I took a deep breath letting Tony strum away on the acoustic guitar. Finally, Cain put his eyes on me and it took everything in me not to crumble under the weight of his stare.
Another two verses came out as I’d rehearsed, though I hadn’t been able to rehearse it under the weight of Cain’s glare. The look hurt. It scared me that this whole scene wasn’t even working. I pushed through, but if I were a betting person, I would have bet that nothing would be different once I finished.
And that was it. Tony disappeared behind me and I could see Kendra out of my peripheral waiting to take the mic away because I didn’t trust myself not to ramble. I knew what I wanted to say.
“Cain, next year a lot of these people will be gone. But I’ll be here and you’ll be here. And none of this will matter anymore. It could become that stupid fucking thing Flannery did, excuse me, almost did, one time.”
He bent forward, elbows on his knees, head cocked to the side watching me. And for a second, a terror filled horrible second, I thought about what it’d be like to never touch him again. But he sat there. Adam leaned over and whispered something to Cain. Dear lord, did I want to know what he said. For a girl who didn’t usually cry, those tears burned my eyes awfully quickly.
Suddenly, Cain rose on his feet, the team flooded back on the field but everyone’s eyes were still on us. The game hadn’t started back up yet either. Like everyone waited with me to see what he was going to do.
Walking toward me, it was like watching a synchronized swimmer. Legs moved out of the way, letting him pass without obstruction until he stood large and beautiful in front of me. He got so close. I could smell his scent, clean and musky. He leaned one shoulder against the fence, shoving a hand in his pocket. Then took the other fingers to give a slight pull on the chain around my neck. The necklace he’d given me on Valentine’s Day. The half joke gift. He turned it over in his big fingers brushing the skin below my neck and lighting my entire body on fire. Then he spoke. His voice covered me like a warm blanket.
“So, this is supposed to make everything better?”
Shit.
“No.” Those tears were threatening to fall but no way were they winning on this one. “It’s supposed to be a start. I love you Cain and I want the chance to show you that.”
“I think you just did.”
“What?” It was a breath of a word.
His hands cupped my face and his lips were on mine, soft at first, then more demanding. When his tongue flicked my lips, coaxing my mouth open, which to be honest didn’t take much coaxing. His tongue filled my mouth urgently moving against mine, his hands gripping my face harder. I knew what this was. He claimed me as his and I let him. As things were about to get super inappropriate for public, he pulled back touching his forehead to mine.
“Painted woman?”
I barked out a laugh. “What? I said people needed to get more creative.”
Out of nowhere, the crowd warped back in and not a one of them were paying us any attention. Except Kendra, Adam, and Sam. Kendra’s head dropped onto Adam’s shoulder, his arm around her waist. Sam folded his arms across his chest and looked pretty smug. With no interest in the actual game, Cain led me by the hand out of the stadium.
In the parking lot, Sam patted Cain’s back three times…loudly.
“I’m so fucking glad you guys worked this out because seriously, I don’t think I could’ve lived with this s.o.b. much longer.”
“Fuck off.” Cain playfully pushed his best friend. “Adam could you give this asshole a ride?”
“Plenty of room.”
“Are we going somewhere?” I butted in. I hadn’t planned a thing beyond making a fool of myself.
“I think we need to talk about a few things.” Which was very last on the list of things I wanted to do. I wanted kissing, touching, time to take him in. But we did need to have a discussion.
He pulled the car out of its spot and we drove for who knows how long until he pulled into a park. I hadn’t been there before and it was completely deserted. He parked near a lamp post giving up us some light. I appreciated the light because I didn’t want to not be able to see him now that I could, not that I was allowed to look as much as I wanted to.
“So.” He sighed, turning the car off. We had mild enough weather that it would be awhile before we needed any heat. “What don’t I know?”
