Rob must have other plans because he draws back and I open my eyes to find him removing his boxers, positioning himself between my legs. Just as I’m about to stop him before he doesn’t use something, he reaches over into the drawer of his nightstand and grabs a condom.
He places the condom in front of my mouth and my teeth clamp down on the foil packet. With the use of my teeth, he rips it open and pulls out the condom. “Good girl,” he says, placing it over the top of his dick. My fingers reach to help and he doesn’t turn me away. Instead he leans back and gives me all of him. “So damn hot,” he murmurs, watching as I slide the condom down his length. My thighs squeeze together to push back the sparks of my burning orgasm.
After the protection is in place, he flips us over so I’m straddling him. “I have to see you on top.” His hands mold along my hips as he guides me down on him. I gasp when he’s fully encased inside of me and I can barely move. I’ve never felt this full and I never want to forget this incredibly erotic moment between us. “Fuck . . . you feel so good.”
His words do nothing but spur my own arousal higher. A low growl rumbles from my chest. “So do you.” I moan, my eyes dropping to his heaving chest and then his blazing eyes.
Since I’ve failed to start our motion of bodies from selfishly wanting to prolong it as long as possible, Rob rolls his hips and when I suck in a breath, he picks up the pace. Quickly, I join in, needing to feel more of him. His hands reach up and take my aching breasts and when his thumbs roll along my nipples, I arch my back, my hands landing on his thighs.
Once we find our groove, I can’t help the feeling of explosions quickly forming inside of me. I clench to keep me from falling off the edge. When Rob’s hands squeeze my ass, at the same time as he thrusts deep inside of me, I quickly become weak and burst out as I cry, “Rob.”
He rides me out, his thumb massaging my clit as the waves of ecstasy slowly turn to ripples. Once my body stops twitching, he flips me over, and pins my hands on top of my head. He hammers inside of me and I feel my ecstacy building again, but try to match his speed for Rob to find his own release. A few minutes later, his sweat-slicked body holds still inside of me as his body collapses on top of me.
As he rests, I unclasp my ankles, allowing my legs to fall to the side and my hands reach across his shoulders. He nuzzles his face into my neck as my fingers lazily flow up and down his back. His breathing goes from labored to slow and steady. He doesn’t rush to get off me or even withdraw from me. Instead he stays in place allowing me to show him how great making love can be.
He picks up his head and peers down at me. “Man, you’re an animal.” I smack his back, smiling up at him and he gives me a quick peck before pulling out of me. He pushes from the bed, and walks out of the room. “Stay put.”
I HOLD MYSELF up, gripping the counter in front of the mirror and take a long breath after stepping out of my room to go to the bathroom. I toss the condom in the trash can and gain the courage I need for this next step. Do not do a dick move.
When I step out in the hallway, I’m surprised to find Chrissy trudging up the stairs with Dex right behind her. I dodge back into the bathroom and shut the door, grabbing my towel to wrap around myself. Knowing she heard me, I try to listen for footsteps that go into their room, but instead it’s luggage that hits the hardwood floor. Two seconds later a knock hits the bathroom door.
I open it a sliver and peer out to a very tired Chrissy. She has dark circles under her eyes and her hair is in a sloppy pony tail. “Damn girl, what the hell happened to you?” I attempt to lighten the mood because from the scour on her face, she’s pissed about something and I don’t want to add more fuel to her anger.
“Don’t even ask. I just want my bed.” She peers down the hall and I hear the rolling luggage being wheeled into their room.
“Well then, go.” She stares down at my arm that’s pressed against the door.
“You got a tattoo?” she questions, staring at me wearily.
“Yeah.” I’m short and sweet to end this conversation quickly. She peers down the other way to a dark room that Paige usually fills.
“Have you seen Paige? Her car is out there.” She narrows her eyes at me and I open the door, holding my hands up.
“No, last I saw her she was with some dipshit at Aces.” I half-lie, half-truth. I am a dipshit.
