Picking up a leaf that’s blown into my lap, I tear it in two. “Your turn. Care to enlighten me on how you became teacher’s pet to my dad?” I ask, changing the direction of my thoughts. I smile down at him, a tightness in my heart at the way his lips form into a smirk. I should have stayed quiet. Allowed myself the time to push down the old feelings that have been resurfacing since the night of the wedding. I peer down at him needing another quick hit to feed my childhood addiction. When I steal a quick peek, his eyes are already on me. Busted. He holds my gaze, locking me into his emerald embrace. After a few seconds, I shift my head, pretending to be fascinated with the scenery in front of me.
“He’s been more of a father figure to me than my own dad, and ever since I could remember, I wanted to be just like him.” He breaks the silence with his sobering words, bringing me back in his line of sight. My mind searches for any memories of his family, his dad specifically, but none really come to mind. I think his dad is still alive, unless...
“Is your dad—?”
“Dead? I wish. No, sadly.” I stare at him, blinking away the shock at how he can speak so bluntly about his parent. His words catch me off guard, and my reaction doesn’t go unnoticed. “No need to look so surprised. My father was a drunk. He loved his booze more than he did his family and that never changed. And once I was about to go big, he loved the possibility of my money even more. He didn’t attend a single game, ceremony, or sponsorship camp. He was never a true father to me. But your dad was. He was the one who showed up to all my games, dinners, and went with me to all my scout trainings.”
“My dad? How come I never knew this?”
He shrugs, throwing his hands behind his head. “It’s not like it was a secret. But for some reason, we both chose to keep our time together private. Jim…your dad, came to my house one day, wanting to speak to my father about tagging along on a scout trip. He didn’t want to overstep so he thought to get my father’s approval first—not having a clue what he was walking into. My father, drunk off his ass, took a swing at me right in front of him. He tried to break it up, but it only made it worse. My mom had just left us. She’d had enough, got smart, and took off. Shitty thing is, she didn’t think to take me with and save me from him. But your dad stepped in and took me in. That’s why I stayed with you guys that whole summer.”
I remember that. I mean, who wouldn’t? The lead football star living in the room next to me for three whole months. I remember putting a cup to the wall almost every night trying to eavesdrop on anything he was doing.
“From there on, he just stuck by me. Stepped in as my father figure and helped me make the right decisions along the way.”
“And what happened to your dad?”
“He showed back up years later when scouts were calling. I’d been in my second year of college. They’d gotten his phone number somehow and started sweet talking him with money and boats and fame—all the shit that would come my way if I signed with a certain team. Of course, my father ate it up. Made commitments behind my back. Thought he was going to get a piece of my hard-earned pie.”
He pauses, and I raise a brow, eager for him to continue. “And?”
He laughs. “Your dad, once again, stepped in. Gave me the advice I needed, and I took it. I knew my dad would always be there trying to rob me somehow. And a small part of me felt I was robbing myself by not taking the road less traveled. So, with your dad’s help, I chose to complete my education. With no money piling in, my dad, once again, was in the wind, along with my NFL career.” My somber expression doesn’t go unnoticed when his eyes peek back open. “Don’t give me that pity look. I chose this path, and I don’t regret it. Not for a single second. Being the teacher’s pet was the best thing to ever happen to me.”
I want to sit here and dwell on how hard his life had been, and how he felt the need to keep it a secret. I would have never thought Levi Dent had it any way but good. I want to tell him how sorry I am for the hardships he faced and hug my dad for being such a great figure for him.
“So, you going to enjoy the sun or block mine all day?” His smile, the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen, extends to his eyes, burying any dwindling emotion I was beginning to harbor. I decide it’s best to drop the topic and refrain from saying any more. I lay down, pressing my back against my sun-heated towel and close my eyes, allowing the warmth of the sun to relax my mind.
