Page 18 of Until He Confesses
“Allow me to fuck you the way that I used to? It’s been a while since I felt you cling to me, and sob in my ears. You remember those nights?”
“I was in high school, you perv,” she said. “Keep bringing it up and I might get greedy and come after you.”
My eyes widened in surprise and then in excitement.
“There’s barely a three-year age difference between us,” I said. “Plus, we were just two academic years apart so technically you can’t come after me for anything. You haven’t heard of the close-in-age exemption?”
“I have but what does it matter? Haven’t you heard of the woman crying wolf exemption?”
I beamed, unable to hold back, and as she turned to storm away, I could see the edge of her lips slightly lift in amusement.
God,I had to admit to myself as I headed down the steps to the waiting vehicles.I had missed her.Her pure heartedness, her sass and wit, her confidence, her laugh, her warmth.
I got into the car and for the first time in a very long time could feel a thrilling excitement bubbling up in the pit of my stomach.
It truly wasn’t called an old flame for nothing.
7
CALLIE
Iwas so flustered that all I could do was stare dazedly ahead at the shelves in the galley.
What I had hoped was that he would be on his way quietly and peacefully so this night and encounter could come to an end.
Instead, he had chosen to hold me hostage at the entrance with all my colleagues and his employees watching. There was no doubt now that they suspected what was going on between us. Plus, word traveled fast and so the moment I disembarked with the rest of the crew I could feel the lingering gazes on me as well as the murmurings.
“You’re the talk of the town today,” Julianne whispered to me, and I sighed.
Until I realized I had someone by my side who would eagerly and properly correct the misconceptions.
“There’s nothing going on between us. We’re old friends.”
“You mean old lovers?”
The immediate kick to my gut at these words nearly took my breath away. And I was very clear on where the source stemmed.
“Allow me to fuck you the way that I used to? It’s been a while since I felt you cling to me, and sob in my ears. You remember those nights?”
God, I hated him,because I did remember and now it was all I could think about.
“Old friends,” I corrected but as the words came out of my mouth my heart instantly registered them as lies. Because no old friend could make my bones feel as though they were melting into butter at the mere thought of those nights.
Nights that had started out innocently and then escalated into something else. It had become so bad that I could never quite keep my cool whenever he was around my dad as my cheeks would always flush as they conversed. I would stare at his hands and lips, and the regal way he carried himself, knowing just what he could do to me with the simplest of touches.
I’d never expected that I would get so intimate with someone that early, and much less that I would be so comfortable that I would give myself so wholly. At first, it made perfect sense to me why he was the one that was able to make me feel safe but then at the end of it all I had just been left heartbroken and confused.
It made me reminisce over and over about the night we had met, running from a busted underage party but eager to end an unfortunate night outing with greasy unsatisfying food.
Well, Anna had been satisfied, claiming to the heavens that it was delicious but I had barely tasted a thing. Because all I could wonder about was why he had been staring at my lips.
I was so self-conscious afterward, wondering if there was something on them. I turned to Anna and wanted to ask but we were too close in proximity so there was no way he wouldn’t have heard what I was asking her.
I had to excuse myself and go to the bathroom. I was so flustered when I arrived that I wanted to dunk my whole head under the faucet. Knowing I would look even more of a mess than I currently did I held back, and instead stared at my flushed face.
I found there was nothing on my lips. Earlier I had simply put on Anna’s peach-tinted lip gloss which added a bit of color but not much. But due to my absent-minded biting out of nervousness, I found them a bit more swollen and reddened.
No wonder he had been staring at them.I wondered. It looked like I had been kissed meanwhile absolutely nothing of the sort had happened. Ever. But I couldn't help but imagine what it would feel like for him to kiss me. I hadn’t had the guts to stare directly at him but since imagining was free and legal I did exactly that, lifting a finger to press against the soft flesh.