The Line Between

by Tamsyn Bester

  “You’re right,” I said, stepping closer to her until the warmth of her body washed over me. “I do regret it, but - ”

  She cut me off by placing her hands against my chest and shoving me back. “I don’t want to hear this. So let’s pretend it never happened, okay?”

  “Damnit, woman!” I yelled. “Let me fucking finish!”

  I’d expected her to flinch at the sound of my voice, but she surprised me by standing her ground, her face twisted into a grimace.

  “Just drop it! There’s nothing left to say.”

  She turned her back again, and I threw my hands in the air. “You drive my fucking crazy, do you know that? Half the time I don’t know whether I want to fuck you, or wring your damn neck!”

  She spun around quickly, and replied, “I drive you crazy? Try being in my shoes, dickhead. You screwed me, left me, and then I had to find out you had a girlfriend! So forgive me for wishing you never laid a hand on me.”

  My brows furrowed. “Girlfriend?”

  Those green eyes rolled. “Don’t play dumb. It’s all anyone is talking about, you and that Amy bimbo.”

  I’d heard a few rumors in the last few days, but paid them no mind because they were all lies. I didn’t date, and I rarely slept with the same girl twice, a fact I was quite proud of until one night with Kennedy. The jealousy-ridden tone in her voice made my lips twitch, and I repressed the smile threatening to appear. “Are you jealous?”

  She scoffed, but looked up at the sky instead of at me. “Fucking unreal,” she murmured.

  I closed the small space between us, and she jerked her head forward when I brushed my finger down her cheek.

  “It’s okay to be jealous, Kennedy. But I can assure you I don’t have a girlfriend.”

  “Good for you,” she replied haughtily. “Not that I cared to begin with.”

  “Then why bring it up?”

  “You know, for such a smart guy you really are a fucking idiot. I felt bad enough thinking I’d become one of your bed flies, but to think you had a girlfriend at the time made me sick to my stomach. I’m not a whore!”

  God, she infuriated me to no end.

  “No one said you’re a whore, damnit! If you’d let me finish what I was saying earlier then maybe you’d see it differently. But no, you’re too stubborn for your own damn good!”

  “I give up!” She stomped her bare foot on the asphalt, and scrunched her nose in anger. If I weren’t so ticked off myself then I would have thought she looked cute.

  “It was a one-time thing,” she continued, “and we both regret it, clearly, so let’s just drop all this crap and move on already! We’ll agree to stay out of each other’s way from now on, if that’s what it will take to make this go away. Do we have a deal?”

  This was my out. I could agree, and walk away like it had never happened. But who was I kidding? I’d spent most of my teen years thinking about what it would have been like to physically be with Kennedy, and after it finally happened I had no clue which way was up. I’d tried to exorcise the memory of us from my head in every way possible, and when I’d tried to sleep with someone else I couldn’t do it. I didn’t want anyone else damnit. I wanted the stubborn, full of shit girl staring at me outside in the middle of a semi empty parking lot, the one who turned my anger into lust and still saw more in me with one look, than I’d ever seen in myself.

  So I made a choice, and stopped giving a fuck about how it would end.

  “No. We don’t have a deal.”

  “Sorry to disappoint you, but that’s the only deal I’m offering. I’m not going to be one of many.”

  How many times was I going to have to point out that she wasn’t one of many before she fucking listened?

  Then it hit me. I hadn’t actually said it to her. My actions only proved that she was right about me, that all I’d wanted was to get her into bed for a night, and move on.

  I needed to show her how wrong she was.

  “You aren’t one of many,” I said, my voice low, and hard. It reflected the fury I felt towards myself. “In fact, you’re quite the opposite. I have been going out of my fucking mind trying to avoid you because I knew, Goddamnit, I knew one night with you wouldn’t be enough. All I could fucking see was you, all I wanted was you, Kennedy.”

  Her eyes had widened at some point while I was talking, but then they narrowed, and she pursed her lips.

  “You’re just saying that because you want to get into my panties again. I hate to break it to you but that shit doesn’t work on me, and our brief romp was a never-to-be-repeated performance.”