The rest of the day pans out to be quite lovely, a constant chatter fluttering between us. We stay away from any deep topics and avoid the I-thought-I-was-having-a-sex-dream catastrophe. He shares funny college stories about some of his old teammates, while I try to counter-share, failing miserably since my college experience was less exciting. We eat the snacks I brought while he listens to my playlist. He laughs at my Kindle library, wanting a detailed summary of each book. Of course, he picks out only the ones with the smutty covers. We enjoy the day, the sun, a place where we both spent most of our childhood.
It’s late afternoon when I sit up, pressing my fingers against my skin.
“You’re getting burnt. Give me the sunblock.” Levi sits up with me and reaches for the bottle of lotion, nodding for me to give him my back, though I’m not sure having his hands on me is the best idea. We’ve had such a great day, I don’t want to ruin it by things getting weird. He seems at ease with the situation, so I hand over the bottle and pivot.
The second his hands touch my sunned skin, I shiver. “Oh, that’s cold. But it feels fantastic. I may have waited too long to reapply,” I say, closing my eyes. His strong hands work me slowly, gently, reaching the top of my neck to my lower spine. I feel guilty for enjoying it as much as I do, but lean into him anyway.
“You’re probably going to need some aloe later,” he says, his voice sounding a bit off. I wonder if he senses the same electricity between us. Or is it just me and my wishful mind?
His palms wrap around my hips, his thumbs dipping just below my bathing suit bottoms, continuing to work in the lotion. If I were honest, I’d admit the lotion soaked into my skin ages ago, but I wonder where his hands will go next. Will they move up my back, possibly to my front…touch me below my waist?
Before I have a chance to wonder any further, his hands are gone. Levi clears his throat. “You should be all set.” He pulls back and stands, facing away from me.
“Did you…uh, want me to get your back—?”
“No! No, I’m good. It’s actually really hot. I’m just gonna dive right in.”
And with that, he jumps headfirst into the lake.
Levi
The rush of the cold water smacks onto my hard-on, causing me to groan as I go under. It was either bruise my dick or risk Hannah seeing what she did to me.
I break through the surface, whipping my hair back out of my face. I wipe the water dripping down my face and catch Hannah standing at the edge of the dock. It’s a damn good thing my lower half is under water. My dick is a resilient motherfucker and hasn’t gone down.
Hannah’s pink and white bathing suit is modest on top, covering her full chest, but leaves nothing to the imagination with her bare legs. The sun offers her skin a nice glow, and her cheeks are flushed from the heat. She is absolutely stunning. While I still battle with what she did—and why—there’s something about Hannah Matthews that intrigues me. Makes me want to get to learn everything about her, inside and out. There’s no doubt I want her. My dick pops up to salute her every time she’s near, and I finger-fucked her in my sleep for Christ’s sake.
I freaked the fuck out when I fully woke up, realizing what had happened. I was having the best dream ever—until I realized it wasn’t a dream. My fingers were deep in her warm cunt, stroking her, listening to her soft moans. When she screamed and jumped off the mattress, I panicked, scared I assaulted her, possibly still drunk and forced myself on her. I felt like a huge asshole, fearing Hannah was going to rat me out the second I heard Stacey’s voice outside the tent. I threw my hands over my face, waiting for the wrath. That’s
when I smelled her, brought my finger to my nose and inhaled. I’m a sick fuck, but it was heaven. Would it make me even worse if I tasted her off my finger next? She was doing things to me I couldn’t explain. I want to be so mad at her, but I can’t.
Because I want something from Hannah Matthews in a deep way. I’m just afraid to admit to myself what that is.
“You gonna come in?” I ask, needing to get her body out of full view and into this water so there’s less for me to see.
“Debating. I hear there are monsters that eat people in there,” she teases, reminding me of the time we were all up here and Chase really laid into her.
“Are you chicken? Too scared to find out?” I start making clucking noises, egging her on. My dick perks at her glowing smile, and now I’m rethinking her joining me.
“What if I get sucked under? It’s going to be all your fault.”
“I’ll tell everyone you put up a good fight before you went down.” I waggle my brows, waiting for her to make her move. She backs up, catching me off guard. Getting a running start, she cannonballs into the lake.
