We kiss as if our lives depended on it, both eager to let our mouths take control, and our kisses are worth more than any words right now.
My back is against the living room’s wall and I thank God for the support the wall is offering because the way Teague is kissing me and the way he's running his tongue down my neck is making my knees weak.
When he nips at the sensitive skin at the base of my neck, where my shoulder starts, I lift his t-shirt eager to feel his rippling, defined muscles under my fingertips.
He groans softly at the contact, pushing me further against the wall and grinding against me, hard in his jeans and delicious against my centre.
Only the thin fabric of the little dress I changed into before dinner and the lace of my panties separate me from his hardness and I feel a wet, throbbing ache starting to build up in my core.
Teague's lips have trailed down my neck and he’s opened a few of the tiny buttons that close the front of my dress, kissing the soft skin of the swell of my breasts, causing my nipples to harden painfully.
I need to feel his mouth on my skin and I want to feel his skin against mine, nothing else will do.
So I tug at his t-shirt and he stops kissing me just long enough to take it off.
He lowers my bra and when his warm mouth closes around my nipple, I almost don't recognise the panting, breathy sound that comes from my lips.
I know that this is crazy, I know that up to ten minutes ago I wasn't even sure that we would still be able to handle going to the same school but I also know what my heart and my body want and I believed him when he said that he’d work on trusting me.
His lips return to mine while his hands find the naked skin of my thighs under my dress and skim up to rest on my lower hips.
Teague lifts me, hoisting me against the wall and grinding into me again and the contact sends sparks of blazing hot electricity up my spine, making my core clench almost painfully.
I wrap my legs around his hips and when he grinds into me again, we both moan in unison.
He's shirtless and I’m still partially dressed, only my breasts exposed touching the smooth skin of his chest when he pushes upwards with every grind.
I’m throbbing against him and I know what will happen if he keeps grinding against me but I decide that I don't want it.
Not like this, I want more, much more and I decide that I'm gonna take what I need, I’m not sorry about wanting him.
When I use one of my hands to unbuckle his belt and drag his jeans down, I trust that he'll support me by keeping his hands under my thighs.
He doesn't protest when I pull his boxer briefs down, he grinds against me again and this time the sensation that courses through me is so wild that I push the lace of my panties aside and grab his hardness to guide it towards me.
He stops kissing me but his lips are still against mine when he pants:
“I don't have any condoms.”
I rest my head against the wall, putting some distance between us, to look into his eyes.
“There's some upstairs but ... I’ve always used condoms, Teague, but I’m on the pill. I—”
“I’ve always used condoms too. Are you saying that—”
I nod.
“If you want.”
He doesn't hesitate, he pushes himself inside me.
“Fuck! You're so wet.”
I push my hips towards his and gasp:
“You make me this way.”
Those are the last words we exchange for a while, Teague begins rocking his hips into me and in this position it takes the smallest of movements to send intense jolts of pleasure up my spine.
We get lost in each other, eyes locked and bodies tangled in this desperately hot embrace.
His movements become faster with my breathing rate, his skin feels so hard and hot against the soft flesh of my core but we fit together so perfectly that I'm trying to delay the inevitable.
He must feel my inner walls starting to tighten around him, squeezing him with my soft, wet heat as I emit a strangled moan, because this feels so good and I don't want it to be over.
“Let go, Aubrey.”
Teague's words are my undoing and I let the massive wave of pleasure crash over me with devastating power as my moans fill the room until he starts throbbing inside me.
With a condom I completely missed out on the hottest thing in the world: the feeling of his release flooding me in hot waves that prolong my pleasure.
Teague
I’VE HAD A LOT OF SEX in the past two years but nothing compares to what just happened between me and Aubrey.
And yeah, the lack of condom was certainly a factor because I’ve never felt anything softer, warmer, sleeker, and more perfect in my whole life.
It isn't just that though.
It's the attraction and the connection that I felt with her from the very first time our eyes met in the school parking lot.