  I held my gaze steady, but leaned into her and wrapped my hands around her biceps. “You sure about that?”

  “Don’t touch me,” she said through gritted teeth. I looked at her mouth, and instinctively licked my bottom lip. She tried like hell to break free from my hold, but I only pulled her closer. Her mouth parted with a soft gasp when our chests collided, and I took that small opening to press my lips to hers. She remained stiff, and her pigheaded behavior stoked the fire inside me.

  I pulled away, and glared. “You’re being difficult, Kennedy. And you know how much I like a challenge.”

  “Just because I refuse to kiss you back, and spread my legs doesn’t mean I’m challenging you. Maybe I just don’t want to? Maybe you sucked so badly the first time that I don’t want it to happen again? Have you ever thought of that?”

  This was what we did – she pushed, and I pulled, and then we did it all over again in reverse.

  It.

  Made.

  Me.

  Wild.

  “You say you don’t want it, but your body tells me otherwise.”

  “Please,” she huffed out, “Don’t talk about my body like you can read it. You have no idea what I’m feeling.”

  I smirked. “That’s where you’re wrong.” My hands slid down her arms, around her hips, and moved to cup her butt. I lifted her slightly, so that she stood on the tips of her toes, and aligned our hips as best as the position would allow. Judging by her startled inhalation, and the death grip she had on my arms, I got it right.

  Lowering my head, I ran my nose up her neck, and to the shell of her ear, inhaling the smell of her skin. “For starters,” I continued, my mouth against her ear, “your breathing is shallower, and you’re starting to pant, and your mouth is open, waiting to allow a moan to escape. Your nails are piercing my skin because you’re gripping me so tight, and I can feel your nipples hardening through your dress. And if I do this,” – I pressed my hands down, and pushed our hips together with a grunt – “your pussy clenches, and your clit starts to throb. I’m willing to bet you’re wet, and that’s for me, no one else.”

  She swallowed. Hard.

  I lifted my head to look at her, and gave her a smug smile. “How’d I do?”

  “Not bad, but you forgot one crucial thing,” she replied breathlessly.

  “What’s that?”

  Her hands let go of my arms, and I felt one slip between us. Kennedy grabbed my cock through my jeans, and rubbed a little too hard. The air from my lungs blew out, and I swayed into her palm. I was already hard, but the feel of her hand made it worse.

  “My body reacts to yours,” she whispered into my ear, “but it doesn’t mean I want you, Dane. I think we both know that how you feel about me is reason enough to end this before it begins.”

  I squeezed my eyes shut, my mind swimming as a result of her touch. The haze cleared just enough for me to hear what she’d said.

  Her face was resolute, but her eyes held a different truth. She was fighting this thing between us as much as I was; yet I was the one caving. Hearing her say ‘how you feel about me’ made me see things in a different light, and I hated to admit that she could never know how I really felt. She thought I resented her, and most of the time she’d been intolerable, but the physical need pulling on my insides drove me to shove everything else aside.

  I had to know she didn’t want this before I showed
her how intensely her body called to mine. “Tell me you don’t want this, and I’ll walk way. Tell me to leave you alone, and I will never lay another hand on you, I swear.”

  Something in my voice made her hesitate, as if she’d been surprised by my honesty. Or maybe it was the candidness of my statement that she hadn’t been expecting. Either way, when she didn’t respond, I had my answer.

  I let my arms fall from around her body, and took a step back to give us both some breathing room. I missed her heat instantly, and berated my body for that foolish and misplaced sentiment.

  “For the record, I haven’t been with anyone since you.”

  I wasn’t sure why I’d admitted that to her, but I didn’t want her to think any of the rumors doing the rounds had any truth to them. I was tempted to tell her that anyone else after her would fall short, but thought better of it. It would only confuse her, and make our predicament murkier than it already was.

  She nodded once, and turned on her bare heel. This time I watched her walk away, clenching my fists to stop them from stopping her again. This game – was it really a game? – was fucking with my head, and it bothered me how easily I lost any form of rational thinking when it came to Kennedy. She was going to become a drug, and when that happened I would be totally screwed.

