Nolan Trilogy

by Selena Kitt

  His hips ground hard, fast, as he plunged into her, his tongue shoving its way into her mouth. She gripped his shoulders, her nails digging into his flesh as he fucked her, her legs spread wide and hips lifting to meet him. There was no stopping him—he was like a driving force, something possessed, and she was completely taken by it.

  Her muscles clamped around him involuntarily, making him moan against her mouth, and she liked that so she did it again, harder this time. He broke the kiss when she did it once more, drawing him in even deeper.

  “Brat,” he whispered into her ear, pressing her to the bed with the full weight of him, grinding on her, into her, the wet sound of their sex filling the room. “God you feel so fucking good, sweetheart.”

  “Yes,” she whispered, biting his earlobe, raking her nails across his back. “Fuck me, Rob. Fuck me hard!”

  He groaned, driving harder into her flesh, and she squeezed around him again and again, trying to milk him. She felt him holding back and smiled, knowing that feeling, loving it.

  “Don’t you want it?” She slid her hands down and grabbed him, feeling the hard muscles of his behind working. “Don’t you want to shoot it all inside me?”

  “Fuck,” he groaned, and she felt him start to slow, so she squeezed her muscles faster, clamping down like a hot, wet vise around his shaft, again and again. “Ohhh, sweetheart, don’t, I can’t stop it...”

  “Yessss,” Leah purred, working her hips up against him, fucking him back, wanting it. “Fill me, Rob. I want it! Fill me!” That sent him over, hammering and howling and biting her neck as he sent white hot jets of fluid deep into her flesh. She felt it surging up the underside of him as he came, his whole body jerking and straining with it. He collapsed onto her, panting, and she smiled, stroking his hair, kissing his damp cheek.

  “Oh, Leah.” He turned his head to kiss her. “I can’t get enough of you.”

  “I know.” She snuggled up to him and pulled the covers up over them both as they drifted off together.

  She didn’t know what time it was when she thought she heard someone crying. Leah jolted awake, not remembering where she was, that strange sense of waking somewhere unfamiliar disorienting her until she saw one of those new-fangled digital clocks on the hotel nightstand. It was 3:12 a.m. and she definitely heard someone crying.

  “Erica?” Leah whispered, hearing her friend sniff. “Are you okay?”

  Erica drew a shaky breath. “I’m fine.”

  “Are you hurt?” Leah whispered, trying to make out her outline in the dimness, but the pitch black of the hotel room made it impossible. “Is it your sunburn?”

  “No.” She was quiet for a moment and then she said, “I guess I’m just... confused.”

  “Oh.” Leah could almost feel the silence, and she wondered if Erica had just pretended to be asleep earlier—if she had heard them. “Well... do you want me to come over there?”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Yeah.” Leah pulled the covers back and shivered as she crossed the distance between the two beds, climbing in and letting Erica turn her back to Leah, pulling her arm over her. Leah smiled, snuggling in close and curling herself around her. “Better?” She kissed her friend’s cheek and felt her nod.

  Leah was drifting off when Erica whispered, “Bobby asked me to marry him.”

  “What?” Leah startled, blinking at her in the darkness.

  “He asked me to marry him.” Erica turned in her arms to face her. “And I said yes.”

  “Erica...” Leah’s voice caught. “What about… I mean...”

  “He said he was sorry.” Erica touched her cheek. “He loves me, Leah. He does, I know he does.”

  “Okay.” What else could she say? If Erica forgave him, she would have to.

  It was quiet for a moment and she felt Erica’s shoulders shaking.

  “Are you okay?”

  “Leah,” Erica whispered in the dark, reaching for her. Leah held her, they held each other, and Leah felt Erica’s face wet with tears. “I can’t do this anymore. No more.”

  Leah froze in the darkness, swallowing hard. “What do you mean?”

  Erica drew a shaky breath, turning away. Leah kept her in the circle of her arms, but Erica’s body was stiff, cold.

  “You’re sleeping with my dad.” Erica stated the obvious and Leah shrank from the raw truth of it. “This is just… it’s so wrong. This isn’t sinful, it’s… it’s… evil.”

  “I can’t help it,” Leah said, feeling desperate.

  “Don’t you think we’re going to be punished?” she hissed.

  “Who’s going to punish us?” Leah swallowed, shaking her head, wanting to deny it. “Your dad? My mom?”

  Erica sighed. “God.”

  The weight of it made Leah close her eyes and silently say a little prayer of forgiveness. She knew it was wrong. Her whole life had become filled with sin.

  So why did it feel so good?

  “Can’t we go back?” Erica turned to Leah, her voice soft, pleading. “Can’t we go back to the way it was before?”

  Before.

  Before I fell in love.

