Falling for the Opposition: An New Adult Enemies to Lovers Romance

by Lola West

  “You did?”

  “Yeah. You were dancing. I was standing in the VIP section with Pete, Katie, Conner, and a girl named Candice that my parents introduced me to, and you were off to our right, wild with the joy and rhythm of the music. I followed you.”

  “You what?”

  “Not like in a creepy way.” I thought about it. “Okay, maybe it was a little creepy, but I wanted to talk to you so badly. You were so beautiful, so free, and then I saw you with Joe and I thought he was your boyfriend.”

  “I still can’t believe you thought that.” She smiled; her hair was long and loose. It fell over her shoulders and covered her breasts.

  “You jumped into his arms and you looked like you loved each other.”

  “We do.”

  “Yeah, but in my world, Lu, people don’t show their friends love like that. They hardly show their lovers love like that.” I ran a hand up her thigh and she trembled beneath my fingers.

  “That’s sad.”

  “That’s not the point.” I smiled. “The point is I don’t want you to look like anyone but you, Lu. You are the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen. I was drawn to you from the very first moment I laid eyes on you.”

  She huffed and crashed backwards on the bed. “Ugh, usually I think I’m fine, beautiful even, but these semesters at Hamilton have been…” She stopped talking when I kissed her knee. I wanted her to talk if she wanted to, so I stopped kissing. She half sat up, looking at me between her legs. “Can I ask you a question?”

  I nodded.

  “Why the fuck are we talking right now?”

  I snickered. She shimmied back and I crawled on top of her. “Do you feel like there is something else we should be doing, Lu?” I teased, pressing my hips between her legs, but not quite to the heart of her core just yet.

  “I mean, we are awfully naked and…”

  I took her nipple into my mouth and sucked, hard. Her body bowed in response, pushing her breast deeper into my mouth. I let it pop out.

  “And…?” I questioned, trying to sound innocent.

  She didn’t answer. Instead, she grabbed my face, pushing her hands through my hair and pulling my lips to hers. I could smell the flowery scent of her shampoo and the musky, mossy bloom of the rain on her skin. I penetrated her mouth with my tongue and held back nothing. For me Lua’s kiss was like oxygen to a fire, the smoldering heat I’d been harboring, exploded. Everything in the world seemed to pulse, to echo the racing throb of my blood coursing through my body. Beneath me, her breaths mounted, running with mine, and her nails curled into the meat of my shoulders.

  I had meant to take everything slow. To make our first time together unhurried and drawn out like the montages of sex you see in the movies. But now that she was laid bare beneath me, I didn’t want to kiss and play all day. I needed to feel her. To connect with her, bury myself inside her and never come out. I was acutely aware of her skin, so smooth and silk-like pressed to my chest, my legs, my hips. My cock throbbed heavy and hard against her the softness of her belly. I had to calm down. Involuntarily, I bucked my hips against hers.

  She bucked back.

  “I can’t wait,” she said, surprising me.

  “What?”

  “I need to do this, like now.”

  I laughed a little.

  “Don’t laugh at me. It’s so much pressure. So much buildup. I just want to feel you already. We can devour each other later. Now, let’s just crazy fuck. Okay?”

  Her face was close, and her eyes were wide with hunger, for me.

  I gave a quick snap of my head in agreement.

  “Oh, excellent.” She was so delightfully weird. She pushed at my chest, and I rolled off her so that I was lying on my back. She scrambled for the little night table next to the bed. “Do you think he was smart enough to put condoms in here?”

  “Who, Joe?”

  She nodded.

  On her side now, I had a perfect opportunity to run my hands over her ass. I took it. “If not, there is one in my wallet.”

  She paused and looked over her shoulder at me with a little sour, scornful frown.

  “It’s been there since I was fourteen, Lu.”

  That made her feel better, and she popped a smile. “Are you still a virgin?” she teased.

  I didn’t have a smart response because I was only half listening, distracted by the meat of her ass beneath my fingers. I wanted to bite her, sink my teeth in exactly where my fingers were. With a little force, I pushed her over onto her belly before she could get to the drawer.

