Love Me

“I’m stubborn?”

I walk to the living room, raise my eyebrows at him, and pick up the landline phone.

Aiden marches over and presses the receiver down.

“Stop it! Give me my phone back.”

“No.”

“Now.”

“No.”

“I’ll just go use another phone,” I say, heading back toward the kitchen.

Aiden comes up from behind me, grabs me, and marches me back into the bedroom.

“You done with your little tantrum yet?”

Oh, my. He has no idea. That was no tantrum.

But he’s about to see a tantrum of epic proportions because I’m coming unglued, unhinged, and off my freaking rocker. I have been pushed to the point of no return.

“Give. Me. My. Phone.”

“No.” He sets my phone down on the dresser, grabs me around the waist, and pulls me in close to him. “You told me that you wanted to work on our foundation, our framework.”

I glare at him. “No amount of framework could keep us from crumbling.”

He runs his hand across my shoulder.

It instantly calms me. Which I completely hate.

“Don’t touch me.” I back away, sitting on the bed. I need to stay mad at him.

He sits down next to me.

I immediately stand back up and walk into the kitchen. No way am I going to sit on the same bed with him.

“Do you really think that was a rejection?” he asks, following me with my phone.

“Yes.”

He grabs me and pulls my hips tightly into his. “Does this feel like a rejection?”

“All we do is fight.”

“We’re not fighting.”

“Um, yes we are. And now we’re fighting over whether or not we’re fighting. It’s pathetic.”

“I want the same things you want. We’re going to take it slow.”

“I changed my mind. I don’t want to take it slow. And I don’t get what the big deal was. It’s not like I was naked.”

“Keatyn,” he says firmly. “All you had on was a tiny pair of underwear.”

“I’m done arguing with you. Give me my phone. I don’t even have to flip a coin to figure it out. I want a guy who wants me.”

“You were going to flip a coin to decide between us?”

“I did flip a coin, actually.”

“And that’s exactly why I told you to get dressed.”

“That makes no sense.”

“Sit down and listen to me, please.”

I roll my eyes and comply. Why do I comply? Why don’t I run naked straight to Columbia?

“When you decide that you want me and only me, that’s when I’ll let you keep your clothes off. Until then, we’re going slow. I have never turned down a girl before.”

“Oh. Wow. That makes me feel so much better.”

He cradles my face in his hand. “Boots, I promise you. I want you. It took every single ounce of my conviction to do that. To walk out of the room. The foundation was your idea.”

“Can’t there be some boobs in our foundation? We’re talking middle school stuff here, Aiden.”

He shuts his eyes tightly. “I feel like I’m on that survivor show. Survive this and you can win the big prize.”

“Your dick is the big prize?”

“I’m not talking about my dick. You know what? If sex is all you want then, here, here’s the phone. Call him.”

I stare at the phone in my hand. “I asked my grandpa for advice on choosing between you and Dawson,” I say softly. “He’s the one who told me to flip a coin.”

“I’d think you’d want to decide with your heart, not by chance.”

“That’s what I said. I said, What if I don’t get what I want? And he said, Exactly. That when the coin is in the air, you’ll know what you want.”

“So what happened when the coin was in the air?”

“I knew before I flipped it that I wanted it to land on you.”

“Did it?”

“No. Dawson won three out of four.”

“So why isn’t he here with you now?”

“Because.”

Aiden stares at me, searching my eyes for answers. “Do you still want your phone back?”

I hold his gaze. “No.”

Aiden picks me up quickly, pushes me onto the kitchen counter, and kisses me.

Hard.

Full of desire.

This isn't a sweet chaste kiss.

No.

This is a tongue, and heat, and laying-me-across-the-counter kiss.

I remember a scene in one of my favorite books, That Wedding. When Phillip comes home to find Jadyn making cupcakes and they get in a frosting fight and do it on the kitchen counter. I so want my own scene like that.

Aiden moves his mouth away from mine, leans back slightly, rips open the front of my robe, shoves it off my shoulders, and stares at my naked chest.

A single finger touches me. Traces the curve of my breast. Circles my nipple. Grazing across the top of it.

He glances at me briefly, the hunger in his eyes returning. Then he attacks. He covers one breast with his big hand, massaging it, and rubbing his thumb across my nipple. The other breast he takes in his mouth. Sucking it in forcefully. Teasing it with his tongue. Licking around its edges.

I feel like I’m lost somewhere between heaven and the underworld. All I can do is breathe.

Until he takes my nipple in his teeth.

I gasp and hold my breath as he pulls it taut before letting it go. Giving me a teeny second of pain and then pure pleasure.

“Does that feel like middle school?” he says raggedly into my chest.

“Not at all.”

He grins at my chest, trails his tongue slowly from one boob to the other, and then takes it in his mouth.

A little moan escapes my lips.

Which seems to cause him to react. He sucks harder, massages harder, teases more, and his hips . . .

Oh. My. God.

My legs are spread apart. His hips are rocking between them.

Like we’re having hot sex on my kitchen counter.

I can feel his hardness pressing against me.

I push my hands just below the waistline of his pants.

He removes his lips from my chest and mutters, “Don’t. Unless you want me to stop what I'm doing.”

I quickly move my hands to his back.

I don’t want him to stop.

But I’m seriously going to have to wring my panties out after this.

Sunday, November 13th

Not PG.

4pm

We’re almost back to school when I notice the feathers attached to Aiden’s backpack. “I never got to finish with the feathers.”

His eyebrows raise in amusement. “Oh, really, what else were you pla

“I don’t know. Just, you know, rubbing them around some.”

“Rubbing them around or gliding them across my naked skin?”

“Uh, the gliding one” I say, swallowing hard, as my cheeks flush.

“Sounds like we have a date for next weekend.”

When we get back to my dorm, he gives me a sweet kiss.

“I loved our rainy day weekend,” I tell him.

“Me too. I have to get to the playoff meeting, otherwise I’d stay here and kiss you all night.”

He gives me one more kiss and then heads down to the field house.

I take my bags into my room and put my stuff away. Just as I finish, Maggie, A

“So what happened?” Katie asks.

“Did you sleep with him?” Maggie says at the same time.

“No, I didn’t.”

Maggie screws up her face. “Really?”

“Really. We're taking things slow. Really, super, excruciatingly slow.”

“So it wasn't that fun?” A

“What? No. It was the most amazing weekend.” I tell them how we got dressed up and went to the top of the Empire State Building. I tell them all things we did and saw, but I keep the good parts to myself. I don't want to share them with anyone. They feel like they should be savored. “So what happened here?”

“Whitney and I took Cooper Steele to di

“Seriously?”

“Yeah. It was fun. The asshole is so charming, I’d share him if I had to. Hell, Whitney even suggested sharing—in a not so subtle way—but he acted like he didn't get it. Do you think he could be gay?”