“I wish you did, too.” My voice is barely audible. “Maybe then it would be different.”
“It can be different, Kia. You just have to stop being so damn stubborn and let me in!”
“I’m leaving again at the end of the summer. I’ll just break our hearts all over again.”
“Have you just listened to a damn word I’ve said? If it means I get to have you, I will follow you to New York and wherever the f**k you decide to go after that. I will follow you into the fiery pits of Hell if that’s what it takes to get you to stay!”
Something, and I have no idea what, makes me finally grab him. Maybe it’s the rawness in his voice. Maybe it’s the determination in his eyes, or maybe it’s the sliding of his hand into my hair.
My fingers wind around his neck, and I pull his face to mine, crashing our lips together. My whole body goes taut against his as he tightens his grip on me, his fingers digging into my back. I can feel my dress riding up as his teeth drag across my bottom lip, and I take a step backward, tugging him with me.
Reese’s tongue dives into my mouth and we keep moving backward until my back hits a tree. He slides his hand down my back and under my sundress, his fingers rough as they cup my ass. The bark of the tree scratches at me through the light material of my dress. I’m burning everywhere we’re touching, the heat grouping into a red hot pool between my shaky legs.
We break apart, both of us breathing heavily.
“You have about five f**king seconds to get inside your house before I throw you over my shoulder and put you into that treehouse.” His low voice goes right through me, reverberating down my spine, sending tingles with the mixed threat and promise.
One. I look into his eyes. Two. I breathe in deeply. Three. His hand twitches against me. Four. I lick my bottom lip.
Five.
Wordlessly, he lifts me up and over his shoulder. I wrap my body around him, holding on tightly, and he scales the ladder to my treehouse where he places me gently on the pile of pillows I keep here. My hair fans out as I fall back, and he leans over me, looking into my eyes. Amongst the heat is a spark of playfulness, but as I close my hands around his biceps that spark melts into the molten hazel staring at me.
“I warned you.” He mutters, lowering his face to mine. His lips kiss along my jaw to my ear and down my neck, changing from a feathery brush to hot, open-mouthed kisses that make my blood hum.
I push my head into the pillows as he moves further down, following the line of my dress. He adjusts himself so his hands are free and runs them up my thighs to my dress. It bunches as he slides it up my body, breaking our contact to pull it over my head. It gets tossed to the side carelessly as he moves his hands across my body, cupping my br**sts over my bra and easing down my sides.
He moves his mouth over the swell of my br**sts, his fingers probing my sides. They unclasp my bra, and he lets it fall away, closing his mouth around me and tugging softly on my nipple. I feel the tug right down to my core and gasp, arching my back into him, and he turns his attention to my other breast. Each flick of his tongue and close of his lips around me adds to the burning knot in my stomach.
My fingers sink into his hair and I pull him toward me, not bothering with being gentle. Our tongues mingle, and our teeth clash slightly as I force him into letting go because I need to.
His hand creeps inside my panties, and he teases me, running his fingers through the growing wetness there. He dips his fingers inside me, stroking in long, slow movements, and mimics the movements with his tongue. His thumb rubs against my clit with each of his movements, and I groan into his mouth. The steady movements keep up until I can’t take it anymore. The feel of our bodies pushing together makes me want him more, and I move my hand down and undo his jeans. He takes them and his boxers off with the help of my feet, and I pause.
“I don’t have…”
“Baby,” he whispers huskily, staring straight at me. “I’m a guy. I keep one in my wallet.”
My cheeks flame and he laughs under his breath, nudging my nose with his and swiping his mouth across mine. His fingers hook in the band of my panties, removing them swiftly. The sound of foil tearing reaches my ears, and a minute later, I feel him pushing at me as his tongue nudges at the seam of my lips. I open my legs wider and hook them around his waist, arching my back and neck as he slowly pushes into me.
I breathe in deeply against the slow burn I haven’t felt for so long, and he wraps his arms around my body, holding us together. Heat swamps my body, and our lips meet again, solid together as we move, and I shudder against him. His teeth graze my bottom lip, and I tilt my hips upwards. He moves deeper into me, making me grip his back tighter with every thrust of his hips.
My head lolls back, breaking the connection of our lips, and Reese buries his face into my neck, kissing me there.
Shivers. Tingles. Heat. That’s all I feel, all I am, when our bodies are together this way. These feelings consume me until I’m nothing but a quivering mess of clenching muscle and pure ecstasy.
They consume me, completely and utterly, until the only thing I haven’t let go of is the one who makes them happen.
CHAPTER 6
We haven’t spoke for two days.
Or rather, I haven’t spoken to him for two days. In fact, I haven’t spoken to anyone. At all.
When Reese left, all I could think about was that I was ending up like Mom. I’m falling deeper and deeper into him, especially when he turns up telling me everything I both crave and want to ignore. The problem is I crave it almost too much to do anything about it.
Almost.
“Jay these prices are freaking crazy!” I cry into the phone. “I knew it was expensive, but two thousand dollars a month? For a dang apartment? And that’s the cheapest! I don’t even make half of that working part-time at the café. There is no way I can afford that.”
He chuckles down the line. “Remember who you’re talking to.”
“Yeah, yeah. Trust fund baby or not, I’m not going to live off you. No way.”
“You won’t be. You can earn your keep by doing that woman stuff. You know, cooking and washing my boxers.”
My nose wrinkles. “There is no way in hell I’m touching your boxers – I have no idea where they’ve all been!”
He laughs again. “How about if I gave you a play by play of exactly where they’d been? Would you do it then?”
“Ew! No!” I shriek.
Just finished with sophomore year, Jay’s been around the block more than a few times. We met in a few shared classes and hit it off straight away. Of course, it was me and what’s inside my pants he tried to hit on initially, but he didn’t take a lot of convincing. We’ve been best friends ever since.