I’d get her to open up to me. She just needed some encouragement.
I moved lower down her legs until I could see her panties, and trailed my hands down to her hips. My fingers brushed the edge of the black lace, and circled over the material covering her pussy. Her sharp intake of air was like music to my ears, and I rubbed harder. Her hips started moving, and she tried to widen her legs but she was trapped. The only way she was going to get some kind of relief was if I gave it to her.
“You don’t play fair, Winters,” she said through gritted teeth.
“I wasn’t aware that we were playing a game,” I replied. Leaning forward, I rested my forearm next to her head, and parted my legs to give me better access to her. With a questioning gaze, she whispered, “Don’t think I don’t know what you’re doi -” her mouth dropped open when my fingers shoved her panties to the side, and brushed her pussy. She whimpered.
“You were saying?”
“I know exactly - ”
Her words were cut off when I pushed two digits inside her wet entrance. Her body jolted backwards with the force, and her tits swayed. “Exactly what?” I teased. “Finish your sentence, Kitten.”
She gave me a dirty look. “I would, if you’d just - ”
I repeated the motion, sliding my fingers out, and pushing back in. “Ah,” she cried out. “Dane, why are you doing this?”
I lowered my forehead to hers, and inhaled her shaky breath. “Because I want you talk to me, but you’re too stubborn. So I’m using the ‘Dane Winters’ equivalent of Chinese torture.”
My fingers set a steady pace, and Kennedy’s pants filled the room. Her lips were tempting me, so I pulled her bottom lip into my mouth, and lightly bit it. I felt her hands settle on my sides, her fingertips tickling the skin above my ribs.
“Please,” I begged against her mouth. “Talk to me.”
“I c-can’t” she mewled. “Not like t-this.”
I parted her slick lips until my thumb settled on her clit. The plea etched onto her face is what did me in, and even if she never ended up telling me what Amy had said to her, I wanted to reassure her anyway. The way she made me concede with a single look should’ve been an alarm going off in my head, but all I cared about was making sure that she didn’t have a single doubt about us. About this.
I made sure she was looking at me when I spoke so that my meaning would be clear, even if my feelings for her weren’t. One minute I planned on using whatever it was between us to get her to open up, and the next I was using it to erase her uncertainty.
“You don’t have to worry about Amy.” My hand slowed, and my fingers focused on one spot inside her. Her nails dug into my skin.
“She’s nothing to me,” I continued. “Whatever she told you, forget about it, and just trust me.”
I saw the struggle, the war she was waging with herself because she was scared to trust me. But for some reason – a reason I was in no frame of mind to figure out right now – I needed her to.
“Trust me, Kitten.”
I gave her time to decide while working her body with my fingers. I had to admit that my plan backfired, but the outcome would be worth it if she gave me the answer I was waiting for.
She stretched her neck and closed the gap between us when her lips met mine. Her kiss was urgent and just as she’d unknowingly given me a sense of relief, I returned the favor in kind. With a few more pressured strokes she fell apart. Her body quivered, and without breaking away, she cried into my mouth.
Her eyes finally opened, and I couldn’t help the upturn of my lips. “You’re gorgeous when you come,” I remarked.
“You’re full of shit,” she replied. “And you still don’t play fair.”
I eased my hand from her panties, and settled on top of her.
“I think we both know it’s no longer a game.”
We stayed silent, and the air became permeated with our unspoken words. It was hard to determine when things changed, but we couldn’t deny that they had.
Kennedy started to say something, but her phone rang and I lifted up so that she could answer it.
“Hello?”
I rubbed my hand down my face, suddenly feeling tired. I had a situation to take care of in my briefs, but that thought was interrupted when Kennedy jumped from the bed. Her body language changed, and I tensed. Something was wrong.
“Oh my God. Where are you?”
She cupped her mouth, and nodded, even though the person on the other end of the line couldn’t see her.
“Okay. I’ll be there as soon as I can.”
