Page 52 of Forbidden Hearts

Sure enough, within minutes we’re both panting and shuddering in each other’s arms. I grunt along to her soft moans.

“Fuck,” I growl. My cock explodes inside her. Pure fucking ecstasy spreads through my body. When the feeling subsides and my head clears, I realize what just happened.

I was so desperate to be inside her that I didn’t wear a condom. I didn’t even ask her if she was on birth control, but I assume she is since she didn’t ask me to wear a condom.

I climb off her and rest my head on my pillow. We stare into each other’s eyes as our breaths return to normal. I’m only now realizing that my heart was racing in my chest. Alex’s face and chest are flushed red.

She looks so fucking beautiful in my bed.

“I thought you said you could do this all night,” she smiles.

“Give me two minutes and I’ll be ready to go again,” I say. I lean over and kiss her.

She smiles against my lips.

Chapter 25

Alex

Isabella and I eat our breakfast tacos in awkward silence. She invited me for breakfast at a popular restaurant in town, but now that we’re here, she’s hardly said anything.

She drinks from her glass of cold water and clears her throat. “I’m sorry I’ve been quiet in class this past week…and during lunch…” she says. “I just didn’t know what to say. What happened to you…”

She shakes her head as the words trail off.

So she knows what happened. Liam. Alonzo. Me. She probably saw everything, and so did Abby and Gianna. That explains it.

“What happened to me had nothing to do with you or the girls,” I say. “You girls couldn’t know Liam was going to…It’s not your fault.”

This past week has been an emotional rollercoaster. On the one hand, things were progressing smoothly with Alonzo. I have been to his cabin two more times since Monday. The sex is incredible, and I think he’ll begin to trust me soon.

But at school, things were going very differently. As soon as classes started on Monday, the entire school was teeming with gossip and rumors of what happened at last Friday’s party.

As the week progressed, the gossip simmered down until it stopped altogether. I guess most students thought the rumors were lies since the event never made the news, and no professor was punished for beating up a student.

Theevent.

I shudder every time I think about what would have happened if Alonzo hadn’t been there that night.

Isabella and the girls never brought it up. I assumed they felt guilty for introducing me to Liam. Our lunch conversations had become awkward, like they were trying to navigate around the elephant in the room.

As the week came to an end, our conversations became a little less awkward. Then, yesterday Isabella opened up and asked me to meet her this weekend. I told her I would be busy later in the day but could meet her early in the morning.

“It’s not just the guilt,” Isabella says. For the first time, her large, bubbly eyes look deflated and joyless. She surveys the table as if the words she is looking for are scattered on the table, and all she has to do is unscramble them to read the message. “Something similar happened to me when I was younger.”

A cool chill overtakes my body.

Isabella is eighteen. If something similar happened to her, it would have been when she was underage.

My lips feel dry. I don’t know what to say.

“When I learned what happened to you, it reminded me of what happened to me,” she says, poking at her food. “I haven’t thought about that for a long time.”

Her experience could have been a lot worse than what happened to me. Maybe there wasn’t an Alonzo to save her. I don’t want to probe deeper if she doesn’t want to. I don’t want to make her feel worse by bringing up bad memories. She can open up when she’s ready.

“If you ever want to talk about it, I’m here for you,” I say, reaching out and grabbing her hand. “You’re not alone. We have each other.”

“Thank you,” she smiles, finally looking up at me. A tear runs down her face, and she wipes it away with her other hand. “I’ve never told this to anybody before. I never thought I would.”

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