Outside the Lines

by Lisa Desrochers

  He’s so hot and hard inside me, like molten steel at my core, threatening to erupt. He shifts and more of his weight presses into my clit as he pumps against me, burying himself to the root, over and over.

  As if Rob is the key to my soul, every emotion I’ve ever felt swirls to the surface in a dizzying rush. Electricity crackles under my skin and I hear myself crying out, but there’s nothing I can do to stop it. I’m so firmly rooted to my body that every sensation is intensified and I feel it tenfold. I’ve never experienced sensory overload like this, and it’s so overwhelming that I almost tell him to stop. I’m coming apart and it’s terrifying. But it’s also euphoric. It’s the most intense mix of emotion and sensation I’ve ever felt.

  “Give it to me Adri,” he growls on a thrust, and that sends me over the edge.

  I’m falling through time and space, but instead of crying out, I’m whispering “Rob” over and over as I plummet to earth. I hear his sharp “Ah!” as he collapses on top of me, and as I vaporize into pure energy, I hear someone crying softly.

  I float in white fog for what feels like a long time, and then Rob is kissing my face.

  “I’ve got you,” he whispers in my ear, and that’s when I realize the crying is me.

  I’m shaking violently, and tears run from the corners of my eyes into my ears. Rob kisses them away. He’s still inside me and as I come back to my body, I feel the sting again. I open my eyes and look into his, so deep and open, and full of love, even if he can’t admit it to himself.

  He holds me and kisses away my tears until they finally slow, then pulls slowly out of me and rolls us to our sides. “Did I hurt you?” he asks, his voice all concern, kissing the tip of my nose.

  In answer, I draw his face to mine and kiss him with everything I have. He might not be able to admit that he loves me, but by the way he kisses me back, as if his life depended on it, I know he feels it.

  We kiss and touch, and it’s not long before I feel myself craving more.

  “Don’t get me started again if you can’t follow through,” I warn.

  A cocky half smile pulls at the corner of his mouth. “I can promise you there won’t be any issues with lack of follow-through.”

  He rolls us so I’m on top, and I sit astride his legs as he pulls off the condom. As he drops it over the edge of the bed, I take his thickening erection in both of my hands. He looks at me with a question in his eyes as I stroke him. In answer, I slide down his legs and lean forward, watching his widening eyes the whole time.

  He quirks an eyebrow. “I’m not going to tell you no, if that’s what you’re waiting for.”

  I was waiting for a yes, and I take that as one. I swirl my tongue around his swelling tip, and he groans low and deep in his chest.

  He tastes salty from the thin sheen of cum, and I didn’t expect that would turn me on so much. A throb starts between my legs.

  I’m not sure exactly what I’m doing, but as I suck him deep he hisses, “Fuck, Adri,” and thrusts into my mouth, so I think it’s working. I tighten my lips around him and glide his hardening length as deep as I can, then tighten my fingers at the root, and he rolls his head back and groans again.

  A minute later, he’s hard as steel. I tease him with my mouth and tongue a little longer, and when he starts leaking from the tip, I sit up and reach for a condom on the nightstand. I arrange it over him and squeeze out the air the way I saw him do it, then roll it down his tight length.

  I crawl up the bed and kiss him, then position myself so I sink onto his erection when I lower my hips.

  There’s no pain this time, just an intense feeling of stretch and fullness. I move on top of him, gliding up and down his hard shaft, finding a rhythm. He grasps my hips and moves with me, and this time, I can focus on the way my body responds. His fingertips brush over my skin, along the curve of my breasts, raising gooseflesh everywhere. He cradles my breasts in his palms and rubs his thumbs in circles over my hypersensitive nipples, sending aftershocks through me.

  “So pink and perfect,” he says, his voice rough with sex.

  I smile down at him and move with our slow rhythm.

  He glides one hand over my belly, and his thumb finds my clit. “That’s it,” he says, pressing his thumb in a circle and forcing a moan out of me. “I love how you sound when you’re all jacked up. You don’t do anything halfway. It’s just so fucking sexy.”

