Where I Belong (Alabama Summer)

by Daniels, J.

  His arm is draped across my waist, his slow, steady breathing in my hair as I glance at the alarm clock on his nightstand. 10:14 a.m. I can’t believe I slept over. At a stranger’s house. A complete stranger. Well, not complete. He’s the only man that knows my body the way I want them to. And sweet Jesus does he know it. Plus, it felt natural to cuddle up next to him and fall asleep on his chest. It was almost intimate, our experience. It was hot as hell but also sweet. He was gentle with each new position, constantly asking if I was okay before he took me to that depth of passion and fucking owned me. And I felt his affection deep within me. But I pretended I didn’t. This wasn’t supposed to mean anything other than a hot fling.

  His warm body was pressed up against mine the entire night, our legs a tangled mess under the covers. The intoxicating aroma of his scent filled my lungs and it was slowly becoming the only air I wanted to breathe. Nothing had ever smelt that divine. Complete manly deliciousness. I wished I could keep him.

  I slip out from underneath his arm and scramble around the bed, picking up my dress and panties. After dressing and using the bathroom, I step into my heels and grab my clutch.

  “Hey.” His sexy morning voice grabs my attention as I’m about to sneak out of his room. “Come here, pretty girl.” He props one hand behind his head, holding his other out to me. He looks positively adorable in that just woken up way, his hair sticking out a bit and his eyes still sleepy. I walk over to the bed and take his hand, bringing it up to my lips for a kiss. He smiles, weakening my knees with his dimples. “That’s my move, isn’t it?”

  “I gotta go.” I go to release his hand but he tightens his grip. “You’re trouble, you know that? I have places to be.”

  His cell phone rings from the nightstand, forcing him to release my hand with a disapproving grunt. “Stay with me a little while longer. What’s the rush?” The phone continues to ring in his hand as he waits for my response.

  “I can’t.” I lean down and brush my lips against his, the ringtone finally fading out. And then I start toward the door which is an extremely difficult task. Every ounce of my being wants to stay with this man, if only just to talk to him.

  “Wait, damn it. At least tell me your name.” His phone starts ringing again, having been ignored the first time.

  “Thank you for last night. I’ll never forget you.”

  I allow myself one last look before I slip out of his bedroom. His eyes are sad, pleading even, and I can’t keep looking or I’m going to crack. I turn and leave before I weaken even more. And I know I’ll never forget him. He was amazing, and exactly what I wanted my first time to be like. A beautiful memory. That’s exactly what he’ll be.

  Chapter Three

  Ben

  “Jesus Christ. What?” My voice gives away my mood and I’m hoping this phone call is brief. I need to get some sleep. I barely got any last night, but that was well worth it. Really fucking worth it.

  “Well good morning to you too,” my sister snaps. She’s my only sister, but she’s all over the place sometimes with her personality that it feels like there’s twenty of her. “What are you doing right now? You busy?” Her voice softens, the snippiness gone and quickly replaced with the tone she uses when she wants something.

  “I could’ve been if you wouldn’t have interrupted me.” I grab the pillow my nameless angel used last night, bringing it up to my face. Christ, she smelled good. Like berries and cream. “What do you want, Tessa?”

  “Can you come over here and clean the pool? Every time I try to use that stupid vacuum thing, it always jams up on me.” I hear her breathy pause, knowing that the begging is about to start. “Please, Ben. It’s hot as hell outside and when Mia gets here, I want to be able to spend the rest of the day in the pool with her. Please, please, please.”

  Mia Fucking Corelli. The most annoying girl that’s ever lived.

  I completely forgot she was spending the summer with Tessa. Last time I saw her, she was an irritating fourteen-year-old. She and Tessa followed me around like damn puppies, always wanting to do what I was doing. And the fact that she practically lived at my house didn’t help much. She was always around.

  I toss the pillow I’d been inhaling to the end of the bed. “Why the hell don’t you just stay inside with her? I’m not in the mood to spend an hour cleaning out a damn pool.”

  “Oh, come on, Ben. You owe me and you know it. Besides, I’d rather have you and Mia get your awkward greetings out of the way so she can relax a little.”

