Page 19 of Colossal
Looking at each other, we know what it means.
I’m going to end up in his bed.
We both want that connection so bad, his body inside mine is inevitable.
“I’ll need to stop at the pharmacy on the way home and buy condoms,” he says shakily in my ear, his hips shifting underneath me, just slightly, but enough to make my sex constrict like a whip cracking.
“I don’t want to use one,” I whisper, looking him in the eye. “Do you?”
A violent shudder goes through his giant frame. “No, baby. I don’t.”
I’m very close to suggesting that we ditch school now, but I never get the chance because two more of Eric’s teammates sit down at the table. I do a double take when I notice that they’ve brought my stepsisters along, both redheads squeezing into spots on the opposite end of the table.
Suzie sends me a pinkie wave, Jessie smiling sardonically.
“Hey,” I say warmly.
“Yesterday, the whole team was single. Nowthreeof you have girlfriends?” one of the guys says, sounding peeved. “Way to put the pressure on the rest of us.”
“Yup!” Garrett slings his arm around Jessie’s neck, causing her Diet Coke to slosh around in its bottle. “We’re official. Meeting the parents tonight and everything.”
My stomach lining turns to ice.
My stepsisters are introducing their new boyfriends to my dad and stepmother?
Already?
I’ll never be free to do that. Not while I’m living under their roof, at least. And once I’ve graduated high school and moved out, I doubt I’ll ever look back.
For now, though, my relationship must remain in secret, unlike my stepsisters. Otherwise, my stepmother would lock me down twice as securely. Me having any kind of happiness or social life will be totally unacceptable to her. Even if a miracle occurs and she allows me to continue seeing Eric, she’ll slander me to him at first opportunity. I can’t risk him being poisoned by her. Turned against me. I wouldn’t be able to stand it.
“H-how are you meeting them?” I ask.
“They’re coming to dinner,” says Jessie, a measure of sympathy in her eyes.
Because she knows. Not only do I not have the option to invite Eric, but I’ll be locked in my room with my dinner while they’re having their meet-the- parents dinner downstairs.
The side of my face warms and I know Eric is looking at me curiously.
Expectantly?
Does he wonder why he’s not coming to dinner?
Probably.
But there’s nothing I can do about it, so I sip my chocolate milk and pray for someone to change the subject.
Chapter 9
Eric
I hold the front door of my house open for Marlow, inhaling her scent as she crosses my threshold. Someday I’ll carry her over one or life won’t be complete.
My pulse is going haywire just having her in my house. Knowing we’re home alone.
Knowing there’s a very real possibility I’m going to have the honor of this girl being naked in my bed. Underneath me. That she doesn’t want to use protection and neither do I. God.God, that’s crazy, especially at our age, but somehow forgoing a condom feels like the only way. Bare. Nothing between us. Nothing between her and the come she craves.
Marlow toes off her shoes and waits, hands folded at her waist. “Am I allowed to just…go in?” she asks me, blinking those green eyes up at me.