It's also the sweetness of her forgiveness, the fierceness that tells me that she set her pride aside because she cares.
Her forgiveness was given freely and unconditionally but I also know that I need to earn it, to be worthy of her.
Only then will I be able to forgive myself for being a stupid, callous asshole.
I make sure to support her weight and I carry her to the couch, still wrapped tightly around me.
I sit with her straddling me and I'm still hard inside of her but I know that this isn't time for round two.
I need to use my words now and make sure that together with her forgiveness, I earn the chance to make our connection last and grow.
I almost laugh at the thought that with every other girl I’ve ever been with, my worst nightmare was to have to ‘cuddle’ and then talk about feelings straight after sex.
Sometimes the thought of it was enough to make me decide not to sleep with someone, if they were known as ‘clingers’.
But now I relish in her closeness, kissing her as softly as I can, my hands tangled into her silky brown hair.
“Aubrey—”
It's time to address the elephant in the room, the fact that we aren't the only two people in this relationship, that she's been involved with Knox, Devon, and Landon.
All of a sudden I feel insecure, worried that she gave herself to me in the heat of the moment, carried away by the onslaught of emotions of the last few days and that while she doesn't hate me, she doesn't want me as more than a friend.
She runs a hand on the nape of my neck, her soft gaze giving me the courage to speak up.
“I want more than just being friends. I hope you know that.”
She looks serious for an instant but then she smiles teasingly.
“That was the idea, when I let you have me against my living room wall. I don't know about you Teague, but what just happened isn't my standard forgiveness procedure.”
She doesn't sound mad and I chuckle at her quirkiness.
“Good, because I normally don't apologise like this.”
She laughs and lifts herself off of me, to settle down in my arms.
“Sorry, but having you still inside me like that was confusing and makes what I’m about to say harder to express.”
I kiss the spot behind her ear, encouraging her to speak up.
“Teague, I want more than being just friends too. But I ... I guess what I'm trying to say is that with Knox and Landon—”
I feared this.
“What you're saying is that you want to keep seeing them too. That you aren't ready to make a choice.”
She nods.
“Is this a deal breaker?”
After how I behaved, I certainly can't demand that she chooses right now and that she chooses me.
Especially when Landon believed her immediately and Knox hasn't been a complete douche like I have.
“No. It isn't. I won't lie to you, I’d rather it just be me and you but I understand that you were exploring things with them before ...”
I gesture between our almost naked b
odies.
“Before this.”
The way she looks at me gives me hope that even with the stupid and cruel way I behaved towards her, she knows that I care and that I’ll do better.
The rain has turned into a light, chilly drizzle and the dusk has given way to a stormy night, I really want to stay and sleep with her in my arms, if she lets me.
I’m about to ask her that, when we hear a loud knocking at the front door.
“Were you expecting anyone?”
She shakes her head and rushes to fasten her dress and I retrieve and put on my discarded underwear and jeans as she makes her way to the front door.
I really don't like the thought of her being all alone in this big, empty house.
I walk towards her just as she opens the door and launches herself into Knox's arms.
They share a passionate kiss and if I thought that I could win her heart easily, the way he looks at her and the warmth in his voice when they finally break that kiss tells me that whatever she has with Knox is just as real.
I try to swallow the raw jealousy I feel when I see the way his eyes soften when he looks at her and I realise that he really isn't playing games here, he isn't just trying to fuck Aubrey and then move onto his next conquest.
“I looked for you at the end of first period. You weren't at school, you didn't pick up your phone, I was going insane with worry. I almost skipped practice but coach saw me in the parking lot and—”
Her voice quivers a little when she tells him how upset she was.
“You didn't even look at me, Knox. You said that you didn't have time.”
“Pretty girl, I heard that people were starting to say that you were behind the guys’ suspension from the team and I needed to find the others to talk and do some damage control. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to sound distant, I was only preoccupied that you could get into some serious trouble.”
