Tangled Up In You

by Jaclyn Osborn

  Corbin turned his back to me and walked into the other room.

  The old, more timid Hunter would’ve taken that as a sign to leave, but the more determined and truly apologetic one took it as a sign to try harder. I followed him into the living room.

  He stood at the window, gazing out into the back field.

  “What’s the other part?” he asked, looking at me.

  “I miss you,” I managed to say around the lump in my throat. “I miss us. What we used to be.”

  “We can’t ever be what we used to be,” Corbin said as the same pain I felt in my chest flashed in his eyes. “Believe me. I’ve been wishing for a do-over of that fucking day by the lake when I left you. But no amount of regret and beating myself up about it will change a damn thing, Hunter. So, I suggest you do what I did and just let it go.”

  That’s when realization struck.

  Corbin was right; letting go of the past was the best thing to do. If we continued this dance of should haves and regret, we’d never move forward.

  “Okay.” I sat on the couch, scratching at the edge of my jaw where the slight stubble was longer than I liked.

  “Just okay?” Corbin asked, flipping around to face me. “You’re not usually one for so little of words.”

  “What do you want me to say, Cor?” I peered up at him, shaking my head. “To apologize for ruining the future we’d planned? To blame you for ruining it? To talk about how that one phone call seven years ago is the fucking biggest regret of my life and that I’d do anything to take it back?” Tears streamed down my face. “God dammit, Corbin, I’m at a loss here. I have this tendency to fix everything, and I can’t fix this.”

  He was beside me then on the couch, pulling me against his bare chest and pressing his face into my hair. The warmth of him made the tears fall faster. Everything about being in his arms felt so right.

  When he kissed me, I felt him trembling too. He brushed his fingers through my hair before resting his hand at my nape, gently cupping the back of my neck. His lips moved against mine, unhurried and soft.

  We didn’t say anything. Our actions said enough for us—speaking a thousand words in each pressing of his lips on mine and each of my content exhales.

  It was different than the last time when he’d been at my house, when I’d done the whole angry sex thing. There’d been so much pent-up rage inside me at the time, and it’d seemed like the best way to release it all had been to bang him against the wall and devour his mouth. To fuck him with no feelings attached. I’d soon figured out that hadn’t been the answer.

  There was no anger present now.

  I kissed him deeply as the hope for forgiveness blossomed in my chest. Forgiveness for him and for myself. We’d punished each other enough. I didn’t know what the future held for us, but for the moment, I wanted to just be with him.

  To get lost in him like I used to do.

  He kissed my jaw before moving down my neck, flicking his tongue at the skin at the base of my throat. My spot. He lay me back on the cushion.

  I sighed and held him tighter, feeling the muscles of his back flex beneath my palms.

  From experience, I knew he preferred rougher sex—harder kisses, bites on his neck, and nails clawing his back. And yet, he kissed me like we had all the time in the world.

  His body had definitely changed since we’d been eighteen. Back then, he’d been in amazing shape too, but he was a real beast now: a lean, sexy torso, rippling abs, and a rock hard ass. He had muscle in places I didn’t even think you could have muscle.

  Every inch of him was perfection, and knowing the sweet guy beneath it all just made it even better.

  I’d stayed in shape over the years, hitting the gym at least four days a week in an attempt to make me feel better about myself. I was in better shape than I’d been as a teenager, but compared to Corbin, I still felt inadequate.

  “Get out of your head, Hunter,” he whispered, staring down at me. He kissed the spot beneath my right eye before doing the same on the other side. The action was simple, but gentle. “Stay in this moment with me.”

  I focused on him, and the way his eyes stared into mine caused something in my chest to break.

  “Make love to me, Cor,” I said as I tangled my hands in his short blond hair. “I’m tired of fighting. I just want to escape for a while.”

  The planes of his face softened, making him appear younger. The dam in my chest cracked wider, and I knew once it fully broke, there’d be no going back. There’d be no keeping him at a distance anymore.

