Page 36 of Falling

I can’t help the giggles escaping me. “Stop doing that. It tickles.”

I try to pull away from him, but he’s even stronger than he looks, and he grips onto both of my wrists this time, torturing me even more. “I’m not stopping until you tell me,” he whispers around the kisses on my wrist. “Are you going to tell me, sweet girl?”

Sweet girl.

My stomach bottoms out at the nickname, and I stop fighting him. The kisses on my wrist stop being playful and become more deliberate. Slow. Sensual. And I’ve never found anything more attractive. He keeps his eyes locked with mine as he does it, and my lips part. He kisses one wrist until it’s covered in him, and it might be my new favorite perfume.

“Come on, Wren,” he taunts, “Just tell me.” If I could form coherent words, I would have said something by now, but I physically can’t. “You want me to stop, don’t you?”

Do I?

My mind is saying yes, but my body is saying no.

“Yes. I want you to stop,” I say, breathing out.

His voice lowers. “Then tell me.”

He blows a raspberry, and another laugh tumbles out of me, erasing the tension. “Two and a half,” I reply.

He pauses, dropping my hands from his mouth but still running his fingers against my wrists where he kissed me. “A half?”

I pull my bottom lip between my teeth and nod. “He couldn’t make me come.”

Miles’s throat works, and I lean over him. I inhale the annoyingly attractive smell of him until I bury my face in his neck. He groans, but I don’t give in. I open the passenger side door, and he almost falls right out of the car.

I lean back in my seat. “I’ll see you tomorrow, bright and early.”

He scrambles to his feet, pulling his bag out from the backseat. “You’re seriously leaving me like that?”

I glance down to see the very obvious erection in his shorts. “Seems like you’ve got business to take care of. I don’t want to intrude.” Before he can say anything else, I lean over the console and shut his door, backing out of the driveway.

13

MILES

HOUSE OF HORRORS

When we pullup outside of Sophia’s miniature mansion a few days later, the music surrounds us on all sides. The lawn is littered with people talking loudly over clouds of smoke. Cars line up the driveway and down the block.

It’s been a while since I’ve been to a party. Before I met Wren, I was living a hell at frat houses, doing anything I could to distract myself from my thoughts and my pain. It was comforting to be around people who weren’t there to ask me if I was okay and when I was going to start to get my act together. It was somewhere I could just go to forget, but now I’ve got a real reason to go.

I turn to face Wren, and she’s been quiet since I picked her up. She’s wearing a cute as fuck blue dress, and I’ve been trying not to eye fuck her, but her legs are long and toned and they look like they go on for miles.

She scans the surroundings, one hand on the door handle as she hesitates.

I place my hand on her knee, pulling her back to the moment, and she turns to me, her teeth sinking into her bottom lip. “If you want to leave at any time, just say the word, and we’ll go,” I whisper, and she waits a beat before nodding. The last thing I want is for her to feel uncomfortable. “I’m going to keep you safe tonight, okay?”

She nods.

“Okay?”

“Yeah, okay, let’s go,” she says, rolling her eyes playfully but smiling.

We walk up to the house hand in hand, and I try not to let my nerves show. It’s been forever since I’ve brought a date to a party. I’ve been single for years, and my ex-girlfriend Emily used to drag me to every party at the school I went to when I’d visit. We were on and off during freshman year of college, and I wasn’t willing to drive nine hours every few weeks just to go see her. She liked that I wore a jersey and that was about it.

But with Wren, people need to know this is serious. I need to do right by her, and if my stupid popularity can also help her out, I’d gladly hold her hand all night and spin her around until she’s sick of it.

Music blasts from speakers in all directions, and people are standing aimlessly with SOLO cups in their hands. Fruity smoke from bongs and vapes infuse my senses, and it takes me a second to adjust to the sudden change in scenery.

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