“I want you, Lil. I want you so fucking bad I can’t think straight. I want to throttle any guy who even looks at you. This isn’t me. I’ve never felt this before. But I swear to fuck, if I have to watch you kiss another guy tonight, I’ll lose my shit.” My hand reaches out on its own accord and rests on her hip. Right then, I remember there’s a whole group of people behind us, but I don’t even care at this point.
They can all go to hell. I need to get my girl.
“You know how many girls I’ve watched you kiss?” She lifts her chin in defiance, accusing me with her eyes.
I sigh, fully aware of the girls I’ve thrown in her face over the years, not realizing how much they’d bite me in the ass later. “I can’t change that.” My fingers tighten on her hip, bringing her closer to me. I pray my body is enough to shield us from the people behind us.
“If you tell me not to kiss anyone else and you end up kissing a girl here, I’ll cut your dick off, Aspen.” Her eyes flick down to where our bodies touch. If I’m not mistaken, she slightly leans into my touch.
Somebody cheers behind us, but neither of us give it any attention.
My dick is suddenly hard. I must be a special kind of fucked up to get excited at the prospect of her removing it, but I think it’s more the jealous tone to her voice. The angry lash to her words, as if the thought of me kissing another girl makes her as crazy as her kissing another guy makes me.
“Deal,” I rush out, making sure to look her in the eye to let her know I mean it.
“I’m fucking serious, Aspen.”
“So am I. I’m going crazy for you. No other girl here comes close to how I feel about you. I don’t want any of them. I want you.” I quickly place a kiss to her upturned nose before I back away, heading back to join the circle.
I’m wound so freaking tight when I sit back down, pretending to give a flying fuck about the game when all I’m interested in is it ending.
I don’t even try to hide the fact that I’m staring at Lily as she takes her spot in the circle. I watch as she mouths something to a curious Veronica, words that look a lot like fucking Aspen Bellevue.
I smirk, looking down at my lap and thinking about what I’ll do when this game ends.
I’m busy twiddling my thumbs in my lap when I hear my best friend’s voice.
“To hell with this game,” Maverick says. “I only want to kiss one person here.”
‘Atta boy, I think, watching with raised eyebrows as he continues. “Veronica, it’s you.”
The circle goes completely silent, everyone too busy watching the story unfold in front of us. Maverick gets closer to Veronica, whispering something that doesn’t reach my ears.
They exchange a few words before he pulls her face to his and they make-out.
About damn time.
Even as Maverick and Veronica separate, I think about how happy I am for my best friend—and for V. She and I have developed a friendship recently. Once I got over the fact that she didn’t want to sleep with me, I realized I wasn’t actually interested in her to begin with. I just wanted to play the game, find someone to occupy my time since I couldn’t have the girl I wanted. Lucky for me, she wasn’t having any of it. Instead, she became a good friend. One that, even earlier today, I ran to for advice. Advice that I thought sucked at first, but advice I ended up taking, judging by the conversation I just had with Lily.
After what seems like a damn eternity, the game ends and people start to trickle home or pass out on the couches. Maverick and Veronica have both long gone to their own rooms.
Lily’s busy getting comfortable on one of the living room couches when I pull her off it.
She doesn’t put up a fight as I tug her toward my bedroom. Luckily, it’s on the side of the house that’s opposite Maverick’s.
I walk the familiar path to my bedroom backward, not sparing a second from looking at Lily, the look on her face too beautiful to look away from.
When we make it through my bedroom door, she slams it behind her, instantly jumping across the space between us and landing in my arms.
Both of us fall onto my bed, her on top of me. Her knees spread out on either side of my hips. Lily leans down, her hair creating a fence around us, her breath wafting over my lips as she says, “Kiss me like you’ll regret it in the morning.”
“I’m going to kiss you like I won’t.”
And then I do, making good on my promise.
Except, the moment her lips touch mine, I know with even more certainty that there’s no way I could regret this kiss in the morning.
