Shallow

I felt myself touch her sweetest part and I knew I was in danger of coming apart at the seams as she positioned herself with her knees to either side of my hips. Damn. The condoms were in my jeans pocket. Rookie mistake.

I pulled away to reach for my pants in the floor, but she locked her legs around my waist. “I’m just getting a condom from my pants.”

“We don’t need that. I’ve been on the pill for a while.”

“I don’t know if that’s a good idea.”

She could see the storm within me. “You told me you’d never been with anyone without protection.”

“That’s right.”

“And I’ve never been with anyone, so we’re good.”

“Are you sure?”

She squeezed me against her using her legs. “I want to feel you inside me with nothing between us.”

There was nothing I wouldn’t do for this girl and I felt myself giving in to what she wanted, which wasn’t terribly difficult to do. I hovered over her and kissed her face as I stroked her cheek with my fingers. “I swear I’ll be gentle.”

She reached for my face with her hands. “I know you will.”

“It’s gonna hurt a little at first until I push all the way through, but then it should get better.”

“I’m ready.”

I don’t think it was possible to love this girl more. “I love you, Payton, and I need you to know something. I may have given my body to a lot of girls, but none of them have ever possessed my heart. It belongs to you and no other.

She smiled and it melted the heart that belonged only to her. “And mine belongs to you and no other.”

I gently pressed myself against her without pushing inside and she shut her eyes tightly like she was waiting for a painful assault. “Look at me.”

She opened her eyes and I could see the fear she was so bravely trying to hide from me. “Don’t stop looking in my eyes.”

“Okay.”

I slowly pushed myself inside this girl I adored and was shocked by how wonderfully different she felt. I heard you couldn’t always feel the barrier that had to tear, but I undeniably felt Payton’s and knew I was about to hurt her because I was in a place where no man had ever been before me.

I watched her eyes as I pushed through and saw the shock and pain the second it happened so I stopped so she could recover from it. She tensed and slammed her eyes shut. She bit her bottom lip and roughly dug her nails into my back, which served me right for what I was doing to her.

After a minute, her pain subsided and I felt her relax beneath me but I waited. I wanted her to ask me for more. And that’s exactly what she did.

23 We Happened

Payton

Shit, that hurt.

I opened my eyes and looked at Nick hovering over me. He was still inside me, but completely motionless and I knew he had stopped because he didn’t want to hurt me more than necessary.

I realized how tense I was so I took a breath and slowly blew it out as I forced my body to relax. I took several more deep breaths and then I felt something entirely different. It wasn’t pain at all. It was a building desire low in my groin and I was desperate to have the full experience of the deed itself.

It felt like someone else was in control of my body as I started to lift my hips against Nick. “Don’t stop. Keep going.”

He happily complied with my command. “Tell me what you want and I’ll give it to you.”

I reached for his hair and grabbed two fistfuls. “You. All of you. Right now.”

I just thought I had screamed his name before.

I was still waiting for my heart to slow down and to catch my breath when Nick rolled off of me. I turned on my side so I could face him and saw a thin sheen of sweat across his brow. It was hotter than hell knowing he had worked that sweat up on me.

He looked at me, assessing my eyes and breathlessly asked, “Are you okay? I didn’t hurt you too bad?”

“It only hurt for a minute and then it felt really good.” I couldn’t contain my smile. “I want to do it again.”

He rolled toward me and kissed me through his smile. “Damn, girl. I love you.”

“Damn, boy. I love you, too.”

We spent all day in bed but Nick noticed when my stomach growled in protest from its lack of food. “I need to feed you so you can be strong for tonight.”

“More?”

He glided his nose along mine before he got up. “Yes, ma'am. A lot more.”

Good.

I wanted to stay in and order room service but Nick insisted on taking me out somewhere nice for dinner. I dragged myself out of bed and got ready because I wanted to please him. Again.

I didn’t want to wash Nick’s smell off, but I had to take another shower. When I was finished, I put on a cream sundress with a pair of brown sandals. I hadn’t brought all of my hair straightening supplies so I was left with no option but to go curly. I pulled the front into a twist and secured it to the side with the back hanging in loose curls below my shoulders.

