He moves his hands down to my thighs, lifting me up, and I instinctively wrap my legs around him. Walking forward until his legs meet the end of the bed, he slowly lowers me down onto it. Slowly lowering himself down onto me, he kisses my chest and rubs little circles onto my hips with his thumbs. My fingers find his waistband and I push his basketball shorts down. He moves down lower, continuing to kiss me until he comes to my bellybutton.
His hands trace the waistband of my underwear, teasing me with his touch and making me need the contact. He lowers his head and kisses me through the lace, scraping the stubble on his chin against me as he does. I arch my back, trying to bring him closer to me. His hands slide my underwear down my legs, leaving me completely vulnerable to him.
Shawn stands and moves over to his dresser and I hear the sound of plastic ripping. He must be grabbing a condom. Is it wrong that I’m disappointed by this? I’ve always used them, but I hate them. Right now all I can think about is being able to feel him with no barriers between us. I sit up on my elbows. “What would you say to not using one of those? I’ve been on the pill for years and I really hate them.”
I can’t gauge his reaction at first. After a minute Shawn smiles at me, tosses what I can only guess is the condom at the trash, and then comes back over to me. “You sure this is what you want?”
I nod my head, because I am so full of anticipation and need that it’s almost impossible to form words.
He moves so we are now face to face again, and then kisses my lips more gently than before. “Happy Birthday, beautiful.”
Shawn pushes into me, instantly filling me with all of him and making me gasp from the intensity of it. He lowers his mouth to my breasts and begins to kiss them as he starts to move in and out of me. I lace my fingers through his hair, giving him the occasional tug when he uses his teeth.
Then he sits up on his knees so he has more control. His pace speeds up and it feels amazing. His hands move down my body until he finds my clit. When his fingers start to move, I can no longer control all the sounds that are coming out of my mouth. I’ve had sex a few times before, but it was never anything like this. I’m already so close to my release and we’ve just started.
Shawn pulls out of me, and before I know what’s happening, he flips me onto my stomach. I lift myself up and he pulls me so I’m now pressed up against him. Kissing my neck, he makes sure to hit the spot behind my ear that I love. When he pulls away, his hand rests on my upper back and pushes me down toward the bed. Slowly easing back into me, he moves his hands so they’re gripping my hips.
This time, when he begins to move, it’s so fast and animalistic that I can’t contain the screams. I’m so close, and before I know it, my whole world explodes.
“Fuck, you feel so good, babe.” He starts to slam into me even quicker, which I didn’t even think was possible. After a minute, he groans and begins to slow down. We collapse onto the bed together and I rest my head on his chest, turning so I’m looking at him, and smile.
“What?”
“I think that was the best birthday gift I’ve ever gotten.”
He laughs and kisses the top of my head. “Do you want to stay the night?” I nod my head. “Okay, good.” I get up so I can go to the bathroom and grab the clothes Shawn had given me earlier. I’m suddenly very aware of the fact I’m naked, so I grab the blanket and wrap it around me. “Babe, why are you covering up?”
“I don’t know, I’m going to jump in the shower, though.” I all but run out of the room. I don’t know why I’m so self-conscious. I turn the shower on and climb in under the water. I can’t stop smiling. Once I’m finished, I put on the clothes Shawn had given me. When I walk back into the room, he’s still lying down, and I crawl under the sheets with him. He wraps his arms around me, pulling me close to him.
“Goodnight, beautiful.”
Every time he calls me I get goose bumps. I close my eyes, and for the first time in a while, I’m happy.
Chapter Eight
Shawn
Being with Christen last night was incredible. We have this crazy chemistry between us that is completely new to me. It’s almost like when she’s around, I’m drawn to her like a magnet. I can’t resist her, which is crazy because I barely noticed her before. I mean, I thought she was cute, but I never really noticed her until she came up to me after the fight.
I sneak out of bed and make my way into the kitchen to make a pot of coffee and search for something I might be able to make for breakfast. I hear footsteps coming, and when I turn around, Christen is walking in. Seeing her in my clothes is so much hotter than I could have imagined. She comes up to me and wraps her arms around my waist. “Good morning, beautiful.”
“Mmmm, it’ll be a lot better once I get some coffee.”
I laugh and lean down to give her a kiss. It seems so strange to have her here and be this comfortable with it. I feel like we’ve been together for a while, even though it’s only been a couple of days. This whole situation takes me back to when Carter was trying to talk to us about his feelings for Mads. We told him he was out of his mind because he barely knew her, but I get it now. You always hear those cheesy songs and see movies talking about how they were in love so soon, and I’m starting to think maybe they aren’t as unrealistic as I thought.
I’m not saying I love her already, but I can definitely see myself falling for her. I move away from her and grab a couple of coffee cups out of the cupboard. “I was going to try and make breakfast, but there isn’t much in this apartment besides frozen pizza, hot pockets, mac and cheese, and chips.”
“Ah, the joys of being a college student.”
“So, do you have any plans for today?” She shakes her head. “Okay, I want to take you somewhere then.”