The large splash causes me to lose focus on where she lands. I wipe the water from my face and spin around, waiting for her to pop up and scare me. She was always a little ninja when she was younger, coming out of nowhere when we would be doing something we shouldn’t have been.
A few more seconds pass, and I do another spin. Where the fuck is she? “Hannah?” I call her name, spinning again. I stare at the water, searching for air bubbles, but nothing. No riff whatsoever.
“Okay. You win. You can come up now,” I say, my nerves coming through in my voice. “Hannah, for real, this isn’t funny.” I dip my head under, trying to open my eyes, but it’s too murky to see. I pull my head back up to take a large breath and scan the water around me to see if she’s come up, panic gripping my chest. Maybe she hit something when she went down. Caught her foot on something. Fuck, she could be stuck, freaking out—
A break in the water causes a huge splash and Hannah pops up. She laughs, wiping at her face, and I grab her, pulling her body into mine.
“What the fuck, Hannah? I thought you hurt yourself.” I’m suddenly angry. Frazzled at the thought of something happening to her. Being so close, she has no choice but to wrap her hands around my neck.
“Sorry, I was just playing.”
“You were under forever. I thought you drowned. How was that even possible?”
“Years of practice holding my breath. I guess when you’re kind of a loner and have nothing else to do, you teach yourself how to stay under water the longest.”
I watch her eyes soften, the sad truth in her voice ruining me. All those years we picked on her, made her feel alone…she felt alone. I want to kick myself for how I treated her. Not that I took part, but I never stopped it. I stood by and watched Chase dig at her every chance he got. Ben wasn’t any better. I want to tell her she isn’t alone anymore. I want to kiss the sadness off her lips and tell her I’m so fucking sorry for never being there before.
Our bodies are pressed tightly to one another, but her closeness isn’t enough. The protector in me aches to build a steel wall around her to protect her. Slay anyone who ever dares steal that sparkle out of her doe eyes. I’m fixated on her damn lips, full and wet from the water. My heartbeat picks up, and I wonder if she can sense the change in me. My muscles press against her as I pull her closer. The way her lips part, she senses the hardness growing in my swim trunks. Fuck, I want to kiss her right now. Her hooded gaze tells me she wants to kiss me too. This is wrong. I need to rip myself away from her and do the right thing. But there’s a pain in my chest at the thought of denying myself this moment. Her wet, full lips against mine. Fuck, I can’t stop it. I’ll deal with the consequences later. But I need her mouth.
I lean forward, gauging her reaction, watching for any hesitation on her part. Her eyes become heavy with lust, her cheeks flushed, breaths coming faster. Her eyes meet mine, lids half-mast, and the way she looks at me…
I move to press my lips against hers, to take what I crave, when Kipley’s voice echoes across the lake.
“Hannah! Where are you at!”
My heart shoots out of my chest, and my stomach drops to my ass in panic. Before I can think better of it, I dunk Hannah into the water.
“Hannah...? Oh, Levi, s’up man? Hannah with you?”
Yeah, she’s under the water, probably floating right next to my hard-on.
“She was here somewhere, you know her, all over the place.” I try to hide my shock when Hannah pops up almost at the other end of the lake. Jesus, how does she do that? She lifts her head, waves to Kip, and begins her swim back to shore.
“Hey, how was kayaking?” she asks, climbing up the deck ladder.
“Fun, minus all of Rebecca’s whining.” Kip turns to me. “You really screwed us by pulling out. She complained the whole time about wanting to come back. Unless that’s what you wanted?” Kip wiggles his eyebrows, and it instantly pisses me off.
“Trust me, not my plan, man.” I swim up to the dock and climb up. Hannah wraps herself in her towel, refusing to make eye contact with me.
“Speak of the devil. Beware, she’s on the prowl.”
We all turn to see Stacey and Rebecca walking down the hill.
“There you are! I went to your tent to see how you were feeling but you weren’t there.” Rebecca comes right up to me, not bothering to read my body language that says don’t you dare fucking do it, and places her hand on my chest. “I was so worried about you.” She talks to me in a tart baby voice, and I want to throw her in the lake. Out of the corner of my eye, Hannah grabs her things, cramming her towel in her backpack. I want to tell Hannah she has the wrong idea—really wrong idea—but there’s no way to do that without Kip hearing me and throwing my dead body in the lake after he kills me.
