by Eva Luxe
“Come on, Carly. You can’t push me away.”
His words solidified my resolve. “Really?” I asked. “Watch me.”
He sighed. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I shouldn’t have said that.” Brad knew that if anyone told me I couldn’t do something, it was exactly what I would do. “Please, I’m not asking for much. Meet me there tomorrow night.”
God, I was torn. A part of me wanted to meet him so badly. I wanted the days back when we were in love, our future was bright, and everything was perfect. But those days were gone, and I wasn’t going to get the happily ever after I had dreamed about once upon a time.
Those had been the dreams of a teenager, and I was an adult now. So, a part of me was sure that I wouldn’t go to meet him, that our story had ended long ago and all we were doing was reminiscing and thinking about a past that was long gone.
“Please,” Brad added.
He had always gotten me with please. He had always managed to convince me because I hadn’t been able to say no to him when he asked me like that. When my big, strong man became a pleading puppy dog for me. He knew just how to play this game, and it turned out that he still knew me well enough that he could try his tricks on me.
Tricks that I had always complained about, but had to admit, I secretly liked.
“I’ll think about it,” I said.
“I’ll take that as a yes.”
It made me want to say no.
“It’s a maybe.”
He chuckled. “You’re as stubborn as ever.”
I was getting irritated with him and how easy he was about this, how comfortable. He laughed about it when I was angry. I felt like he was pushing me to do something because he knew how to get me to want it. I hated that he had that hold over me because of our past. Because of what I might still feel for him.
“I’ll see you tomorrow,” Brad said after we argued back and forth a few times before he hung up.
“We’ll see about that,” I said to the dead phone in my hands. I didn’t want to give him what he wanted, purely because he demanded it. But I wanted to see him again. I wanted him to prove to me that he didn’t want to hide me, that I was someone he wasn’t scared to be seen with.
I hadn’t been to our spot in years. Something about going back there was enticing, but I wouldn’t go because he had demanded it. He had no right to me or my life. Not after he had done nothing to stop my dad from dragging me away. Not after he had walked away from me at graduation when all I had wanted to do was tell him I missed him.
I walked into my room to find something to do, something to distract me. My thoughts were driving me mad. I had to talk sense into myself and leave it at that. I had to make a decision and stick to it.
I wasn’t going to meet Brad at our spot, and that was final. No matter what I felt. No matter all the memories that swirled around in my mind and the urge to see him again that grew by the minute. I had gotten over him and lived six years without him because I’d had to.
I could very well do it again.
Chapter 14 – Brad
They were like vultures. No, worse. Vultures left eventually. The media frenzy outside my house didn’t.
It was Tuesday, and they were driving me insane. My mom was so nice about the whole thing, understanding and supportive, and she didn’t once tell me that it might be better if I left, which was what I was considering doing at this point. Anything to get away from the people outside who wanted to make a living through invading my privacy.
I hadn’t been able to organize a bodyguard out here. It wasn’t that no one was available. I just didn’t trust anyone not to leak information to the press about something. The police had tried in vain to get the reporters to leave. In the end, they were camped in front of my house, and I was stuck inside.
All I had wanted was to spend a few weeks away from all this. I’d wanted to spend time with my mom, to relax and enjoy myself, to forget about the fame and the glory for a while. It looked like that wasn’t going to happen, no matter how badly I wanted it.
I would have to sit in my room, close my eyes, and try to mentally prepare for the next season the way I usually did: with camera flashes pushing against my windows like peeping Toms that wanted a piece of me. I couldn’t even go out for a walk without them swarming me, taking photos, asking questions, and writing down every little fact about me.
I wouldn’t be able to get closer to Carly, either. We had hit it off so well, getting along the way we used to as if no time had passed at all. I wanted to explore that with her, to find out who we were to each other, and who we’d become. I wanted to find out if there was a chance that anything could happen again.
But that wasn’t possible now. If I so much as looked in her direction with the press watching me, they would jump on her and drag her into this. The only way I was going to be able to see her was if she agreed to meet me at our spot.
Which I doubted was going to happen at all. Carly was reluctant about seeing me. She had been unsure from the start. It had taken convincing to walk with her and to get her to go out with me. Getting her in bed had been a breeze, though, but that was because we had fit together so perfectly that night. That was what I wanted to explore with her: how it was possible that something as perfect as what we could have still hung in the air between us, despite it being six years later.
Whether we would rekindle what we had remained a question, but the potential was there, and I wanted to know how I felt about it all, how I felt about her. I could only know that if I was with her.
I stood at the window and watched the reporters and the news vans, contemplating how I would get out of the house without them seeing me. I would have to give them the slip, as if I had something to hide. If I crept around back and jumped the wall into Marc Bergman’s garden and then went through the next road that way, I might be able to get out. I wasn’t sure if Marc would mind, but I was famous. Maybe I could bribe him with a signature if he caught me.
God, it was all so silly. Having to sneak around like I was a criminal, thinking about bribing my neighbors, it was absurd. Besides, Carly was probably not going to meet me, anyway. I was still holding out for a message from her, but it was starting to look unlikely.