In fact, I’m afraid I’ll crave it.
28
Lily
Present
“Aspen, I repeat—for the fourth time—I think we’re about to hit a bad storm.” I close out of the weather app on my phone for the umpteenth time, as it’s only solidifying my own worry.
We’re about to hit a storm—a big one if the radar is correct—and Aspen is too busy being all carefree to give a shit.
“Lily, we’re in a vehicle. We’re going to be fine.” His thumbs dance against the steering wheel to the song playing on the radio, one that had to have been released twenty years before either of us were born, but it’s the only station coming in currently.
I look out the window, zeroing in on the looming storm cloud above us. Just as I’m about to open my mouth to remind him that Gladys is a tad untrustworthy, the sky opens up in a torrential downpour. The rain beats against the metal of the car loudly, drowning out the sound of the music playing inside.
We spent all of yesterday exploring Nashville together. Once we got past some of the weirdness between the two of us, we decided to use time to our advantage and do some exploring. Neither one of us had ever been there before, and it was nice to spend a mostly-carefree day with him. When I first agreed to road trip to South Carolina with him, I didn’t expect to agree to extend any amount of time in a city with him. But when he asked me to stay an extra day, with that infectious smile of his, I couldn’t say no.
“Where even are we?” I ask, looking out the window for clues. All I can really see is the open road of the two-lane highway, the cascading rain not helping the case. We were supposed to stop somewhere random for the night, but I haven’t been paying enough attention to the road signs to know where we are.
I’d been too obsessed with following the projection of the storm in relation to the little blue dot on my phone signifying our location.
“We’re getting close,” Aspen mumbles, looking down at his dash at something.
The rain starts pouring down even harder, making it difficult to see out the windshield. My nails dig into the upholstery of the passenger seat, my fingernails surely leaving half-moon marks. I’m trying not to make another comment when Aspen leans closer to the windshield to try to see better. Luckily, the sun hasn’t quite set yet, sparing us some lingering daylight for visibility.
But not a ton.
“Holy shit, batman!” I yell, as Aspen jerks the wheel to miss a giant deer in the middle of the road.
We bounce in our seats as Gladys drifts onto the uneven terrain of the shoulder. Aspen presses on the brakes, slowing down until we hear a distinct pop. The car jerks heavily to the right before coming to a complete stop.
The rain continues to beat against the car as we both sit in silence.
“What do we do?” I finally ask, raising my voice to be heard.
Aspen puts his hands behind his head, his eyes still trained ahead. “Well, do you want the good news or bad news?”
“Bad.”
He lets out a long exhale, his eyes finally finding mine. “The bad news is I don’t have a tire jack.”
Nodding my head, I push for more. “And the good news?”
“The good news is, I do have a spare tire for Gladys. Not too far back, I saw a sign for an upcoming town, which means we should be getting close to it. I’m sure they’ll have a place for us to stay the night and a store that has car parts.”
“That’s great, but how will we get there in the rain?” I ask.
“We’re going to have to walk,” he declares.
My jaw drops. “It’s pouring out there, Aspen.”
“Thank you, Captain Obvious.” He slides the hood of his sweatshirt over his head, then looks at me and gestures for me to do the same.
I narrow my eyes at him. “I’m not going out there.”
He shrugs, his hand resting on the door handle of Gladys. “Suit yourself, but you’ll be alone here. I don’t know how long it’ll take me to get a tire jack, but I’ll try to hurry.”
“Can’t we just call Triple A? Get a tow?” I look down at my phone, devastated to find I have no service.
Aspen slides his phone out of his pocket, confirming the same thing.
We’re utterly fucked.
I can sit in this car alone (practically begging to have myself end up on Crime Junkies) or, I can walk with Aspen to the nearest hint of civilization.
Before making my decision, I glance in both directions of the highway, looking for a hint of any other soul. Unfortunately, the highway is empty.
