Page 62 of Captivating Mr. Second Chance

“No regrets. At all,” she said with a tired smile, and he kissed her shoulder, saying he’d be right back before hopping off the bed.

He cleaned himself up in the bathroom then returned with a warm, wet cloth. Laney stretched her arms above her head, plainly relishing how he gently swiped the washcloth against the pink and swollen flesh between her legs. When he finished, he kissed her stomach, tossing the cloth into her laundry basket in her closet. Laney was the untidy twin, with no rhyme or reason to how she ordered her clothes and random items strewn on the floor.

Before Ethan could tug her down next to him, she got up to use the bathroom, her hourglass figure striding gloriously naked away from him, the dimples of her lower back calling to him. He vowed to make friends with them later, although when she sauntered back into her room a few minutes later, all thoughts left his brain. With her hair down and mussed, her nipples pert and darkened in color, the thin patch of hair between her legs, she was a goddess.

“Don’t look at me like that,” she said, crawling back into bed to lie on top of him.

He welcomed her weight. “Or what?”

“Or we might not sleep.”

“I wasn’t planning on it,” he said, and she snuggled her cheek against his chest. He traced his fingers down the divots of her spine and wrote his name above those dimples on her back.

“I could stay like this forever.”

He agreed with a happy hum. “I wouldn’t mind.”

After a few minutes, she rolled to her side, locking her eyes on his. “Remember when we went to the beach and—”

“Don’t finish that sentence.” He placed a kiss on her collarbone.

She huffed out a laugh. “Why not? I want to talk about it.”

“You want to talk about how I was a fumbling idiot who had no idea what he was doing? No thanks, I’ll pass.” When she laughed again, he glided his hand over her hip to her thigh, squeezing it to prove a point. They didn’t need to rehash the night they both lost their virginity to each other.

Like every graduating senior class on the East Coast before them, they all went to the beach for a week. The Hargroves had said they would only allow Dean and Laney to go if they rented a house together, looked out for each other. So, they’d each rounded up a few friends and driven down to a big but broken-down house in Ocean City, Maryland. It had been during that trip when Ethan and Laney had finally had it out, after a few too many warm beers. On the back porch after everyone else had gone to sleep, they had argued about whose fault it was.

Why didn’t you tell me you liked me?

Well, why didn’t you tell me you liked me?

All these years later, Ethan couldn’t remember much of what they’d said, only that all of a sudden, they were kissing and groping each other. And then the next night, they’d made plans to go down to the beach after everyone was asleep again. He’d brought a blanket and a condom, and he’d made a fool of himself. He’d had no idea what he was doing and practically blacked out in ecstasy from even being naked with her.

After that week, they’d gone home and snuck around for a while, but Ethan had never worked up the nerve to tell her how he felt about her, and he’d certainly needed a lot more practice at pleasuring her. But then he’d had to leave to attend a summer program at school. He hadn’t thought of telling Laney about the program before because it didn’t matter…at least it hadn’tbeforetheir senior week trip. When she found out he was leaving in July, she’d been pissed.

They had been at Patrick’s house for a party, and they’d hidden away behind the shed in the backyard. Ethan would never forget how Laney had physically pushed him away, her eyes glistening with unshed tears, shouting at him in a whisper that she couldn’t believe he hadn’t told her. That he’d kept it from her. He had tried to hug her, touch her, comfort her, but she’d only shaken her head and walked away. And that was that.

Ethan had regretted it every day since.

“I’m not going to hurt you again,” he told Laney now. “And I sure as hell know what I’m doing.” To make sure she understood, he planted his hands on either side of her, nestling his already hardening length between her legs, giving his hips an experimental roll against hers. She parted her lips but didn’t invite him to do more.

Instead, she held her hands against his chest. “I want to talk about how you made me feel.”

With a petulant moan that earned a soft giggle from Laney, he moved off her and turned on his side. “Okay. Tell me.”

She stuck her left palm under her cheek and kept her right hand between them, so he echoed her position, linking their fingers together.

“I was never afraid to be with you,” she said. “I was never afraid to be honest or open.” Though, she tipped her chin down a few centimeters as if the next part was hard for her. “But I never felt good enough. I know it sounds silly to say when I was a popular girl or whatever, but sometimes I felt like that’s all people cared about with me.”

He let go of her hand to trail the pad of his thumb along her jaw, lifting her chin so she’d meet his eyes. He wanted her to finish her thought.

“You made me feel like I was more,” she admitted quietly, and he held her so she couldn’t move or float her gaze away.

“Because you are more.”

“I know, but after everything…”

After everything with that fucking Bobby Magnate, she felt used and discarded, like she didn’t matter. He didn’t need her to verbalize it for him to know. All Laney had ever wanted was for someone to seeher, not the perfect veneer she put on every day to please those around her.

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