  I lift my hands and twist them into my hair, arching and putting my whole body on display for him.

  He stops moving and stares up at me, a mix of wonder and lust in his eyes. “You, Adri Wilson, are going to be my downfall. There have to be a million reasons why I can’t let that happen, but right at this instant, I can’t think of a single goddamn one of them.”

  He sits up under me and lifts us as he bends his knees. His arms wrap around me as he thrusts himself into me. I gasp. In this position he’s so much deeper, but there’s also twice as much pressure on my clit.

  “Okay?” he asks, but he doesn’t wait for an answer before taking my nipple into his mouth and swirling his magical tongue over it, and then I can’t do anything but gasp out his name.

  He loves me, easy and so tender, bringing me slowly back to the peak. And when I fall back to earth, I fall even harder for this mysterious man.

  We lie in each other’s arms for a long time before either of us moves, but we both know our time is limited. Finally, he reaches for his phone. “Their boat docks in a half hour,” he says, and I don’t miss the dejection in his voice.

  “When will we see each other again?” I ask.

  “Monday at school,” he says with a smirk.

  I smack his shoulder. “You know what I mean. Like this.”

  “Didn’t get enough?” he asks with a lift of his brow.

  “No, actually. Did you?”

  He shakes his head and his expression goes serious. “Never.”

  I lift myself off him and sit up, then sort through the tangle of clothes on the floor. It takes a minute, and when I turn back and look at him, he’s staring at the bedsheets, some mix of trepidation and anger on his face. “Did your period just start?”

  I’m not due for my period for over a week. I could lie, but I think we’re past that. “No.”

  “Was this …” He trails off and looks back at the streak of blood on the sheets in horror. “Were you a virgin?”

  Suddenly, I know I should have told him. “Yes.”

  He rockets off the bed. “Jesus fucking Christ, Adri. You could have at least given me a heads-up.”

  My gut twists into a painful knot. “Why? What difference would it have made?”

  He throws a hand at me. “I would have … it should have been—”

  A jolt of numbing fear shoots through me. “It was perfect, Rob. It was everything I’d ever fantasized.”

  “Damn it, Adri!” he shouts, turning and pacing toward the window. “It shouldn’t have been me! It was your first time. It should have been with someone who …” He trails off and shoves a hand through his hair.

  My heart screeches to a halt in my chest. “Who what, Rob? Loves me?”

  His gaze is full of anger and self-loathing when he turns and looks at me. “Yes.”

  I slip my underwear on, then tug my shirt over my head. “That wasn’t our deal. I told you I didn’t need that.”

  But the sting in my heart, far worse than anything I felt when Rob was tearing through my virginity, can’t be denied. I was hoping that somewhere along the way, he might have realized he wanted more from me than sex.

  He grimaces and drops his gaze. “But you deserved it.”

  I finish dressing and grab my bag. “This was my decision. I wanted this … with you. I should have told you, but honestly, it isn’t your choice who I give my virginity to. I chose you, so live with it.” I throw open his door and start down the stairs, but before I make the bottom, there’s a knock on the front door.

  Great. So much for my quick getaway.

  I
trudge back up to Rob’s room just as he’s zipping his jeans. “Someone’s at your door.”

  He doesn’t look at me. “Ignore them. They’ll go away.”

  “But I can’t leave until they do. Can you just deal with them, please?”

  He rakes a hand through his hair and scoops his T-shirt off the floor, then turns to face me. The anger in his eyes nearly kills me, but it also pisses me off. He has no right to be angry with me.

  He slips his shirt on and brushes past me. I wait as he trudges loudly down the stairs and makes a big production of ripping open the front door.

  “I’m looking for Adrianna Wilson.”

  At the sound of my father’s voice, it’s like someone tapped a vein and poured ice water directly into my bloodstream. I’m frozen, unable to move.

  “Then you’re looking in the wrong place,” Rob answer, cool as a cucumber.

  “Her car is at the end of your driveway.”

