National Unfriend Day, Honeymoon Day 14 - November 17th
BEN
I lay in bed with Lainey curled next to me. The only light in the room is the glow of my digital clock. It might not actually tick, but it's all I can hear. Each passing minute—each second—feels like a vice tightening around my heart. At the stroke of midnight, will she leave me? Do I get to keep her until morning? Do I dare confess my feelings?
In a twisted version of irony fucking me over, it’s National Unfriend Day.
The day is actually about self-care and eliminating anyone on social media who doesn't bring you joy. But nothing about the holiday feels freeing for me—not when I have this fear wrapped around my throat that I'm about to lose the most important person in my life.
Things shifted between us on National Happy Hour Day. When we were in my office together, it felt like we were finally on the same page. That we’d claimed each other and had no plans to let go. Then something happened and it’s felt like she’s been holding back ever since, even if she’s still staying in my bed every night.
Lainey stirs, her leg draping further over mine. Her hand starts moving slowly up and down my chest. We'd fallen into exhaustion after our last bout though I’ve only pretended to sleep.
We’ve been frenzied and desperate for each other from the moment we woke up, as if we were racing the clock, though neither of us acknowledged it.
Lainey shifts again, curling into me. I move so our limbs tangle and our mouths find each other like a magnetic pull. This kiss is different than the others we’ve shared these last several days, unhurried and full of the emotions she’s been denying. She rolls over me until her body straddles mine, and my hands dive into her hair as I deepen the kiss. She opens her legs further and reaches down, lining my cock with her pussy. I push my hips into her as she sinks down on me. Her wet heat clenching around me is the best fucking thing in the world.
We don’t move but stay like that, simply needing to be connected. Our kiss softens as we savor each taste, each gentle meet of our lips. I trail my lips down her jaw to the column of her throat before returning to her mouth. The kiss ends slowly, our faces still close as her hand comes up, cupping my cheek.
With our gazes locked, she starts moving. She fucks me slowly, letting my cock almost slide out of her before sinking back down. Tiny whimpers escape her as she sits up and rides me. She’s fucking glorious with her head thrown back and her gorgeous tits thrust forward as she grinds down on me. Unable to help myself, I grip her hips and drive up into her. She lets out a loud, broken moan, then falls back down, bracing herself over my chest, and we curl into each other, our hips thrusting together.
Our breaths mingle as our foreheads meet. This isn’t like any other time we’ve fucked. It’s more. Sensual. Emotional. Vulnerable.
True .
I take her mouth again and pour all my certainty—my love —into the kiss. As if she understands, she kisses me back with a ferocity that begs for more. A spike of pleasure shoots up my spine, pure need urging us both, fueling us to move faster. Harder.
"Lainey..." I moan against her lips, unable to hold back much longer.
"Yes...yes...now..." She comes around my cock, her body shattering over me. It’s so fucking good I explode inside her.
"Fuck...Lainey..." I shudder, letting her pussy drain every ounce of cum inside me. “Take it. Take all of me.”
She cries out even louder as she continues to ride me before slowly coming to a stop, then slumps into me.
I wrap my arm around her, gently squeezing her into me as our breathing calms. That felt life-altering so I should be floating on cloud nine. Instead, the bliss is shadowed by a fear working its way around my heart that things aren’t going to work out the way I want. When she places a gentle kiss on my chest, I squeeze my eyes shut.
Don’t leave.
But my fear’s realized when she eases off my body, leaving me cold and anxious. The bed lightens as she gets off. I open my eyes and push up on my elbows as she picks up the T-shirt she’s been wearing all day—my shirt.
“Want breakfast?”
She looks over her shoulder at me, then glances at the clock. “At eleven-thirty at night?”
I grin at her. “We’ve burned more calories than we’ve eaten today.”
She smiles at that, but it’s soft—almost reluctant. Six hours ago, she would have laughed.
She grabs her underwear from the floor and sits back on bed as she shimmies them on. “I should go. ”
“No. You should stay.”
She doesn’t move but doesn’t look back at me. My heart hammers in my chest as I wait for her to respond.
“Ben…this is our last day, and you know it. Honeymoon’s over.”
I take a fortifying breath and decide to shoot my shot. "That doesn’t mean we have to be over. What if we talk to our parents about us?"
She stiffens. "No.”
“Lainey—”
“Ben, this was only two weeks. To get it out of our systems.” She looks back at me with an expression I’m all too familiar with. Not long ago, I was the one giving women this look. I was the one who never saw things as anything more than temporary, and now I’m the one begging for a commitment. Karma really is a bitch. “There’s no us.”
Those words spear me right in the heart, but I push past the pain and move until I’m right behind her, holding her gaze. “We've been us-ing for much longer than two weeks and you know it. Am I out of your system?”
Her mouth flattens, and she looks away.
“Exactly. You’re sure as hell not out of mine.” I try to pull her into me, but she shrugs out of my hold and stands.
"It’s time to move on and end this farce of a marriage, Ben.”
"Farce? Has any of this felt like a joke? I think we’ve been pretty good at marriage so far."
She laughs, though it’s clear she's not amused. "That's because all we've done is fuck. There's a lot more to marriage than good sex."
" Phenomenal sex. And I know that. I think—”
She shakes her head. “That’s the problem. We didn’t think. Our marriage was a prank gone wrong. None of this was serious. ”
Fuck. Everything out of her mouth is like a sledgehammer to the chest. "Are you fucking kidding me? How can you say that, especially after what just happened in this bed? This was serious before we ever got married, and you damn well know it.”
A moment of strained silence falls between us before she finally whispers. “It’s not that simple."
She walks away, finding her pants and slipping them on. Then she starts filling her bag up. Each item she stuffs inside breaks another piece of my heart.
I get out of bed, shuck on my sweatpants, and go to her and turn her so she’s facing me, but she keeps her head down.
"It is that simple. You want me. You have feelings for me but are too fucking scared to admit it.” I tip her chin up, forcing her to look at me. "Stop running and tell me the truth."
Her eyes turn glassy, but there’s a stubborn tilt to her chin. "I’m not running.”
"The fuck you aren’t. Tell me you don’t want this."
She closes her eyes. Tears seep through and trail down her cheeks. “Ben…please.”
My hands shake, frustration and anger bubbling inside me. “You have to stop hiding behind our parents’ relationship. This—”
Her eyes snap open. “Ben, stop . My mom’s finally happy, and she doesn’t want us together. I can’t fuck this up. Not anymore than I’ve already done. I was wrong about one of her guys in high school. He loved her and I took that away from her. I can’t be wrong again .”
Wrong again? What does that mean?
She pushes away from me and goes back to packing, and I can practically feel my heart fracture. Maybe I need to stop dancing around the truth and tell her how I feel. She needs to know she can walk away tonight, but it won’t change that I love her. That I know in my soul we belong together .
I reach for her hand, but she retreats from my grasp.
“Lainey, I—”
“Ben, stop pushing.”
“Hear me—"
"Acnestis!"
The word strikes like the thrust of a sword. Almost silently but with sharp precision. An agonizing numbness fills me. Of all the times she’s used the safe word, she’s never wielded it as a weapon. Maybe I forced her hand, pushing her until it was an act of desperation. But, fuck, her aim was true.
And there’s nothing I can do but watch her walk away.