Unwritten

by Alex Rosa

  His lips coax mine open, and his tongue explores my mouth, tasting me. I match him for every stroke and release a moan when his hand on my hip pulls me roughly against him, aligning our bodies together in one heated mess.

  A crashing wave of a sensory overload washes over me. The smell of my sugary room, the woody scent of his skin, and the soft, worn cotton of the sheets against the exposed parts of my body, with the addition of his frantic mouth all makes for a delicious concoction that my breathy gasps can barely keep up with.

  His low growl when his tongue strokes over mine ignites a frenzy. My hands slide down his neck and over his shoulders, enjoying the feeling of his bare skin, my fingers digging into the hard flesh of his biceps as he pushes me onto my back again, pressing my body into the bed with his.

  He whispers, “Hailey,” when he takes a second to pull in a tiny, leveling breath before his mouth is back on mine. My body buzzes when it absorbs that deep, pleading tone in the form of my name on his lips.

  His mouth moves down the nape of my neck, leaving a burning trail in its wake as his right hand moves under his shirt that I’m wearing, smoothing up over the skin of my torso.

  I’ve never felt so alive. I can feel every neuron pulsing in sync with my rapid heartbeat. I want him closer. I want him everywhere. For a second, I consider I’m dreaming again because I can’t remember when I felt this good.

  My legs wrap around his hips, pulling him into me, and I can feel the hardness of his erection against the apex of my thighs.

  He pulls away to release an exasperated breath, pushing his hips in harder, rubbing himself against my throbbing core as he rests his head between my shirted breasts. His panting breaths come out as deep grunts.

  “Caiden,” I finally whisper back.

  He lifts his chin to reveal his firecracker eyes, the gold in the green, brighter and more fiery than I’ve ever seen them.

  “Hailey, I...”

  The sounds of vibrating bass and tires coming over my gravel driveway float through the window above my desk.

  “No!” Caiden says instead of finishing his sentence. “Goddammit, no...”

  His hips press into mine in urgency as he releases an exasperated breath, burying his face into my shoulder.

  When I hear a high-pitched giggle outside once the sound of music stops, and the rush of grinding gravel as a vehicle comes to a stop, I groan with him.

  “What are they doing here?” escapes me.

  He lifts his chin up, his eyes heated and frustrated. He pushes himself forward until his lips are feather-like against mine, and I can’t tell what I find more erotic: his hard body against me or the teasing anticipation of his lips against my mouth.

  “Let’s just not answer the door.” He brushes his lips against mine from side to side, delicately trying to convince me.

  “You know that won’t work.”

  “I don’t want to wait. Not for this.” This time he crashes his lips hard and unforgiving against my mouth.

  I moan in unison with the sound of the doorbell.

  “Caiden,” I try to whisper, but it comes out muddled and whiney.

  His gruff laugh is what I hear in response as he pulls away saying, “Don’t say no.”

  I shake my head, gathering my wits. I’m pulling in that deep breath, hoping for clarity, but Caiden surrounds me. He’s my atmosphere in this little bubble of us, and I love it, but I try for logic.

  “Maybe we should, um, take it easy.”

  His eyes burn flatly as he stares back. “You don’t mean that.”

  I release a wry smile at his obvious disappointment. I place flat palms on his bare shoulders, pushing him off and onto his back, switching places as I climb onto his hips, straddling him, trying to desperately ignore his hard-on rubbing against where I want it.

  “Please tell me this is where we pick up where we left off?” he asks, his large hands still cradling me at the waist.

  “Caiden,” I sigh again. I’m trying to reprimand him, but when he’s sitting up, putting us nose-to-nose, I know I’ve failed.

  “If you keep saying my name like that, I won’t let you win.”

  Ding-dong

  I want him so badly, and when I watch the corner of his mouth rise, I know I’m all too obvious. I want to be the stronger one here, but I’m starting to question my grip. It’s a battle of wills, and the push and pull is messing with my head.

  “Have it your way, Hails,” Caiden replies in defeat, reading my face. He doesn’t bother kissing me again before he lifts me easily off his hips, plopping me unceremoniously onto the bed as he swings his legs over the edge of the mattress.

  He groans as he readjusts his dark grey briefs, but it doesn’t stop me thinking he’s handling this battle better than I thought, because now I’m the one pouting.