Suddenly, I miss Dallas and how incredibly busy it is. At least in Dallas there would be other people on the road at seven at night.
He shrugs and gets out of the car, talking over his shoulder in the process. “If you want to stay here, that’s fine by me, but I have to go get this sorted out.”
I roll my eyes, pulling my hood over my hair as I get out of the car. My Birkenstocks are about to get grossly soaked, but I don’t have a whole lot of options here. I follow after him, grumbling about how soaking wet I am.
“Maybe you should’ve just stayed in the car,” he says under his breath.
I don’t know why he’s suddenly in a mood, but he’s not getting away with being rude to me right now. I’m getting drenched just like he is.
“Okay, one, be nice. None of this is my fault. Two, we’ll figure this out. The storm won’t put us behind that much. I’m just as stressed as you are, so don’t take your frustration out on me. And three, what the fuck, Aspen? I thought we were done pretending to hate each other? We had almost a full day in Nashville with minimal bickering. Why the sudden mood swing?”
Aspen ignores me, continuing to put one foot in front of the other a few paces ahead of me. All I can see through the rain is his back. I stomp toward him, avoiding random pieces of wood along the side of the road.
As soon as I reach him, I stop directly in front of him, snapping my fingers in his face. “Hello? I’m talking down here.”
He glares at me, sidestepping around me and continuing on. “Nothing, Lily. Don’t worry about it,” he says, barely audible over the sound of the rain hitting the pavement.
Well, that freaking figures. The one time I’m ready to have a grown-up conversation with Aspen, he bails. At this point, it’s basically the definition of our relationship.
Lily and Aspen: Always teetering around real-life confrontation.
Usually I’d be standing there, waving my white flag, too exhausted to push him on it.
But today? He’s having this conversation with me one way or another.
29
Aspen
Past - Age Twenty-Two
The incessant knocking on the front door doesn’t stop. I wait for Maverick or Veronica to answer the door, but then I remember Maverick saying something about them not being home until late. I sigh, too comfortable in my bed to move. I was in the middle of typing a message out to Lily, wondering what she was doing tonight. It’s been a few weeks since the night we played spin the bottle.
Or…didn’t play spin the bottle.
She’d spent the night in my room, where we explored each other with desperate need. We didn’t go all the way, but it was fucking close. And now, I’m horny all the time, always wishing she was here to help ease the tension.
The two of us sneak little moments with each other when we can, but we have to stick to flirting over text most of the time.
It’s been easier to sneak around together. Selma’s back home with her parents. Maverick and Veronica have been too busy dancing around their feelings for each other—until finally giving in—to pay much attention to me and Lily.
The pounding on the door continues, finally making me shove the blankets off and head toward the door. When I tear the door open, I’m met with a disheveled Lily.
“About damn time,” she pants, swatting a stray piece of hair out of her face. It’s then that her eyes travel from my face, roaming down to my exposed chest. Her dark eyebrows raise. “Did you decide not to put on a shirt today?”
I prop my arm up against the doorframe, smirking at her. “I wasn’t expecting company. Nobody’s home.”
She tauntingly bites her lip. “Nobody’s home?”
“Nope.”
Lily takes a step closer to me. “Are you going to invite me in, then?”
I don’t budge from my spot in the doorway. “When did the lack of an invitation ever stop you?”
“Holy shit, you’re right.” She laughs, fitting her body through the small space around me. She breezes into the living room, not sparing me a second glance.
I close and lock the door behind her then follow her to my bedroom.
When I reach it, I close the door behind us, my back resting against the door as I watch her.
She stops in front of my bed, looking around the room before turning her attention on me. “Truth or dare?” she asks, shrugging off her jacket.
Her words cause my mind to briefly wander back to the time I first felt her lips on mine. If I wasn’t hard just by her presence in my room, I sure as hell am now. “Did I say I wanted to play games?” I shift my weight between my feet, moving away from the doorknob that was digging into my back.