  “Good to know,” Rob says, all casual nonchalance.

  “Son, you really want to tell me where she is.” Dad’s voice, which initially had an edge of concern, has sharpened to a point, and I know he’s about an inch from snapping.

  “Have you tried the beach?”

  “There’s no one on the beach,” Dad growls.

  “Then I can’t help you.”

  The hinges creak as the door starts to close, but then there’s a crash that shatters the ice in my veins. I bolt down the stairs to find Dad pinning Rob up against the door by the shoulders, murder in his eyes. But the next second, Rob ducks out of his grasp and spins him into a chokehold, those eyes that were so warm and open when he was lying on top of me, now cold and determined. Hardened to stone.

  “Stop!” I yell as Rob grabs for the gun in Dad’s belt.

  Both their heads snap toward my voice.

  “Let him go, Rob,” I say, trying to keep my shake out of the words.

  Rob hesitates, but then does as I ask, shoving Dad out of his grasp and onto the porch.

  I move slowly toward them, blood pounding in my ears. “Dad, what are you doing here?”

  There’s a choking sound and I glance at Rob. His eyes are round as dinner plates. “Dad?” he growls at me, his face twisting with unmasked betrayal.

  Something else I should have told Rob. I’ll have to deal with that later. I turn my attention back to Dad. “I’m fine. Why are you here?”

  His eyes narrow as he splits a glance between Rob and me. I know how I must look. I didn’t even take a second to finger comb my hair. “Because my daughter’s started lying to me and sneaking around to places where she doesn’t belong.”

  I hold up my hands when I see his glare turn on Rob again. “Dad, this is between you and me. Rob doesn’t have anything to do with it. Let’s just go home and talk about it, okay?”

  He points an accusing finger at Rob, his face reddening with his rising blood pressure. “He has everything to do with it, Adrianna. You never acted like this before his family moved to town.”

  I shake my head. “If I’ve lied to you, it’s only because you make it so hard to tell the truth. Telling you about things like this scares the hell out of me.”

  “Get in the car,” he barks, backing away from the door and jerking his head at the cruiser in front.

  I pass Rob and want so badly to reach for his hand, or say something to reassure him, but when I look at him, his gaze is cold and hard. What I see in there is hate rather than the love I was so sure he was feeling. I walk by and pretend that look didn’t just pulverize my heart.

  I head for the T-Bird at the end of the drive, but Dad grasps my elbow and puts me in the passenger seat of the cruiser.

  “What about Mom’s car?” I ask, finally feeling the shame that evaded me when I took it to meet Rob at the beach that night.

  “I’ll send someone from the station to retrieve it.”

  My heart lurches at the disappointment in his voice. Mom would be so ashamed that I only started driving her car to go behind Dad’s back.

  He pulls out of the driveway and turns us for home. “I’ve been digging into that family’s past—”

  “Dad!” I say, terrified at what he’s found. If he already knows about Rob, there’s no saving this.

  He shoots me a reproachful look that shuts me up. “Their Florida IDs all check out, and there are court papers giving the oldest, that Robert,” he says with disdain, jerking his head at the back window of the cruiser, “custody of the boy in your class. But other than that, there’s nothing—no sign of where they came from before they landed here out of thin air. It’s like they didn’t exist, which means they’re running from something, Adri. Probably criminal activity. I don’t know what you’ve got going on with that boy, but it’s going to stop. Now.”

  I turn in my seat to face him, my heart pounding in my throat. “Despite what you and Chuck seem to think, I’m an adult. Who I spend time with is my decision.”

  His eyes shoot to me as he skids to a stop on the sandy road. “You are not going to get involved. Do you hear me, Adri?”

  A tear leaks over my lashes. “I love him,” I say, little more than a whisper.

  Dad swallows hard and turns back to the road. We ride the rest of the way home in heavy silence. When we get there, I go to my room and close the door, then curl up on my bed.

  “Mom, please, tell me what to do. How do I fix this?”

  But she’s gone. She’s never coming back.

  It’s hours before I cry myself dry.