  She giggled. “What are you doing?”

  Smiling and sneaky, I shifted so I was above her, bending and vampirically baring my teeth. “I can’t stop myself… I just have to…” I sunk my teeth in, not hard, just enough to make her yelp. Then I kissed the spot I’d just bitten.

  Beneath my hands and lips, her hips clawed at the mattress. She liked being bitten. I did it again. This time her yelp was deeper, sultrier. I ran my fingers down over the roundness of her bottom, finding the wetness between her legs. She immediately pushed back, taking my fingers deep inside her, pressing her cheeks into my chest.

  “Again,” she commanded breathlessly. “Bite me.”

  I did, and I felt her clench tight around my fingers as she moaned. I was gonna fuck her like this. I knew I was. I could feel it in my balls. There was no denying that this was what we both wanted. When I imagined our first time together, I thought it would romantic, sweet even, the sex of saints, missionary, face-to-face sex. I thought we would look into each other’s eyes and say all kinds of sweet things. But sex is raw and animalistic, and it doesn’t follow a script. It doesn’t have to be sweet to be good. It doesn’t have to be gentle to be about love.

  Taking my fingers from inside her, I lifted my chest and reached for the drawer. It was literally filled with condoms, like easily two or three hundred of them and of course a Post-it. It was hard to imagine how he got it to close.

  Lua covered her eyes and pressed her face into the bed, laughing. Muffled by the pillows, she asked, “What’s the note say?”

  I picked up the Post-it and a condom. “Just in case.” I paused, looking at the collection. “I guess he thinks we’re gonna be here a while.”

  She laughed again, and then she pushed her hips up so that they pressed against my cock and said, “He’s right.”

  46

  Lua

  He was going to take me from behind. I wanted him to, but before he put the condom on, he took hold of his cock and rubbed the tip of it against my clit. He used it like a paintbrush, dragging it up and down over my slick, hot folds. The physical feeling of having him there at my center so encompassing, like an echo in a cavernous room, there was a source but the vibration it created seemed to be everywhere. There were not a lot of words or giggles anymore, only panting breaths, moans, and guttural sounds of pleasure. I glanced at him over my shoulder. He had his eyes closed, his face twisted with concentration and delight.

  He was beautiful. And I don’t just mean that he was attractive, although he was that, sexy too. But in that moment, he was soulful. His passion, his complexity, it was etched into the way he touched me, the way he loved me. I knew that to some people Drew was a monster. He grew up in a torturous environment and like any pup that is beaten and kicked, he’d come through it snarling and broken. But I didn’t see that in him now. I didn’t see the darkness that shadowed his spirit all those months ago at Bonnaroo. He had changed. He had pushed himself to be someone new, someone healthier. There weren’t dark circles under his eyes or a hollow in his cheeks anymore. And that newfound spark of joy in him, it was beautiful. God, I loved him.

  I wanted this moment so much. Different than I’d ever felt with Lucas. This wasn’t just about sex and satisfaction. This was about him and me. I wanted to feel us knitted together. I wanted the physical expression of all the emotion that I just couldn’t believe I’d denied myself. I wanted to know that he’d been inside me. To have the
memory of him as part of my body, my being. I didn’t care what the future brought for us. I just knew that I literally could not imagine a life in which I didn’t love Drew Scott. And I needed that life to include the memory of having sex with him. I hoped that there would be a million memories of us together, but no matter what, I was certain that I had to feel him, to know him this way. I had to make love to him, for me.

  I spoke, and even to myself my voice sounded a little desperate. “I want you. I…” I shuddered because he was still touching me. “I have to have you, soon.”

  His eyes snapped open, searching for mine. He found them and smiled gently. While I watched, he tore open the foil wrapper with his teeth. I couldn’t see him put it on, but I knew he was ready because he pressed his tip to my opening. He froze there. I watched him looking down at where we were about to be joined. There were so many emotions he could be feeling, lust, passion, fear, but all I could read was awe.

  He looked up at me, took a deep breath, and his eyes fluttered closed as he reverently said, “I love you, Lu.”

