“Was that okay? I mean, you don’t regret it, right?” He smooths strands of my blonde hair out of my eyes.
“No regrets at all,” I assure him breathlessly, fighting back a grin, but eventually, a smile plasters across my face.
His fingers splay across my cheek and he traces a line below my eye. “You’re so beautiful. I just . . .” He sighs and rolls off me.
“What are you doing?” I pout, rotating on my side.
He stares up at the ceiling with his arm draped across his forehead. “I just worry about you all the time. I mean, you’re so happy and outgoing, and I worry I’m going to ruin it.”
“You don’t ruin anything, and you need to stop saying that.”
“Not even when you can’t touch me?”
I roll over to him and swing my leg across him, pushing myself up and straddling him. “I can’t touch you, huh?”
His hands mold to my waist as he grasps on to me. “You know what I mean. We can’t even take our relationship further.” His cheeks redden as he looks away.
“We can’t?” I challenge, reaching for the bottom of my shirt. I lift it up and tug it over my head, shaking out my hair. “I think we take it further every day.”
His breathing speeds up as his grey eyes drink me in. “I’ve been working on some stuff to help calm me down when I’m panicking,” he whispers. “I want to get better for you.”
“Is that what the counting is about?”
He nods. “My therapists taught me some breathing exercises and stuff.”
“While I love that you’re trying, I still need you to know that it doesn’t matter to me. I want to be with you, no matter what.”
He leans up and kisses me, his hand sliding around my back. I shiver from the graze of his fingers against my flesh as he fumbles with the clasp of my bra. Once he gets it unfastened, the straps fall from my shoulders, and the cool air nips at my skin. Even though I’m pretending to be as cool as a freaking cucumber, my heart slams against my chest.
“Tell me if I need to slow down,” he whispers against my lips.
Instead of telling him to go further, I grab his hands and place them on me. He groans from the touch, seeming in pain. But he has to be enjoying this since I can feel his happiness pressing between my thighs.
“Your skin’s so soft,” he murmurs, caressing the sensitive spot of flesh to the side of my breast.
I softly sketch his jawline with my fingertip. “So’s yours. And, one day when you’re ready, I’ll be able to touch you like you touch me.”
His hands continue to explore my body, his fingers scorching hot against my flesh. “What if I’m never ready?”
“You will be, Ayden. You’ve come a long way already.”
He sucks in an inhale through his nose then pushes up and slams his lips to mine while his hand glides to my breast, his thumb grazing my nipple.
“You taste like cookies,” he breathes softly through kisses.
“You taste like . . .” I trail off at the sound of a startled gasp from behind us.
“Oh, shit.” I scramble off Ayden, grab my shirt, and press it to my chest.
“I’m sorry,” Lila says from the doorway with her hand over her eyes. “I should have knocked first.”
“No, you shouldn’t have,” Ayden sputters, bolting upright in the bed. “I mean, you shouldn’t have had to, because we shouldn’t have been in here, doing this . . . doing stuff.” He rakes his fingers through his hair. “I’m so sorry.”
Lila remains quiet with her hands over her eyes. “Okay, here’s what we’re going to do. I’m going to give you guys exactly one minute to get dressed and meet me downstairs. Then we’re going to have a talk. And, Lyric, I’m calling your parents and having them come over, as well.”
I pull a face. Great. This is going to be so awkward. “Okay.”
“Good.” She hurries away, leaving the door wide open.
I quickly put my bra on then yank my shirt over my head. “Well, looks like the cat’s out of the bag now,” I say as I hop off the bed.
“This is so bad.” Ayden stands up, wrapping his arms around his head, freaking out.
“Yeah, but we were going to tell them eventually.” I adjust my shirt into place.
He paces the floor in front of his bed. “But not like this . . . not after she saw me. And I need to prepare myself for how disappointed your parents are going to be.”
“Disappointed?” Confused, I step in front of him, forcing him to stop moving. “Why would they be disappointed? A little angry, sure, but they’ll get over it.”
He gulps. “Not over what happened. With me. I doubt they’re going to be happy that you’re with me.”
I gape at him. “Are you kidding me right now?”
“I know who I am.” He refuses to look at me, staring at a poster on the wall. “I have so many problems . . . My life is so fucked up. You’re so perfect, and they’re not going to want me ruining that for you.”
“First of all, I’m not perfect, and my parents definitely don’t think I am. There’ve been many lectures and punishments proving how imperfect I am, just like everyone else in the world. And, second of all, I honestly think they’ve been expecting this to happen between us.”
He shakes his head, his jaw set tight. “I highly doubt that.”
I roll my eyes. “You’re being ridiculous right now, and I’m going to prove it.”
I grab his hand and march for the door, ready to face the music. Ready to prove him wrong.
He is good for me.
Everyone knows it.
Everyone knows just as much as I do that we’re meant to be together.
Chapter 7
Ayden
I’m a nervous wreck going downstairs. Even though I knew our relationship would eventually be discovered, I expected it to happen later on and definitely not under such embarrassing circumstances. Now they’re really going to start keeping an eye on me.
“Dude, breathe,” Lyric mutters under her breath as we reach the bottom of the stairway. “Everything’s going to be fine.”
I wish that were true. Tonight was so amazing—touching her like that, watching her fall apart underneath me. She tastes and feels so good that, if I had my way, I’d spend every hour of my life feeling her skin and kissing her.