51. Faith
CHAPTER 51
Faith
“Hello?” I woke to the sound of my cell phone buzzing on the nightstand.
“Where are you?” Jess’s voice blared in my ear.
“I’m at home. In bed.” I glanced at the clock. “It’s one in the morning. What’s going on?” I tried to suppress a giant yawn, but failed.
Jess growled through the phone. “Is there something you’ve been meaning to tell me?”
“Like what?”
“Like the fact you’ve been writing sex scenes all year?”
I sat up straight, suddenly wide awake. “Who told you?”
“So, it’s true?”
“Well, yes, kind of, I mean, no. I write erotic romance. It’s fiction.” First my mom, now Jess. My heart seized, like someone had wrapped a fist around it and squeezed tight.
“Well, you’re not going to fucking believe this. The paper found out you’re Chastity Austen and they’re running a story about it.”
“What paper?”
“The school paper. Someone came forward with an excerpt from your latest novel and they’re printing it. The article says they have a source who knows the name behind Chastity Austen, and they’re going to release her identity.”
“Murph.” I groaned and fought off the initial onset of a panic attack.
“What’s he got to do with it?”
“He found my manuscript on my computer and tried to blackmail me over it. Wants me to turn down taking on Professor Middleford’s classes and told me I had until nine tonight to make a move or he was going to out me.”
“I’m on my way over. Be there in ten.”
I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes. The fragile barrier I’d constructed between my two worlds had come crashing down around me. By the time I splashed some cold water on my cheeks and ran a toothbrush over my teeth, Jess’s fists pounded on the door.
“What the hell is going on with you?” She pushed past me into the living room and kicked her feet up on the coffee table. “You’re some superstar author? What else have you been hiding from me?”
“Nothing.” I perched on the edge of a kitchen chair. “I didn’t mean for things to get out of hand.”
“What’s the big deal? I mean, besides who your mom is. Does she know?”
“Yeah, I told her today. But I haven’t had a chance to talk to Dante yet.”
Jess hopped off the couch and walked to the fridge. She rummaged around inside and pulled out a beer. “What’s Dante got to do with anything? I thought you two were off?”
Heartburn. The flash of heat rising from my gut to my throat had to be from heartburn, right?
“The stuff Murph found on my computer… it’s pretty much a detailed account of everything Dante and I have been up to for the past several months.”
Jess took a swallow from the longneck. “So? Nobody will be able to tell, right?”
My fingers twisted together, and I studied a scuff on the worn kitchen floor. “I kind of used our names in my rough draft.”
“You’re fucking kidding me.”
I met her gaze. “I wish.”
“So, everyone is going to know about the late-night booty calls?”
I nodded.
“His favorite sexual positions?”
Coming from Jess’s point of view, things sounded worse than I’d imagined.
She shook her head. “You’d better hurry. I just ran into one of the editors as I left the library and she said it’s already at the press.”
I fisted my hands and dug them into my stomach in an attempt to break up the massive knot growing inside my gut. “I can’t believe it. I knew this would blow up in my face, but I thought I’d have more time.”
I’d meant to get to Dante earlier that day, even walked through the library looking for him. As nine o’clock drew closer, I’d grabbed my keys a few times with the intention of heading to the bar to confess everything. After several failed attempts, I still hadn’t found the courage to try to talk to him again.
When I finally made it all the way there, I’d arrived to see him hugging that girl in the parking lot and leaving with her... it felt like he’d driven a spike through my heart. What did I expect? That sex would hold his attention? Well, maybe. How many times had he tried to get me to admit there was more between us? Every time, I’d shot him down. Too concerned about my freakin’ six-year plan. Look at how that was turning out.
If only I’d had a chance to get to him before he’d moved on. I’d been too scared to call or text, and he was obviously already over me since I hadn’t heard a word from him in the past week.
Jess’s voice turned my attention back to the conversation at hand. “You need to tell him, Faith. If he sees it in the paper...” her voice trailed off.
“Yeah, I know. I’m going to head over there now.”
She stood and tossed her empty bottle in the recycle bin. “Come here.”