  He stands, and I’m thrown when I scan his burly form stretched out in the bright sunshine, and his thick muscles are defined as clear as the day outside, leaving nothing to the imagination when he’s only wearing snug boxer briefs. I didn’t have the night or the proper lighting to give my admiring justice.

  Ding-doooong.

  “Hailey?”

  “Hm.” I’m so sexually frustrated and mesmerized by the deep V of his hips that I don’t bother looking up. “What?”

  “You’re wearing my shirt.”

  My eyes try peeling away his briefs with imaginary telekinetic powers, but when the elastic doesn’t budge and the silence hangs too long, I lift my stare to see him grinning smugly. Yup, I’m definitely not winning.

  “So what?” I reply.

  “Would you like me to go answer your door like this?”

  He’s trying to push my buttons, but the idea ignites something else entirely. A mischievous smile of my own appears, and I know how to regain my footing. I scoot off the bed, pulling his shirt off in one move, tossing it at his chest.

  “Here.”

  I bend down to grab for my shirt and skirt from last night. When I rise, his eyes trail over my body, following all the curves and dips until he meets my eyes. I widen my grin.

  “So, this is how it’s going to be?” he says.

  I nod, pulling my shirt over my head. “Yup.”

  “Game on.”

  I shake my head, giggling, and slip my skirt over my hips. “This isn’t a game, Caiden. This is about doing the right thing.” I turn around and try making my way to the bedroom door.

  “Me being inside you isn’t the right thing?”

  I stop dead in my tracks and stumble when I reach the doorframe, grabbing for it before I fall. I turn my chin to look at him. He clicks his tongue triumphantly, knowing exactly what he’s doing.

  His eyes dare me to tempt him again. My libido and my psyche can’t handle that option at the moment. Not with words like that.

  It’s not like I didn’t know Caiden has a dirty mouth, because my eighteen-year-old self surely remembers those moments, but I somehow forgot about it among his supposed wooing.

  I grumble and feign annoyance, and maybe stomp my foot ever so slightly. “You’re totally not playing fair now.”

  “I thought you said it wasn’t a game?”

  “Argh!” I roll my eyes and try pulling myself together. I give up this time. “Please, just clothe yourself!”

  One point: Caiden. Zero: Hailey.

  I walk out into the hallway, whispering frustrated gibberish to myself as I trot down the stairs,

  “Only because you asked so nicely!” he shouts back.

  “Stop it!” I have a hard time hiding my laugh as we bicker.

  “Never!”

  I reach the door giggling like a loon, and not managing to contain the laughter as I swing it open. I wonder if I look like a lunatic or a hormonal mess. Either one would be accurate.

  CeeCee and Brandon stand there perplexed on my doorstep. This time my giggles turn into relentless laughter, and apparently still feeding off my sparring with Caiden, I speak. “Well, looks like you two made up.”

>   I’d pin CeeCee as the one with endless sass, but it’s Brandon who grunts, moving past me as he says, “Hardly.”

  My laughs cease when I catch sight of a defeated CeeCee still standing before me.

  “We’re better than his tone implies,” she replies quietly.

  “Are you sure?”

  She shrugs. “I did what you said. He has a hard time with the taking it slow thing, but accepted the answer for what it is. I told him I can’t be official just yet, but I’m more open now.”

  “I don’t know if that’s exactly what I told you to do, but at least there’s some honesty somewhere in there.”

  “As much honesty as I can muster.”

  I wave her inside, and she marches in. Brandon is walking out of the kitchen when I turn around.

  “What are you doing?” I ask him.

  He smiles genuinely this time. “Are you busy?” he asks, his eyes darting toward the stairs.

  “No,” I shoot back, placing my hands on my hips.

  “Where’s Caiden?”

  I swallow a dry gulp and shrug.

  “Hailey, his frickin’ truck is in your driveway.”

  “It’s not what you think.” I shake my head back and forth, admonishing him. I would never be able to explain how hard it was for me to climb into my old bed, and how Caiden’s arms simply held me all night, making it possible for me to sleep soundly. Nope, Brandon would never understand that. He’s not so good at the emotional thing, from what I can tell.

  A thundering of footsteps from above catches our attention. Caiden appears, walking down the stairs, and I squint suspiciously when I watch him pulling on his shirt as he’s walking. Couldn’t he have done that in my room?

  “Looks like you two have a problem with slow, too,” CeeCee quips.

