Page 1 of The Fallen Ones

Chapter 1

Lily

“Come on, baby.” Jace’s heavy breath on my lips and his hands roughly on my waist let me know exactly what he had in mind for our date night.

“Jace, slow down,” I managed to rasp out as he continued to nip and bite at my bottom lip.

“We’ve beenslowfor months now,” he said, reaching out and reclining my seat in his car. “I’m tired of going slow.” His lips descended on mine again.

He wasn’t wrong. We’d been dating for over seven months now and I hadn’t let it progress past a few kisses and some heavy petting. When it was time for me to come, I’d wiggle away, scared.

I didn’t know why I was this way. Maybe it was because of the men I’d witnessed trodding in and out of my house growing up. A long line of disappointing men my mother would fall in love with then break when they left. She’d drink herself into a stupor while I watched, vowing I’d never be like her.

She killed herself when I was sixteen after she fell a little too hard for a man named Rick Fletcher and married him. His son had been Jace’s best friend until they stopped talking to oneanother. It all happened around the same time my mom killed herself. We’d lived with the Fletchers for less than a year before Rick cheated and mom found out. It broke her heart and sent her spiraling one final time.

Damien Fletcher. My stepbrother. My boyfriend’s now-enemy. I shoved him out of my head, hating he was there at all considering our past.

I’d found my mom dead in her bed, tissues strewn around her cold, limp body, a note beside her on the sheets, begging for forgiveness and citing how Rick had broken her heart. If her letter and death didn’t confirm her heartbreak, then it was the photo on her phone I’d found of Rick fucking another woman I didn’t want to recognize but did.

That was it. Her death changed everything for me. My vow grew harder. So hard that apparently I wasn’t even about getting off. Something that was supposed to be so pleasurable freaked me the hell out. I didn’t want to fall into a pit of pleasure without a foothold to use to claw my way out.

Seeing my mother always crash and burn must have left deeper psychological wounds than I originally thought.

Why I bothered to date was beyond me. Jace was the first guy I’d really fallen for though if I ignored the thoughts of Damien and the one night at a Halloween party we’d attended in our youth. Jace was funny. Handsome. Sweet. Well, when he wanted to be. Sometimes he was pushy, like tonight.

“Jace…”

His fingers teased the edge of my panties beneath my sundress.

Damn me to hell for wearing it.

“Lily…”

He sucked the delicate flesh along my collarbone, making me exhale a whimper, his fingers expertly delving beneath mypanties and skimming along my slit. I cringed in embarrassment at how wet I was despite me telling myself to chill out.

“See? You want it. Spread your legs for me.”

I let my legs fall open the slightest amount, knowing I was making a mistake. He didn’t hesitate. He moved swiftly, his fingers finding exactly how to make me squirm and writhe beneath him.

The sound my pussy made as he fingered me turned me on even more, the war still alive and well inside my head.

“Fuck, baby, you’re so wet for me, Lily Pad,” he husked out, dipping a single digit deep into my heat. I rocked against his onslaught, screaming internally to stop. My body had a mind of its own though, and I continued to buck up to meet his touch.

Him using the nickname he’d given to me made me feel unhinged. The low timber of his gravelly voice in my ear. The way he knew how to touch me to send me threading my moans together for him.

“Relax,” he instructed against my lips. “Let me in.”

I was going to end up like my mother. I should have broken this relationship off after the first date. I’d wanted to try it and see what it was like. Mission accomplished. I couldn’t. I just couldn’t…

God, why did it have to feel so damn good though?

I liked Jace. More than I knew I should given my vow to myself. I was falling hard for him, and it was ruining everything.

Warmth began to spread through me as his finger continued to push in and out of my body. He stopped and rubbed my clit, his kisses deep and commanding. That was Jace though. He knew how to take over everything he did. Honestly, I had no place at his side. He was popular. Quarterback on the university team. Everyone knew his name. Everyone loved him. He had a bright future ahead of him in the NFL after we graduated. His family was wildly rich. He was an elite.

Girls often said snide shit to me just because I was on his arm and he seemed proud to have me there.

He was a heartbreaker, and I didn’t want to hurt.

---