Falling Down

by Selena Kitt

  She followed him down the aisle with a shrug. “I don’t know. Got another Camaro lying around?”

  He snorted, steering the cart around the corner. “Okay, something bigger than a diploma, but smaller than a Camaro.”

  Lindsey didn’t really hear him. Brian was stocking laundry detergent on the end cap, his head down as he moved the inventory from box to shelf. He hadn’t seen her, but she knew he would the minute he glanced up. Zach steered the cart around him, apologizing, and she told herself to move, to follow, to pretend, but she her body was frozen in place. She didn’t know how they’d avoided each other so far—her computer lab was right next to his English class—but they had. Until now.

  “Lindsey?” Zach called her name, and the sound of it brought Brian’s head up like a shot, his eyes wide. Zach’s face scrunched in concern at her expression, but she couldn’t hide it, her gaze dipping down to meet Brian’s startled one.

  “Hi, Brian.” She couldn’t think of anything else to say.

  “Hi.” His response came in almost a whisper, his face paling even more as Zach maneuvered the cart back toward them.

  “Someone you know?” Zach inquired, his smile tight as he glanced down at the kid in the red vest stocking shelves. Lindsey didn’t have any idea what to say.

  “From school.” Brian stood quickly—the top of his head didn’t even come to Zach’s shoulder—and held out a hand to Zach, who shook it. “I’m Brian. Lindsey and I had chem together last year.”

  “Right,” Lindsey agreed with a nod, noting Zach’s preoccupied and calculating expression. She didn’t want to give him that much time to think about it. “See you Monday?”

  “Sure.” Brian kept sneaking looks up at Zach, and he looked more than a little scared. Lindsey wondered if she had a similar look on her face—she felt like she did, and like Brian, she just couldn’t help it. “See ya Monday.”

  Lindsey slipped between them and tugged at the front edge of the cart, leading Zach toward the next aisle—frozen foods, including ice cream, the perfect distraction.

  “Moose Tracks?” She opened one of the glass doors, the cool blast of air over her too-warm face a relief. She grabbed a quart of ice cream, holding it up for Zach to see. “Please? Pretty please?”

  “That’s Neapolitan.” Zach took it from her, putting it back on the shelf and grabbing a carton with antlers on it. “What was that about?” “Must have been having bad flashbacks to elementary school birthday parties,” she joked, tugging on the cart again.

  “Not the ice cream—that kid back there.” Zach’s grip on the cart now made it impossible to move.

  She sighed, giving up the tug of war, and told him part of the truth. “Just a guy I used to hang out with…before.”

  “Hang out?” He raised his eyebrows, already knowing.

  She rolled her eyes, taking advantage of the moment to tug the cart again. “Don’t make me say it, okay?”

  He gave in, moving along with the cart. “You sure that’s all?”

  “Waffles!” Lindsey pulled Eggos out of the freezer with a grin, another distraction.

  Zach put them back. “If you want waffles, I’ll make you real waffles.”

  “You promise?”

  He nudged her with the cart. “How about waffles on graduation day?”

  “I have to wait a week for waffles?” She pouted.

  “Sometimes the best things are worth waiting for.”

  She didn’t respond to that, but she flushed, accepting the kiss he put on the top of her head as he piled the cart with frozen vegetables and then headed toward the checkout. Lindsey snuck a pack of gum and a box of Tic-Tacs onto the conveyor belt and Zach didn’t notice until the last second, when the cashier, a blonde with a nose ring, held it up and asked, “Do you want these left out?”

  “Thanks!” Lindsey snagged them, giving Zach a grin before slipping them into her jeans pocket. He shook his head, but forked over his credit card without any reprimand and signed his name in a quick scrawl.

  “Quarter.” She held out her hand as they neared the machines, their fat glass jars revealing all sorts of cheap treasure, their red-painted tops screaming, “Stop here!”

  Zach dug into his front jeans pocket, pulling out the required coin. “Which one this time?”

  “Let’s try fancy jewelry.” Lindsey slid the quarter into the slot and turned the knob, hearing the gears inside click, loving the sound of the little plastic tub hitting the metal door.