  His long lashes tickled my skin as he rested his face against mine. He gripped the side of my neck with one hand and had the other pushed under my back, as if holding me in a type of horizontal dance.

  When he didn’t move after a handful of seconds, I got worried. That’s when I felt something warm and wet land on the edge of my brow.

  “Cor?”

  He answered me with a kiss, one that set me on fire. Gone were the slow and tender movements from before. We kissed like each other’s lips were our lifeline: passionate and even desperate. Teeth clanked together, but neither of us minded. Only when I needed air did we break apart.

  My head spun as I watched him above me.

  He bit his bottom lip as he slid his hand under my shirt and pulled it up and over my head before going for my pants. Unlike him, I was wearing jeans, so it took more effort to get them off. But off they came until I was completely naked.

  I grinned up at him as he stood on his knees and shrugged down his sweat pants.

  “Why are you so hot?” I asked before I could stop myself.

  And then Corbin, the massive goofball, flexed his bicep and said in the douchey-ist voice possible, “I work out.”

  I laughed so hard I snorted.

  The humor faded once the sight of his already hard cock came into view and our bare skin touched. My ass clenched a bit at the thought of him inside me, acting as a reminder of how long it’d been.

  “You okay?” he asked, not missing a thing.

  “Yeah,” I said, playing it cool. But then I thought it best to be honest. “Uh, it’s just been a while since I’ve done this.”

  “Really?”

  For some reason that one word screamed judgment, and I got a bit defensive. “Yeah, we all can’t get laid as easy as you, Corbin.”

  “Don’t start that again,” he warned, hovering above me, but not quite laying on top of me. “Your jealousy over shit that hasn’t even happened needs to stop, Hunter. Do I need to give you a detailed sheet of every man I’ve fucked since you just so we can move passed this?”

  The thought made my scalp prickle. “No, thanks.”

  “And what about you?” he asked, sitting back on his knees. “I bet you haven’t been a damn saint either.”

  I hated when he was right. It might’ve been a while since I’d had sex, but I’d been wild in college. How could I judge him for doing exactly what I’d done?

  Double standards sucked, and I guess I needed that reminder to get my head back on straight.

  “I’m far from a saint,” I responded, touching his side with the tips of my fingers. “Sorry. No more of that. Can we just get back to where we were before I opened my big mouth?”

  Corbin leaned back down. “It’s okay. I love your big mouth.”

  I licked my lips at the thought of tasting him again. His gray eyes zeroed in on my tongue, and his dick pressed against my thigh. His mind was in the same place as mine.

  “Come on,” he said before getting off the couch and holding his hand out to me.

  “Where’re we going?” I placed my hand in his, and he pulled me off the cushion.

  “To my room.” He gave me a lopsided grin and led me from the living room and toward the stairs. “Just like old times, right?”

  “Except we’re butt ass naked now as we go through the house,” I pointed out, covering my package with my free hand.

  Corbin chuckled. “It’s not the first time. Or did
you really forget the time we got wasted and skinny dipped that night, lost our clothes, and had to sneak back into the house?”

  As the memory flared to life, so did my embarrassment. “I think I tried to wipe that from my mind. What the hell were we thinking?”

  I didn’t receive an answer because we’d entered his old bedroom, and with the familiarity of it all, I could almost pretend we really were back in time. I looked at the same light blue walls and white trim around the window. The same set of drawers that we’d both used the times I’d slept over, sometimes for a week at a time. The scuff of paint on the wall by his bed from when we’d been wrestling and he’d flung me against it.

  So many times we’d gone to that room and got tangled up in each other.

  He led me over to the bed without a word, and I lay down on the mattress, not taking my eyes off him. A smile curled the edges of his perfect lips, but if I wasn’t mistaken, there was a nervousness in his eyes, as if this was our first time.

  In a way, it was, I guess.

