by CL Rowell
Chapter Sixteen
Juliet
∞∞∞
“Now would be a good time if you wanted to stop.”
Why would he say that? Did he suspect the truth? I stared at him, debating, more inclined to say no. After all, how could he? I’ve dated through the years of our friendship. Jocks, mostly, as was expected of me as a cheerleader—football players, more often than not. Everyone knows how they are. They don’t date virgins; why should they when so many girls are willing to put out for them? They dated me, though. Maybe they hoped to be the one to get lucky—to get bragging rights. A few—like the quarterback—even lied and said they bedded me to protect their reputations as ladies’ men…and I didn’t deny it. Why bother? It would have been my word against theirs. Who was going to believe me over a handsome, popular jock who could have any woman he wanted?
“Don’t stop…please, Geoff, don’t stop.” It was the very first time in my twenty-four years of life that I’d ever said those words to a guy, but I meant it. I didn’t want him to stop. I wanted him to be my first. Maybe that was why I taunted him earlier, pushing him to his limits. I knew it would be easier for me to be brave if he didn’t give me a choice.
I kicked my thong off and watched as he lined his impressive length up with my entrance. I took deep breaths, trying not to let nerves make me tense up as I wondered in the back of my mind if it would hurt too terribly bad. What if he didn’t fit? That thought almost made me laugh. Of course, he would fit. Then I felt a stretching and a slight burning sensation as he pushed the tip inside of me—just the tip—and suddenly I was second guessing myself. What if I was wrong?
“God, you’re tight,” he groaned, biting down on his lip and grimacing. “How can you be so tight?”
I tensed up a little, clamping down on the head of his cock as I did. He jerked as I squeezed him, driving his hips forward, and I lost my breath at the sharp ripping stab of pain. Oh, holy hell, it hurt. I opened my mouth to say so, to ask him to wait, but I couldn’t breathe—and without breath there can be no words.
“You feel incredibly amazing. I can’t wait any longer—I need to be inside you.” He pushed forward again, burying his hard length inside my virgin tunnel…and finally, I found my voice.
“Aaahhhh! Wait!” I blinked back a rush of scalding hot tears as I panted, waiting for the burning to subside. He froze.
“Juliet…is there something you need to tell me?”
“Not anymore,” I sniffled, wiping incriminating moisture from my temples.
“Was there anything you forgot to mention?” He tried to catch my eye, but I avoided his gaze. “Juliet? Juliet? Were…were you…a virgin?”
“Maybe.” I silently berated myself over the quaver in my voice.
“Maybe?”
“Let’s just say I hope you aren’t attached to these sheets.”
“Why?”
“Do you know anything about virgins?”
“A little,” he leaned back, unintentionally pressing his hips harder against mine and igniting a tiny tingle of pleasure deep inside me as he did. “Do you want me to stop?”
“No!” My eyes flew to meet his and I wrapped my legs around his thighs to hold him inside me. “I presume the worst is over? Stopping now would be like closing the gate after the horse escapes the barn. Let’s keep going.”
“You’re sure?”
I nod, wiping my eyes again. “I’m sure.”
“I still wish you’d told me.” He started to move and heat—a better heat—ignited in my lower belly.
“Would you have kept going if I’d told you that you’d be my first?”
“I don’t know…”
I lifted both brows and gave him a look. “Seriously?”
“Fine.” He rolled his eyes in exasperation. “No, I probably wouldn’t have continued.”
“And that’s why I didn’t tell you.”
“Ass.” His grin was lopsided, but it was there and that was what counted. He gathered me closer and cradled me in his arms. “I want to make you cum.”
“You already did.”
“Fine…I want to make you cum again.”
I blew a stream of air toward my forehead, refusing to get my hopes up despite the rapidly multiplying tingles in my girly bits. “Do you know the odds of a female coming during actual sex?”
He opened his mouth, closed it, and opened it again. “Not off the top of my head,” he finally admitted, adding a swivel at the top of each powerful thrust, and grinding his pelvic bone against my clit. “Do you?”