  “What does that mean?” I get up and start getting dressed, holding the phone between my ear and my shoulder. I don’t know what awkward greeting she’s referring to. It wouldn’t be awkward. It’ll be brief. Really brief. I have no desire to spend any time with that train wreck.

  “You know exactly what that means. She’s nervous as shit about coming back here because of you.” The sound of the sliding glass door opening and closing comes through the phone. “Christ, it’s already a thousand degrees out here.” She sighs and it’s dramatic even though it doesn’t have to be. I know what she’s getting at. “If only I had a big brother who did nice things for me. Nice things that are well deserved after all the last minute favors I’ve done for him over the years.”

  “Alright, Jesus.” I zip up my shorts and grab a clean T-shirt from my dresser. “I’ll be over there in an hour.”

  Her shriek causes me to bring the phone away to a safer distance. I return it to my ear when her excitement dies down. “You’re the best brother ever. But can you be over sooner? She’s on her way over here now.”

  “An hour. I’ve got my own shit to do today too, you know.” Girls to track down and hopefully get their name.

  I don’t miss the slight grunt she gives me before responding. “Fine. Thanks, Ben.”

  Hanging up the phone, I tuck it into my pocket and grab her pillow one more time. Wait. Her pillow? Christ, get a hold of yourself. I’ve had my fair share of one-night stands and never, never let the girls spend the night. But this one was different. I was prepared to tie her to my bed if she tried to leave last night. I inhale and let her scent run through me, feeling it hit me deep in my gut. Never taken a girl’s virginity before. That was intense. I really didn’t think she was one, not with a body like that and the way she was flirting with me at the bar. Sucking and biting my thumb like a fucking temptress. But her reaction to the sex we had and the blood stain on my sheets definitely confirms that she was, in fact, a virgin. Tossing the pillow to the floor, I wrap up my sheets and walk them into the laundry room. I like the stain. No, I fucking love the stain. Knowing that she gave me something that nobody else will ever have. A part of her that I can hold on to since she didn’t give me anything else. Not even a fucking name.

  I walk back into my room to slip on my shoes. Why wouldn’t she tell me her name? What’s the big deal? I get the whole casual hook up thing. No strings. No expectations. But I always know the name of the chick I’m banging, or at least the name they give me. It could be made up for all I know, considering that I’ve never pursued anything else with them after we’ve had one night together. But this chick, hell I’d like multiple nights with her. Weeks even. She wasn’t just an amazing lay, the best I’ve ever had, with a pussy I could eat for hours and tits that’ll occupy all my fantasies until the day I die. She was more than that. She was sweet and funny, with this laugh that I wanted to hear more of. Her whole face lit up when she laughed. I wanted to make her smile again, to see those full lips part and spread across her face. And the way she looked at me with those big brown eyes, so dark I could get lost in them. Plus, she fucking knew what I wanted last night without me having to ask. I need control and she gave it to me, but she also pushed back when I pushed her. When I bit her body, she cried out for more. When I rode her until I thought my spine was going to snap in half, she demanded harder. She met me in the middle and gave as well as she took. It was wild perfection. A beautiful chaos. She was my match in the bedroom and I let her slip away
without giving me a name.

  The fuck? I should’ve spanked her and demanded she give it to me.

  I inhale the pillow that’s been pressed to my face for a good several minutes. Next to her pussy, it’s the best thing I’ve ever smelt. It dulls my senses like a drug. I’m high on her and I’m pissed that it won’t last. I grab my keys and toss the pillow onto the bed. Never washing that pillow case. Never.

  The back roads leading away from my house are empty, which disappoints me. I was hoping her car would’ve broken down or by some miracle she would’ve gotten a flat tire and not known how to change it. Most girls don’t, my sister included. But knowing my luck, she can probably change a tire faster than me and went on her way back to Georgia or wherever she was headed. Just passing through were her words. To where? She’s obviously from Georgia and I have to hope that she’ll be making her way back through Ruxton when she’s ready to return there, or if she’s already headed that way that she’ll want to pass through here again. And if there is a God, I’d see her again. And I will get that fucking name if it kills me.