She ended the call, and started moving around her room in a panic. I got up, and quickly walked over to her. “What’s wrong?”
Her head came up, and I saw the tears in her eyes. “I need to go to the hospital.”
“What happened?”
“That was Chase on the phone. He said Grady’s in the hospital, and it’s pretty bad.”
“Okay,” I kissed her forehead out of instinct. “Get dressed, and I’ll go with you.”
“No, you don’t have to. I’ll go alone.”
Not.
Happening.
“Let me drive you,” I said. “You’re upset.”
“I’ll be fine,” she protested. She stepped around me, and started picking up some clothes
“I didn’t ask you, Kennedy. I’m going with you.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Kennedy
I COULDN’T TELL Dane how terrified I was. He’d driven me to the hospital, which was only fifteen minutes away, and had remained quiet the entire time. But then he took my hand, entwined our fingers together and managed to still the mess in my head without words.
I didn’t want to think about what had happened moments before Chase’s call, I was afraid if I did that I’d be acknowledging feelings I’d rather ignore for the time being. So I focused on keeping it together while I sat next to Grady’s hospital bed in the I.C.U. He had a breathing tube in, and a cast on one leg, and one arm. He was brought in after being attacked outside a bar on the outskirts of Brighton. Due to his head injury, the doctor’s put him in a medically induced coma to help with the swelling around his brain and told Chase and his family that if he showed improvements in the next forty-eight hours they’ll wake him up.
He’d told us he was meeting some friends there after we asked him to come to the football game, but I never imagined either of us would end up here when the night was over. I’d tried to call Jade on the ride over but it kept ringing, and I figured she was still out. She’d be upset when she finally heard about Grady, but I was hoping I’d be the one to tell her.
My exhaustion had started catching up to me, and emotionally I was hanging on by a thread. Seeing Grady reminded me too much of losing Charlie, and the thought of losing someone else I’d come to care about, scared me.
I held onto his hand, and wiped furiously at the tears running down my cheeks. “You have to be okay,” I choked out. “I need you to wake up so we can talk about boys, and Jade’s constant state of sexual frustration because of Reid, and the skinny bitches on campus who need to eat more.”
This was the part where he would have made a sarcastic remark, and I would have laughed at his ridiculous, over-the-top flare, but the only response I got was the steady beep of the machine that was monitoring his heartbeat.
A nurse came in and said it was time to leave, so I thanked her, and made my way back to the waiting room down the hall. There was a slight commotion, and when I rushed in to see what was going on I found Chase and Dane being pulled apart by two security guards.
“What goes on between me and Kennedy has nothing to do with you,” snapped Dane.
“The hell it doesn’t,” yelled Chase. “She’s my friend, and I care about her.”
“And you think I don’t?” Retorted Dane. “You don’t know anything about us, Chase. You’re just pissed because you have feelings for her, and you know she’s not interested.”
Neither of them had s
een me yet, so I stood back. I wanted to know how Chase was going to respond.
“How do you know she’s not interested?” Asked Chase. “How do you know she’ll say no if I asked her out?”
“Trust me,” replied Dane. “I know.”
Chase was on the verge of saying something else when I finally spoke. “What’s going on?”
Dane spun around, and struggled out of the security guards hold. “Kennedy,” he breathed. He sounded relieved to see me. “It’s nothing. Chase and I just had a disagreement.”
Chase snorted, still being restrained from behind. “Disagreement my ass. Dane is pissed because I confronted him about what’s going with the two of you.”
I couldn’t quite read Dane’s expression, but he certainly didn’t look too concerned that Chase might have figured out what had been going between Dane and me in the last two weeks. That didn’t mean I was ready to have the world know we’d been spending every night together.
“This isn’t the time or the place, Chase. Your brother is upstairs in a coma,” – my voice cracked – “and you’re here having a pissing contest? What is wrong with you?”
“You’re not even going to deny that there’s something going on between you and this asshole?” Chase looked incredulous, and I was angry that he thought he’d be privy to any information about went on between Dane and me.