  “Wait a minute.” He pressed his hand against hers as she reached for the metal flap, holding it there. “I want to tell you something.”

  The look on his face made her heart thud faster. “What?”

  “I love you.” His eyes softened as he studied her, looking up at him puzzled as carts pushed by, letting in the heat of the summer to compete with the store’s air conditioning with every pneumatic swing. “I don’t care who you’ve been with. I don’t care about anything that happened before. You know that, right?”

  She nodded, still not quite believing it could be true, but wanting to—desperately wanting to.

  “But I don’t want you to be with anyone else but me anymore, Lindsey.” His mouth tightened for a moment and she knew he was thinking about Brian. God, if he knew the truth…she blinked the thought away, looking up at him. He was serious now. “I’m going to be gone for months, and I want to trust you. I want to know you’re not going to run off to have a fling with some guy, just because you start feeling bad about yourself.”

  Her throat tightened and she blinked at him, unable to respond.

  “I want you to be mine, baby.” He touched her cheek, rubbing his thumb over her jaw line. “Forever. Can you do that? Will you do that?”

  “Oh Zach.” Her eyes filled with tears. Then he did something more than a little surprising. He sank to one knee on the grocery store tile in front of her. Panicked, she looked around to see who was looking, noting the indulgent smile of a woman with a fat little toddler in her cart as she passed by. Lindsey stage-whispered to him, “What are you doing?”

  “If there’s not a ring in here, I’m going to feel like a real idiot.” He grinned, lifting up the metal flap on the machine. A clear plastic tub with a blue cap dropped into his hand. He popped the top off and pulled out the ring inside—it was, indeed, a ring, quite apropos, with two connected silver hearts squeezed together in the center. “We’re in luck.”

  “Oh my god.” Lindsey grinned back at him and bit her lip as he held it up.

  “Lindsey, will you marry me?”

  There was a crowd gathering now—the mother with the toddler had looked back and caught on to what was happening and stopped in the doorway, blocking the exit. Carts were backing up behind her, and they were all watching. Lindsey’s face burned, but tears stung her eyes as she flung her arms around his neck.

  “Yes,” she whispered against his ear, trying hard not to cry in the middle of the grocery store. “I’m all yours.”

  He grinned up at her, and she couldn’t help laughing at his goofy expression—he knew it was silly, a proposal with a fake ring in the middle of Sav-Way—but Zach’s hand actually shook as he slid the silver ring onto the appropriate finger, and she knew it wasn’t a joke. Not really. The look in his eyes told her that. He really loved her, he wanted her, and he was willing to claim her.

  “She said yes?” The woman with the toddler called. She was grinning, too.

  Lindsey nodded. “Yes!” she called back as Zach stood and pulled her into his arms, kissing her hard in front of everyone. That’s when they all started cheering, and she laughed through her tears, looking over to see the little girl in the cart, clapping along with everyone else, but looking bewildered. She knew just how she felt.

  There were various congratulations as the line began to move again, and carts filed out of the store. Lindsey didn’t say anything as they got in line and Zach pushed them out to the parking lot and started loading up the trunk.

  “My finger’s g
oing to be green in twenty-four hours.” She grinned as she leaned against the side of the car, squeezing the two hearts together to make the ring stay on better.

  “I know.” He laughed. “I promise, I’ll get you a real one when I come home.”

  “I like this one.” Lindsey leaned over and kissed his cheek. “I’m going to keep it.”

  He stopped loading groceries to put his arms around her and kiss her again, soft this time, but full of something she knew he’d been holding back for a long time, and that sent a familiar feeling tingling through her body as she pressed herself back against him, wanting him, too. He nuzzled her neck, her ear, and whispered, “I’m going to keep you.”

  “Promise?” she teased.

  “Yeah, I do.” He kissed her again in response, deeper this time, longer, and she gasped when they parted and he grinned. “So, now what do you want for graduation?”

  “Nothing.” She pressed her cheek against his chest, smiling across the parking lot and watching the young mother load her groceries and toddler into her car. “I have everything I want.”