I shuffled over to her open arms and allowed my friend to give me a hug.
“Good luck. Call me and let me know how it goes, okay?”
We broke apart.
“Sure.” I couldn’t imagine it going well. I followed Jess to the door and closed it behind her, then retreated to the bedroom to grab a sweatshirt. Doesn’t matter what I look like. After tonight, he won’t ever want to lay eyes on me again anyway.
With what felt like the weight of the world on my shoulders, I braved the cold March night and headed toward the bar.
Dante
I scrambled to a seated position. I’d fallen asleep on the couch again. A loud banging noise on the front door jarred me out of a dreamless sleep. I squinted my eyes against the glare of the TV and staggered to my feet. Drawing one of Meemaw’s knit blankets over my naked shoulders, I peered through the peephole.
Faith? What was she doing in Hinkley?
I opened the door, and without a word, she wrapped her arms around my waist. It was good to see her. I didn’t even mind the way her cold jacket felt on my bare skin. I pulled her into the room and held her close.
She spoke into my chest. “Why didn’t you call me?”
“I didn’t know if you’d come,” I mumbled into her hair.
She drew back and looked up at me, tears spilling over the edges of her beautiful green eyes. “How could you think I wouldn’t come?”
Overcome by the look in her eyes, I scooped her up and carried her back to the bedroom, depositing her in the center of my bed.
“Dante, I?—”
I put a finger to her lips. We could talk later. Right now, I didn’t need the comfort of her words. I wanted to lose myself in her. Make the stress and tension of the past few days melt away.
I unzipped her coat as she kicked off her boots, sending them clunking to the floor. She wriggled out of her coat and peeled her sweatshirt over her head. I knelt down on the bed next to her and crushed my mouth against hers as my hands ran over her stomach, cupped her breasts, and plunged under the waistband of her pajama bottoms.
She wrapped her arms around my neck, pulling my weight down on top of her.
I needed this.
I needed her.
I shivered as our bare skin connected. Then she arched into me, and I slipped a finger inside her panties. She was wet. As my finger slid back and forth, just how I knew she liked to be touched, she rocked hard against my hand.
I drew back, and she grabbed at my fingers, trying to push them back between her legs. I rolled off her and ran a hand up her side, feeling her skin prickle with goosebumps. This woman... what she did to me... how could she get me so hard, so fast?
Her hand groped for me through my thin flannel pants, then slid up and down my length.
I propped myself up on an elbow, watching her writhe against my leg. She opened her eyes and met my gaze. Without breaking eye contact, she slid her pants down and kicked them off the edge of the bed. My hand laid still on her stomach. She took it to her lips and sucked my pointer finger into her mouth, running her tongue around it. My need surged and my cock grew even harder.
She gave my finger a playful nip, then skated my hand down over her breasts and back between her legs. With her finger on mine, she slid them both inside her.
Holy fuck. Just when I thought things couldn’t get any hotter, she kept surprising me. I watched through heavy lids as she pressed into me, grinding against our hands. I slid my hand away, leaving hers where it was, and she continued to work herself into a frenzy. Her breathing quickened, and she moaned. I was right there with her. She watched me watching her and smiled.
I couldn’t stand not being inside her for a second longer. I reached for the nightstand and ripped the packet open with my teeth. Nudging her legs apart with my knees, I pinned her to the bed with my body as I lowered myself into her.
This was what I needed. The stress and tension of the past week eased away. She wrapped her legs around my waist, raising her hips up to meet me as my body rocked into hers, over and over again.
She tightened around me, and her body shuddered with her climax. I grunted, groaned, and released myself into her. She clenched around me, draining me, and I collapsed on top of her.
Our bodies glistened with sweat from our efforts, and I tugged the blanket over us so she wouldn’t get chilled. I threw a leg over her hip, curled her up against me, and nestled my cheek into her neck.
“I love you, Faith,” I whispered into her hair.
She didn’t respond. I couldn’t tell if she’d already fallen asleep or maybe hadn’t heard me. It didn’t matter. She was here, and that could only mean one thing.
She was ready to be together.
For real.