Page 48 of Time For You
“Mind if I shut off the lights? I want to conserve what I have just in case the storm knocks out full power.”
“Sure,” she replied, but the wobble in her voice wasn’t overlooked.
After cutting the lights and turning off the power to the trailer, I settled back into the same spot on the bed. Luckily, the lightning illuminated the inside through the windows.
“It’s getting really dark out there.”
“Yeah,” I said as I grabbed my phone from where I’d tossed it on the bed when we sat down to eat and checked the weather app. The storm looked more like a hurricane and was still miles away. This one was going to be a doozy. Thank goodness we had replaced the roof and windows of the old house.
In the darkness of the storm, we laid on the trailer’s bed in silence. The thunder, wind, and rain were doing enough to fill the space. My body was in agony having her so close. All it wanted was to touch her, to taste her. There was something about Autumn Easterly that felt like she was a piece of me that I didn’t know I was missing.
“You know, I feel like you know a bit about me, but tell me something about you, Colton. Something I can’t read on the internet,” she said in a whisper. The bed bounced and jostled me as she turned on her side. I mimicked her movement.
There wasn’t much about me that my ex had disclosed to the press, some of it true, most of it just shit she said to stir things up. My agent said reporters were still calling daily to get an article from my side of the story. As far as my childhood, there wasn’t much to that either. When I signed with the New York Renegades, they’d released a well-choreographed press release with the information about my upbringing. It was easier than having reporters snooping around my business.
“There isn’t much,” I told her, just as a deafening boom of thunder sounded above us.
Both of us startled at the sound and I instinctively reached out to Autumn, only to find her shaking.
“Come here.” Wrapping my arm around her, I slid her body closer until we were pressed up against each other. I knew it wouldn’t take long for my body to realize that her breasts were pushed against my chest.
“Please tell me something. I swear I’m an adult and I’m not scared of storms, but I really need you to take my mind off of everything happening right now because I’m freaking out a bit,” Autumn said on a single breath. The wind chose that moment to rock the camper again and her small hand reached out and gripped my bicep that rested across her body.
The breath whooshed from my lungs as I told her about the mysterious letters addressed to me through my agent that had turned into text messages. There was a twenty-year-old girl that thought she may be my half-sibling. We were all suspicious, but none more so than my agent who thought she was after a bit of my fortune.
“What made her reach out?” Autumn asked as she adjusted her body, sliding her leg between mine.
“Her mom recently died from cancer, and she said she came across some letters and paperwork when she was sorting through her things.”
“Do you believe her?”
I’d thought about that for the last couple of months since I received the first letter, but until Autumn had asked, I hadn’t given it more thought.
“I want to believe her. I want to think that I have a family out there somewhere. But I also know how conniving people can be, all in the hopes for a quick handout.”
Another rumble erupted around us and Autumn tucked her head against my chest. When the thunder subsided, she murmured something incoherently against my chest.
“What was that?” I was curious about her thoughts on all of this. I trusted Autumn in a way I hadn’t trusted anyone before, at least not in such a short amount of time. I wasn’t sure why that was.
“I think it’s real. Something in my gut tells me she isn’t in it for anything more.”
Hearing her confirmation of my own suspicions eased something cold and dark in my chest. I wasn’t being conned or used like I had with my ex. Maybe it was simply nothing more than someone wanting to connect with family – the thing I’d been searching for my entire life.
“My God, that wind is terrifying. I hope it’s not damaging all the work you have put into the house.”
I hadn’t been paying any attention to the wind whirling outside. Instead, I was focused inwardly. But now that Autumn brought me back to the present, all I could focus on was the warmth of her body against mine.
Taking a chance, I hitched my lower leg a tad higher so that my thigh was inches away from her center. Autumn immediately pulled her face away from my chest and looked up at me, her innocent blue eyes shimmering up at me.
“Colton?” she questioned. Her pink tongue slipped past her lips to coat them. I’d tasted that tongue and I only wanted more.
“You know what else is real, Autumn?”
“No. What’s that?” My palm trailed down from her waist to rest on her ass, that was becoming one of my favorite body parts.
“That I want so much more than to just kiss you.”
In surprise, she replied, “You do?”