“Not anymore.” I wrapped my legs around his waist and raked my fingers down his muscular back as my mind went blank. “Ooohhh…”
He nipped at my earlobe. “I’d say my odds are sounding pretty good right now.”
I would too, but I wasn’t going to admit it. “Don’t stop.”
“Wasn’t planning on it.”
I giggled. “Anyone ever tell you that you talk too much?”
“Just you…why?” He gripped the mattress above my head, pistoning his hips into me hard enough to make my breasts bounce against his chest.
“I can’t concentrate.” I dug my nails into his back and tightened my legs high on his waist, meeting him thrust for thrust, “And I’m so close!”
“Need a hand?” He let go of the mattress and eased one hand between us.
“What are you doing?” He wet his thumb in my copious excitement and circled my clit once, twice, three times. My hips arched off the bed. “Oh god, Geoff, I’m coming!”
“Juliet! Fuuuuuck!” He lost his stride, pounding into me in a wild pulsing out-of-control rhythm before finally going limp on top of me. “Damn…I think you broke my dick.”
I shoved him off to the side so the breeze from the ceiling fan could cool my overheated skin. “Dicks don’t break, silly.”
“Tell him that.” He nuzzled closer, wrapping himself around me. “That pussy clamped down so tight he turned purple.”
“How do you know? Did you see it?”
“Didn’t have to. I could feel your pulse pounding through the walls wrapping around me like a boa constrictor—now that’s tight.”
I yawned, “You’re so full of shit.”
“I’m wounded.”
“Mmm hmm, doubt it.” I closed my eyes for a short second and remembered nothing else until I woke up in the middle of the night, starving—and having to pee so bad I was positive my eyes were yellow. After an unsuccessful attempt at untangling our limbs I gave up. “Geoff…” I shook him, “Geoff, wake up and let me up.”
“Just stay the night. It’s late,” he mumbled and snuggled closer.
“Move.” I winced as his arm pressed against my bladder. “If you don’t let me up, I will pee on you.”
“What? Why didn’t you say so?” He rolled away, clapping his hands.
A lamp flickered on and I squinted in the sudden brightness. “Gee, thanks for the warning.”
“Sorry.” I saw his eyes widen as he glanced around the bed. “Holy hell, it looks like we killed someone in here.” It did, too.
My stomach picked that moment of silence as we surveyed the damage to grumble—loudly. I ducked my head in an effort to hide my blazing cheeks.
“Sorry.”
“This makes you hungry?”
“No, you big oaf—you never fed me. I’m starving because we skipped dinner. Do I look like a freaking vampire?”
“We did, didn’t we?” He grinned. “I’ll make you a deal. Grab a t-shirt out of the middle drawer of my dresser and get a shower so that you no longer look like I performed a ritual sacrifice over your body. While you’re doing that, I’ll clean up this mess and reheat our food.”
“What about you? You need a shower, too.”
“Don’t worry about me. I’ll—” The door to his bedroom swung open. We gaped. “Mom?”
Chapter Seventeen
Geoff
∞∞∞
“Mom, what are you doing here?” I covered
my lower half with a blood-speckled sheet as Juliet disappeared, silent as a shadow, into the bathroom.
“I’ve been calling you all night. When you didn’t answer I decided to use the spare key you left at the house just to make sure you were okay.” She scowled at me; censure heavy in her gaze. “You might not stay on the line long, but you’ve never just not answered the phone.”
I glanced around the room, belatedly remembering setting my phone on the kitchen counter by the food. “Sorry…uhh, we got distracted. My phone is still downstairs.”
“So I saw. Do I want to know what happened up here? Why does your bed look like a crime scene? Is that catsup—or actual blood?”
“It was…” I glanced toward the bathroom door when I heard the shower cut off, “her first time. I didn’t realize it so I wasn’t exactly gentle—” Even I could hear the self-loathing in my voice, but I figured why hide it? I caused my Juliet pain and consequently, I felt like the lowest of the low. “I hope she doesn’t hate me now.”