  Before I could respond he was inside me. He pushed in hard and fast, stopping only when he was completely consumed by me, the root of his cock pressed tight against my core. I moaned at the intrusion, and the quickness of his entry set my heart racing. I was so deliciously full of him. I could hear my own choppy breaths. I pushed back against his hips, savoring the pause, adjusting to feeling. Then I rocked my hips just a little. The flood of pleasure was immediate.

  “Fuck,” he breathed, low and guttural. I rocked more.

  “Oh God, Lua,” he grunted. “You’re so warm… so tight.”

  I rocked a little faster, loving his pleasure as much as mine.

  Grabbing my hips with both his hands, his fingers pressing into my flesh, he growled, “Hungry little minx, aren’t you?”

  I was. I wanted him, fast, hard, and unhinged. I told him as much by resisting the capture of his hands. In response, he pumped his hips so that his cock swept in and out of my pussy like the tide, rhythmic and strong, utterly unyielding.

  “Yes,” I gritted through my teeth. That was the catalyst. My expression of desire elicited a beast.

  Behind me, Drew roared, “Christ, this is the best thing that ever happened to me.”

  I think I giggled, but I couldn’t be sure because he gripped my hips and started to pound. It wasn’t a punishing movement; it was exactly what I wanted. Drew, wild and unruly, driving into me like he wanted to literally become part of me. My orgasm came on like a spike, sharp and swift. One minute, I was feeling generally pleasured and the next I was high and hurtling toward the big O. I felt myself clench all around him and he grunted in response, “Oh God, yes, do it, Lu, come.”

  And come I did. Holy freaking cannoli, Batman. It was like my body seized for a full minute. And then, like last time he brought me to the edge, I became more present, more conscious, more connected to everything in the universe, but mostly more connected to Drew. I could feel him behind me like an extension of myself, the joy, the pleasure but also the history of hurt, the fear that everything would fall apart again. And the overwhelming love. So much love, as if he’d been banking it his whole life just to let it rain all over me.

  Shattered and shaking with the shockwaves of ecstasy, I reached my hand for his. He was still thrusting, still hard, but his rhythm had become chaotic, which made me think he was close. His hands were anchored to my hips, clinging. I curled one of my fingers around one of his, and with as much energy as I could muster, I said, “I love you too.”

  The words came out gently, sweetly, layered with all the good I saw in him. They were exactly as I wanted them to be, totally and undeniable true. And as soon as I said them, he started to come, exploding on a torrent of ugly human sounds. One hand climbed up my back and he gripped my shoulder, holding me to him, holding himself deep inside me as he sputtered and spasmed. He culminated on the word, “Fuck,” but it was long ad drawn out like f-ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh-ck. Then he collapsed against my back, heavy and sweaty, and with that one hand still clasping mine.

  Post-coital Drew was a very introspective guy. We were still lying in the bed, curled around each other, legs all twisted like pretzels, my back to his chest, his chin on my shoulder, his arms wrapped around my torso like he was never letting me go and clearly awake but not saying a whole lot. Well, nothing really. He wasn’t saying anything at all.

  Not one to stay quiet when I’d grown curious, I whispered, “What’s happening right now?”

  I didn’t think it was possible, but he arms got tighter. “I’m thinking,” he said.

  “Clearly, but I was wondering what it is you’re thinking about?”

  “I’m thinking that I always want to be this happy, and I’m trying to figure out how I can make that happen because eventually we are going to have to leave this cabin.”

  “We are?” I teased.

  He shifted, rolling onto his back and taking me with him so that after some adjustments, I wound up with my ear against his heart. “Sadly, yes.”

  “Not today though, right?” I pouted, looking up from his chest to his face.

  He half smiled. “No, today we are going to stay here, eat all the food Joe packed, and try to use an entire drawer of condoms.”

  I dropped my head back down. “Good to know we’re on the same page.”

  I felt his chest heave as he laughed.

  I snuggled into his torso, feeling the warm expanse of his skin and the strength of his pecs beneath my cheek. Settled, I returned to the seriousness of his original comment. “Okay, so you were saying you have a need to maintain this level of happiness.”

