I moan.
Tip in, he clasps one of his hands in mine, refusing to break eye contact. He pushes in slowly, eyes rolling back in ecstasy at the tight grip of my pussy.
“Jesus.”
We both inhale sharply when he hits the resistance of my virginity, nudging against it softly before he takes my lips in a tender kiss. “Breathe.”
He surges forward as I inhale, breaking through my barrier and pushing all the way in.
My nostrils flare in pain, the sting traveling from my toes all the way to my face.
“Breathe.” He kisses me again.
I follow without thought, my lungs inflating and deflating in long, measured breaths.
Rolling his hips, he works on stretching me, and I whimper and moan and wince and arch into him all at once.
“You feel so fucking good, Squirrel. So fucking good.”
He sounds ready to break. Ready to shatter into a billion pieces.
“Brooks,” I urge. “I need you to move.”
He exhales in relief. “Thank fuck.”
He slides out, the movement so gradual, tiny waves of pleasure hit me at the tenderness of his touch.
He thrusts forward almost immediately, a little harder, his jaw set tight, swallowing down the guttural groan that idles in his throat.
Out.
In.
Out.
In.
Considering the tension in his arms and face, he’s barely holding on, but he fucks me nice and slow. Gentle strokes of his cock moving in and out of my body stir a fire in my stomach. The initial pain gives way to a soft ache, and that ache eventually gives way to tentative pleasure.
“Henley, I’m gonna—”
“Come,” I tell him, watching on in awe as his eyes close and the veins in his neck pulsate in time with his cock inside me.
Dropping on top of me, he nuzzles into my neck, kissing my skin softly. We lay like that until our breathing evens out.
I shift, but he shakes his head, halting me. “Give me a minute.”
“For what?”
“I’m not ready to let this moment pass just yet,” he confesses quietly. “Just one more minute.”
I give him his minute. Sixty blissful seconds of us tied away where no one else can find us.
“Henley,” he murmurs against my neck. “You know I love you, right?”
My arms wrap around him. “Of course.”
“Good,” he says. “I’d hate for you to ever think you wasted that—”
“I love you, too,” I cut him off. “We’re for keeps.”
“For always,” he echoes.
14
BROOKS
I bring her into consciousness with my lips brushing along the dusting of freckles over her nose and cheeks. Sun kisses that she’s earned from countless hours outside, befriending Mother Nature for no other reason than comfort.
Her eyelashes flutter, and I kiss them too.
She moans her approval, moving into me. “Hi.”
“Hi,” I say back, my arm wrapping around her warm body to pull her closer to me still. Needing the line of her body pressed against mine. Wanting her to feel how hard she makes me.
“Well, isn’t this sweet.”
Henley and I startle apart at the same time.
I wrap my sheet tighter around Henley’s naked body as panic settles in her eyes. Comfortable she’s covered, I twist my neck, glancing over my shoulder to where the facetious tone made its appearance.
Evelyn sits in the large armchair housed in the corner of my room. Legs crossed, examining her nails; her interruption is both unwelcome and regrettable. Her body exudes calm, her foot kicking out softly over and over again in time with the tick of my clock.
God knows how long she’s been sitting in my room. Watching, waiting. Inserting herself into a private moment she had no right to while likely plotting her revenge.
“Evelyn,” Henley stutters.
Evelyn lifts her eyes; sliced so heavily with hate she looks ready to burn everything around her. Her disdain for Henley has only grown over the years with her absence. A festering sore she can’t rid herself of. She could never move past the reality of Henley’s and my friendship. She wanted to replace her, a feat that I told her time and time again was impossible.
“Hope you enjoyed your time with my boyfriend.” She maims the way she aimed to, Henley’s sharp intake of air evidence of that.
My eyes close in respite.
“I, uh, ummm. . .” Henley mumbles.
Bile rushes up my throat, burning my esophagus in regret. Shamefully, not for what I did with Henley, but the fact that Evelyn is here stopping me from doing it again.
“Evelyn,” I start, sitting up.
“Save me the excuses, Brooks.” She stands. “You fucked your best friend without having the decency to end our relationship.”
“Evelyn,” I try again, knowing she’s right. But it’s not as if I planned this. It just happened. Something I’m not exactly proud of, but something I won’t ever regret.
“Funny that you wouldn’t sleep with me but jumped into bed with the very girl you told me not to worry about. We’re just friends, Evelyn,” she mimics a line I fed her again and again. One up until Henley arrived home, I wholeheartedly believed.
She moves toward my bedroom door. “Joke’s on me,” she contemplates. “I guess I should've known better.”
There’s no hurt in her tone. No pain at my betrayal. I wasn’t lying when I told Henley that Evelyn and I were nothing serious. But it’s obvious enough that Evelyn’s pride has been hit. It’s been decimated by the fact I couldn’t bring myself to touch her the way I would’ve given my life to do with Henley last night.
She’s beautiful—there’s no denying that—and not used to rejection. To the reality of coming in second place. To anyone.
“Go back to London, Henley. Your moping is the ultimate buzzkill.” She yawns. “Everyone was happier with you gone.”
With that, she’s gone, and I reach for Henley in reassurance.
“Don’t touch me.”
Stumbling from my bed, she holds my sheet to her body, leaving me completely naked. She turns her back quickly, like she hadn’t touched and tasted and felt me all over her last night.
“How could we forget you have a girlfriend? Oh, my God. I can’t believe we did that, Brooks.
