Holding You

by Kelly Elliott

  Grace chuckled. “I have to admit, that got me right here.” Pointing to her heart, Grace winked at me.

  “He’s . . . so romantic. What if I’m not doing something right?”

  Alex’s head jerked back. “What do you mean? Lauren, honey, from the look on my brother’s face when he laid eyes on you just now, you are doing everything right.”

  Chewing on my bottom lip, I leaned in closer. “Sex wise I mean. I’ve never been with anyone.”

  Grace set the knife down and turned her whole body toward me. “Listen to me, Lauren. The fact that you saved yourself means more to Colt than anything. He’s not going to expect you to be an expert.”

  Looking away, I wasn’t sure if I should share this or not, but I wanted to talk to someone and who better but two of my best friends. “Um . . . Colt never . . . I mean . . . we were each other’s firsts.”

  Looking back at Grace and Alex, I watched as they both melted and let out an “Ohh . . .” as they clutched their chests. “Lauren, how incredibly romantic!” Alex gushed. “Oh my, Daddy taught that boy right.”

  Grace smiled and shook her head. “Wow. I’m impressed. Colt is one of the major football players for A&M with girls throwing themselves at him all the time . . . and he saved himself for you, Lauren. That is so romantic, it almost makes me want to throw up.”

  Giggling, I nodded my head. Grace walked over to me and placed her hands on my upper arms. “Seriously though, Lauren, how perfect that you both get to learn with each other. What an amazing experience yesterday must have been for you both. Don’t stress about this. Just be with the man you love and everything will take care of itself.”

  Walking into Grace’s arms, she hugged me. Pulling back, I smiled at Grace. “Grace, you’re going to make some guy very lucky someday.”

  Grace’s smile faded and sadness swept across her face but as soon as I saw it, it vanished and she turned to Alex. “You’re both very lucky to have the most amazing men in your lives. The gift that y’all have been able to give each other is so beautiful and rare.”

  Alex’s eyes looked as if tears were building. Walking up to us, Alex wrapped her arms around Grace and me. Holding us tight she whispered, “I love you, Grace. You deserve this love and you’re going to find it.”

  Hearing Grace sniffle threw me for a loop. Grace never cried. Stepping back, I looked at her. “Is everything okay, Grace?”

  Laughing and waving her hand at me as if she was brushing off my concern she said, “Yes! Oh gosh, yes. I’m just all emotional for you, Lauren. It’s been a hell of show watching you and Colt deny your feelings.”

  Alex gave me a little push. “Go get ready for your day. We’ll talk later tonight when we can Skype with Libby, Maegan and Taylor! They’re going to want to know all the details as well!”

  Nodding my head, I turned and skipped toward the stairs. Taking them two at a time, I started thinking about what I was going to wear today.

  PULLING INTO THE parking lot of Grand Station, Lauren let out a squeal. “I’ve been dying to come here!” Chuckling, I put my truck in park and turned to her. Lauren had always been so full of life. It was as if she floated through life just unaware of the bad shit and only concentrated on the good. She had no clue how beautiful she was, and that made her more beautiful. We had stopped at Longhorn Steak house for lunch and I wanted to punch every guy who stared at her. But Lauren had no clue they were all eye fucking the hell out of her. Her eyes never left mine. When I talked, she gave me one hundred percent of her attention. I’d never experienced that before with the other girls I had dated.

  “Do you know how beautiful you are, Lauren?”

  Lauren had been staring at the front door, itching to get out of the truck. When I spoke, she quickly looked at me. Her eyes had been full of life, now they were dark with desire. My pants grew two sizes too small as I attempted to adjust myself. “Do you have any idea how handsome you are, Mr. Mathews?”

  My stomach fluttered and I felt my hands begin to sweat. I didn’t want this to be a dream. Waking up and finding out it had been would devastate me.

  Reaching over, I placed my hand on the side of her face. “You’re mine, Lauren.”

  Lauren’s eyes filled with wetness as she placed her hand over mine. “Forever, Colt Mathews. I’m forever yours.”

  Lauren and I both jumped when someone banged on my truck window.

  “Fucking yeah! Mathews where have you been?”

