Pushing the Boundaries (Picking up the Pieces #3)

by Jessica Prince

  “Trevor,” I pleaded as I rotated my hips to match his.

  He tucked a strand of hair behind my ear and looked at me with so much intensity. “So beautiful,” he spoke, his voice quiet and soft.

  “Honey,” I whispered back.

  “I love you, Lizzy.” My eyes widened and Trevor picked up the pace, pounding into me even harder. “I love you so much. Fuck, I’ve been in love with you since I met you.”

  My head fell back as I cried out, “Oh, God.” Everything in my body pulled taught, a breath away from exploding. I felt like I was going to come apart completely.

  “Come, cher. Let me hear you.”

  He pressed down on my clit and bent to suck my nipple into his mouth. That was all it took. The sting of his teeth against my flesh as he moved and manipulated my body perfectly sent me into a tailspin. My eyes clamped closed and every bone in my body gave out as I screamed my release. If not for Trevor’s strong arms around me, I’d have collapsed back onto the countertop. I barely heard him cry out his own release over the blood rushing through my ears.

  “You love me?” I finally asked once we’d both managed to come down somewhat.

  “You don’t have to say it back,” Trevor whispered in my ear. “I just needed you to know the truth.” He pulled back and studied my face with an earnest expression. “Tell me I haven’t scared you away.”

  My mouth hung open in shock. No matter how hard I tried, I just couldn’t form words. Between the mind-blowing orgasm and Trevor’s confession, my synapses were fried. All I could do was shake my head.

  “Thank you,” he said, placing another kiss on my lips.

  “For what?” I finally managed to get out.

  “For just being here.”

  Cupping his cheeks again, I lifted his face so we were eye to eye. “I’m not going anywhere.”

  And I wasn’t. There was no way I’d ever be able to walk away from this man. I just hoped he wasn’t able to walk away from me, either.

  “Wait…you haven’t said it back?” Kenzie asked after I finished telling her about Trevor’s “I love you” from a few days before. Things between the two of us weren’t strained, and since that first time he hadn’t said it again, but I still felt awful for not saying it back.

  “I couldn’t,” I defended lamely. It had been eating at me to tell someone for days, but I knew I couldn’t tell anyone in our circle that Trevor had said those three little words; they’d have flipped the hell out. So after over-analyzing and over-thinking every single, minor detail about that evening, I had finally grown sick of myself. I needed to talk to someone. And unfortunately for her, that someone was Kenzie; the one and only friend I had who was just mine.

  “What do you mean, you couldn’t? I thought you loved him.”

  “I did! I do. I just…I don’t know. I’m scared.”

  “You’re gonna have to give me a little more than that, babe. What could you be scared of? I’ve seen how that man looks at you. You’re it for him.”

  “He has a past,” I responded pathetically.

  “Who doesn’t,” she scoffed. “If you’re going to hold people’s pasts against them, you should hold mine against me. I’m a single mother who only got the balls to leave her drunk, abusive boyfriend when he raised his hands to our son—”

  “That wasn’t your fault,” I interrupted insistently.

  “You say that, but I have two four-year-olds who saw their daddy hitting their mommy on more than one occasion, no matter how many times I tried to hide it from them. If I had been strong enough, I would have walked away after the first punch. But I was weak. I subjected them to things I never should have. And there won’t be a single day for the rest of my life that I don’t hate myself for that.”

  “But you got them out of there,” I said, reaching across the table to take her hand. “I’m not here to pass judgment on you. I can’t begin to put myself in your shoes. Yes, you made mistakes, but you busted your ass to fix it.”

  Her trembling hand squeezed mine as she leaned in closer, her eyes shiny with unshed tears. “And who says Trevor isn’t doing the same thing? Huh?”

  I let go of Kenzie and ran both hands through my hair. “I know, I know. I see him trying to change, and I really feel like he loves me. But I can’t stop worrying that he’s going to get tired of me one day, you know? That he’s going to realize he had more fun running around with a different woman every night than being tied down to just one. I’m scared that if I tell him I love him and he leaves, I won’t be able to come back from that.”