  The fooling around at my house hadn’t warranted the same emotion, because there hadn’t really been any emotion. Well, any emotion other than anger. We both seemed to feel the power of it this time, though. The intensity of our connection that I’d once believed to be lost had only been hiding under years of pent-up anger. But now that the frustration was released, the affection could finally shine through.

  Corbin got on top of me and softly kissed down my chest. His tongue found my nipple, and he teasingly suckled it.

  I groaned as sparks shot straight to my aching dick. As if by muscle memory, I reached behind me and grabbed onto the bars on his headboard.

  He continued his journey down my chest and stomach. That sly smirk lit his face as he caught me watching him. When he started sucking me off, I couldn’t contain the sharp grunt.

  Shit, it just felt so good.

  He felt so good.

  His mouth moved from the tip of my cock, down my shaft, and to my balls. My breaths quickened as my arousal heightened. And when his tongue moved even lower, to the area between my balls and ass, I whimpered.

  It was the perfect balance of teasing and pleasure.

  “Still an ass man I take it?” I asked.

  “Baby, I’m always an ass man,” he answered, sliding his arms under my thighs and lifting my lower half off the mattress.

  He slowly kissed my opening, causing my hold on the headboard to increase and make it squeak. His tongue lapped at my hole as his hands massaged the globes of my ass. Eventually, he added a finger to the mix, thrusting it into me with annoying slowness. Annoying, but amazing.

  “Corbin,” I said with a whine in my voice, when I couldn’t take it anymore.

  I was prepped, stretched, and ready to be filled by him. To have our bodies joined as one.

  “What do you need, baby?” he asked in that sexy, husky voice of his. He lowered my hips and laid his body over mine.

  “You.”

  The fantasy of the moment faded a little when he grabbed a condom and tore it open. Not that I was against condoms—I fully believed in safe sex and had always used one with past guys.

  But it was the fact that he and I’d never used them. When we first started having sex in high school, we’d been each other’s firsts and had full trust in the other. Condoms hadn’t been needed.

  Having to use one now really showed how far we’d drifted. With all my past bed partners and his, there was no question of whether we needed one. I’d gotten tested and hadn’t been with anyone since then, but what about him?

  Stop dwelling on it. Stay in this moment with him.

  Corbin slid on the rubber and coated it with lube before dribbling some of it on my ass and smoothing it around. Nerves etched his face, and I lifted my hand to cup his cheek. At the contact, his eyes flashed to mine and his features instantly softened.

  “I feel like I’m losing my virginity all over again,” he admitted, and the way he looked at me caused the butterflies in my stomach to come alive.

  “Well, just as long as it’s not exactly like our first time, we should be good,” I said with a smile, remembering how quick he’d come. We’d then swapped places, and I’d done him next, not lasting much longer than he had.

  He laughed, and the sound went straight to my heart.

  When he pushed into me, his lips parted as a soft whimper escaped them. His sounds during sex had always been incredible, but something about them now just enhanced it.

  I held his side as I gripped his upper back with my other hand. The sting made me clench my jaw and the corners of my eyes watered. He waited a moment, resting his head on mine, as my body tried to get used to him.

  “You okay?”

  I smiled and pressed my face against his cheek. I nodded, knowing the twinge of pain would reflect too much in my voice if I tried to talk. Because I was okay, and I didn’t want him worrying.

  When he started moving inside me, I held him closer as pain started transforming into pleasure.

  “Mmm.” I looked between our bodies, seeing his sexy abs ripple with each of his movements. The discomfort from earlier was fading even more, and my body welcomed more of him. Needing more of him.

  Corbin kissed my brow as he thrust deeper, but not faster.

  When I caught sight of his eyes, I noticed the red, watery edges. And there went the rest of the dam that’d held me back. He was an emotional guy, but not one who actually liked to show said emotion. So when he did, it meant a lot.