“Oh, I wish you would have kept a better eye on her.” I follow her out to the hall and she waits a second by her own door. Second-guessing what I just told her. “Who’s in there?” She nods her head toward my door and I shake my head at her, giving her a cocky smirk to make her assume a girl.
“Just a little fun,” I remark and my hand reaches the doorknob, hoping to escape this inquisition of Chrissy’s.
“Alright. Well, I guess I’ll see you in the morning.” She turns around to go into her room and I catch Dex sprawled out on the bed, already in his boxers. Not sure what happened to them, but I’ll find out in the morning.
I open the door to my bedroom and the first thing I notice is my empty bed. Maybe I didn’t need to give myself the pep talk in the bathroom. Paige is bent over, picking up her clothes, her naked ass in the air. “Even though the view is nice, what are you doing?” I ask, coming behind her and wrapping my arms around her waist.
She wiggles in my arms for me to set her free. “I would have preferred you naked waiting for me in my bed,” I softly say in her ear and I feel her squirm from the goose bumps I ignited.
“For some more fun.” She sneers and I step back, chuckling to myself.
“Turn around, baby,” I whisper and she shakes her head. Her clothes are bundled in her arms as she refuses to face me. “I’m not going to ask twice, come on.” I urge her and slowly she twists in my grip.
“What?” Her sight casts down to the floor, so, I press my pointer finger under her chin and force her to look at me. Those hazel irises shimmer with sadness and my gut wrenches that I brought her doubts to the surface.
“You aren’t just some fun for me. I said that to Chrissy, so she’d lay off.” Her eyes widen and the sides of her mouth begin to curl up. “Paige, I knew you’d be more than a one-night thing before I allowed myself to fully indulge in you.”
“You did?” Her pants drop out of her arms and plop to the floor. When she bends down to retrieve them, I draw her into me.
In the split second she’s in my arms, I know it’s time. Time she knows exactly what happened to me all those years ago. The reason I am who I am and why it took me so long to accept this between us. Since I’m positive I’ll do a million more bone head moves, she needs to know why.
“Stay here tonight,” I softly ask in her ear and her cheek rubs against mine, silently agreeing to my request.
I grab her hand and lead her to my bed. Once her naked body is tucked under my comforter, I toss my towel and crawl in next to her. Wrapping her body against mine, she rests her head on my shoulder as my fingers graze back and forth down her spine.
“I was seventeen,” I begin and she places her hand on my heart, which somehow slows the rapid beating.
“You don’t have to—”
“Yeah, I do. I want to.” That seems to appease her because her body relaxes in my hold and I inhale her fruity shampoo before I continue. “So, my girlfriend, Carly, and I were driving home from a basketball game one night. We lived in a small country town, so once you’re out of the downtown area, it’s dark country roads with no street lights.” I take a deep breath, preparing for the worst part to come. Where she’ll see me as someone different. So, I need that one last broadened and innocent smile from her. “Look at me, please.”
She peeks up at me, resting her chin on her hand splayed across my heart. If she only knew how it felt, like she contained the power to magically piece it back together. “You really are beautiful.” Her hazel eyes light up at my compliment and she tilts her head into my palm.
“Thank you.”
I grab the last ounce of strength before I wim
p out. “We’d been dating for two years and planned to attend Western together in the fall. The Mill River basketball team had just beaten our nemesis and everyone from our school was on a high. Carly was messing around, unbuckling herself, she kept leaning over the center console, kissing my neck, and grabbing my dick. I continued to fight her as I weaved around roads I knew like the back of my hand. There wasn’t a curve, or bend I didn’t expect.” I release a breath and her arms tighten around me again.
“She wouldn’t accept no and unzipped my jeans. I figured she was going to jerk me off, but then she leaned down and took me in her mouth.” I allow that to sink in before continuing.