  “Just because you don’t say the words out loud doesn’t mean they aren’t already true. The pain won’t be any less just because you deny it. And you’ll never know if you two can make this work unless you try, honey. Believe me, regret hurts more than heartbreak.”

  “I know you’re right, really. But trying to get my brain and heart on the same page is proving to be a lot more difficult than I would have figured.”

  Kenzie stood from the table and placed a hand on my shoulder. “Well, all I can say is keep trying, babe. I want you to be happy.”

  “Thanks, honey. I want to see you happy, too,” I told her. Then she walked out of the break room and went back to work, leaving me with a lot to think about.

  “Just be honest with her, man. That’s all you can do. Sit down and talk about it with her,” Jeremy told me before he picked up his soda and took a drink.

  “Are you kidding me with this bullshit?” Luke threw in. “Trevor, don’t listen to this asshole. He’s useless. He should be getting his vagina waxed right now, not handing out relationship advice.”

  I was quickly starting to discover that talking to the guys about my relationship with Lizzy was a huge mistake. I’d admitted to telling her I’d loved her, informing my friends that she had yet to say it back. Yeah, I know I told her she didn’t need to say it just because I did, but it had been almost a week since my little confession and honestly, I was starting to grow kind of antsy. I knew she loved me; it was written all over her. But the longer she held out on telling me the more I was starting to feel like I’d seriously fucked up with letting that slip.

  “Jesus Christ, y’all aren’t helping,” I grumbled to the two of them, rubbing my hands over my face in frustration. I should have just taken my lunch break and talked to Mickey about it instead of calling all the guys out to Virgie May’s. Thank the Lord Emmy wasn’t working today, or she’d be all up in my business.

  Ben propped his elbows on the table in front of him. “You know, I’m thinking that maybe spouting out ‘I love you’ during sex might not be that great of an idea.”

  Brett snorted out a laugh. “Please, chicks love that shit.”

  “Yes, because you would know.” Gavin shot Brett a sarcastic eye roll.

  “Can y’all please just shut the hell up?” I demanded as I rubbed my temples. My head was beginning to throb; this was a serious mistake.

  “Seriously, Trevor. You have to romance her,” Luke told me. “Women love all that flowers and hearts bullshit. You gotta pull out all the stops.”

  “Yeah, like you have any idea how to be romantic,” Jeremy scoffed as the rest of the guys laughed.

  “Hey! I can romance the ass off all you bastards!”

  “You know, I hate to admit this, but he might be right,” Jeremy said seriously. “Chicks love romance.”

  “So…what? Should I get, like, flowers and candy and stuff? Oh! She loves those little Rolos thingies when she’s on her period. Maybe I’ll get her a bag of those!”

  “Holy shit, you suck at this,” Ben told me with a look of disgust of his face. “You can’t just stop by a gas station and hit up the candy aisle. What’s wrong with you?”

  “Hey, back off. I think that’s a great idea.”

  Well, at least I had Brett’s support. Because the one guy in the group not in a relationship is the one you want on your side. Said no one ever.

  “Look, if Lizzy’s anything like Emmy, she loves tho
se stupid fucking romance novels. My suggestion is you go home, read one of those books, and do whatever bullshit those douchebags pull off in those stories. Can’t go wrong there.”

  “Well, fuck me. Luke actually has a good idea,” Gavin joked.

  Maybe Luke was on to something. Those stupid books were all over the house. I caught Lizzy reading them all the damn time.

  Tonight’s mission: read one of those books, take a shit-ton of notes, then go to the shooting range and let off a couple rounds so I could prove I was still a man.

  The first thing I noticed when I walked through the front door was the lit candles that covered every surface of the house. The second thing was the trail of red rose petals that led from the door up the stairs. Curiosity took hold and I followed them up the stairs, thinking the whole time what a pain in the ass it was going to be to try and vacuum all of them up. As I neared the bedroom, soft saxophone music played through the air.

  What the hell?

  When I stepped into the doorway, what I saw had me frozen in place, my jaw dropped to the floor.