  Rolling my eyes, I recognized the voice of Phil Lawson. Another Texas A&M football player. “Fuck,” I said under my breath.

  Lauren laughed as she looked around my shoulder and out the driver’s side window. “Looks like he’s happy to see you.” Her smile quickly faded and my heart stopped beating.

  Turning, I saw Phil, Roger, and Mitch. Roger and Lauren had dated off and on a few times. The fact that he tried to push her into having sex with him made me want to pound his face into the ground.

  Roger wore a blank expression on his face as Phil kept telling me to roll the window down. Glancing back to Lauren, I asked, “Did you want to leave, Lauren?”

  Shaking her head, she replied, “No. We came here to have fun, let’s go have fun.”

  Leaning over, I kissed her quickly on the lips. “Let’s go, let me get your door, sweetheart.”

  Lauren’s eyes sparkled every time I called her sweetheart, and I loved it. Opening my door, Phil stepped back. “Hey, Colt.” Looking back into the truck he smiled. “You want to hang with us?”

  Taking a quick look over at Roger, I couldn’t help but notice how he was staring into my truck at Lauren. “Nah, I’m here with my girlfriend, just hanging out for a while.”

  Roger’s head snapped back over as he sent me a glaring look. Fucker. The idea of his hands on Lauren about drove me mad. Walking around my truck I headed to the passenger side. “You want to grab a couple lanes and hang out?” Phil asked.

  Opening Lauren’s door, I held my hand out for her. The moment her hand came in contact with mine I felt the rush of energy. Lauren sucked in a breath of air as her eyes met mine. She felt it, too. God I loved this girl.

  Winking at Lauren, I said, “That would be up to Lauren. It’s her day.”

  Lauren looked between Phil and me. “What is up to me?”

  “Did you want to get a lane with these guys or hang out alone?”

  Shrugging her shoulders, Lauren looked at me. “Um . . . I was kind of hoping to have you all to myself, if that’s okay.”

  Giving her a smile that I hoped like hell knocked her socks off, I grabbed her hand and kissed the back of it. “Sounds perfect to me.”

  Glancing back to Phil, I said, “Maybe next time, dude.”

  Phil smiled and tilted his head to Lauren. “All right, but if you change your mind, there is a group of us playing.”

  Giving Roger a quick look before turning my attention back to Phil, I nodded. “Sounds good.”

  The three of them walked away as Lauren melted into my side. “Are you mad?”

  Taking a hold of her tighter, we started walking. “Hell no. I see those guys all the time. I want to be with you.”

  Giggling, Lauren looked at me. “We live in the same house.”

  Grinning, I purred into her ear, “They don’t make my dick hard with their smile though.”

  Lauren’s mouth parted open slightly as she whispered, “Oh.”

  Throwing my head back and laughing, we made our way into Grand Station. The smell of pizza mixed with fried foods hit me right in the face. Taking a quick look around, the place wasn’t too crowded, which was strange for a Sunday afternoon. Lauren began jumping with excitement. I loved how the little things in life made her so happy. “What should we do first, Colt? Bowl, miniature golf, or—Oh my gosh, they have laser tag!” Grabbing onto me, Lauren’s face lit up. “Laser tag, Colt!”

  Laughing, I walked closer to the check-in point. I wanted to see what Phil, Mitch and Roger were doing first before I decided what to do. They were get
ting three bowling lanes. Taking note of their numbers, I made a mental note not to be near them.

  “How about miniature golf first? I’ve heard it is glow-in-the-dark.”

  Clapping her hands together, Lauren let out a squeal almost like what my mother did when she was excited.

  I’d never had so much fun playing miniature golf as I did with Lauren. Her laugh was infectious and she truly just wanted to have fun. She never once got upset if I beat her on a hole. Unlike other girls I’d dated in the past, they expected me to just sit back and let them win. Lauren just enjoyed being with me and having fun.

  After putting the ball into the last hole, Lauren walked up and wrapped her arms around my neck. “Let’s go play laser tag now.”

  Taking her hand in mine, we headed out of the miniature golf section and made our way to laser tag. “Sounds like a plan.”

  Standing in the room, I held Lauren’s hand while a young high-school-aged girl went over the rules. “We’re going to break you up into teams. Red team verses blue team. Let’s get your vests on.”

