Page 146 of The Casualty of Us
It’s in the way his fingers seem to be massaging the back of my head even as he pushes it down. In the way he pulls back after a few seconds when my gag reflex kicks in no matter how much I swallow. In the way his other hand goes to mine and he winds our fingers together as his thrusts start to come harder, a never-ending stream of words falling from his lips with them. “Just like that—god, O—you’re perfect, baby.” He hits the back of my throat hard, and I swallow repeatedly as he chokes out, “That’s my girl.” He immediately pulls back only to thrust again quickly and gasp, “I’m going to come.”
His fingers try to pull at my hair, but this is one thing I have no plans of making my determination on based on secondhand information.
“Ophelia.” My name comes more urgently this time, and I let up enough to run my tongue over the vein running up the length of his cock before sucking him down deep. “O, I’m going to—fuck—” His cock jerks against my tongue, head jumping with it before something hot spills against the back of my throat and he groans, “Ophelia.”
And it somehow seals that pleasurable warmth in my chest with the fact that it’s my name he calls out. It has me swallowing him down with my nose scrunching up at the taste but finding it’s not terrible. Staying there until his cock stops jerking in my mouth and he gives a gentle tug on the back of my head.
I peek up at him through my lashes while rising up and finally letting him slip completely from my mouth, finding a weight to his gaze that surprises me until I look long enough to see what’s driving it. The blatant possession casts the green and brown hues behind the little gold lights of his eyes in a dark shade, and there’s dip to his brows that’s telling me he just feels the need to back that up further now. It all has me thinking I may have miscalculated justslightlyon one aspect here. The care, though…it’s practically pouring off him still.
It’s in the way he drops his hand from the back of my head to pull his sweatpants up before bringing his thumb to my bottom lip. It’s in the way he still swipes it across like he couldn’t care less about the wetness there. It’s in the way he swallows hard and his eyes never leave mine.
It’s in the way every part of me feels cherished—safe—with some essence of his energy wrapping itself around mine. Just like always.
It has me quickly lifting and scooting myself back up until I’m straddling him again. Reaching out a hand to cup his cheek and ignoring the flare of vulnerability at how I’m continuing to expose myself in every sense right now. Trusting him.
“You matter to me, okay?” I whisper, running my fingers over his cheek and seeing the way his eyes flare at the words like they still surprise him. “Ollie might remind me of the good, but you—” Something too soft and sad to be a laugh leaves me, and I curse Marley to hell in my head while sucking in a sharp breath to get out… “You make me want to believe, Hayes.” My voice cracks at the confession, and his gaze immediately starts to fillwith concern. “Because I believe in you, okay?” His hands go to my hips, squeezing there as his own face twists up right along with mine. “And for me…that’s everything.” I pause, blinking past the burn in my eyes to finish with the truth I’ve known since last year. “I like being your Ophelia the best out of all of them.”
We stare at each other as the silence stretches between us, hazel pulling at the blue as it continues to light up with every second that passes until his dimples twitch. “Freckles.” He lifts a hand to brush his thumb gently over my cheek with his voice dropping teasingly. “Is that your way of saying you want to be my girlfriend?”
Totally giving as good as he gets and making me fight a grin at the playfulness, I lift a brow instead. “Did you have something else in mind?”
“How about…” He trails off, gaze running over the lines of my face before he lifts up and presses his lips to mine with the answer. “Mine.”
And I can’t help the grin that breaks free at that, whispering back, “Guess I can’t argue with that.”
Chapter Thirty-Three
OPHELIA - SEPTEMBER 2013
“So let me get this straight…”Marley squints at me in the mirror, standing up against the back wall of the random locker room they threw us in at St. Paul’s College for the first game of the season today. “You two just expect to keep making fuck me eyes at each other every two seconds and think that no one is going to catch on?”
“Shhhh,” I hush, nodding at where a couple of the other cheerleaders are at the end of the row of sinks before going back to placing the stupid little stars beside my eyes and whispering. “Not you or Ollie or Holden, obviously, but everyone else, yeah. Piece of cake.”
Right.
“Ha, good luck with that,” she scoffs, echoing my internal doubt, and another giggle comes before she feels the need to add very unnecessarily, “Especially after you finally let him pop that cherry and he’s so deep in the feels that there’ll probably be sonnets—”
“Thank you, Marley,” I snap, cheeks flushing and grumbling. “It’s the best way to keep him safe.”
She pauses, stepping away from the wall and coming up behind me to sigh, “I get that, but I still think this is going toturn out about as great as my plan to have a little fun on family vacation.”
“Maybe,” I tuck the thoughts away for later inspection and step back to look myself over while wondering out loud, “Why were you so set on that happening anyway?”
Especially for a girl that’s constantly talking about how she doesn’t have time for guys.
“I don’t know…” Her gaze drops but not before I get a flash of something that almost looks like unease. “My dad was in town and then I got in a fight with my mom.” She shrugs. “It’s all family shit, really, but she’s always making a big deal out of sex too and saying how your virginity is a freaking present you’re not supposed to unwrap before marriage or else it’ll get damaged—I’ll get damaged, and I just—” Her words cut out, eyes coming back to mine with a dead look. “Obviously that ship sailed for me a few years ago, but it still just pisses me off when I hear it.” She takes a quick breath, a vulnerability suddenly filling her face that hits me harder considering my recent experiences. “Do you think I’m a slut?”
“No.” I shake my head, seeing the instant doubt that springs to life on her face and turning to reinforce more strongly. “No, Marley.” I reach out and give her hand a quick squeeze while telling her honestly, “I don’t think you’re a slut. I think you’re a person, okay?”
“Okay.”
She gives me a small nod with a hesitant kind of relief filling her face, and I lift my lips before adding quietly, “And I think you’re a brave one too, so don’t let someone else’s voice fuck your head up.”
If only I could learn that lesson myself now.
Her eyes blow wide with surprise, and it might even be comical if Lisette didn’t choose that moment to open the door next to us and poke her head in.
“Bodyguards, Fitzroy.”