  I wrapped my arms more around him and buried my face in the crease of his neck, feeling my own emotions start to rise. The pleasure was strengthened by them, because it was more than sex. It was making love to Corbin, the only guy to have ever captured my heart and still had control of it.

  No amount of time or space had changed that. Other emotions like resentment and anger might’ve masked that love, but having him so close to me—our hearts beating as one—all the bad just fell away into the abyss of the past.

  “Fuuuck, Hunter,” he moaned, gently kicking my legs farther apart and lifting my hips a few inches. He thrust into me, and the new angle hit my spot so fucking perfect that I whimpered, turning to putty in his arms. He smiled down at me, flashing the adorable dimple in his cheek. “Right there?”

  “Uh huh,” I answered, grabbing onto his hips and pulling him harder against me.

  My orgasm slammed into me like a train, and I gave a drawn out moan as cum shot from my tip. I hadn’t even had to jerk myself off, which had only ever happened with Corbin.

  He smoothed his thumb along my bottom lip as his pace quickened. “You’re so hot when you come.”

  By the way his body was starting to tense, I knew he was moments away from doing the same.

  I sucked his finger into my mouth and his eyes widened a fraction. And then he was coming too. His thrusts lost rhythm as his body shuddered. Soft moans left his throat, and I gripped his shoulders, digging my nails into his skin.

  Afterward, he pulled out, but he didn’t move. He lifted his head and stared down at me, gliding his finger along my cheekbone and down to my mouth. His brow was wrinkled and a strange look was in his eyes.

  “What are you thinking?” I asked before kissing the pad of his finger.

  “This is the first time I’ve felt whole in seven years,” he answered, and his voice rang with vulnerability. “I know it’s corny as fuck to say this, but I was lost without you.”

  My heart melted at his words, and I nuzzled my face into him. “I was lost without you too.”

  “Our parting was such sweet sorrow,” Corbin said in a poor attempt at a British accent.

  I scooted over so he could lie beside me on the bed. “Seven years later and you’re still on about Romeo and Juliet?” I asked before giving a jaw popping yawn. “The story of romance that isn’t a romance.”

  He slipped one arm under my head and draped the other around my waist. “And you’re still just as anti-romance as ever. I guess some things n
ever change.”

  I cuddled against his chest and breathed in the smell of him. “I missed this.”

  His arm tightened around me as he kissed my forehead. “Me too.”

  Not long after that, Corbin started snoring, and I snuggled more into his hold. Now that we were in the afterglow of sex, reality was ever slowly creeping back in.

  This can’t last forever.

  But I’d hold onto it for as long as it did.

  Chapter 14

  Corbin

  It was still dark outside when Hunter stirred next to me on the bed and sat up. Still in a state of drowsiness, I squinted my eyes at him. His naked torso was pale and stood out in the soft trace of silvery light streaming in through the window.

  “Hunter?”

  “Sorry, I woke you,” he said before leaning down and kissing me on the lips. “I have to get back home to get ready for work. I hadn’t intended to actually sleep over so I didn’t bring clothes.”

  I gave a sleepy smile. “Guess it’s a good thing you look better naked.”

  “I’m sure my students won’t agree with you, Mr. Taylor.”

  The amusement in his voice was so natural and gave me hope. I’d worried he’d wake up and think what we’d done had been a mistake.

  “Why not? If you were my teacher, I’d totally hit on you.”

  “Go back to sleep, dork,” he said before kissing me again. “I’ll call you later, okay? We have some things to talk about.”

  No longer feeling tired, I sat up and wrapped my arms around him from behind. I rested my chin on the top of his shoulder and brought him as close to my chest as possible.

  I was afraid that when we talked, we’d get into another fight, and I wasn’t ready to go back to being angry at each other. However, having just a casual fling with Hunter was out of the question for me. Things needed to be discussed.

  “I know we do.”

  Hunter hugged my arm and leaned back against me. “You’re tense. What’s up?”

  “I just don’t want to lose you again,” I whispered against his skin.