  The man sleeping across the room was the best thing that had ever happened to her, and Leah knew Erica was asking her to give him up. How could she? Leah’s heart burned at the thought of it, but feeling Erica trembling with silent sobs, holding back tears, trying not to show her how hurt she was by all of it… she couldn’t stand that either. He might be the best thing that had happened to her in her life, but Erica… she was her best friend, had been since… well, since forever.

  Leah nodded, pressing her forehead against Erica’s neck. “We can. I promise. We will.”

  She made that promise in the darkness, listening to Rob—Mr. Nolan—snoring softly across from them, totally unaware. And since Leah had told her exactly what she wanted to hear, Erica happily snuggled close in her friend’s arms while Leah’s heart shattered in her chest, sending shards of pain, bright like quicksilver, traveling through her veins.

  Chapter Fifteen

  He cornered her, finally, on the upper deck of the Boblo boat on the trip home. She’d managed to avoid him the whole day, sticking like Silly Putty to Erica’s side on the cruise to the island. Once they got to the amusement park, they rode all of the rides together with Bobby and Buddy. Leah thought she was going to die. She might as well be dead, watching Mr. Nolan’s bewildered face as he followed them around the park, Leah going out of her way to evade him.

  She knew, after the first hour or so, she wasn’t going to be able to keep it up. She was too weak and backsliding. Leah was going to give in to her baser desires, betray her best friend, and end up kissing her best friend’s father behind some midway game, breaking the promise she’d made.

  It was Sister Frances who saved her, like a sign from God, recruiting Mr. Nolan to babysit a group of first graders whose chaperone had gotten sick, leaving the four of them to their own devices, while he took the little ones on the teacups and flying scooters and through the petting zoo. Leah put on the brightest face she could muster, but she couldn’t eat anything at all, in spite of the availability of all the good-smelling carnival food—she felt too sick inside to even consider it.

  When Erica and Bobby started making out on the upper deck on the boat ride home—Buddy had hooked up with some girl from another school and they were below decks—Leah excused herself to use the bathroom. But instead, she walked the edges of the deck, hand trailing on the railing of the boat as it took them down the Detroit River, back toward home, finding herself at the stern, where the sun was setting, a fiery bloom over the Canadian side.

  That’s where Rob found her, leaning on the railing, letting the wind dry her tears. He leaned there too, his arm brushing hers. They didn’t speak, but when she shivered, he took off his jacket and put it around her shoulders.

  “I’m sorry.” She sniffed, not looking at him.

  “For what?”

  Leah blinked back tears. “Avoiding you.”


  “I hadn’t noticed.”

  She looked over at him, seeing his teasing smile, and she smiled back, unable to help herself.

  “I was working up to… to ending things… with you...” she confessed, her voice cracking, betraying the pain she felt at the thought. “But I can’t. I just can’t.”

  “Oh, Leah.” He sighed.

  “I don’t want to go home.” She turned to look at him, seeing only his profile, the set of his jaw, his hair blowing back in the wind.

  When he faced her, standing and holding his arms out, she went to him without a second thought to who might be watching, letting him enfold her as he whispered against her cheek, “I know.”

  Of course, he had no idea that she meant forever.

  She didn’t want to lose him.

  She didn’t want to choose.

  “Don’t make me.” She rested her cheek against his chest.

  “It’s not up to me.” He stroked her hair.

  “Well who is it up to then?”

  “I don’t have any answers, Leah.”

  “I want to go home with you.” She looked up at him, not believing her own daring, but there they were.

  His thumb traced the line of her jaw and he shook his head. “I don’t know.”

  “Why not?” Her eyes searched his. “You said you loved me.”

  “I do, Leah.” He touched her lips with his fingertips. “More than I should, more than I knew I could. I can’t stop thinking about you. I can’t stop wanting you. I can’t stop... I just can’t...”

  “I know.” She felt tears welling up in her eyes. Why had she promised Erica? What had she done? “I can’t either. So why do we keep trying to stop?”

  “I don’t understand it.” He shook his head. “I wish I knew why, how. It’s like there’s something so right about it in the midst of everything that looks so wrong from the outside.”

  “It’s not wrong!” Leah insisted. “Don’t you see? I’m old enough to know what I want!”

  He didn’t smile or placate her, which she thought for sure he would. Instead, he leaned down and kissed her, right there in public, his lips soft and full and warm, his arms wrapping her up tight.

  “I can’t fight it anymore,” he whispered against her cheek, her neck. She felt his arms trembling, his voice shaking. “And there’s only one way to do this. You have to marry me.”

  “What?” Her heart took off, soaring in her chest. “What?”

  She forgot everything she’d promised Erica as she cupped his face in her hands, searching his eyes for the truth and finding it.

  “Is that a proposal?” she croaked.

  “Is that a yes?” He smiled as she planted kisses over his cheeks and chin and mouth and nose.

  “Yes! Yes! Yes!”

  He held her, letting her cover him with kisses, in spite of the way the little kids looked at them with big eyes, in spite of the fact Sister Frances was goggle-eyed at the sight.