“I’ll just need to stop at the house and get dressed.” We finish our coffee, I get dressed, and then we head over to Christen’s house. When we walk in, Jason and Nicole are yelling at each other about something. Those two are always going at it, but I think it’s their weird way of showing affection. I follow Christen upstairs, not wanting to get dragged into whatever drama is happening with them.
She must not have heard me behind her, because when she walks into her room and turns to shut the door, she jumps. “What are you doing?”
“I was just going to wait for you up here so that I didn’t get pulled into the episode of Jerry Springer going on down there.”
“I need to get dressed, though.”
I laugh and then realize she’s serious. “Babe, I saw you naked last night. What’s the big deal if I see you getting changed?”
We walk farther into her room and I shut the door. “Ugh! I don’t know! You can stay, just don’t watch me, okay?”
I swear to God I will never understand women. I lie face down on the bed and bury my head in her pillow. I hear her moving around and just can’t help myself—I peek over at her. She’s standing in front of the closet in just a bra and panties. Seeing her like this makes me want to throw our plans for the day out the window and spend the rest of today in bed. I hide my face again before she can see me, even though I can’t understand why I’m not supposed to look.
“Okay, I’m ready!”
When I look over at her, she is dressed in a pair of jeans that fit her like a glove and a t-shirt that’s cut into a V and fits her just as well. I lift myself off of the bed and walk up to her. “You look beautiful.” I kiss her and then grab her hand and we walk out to my car, carefully avoiding the argument still going on between Jason and Nicole.
“So, what did you want to do?” she asks me.
“I’m not sure, I thought we could go into town and then figure it out.” I make decent money from the fights, and I’ve been saving most of it for tuition, but I want to be able to do something nice today.
We walk out to the car and I open the door for her. She smiles at me and seems like she’s surprised I did it. If my mom taught me only one thing about girls, it’s that they can’t resist a gentlema
n. On the drive into town, I am trying to think of where I can take her. There aren’t too many exciting places to go on a date, and I really haven’t gone on many dates to know what’s good. I park the car and walk around to the side to get the door for Christen. “Are you hungry?”
“Yeah, I could eat something. Our coffee breakfast this morning has definitely worn off.” She laughs and I grab her hand and start walking.
“Where do you want to eat?”
“I’m not sure. I don’t really know a lot of the restaurants around here. Holly and I usually either eat on campus or just make something at home.”
I think about all of the different options around us and I’m not sure which to pick. That’s when I get an idea, hopefully she doesn’t think it’s crazy. “So, I have an idea, but if you don’t want to do it just tell me.”
“Okay, what’s your idea?”
“Some people will go to one restaurant to have a three-course meal, but what if we had a three-course meal at three different restaurants? We go to one for appetizers, a different one for entrees, and another one for dessert. It’s a way to have a bunch of different kinds of food and have fun in the process. What do you think?”
She smiles at me. “I love it! I have never done anything like this! You pick the restaurants, though.”
I take her hand and we walk around for a little so we can see what our options are. The first restaurant I pick is a little Mexican restaurant called Sunrise. We sit down and decide to share a plate of their steak nachos. I love it. Christen isn’t afraid to actually eat. The last date I went on, the girl ordered a side salad, which is usually fine, but she didn’t get it as a side dish to anything. The waitress brings out the food and we start to eat. “So, Mr. Matthews, Spring Break is in a couple of months, do you have any plans?”
“I’m probably just going to go home and visit my family. What about you?”
“Unfortunately, I’ll probably go visit my family, too.”
I laugh. “Why unfortunately?”
“My parents are definitely not the easiest people to live with. They constantly expect perfection in every aspect of my life, and honestly, it is so unbelievably exhausting. Everything to my parents is about keeping up appearances and making sure that you always have the best of everything. I hated it when I was growing up because I never really got the chance to just be a kid, you know?”
I nod my head because I’m not really sure what to say. My parents always encouraged me to follow my dreams. “You know there is a saying that goes, ‘anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new’. It sucks that your parents are like that. At least Spring Break is only a week, though, right?”
“Thank God.”
When we finish our plate, the next restaurant we go to is a little Italian place called Mama Maria’s. We order a plate of pasta and decide to share again. I tell her all about my family and how I want to try to get an internship this summer.
Christen is going to school to be a teacher, but says her parents hate the idea. “My mother keeps telling me ‘those who can’t do, teach’. I swear if she tells me how I just need to meet a nice boy and settle down one more time I’ll scream. Do I want to get married some day? Sure. Do I want to be a lonely housewife like her who pops pills just to function? Absolutely not.”
I laugh and end up choking on my food a little bit. “Amen to that.”
She just laughs and shakes her head. The last place we stop is an ice cream parlor for dessert. We order a banana split to keep up with our whole sharing theme. They have a couple of outside tables and we decide to sit at one of them. We’re talking and laughing when her phone starts to ring. She hits the ignore button and then goes to take another bite.
“Who was it?”