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  Dane

  I’D CRAWLED INTO bed an hour ago, and tossed and turned under the sheets trying to fall asleep. When that failed, I fell onto my back, and started staring at my ceiling. I was restless, and knowing Kennedy was on the other side of this wall wasn’t helping my sleeplessness in the slightest.

  I lifted my head when I heard the front door open, and waited for the sound of heavy footsteps. Reid hadn’t come home yet, but it had only just gone midnight, and that was too early for him to be home. I had a feeling Jade was keeping him busy anyway.

  No other sounds came, and I grew nervous. I slipped a pair of boxer briefs on, and grabbed my baseball bat from under my bed. If there was an intruder, however unlikely, I’d be able to scare the fucker off or at least beat him unconscious and call the cops. My doorknob twisted in the palm of my hand, and I stepped into the short hallway that lead into our open-plan living room, and kitchen. There was a shadow, moving across the floor, and when the figure appeared in the living room I lifted the bat.

  “Whoever you are, you have five minutes to leave before I start swinging.”

  The figure jumped, and I heard a squeak before Kennedy’s raspy voice interrupted the blood pounding in my ears. “Dane, it’s just me.”

  I made a face, even though I doubted she could see me in the dark. “What are you doing in here? I could’ve hurt you.”

  “I’m sorry, I just…” she stopped, and I heard her sigh.

  I didn’t have time for this. She’d made it clear where we stood earlier, or rather where she stood. I couldn’t imagine what reason she possibly had for being here in the middle of the night, and I was too tired to ask.

  “You can show yourself out,” I bit out. “I’m going back to bed.”

  I turned around, and walked back into my room. Footsteps sounded behind me, albeit light ones. I threw my baseball bat onto the floor with a thud, and kept my back to the door. Her presence was like a lightning bolt that bounced around the room until it hit me. My muscles tensed when I felt her at my back.

  “Dane.”

  The way she said my name…Fuck.

  “What do you want, Kennedy?” The words were clipped, my tone severe.

  “I don’t know,” she replied quietly. She sounded unsure, and it pissed me off. I turned, not realizing how close she was, and instinctively reached for her when she stumbled backwards. There was enough light coming through my bedroom window for me to see that she was wearing nothing but an oversized t-shirt – the one I’d left her in after our first night together. The sight of her in my shirt made my inner cave man want to pound on his chest, but it also stirred up the storm that had been brewing from the moment I left her room a week ago.

  I held her wrists between us, aware of how her chest moved with every breath, of how her tongue snuck out to lick her lips.

  “Tell me why you’re here,” I ground out.

  “I wanted to see you.” Her reply came without thought, like she’d been preparing for this moment.

  “So you sneak in here in the middle of the night?”

  “I couldn’t sleep.”

  It was strange, to think that she’d been just as restless as I was after our conversation in the parking lot.

  “You are testing me,” I growled. “I asked you if you wanted this, and your silence was answer enough. So I’ll as you again. What.Are.You.Doing.Here?”

  Her eyes darted back and forth, but for once they gave nothing away. The atmosphere had shifted, filled with a charge. I could feel her pulse beneath my thumb, and the unsteady thump-thump matched the erratic beat of mine.

  “I couldn’t tell you what you wanted to hear, Dane. It meant I had to acknowledge that you hurt me this week, and I didn’t want to give you that satisfaction. I hated the thought of being nothing more to you than a quick fuck. I’m not saying I want a relationship, our history is too sordid for that, but…what happened between us, I liked it, I want more of it.”

  We stood there, staring, for what felt like hours. I was bemused, more now than ever, and before I could do anything, I had to be sure she understood what would happen if we went ahead with this…arrangement.

  “You don’t know what you’re asking me,” I murmured.

  “I do,” she swallowed audibly. “I’m asking…” she paused.

  “Say it,” I hedged.

  “I’m asking for uninhibited access to your body, and I want to give you the same with mine.”

