Chapter 22
Chapter Twenty-Two
P eople say that the high school years are the best of your life. As the ticking time bomb of graduation approaches, I’m starting to think they might be right. I know that once this year is over, whatever Aurora and I have won’t be the same.
It’s easy to sneak around here without getting caught. She doesn’t intend to go to college; otherwise, I’d be following her there. I got accepted to Harvard. It was always my number one choice, and I got in on my own merit, not because my father paid them off.
He didn’t know I’d applied until I presented the acceptance letter I received last week. I haven’t told Aurora yet. How do you break it to the girl you love that you’re going to be leaving? I know she can’t come with me. I’d take her. I’d support her if that’s what she wanted to do.
In our worlds, you don’t always get to do what you want, though. And even if she wanted to, she can’t leave her family. The fact I have to let go of one dream to have another is pissing me off. I want it all. I want everything. But more than I want Aurora for myself, I want her alive.
I want her to live a full life. I want her to be safe.
For that to happen, I have to leave her behind.
I just don’t know how I’m going to tell her.
Or even if I should. It might be better for both of us if I just disappear.
She’ll be able to move on. She’s fucking gorgeous.
It’s not like she’ll be alone for long. I see how all these fuckers look at her.
And I’m sure if they weren’t so fucking chicken shit, they’d have made a move by now.
I’m certainly not complaining that I found her untouched. I love knowing I’m the only guy who’s ever seen her come. I’m the only guy who knows what she feels like. I plan to keep it that way.
There’s also the whole thing of me getting accepted into such a prestigious school.
Aurora is very self-conscious about her academic ability.
Personally, I think she’s a lot brighter than she lets herself believe.
But how can I bring up Harvard when she’d never be able to attend an Ivy League?
Well, not without paying her way in. I don’t want to make her doubt herself or let her think she is less-than.
She’s not. Aurora is the single most perfect thing I’ve ever touched. If I could get her to see herself how I see her, she’d never have a single doubt again.
Kenny plops himself down next to me. “You’re actually gracing us with your presence for lunch today? What happened? Your date stand you up?” he says.
“Fuck off,” I grunt at him. Aurora didn’t stand me up. She said we need to eat lunch with other people occasionally to keep up appearances. I told her fuck appearances and that the only one I cared about was hers. Naked.
“Wow, the honeymoon period over already.” Kenny laughs.
“You done?” I ask him.
“Yep,” he says, filling his mouth with a forkful of today’s pasta. “Party tomorrow night. You’re coming.”
“Am I?” I raise a brow. I’d much rather say I was there and go hide out with Aurora. We only have a few months left of school. I want to spend as much time with her as possible. Not around Kenny and his jock friends.
My phone vibrates against my leg. Hoping it’s Aurora and she’s changed her mind about meeting up with me in the library, I pull it out of my pocket and smile when I see her name.
SB:
You should eat.
I look up and across at the Valentino table. Sure enough, she’s staring back at me. I return my focus to my phone and type out a reply.
Me:
Are you stalking me now?
SB:
I’ll be stalking you forever.
Me:
Forever is a long time.
SB:
It’s not long enough…
I smile. It really isn’t.
“Guess the honeymoon is back on, judging by that grin.” Kenny nudges my shoulder.
“Fuck off,” I tell him again.
Me:
Regret not eating with me?
SB:
I regret not letting you eat me for lunch.
Fucking hell, now I’m sitting next to my damn cousin with a hard-on.
Me:
See you in math.
Standing from the table, I pick up my bag and walk out of the cafeteria. I can’t sit here while she’s just across the room and not storm over to her. I want to grab hold of her, kiss the fuck out of her, and let everyone know that she’s fucking mine.
That would be suicide, though. For both of us. And as romantic as Romeo and Juliet made it seem, dying together isn’t how I want our story to end.
A short walk later, I find myself on the bleachers, looking out over the football field. I’ve never really liked the sport. Sure, I’ve watched the games, mostly because it’s less painful than listening to Kenny bitch about the lack of family support.
“Didn’t take you for a stoner, O’Malley.” The voice belonging to Orlando Valentino has me turning my attention from the field to the side of the bleachers, where he’s standing and looking at me.
“Didn’t take you for someone who’d care about what I’m doing, Valentino,” I counter. How the fuck someone as perfect as Aurora comes from a bunch of assholes astounds me.
“I couldn’t give a fuck what you’re doing. As long as you’re doing it far away from my family,” he says.
I want to jump down and knock the smile off his face.
I can see it. His blood spilling, his body on the ground, my fist the cause.
I can’t do that, though. Because of her .
Aurora would never forgive me. And beating the shit out of her cousin isn’t something I can hide from her like the restaurant fires.
Instead of doing what I want, I walk down the stairs, turning in the opposite direction of Orlando when I get to the bottom.
“You really just gonna walk away?” he calls after me.