  “Stop it. He stayed the night, but nothing happened. I swear.”

  “Yeah, right,” she replies with an eye roll.

  I wish I was lying because what’s the point in actually making us take things slow when I get ridiculed for not doing it anyway.

  I make eye contact with Caiden’s thoroughly unamused stare as he lets out a sigh of confirmation once he makes it to the living room.

  Brandon walks over to him, slapping him hard on the shoulder triumphantly, apparently reading the moment for the truth as he says, “Welcome to crazy town of the sexually frustrated. It’s not a happy place, man. It’s a level of purgatory they didn’t tell us about.”

  Caiden fights a smile. He’s definitely listening to Brandon, but his eyes are searing me to the spot.

  With fuming embarrassment and publicly known sexual frustration, I walk into the kitchen with no real purpose. CeeCee quickly follows.

  “Cee, what are you doing here? Not that I’m not pleased.” I pause, gritting my teeth, wondering what mischief I might be getting into if she hadn’t appeared with Brandon, but continue on. “I just wasn’t expecting you two.”

  “Did we interrupt?” she asks, reading the puckering of my face.

  I sigh, leaning toward the doorway to see Brandon and Caiden in deep conversation on my couch, with Brandon leading the conversation in a low, undecipherable tone. If they’re speaking freely, then I can.

  I swivel around and walk to the opposite side of the kitchen island to face CeeCee.

  “Kind of, but it’s okay. We need to pace ourselves.”

  She laughs, shaking her head. “What’s there to pace?”

  I shrug. “I just need it. I’ve been overwhelmed since the moment I stepped back into this town, and now that things seem to be, I don’t know, situating themselves, I need time to readjust. Can’t I take my time with this?”

  “Sure, I guess. I just assumed that with all the time that’s already passed, you’d be ready to just do it, already.”

  “For the love of God, please tell me you don’t mean sex, because that sounds ridiculous. Please be more insightful.”

  She laughs, and I wish she’d keep it down. “It’s exactly what I mean, because it does sound ridiculous. I just think that if you want it, what does it matter now? We’re not teenagers anymore, we’re adults.”

  I stare at her, blinking a few times, annoyingly dumfounded. “Stop being right.”

  “Nope.” She smirks.

  “Maybe I just want to drag out the game,” I confess.

  This time she grins. “Well then, that’s different. I approve of the tease.”

  “You would,” I hum.

  Her glee flatlines into a sarcastic glare. “That’s not funny.”

  “Oh, it’s definitely funny.” My lips squirm, feeling good that we’ve both made jabs, but I pull myself together. “You sure you’re okay?”

  “Yes. Baby steps and, how did you describe it? Pacing. I’m trying, Hails. I really am, but there doesn’t seem to be any winning with Brandon right now.”

  “The dude is impatient. You can’t blame him.”

  She releases a long sigh. “This is why today is important.”

  “What’s today?”

  “Gang hang out.”

  “That sounds like crime is involved.”

  She laughs. “Only if you want it to. What I mean is, me, you and all the boys head to the shore for the day, and s’mores and beer a night.”

  My chest tenses, thinking of the last party I was at, but she catches it before my panic sets in. “Only us, Hailey. No one else. Just us, Brandon, Caiden, Cameron and Tyler. We need some gang time, don’t you think?”

  My nod is reflexive and giddy. “I would so love that.”

  “I was hoping you would.”

  Brandon strolls into the kitchen, rigid but smiling, and Caiden follows, but he looks languid and kind of dopey under that thick layer of scruff, that if my memory serves right, holds two barely-there dimples.

  “We’re heading out,” Brandon says.

  CeeCee perks up. “What? Where?”

  “I’m gonna ride with Caiden to his house, and we’ll meet you and Hailey at the spot. Cam and Tyler are already there. They just texted me.”

  CeeCee opens her mouth but quickly shuts it. I understand her struggle. She wants more but can’t seem to muster what that is exactly. That was me less than a week ago. Poor girl.

  “Okay,” she breathes out, her eyes locked onto Brandon, who doesn’t waver as he stares right back.

  I have to give Brandon some credit underneath his brute demeanor at times, because as if he can read CeeCee’s struggle he adds, “I’ll be quick, okay?”

  This calms her, and she nods.

  Brandon doesn’t waste another second wallowing in their obvious torture. He turns around to leave, but he has to move around Caiden, who is staring at me like an idiot.