  “Hello, lover,” Trevor’s deep voice rumbled. Several things assaulted my senses all at once. Firstly, candles of all shapes and sizes were lit all over the room. So many, in fact, I was certain it was a fire hazard. Secondly, rose petals covered every. Single. Available. Surface. This was going to take forever to clean. And lastly, the thing that stood out the most was Trevor himself, lying on his side in the center of the bed, propped up on an elbow with a long-stemmed red rose in his hand. His white dress shirt was tucked into a pair of black slacks but was unbuttoned all the way down to his waist, leaving his shiny chest on full display.

  Wait…why the hell was his chest so damn shiny?

  “Uh, what’s happening?” I asked as I scanned the room again, looking for a hidden camera or something. Because this had to be a joke.

  Trevor climbed from the bed and moved toward me, each step slow and methodical, like he was trying to be seductive, but it just came across like he had something clenched between his butt cheeks.

  “This is me romancing you. I’m going to make love to you tonight.” He said in a husky tone as he reached up and ran the rose in his hand across my cheek. His eyelids drooped and his lips puckered. I sucked my lips between my teeth, but it was no use; I lost it. An indelicate snort escaped as I hunched over in a peel of laughter. Everything about this—the room, how Trevor was dressed, the way he was talking—was beyond ridiculous.

  “Did you just use the term ‘make love’?”

  “What’s wrong with that term?” he asked defensively.

  I tried so hard to stop laughing, I really did, but it was just too damn funny. “Why are you all shiny?” I ran my finger down his chest before quickly pulling it away. “Ew, gross! Is that…” I lifted my hand to my nose to smell, “baby oil? Why’d you cover yourself with baby oil?”

  “This is supposed to be romantic, damn it!” Trevor shouted, throwing his hands in the air. “You’re supposed to love all this mushy shit.”

  Another wave of laughter came over me. “Who told you that?” I asked between giggles and snorts. Yeah, I was a snorter. So sue me.

  Trevor reached for something on the nightstand and held it up. “Well, you’re always reading this shit. The douchebag in the book did this. I thought that was what you were into.” I looked up and saw he was holding one of my historical romance novels, complete with a Fabio lookalike on the cover, shirt open and billowing in the wind, bronzed chest glistening. And I died. I’m talking ‘tears running down my face, unable to breathe, hysterical laughter’.

  “Oh, God! It’s too much,” I panted, trying to catch my breath. “I gotta take a picture of this. The girls won’t believe it if I don’t have proof.” I pulled my cell from my pocket and tried to take a picture, but Trevor was already on the move.

  “Wait, where are you going?” I called as he stomped from the room with his chin in the air.

  “Somewhere where I’m appreciated,” he declared as he stormed down the stairs in a huff.

  “Oh, come on, don’t be like that. You have to admit, this shit was pretty damn funny.”

  “Hmph.” He crossed his arms over his chest and shot a narrow-eyed gaze my way. “Well, I’m glad I could amuse you.”

  “Honey,” I tried to placate as I stepped in front of him. I reached up to put my palms on his chest then thought better of it seeing as he was covered in baby oil. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to laugh.” I tried to suppress it, but a tiny giggle escaped.

  “You’re laughing now!” Trevor was in a full-blown hissy. Sometimes it felt like I was the dude in the relationship. Before I could get a word in edgewise, he turned and thundered out the door. A second later, I heard his truck start up and peel out of the driveway. I wasn’t sure where he was going, but I hoped wherever it was, he at least buttoned up his shirt.

  It took an hour of randomly giggling and calling every one of my girls to give them a full recap of what went down, but by the time Trevor walked through the front door later that night, I’d managed to get myself under control.

  Okay, yeah, maybe I’d been a little insensitive; I was willing to admit that. And I knew I needed to apologize yet again. I dug through my drawers for one of my prettiest, laciest nighties. Trevor was always talking about how he loved me in green; he said it made my eyes stand out. I lucked out with a deep-green satin number which hit just at mid-thigh with black lace stitched around the neckline and hem. I managed to get up all the rose petals and put away a majority of the candles, only leaving out a select few. I hit the switch and let the dim glow from the candles light the room as I sat in the middle of the bed and waited for Trevor to get home.