  “Yes.”

  “And from the seriousness of your tone, I’m thinking this is not your sweet and silly way of saying you wanna hump me all the time.”

  He laughed again. “No, that is not up for debate. I will be doing that, every day for the foreseeable future.”

  “Okay, so your life plan for happiness revolves around humping me and…” I let the sentence drop, hoping he would fill in the blanks. I don’t know what I thought he was going to say, but it wasn’t what he said.

  “I love architecture.”

  “You do?” I questioned because I’d never heard him talk about a building or an architect before.

  “Yes. I think building and envisioning buildings has been my favorite thing since I was a child, but my father wouldn’t allow me to entertain it.”

  I turned my face again to look him in the eye. “What do you mean he wouldn’t allow you to entertain it?”

  Drew shrugged. “Scott men wield power, not pencils.”

  Rage was starting to percolate inside me. “What does that even mean?” Ugh, how many times in one day could I say that sentence? No matter, Drew didn’t seem to mind.

  “I guess it means my father saw being an architect as weak in comparison to other roles in culture, like lawyer or politician or hedge fund manager or something else equally power related.”

  Fully caffeinated by my feelings of injustice, I sat up, ranting, “That is ridiculous, absurd, even. An architect is a captain of industry and the intellect and convergence of talent that it takes to be an architect is undeniable. It’s not like you were saying I want to be a poet, although obviously that should be fine too. It’s just a passion with somewhat complicated job prospects, but my God, what is wrong with being an architect? Architects make the big bucks. And they are super smart and culturally accepted, revered even. Did he even stop to consider the legacy of the art form? I mean, on some level, even if we don’t know their names, we are still worshiping the men who built the Colosseum and the Parthenon.”

  Drew interrupted me. “Actually, Ictinus and Callicrates designed the Parthenon.” There was a tart little glimmer in his eye, like he was enjoying my ranting in a very non-platonic way. The look made butterflies take off in my tummy.

  “See.” I threw my hands up. “You’re making my point for me.” I smiled. “They built that building c
enturies ago and you still know their names. No one will remember Senator Drew Scott a hundred years from now.”

  “Well,” he interjected again. “Our grandkids might.”

  I felt myself blush, but I didn’t reject his comment. “Okay, fine two hundred years then.”

  “Agreed. My father will be a mite in the tomes of history two centuries from now. Thank you for your assessment, Argumentative Ann.”

  “Again, with the Argumentative Ann? Really?”

  “Oh, come on, Lu,” he teased. “Today you were arguing about lake size because I appreciated the beauty of the lake. I think ‘Argumentative Ann’ is a totally àpropos nickname for you. What would you like better? Frustrating Fiona?”

  “How about Demonstrative Dolly or Assertive Allison?” I offered.

  Smiling, he grabbed me. I squealed, trying to get away, but he wrestled me till I was pinned beneath his hips. He held himself above me and gently, with soft eyes, perused my face.

  “Or Totally Lovable Lu.”

  Okay, that one.

  47

  Drew

  We spent the night in the cabin. We didn’t worry about anything. We just laughed and talked and ate all the food Joe packed for us. We made love quite a few times, more than I thought humanly possible. We christened every surface that cabin had to offer. And then the following afternoon, we begrudgingly packed up and went back to Lua’s house. I felt nervous going into her father’s house after spending the night away. There was no denying what we’d been doing. We were gone all night. Even if he didn’t assume we’d been getting it on, he had to know we were somehow intimate. And considering he’d opened his home to me, I felt like I’d trampled on his hospitality.

  But to my surprise, it wasn’t like that at all.

  “Oh look, it’s the lovebirds,” Joe teased.

  “More like love bears,” Jack joked.

  “Lay off, you two,” Lua scolded, walking toward them, headed for the door. When she got so that she was right between them, she leaned down and kissed Joe’s head and said, “Thank you.” Then she continued on to the doorknob and turning to me, said, “I’m gonna shower. Will you be alright?”