  Helping Lauren with her vest first, I slipped my vest on. I was about to say something when I heard someone call out my name. “Colt? Phil said you were here!”

  Fuck. First Roger, now Marie.

  Turning slightly to look over my shoulder, I saw Marie James standing next to . . . Roger. What in the hell were the two of them doing together?

  Giving a polite smile, I said, “Hey, Marie.”

  Walking up to Lauren and I, Marie ran her eyes over Lauren. Her smile couldn’t have been any more fake. “Phil said you were here with your girlfriend. I don’t think we have officially met, I’m Marie. Marie James. Colt and I went out a few times.”

  Lauren’s body stiffened next to me as I stole a quick peek at her. I’ve seen Lauren pissed plenty of times, but I’ve never seen Lauren pissed and jealous.

  Sticking out her hand, Lauren smiled in return. “Lauren Reynolds. It’s nice to meet you.”

  Lauren quickly turned and looked at Roger. “Roger, how are you?” she asked.

  “I’m doing good. How about you, Lauren?”

  “Doing really good, thanks,” Lauren said as she reached down and took my hand in her hand. I wasn’t sure if she was trying to reassure me or give Roger the clear indication we were together.

  “You’re looking really good. I haven’t heard from you in a while. You should give me a call sometime,” Roger said as he winked.

  That motherfucker did not just say that.

  I was about to say something when Lauren squeezed my hand. “I don’t think so, Roger. Much of my spare time will be spent with, Colt. My boyfriend.”

  Roger glared at me as I took a step forward. “You got a problem, Hanover?”

  Holding up his hands, he let out a gruff laugh. “Nah, no problem at all, Mathews.”

  Anger zipped through my veins as I attempted to not pound his face in. “Good, I suggest you refrain from asking my girlfriend out again.”

  Lauren pulled back on my arm, “Colt, let’s go enjoy ourselves. It’s not worth it.”

  Roger flashed me a smirk as he draped his arm around Marie. “Have fun blue team.”

  Turning away from him, I took Lauren’s arm and walked to the other side of the room. I was about to tell Lauren we needed to kick their asses when she looked up at me. “All right, Colt. You better get your game face on. We are taking those two down!”

  Lauren and I planned out our attack and once we got inside the room we executed it. I had a feeling Marie would wimp out and basically hide in a corner and she didn’t let me down. She cowered-down in a corner throughout most of the game. Lauren was a champ, and by the time the game was over, we had creamed Marie and Roger.

  Taking off our vests and handing them back to the young girl, she congratulated Lauren and me for the great job we did in taking down the red team.”

  “Ready to head home?” I asked Lauren. Nodding, she took my hand and quickly led me to toward the exit.

  “Where is the fire, Lauren?” I asked as she practically ran to my truck once we got outside.

  Turning and walking backward her face lit up and I was instantly hard. “Do you really need me to answer that, Colt?”

  FEELING COLT’S WARM breath on my neck, I didn’t want to move. The last two days had been nothing but bliss. After spending yesterday afternoon together, Colt and I came back to the house and spent the next few hours tangled up in each other.

  Glancing over to the clock that Colt had on his side table, I silently cursed. I had a class I needed to go to. Gently picking up Colt’s arm, I carefully slid out of bed so that I didn’t wake him up. I knew he didn’t have any classes until this afternoon.

  Hustling, I slipped on Colt’s boxer briefs and his T-shirt and headed to my room. I was almost to my door when I heard Grace. “Well, well, well. Look who decided to emerge from the blissfulness of amazing hot sex. At least I’m going to guess it’s amazing hot sex with how messed up your hair is and the red chaffed skin on our face, and neck. Hmm . . . Colt does wear that five o’clock shadow well. In more than one way it seems.”

  Turning, I leaned against my door and looked at Grace. My smile was so wide, my cheeks were beginning to hurt. “Oh, trust me. The sex . . . oh yeah. Hot. Amazing for sure. And I’m sure I’m chaffed in other areas as well.”

  Grace closed her eyes and dropped her head back as she lifted her hands. “Thank you! Thank you for letting me rub off on at least one of them!”