“It’s none of your business,” I replied. “You’re my friend, and nothing more, Chase. I love you, but this is too much right now.”
He hung his head, and murmured, “You’re right, and I’m sorry, but I can’t stand the thought of you being involved with this dick - ”
I put my hand up to stop him. “If you value our friendship at all you’ll stop right there. I appreciate that you think you need to look out for me, but I’m a big girl and I can make my own choices. Now, I’m going home, but I will be back here tomorrow to see Grady.”
Without waiting for Chase to argue with me, I looked up into Dane’s concerned eyes. “Take me home, please?”
He nodded, and followed me out of the waiting room. I leaned against him when we waited outside the elevator, and when I yawned he didn’t hesitate to pick me up, and cradle me into his chest. I didn’t fight it. I was too tired, and for once it actually felt nice to have someone to comfort me. I hadn’t felt that in a long time, and the fact that it was Dane didn’t bother me at all.
** ** **
TWO DAYS LATER, and the doctors were finally ready to remove Grady’s breathing tube. They’d told Chase and his family that they were happy with his progress, and they would be able to see if there was any permanent damage to Grady’s brain. I couldn’t imagine having to deal with all the emotional stress so close to Thanksgiving, but I had to believe Grady would make it.
Unfortunately I couldn’t be there to support Chase, and I had to get updates via text from Jade because I was stuck in bed. I’d woken up with the worst throbbing at the base of my neck, and when I tried to open my eyes, I could barely see. My body was sore, and it felt like someone had taken a hammer to my ovaries. That only meant one thing.
Aunt Flo was in town, and it was Shark Week.
Great.
I needed to get up and eat something so that I could take some ibuprofen but I didn’t have the energy, so I snuggled deeper into my covers.
There was a light knock at my bedroom door, and then I heard it open. It couldn’t be Jade, she was at the hospital with Chase, and it wasn’t Ashley, she’d already gone home early for Thanksgiving break. So who –
My heart stuttered when his familiar scent filled my room. I hadn’t seen or spoken to him since he dropped me off at home two nights ago. I wasn’t sure why, but I guessed he was just busy and didn’t allow his absence to get to me. I was preoccupied with Grady anyway, and had to deal with a very emotional Jade as soon as I’d told her about his attack. It hit us both hard, but I was glad Reid could be there for her the way Dane had been for me.
“Kennedy?”
Dane spoke softly, and heard him come closer. I turned around, clutching my stomach, and managed to crack an eye open just enough to see him. Even with blurred vision he looked edible, and if I were sure it wouldn’t have killed me, my stomach – more like my girly bits - would have clenched.
“Hi,” I croaked, wondering what he was doing here.
“Hey.” He gave me a crooked smile. The bed creaked when he sat down next to me. “I was looking for you on campus, and when I called Jade she said you were here. Is everything okay?”
The concern on his face was genuine, and the fact that he cared only added to the feelings neither of us wanted to address. I contemplated telling him it was just the flu, but I decided to be vague instead. I didn’t want to make it awkward.
“No,” I groaned. “My head feels like it’s going to explode, and…” I stopped, before I said something that would embarrass me. The only other person I’d ever discussed ‘this stuff’ with was Charlie, and that was because I had no one else. It’s not every day that a sixteen-year-old boy has to be the one to educate his little sister about periods, but that was my reality. I wasn’t sure if I was comfortable crossing that line with Dane, considering we’d been nothing more than ‘bed buddies’. If he was my boyfriend –
I squeezed my eyes shut, and pushed that thought out of my head. That was an alarm bell. I couldn’t think that way.
“And?”
“I just feel sick, Dane.”
His eyes flicked across my face like he knew I was lying. This boy was far too intuitive for his own good.
“I’m going to make you something to eat,” he said. “And then I’ll take a quick drive to the pharmacy. Will you be okay here on your own?”
I started to argue with him, but he put his hand up and I snapped my mouth closed.