She sighed beneath her breath, pressed her fingers to her forehead and closed her eyes, slowly wagging her head side to side, “Don’t beat yourself up over it, Geoff. It’s not like you did it on purpose. Some women just bleed more than others. In all honesty, it probably would have been even more painful if you’d known and tried to go slow.”
“That doesn’t make me feel any less guilty, though.” I stood up, wrapping the sheet around me so I could grab a t-shirt for Juliet. I grabbed a pair of shorts, too. “I don’t feel comfortable discussing this with my mother, though. What was so important that it couldn’t wait?”
“Oh…yes! Sorry! It slipped my mind for a second in the excitement. Your father is insisting on seeing you—both of you, actually.”
“In the middle of the night?” I tapped on the bathroom door before opening it and passing the clothes through. Afterwards, I closed it again and started pulling the bedding in preparation of doing laundry. I sucked in a quick breath when I saw the condition of the mattress—it was beyond saving—but shrugged it off. Hell, I could afford an entire hotel’s worth of mattresses and still have money left once I received my trust fund.
“I know it sounds crazy but that was when he seemed to snap out of the lethargic effect of the drugs. He kept insisting he’d given you both the wrong impression and protesting that he had to make it right and how it couldn’t wait.” Her words snapped me out of my frozen state, and I turned to face her as she continued to speak. “I kept trying to reach you and he became more inconsolable with each failed attempt. He refused to let them give him any pain medication until I promised him I’d keep trying.” Tears sparkled in her eyes, defying gravity, not daring to fall and smear her makeup. “I don’t know how he’ll take the news if the two of you aren’t there when he wakes up. Please say you’ll come to the hospital with me.”
“Let me get cleaned up, and put these in the wash, and let us eat—because we haven’t even had dinner yet. After that, we’ll—or at least I’ll—go to the hospital with you.”
“I’ll come, too,” Juliet offered from the bathroom door. She glanced at the bare mattress, turning crimson at the sight of the scarlet blotch that seemed even brighter against the stark white surface. “Sorry for ruining your bed.”
“Oh, good grief,” my mother threw her hands in the air, “the state of the mattress is no more your fault than you bleeding was his. Both of you need to stop trying to shoulder the blame for shit and learn to lighten up. You were a virgin—some virgins bleed. Should you have used a towel? Maybe. Are either of you more to blame because you didn’t? No.”
My chin hit my chest. “You said shit.”
“Yes, I did, and I’m going to say a lot worse if the two of you don’t snap out of it. You should be singing I Just Had Sex at the top of your lungs and dancing to beat the band, not moping around because a little blood christened your bed. Guess what—if you two end up giving me a few grand babies, this blood isn’t jack to what you’ll see then. You think your dick caused her pain? Wait until she’s squeezing out an eight-pound bundle of joy—now, that’s pain.”
“Mom!”
“Don’t you Mom me. Give me those sheets and get your rear in the shower. Juliet can reheat your dinner while I toss these in the washer, and you get cleaned up. We’ll never get to the hospital at this rate. Sheesh!”
After a record-breaking shower, I was downstairs in fifteen minutes, dressed and ready to go. The smell of the food hit me halfway down the stairs and my stomach roared. I was ravenous. I made a beeline for the kitchen. Finding Juliet at the stove in an apron, I dropped a kiss on her cheek, “Something smells good.”
“It’s the pizza…or maybe it’s the coffee.” Her cheeks appeared rosier than could be blamed merely on the heat of the oven. “I figured if I wanted coffee, we could all probably use some.”
“Smart girl.”
“Thanks.”
Mom poked her head back in the kitchen, “Do I smell fresh coffee? I’d kill for a cup right about now.”
“Yes, ma’am, Juliet made some.”
She nodded, “I always knew she was a keeper. If you’re smart, you’ll hang on to that one.”
“Oh, believe me, I intend to.”
“Who’s hungry?” My fiancée’s voice cracked and she cleared her throat as her cheeks went from crimson to fire engine red. “Pizza’s ready.”