Shrugging, I said, “I think you know everything.” His gaze turned hard, pushing for the details. “Ok, um, I had to get a doctor to certify my virginity. Which means if we are ever together I couldn’t promise I’d be any good but I could promise I’d be tight.” Banking on the fact that he’d take what I said with the humor I intended it, the payoff came when he tried to fight a smile from taking over his face. He wanted to laugh, I could tell. “I got on the pill for extra, extra protection.”
“Who was it?”
“I never got a name.” He flinched. “I would have when I met him but all I know is that it was some forty-seven year old flying in from somewhere.”
“That’s disgusting.” I couldn’t disagree. The idea of being with someone old enough to be my father didn’t exactly fill me with joy. “Anything else?”
“Not that I can think of.”
“Ok.” Cain turned his entire body toward me. “I kinda feel like I need to kiss you some more if you don’t mind.”
I lunged. Didn’t even give myself the chance to answer but climbed across the center console into his arms. And kiss me he did. The of a man who thought he’d never kiss me again. Urgent, full of need. Enough to steam up the windows in minutes. Yes, he had to push me away at some point because there I wouldn’t be the one to break the kiss. My head swam, my equilibrium thrown off. I hadn’t realized during the kiss my hand wandered south to his man-part already testing the strength of the denim in his jeans. Which is why he pushed me away.
“Obviously, that’s not happening right now.” His eyes said he wanted that statement to not be true. I stuck my bottom lip out to pout which only made his body shake with laughter. “Soon. If that’s what you want.”
“If that’s what I want? You’re kidding me right? You have no idea.”
To be on the safe side for the night, he got us out of the solitude of the park and back around other people outside my dorm. We still kissed for a while, the heavy make-out type session high schoolers had before being caught by their parents. But being out in the open ensured it would go no further. And somewhere in the back of my mind I thought it possible that he chose the location on purpose. Lots of students passed by us. Word would get out that we were together again.
Chapter Twenty-Five
We spent the week falling back into being a couple. We saw each other every day, texted into the night and did nothing more than a lot of intense kissing. I couldn’t be happier that he still loved me. The Friday after our reconciliation, and only one week before finals, we planned a date. Like before. I’d missed hanging out with him more than anything.
Since the weather officially turned into spring in Michigan, warm enough during the day then cooling into the night, I went with skinny jeans, my trusty Converse sneakers, and a cool t-shirt that made my breasts look bigger than they were. Throwing a hoodie on and zipping it, I realized I had no idea what our plans were. I could’ve been completely underdressed but I thought Cain would’ve told me if I needed something more dressed up. Right?
“Hey, Flannery,” Ava called out. “Your ride’s here.”
My ride? Cain wasn’t my ride, he was my date. I hadn’t used the word boyfriend yet but it absolutely fit him. There could be no doubt about that. Course once I grabbed my purse and hit the light in my room, I found out it wasn’t Cain waiting for me.
“What’re you doing here?” I asked.
“I was out and Cain called asking if I could pick you up,” Sam said, looking around our dorm room. He’d never been over that I could remember.
“Um, ok. Did he say why?”
“Nope.”
&
nbsp; I got pretty suspicious the way he answered. “Do you know why?”
“I know lots of things, Flannery.”
Cryptic asshole. But I went with him anyway. This time when I got into Sam’s big truck, I could do it myself since now I had no injuries.
“You do know what they say about guys and their cars, right? How it’s an extension of their manhood. So if it’s big and flashy they’re trying to compensate for other shortcomings.”
His loud laugh made me smile. “Trust me. It’s not an issue in this case. I can prove it if you want me to.”
“Gross.”
“You brought it up.”
Sam and I sort of clicked when we first met but his help in getting Cain back brought us even closer. Though the ride only took about ten minutes, I used every opportunity to playfully cut him down. Then he’d try to one up me. And the whole thing ended with us laughing so hard we could hardly breathe. Especially when he said that a virgin wouldn’t know now, would she? It earned him a hard smack to the back of the head.
