Page 36 of Bump and Run
Charlie bared his teeth. “This has nothing to do with you. You’d love nothing more than for me to be out of the picture, wouldn’t you? So you can have your turn.”
“Watch it,” Travis warned.
I held up my hands. “Stop it. All of you.” I didn’t want my boyfriend— if he was even my boyfriend anymore—and my best friends to fight. “Yes, we can talk.” I spun around to point a finger at my friends. “Not a word.”
I followed Charlie outside, but when he tried to take my hand, I pushed him away. “Say what you want to say.” I folded my arms across my chest once we were outside in the scorching sun, the sounds of the beach and happy kids roaring in our ears.
“I tried to call you, Jones, but you didn’t answer, so I thought you didn’t want to talk to me. I didn’t want to go to your place if your mother was home, and I figured you might be with your friends. I’m so fucking sorry.” He dropped his chin. “I came here to try to blow off some steam. I wasn’t trying to pick up any girls, I swear. She just started talking to me.”
I slid my phone from my pocket, only to find it was dead. “Shoot, Charlie, my phone died. I wasn’t ignoring you.” He glanced up at me. “I just... I don’t know how to handle this.” I waved a hand in the air. “I’ve never dated anyone before, and I find you with a girl. It doesn’t look good. I wouldn’t blame you if you wanted to be with her. She’s pretty.”
“I don’t!” He smacked himself in the chest with the palm of his hand. “I want you, Jonesy. Don’t you get it? Only you.”
I stared at him in disbelief. “Why?”
“Why do I want you?” I nodded at Charlie’s question. “Because you’re special. You’re beautiful, funny, smart, and talented. You make me happy. When you’re near me, this thing just pulls at my chest. I can’t breathe. I can’t even think. I want to touch you everywhere. Please let me fucking touch you, Jones. It’s killing me,” Charlie begged.
When he reached for me, I didn’t stop him. He tangled our fingers together and closed his eyes. “You’re like the oxygen in my lungs.”
I yanked my hands away from him, then lunged forward and hugged him. “Charlie,” I murmured when he wrapped his arms around me.
Chapter Sixteen
Jones
I convinced Ollie and Travis to come with me back to Charlie’s place, but I don’t think they were too happy about it. They were going to take some convincing, but right now they were enjoying the bonfire Charlie had sat up outside the house. The beer and hard cider he had provided, along with the food, went a long way to convince them that they could be persuaded. We had invited some of our friends from high school, some of the guys I raced with, and I was pretty sure I saw Ollie sneak off with Keith Lewis. Maybe it was the cider I had consumed, or maybe it was just Charlie, but I felt bolder, happier, and a little something else I couldn’t put my finger on tonight.
“What are you smiling about, Bashful?” Charlie nuzzled my neck as we lay sprawled out on a blanket on the beach. I hadn’t let go of him since the arcade, and I didn’t plan on leaving his side until I was forced to.
My skin broke out in goosebumps. I loved the nicknames he had given me. I loved that he seemed to have chosen me out of everyone else he could have had.
“Tonight,” I confessed.
“Is that so?” He leaned up to stare down at me, his brown eyes searching my face.
I nodded. “Everyone seems to be having a good time. I just saw Ollie go off with a boy.”
“Good.” Charlie kissed my lips lightly before he wrapped his arms around me and hauled me into his lap as he sat up. “Maybe now I don’t have to worry Ollie trying to—”
My mouth was on his before he could finish the sentence, hoping it told him what I couldn’t. That Charlie didn’t have to worry about Ollie, because he was my friend. What I wanted from Charlie was so much more than that. That I felt what he felt. That pull in my chest, that fear of not being able to breathe unless he was around. I wanted him, just him, and no one else.
I moved my legs so that I was straddling Charlie’s lap, and when I felt his erect penis against mine, I groaned into his mouth.
“Take me to your bed,” I begged.
“Not tonight, Bashful.”
“I want you inside of me.”
Charlie growled, deep and feral, inside his chest. “Jesus Christ, Jones. No more booze for you.” He nipped so hard at my bottom lip that I was pretty sure I tasted blood. “You can’t say things like that.”
“Why not? I mean it. I want you to be my first, my only.” I reached up to touch his face. “Please, baby?” I tested out the endearment, and Charlie’s eyes flashed with want.
He pushed me back down onto the blanket. “I want that, Jonesy. Fuck.” He buried his face in my neck.
“Then take me to your bed,” I said again as I shamelessly rubbed against him. “Strip me bare, kiss and touch me all over, have your way with me, and then make love to me,” Iwhispered as I trailed my fingers through the hairs on the nape of his neck.
Charlie pulled back and gripped my head in his hands. “You really want that, Jonesy? You want to lose your virginity to me with a house and beach full of your friends? Don’t you want it to be special?”