  —

  “You’re amazing!”

  Lindsey blushed, nudging Zach with her bare knee as she typed away on his laptop. The phone rang, but Zach had it set to go straight to message. Lindsey frowned when she heard her mother’s voice.

  “Do you want me to get that?” he asked.

  “No.” She made a face at the phone. “Don’t.”

  “I had no idea you could do that.” He changed the subject, watching, incredulous, as she saved the spreadsheet she’d created so he could keep track of his new recruits.

  “This is nothing.” Lindsey snorted. “I used to hack into the school’s computer mainframe all the time. When my stepdad started complaining about my grades, they suddenly got a lot better.”

  Zach raised his eyebrows, shaking his head. “If only I could get you to use your powers for good.”

  “But being bad can feel so good,” she teased, closing the laptop and setting it on the coffee table before swinging her leg over to straddle him.

  He groaned when she pulled her robe apart—that was new, too, red satin and short—to reveal she wasn’t wearing anything underneath. The herbal baths Zach insisted she take after dinner every night had really helped heal her body much faster than she thought possible and her hair was still damp as she leaned in to kiss him. He tasted like the sweet ginger she’d used in the stir-fry she’d made for dinner.

  “Let’s be bad,” she whispered, moving her hips in little circles, feeling him thickening through his jeans.

  His hands moved under her robe, over the smooth expanse of her back, making her eyes close with pleasure. He’d touched her since—to bandage her, care for her—

  but they hadn’t touched each other like this, and she had that desperate, hungry feeling in her belly.

  “Are you sure you’re ready for that?” His voice was controlled and cautious, but his eyes devoured the sight of her straddling his lap.

  She took his hand and slid it between her thighs, kneeling up to give him better access. “More than ready, I think…”

  He groaned as he slipped a finger between her smooth-shaved lips and Lindsey rocked her hips forward and back in response, sliding her pussy against his hand.

  “I don’t want to hurt you,” he murmured as he slid a finger inside, making her gasp at the sweet sensation.

  “You can’t possibly.” She leaned in, offering her breasts, and he closed his eyes and gave in, sucking gently at first one, then the other. The black and blue marks there had faded to pale yellow shadows, and the pink buds of her nipples grew cherry red and hard under the slow lash of his tongue.

  But she couldn’t take too much of that focused attention, and she slithered down between his thighs, unzipping his jeans and freeing his cock. He was rock hard, standing straight up, and he watched her through half-closed eyes as she worked her tongue around the head and down the shaft over and over, bathing him with her saliva.

  “Come here,” he murmured, tugging on her arm, but she didn’t want to break the suction on his cock, swallowing almost half of him. When she resisted, he reached down and grabbed her hips, pulling her horizontal beside him on the sofa so he could reach underneath her, tweaking her nipples as she slid him further and further into her throat. The size of him made her gag, but she she persisted, hungry and eager.

  “Don’t choke, baby,” he urged, his breath coming faster as she worked between his legs, her hair falling in a silken cascade over his thighs.

  “I like it,” she gasped, giving up her mission only momentarily.

  He groaned as she resumed her furious pace, her hand cupping the heavy weight of his balls, massaging gently, feeling them getting tighter and tighter as he groaned in pleasure. His hand slipped further down her belly, finding her clit and rubbing it, first back and forth, then round and round, her hips involuntarily following the same motion.

  “Ahhhh god, baby, you’re gonna—”

  Lindsey squeezed the head of his cock—hard—coming up for air and admiring the shiny wet swollen head, nearly purple in color now, a product of her hard work.

  “Oh no you don’t,” she warned, climbing into his lap and rubbing the tip back and forth between her slit. He gasped, his eyes closing, his mouth tightening, lips pursed. “I want you in me.”

  “Wait,” he murmured, shaking his head and grabbing her hips, sliding her further up so she was straddling his belly. “You do that now and it’ll be over in seconds.”

  “I don’t mind.” She nuzzled his ear, gasping in surprise when he stood with her in his arms, stepping out of his jeans and boxers as he headed toward the bedroom.