She nods.
“I know that now.”
Knox places a finger under her chin, bringing her gaze up to his and asks her:
“How could you ever think that I didn't care about you after yesterday?”
“I don't know, Knox. I thought that maybe, once you had what you wanted—”
“Aubrey, if that wasn't clear yesterday, I want you. All of you. It's not just about getting laid.”
“I know now, Knox. I'm sorry. You looked so uninterested this morning, that I thought that maybe I wasn't ... I don't know. I guess I let my insecurities take over. After—”
“After the way I behaved straight after sleeping with you?”
Devon’s voice reaches us from behind Knox.
He and Landon are standing on the threshold and if Devon was expecting the same warm greeting Knox got, he’s sorely disappointed.
“What the fuck are you doing here, Devon? Move over, please. Hey, sweetie.”
She literally shoves Devon aside to go and hug Landon but our former QB1 isn't easily intimidated.
“I’m here to talk to you, Aubrey. There's some things I need to say to you. Can I please come in?”
She turns a hard gaze towards him, she almost doesn't look like herself for a second but I recognise the hurt in her voice and in the rigid posture of her shoulders.
“I thought I was clear that there's nothing left to say between us, Devon.”
“Please, Aubrey. Hear me out. One last time. If after you want nothing to do with me, I swear I'll leave you alone. I’m here to grovel. Please, baby.”
16.
Hostile Truce
Devon
“I’M HERE TO GROVEL. Please, baby.”
“I thought I asked you to stop calling me baby.”
Her voice is still hard but she moves aside to let me and Landon in.
We follow her to the living room and normally I’d appreciate the huge black furniture and the cool edgy objects that decorate the room to give it a rockstar lair kind of vibe.
However I can't help but notice that Teague was standing behind her and that while he's wearing jeans, he’s shirtless.
My eyes skim over Aubrey's dark red dress and I notice that a couple of the buttons that close the whole front of her dress have been fastened in the wrong eyelet, giving her dress a skewed appearance.
I swallow the hard lump that forms in my throat: we obviously walked into something here.
Just the idea of Teague fucking my Aubrey, makes me wanna kick his sorry ass but I remind myself that she isn't ‘my Aubrey’ and that regardless of my stupid behaviour since that night on the beach, after she hears what I’m here to say, she might not want anything to do with me anyway.
I almost chicken out when I see the look in her eyes, the diffidence, the hurt that reflects in her body language as she folds her arms against her chest in a protective stance.
“So, whatever you're here to say, let's get it over and done with, Devon. This has been a hard day and I'm exhausted.”
I bite back what's on the tip of my tongue: that obviously she wasn't too exhausted to hook up with Teague but I know I have no right.
And I know that would be exactly in line with the shit I’m having to apologise for.
“Sure. Can we have some privacy, though?”
Aubrey's expression remains stony when she says that whatever I have to say to her, I can say in front of Knox, Landon, and Teague.
I guess I fucking deserve it and I'm lucky that she's hearing me out in the first place.
And after all, I'm pretty sure that she'd share our conversation with them anyway, so I might as well save her the trouble.
I sigh and I can't help but notice that while the guys sit down on the black leather couches, Aubrey remains standing by the side of one of the couches, with her hand on Knox’s shoulder.
The way he closes his hand around hers in a supportive and protective way feels like a punch in the guts, as jealousy corrodes my insides and I almost bail out from my apology.
But weakness is what got me here and if I want the hope to be the one she turns to for comfort one day, I need to man up and own my stupidity and egoism.
So I begin:
“Can I start with telling you how sorry I am about accusing you of fucking with my drink? I know very well that it isn't like you to do something like that. The reality is that I knew I’d been an asshole to you in so many ways ... I knew deep down that if you wanted to get even, you’d have faced me head on, not drugged me and tried to get me expelled. I’m so sorry I didn't believe you when you said that you had nothing to do with that shit.”
Aubrey surprises me by shaking her head.