“Does scrambled egg on toast sound good?”
I nodded, and winced when the slight movement caused a burst of pain to travel up the back of my skull.
“I’ll be right back.”
He leaned down as if he was going to kiss my head, but then seemed to have thought better of it. Aside from the caring, he was acting a little strange, and I didn’t know what to make of it. He seemed hesitant with me, whereas before he wasn’t. If he wanted to kiss me, then he just did it, but now he seemed…passive.
He walked in a little later with a tray in his hands, and the smells had me salivating. He placed it on the bed, and then lifted my pillows so that I could sit up.
“It smells delicious,” I said. “Thank you.”
There was that crooked smile again.
And the butterflies it caused.
“I’ll be back in a few minutes. I expect this to be finished by the time I’m back.”
“Okay, Doctor.”
He winked, and I watched his retreating form until my bedroom door clicked shut. He was such a conundrum to me, and I couldn’t deny my baser need to figure him out. It’s what women did, right? We found someone who we thought needed figuring out, and tried to fix them. The only problem was, I wasn’t sure I wanted to fix Dane. I’d come to like Dane the way he was, or at least the version of himself he’d shown me in the last two weeks.
I moaned when I took a bite of the scrumptious eggs and toast, and managed to finish most of it by the time Dane came back. He strolled in to my room, shuffling through a brown paper bag, and I decided to ogle him. I might have been in pain, but he was still pleasant to look at. His light blue jeans hung low on his hips, but it was the way it tightened around his thighs that caught my attention.
I knew what those thighs looked like naked. What they looked like mid-thrust…
“Okay,” he muttered, making me snap my head up. Luckily he was still busy looking through the contents of the bag, and hadn’t noticed me staring. “Let’s see…”
He sat down beside me again, and started taking out some ibuprofen and a small heating pad. He took out a bottle of water, and handed it to me.
“Take two ibuprofen,” he instruc
ted, placing two pills in my hand. I swallowed them down, sighing when the cool water hit my parched throat.
“And then…” he took the heating pad out of the box, and faced me. “Lift your shirt.”
I nearly choked on my mouthful of water. “What?”
He couldn’t be serious? I felt like death warmed up, and he was thinking about sex? Granted, I would be too if my ovaries weren’t being karate chopped.
“Just lift your shirt, Kennedy.” Dane smirked as if he could read my thoughts. “Just enough to expose your stomach. Please.”
I did as he asked, and watched with rapt attention how he placed the heating pad just below my belly button. He set the temperature, and when the warmth started to settle into my skin I wanted to cry from the sheer relief. But how had he –
“I saw the calendar in your bathroom,” he said quietly, answering my unspoken question. “It’s obvious you have cramps, Kitten.”
Oh. Good. Lord.
Kill me now.
No, really. Please.
I looked down, but Dane wasn’t having that.
He tilted my chin, and my skin buzzed with the contact. I’d missed his touch. “Don’t be shy about this stuff. You don’t have to be with me.”
My cheeks were still on fire, and had more to do with this moment and Dane, than the fact that it was that dreaded time of the month.
“Thank you,” I said, pulling my shirt down. “For the breakfast, and for the other stuff too.”
Dane rubbed the back of his neck, and laughed nervously. “I’ve never done anything like this before, so uh, I’m glad I’m doing it right.”
I tried to smile, but it was overtaken by a yawn.
“You should get some sleep,” added Dane. I was somewhat disappointed that he was leaving, but I knew he must’ve had class again before his last football practice before we went on break.
He moved the tray onto my desk, and then started pulling off his shoes. I looked at him in confusion. “What are you doing?”
“I need a nap before practice, and I recall that your bed is pretty damn comfortable, Kitten. Now scoot over, and roll onto your side.”
I tried to look at least a little annoyed, but I was failing miserably. I rolled away from him, and found myself waiting in anticipation. His body sank into the bed, and instead of lying on his back, he curled himself around me, and held me to his chest.
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