“Just my mom, I’ll call her back later, I just—” Her phone starts ringing again. She rolls her eyes and answers it. “Hello? Mom, I’m out right now. Can I call you later? Yes. No one you know. Listen, I will call you later, okay?” She breathes a sigh of relief and hangs up the phone. We finish all of our food and she starts to walk back toward the car but I stop her.
“I have one more place I want to go.”
“Where?”
“It’s a surprise, come on.”
We walk a couple of blocks and the sun is just starting to set. When we turn the corner and Christen sees where we are, she looks at me in confusion.
“So, I drive by this place all the time, and I have always wanted to stop here.”
She looks around as if something else is going to magically appear and then turns to face me. “It’s a playground.”
“I know, and if it’s stupid just tell me. They just built it, though, and it’s huge!” I know she probably thinks I’m such a loser right now.
She gives me one of her amazing smiles. “Okay, come on.”
She walks off toward the swings and I chase after her. We spend almost an hour playing around like a couple of five-year-olds. When we finally decide to walk back to the car, I can tell she is exhausted. The drive home is quiet, and when we get to her house I walk her up to the door.
“I had an amazing day today. Thank you.”
I lean down and place a kiss on her lips, only intending for it to be simple, but she pulls me in further. Her hands grip my shirt and I can feel the passion pouring out of her. I’m about to ask her to come in when my phone rings. When I look at the screen and see it’s Paul, I answer it. “Hello?”
“Hey, last minute fight in a half hour at the west warehouse.”
Without even waiting for a response he hangs up. I turn back to Christen, “Hey, I need to go. I’m sorry.”
“Are you going to a fight?”
“Yeah, that was Paul.” I give her a hug and lean down to give her a kiss when she pulls her head back an inch.
“Can I come?”
“No, babe. This one is at a different place and the people there are a lot worse. I’ll talk to you later, okay?” She nods her head yes and I give her one last kiss goodbye.
All I can think as I am walking to the car is how much I hate having to do this. I just keep repeating to myself the thing my dad always told me ‘tough times don’t last, tough people do’. Let’s just hope it’s really true.
***
Christen and I have spent every day of the last month together and it’s been great. Spring Break starts today and we decide to drive home together. I pull up outside her house and she comes out with probably the biggest suitcase I have ever seen.
I just laugh and put it into the trunk for her. “You know break is only for a week and not a month, right?”
“Shut up!” She nudges my shoulder and then climbs into the car.
“Are you excited to get home?”
“I’m excited to go to your house, I would be even more excited if we could skip mine all together.”
We had decided to go to my house for a couple of days and then stay at her house for the last part of the week. Christen has been freaking out all week about us staying with her parents, and I can tell it’s still making her crazy. “Relax, babe. We still have a few days to chill until we get to your parents’ house. Plus, I’ll be there with you and I really don’t think it will be as bad as you are picturing it.”
“I hope not. I’m going to stop stressing out about it, though. I’m really excited to meet your mom and dad.”
“Good, babe. They’re looking forward to meeting you, too. I only live about five blocks away from Carter, so we will all get to hang out. Did Nicole say if they were going home or not?”
“They aren’t. Jason’s dad is a total douche, and since he can’t go to Nicole’s house they are just going to stay home.”
“That must suck not being able to go home.”
“I guess, but sometimes being alone is better than being miserable.”
Chapter Nine
Christen
The ride to Shawn’s house is pretty short and it’s around lunchtime when we arrive. I’m really nervous about m
eeting his parents, I just want them to like me. We pull in front of his house and my nerves shoot through the roof. What if his parents hate me like Jason’s dad hates Nicole? Shawn is really close with his family, especially his mom, and I know if they don’t like me I don’t stand a chance.
It seems so weird to me that I’m already going home to meet his parents after just being together for a month. It’s felt like so much longer, though, probably because we are constantly together. He hasn’t let me go to any more fights because he says he can’t concentrate when I’m there. I need to remember not to mention the fighting around his family, too. Apparently, his parents think he is working a regular job and that’s how he’s paying for school.
When we walk into his house, I can hear the TV in the other room.
“Shawn?” A woman comes out from one of the doorways and I can tell immediately that she must be his mom. Aside from his reaction to seeing her, they look so much alike. She has the same light brown hair as he does and their eyes are identical. She is about my height, so he towers over her the same way he does me. “I’m so happy you’re home!” She gives him a big hug and then looks around him toward me. She smiles and then comes to stand in front of me.
“Hi, Mrs. Matthews.”
“Please, call me Karen.” She gives me a hug which catches me off guard at first. “It is so good to meet you. I’ve heard a lot about you.” I look over at Shawn and he shrugs. “Shawn, your father is in the living room. Why don’t you two go in there and relax while I finish lunch?”
“Do you need any help?” I don’t know how to do much in the kitchen but I know enough that I should definitely offer to help.
“No, sweetheart. You just go in there and sit down, I’ll take care of everything.”
Fighting to Survive (Guarded Hearts Book 3) Page 5