Nick walked up behind me in the bathroom and pushed my hair away from my neck. He planted a kiss behind my ear and watched my face in the mirror. “I told you that we were gonna happen.”

“You did and I’m so glad you were right although I was so positive you were wrong at the time. I didn’t want you to be right.”

“I know.” He reached under my sundress and rubbed his hand across my panties. “I guess it’s a good thing I couldn’t resist trying to get into these.”

We’d never get out of the room if he kept doing things like that, so I pushed his hand away. “We’ll be back in that bed happenin’ again if you don’t stop doing that.”

He loved having that kind of power over me, but he tried to let me think I was the one in control. “Yes, ma'am.”

Nick took me to a romantic Italian restaurant. They weren’t busy because it was the middle of the week and we were seated in a booth in a dark, secluded area off to ourselves. We were in the middle of our meal when I got a text from my aunt.

“It’s from Tillie.” I looked up at Nick. “I’m sorry. I know she’s Mattie to you, but she’s been Tillie to me for thirteen years.”

He shrugged like he didn’t care. “It’s okay.”

I felt a bit of hope. “I don’t know what to think of this.”

“What does it say?”

“I’m just gonna read it and you can tell me what you think it means.” I cleared my throat because it was a long one. Tillie never used short hand.

“Please know I am sorry for everything. I can’t change the past but there’s one thing I can change & that’s your mother’s mind. You & Nick will be together. I’ve made sure of it.”

“What does that mean?”

“It sounds like she convinced her to go along with us being together, except I’m certain that’s not possible. She wouldn’t have voluntarily consented to us being together. There is something else going on here.”

“Does it matter what it means as long as we get to be together?”

“You’re right. It doesn’t matter what the catch is, but do you see that she didn’t just do this for me? She did this for you, too. She loves you and wants you to be happy.”

He put his fork down on his plate. “I need you to understand something, Payton. I have nothing for her, but I’m choosing to be nice where she is concerned because you love her and I don’t want to upset you. I honestly couldn’t care less about her.”

“I know and I don’t blame you. I get it and I don’t take your feelings lightly.”

“Thank you for understanding.”

After we finished dinner. We went back to the room to hit the resume button. We were both sleep deprived after the previous night, but neither of us wanted to sleep because we were afraid of missing one minute together.

The light of the morning sun was threatening to stream through the crack in the curtains when we both fell asleep from utter exhaustion and it was almost time to leave when we woke again, leaving us little time to be together before we’d have to check out.

I opened my eyes and he was looking at me. “After I met you, you became my reason to wake up every morning, but today you're my reason to stay in bed.”

“Oh, how I wish we could.”

I stretched and a seductive moan escaped my lips. “Oops, that was my inner porn star sound accidentally coming out.”

“Yeah, I recognize it from last night.”

Sometimes he could be as witty as me. “Nice one.”

I lazily sat up in the bed and brought the bed sheet with me tucked under my arms. He mimicked me minus the sheet and scooted over behind me to massage my back and shoulders. “Are you sore?”

I was, but it was a good kind of sore. “A little bit, but it’s mostly when I move.”

He put his arms around me and stroked my stomach. “Then I guess you’ll think of me every time you move today.”

“I have no doubt I’ll think of you whether I move or not.”

He groaned as he kissed my shoulder. “I don’t want to leave this bed, but I guess we can’t stay here forever.”

I looked at the clock and saw that our stolen time together was over. “We’ve gotta leave before they kick us out.”

“Just give me five more minutes of this.” He moved his mouth from my shoulder down my back and I gave him the five minutes he asked for plus another ten.

After the hands of time forced us out of bed and scurried us toward the door, we stopped for one last kiss before entering the hallway of the real world.

“Call me as soon as you know what’s going on.”

“You’ll be the first.”

He pulled me in for one last hug and huskily whispered in my ear. “I already have been.”

≈ ≈ ≈

As I got closer to Franklin, I knew there was a stop I had to make before I walked in to have it out with my mother again. I needed to see Claire.