9. Chapter 9
9
Kelly
M y entire body felt like it was on fire. Heat from head to toe. Guilt crawled up my spine, because as wrong and confusing as the kiss with Rose had been—I had liked it. The intensity of the heat in my panties and how badly I wanted to turn back around as I ran inside told me that. My heart ached in my chest. Lindsey… How could I do that to her?
Lindsey. Anger flared as I rounded into the building. How could she not tell me the truth about her marriage? Let me go all these years thinking that Rose and her were a happily, in love, married couple?
My father and mother. I struggled to believe that they had set it up. That they would keep such a thing from me. I knew they had been trying to help Lindsey find someone to date. They’d tried that with me too, but I didn’t think it was as serious as Rose was describing.
I didn’t want to believe it. My eyes burned with tears that threatened my emotional stability as I rushed into the apartment.
“Kelly?” Malak’s voice came from the side of me. I ignored it and made a line straight for my bedroom. The door slammed and slid onto the floor beside my bed, my head in my hands.
I wasn’t sure how long I was there, leaning against the bed, crying. Tears streamed down my face.
Had everyone lied to me?
Somewhere in the storm my tears, I ended up curled in my bed. One moment I was trying to breathe, not think about Rose, Lindsey, anyone, the next I was waking up.
Groggily, I sat up in the darkness of my bedroom. My face was a bit damp still, but the room was cold and I was on top of the blanket.
I shivered, and was about to grab my blanket and toss it over my body, giving up on the rest of the day or night, until my stomach growled almost painfully so.
I groaned and forced myself up and out of my room. I didn’t hear any loud music or games, just the sound of the TV on at a normal volume in the living room.
When I peaked into the living room, I saw Taylor and her brothers sitting calmly on the couch, watching some sort of comedy movie based on the sound of it.
I rubbed at my eyes, ignoring the fact that my face was covered in smeared makeup, and went for the pringles on the counter that literally had my name on them.
Kelly — was written in bold sharpie on the plastic lid. Thanks Taylor.
I opened the chips up like a hungry bear and dug in. I leaned against the counter, mindlessly eating over half of the tin before I finally set it down to get some water.
As I was drinking the water and washing away the taste of salt and cheese powder from my mouth, I looked at the floor in the dimness of the kitchen.
My phone vibrated in the pocket of my sweater. Hesitantly, I pulled it out and swiped at the screen until Lindsey’s name popped up.
Lindsey: I was upset, Kel.
I swallowed hard and slowly typed out a text with one hand.
Me: Are you still mad at me? Why are you up so late?
I stared at my phone for several long minutes until I finally got a reply.
Lindsey: I just can’t sleep, but no I’m not mad. Frustrated.
Me: We should meet soon. I miss you.
Lindsey: Miss you too.
I missed my sister, but I was getting the feeling that despite her words, she didn’t really want to meet up with me. Things with Rose had complicated everything between us.
My stomach tightened as I thought about Rose. I could still imagine her lips against mine. The way they tasted. Coconut and expensive lipstick. My stomach fluttered with angry, horny, guilty butterflies at full force. My eyes were seconds away from blurring over with frustrated tears until I heard a familiar voice.
“Well, I thought we had a raccoon, but it’s just you,” Grey said.
I looked up to see his familiar stature in the entryway. His hair was messy, skin glistened with a light sheen of sweat despite how cool it was that evening.
I swallowed the last gulp of water in my mouth and set the glass down.
“Fuck off, I don’t need your shit tonight,” I snapped.
I watched his face contort in surprise.
“Damn Kelly,” he replied and chuckled. “Who got up your ass?”
“No one!” I growled, and tears burned in my eyes, rolling over my cheeks.
I felt off kilter. Pent up in more ways than I could even explain to myself.
Grey blinked and stepped over to me, though it was getting hard to see him through my years.
“Hey,” he started, his voice lower than normal, “It’s not that serious.”
He placed a hand on my shoulder, and while normally I might tug away, I didn’t.
“Everyone lied to me,” I mumbled.
“What?” he asked.
I sniffled. “My sister’s marriage is a lie, everything is a fucking lie, Grey,” I huffed, “…even you, even you won’t admit you know me.” My breath was heavy. I tried to remember Malak’s ‘breathe in, breathe out.’ It wasn’t a new concept to me. I’d managed it before him, but, in that moment, I felt overwhelmed by just how many things I was feeling.