  After half an hour, panic set in. What if he didn’t come home? What if I’d really hurt his feelings? What if he decided to punish me by going home with another woman? Just as my thoughts ran away from me, I heard the front door open and close. The faint click-clack of nails against the hardwood told me Merle had gone to greet Trevor at the front door. I gave it a while longer, knowing Trevor would pet the puppy before heading up the stairs. My chest rose and fell with heavy breaths as anxiety coursed through me. What if he didn’t forgive me?

  When had I become that girl? I’d always prided myself on my independence and confidence. Only when it came to Trevor, I turned into this insecure, whiny, sniveling little girl. And I hated it. It made me feel weak, and weakness was not a concept I was comfortable with.

  When his large frame hit the doorway, everything in me froze. Even after knowing him for as long as I had, the sight of him alone was still enough to undo me completely. I’d never get used to how handsome this man was. Everything about him was beautiful, inside and out. Trevor was a work of art. As I stared up at the man before me, my heart beat frantically in my chest. I was head-over-heels in love with him. There was no use denying it anymore.

  “Hi,” I whispered as he propped a shoulder against the doorframe. I didn’t know where he’d disappeared to, but wherever it was, he’d showered and changed clothes. My mouth watered at the sight of him in low-slung, thread-bare jeans and a faded t-shirt.

  “Hey,” was the only response he gave me.

  “Where did you go?” I asked, pointing to his new clothes.

  “Emmy and Luke’s.” At his answer, a wave of relief rushed through me. “Luckily, they had a change of clothes. Not that I didn’t get a ration of shit first. The two of them laughed almost as hard as you did.”

  “I’m sorry, honey. I shouldn’t have laughed like that. I feel awful.” But as I spoke, my lips tipped up in a grin at the memory of what Trevor looked like when I first arrived home.

  “I might believe you feel bad if it weren’t for that shit-eating grin on your face,” he deadpanned.

  “Oh, come on! I can’t help it,” I giggled. “I’m really trying here. I swear.”

  He reached up and ran a hand through his sandy-blond hair, messing it up in a sexy, disheveled way. A deep sigh passed his lip
s just before his mouth twitched like he was fighting a smile of his own. “It was pretty bad, huh? What the hell was I thinking?”

  “It was sweet,” I insisted, even though I kinda-sorta agreed about the whole bad idea thing.

  “Remind me to never ever take advice from Luke again.”

  I laughed loudly. “You listened to Luke?”

  “I must have lost my damn mind. That so wasn’t me at all.”

  I stood on my knees, reaching up and ran my fingers through his silky hair. I couldn’t be so close to him and not touch him. “It wasn’t us. We don’t need overly-romantic gestures. We’re good for each other just how we are.”

  “Yeah, you’re right.” He grabbed my hand and brought it to his lips, placing a kiss on my palm. “You look beautiful,” he told me, finally letting his eyes drift over what I was wearing for him and him alone.

  I plopped back down on the bed, my legs straightened out in front of me as I leaned back on my elbows, giving him the full effect. “I wanted to apologize properly for being so rude earlier,” I said with a seductive grin.

  One of his brows arched as a smirk spread across his face. “Is that right? Well then, I should let you get on with this apology, shouldn’t I?”

  I nodded and watched with rapt attention as he reached back and pulled his t-shirt over his head. I’d never get tired of watching him undress. He was mouthwatering in clothes, but seeing him out of them should be illegal.

  “You know, I realized something when you were gone,” I admitted as he crawled up my body and pressed his weight against me. My breath hitched in my lungs as I felt him grow hard against my stomach.

  “And what’s that?” he asked against my lips before he trailed them down my neck. I moaned as my hips circled against him, grinding into his hard length. He felt so good. Everything about him was so perfect to me. With each nip and suck of his mouth against my skin, my brain short-circuited. But I had something I needed to get out.