  “I mind,” he said, kissing her onto the bed, his tongue following a quick, determined path down her belly before she could even get the words out to protest, his mouth covering her mound.

  “Zach,” she objected, trying to wiggle away, but his hands on her hips held her fast, his tongue moving in delicious circles against her clit, not teasing, going straight for her pleasure center, focusing there. Her hands pressed his, useless against his strength, at first trying to dislodge him, and then, as the sensation grew, grabbing at him, pulling, her hips rolling under the hungry caress of his tongue.

  “Oh god, oh no,” she whimpered as his hands moved from her hips to her breasts, his fingers nudging her nipples hard, his tongue unwavering. She tried to fight the feeling, writhing on the bed as if his actions were painful, and in a way, they were—surrendering herself to her own pleasure, to his attention, made her shudder in torment.

  But eventually, he won out, and she resigned herself to the humbling and powerfully slick frenzy between her thighs, her nails digging into his arms as she gave him her climax, hips pumping, thighs trembling, her soft cries of pleasure betraying the sweet torture of her body. She was glad Zach took his time as her breathing returned to normal again, kissing her pussy lips, her thighs, his hands roaming the soft curves of her hips and belly and breasts—she didn’t think she could look into his eyes again so soon.

  But then he was there, on her, sliding into her, whispering, “Are you sure?” Her only response was to meet his first thrust with a her own and she buried her face against his neck as he began to move. Nothing had prepared her, nothing could have. She’d never felt this way before, and while her panicked mind raced, her body inevitably responded, giving into the weight and drive and purpose of him.

  “Zach,” she whispered, wanting to ask him to stop, to never stop, afraid of what was coming, and aching for it at the same time. “Oh please…”

  He slowed, his cock throbbing between her legs, and she squeezed him with her muscles, an encouragement, making him groan.

  “Are you okay?” He searched her face for a sign, and she swallowed, fighting to keep it in, everything in, just nodding. His head cocked as he looked at her, and then he rolled, taking her with him, and she found herself straddling him in the middle of the bed. She could do this—her rob
e slid down over her shoulders, and then she went to work on the buttons on his shirt, spreading it so she could run her hands over the hard muscles of his chest and belly. When they were naked, she began to ride him, rocking forward and back at first, then rolling her hips, making him moan and grab her ass as she moved.

  She hadn’t counted on his hands spanning her little hips, his thumbs opening her pussy lips, trapping her clit between them as she fucked him faster and faster. The feeling was maddening, driving her to distraction, until she forget entirely about getting him off and focused solely on the hot friction between her legs as he strummed her clit.

  “Come for me, baby,” he said as she balanced herself with her hands splayed on his chest, feeling weak, lightheaded, unable to control herself or anything at all. “Come on, Lindsey. Give it to me.”

  She gasped, the heat between them too incredible to resist, and she gave him exactly what he wanted, shuddering with her orgasm, her thighs and pussy squeezing him, her hands balled into fists, still fighting, but there was no point anymore. Collapsing against his chest, she buried her face against the side of his sweat-slick neck, and he wrapped one arm around her waist, the other hand he used to grip her ass and guide himself into her.

  “You feel so good,” he groaned, his cock thrusting up, in, over and over. “God, you’re so sweet, so good…” She shook her head, but hung on tight, taking him into her again and again. “Oh baby, I’m going to come so hard!”

  She gasped as he thrust one last time, deep and hard, driving them both up off the bed with it. He held her to him so tightly she thought she might break, but she didn’t care, clinging to him as he spilled himself completely into her. His cock pulsed between her thighs, and she squeezed him, making him shudder and growl and thrust again. He held on when she went to move, not letting her go, his hands moving over her back, through her hair, his breathing still harsh and ragged as he kissed her mouth, her cheek, her ear, the top of her head.

  “Are you okay?” he asked again, trying to get her to lift her head so he could see her eyes. She shook her head, feeling the sobs welling, and knew she was going to be unable to stop them. Her quivering body gave her away before the wetness of her tears did, and Zach sat up, cradling her in his lap.