  “And listen, about New York...” He tilted her chin up. “I’ve been looking at some apartments out there. Nice and roomy, skylights...”

  She gaped at him, incredulous. “But I haven’t even auditioned… I thought...”

  “You’ll make it in.” He laughed at the dazzled look in her eyes, wrapping her up in his arms and rocking her in them. “We’re crazy.”

  “My mother might just try to commit us both.”

  He groaned, squeezing her tight. “I forgot about Patty.”

  Leah snorted. “I wish I could.”

  “She won’t take it well.” He sighed. “I’ll talk to her, if you want.”

  “I’m more worried about Erica.”

  “What about me?” They both whirled around at the sound of Erica’s voice. She was standing behind them on the deck, hugging her arms, frowning.

  Leah cringed, turning her face away as Rob took Erica’s arm, leading her toward the side railing as he told her. She couldn’t hear anything, the wind carrying the sound away, but she saw Erica’s face fall and tears fill her eyes, and that was more than enough. She didn’t even glance Leah’s way after she jerked her arm from her father’s grip, turning around and storming in the other direction.

  “She’ll never forgive me.” Leah took his hand as he came back to her.

  He didn’t say anything, neither of them did, for the rest of the trip, but in spite of Erica’s reaction, he wrapped his arms around Leah’s waist and they stood there watching the sun set, the boat sliding through the water like it was riding on a river of fire, both of them feeling too much to speak in the wake of their decision.

  “Can I drive?” That was all Erica said when they got off the boat and her father handed her the keys. Their bags were already loaded into the car from their stay in the hotel. Leah climbed into the backseat, surprised when he joined her, pulling her cheek to his chest, tucking her head under his chin.

  Erica didn’t even look back at them in the rearview mirror. She’d already said her goodbyes to Bobby, and Leah couldn’t help wondering how much he knew. Closing her eyes, Leah listened to the thrumming of Rob’s heart, so full with love for him she could barely contain it.

  “Hey.” Erica reached into the back seat and poked her. Leah startled out of her doze, lifting her head off Rob’s lap, where she had ended up.

  “We’re here?” Rob leaned in toward the front seat.

  “You guys fell asleep.” Erica shrugged. She didn’t look happy.

  Leah sat rubbing her eyes and blinking in dimness. The sun was almost gone.

  “I’ll get the bags.” He got out of the car and went to the trunk. It was cooling off, the heat of the day completely gone now. The girls both got out to help him.

  Erica’s voice was cold as she grabbed her suitcase. “So where will you sleep?”

  “With me, Erica. She’ll be my wife,” her father replied.

  Leah was thinking about his bed—their bed—her body alive, prickling with excitement. She tried not to feel the cold silence emanating from Erica.

  “So... if you get married...” Erica went on, but her father interrupted her.

  “When, not if.” He slammed the trunk door.

  “Okay, when you get married...” Erica glanced at Leah, her eyes narrowing. “You’ll technically be my stepmother.”

  Leah smiled, trying to make it light. “You ready for that, Cinderella?”

  “This is all too weird for me.” Erica stormed up to the warehouse, going in and slamming the door behind her. They followed, but by then, Erica was in her room with the door closed.

  Leah carried her bag into the house, looking around the living room. It had always felt like home to her, but there was a newness to it now that she knew it really was home.

  “Should I call my mother tonight?” Leah asked quietly. “So she won’t worry?”

  “I’m afraid your mom is going to make a scene.” He sighed, sitting on the edge of the desk under the loft and kicking off his shoes.

  “I know.” Leah chewed on her cuticle, contemplating. “But what can she do? Technically, I’m an adult.”

  “I’ll call her in the morning.” He took her hand, leading her up the ladder to the loft. They quickly undressed, getting under the covers. It had been an exhausting two days.

  “Are you really going to talk to her?” Leah snuggled up next to him. He was just in his boxers, and she rested her cheek against his bare chest.

  “I will.” He nodded, staring up at the ceiling.

  “She’s going to be mad.” Leah traced circles around his navel with her fingernail.

  He squeezed her with one arm, leaning in to kiss the top of her head. “It’ll be okay.”

  “You promise?” She felt the weight of it now as they lay together in his bed. Erica had asked her to promise, and now here she was, asking one from him.

  Tilting her chin up, he kissed her. “I promise.”

  The kiss moved from a soft, reassuring thing to something deeper in just moments, their tongues meshing, her bod
y pressing itself against him like she had no control over it at all. Her hands found their way down to his boxers, rubbing his stiffening length through them from base to tip, pressing the head against his stomach.

  He groaned against her mouth when she slipped her hand under the material. “My God, Leah. I don’t know what it is about you.”

  She smiled, tugging at his shorts. “Is that a compliment?”

  “Definitely,” he murmured as she slipped down between his legs, pulling his boxers off and settling herself in front of his length. It was straight up already and she admired the gentle curve of it as she rested her head against his thigh.