Chapter Eighteen
Juliet
∞∞∞
“Oh, believe me, I intend to.”
Did he mean it or was he just saying what he thought his mother needed to hear—and what he needed to say to get his hands on the money his grandmother left him? The words pierced right through my heart, stinging as much as, if not more than, her baby comments upstairs. It had been all I could do to keep my expression neutral as I belatedly realized we had forgotten to use a condom in the heat of the moment.
A million thoughts raced through my head. What if there was a baby from what we’d done? Would he stand by me? What if he asked me to get rid of it? There was no way I could abort a child conceived between us. Would he hate me if I refused? Was it even possible to conceive your first time? I mentally shook my head at my kaleidoscopic train of thought. What was I, an idiot? Any fool knew it was possible to get pregnant your first time.
Sending a prayer skyward, I grabbed my coffee, snagged a couple pieces of pizza, and sat at the table. I forced myself to take bites, working my way through what I put on my plate, not wanting to face the questions that I knew would surely arise if I didn’t eat at least a slice or two. Hell, that was half of the reason why we were up. I mean, sure, we would have been roused when his mom came into the room anyway, but that’s a moot point. We weren’t.
After we finished our impromptu meal, I asked if we could detour by my dorm room so I could change. Once there, I ran into Anna, and of course she wanted to know how my evening went.
“Are you just now getting back?”
“I’m just stopping by to change clothes—and I’m kind of in a hurry.” Of course, she didn’t catch the hint.
“Are you going to be back later tonight? We do have classes on Monday and Tuesday, you know.”
“I know. Geoff is still going to school here too, you know. I could just wait and ride in with him in the morning.”
“You could, but why would you?”
I simply smiled. “Look, Geoff and his mom are waiting for me. I really have to go. Maybe I’ll see you later.”
“Okay, I’ll see you later.”
As a direct result of the delay, the sun was just starting to lighten the horizon when we pulled into the hospital parking lot and hurried inside. He was wide awake and waiting for us when we tiptoed into the private room.
“Well, it’s about time. I thought you’d deserted me in my hour of need.”
“Watch it, husband. I could still turn around and go home if you don’t show a little appreciation.”
“You know I appreciate you, woman. Quit your fishing.”<
br />
I watched, lingering near the relative safety of the door, as they sparred—until he noticed me, anyway.
“Come closer. I won’t bite,” he invited, motioning for me and pointing at the chair by the bed as he said it.
“I wouldn’t trust him,” Vera cautioned me. “He might.” But she was smiling when she said it so I knew she was kidding.
“Oh, hush, woman.” He turned to me and Geoff. “The reason I asked her to bring you here is because I wanted to apologize for frightening you—and I wanted to thank you. My doctors have informed me that the two of you most certainly saved my life. That’s a debt I can never repay.”
“You owe us nothing,” Geoff protested, and I nodded.
“Yeah, what he said. You don’t owe us anything.”
“Yes, I do.” He grew serious. “I owe my son a huge apology—”
“No, you don’t,” he protested, tugging at the neck of his t-shirt.
“Yes, I do. I conspired to keep part of your inheritance from you—”
“Dad, I know—”
“No, you don’t. Let me talk.”
“I was at the bar. I overheard you and Grandpa talking—maybe I didn’t hear everything, but I heard enough.”
“You did?” His eyes goggled.
“I did.”
“And you said nothing?” He turned red from the neck of his hospital gown to the top of his head. “But, why? If it had been me and my father, I’d have disowned him right there in front of God and everyone!”
“That’s not who I am.”
“I see…” he studied both of us. “So…are you really engaged—or are you just pretending because your father is a greedy jerk?”
“If you’d seen the condition his bed was in when I arrived at his house you wouldn’t be asking that,” his wife announced, tongue-in-cheek. I blushed, transferring my gaze to the floor as I wished for the ability to become invisible.
“Meaning?” I could feel the weight of his eyes on us as he asked, but I refused to look up.
She, on the other hand, was more than happy to explain. “Remember the state the hotel bed was in after our wedding night?”