Lily’s hands clutch the bottom of her shirt, pulling it up and over her head in one fluid motion. The only thing underneath is a piece of fabric that apparently counts for a bra. It’s violet, maybe mesh, and completely see-through. I lick my lips, staring at Lily’s peaked nipples.
She runs her hands over the spot where my stare rests. “Truth or dare, Aspen?” Her fingers pinch her nipple, completely distracting me.
Fine, if she wants to play a game, it’s a game she’ll get. I adjust my position, making sure to flex in the process, knowing her obsession with my abs. “Truth.”
She tsks. “Not what I wanted you to choose.”
I rub my palms together, looking up from her hands and making eye contact with her. A smile pulls at my lips. “I know.”
“Have you been thinking about me?” Her hands slowly run down her bare skin until they stop above her leggings. I can’t look away as she hooks her thumbs into the black fabric. Ever so slowly, she pulls the them down her body, stepping out of them when they pool at her feet. Lily stands in front of me then, in nothing but a matching set of lingerie.
Ignoring her question for the time being, I inspect every perfect inch of her body. The skin that keeps color to it, even in the dead of the winter. Her muscular thighs, the obvious dedication to the sport she loves written in every ripple. Those same thighs clench together under my hungry eyes. My gaze makes it to the delicate slope of her neck. To the spot I’ve loved biting during the past few weeks. The same spot that makes her squirm when my teeth nip at it and my tongue caresses it. I finally make it to her eyes, not missing the want written in them.
“I’m never not thinking about you,” I confess. Pulling myself from the doorway, I leisurely make my way over to Lily, where I fall to my knees directly in front of her. My hands splay out on the backs of her thighs, before lazily traveling up her smooth skin until they palm her ass. I look from the scrap of fabric in front of me and make eye contact with her.
“Truth or dare, Lily Bear?” I blow air toward her sensitive spot in front of me. “Choose wisely.” I slide the tips of my fingers underneath the fabric on her ass.
“Dare,” she says on a moan, watching me.
Chu
ckling, I look back to the space in front of me. Sliding my hands up her ass, I find the top of the sheer underwear and slowly tug it down. My teeth nip at the front of the fabric, helping me lower it. Once her panties are halfway down, and I’m met with the feminine scent of her arousal, I give her my dare. “Try not to wake the neighbors.”
In one swift movement, I push her against the bed, her body falling softly onto the rumpled blanket. I slide forward until I’m even with her again. Without warning, I seal my mouth against her, tossing her underwear aside in the process.
“Holy fuck,” she rasps, spreading her legs wider for me.
I hook a finger inside of her, smirking against her as she continues to moan louder and louder. Right when she begins to chase her release, I give one last swipe of my tongue and move my mouth to the inside of her thigh.
“Asshole,” Lily pants, squirming under my mouth.
Instead of responding, I bite down on her hip bone, making her gasp. My mouth trails all the way up her stomach, stopping to swipe over her nipple through her thin bra. “Talk nicely to me,” I demand, climbing on top of her.
My hips rest between her thighs, and I take in the sight of her thick hair spilling out over my sheets. Reaching around to her back, I swiftly unclasp her bra, throwing it away like I did her underwear.
“Since when did you ever like nice?” Lily croons, reaching up and pulling both my joggers and boxer briefs down. She threads her fingers behind my neck, pulling me down closer to her. Her lips trace the vein down my throat, biting down when they reach my shoulder.
I rock my hips against her, feeling her core against my dick for the first time.
“My god, Lily,” I breathe, sliding back and forth against her.
She’s scattering kisses against my stubble when I catch her mouth with mine, too tired of not feeling her lips against my own. As if on cue, her mouth opens for me instantly. I tangle my fingers in her hair as our bodies rock against the other’s. With one movement, I could be inside her for the first time—something I’ve wanted for way longer than I care to admit.
The Road to Finding Us: A Standalone Second Chance Romance (Aftershock Series Book 2) Page 16
