26. “Quietly Yours”
TWENTY-SIX
“QUIETLY YOURS”
(BIRDY)
A fter we got back from SC, Javi and my quick afternoon nookie session turned into something entirely different.
I knew this by the way one of his big hands was wrapped around my wrists, holding them over my head so I couldn’t touch him.
I knew this by the slow, steady rhythm of the way he was finger fucking me (clearly, Martha had given him ideas).
But mostly, I knew it with the way his eyes watched my face as he touched me.
He was lavishing me with his affection because he was worried I was not as okay as I’d acted like I was—and I actually truly was—with the confrontation with my brother.
More…
He was falling in love with me.
He was beautiful. The way he was watching me was beautiful. What he was doing to me was beautiful (worth a repeat, he had very long, strong fingers). Even him being worried about me was beautiful.
But I needed more of him.
“Honey,” I whispered.
Being Javi, he didn’t make me wait. He didn’t make me beg.
Though he didn’t let my hands go. He slowly slid his finger out, rolled between legs I spread wider to accommodate him, took his cock in hand and fed it to me. Then he slid inside as he captured my lips in a deep kiss.
Not having the use of my hands, I circled him with my legs and rocked with his thrusts, our tongues dancing.
He broke the kiss only to run his tongue along the line of my neck.
And I knew it was time.
Time to make it official.
Time to say the unspoken words out loud.
So I turned my head and whispered, “I’m falling for you.”
He slid in deep, lifted his head, the expression on his face one I knew I’d never forget, not in my whole life, as he stared down at me, saying, “Thank fuck I’m not alone in that.”
Oh no.
I was going to cry.
I did not cry.
Instead, Javi’s fingers tightened around my wrists, his slow rhythm got a lot faster, the thrust of his hips a lot stronger, and the kiss he laid on me was a whole lot deeper.
Eventually, we couldn’t kiss anymore because we were panting (and I was moaning), our lips brushing. His hold on my wrists was so strong, it had a mite bite of pain, but I loved it. I loved Javi being all about me. I loved how strong he was. I loved that his one hand could hold down both of mine.
I just loved everything about my guy.
He’d cupped my breast, his calloused thumb rubbing circles around my nipple, and he was fucking me so hard, he grunted with each stroke.
This was when I found it.
Arching into him and digging my heels into his thighs, I closed my eyes and experienced yet another exquisite orgasm as delivered by my Javi.
He let my wrists go so he could grasp my hips, and I rounded him with one arm, clenched his hair with the other hand, and nibbled at his collarbone as he rode me until his finish.
I loved how loud he groaned when he came inside me.
Yep.
I just loved everything about my guy.
He stroked inside through his aftermath, before he pulled out and rolled to his back, but as he did so, he curled me around so I was tucked to his side.
I threw a leg over his thighs and an arm over his flat stomach.
“Good?” he asked.
“Great,” I answered.
“Kiss, mi pequena ,” he ordered.
I stretched up to press my lips against his.
I stayed stretched up when he tucked my hair behind my ear.
His gaze was sated, but still alert as it moved over my face.
“Stop worrying,” I assured. “I’m fine.”
“Your brother is a massive dick.”
I could not deny that, so I didn’t.
Instead, I said, “That wasn’t fun, and I’m sure some part of me will miss them, but day-to-day?” I tipped my head to the side. “Peace of mind.”
“Yeah,” he murmured.
“Again, stop worrying about me, sweetheart,” I urged.
“Okay, baby,” he gave in.
I decided to take us out of this and asked, “You know where Gabe and Knox were today? Oh, and Jeff and Cody?”
“Jeff and Cody are in the control room, seeing to business,” Javi explained. “Gabe and Knox were probably at a gym, working out. Or in a cold shower, sorting their shit.”
That was telling.
Just not telling enough.
Thus, I wanted more.
“Say what?” I asked.
“Think you know, Knox has it bad for Luna.”
I did know that, so I nodded and asked, “Why isn’t he going for it?”
“You gotta ask that?”
As I suspected.
They didn’t want to upset the AA/HS applecart.
“Is that it?” I pushed.
“Knox has some…shit he has to deal with.”
Hmm.
I didn’t press further with that. Although I was dying to know, it wasn’t cool for me to push Javi to share personal stuff about his friend.
This made me switch gears. “And Gabe with Willow?”
“That’s new,” he said. “Don’t got a lock on that. Though, do know, when we were questioning Kev, Roam and Brady had to lock him down and get him out of the room.”
Ooooo!
Interesting!
“He lost it?” I breathed excitedly.
“Totally. This gets sorted, don’t think that clown is going to get anywhere near Willow. Gabe scared the fuck out of him.”