When Paige doesn’t react, I figure I might as well just let her have it all. “Without going into too much detail, I got distracted and must have closed my eyes because suddenly headlights were shining right into our window. I swerved and over corrected the car, making us skid off the road and right through a fence.” Paige takes a deep breath and tries to cover up a gasp. “By the time the car stopped, I had gripped Carly’s head so tight into my stomach she was slapping me to let her go. Startled, my hands flew off her and sprung up. The two of us just stared right ahead at a tree five feet in front of us.” My heartbeat picks up and Paige nuzzles into my neck, and her hand remains right above my heart. Thank God for her patience in letting me get this out in pieces.
I swallow and flex my fists open that must have reflexively closed. “At first I forgot about the other car, more worried about Carly and if she was okay. Then it clicked and I threw open my door and fell to my knees. The other car’s front end was . . . completely smashed. They must have over-corrected like I did and instead of a tree, they hit a power line pole. I screamed for Carly to call 911 and ran across the dark road. When I reached the dark sedan, I lost all breath and almost collapsed.” Paige’s head rises up and she stares into my eyes with confusion. “It was Carly’s dad slumped over the steering wheel with blood dripping out of his mouth.”
“Oh, Rob.” Her hand leaves my heart and she kindly brushes it against my head like my mother used to do when I was little and had gotten hurt.
Disregarding her calm demeanor because what else can she say, I killed a man. “I opened the door and felt his wrist but he had no pulse. Right as I went to feel his back for breathing, I heard Carly’s footsteps on the pavement and I whipped around to stop her.” Carly’s screams are still real in my head. Blood curdling roars burst out of her when she recognized the car. “He was dead. I had killed him.”
Unable to sit still any further, I gently remove Paige’s naked body off of me and swing my feet over the bed, burying my head in my hands. The mattress dips when she rushes over to me, placing her head on my back as her arms squeeze around my middle.
“I can barely piece together the two months after that. At first I was going to jail for reckless driving that turned manslaughter, then I was off because Carly’s dad had alcohol in his system, until finally my lawyer came in and said the family wasn’t pursuing any charges. From the second her family ran into the Emergency Room that night, Carly was gone. She couldn’t face me, couldn’t talk to me, and eventually she hopped on a plane to California.”
“And you came to Western?” she whispers.
“Yeah, I haven’t seen her since the court hearing. She wrote me an email when she left. She said, she couldn’t stick around knowing we caused her father’s death. That she could never look at me the same way, and love wasn’t enough for us anymore.” My eyes well up, but I tighten my eyelids to keep them back.
“It wasn’t your fault.” She’s so sweet, telling me what everyone else assures me of, but that doesn’t change my guilt. My constant replay of the events and how I could have done something—anything—different.
“I should have been firmer. I could have slowed down, pulled over.”
“You were young.”
“That doesn’t remove my guilt.”
“I suppose it wouldn’t.”
I turn around and stare directly in her eyes. “I’ve been through years of therapy. I’ve tried to forget the guilt and abandonment feeling Carly left me with. I’ve faced it a zillion times. I don’t want to give you false hope, Paige. This is the first time I want to heal and be real, but I’m positive I’ll fuck this up.” Her palms stay planted on my cheeks and I love the fact she still looks at me like a rock star—her rock star.
“What do you need from me?” The question is so simple, yet so complicated.
“I need patience.”
“You have it.” She relaxes against me, crossing her legs. “I have my own problems, Rob. So, all I ask is the same from you.” She tosses a look at me over her shoulder and I inch closer, wrapping my arms around her.
“New ground for both of us then?” She never rushed me, so I’m not about to rush her to reveal anything she’s not ready to.
“Yeah.” She seems a little distant and I wonder what haunts her. “Maybe we should keep this between us for a while.”
I’m thrown back by her request. I was going to suggest it myself, but didn’t want to come off like I wanted to hide her from anyone.
“Sure.” I shrug, showing indifference.