  Snickering, I pushed off the door and gave Grace a gently nudge. “Do you have a few minutes to talk? I really want to ask you something,” I asked her.

  “Sure I do.”

  Grace followed me into my bedroom and I shut the door after she walked in. Sitting on my bed, Grace looked at me. “What’s up?”

  Chewing on my lip, I wasn’t sure how to ask this, but I knew I couldn’t ask Alex. It would be too weird. I could ask Libby, but she was so busy with the baby. Maegan never answered her text messages and Taylor . . . well Taylor was in her own world right now.”

  “First off, stop gnawing on your bottom lip. You’re freaking me out. Come sit next to me and just tell me what’s on your mind.”

  Dropping my hands to my side, I flopped onto the bed. I would most likely be late for my first class, but that was okay.

  “Well . . . I want to . . . I really want to make Colt . . . Okay well, I’ve never done . . . you know . . . to a guy . . . and well.” Rolling my eyes, I let out a frustrated moan. “Colt is like the jelly to my donut and I just want to make him happy. I want to . . . well . . . I want to . . .”

  “Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. Spit it the hell out, Lauren.”

  “How do you give good blow jobs?”

  Grace’s face fell. “Um . . . I don’t know if I should be offended or honored you wanted to talk to me about this.

  Placing my hands over my mouth, I sucked in a breath. “You’ve never?”

  Grace started laughing. “Hell yes I have. And I might add, I think I’m pretty good at it.” She rubbed her knuckles against her shirt as she spoke.

  “Okay, so if you’re good at it, how do I . . . you know. Do it?”

  Grace leaned forward like she was about to share with me the most important secret in the world. “First, you make sure he’s clean. Don’t do it after he’s been inside you. To me, that’s just nasty.”

  I pulled back. “Why? I mean if a guy goes down on you, do you kiss him afterward?”

  Grace’s eyes widened. “Well, yeah. That’s hot as hell.”

  Shrugging my shoulders, I asked, “So what’s the difference?”

  Grace sat back and looked up like she was thinking. “Well, hell. I guess there is no difference.”

  “Okay, so anywho, go on with what you were saying.”

  Grace was lost in thought for a moment before she started talking again. “Right. So scratch the clean thing because little miss nasty likes it.” Pushing her over we both started laughing. “I don’t know
, Lauren. You just put it in your mouth and . . . suck.”

  “Suck hard? Suck soft? Do I move my hand up and down it while I suck?”

  Grace rolled her eyes. “Okay, I think we need to have a ‘how to give a blow job’ class. I know the perfect person for it.”

  Sitting up, I let out a squeal! “Holy sheets! Really, Grace? Cause that would be so fun.”

  Chuckling, she stood up. “Yeah, girls night. I’ll arrange everything.”

  Standing up, I hugged Grace. “You’re the best! I’ve got to get ready for class, but I don’t know how to thank you for this.”

  Grace gave me a sweet smile and headed out the door. Calling over her shoulder she said, “Ask and I shall deliver.”

  The rest of the day I couldn’t get Colt out of my mind. We had sent a few text messages back and forth but his last one had me fidgeting in my seat and I wasn’t even sure why.

  Pulling out my phone, I read it again.

  Colt: Every time I close my eyes I see your beautiful blue eyes. Can’t wait to hold you in my arms tonight.

  Letting out a contented sigh, I closed my eyes and dreamt of Colt’s touch. I could almost feel the scruff on his face between my legs as he took me to heaven and back. My whole body shuddered as I thought about it.

  Opening my eyes, I sent Colt a text.

  Me: Can’t stop thinking about you. You are a delicious distraction Mr. Mathews and I miss your lips.

  Setting my phone down, I stared at it as I waited for his response. When nothing came after five minutes, I picked up the phone and pushed it into my pocket. Gathering up my books, I headed out of class. Making my way to the library to meet a study group, I heard someone call out my name.

  Shit. Shit. Shit. Stay calm, Lauren. Don’t punch her. Just smile and be nice to the little bitch.

  “Lauren, wait up!”

  Slowing down, I waited for Marie James to catch up to me. I hate her and that bothered me because I didn’t even know her. The only reason I hated her was because she was the only girl Colt had dated steady since he broke up with Rachel in high school.