“Yeah, I am. You can go write a song about it, rockstar,” I call back. Orlando is a teen pop sensation. Helps that he has the family money and connections to back him. But he is every bit the rockstar he wants to be.
Thankfully, the asshole doesn’t follow me.
When I walk into math, Aurora is already there. She smiles at me and I swear everything feels right. “Where did you go?” she asks.
“Outside. I didn’t want to sit next to my cousin with a hard-on.” I smirk.
“Huh, guess that could be awkward.” She laughs. “So, is it still hard?”
“I’m looking at you. So that would be a yes.”
“Mmm, too bad we’re in math. I would totally ease that problem for you if we weren’t.”
“Wanna skip?” I ask her.
“Tempting, but I think I’ll stick around here,” she says, opening her textbook.
“Fine. But just know I’d much prefer to do my math on your naked body,” I hiss out.
The teacher starts passing out sheets of paper. “Pop quiz,” he says as he slams a worksheet onto our desks.
“Fun.” I smirk at him, pissing him off. This teacher hates me for effortlessly completing every problem he gives the class.
“Shit.” Aurora sighs, her fingers twirling a pencil through them as if she’s holding a knife. Then again, she did stab me with a pen once. I wouldn’t put it past her to use a pencil the same way.
“It’s okay,” I tell her.
“I know it’s okay.”
“No talking,” Mr. Asshat shouts in our direction. “Time starts now.”
I want to offer Aurora some words of encouragement. I can see her sitting there attempting to calculate the problems. I get through them as quick as I can; then I reach over, take her sheet from her and replace it with the one I just finished.
Returning her glare with a wink, I complete the problems again, the fingers of my left hand skirting up the inside of her thigh and under the hem of her skirt. I will miss this school uniform. Something I never thought I’d admit.
“Connor, stop,” Aurora hisses under her breath.
“You don’t want me to stop,” I tell her. “Just let me help you relax.”
Before I know it, something sharp is pressing against my dick. I glance down and see a tiny blade. Where the fuck did she even get that from? “You’re not going to cut my dick. You like it too much,” I say with more confidence than I feel.
The thing about dating someone like Aurora is that anything is possible. You should never underestimate her.
“I don’t know. My dildo did a mighty fine job last night. I don’t think I need your dick anymore.”
I look at her. Horrified. Not because she’s holding a knife to my dick, but because she used a dildo in place of me. “Why do I feel cheated on?” I ask her. “That’s… We’re exclusive.”
“It’s a toy, not a person. It doesn’t count.”
“If it pleasures you, enters you, it counts,” I tell her, my fingers riding higher before slipping underneath the fabric of her panties.
“You’re insane,” she says.
“But you love me that way.” I push inside her. Aurora opens her legs wider.
Shifting my body to shield hers from the rest of the class, I slowly move my fingers in and out. A blush forms on her chest, creeping its way up her neck and then her cheeks.
“I love this look on you,” I tell her.
“Connor,” Aurora seethes. The tip of her blade presses against me harder. I should stop. Heed her warning. Because, let’s be honest, no one wants their fucking dick cut.
Do I do that smart thing, though? No, because I can feel her wetness coating my hand, and I want more. I want to feel her cunt pulsing around me. I want to give her the release she desperately needs right now. Relieve her stress.
“Mind moving that blade, babe?” I ask her.
“Mind moving your fingers?” she replies.
My lips tilt up as I pump my hand faster. “Not at all. Anything you ask, I’ll give you.”
Aurora drops the blade. It lands on my chair between my thighs. Her hand grips my arm, her nails digging in. I wouldn’t be surprised if they break skin. Not that I care. Nothing is going to stop me from feeling her come on my hand right now.
Looking across at her, I can see that she’s close. I can feel that she’s close. “Please,” I whisper. “I need it just as much as you do.”
I can’t explain it, but seeing her come, feeling her come… it’s euphoric. It’s up there with experiencing my own orgasm.
She comes. Her thighs squeeze together and her back goes rigid. Her teeth biting down into her bottom lip. Fuck, I want to kiss those lips. Once she stills, I remove my fingers from her and suck them into my mouth. My eyes close as the taste of her hits my tongue.
“You’re perverted,” Aurora whispers, straightening herself in her seat.
“Only when it comes to you.”
“Good, because I will cut a bitch.” She smirks, as if her words are a joke. We both know full well they’re not.
“I’m aware,” I tell her. “FYI, if I get killed sneaking into your bedroom tonight, make sure I’m buried back in Boston.”
“You’re not breaking into my bedroom,” she huffs.
“I am. I have a dildo to destroy.”
“You can’t seriously be jealous of a vibrator.” She laughs.
“Miss Valentino, Mr. O’Malley, papers now, and then you can both go and see the principal,” the teacher calls out.
Aurora laughs. “Okay. Are we in middle school?”
“You’re acting like it, so yes,” he fires back.
I remembered her mentioning how much she wanted to rip this fucker’s tongue out. Now I wonder if she’d hold him down while I do it for her.