Inside the apartment, I found out why Cain asked Sam to pick me up. He had dinner spread across the coffee table and everything looked fantastic. He’d ordered pizza from the place we went on our first date, in fact the best place in town. There were plates and a salad I wanted to dive into. To complete everything, diet pop and glasses were on the far end. I was hungry, too.
Sam disappeared as soon as we arrived as Cain came out from the kitchen with napkins.
“So, I’ve got a couple of movies to choose from,” Cain said after kissing me. “I figured a night in might be more relaxing then a night out since we both have to study for finals next week.”
“Perfect.”
I chose the movie, something he always let me do since knowing I wasn’t going to put in some overly romantic chic-flick. This time we watched a comedy first with all of its inappropriate jokes which may have been the wrong choice since pop threatened to snort out my nose more than once. After dinner got all cleaned up, we snuggled down on the couch to the rare dramatic movie he actually wanted to see. He laid on his back with me on my side next to him, his arm encasing me in a warm, safe cocoon.
For most people it might have been a tear-jerker but I couldn’t find it in me. Even before I didn’t usually cry at movies but in our time apart, I’d cried so much at my reality that fiction couldn’t compete.
Halfway through, Sam tossed something solid out his bedroom door. It thudded heavily against the wall then his door slammed a little too loudly. Like he wanted to warn us he was coming. I smiled and shook my head against Cain’s chest.
“So, I’m headed out. I should be back sometime Sunday,” Sam said, grabbing his cell phone and keys off the small table by the door.
“Where are you going?” I asked. Cain didn’t which made me think he already knew.
“The rents went to New York for the weekend which means, I get to babysit the triple terrors. Mom and Dad don’t want them home alone over the weekend.”
“That sounds great.” I let the sarcasm drip from every word. His sisters were high energy I didn’t know how he could stand it.
“Yeah. Don’t do anything too weird while I’m gone,” he grinned over his shoulder. The only thing I could get my hands on was a throw pillow. I threw it as hard as I could. It bounced off the side of his head.
“We’ll be sure to miss you then.” I rolled my eyes obviously, making sure he could see it.
“Aww, Flannery.” His cheeky grin warned that I wouldn’t like what he was about to say. “I had no idea you felt that way. I mean, I figured you always wanted to get with me and Cain was always in the way. I’ll be back in two days if you want to start—”
“Please don’t make me kill you.” Cain pinched the bridge of his nose. His tone screamed playful but I loved what he said. I’m not sure what that says about me but I liked his protectiveness.
Once Sam shut the door behind him and I slumped back comfortably next to Cain, I needed to kiss him. Up on my elbow I went. His eyes were already on me when my mouth found his.
His tongue touched my lips almost before I made contact. It accepted the invitation given to enter. His hand slid up my side until it wrapped around the back of my neck and fingers tangled into the hair at the nape. With hands large enough to cover a lot of area, his thumb caressed my cheek as the kiss deepened. His lips were velvet smooth as they moved against mine, stealing my breath and making me pant like a freaking dog.
It could’ve been hours, it could’ve been minutes. Time ceased to exist until I absolutely had to pull back to breathe. Even then his teeth nipped my bottom lip, holding it before letting me go. He didn’t stop there. Lips traveled across my cheek until finding the tender spot under my earlobe, where he kissed, nipped, and sucked the lobe into his mouth. Then they traveled down my neck finding my collarbone. I sighed at the contact.
With quick reflexes, he flipped me over onto my back, him on top settling between my legs. I wanted more than anything for him to keep going, though doubted he would. Why we hadn’t sealed the deal already, I didn’t know. For whatever reason, he wanted to keep me waiting.
“Have I mentioned how good your ass looks in these jeans?”
It was surprisingly erotic. “Not recently.”
“Well, it does. Almost as good as it looks out of them.” My whole body tightened not believing, but hoping, he’d keep going. “If you’re agreeable, I’d really like to see it out of the jeans again.”
Fucking finally. My voice wouldn’t work. I could only nod and it was all the encouragement he needed. But I didn’t expect him to get off me.