  “Why not say it like it is,” I mused. “You want to fuck me.”

  The light tinge in her cheeks, barely visible in the dim light, made me tighten my grip. It was unbelievably sexy, to see the apples of her cheeks become rosy because of the candid way I’d said her own words back to her.

  She looked down to hide her embarrassment, but I didn’t want her to feel ashamed for telling me what she wanted. There would be no room for that between us. She had to be comfortable with me, open, and willing.

  “I won’t share you,” I said, freeing her wrist so that I could tilt her chin up. “And I won’t expect you to share me. It’s that simple. I’m yours when you want me, and vice versa. No one has to know. It stays here, between us. Understood?”

  Kennedy stepped into me, and I let her other wrist go. She held her mouth a breath away from mine, and as soon as the word ‘yes’ fell from her lips, she threw herself into my arms with every assurance that I’d catch her. Our lips crashed, our bodies followed, and I had her in the air with her legs around my waist before our kiss was over. Her tongue played with mine, and she sighed into my mouth, her breath fresh, and minty. I climbed onto my bed with her in my arms, and pressed her into the mattress. My hands found the hem of her shirt, and I lifted it over her head. Her perky round tits bounced with the slight jostling of the bed, and I zeroed in on the hard peaks of her nipples. Her hands dove into my hair, and she arched her back, pushing her nipple deeper into my mouth.

  I licked my way over to the other side, and did the same until Kennedy was panting. My eyes locked onto hers, and she watched with intrigue as I moved lower, licking her navel, and going lower still. I sat up and removed her underwear, grumbling my approval when I saw her bare pussy.

  “You wax?” I asked, not bothering to look up.

  “Yeah.” I could hear her blush, and when I peaked at her from beneath my lashes she was biting her lip. I planned on making her do that a lot.

  “I’ve been thinking about this all week,” I said. “I’ve been wondering what you taste like.”

  “Dane,” she wavered. “No one’s ever…”

  “Eaten you out before?”

  She covered her eyes with her hands, and let out a shaky giggle. “Oh God.”
>
  I lifted her hands from her face, and grinned at her flushed state. We hadn’t even done anything yet, and she was already so responsive. I was going to enjoy the fuck out of this.

  “Never be shy with me, Kitten. You can trust me.”

  “Okay.” Her sweet smile brought something else to life inside me – my need to please her, to worship her body.

  I settled between her legs, and then lifted them over my shoulders. I breathed in her sweet scent, and hummed in appreciation. My mouth came over her lips, and my tongue slid through her folds.

  “Ohhhh….” Kennedy moaned, throwing her head back. Her hands fisted my sheets, her hips started moving in rhythm with my tongue. I sucked on her clit and she cried out. I pushed a finger inside her, and then another, loving the way she was coming undone at my hands. I’d never cared for this part with other girls, but for some reason I wanted to make this good for Kennedy, so good that she’d compare every guy after this to me. I twisted my fingers, and found the spot I knew would make Kennedy frantic. I rubbed her soft flesh in circles, and continued to work her body until she squeezed my fingers.

  “Mmmmmm….yes, right there…Ohhhhhh.”

  My teeth nicked at her sensitive clit, and her body seized as her orgasm took over. I sat up, keeping my fingers moving inside her, and watched the way she sighed, arched her back, and gripped my sheets.

  Her eyes were heavy when she opened them, and her mouth dipped into a lazy smile.

  Slowly, I withdrew my fingers, and licked them clean of her wetness. Her pupils were dilated, clearly aroused by me tasting her.

  “You good?” I asked, standing from the bed. I removed my briefs, and palmed my hard cock in my hands. Kennedy sat up on her elbows, legs spread, and I thought I’d never seen anything so bewitching.

  “More than good,” was her reply.

  I started to reach for a condom in my bedside drawer, but Kennedy stopped me. She kneeled on the bed in front of me, and gave me her shy smile. “I want to feel you.” Her voice was so soft I’d almost missed what she said. “I get a shot every three months, and I got my last one was two weeks ago, so we’re safe.”