I WIGGLE OUT of Rob’s hold, and slide from his bed. He’s so peaceful with that just fucked hair that I had in fistfuls most of the night. I had a sense he’d be good in bed, but he exceeded my imagination. Even his demanding talk spurred arousal out of me. I move across the room thief-style, snatching my clothes from the floor.
Once I reach the door, I allow myself one last glimpse of him. My heart constricts thinking of the horror he’s experienced. Inching the door open, I peer down the hall and scurry to my room.
Relieved that I snuck out of his room without being seen, I plop down on my bed, reliving the flashback scenes of Rob and I last night. Never in my wildest dreams would I think he’d be so attentive and caring. The sweet kisses and the gentle caressing. None of it jives with his outlandish personality of evil. It’s like he’s an angel trapped in Satan’s body. For some reason I’ve been the chosen one to heal him. I have to admit; I’m slowly becoming addicted to freeing the angelic creature from the depths of the dark tunnel.
After my shower, I grab my messenger bag, and glance at my phone. Shit, only twenty minutes until class. My body fights my light jog down the steps, exiting through the kitchen. My chucks screech on the linoleum floor when I spot Chrissy at the kitchen table. “What’s up?” I break our distance fast, taking the seat next to her.
She picks up her head and her anguish isn’t missed from her bloodshot eyes and trembling lip. “The weekend was horrible, just horrible.” Her head thumps on the table and she lays there.
“What happened?” I wrap my arm around her shoulders, glancing at the clock on the microwave to see I’m down to fifteen minutes before my class starts.
“We got married,” she mumbles through the pile of hair covering her face.
“That’s great.” I tuck her blonde strands behind her ear and a small smile graces her lips.
“Oh, Paige. Our hotel room got broken into while we were at the pool. All of our stuff got stolen. Dex had to call his mom to pay our bill. We came right home.” She swipes the lonely tears streaking down her face.
“Where did you guys go?”
“Niagara Falls. We didn’t want a big wedding. Dex surprised me, said he couldn’t wait any longer for me to be his wife.” She smiles big and I wonder if she’s conjuring up their special day from her memory.
“Who would think a guy nicknamed Hulk would have such a heart of gold?” She laughs and it’s warming to bring that out of her.
“I know, but I would have wished for a better wedding night than stale coffee at a police station and driving six hours back home. Dex is beyond upset that his romantic gesture turned into a nightmare.” She ventures to the counter and pours herself a cup of coffee. At this point, I’m debating chalking up my class and talking Chrissy down.
“Just think, Chrissy. You’re Mrs.
Dexter Hanson.” I clap my hands and smile wide to her.
“I know.” Her cheeks begin to flush. “I’m beyond happy about that fact. It’s just, I wish the start of our life together would have been different.” She leans against the counter, slowly bringing the mug to her lips.
“Who gives a flying fuck? Nothing has come easy to us, doesn’t change a thing.” Dex strolls into the room, winks my way before stalking right up to his now wife. Grabbing the coffee cup from her hands, he places it back on the counter and sweeps her into his arms. Chrissy yelps. “Good morning, Paige. Excuse us. My wife left my bed way too early this morning and I must punish her.” With nothing else said, he carries her out of the room and I admire the view of a man so in love.
I grab a to-go cup and begin pouring coffee when two arms wrap around my waist. “I agree with Dex, minus the whole wife thing,” Rob coos in my ear, kissing my skin right under my ear.
Butterflies flutter to life in my stomach and I close my eyes to calm them back down. My weakness for this man is getting way too out of control.
“Sorry, I have class.” I finish pouring my coffee, driving back the enticement of ditching Economics. “Maybe—”
His hands grip my hips and swing me around. “Nope. You’re going. What’s your schedule?” he asks and I pray he’s asking for one reason. “I’ll meet you when you’re done.” My stomach flips with excitement that he’ll be my incentive for attending class when I’d much rather stay in bed with him all day.
“Two o’clock at Beacon Hall.” He checks over his shoulder, before pinning me with his hips against the counter.
Let Me Go Page 16
