burned in me.

  But first, we had to get through this crazy morning.

  It took me five minutes before I had to get Asher away from the counter.

  He was not cut out for this job. The reaction of his face as people ordered their specialty drinks made me want to laugh. What didn’t make me want to laugh was the way he told everyone to just drink some damn coffee like a normal person.

  At one point he looked at me and asked, “What the fuck is this stuff? There’s frap-something and steam-something and mix-my-ass and stir my di-”

  That’s where I cut him off.

  I told him to go deal with the tables.

  I took over the counter again, but this time I had help from Peggy.

  The third woman in line stuck her tongue out. “When did he start working here?”

  “Twenty minutes ago,” I said.

  “I would get into serious trouble with a guy like that near me,” she said.

  She fanned herself.

  I looked down at my belly.

  Yeah, trouble… been there, done that.

  * * *

  Asher took a seat across from me.

  The cafe was calm and quiet. Some oldies played through the little speakers. The kind of oldies that Peggy liked. Not the music I liked that was now suddenly deemed sort of old which made me wonder if I was sort of old.

  “You don’t have to pay me for today,” Asher said.

  “Didn’t plan on it,” I said.

  “You look beautiful, sweetheart.”

  I laughed. “Really?”

  “I’m serious. This fits you.”

  “Fits me?”

  “You know what I mean.”

  “No, I don’t.”

  “You look fucking amazing. You look… you look confident. You look…”

  Asher reached across the table for my hand.

  He touched it and I looked down at his hand. Then at him.

  He pulled his hand away.

  He cleared his throat.

  “I’m surprised to see you,” I said. “I mean, it’s not three in the morning.”

  “Sweetheart…”

  “No,” I said. “There’s no smooth talking here. Why the hell did you show up?”

  “I can’t stop thinking about you. Us. The baby. How to make this work.”

  “Oh, really?”

  “You need me.”

  “I need you? Not sure that’s how you’re going to win me over.”

  “Maybe I should stand up and drop my pants then.”

  “That’s a good start.”

  Without hesitation, Asher stood up. He had his jeans unzipped as I gasped.

  We were right next to the large glass window.

  “Don’t mind m
e,” Peggy called out. “I see nothing.”

  I slapped my forehead. “Oh, god… I can’t take this.”

  I looked up at Asher.

  He stood with that cocky confidence that made me want to hit him.

  I actually wanted more than that though.

  I wanted him.

  He was right that I needed him.

  But I didn’t want to admit it.

  I didn’t want him to hurt me or the baby.

  All this because of stupid kissing a boy.

  My eyes moved down, and I stared straight ahead at his open jeans.

  I shook my head.

  I licked my lips.

  I blamed the pregnancy for the way I felt.

  But the desire for Asher was maybe to hide my true feelings for him.

  I shut my eyes.

  Kissing a boy…

  Sorry, Lauren, but it was way more than just kissing a boy…

  21

  (Asher)

  NOW

  My hand wrapped tight to her hair and I pulled, bringing her head back. Her chest arched up as she let out a breathless groan, her hands unsure if they wanted to claw at my back or claw at the sheets. My tongue tasted the sweetness of her skin. A long days’ worth of work on her skin. The smell of coffee with a hint of sugar. The taste of sweat and desire collecting to the tip of my tongue as I moved down to the swell of her breasts.

  They were bigger already.

  Fuller.

  They were tender too.

  One flicker of my tongue to her left nipple and she jumped and wiggled away.

  I engulfed her as I thrust into her.

  Her ankles locked together around me and held as she started to come.

  I stopped moving and let her do what she wanted with me. Pumping and grinding her hips against me. Her hands grabbing the back of my head, wanting me at her chest again. She was stuck between pleasure and sensitivity, which was amazing to watch.

  And amazing to feel.

  When she finished with climax number two of the night, I gently rolled her to her side. I wanted her comfortable while I had her. Plus, the sight of her from the side… perfection. Her hair messy, some behind her, some in her face. She reached out and grabbed for a pillow to hold as pleasure spread across her face. Her breasts resting against the bed, still moving to the rhythm I used to fuck her with. The natural curves of her body were made for me to hold. And then the curve of her belly. She was beautifully pregnant, and I never thought I would see it and appreciate it.