“I’m going to take a shower,” I said to my mom and walked to the bathroom.
“Don’t use all the hot water,” she called after me.
I closed the door and turned on the hot spray, getting naked and stepping under it. I closed my eyes and let the water cascade over my body. I sat down on the tiled floor and let the water run over my shoulders and face as well. There was something soothing about sitting under hot water when everything was going to shit all around me.
When I got out of the shower, I toweled off and wrapped the towel around my waist. I found the jeans I’d worn and fished for my phone. The screen displayed a new text and I opened it.
I’ll be at our spot at ten.
My heart skipped a beat. Carly was coming to meet me, after all. I replied, telling her I would be there. Ten was a good time. The press outside wouldn’t be so alert. The people would be taking turns sleeping. Only a few eyes would be watching out for me.
When it was time to go, I was dressed and ready. My mom had already gone to her room. I opened the front door quietly and stepped out into the darkness. I considered getting into my car and driving out, living my life without caring about them. But someone saw me, and a flash went off. I groaned. More flashes and shouts followed, waking them all up. I shook my head and stepped into the house again, closing the door. Fucking paparazzi.
I took a deep breath and considered going through Marc’s garden, after all. I was suddenly angry. Why was I letting them control my life? I walked back to my room and grabbed a blanket. I headed out again, heading to my car. I drove out of my yard, ignoring the flashes and the people. I sped out of the neighborhood. My Audi was a hell of a lot faster than any of their vans would be. By the time they were mobilized, I would be long gone.
I drove to our spot. It was just outside of Laramie. A narrow dirt road was the only way in, and I took it, navigating the molehills with a car that wasn’t meant for this. The road wound up against a hill until it reached the top. I parked under one of the trees and got out. The spot overlooked the town, and the view was breathtaking. Laramie was beautiful at night, with lights blinking sleepily into the darkness. Being back here reminded me of all the times Carly and I had snuck out of our homes to meet each other here. It was our spot because it was secluded, and our parents would never find us here. It was where I’d slept with her the first time.
Another car pulled up, and Carly stepped out. My heart skipped a beat. I would always have that reaction when I saw her. She wore jeans and a hoodie, and her long hair fell over her shoulders like a waterfall. She walked toward me.
“You’re here,” I said. A part of me had thought that she might still not come, that it was too much to hope for.
“I said I would be,” she said.
I nodded and pulled her against me into a hug. I didn’t want to push it too far, but I wanted to hold her against me. I wanted to touch her. When I was with Carly, I felt like the time would slip through my fingers too fast and I would lose her again.
“Come,” I said and walked to my car with her.
I retrieved the blanket and we spread it out on the ground. We sat down on it, the two cars on either side of us so that it created a barrier of privacy and the view of Laramie stretched out before us. It felt like we were wrapped in a bubble, transported back to a time when it had been the two of us and our future stretched out in front of us the way the view of the town was now.
We sat in silence for a while, and I enjoyed her being with me, the calm and the quiet that came with it. She sat close enough to me that I could feel the warmth radiating from her. I wanted to put my arm around her, but it was too much too soon. I felt like a teenager that didn’t know how to time my next move. I was a grown man with a career, but this woman still took away all rational thought.
“How did you get past the frenzy outside your house?” Carly asked after a while.
“I got into the car and drove out,” I said. “I sped so they couldn’t follow me.”
She chuckled. “Nice.”
I nodded. “If I let them rule my life, I will be their prisoner forever. I let them get away with too much this time.”
“Is this what your life is like?” she asked.
“Not exactly,” I said. “I mean, they’re everywhere and always watching me, but my home is pretty secure. I have a guard or two that help me out, and there are places I can go that don’t allow them. It’s a bit more controlled than out here.”
We sat in silence for a while again.
“You know I never want you to feel like I’m hiding you from the world,” I said. “But throwing you right in the middle of all this would have been horrible. What they’re doing outside now is nothing compared to how bad they can get when they think there’s a story to follow.”
“I’m starting to see that I know very little about what it means to be hounded by the press,” she said. “But I still wanted to be the one to make that decision.”
I couldn’t tell if she was upset or not. Her face was expressionless, her voice carefully controlled.
“I wanted to protect you from the side effects of being seen with a celebrity.”
She looked at me. “Don’t you think that’s for me to decide? I know who you are. Shouldn’t I be the one to decide if I want to be seen with you, if I want to deal with that?”
She was right, of course, but she had no idea what it could be like, and I told her as much.
“I’m not a child, Brad,” she said. “I’m so sick and tired of everyone trying to protect me instead of trusting that I can make my own choices.”
“This is not the same,” I said. She was comparing me to her dad, and that pissed me off.
“How?” she asked. She was getting upset, too. Her expressionless mask was finally beginning to crack.
“I’m just looking out for you, Carly,” I said. “I’m trying to protect you.”
She glared at me. “You’re about six years too late,” she said.