“What’re you doing?” It sounded like a whimper, which it probably was.
“We’re not doing this out here. Not for our first time together and not for your first time ever. Come on.”
A quick tug on my hand got me up and walking behind him and right through the door to his room. He shut the door and locked it. I raised an eyebrow. We were alone after all.
“You never know,” he said.
He only had the soft light from the lamp on his desk on in his room. It wasn’t much but enough we’d be able to see what we were doing. My stomach dropped. I wanted this to happen, wanted to be with him, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous as all hell. I had no idea what I was doing and suddenly my brain became overrun with all the ways I could mess it up. He knew.
“Calm down, Flannery,” he whispered softly in my ear. The rush of air sent a shiver to my toes before he led me over to the bed.
Lying down with my head on the pillows, he came back hovering above with his lips claiming mine again. He pushed me close to the edge with those kisses, I wasn’t sure I’d be able to handle much more. But I wanted to find out.
Cain pulled me up long enough to yank my shirt off. Then kissed down my neck to the point where my bra met my skin. Nuzzling in the valley between, his voice came out softly. I thought I was hearing things.
“You know I love you, right?”
“Yes.” The word was a breath of anticipation and need.
“Good.” Then he went back to work.
My back arched allowing him to slip his hands underneath to unsnap my bra in the way experienced guys could without looking. It became lost in the dark oblivion on the floor. His hands ran over my body. Cupping my breasts, his thumbs ran over both nipples bringing them right to attention before he claimed them with his mouth. Every part of me was his.
I lost myself in the warmth of his mouth for a minute before recovering enough to bunch the fabric of his shirt in my fists. It needed to go. Even with shaking hands it came off easily. The feel of his skin on mine was exhilarating, my softness against his hard. We’d been there before but this time it would be different. This time I knew we weren’t going to stop.
Due to the nature of skinny jeans, I had to help shimmy myself out of them. My socks went too. There I laid before him in panties and nothing else, the small scrap of material being the only thing giving any of th
e modesty I no longer wanted. I’d surprised myself by how not nervous I became. As if Cain was a mind reader because his body slid down mine. Hands leaving waves of pleasure in their wake as the pink panties slid until his thumbs found their way inside the elastic. His lips never left my skin. Wet, warm kisses marked me from my throat to my hips.
“Cain.” His name came out like a moan because seriously, he was killing me.
That one word was enough to make the panties fly across the room. In Florida, things almost got NC-17, this time it definitely went there. First his tongue found that magical spot to make me melt. I liked the sound of his heavy breaths, the way it caressed me causing goose bumps. Gathering an ounce of courage, I looked down at him and found him watching me from the very personal vantage point between my legs. There was a different look in his eyes. One I wanted to see again and again. One that turned me into putty in his hands.
Every muscle in my body frazzled, sparked, felt like they caught on fire as Cain worked his magic and I became convinced his hands and tongue were a gift. His fingers explored tentatively. Touching but not entering very far, just the tip. Enough to work me up even more. I wanted to push myself down on him but didn’t. I decided to let him take the lead as the more experienced tour guide. When I thought I would explode, he stopped, kissing his way back up my stomach.
Trying to work my own brand of magic, I found it wasn’t actually necessary when my fingers popped the button on his jeans to be met with his erection, bigger and harder in anticipation of where we were headed. I groaned. He’d told me once that the noises I made drove him insane. It must’ve been true because as soon as I did, his pants disappeared. Naked flesh to naked flesh…we were chartering new territory.
After he used his fingers to ensure I was ready in all senses of the word, he settled back between my legs.
“Are you still—”
“Yes.” I didn’t need him to finish the question to know he was checking on birth control. He’d told me once that no matter what he always dove in with a raincoat, i.e. wore a condom. It was non-negotiable. We hadn’t talked about it since and I trusted him with everything. I knew he wouldn’t do anything to put me at risk.
Up for Grabs (Up For Grabs #1) Page 18