“I’m fine. You don’t have to worry. I was just hanging out with Hannah.” I try to include her, hoping to show her I’m happy to have spent the day with her. Rebecca does not take lightly to the new information.
She aims her bitchiness at Hannah. “Wow, Hannah. What are you wearing?” She cynically laughs. “Is that a sports bra? Girl, it’s a new age. You can wear a bathing suit nowadays,” she jokes.
Hannah frowns, peering down at her suit. “This is a bathing suit. What’s wrong with it?”
Rebecca lifts her arms, tossing off her cover up. “See, girl? This is a bathing suit. I guess if you don’t have anything to flaunt, you wear something like that. Little Hannah Matthews, still the little tomboy,” she taunts, pointing to her chest.
“Rebecca,” Stacey warns.
I keep my eyes on Hannah, watching the sparkle slowly fade from her eyes.
“What?” Rebecca grins, looking at me. “Don’t you agree, Levi? You would much rather look at something like this, wouldn’t you?” She steps closer, lifting her hair over her chest to expose her too obvious fake tits. Anger sears through me at her cruelty. I search out Hannah, her eyes flickering with fury and unshed tears. Withdrawing, she bends down, snatching up her bag and throwing it over her shoulder. Without another word, she pushes past me and Kip, thrusting her shoulder hard into mine, and storms away.
“Hannah! Where are you going? She’s just joking.” Kip tries to grab for her, but she throws his arm off her shoulder and treks quickly up the hill. “Hannah! Come on.” He makes one last attempt, but lets her go.
“Gosh, what’s her problem? I was only trying to help her out. Poor girl needs some fashion advice.”
“And you need to get some fucking manners,” I bark, pushing her away from me and sprinting up the hill after Hannah.
I’ll give Hannah one thing, she sure is fast. I make it into the woods, but she’s already clear across the way. “Hannah, wait!” I call for her, but she’s not stopping. I pick up the pace, practically in a jog before I finally catch up to her. “Hannah, fuck, slow down, I’m trying to catch up—”
She swings around, her che
eks soaked with tears. “What? Go back to the fun. You’re missing out on all the jokes.” She turns again and starts walking.
“I don’t want to go back there. Just stop for a second.” I speed up and grab for her. “Hannah, stop.” She whips around and surprises me when she lifts her hands and shoves me away from her.
“No, you stop! You all stop! I’m not eight anymore. I’m not eleven, thirteen, sixteen. I’m not the little Hannah Matthews you all got your kicks making fun of. I won’t take it anymore!” Her eyes are on fire. She’s breathing in quick pants, quivering with fury. The hurt radiating from her wounded eyes guts me.
“Hannah, I don’t think that.”
“Right,” she laughs cynically. “Go back, Levi, and leave me alone.”
“I said no. God, will you fucking listen to me?” I snap.
“Listen to you? Why? You think because you’re not the one throwing the insults that you’re any better? Why didn’t you stick up for me? Why didn’t you ever stick up for me?” Her tears begin to fall again, crushing me. I take a step toward her, but her hands go up defensively. “No, I’m done. I’m done taking shit from you and your group—people needing to pick on the less fortunate to get off. I get it. I’m a loser. Always will be.”
“I never fucking said that.”
“You don’t need to. I made a huge mistake with you. I thought you were different. But you’re not. I may have tricked you that night, but I was the one who was truly fooled. Leave me alone.”
She turns to run, but I’m on her. I grab her shoulders, whipping her around to face me. Her eyes are wide with hurt and shock. I waste no time bending down and slamming my lips to hers. I kiss her aggressively, showing no mercy as I take her mouth hard. At first, she tries to push me away, denying the kiss, but it’s no sooner she allows me access, her mouth widening as my tongue wraps around hers. I push her taut little body up against the nearest tree and grab for her hips, grinding into her, needing her to understand exactly what she does to me.
Chicks, Man Page 9