Her words hit me like punches. She was right, but that had been a long time ago. I was a different person now, and so was she. Although the way she glared at me now was exactly how she’d done it years ago when we’d gotten caught by her father.
I was flooded with memories and emotion. The atmosphere around us crackled with passion. Her lips were parted, and her breathing was fast and shallow. I was aware of her closeness. Her eyes were large, and her gaze darted down to my lips.
So, I grabbed her and kissed her.
Chapter 15 – Carly
We sat on the blanket overlooking Laramie, and the view was spectacular, but I couldn’t see a thing. My eyes were closed, my lips locked with Brad’s, and this was so much better than a view of childhood memories.
We were supposed to be fighting, but God, he was hot. I tried to be angry with him. He was wrong, wasn’t he? But the way he’d grabbed me and kissed me made me forget my argument. It had been his plan, I was sure of it, but I didn’t have what it took to push him away and keep fighting.
I didn’t want to keep fighting. I wanted to fuck. The atmosphere was loaded with sexual tension, and I wanted to get rid of it. I needed a release. I needed to get rid of the tension that had been pending for years and years. I needed to get rid of all the anger that I had been harboring for Brad and all the blame that I had been putting on him.
And having sex with him now, fucking each other senseless, was the way to do it. I didn’t know how else to do it. All I knew was that whatever we were feeling now was unstoppable, and if there wasn’t a reason to stop it, then we could keep going.
I couldn’t remember what we were fighting about, anyway.
Brad’s tongue slipped into my mouth, and I sighed into his mouth, melting against him. I wrapped my arms around his neck, and he put his arms around me, pulling me against his body. I was suddenly hot, my hoodie too much. My clothes irritated my skin.
I needed him to pull my clothes from my body, to take me. Right here, right now. I had no idea where it was coming from. This wasn’t how I was, but Brad’s dominance had me panting, and I wanted him. God, I wanted him.
I didn’t wait for him to make the first move. I pulled his shirt over his head. He fumbled to get my hoodie off, my shirt sitting askew when he managed to get me out of it. He pulled my shirt off, and I was only in my bra. The air was chilly on my skin, but I didn’t care. I was blazing hot.
Brad and I lay back on the blanket, our naked upper bodies pressed against each other, tugging and groping at each other. We had passed the point of no return, and I didn’t care. There wasn’t even a voice of reason screaming at me in the back of my mind. This was it. This was all.
Brad ground his body against mine, his hard cock rubbing against my crotch, and I breathed hard through our kissing. His hand was in my hair, and he closed his fist, tugging my head back roughly so that I was just this side of pain. His mouth moved to my neck, and he nibbled and kissed my jaw to my collarbone and back. My hands were on his naked back, my nails digging into his skin, kneading him like a cat.
I managed to unbutton and unzip Brad’s jeans and worked them down his body as we rubbed up against each other. He did the same for me, and bit by bit, we undressed each other. We were relatively sheltered by the two cars on either side, but we were still out in the open. I was too taken by lust to worry too much about it.
“Hell yeah,” Brad whispered into my ear. “I love seeing your hot body.”
When we were in our underwear, Brad unclasped my bra, and I was almost completely naked. He took a nipple into his mouth, hands kneading both my breasts, and I gasped and moaned, dizzy with desire. He sucked harder, making my nipples tingle, and I gasped. I had my hands in his short hair, closing my fingers lightly on his scalp. He used his teeth, nibbling nipple, tugging
on it with his teeth until I cried out. It was pure pleasure, and it drove me wild.
I rubbed his cock through the material of his boxers. He was hard and firm, the material wet with his arousal, and I wanted him inside me. I thought about sucking him off, taking him in my mouth and giving him the time of his life, but we were too urgent, too eager for each other to take it that slowly.
The thought had barely formed in my mind when Brad abandoned my breasts and pulled my panties off, getting rid of them. I wondered briefly if we would be able to find them again, but the thought disappeared when Brad cupped my pussy and his fingers slid into my wet slit.
“You’re so wet,” he said, and his words were like fire on my skin.
I shivered when his fingers slipped over my clit, moving in circles, working me up into a frenzy. He pushed his fingers into me, and I whimpered as he finger-fucked me.
With his other hand, he played with my clit until I was putty in his hands, whimpering and moaning as he made me cum. He looked down at my pussy, spread open and dripping wet for him, while he said, “I love how much I make you cum.”
He removed his hand, pushed me down, and positioned himself between my legs. The dominance he was displaying made me shiver, in a good way. He hurried to put the condom on. I was wet enough to be able to skip the foreplay. Brad pushed into me, sliding in with ease, and I gasped as he pushed in all the way to the hilt. I shuddered around him and wrapped my legs around his body.
Brad didn’t wait for an invitation. He started fucking me hard and fast, pushing in and out with a speed that left me breathless. My breathing was only encouraged by his chest on mine and his thrusting pushing air in and out of my body.
“Get on top of me,” Brad breathed, and before I knew it, he spun me around so that I was on top of him, his cock still inside of me.