  I pull up around back at my parents’ house and park my truck in the hardened mud. Nobody parks back here besides me, but that’s only because my truck is the only vehicle that won’t get stuck. Tessa’s car has had to be towed out of the muddy terrain back here several times when she’s tried to prove that her Rav 4 rallies mine in off-roading capabilities. She’s smartened up and wisely parks on the driveway now.

  Walking through the grass, I spot two pair of legs bent on lawn chairs next to the pool, both forming an upside down V. My sister’s are a dead giveaway, considering she tans out here daily. The other pair contrasts against hers like the dark hair against my sheets last night. Fuck. Not the time to get a hard on. Don’t think about her. I stroll around the pool and over toward the two girls, stopping next to Tessa. Both girls have their faces covered with beach towels, but that’s not what I’m looking at. My eyes are glued to what can’t possibly be Mia Corelli’s body. No fucking way. So much for not getting hard.

  “Ben! Jesus Christ, you scared the shit outta me.” Tessa sits up and drops her towel into her lap and I notice Mia’s body tense up in her chair. Her hands fist on the towel she’s lying on like she’s ready to knock my ass out at any second. “I thought you said an hour? I just got off the phone with you twenty minutes ago.”

  “Yeah, well unfortunately, my plans escaped me.” I turn my attention to the tight little body wrapped so perfectly in that yellow bikini. “Mia, it’s nice to see you again.”

  “Humph,” she replies.

  I chuckle. Damn. Okay if that’s how she wants to play this. “You look a lot different since the last time I saw you. Still wear those nerdy glasses?” Tessa’s foot connects with my thigh and I grunt. “Ow. What?”

  “You’re an asshole,” Tessa snaps. “Mia, ignore him. He’s just mad that he hasn’t gotten laid in three months.”

  I move in front of the chairs, giving myself a better view of Mia but making sure to keep my eyes on my sister’s at the moment. “Fuck you. I just got laid last night for your information. And she was incredible.”

  “Humph,” Mia mumbles again.

  I step to the side of her chair, putting her gorgeous body right under my nose. Her tits are insane, full and barely wrapped up in the tiny piece of fabric. I want to shake the man’s hand that created this bikini. It was meant for this body. “Is my sex life amusing to you, Mia? Because if you’d really like to see what I can do, I’ll take you right here on this lawn chair. I’ll make you scream until your voice breaks.”

  “No thanks. I, like you, got laid last night and am good for several months. Years even. My pussy is still humming after getting worked with that mouth of his.”

  Her response is muffled by the towel but I definitely hear the word pussy. And my cock hears it too.

  “Dayyyyum,” Tessa chuckles.

  I place my hand on her knee, gripping it softly. She tenses. “I bet I can work it better than him.” My hand slides down her thigh, painfully slowly. Barely moving at all. Her skin is smooth and warm. She stops me with hers when I reach mid-thigh. “I’ll make you ride my face until you’re begging for my cock.”

  “Jesus Chr…” She sits up mid-sentence, the towel dropping somewhere that I can’t seem to focus on. Because I can only focus on the face that can’t possibly be Mia Corelli. “You? Ben? Ben! Oh God. Oh my God.”

  “Holy shit.” I’m shocked. Completely shocked. It’s her. Mia Corelli is her. What the fuck are the odds? “Mia I…” She quickly gets to her feet, her hips swaying as she storms toward the house. “Mia, wait up!” I yell, starting after her until Tessa puts her tiny frame in front of me and blocks me.

  “What the hell was that? Did you really just tell Mia that you’d make her ride your face? You’re lucky she didn’t deck you.”

  My sister is small so I can look over the top of her with no problem, and doing so I see Mia slide the door shut behind her. “It’s complicated. Move so I can go after her.” Not that I couldn’t move her myself, but if that happened, she’d just climb onto my back like she liked to do when I shoved her out of the way, and I needed Mia alone.

  Her hands curl up into fists at her hips. “How is it complicated? You made her uncomfortable, like you always do, because you’re an asshole.”