“I don't know, Devon. Out of all the things you should be sorry about, maybe that's the one I find easier to understand. I did have something to do with what happened, in the way that I handed you the fucked up drinks. So I understand why you believed that I was involved. The fact that you didn't believe me when I told you that I didn't fuck up your drink is what hurt me the most. And also the way you treated me.”
I nod.
“You're right. I was so mad and I know I sound like a total shitbag but I got madder because I knew that I fucking deserved it after how I acted towards you.”
She meets my gaze head on.
“You should've believed me when I told you that I had nothing to do with it. We could've worked together to figure out what happened. There's a number of people that had access to those drinks, even days before the game. But I swear that I just handed them to you guys, I had no idea that something was wrong with those drinks.”
I agree.
“I know, baby.”
She shoots me a pissed off look: she has asked me countless time not to call her ‘baby’.
“The reality is that I knew that I was such an asshole to you since that last night in Hilton Head that a big part of me believed, and still believes that I deserved it. So in my fucking twisted mind, it made sense if you had tried to get even that way.”
She considers my warped logic but she retorts that even admitting that she’d
stoop that low to drug my drink, she’d never have gotten other people caught up in it.
“And by the way Devon, you believing that I’d hurt you and the others to get to you and the way you basically bullied me after, telling everyone that I was a shitty fuck—”
Her voice breaks for a moment but she continues.
“That isn't even what hurt me the most. I can understand how scared and angry you must've felt. You too, Teague. What I don't understand and can't forgive, is how you ghosted me the minute I left South Carolina. And how you pretended that you didn't even know me when we saw each other again at school. If South Carolina meant nothing to you and you didn't want a relationship, you could've just said so. We could've stayed friends. Being ignored like that hurt because I really cared about you.”
The way she says ‘cared’ using the past tense, makes me panic but what's the fucking point?
She'll want nothing to do with me once she knows where I come from.
“You're completely right, bab—”
I correct myself.
“Aubrey. You're right and I acted that way first because I knew how much I screwed up that last night on the beach. How ‘I was a lousy fuck’. I felt ashamed and I was convinced that you wouldn't wanna repeat the experience anyway. And then the shit really hit the fan at home a couple of days later and—”
She snickers.
“Oh, right! The famous mystery reason why I shouldn't tell anyone how we met? The very convenient reason you refuse to talk about?”
I don't blame her for sounding sceptical, so I tell her everything.
How I needed to work to help my mom keep a roof over our heads, how when I got back home, I found a subpoena to give a sample for a DNA test because my biological father had countersued Mom to have his own experts prove my paternity. How I was the product of a sordid affair and how my mom let Caroline, my dad's wife, buy her silence for eighteen years.
How my dad had no idea that I existed until he was sued for child support when Mom got really out of money and thought I was her way to a quick payday.
“How could I have told you all this, Aubrey? Not only did I grow up on the wrong side of the tracks but my mom is a conniving gold digger who's still using me to milk my father for money. It got so bad that he just filed for a restraining order against her. How could I even entertain the notion of a relationship with you, when I don't know if my father will get fed up with my mom’s schemes and throw me out, back to downtown LA where I belong? I won't have access to my trust fund until I’m twenty one, so if he kicks me out, I’ll be back working in an auto shop as a mechanic. With the difference that I couldn't live with my mom again, so I’d have nowhere to go. This is why I freaked out so much, Aubrey. Getting into college on a football scholarship is the only way to stand on my own two feet, and whoever drugged my drink, put that in serious jeopardy. If you can't forgive me, I understand. And I also understand if you think that I’m not even worthy of the scum under your shoe. The only thing I blame you for? You should've told me that night on the beach that it was your first time. By not telling me, you gave me something else to feel sorry about. If I’d known, I would've... I would've acted differently. Not that it justifies what a selfish prick I was that night but—”
The Retribution: A High School Light Bully Romance (Beverly Hills Prep Academy Book 3) Page 19