  Chapter 23

  Rob

  When my phone rings, I’m sitting at the kitchen table over a mug of forgotten coffee, wondering how an hour ago I was balls deep inside the sexiest woman I’ve ever known, and now I’m here, in my own personal hell. I turn it over slowly, bracing myself for Adri’s number.

  It’s Elaine.

  “Hey, Rob. Sorry to bother you,” she says when I pick up, “but Maurice just went down with the flu and he’s got an assignment today. I know it’s supershort notice, but you and the driver need to leave in about an hour for an overnight in Tampa. The client has an afternoon flight tomorrow, so you should be home by four at the latest. Are you free?”

  “Hell, yeah,” I say.

  I’m totally fucking imploding, all these emotions that I’ve never allowed myself to feel before colliding like the perfect storm inside me. Guilt over letting Sherm see what he did, anger over what my father forced me to become, sorrow that the only person who could have saved this family ended up a victim of it have lived in my gut for so long they’re old friends. But I don’t even have a name for what I’m feeling for Adri. Or about Adri. Or about what I just did to Adri.

  I’ve been with more women than I can count, but I don’t think anyone’s ever given me her virginity. I don’t even remember losing mine, it was so damn long ago.

  She said she didn’t need a fairy tale. I deluded myself into thinking she didn’t deserve one because I knew I couldn’t give it to her. She’s a little pixie. A princess. She should have waited for her prince.

  I’m no fucking prince.

  And the cop who’s been harassing me is her old man. If I’d intentionally set out to expose my family and put them in danger, I couldn’t have planned it any better. With the local cops on my ass, we’re not safe here anymore. Grant was never the problem. It’s always been me.

  I let everything with Adri distract me from my goal. Her father showing up here has brought everything back into sharp focus. I’ve got to get my family out of here, which means I need to take care of things in Chicago.

  Now.

  “Great. You’re a lifesaver, hon,” Elaine says.

  “See you in a few,” I tell her and disconnect.

  I head to the shower to scrub Adri off me. A pained groan rolls up from my core when I remember how it felt to sink myself into that pristine body. She was so hot. So wet. So fucking tight. I should have known. I just never thought …

  I brace my hands against the cold tile wall
, hang my head between my shoulders. The water runs off my nose as I stare at my stupid dick, thickening from just the thought of her.

  Christ, she went down on me. She rolled the fucking rubber on. What kind of virgin does that?

  “Fuck,” I hiss under my breath. I told her I’d ruin her. I told her, and she let me do it. I slam my palm into the tile. “Fuck!”

  There’s a knock on the bathroom door that makes me jump. Lee’s voice comes through the door. “Everything okay in there?”

  “Yeah. Just dropped the soap.”

  I finish in the shower and tug on my clothes. I head to my room, grab the garment bag with my uniforms, throw some regular clothes and all my extra ammo in a duffel. As I’m turning for the door, the sex-ravaged sheets catch my eye. I move back to the bed and stare down at the smear of Adri’s blood.

  My face pulls into an involuntary grimace as I tug the covers up to hide the stain.

  I head to the stairs.

  “Stop chewing my sandal!” Lee says from the kitchen. When I get to the bottom of the stairs, she’s kicking Crash away from her feet as she cracks open a can of Coke. “I should have fed you to the sharks.”

  “Hey,” I say. “I’ve got a job in Tampa tonight.”

  She looks up at me with pleading eyes. “Take the dog. I’m begging you.”

  I don’t have it in me right now to make a joke. “Sorry.”

  “What happened to the wall?”

  I follow the flick of her eyes to the hole near the front door, exactly the size and shape of my fist. “I knocked into it when I was bringing in firewood. I’ll patch it up when I get back.”

  Her lips purse as she nods. I know she doesn’t believe me.

  Ulie’s covering the living room furniture with sheets. Cans of paint are stacked in the middle of the room. “I have never in my life witnessed anything as repulsive as those sharks. I should have stayed home with you. I’m never going in the ocean again. Ever,” she says with a shudder.