  I’m getting impatient. I grip Tessa’s shoulders and firmly plant her in her lawn chair. “Give me a few minutes with her. I’m not going to hurt her, I promise. I just want to talk to her.” My voice is sincere and Tessa knows it.

  Her shoulders relax and she scoots back on her chair, resuming her favorite tanning position. “Five minutes. And if she’s crying when I come in there, I’m keying your precious baby.”

  Nice threat. Keying my truck would be a way to cut me deep, but there’ll be no need for that. Mia wouldn’t be crying. I’d never make her cry. If I could fucking find her. I’m roaming the house, listening for any clues of where she might be, but dead silence fills the space. “Mia? Baby, please let me talk to you.”

  I hear a door open and she emerges from the hallway, her eyes reddened and streaked with tears. “Don’t call me that. How dare you say those things to me out there?” Our legs bring us together but she pushes against my chest, not liking the closeness our bodies seem to crave. “I can’t believe this! I can’t believe it was you last night. This can’t be happening.” Tears run down her face and I wipe them away before she can reach up and stop me.

  “I can’t believe it either. But fuck, Mia, if this isn’t the luckiest day of my life.” I bring my hands up to her face and hold her there, feeling her shudder against me. “I haven’t been able to stop thinking about you all morning. Last night was—”

  “A mistake,” she interrupts curtly. Her hands pry mine from her face and she turns her body, staring out the window. “A huge mistake. If I’d have known it was you, it wouldn’t have happened. I’m sure you know that by now.”

  “It wasn’t a mistake.” I move closer to her, bending to put my nose into her hair. Fuck. Nothing smelled this good. I’ll never get enough of it. “Something like that could never be a mistake. What you gave me. What we shared. Mia, I’ve never…” I pause, needing to choose my words carefully. “I felt it last night. Tell me you felt it too.” My hands run down her arms and the fact that she is still in her tiny bikini is making my dick harder than it’s ever been. “Baby, please.” Please back up into me. Please move my hands to your breasts. Please turn around and beg me to fuck you right here. I’ve never felt so completely geared up and so ready to unravel at the same time. But that’s definitely how I am feeling right now. Like I could snap at the slightest crook of her finger.

  She moves quickly out of my grasp toward the hallway she just emerged from. “I didn’t feel anything. And it was a mistake, Ben. A huge mistake.” Her eyes reach mine with regret once more and I swear that there are tears in them again. “You can’t stop ruining my life, can you?”

  I watch her
disappear, unable to reply. Ruining her life? Fuck me. A door slams down the hallway just as the sliding glass door opens. Tessa looks at me with raised eyebrows and I motion toward the direction Mia fled to.

  “I have a feeling that I’m going to want to punch you, so you might want to leave before your face and your truck get mangled.”

  Instead of responding, I walk past her and make my way back out to my truck. My mind is scrambled and my heart feels like Tessa has taken her keys to it. The girl of my dreams turned out to be Mia fucking Corelli. What the fuck? She’s not passing through for a while, not for several months. She’s here. My angel is here for the whole summer and she wants nothing to do with me.

  Chapter Four

  Mia

  “Well, I did not see this coming. Not in a million years.” Tessa slumps down on the bed I’ve been curled up on after I shared my naughty little secret with her. She paced during that run down, her jaw hitting the floor the moment I said I lost my virginity to her brother. “This. Is. Crazy. I mean, first of all, I had no idea you were still a virgin. Fuck you very much for not telling me. Although I’m not sure I would’ve believed you, considering what you look like.”

  I smile weakly at her compliment. “Yeah, well, I wish I still was. I can’t believe I was stupid enough to not ask his name last night. This shit could’ve been easily avoided.” Because there’s no way I would’ve went through with it if I’d have known that mouth belonged to Ben fucking Kelly. The boy that made me cry daily for five years. The boy that made me feel insignificant. The boy I hated.

  “I don’t really see what the big deal is here. In fact, I think it’s pretty fucking awesome.” She moves up the bed and places her head on the pillow next to mine. “How was it anyway? Did you come?”