Although it probably wasn’t appropriate, this made me smile a happy smile.
Which made Javi smile an I-love-it-when-Harlow-is-happy smile.
Of course, that made me smile bigger.
His phone went on my (yes, pink) nightstand.
He turned to it, looked at it, then said, “My grandparents are FaceTiming.”
Oh no!
We were naked in bed after sex!
Immediately, I flew into a flurry of motion, and Javi didn’t mess around pulling on his jeans and T-shirt.
He also didn’t miss the call.
I was dashing to the bathroom with my clothes in my arms when I heard him say, “ Hola, Abuelita .”
For our lunch out, I’d chosen a cute dress made of creamy white lace with a high halter top, spaghetti straps and a swing skirt. I had it on and had semi tamed my sex hair when Javi called from the living room, “Babe?”
Okay, as I suspected, I was just about to meet the beloved grandparents on a FaceTime.
Oh God.
I took one last look at my hair in the mirror and moved to the living room.
Javi was lounged on my seafoam-green couch (hot). He did the crooking finger thing at me (also hot). And after I nervously ran my hands down the front of my skirt, I went to sit beside him.
There were two older Latino people with their heads shoved together on his screen. They both wore expressions of extreme interest.
They were cute.
“ Esta es Harlow. Mi novia ,” Javi said.
An explosion of Spanish came from his screen from two people wreathed in smiles.
“ Hola ,” I said. “ Es un placer conocerlos .”
Another explosion of Spanish backed by even bigger smiles.
I caught about a sixteenth of what they were saying, none of it I could be sure I actually understood, so I just smiled back and nodded a lot.
Though, I figured it was all good considering Javi chuckled often, and since he’d wrapped his arm around me, the longer we chattered (or they did), the tighter his hold got.
I sensed I’d passed inspection.
Phew!
This went on for a while, and I adored that it did. It said, even if these people had never met, they were close. They were a family. And they didn’t hide how much they practically idolized Javi.
Obviously, I loved that last part most of all.
There was a knock on the door.
Javi gave me a squeeze and a nod to let me know I could leave our three-sided, four-person conversation and go answer it.
“ Me gustó hablar con ustedes ,” I said to his grandparents.
“ Nosotros tambien, Harlow,” they replied in unison, and man, my name sounded pretty with a Nicaraguan accent.
I went to the door, looked out the peephole and saw Luna standing there.
I opened it. “Hey.”
“Arthur got in,” she said as greeting.
She was talking about the laptop.
Yippee!
“Oh my goodness,” I replied.
She looked at Javi still talking to his grandparents on the couch, then to me. “Come to my place for a briefing?”
I nodded, turned to Javi and made hand motions to explain what I was doing. He studied me while I did so, alert and wary, and before he could say anything, I ducked out of my apartment and walked with Luna to hers.
“Raye isn’t answering her door and Jess is at Eric’s and isn’t answering her phone,” Luna explained. “So it’s just Willow, Shanti, you and me.”
This meant afternoon nookie was on the table all around for the girls who had guys.
Gosh, I hoped Knox and Gabe figured themselves out really soon and we could find someone fab for Shanti (like Liam). I wanted all my besties to have their brand of this goodness.
“Did Arthur find anything on Trev’s laptop?” I asked.
“He found lots. And none of it good,” Luna answered in a dire tone.
Unfun, but not unexpected.
We hit Luna’s boho-chic pad, and I saw immediately that Shanti was pissed, and unusually, so was Willow.
“I swear to God if I find out Kev’s done any of this kind of shit, I’m going to cut off his balls !” Willow all but shouted.
Well…
Dang.
“Is it worse than we thought?” I asked.
Shanti just leaned forward in order to shunt Luna’s laptop so it was facing me.
“We can just say, he didn’t delete the videos,” Luna said.
“And he’d been able to be unemployed for a while and still live because he did this shit a lot,” Willow said and emphasized, “A whole lot .”
I sat on Luna’s armchair and looked at the screen.
“Arthur dropped all the video files on a cloud,” Shanti shared. “You don’t have to watch. We only watched a couple and that was more than enough. It’s just the sheer magnitude of them.”
I reached out a hand to touch the mousepad and wake Luna’s laptop, then stared at the screen and gasped because I saw an open directory with medium icons selected, and there was a whole slew of video files on it. They filled up the screen.
And even with those tiny icons, you could see what was in those videos.
Gross.
“I am so glad I never app dated,” Shanti declared. “I mean, you got a load of chaff to wade through at the clubs and bars and gyms and coffee shops. But the weasels come out on those apps like crazy.”
I’d never app dated, outside of Kev, who didn’t count, but I knew a few people who met decent guys or gals on apps.
But they were in the minority.