As more tears streamed down my face, I felt the urge to throw myself towards Grey’s chest. I didn’t care that I was supposed to be upset with him, that he was a dick. So, I did. My wet, warm face pressed against his dark Henley, and I felt one of his arms wrap around me. I could feel his heartbeat against my ear, and something in this was comforting.
“Uh,” Grey mumbled awkwardly, “Come on, let’s get out of the kitchen.”
I let him pull me out of the kitchen, blurry eyed and sniffling, into a bedroom. I was positive he was planning on just leaving me in my bed and ditching me. I didn’t blame him — but I couldn’t let him. My hands reached desperately for his shirt and clung to him.
“Kelly,” he sighed.
“Please, stay,” I insisted, “I know it’s stupid, I just,” I hiccuped.
“Hold on,” Grey insisted and tugged away from my hands.
I heard the door close and his footsteps back to the bed. I heard the shuffling of him pushing his shoes off and then the bed dipped with his added weight.
I looked over at him in the dimness of the room, and then plopped my head against his shoulder, crying.
“You owe me,” I mumbled. “You w-were supposed to tell me about Taylor’s brothers.”
There was a moment of silence. “Ah, shit,” Grey mumbled.
I laughed in the middle of my tears, feeling like it was all some practical joke. I wished it was.
“You’re laughing, you’re fine,” Grey mumbled.
I felt him shift away from me and grabbed onto his shirt again. This time my fingers gripped like I was falling off a cliff.
“No, don’t go,” I begged.
“Goddamnit, Kelly,” Grey groaned and suddenly his arms were wrapped around me.
He pulled me into his chest and fell back onto the bed on his side.
I curled up close to his warm, slender, but strong body. I didn’t care that I wanted to punch him in the face most of the time in High School and now. Not right then.
My face tucked into the crook of his neck as I took slow breaths to calm myself. My tears smeared on his skin.
“Why couldn’t you go to Malak?” he asked.
I sniffled, and my nose rubbed against his throat. I could smell alcohol, cologne, Malak, on him. They were always around each other. This didn’t surprise me.
“Do you want me to go to Malak?” I asked, voice thick.
I felt his arms tense, but he didn’t say anything else. I took that for an answer.
My eyes stopped burning, my stomach didn’t feel like it was one gigantic knot anymore.
Still, Grey was so warm, smelled so much different from Malak. Grey smelled almost the same way he did in High School, men's branded soap, probably something titled ‘Thunder Clean’ or some shit. He smelled equal measures like the last person I wanted to be close to, and the man I wanted to climb like a tree.
My thighs squeezed together. I remember Rose’s lips. Malak’s deep, dominant voice, his fingers on my chin. Rose’s hand on my throat.
I felt Grey’s fingers along the small of my back. His chest against my own.
I was desperate for comfort. I knew Grey, and though it had been years, I knew what comfort he could provide me. I’d denied myself of it in High School, claiming myself as too good for him; but I didn’t care anymore.
My mouth slowly brushed along Grey’s neck. I felt him shift slightly. His pulse quickened underneath my lips, just barely brushing against his skin. I wrapped my arms around his neck, annoyed with the thick fabric of my sweater, but unwilling to part from him to get it off.
“Kelly,” he whispered, voice low in my ears.
My mouth moved to his jawline, sensual, slow. My own pulse quickened.
I tangled my fingers in the back of his hair at the nape of his neck.
“I need you,” I whispered.
“What?” Grey asked. I felt his body shift tighter against mine, even with his doubt.
I licked my lips, brushing them so close to his. My nose grazed his stubble. I pushed my hips closer against him.
“I want to feel better,” I pleaded, “Please.”
I hummed as one of his hand slid down from my back to my ass, cupping it gently.
“I can see that,” Grey replied, his voice more gravely, “You want me to make it all better, hmm?”
“Please,” I begged again, my head dizzy.
“Again,” he demanded.
“Please, I want you.” My pussy and thighs were throbbing in my jeans.
The next moment, Grey had me on my back. I squirmed to get my sweater off my arms, leaving it underneath me. My phone fell from the pocket and tumbled a few feet away on the bed.
Grey leaned down over the top of me, one of his hands undoing the button on my jeans.
I was desperate to undo them quickly for him, but I let him do it. I heard the zip and started to squirm out of my pants. He let me, tugging them down and tossing them to the side.
Grey pushed my thighs to the side, revealing my soaked panties. He hovered over me. I gasped as he slid his hand into my panties, his fingers taking a moment or two to find my clit within my folds.
His fingers rubbed in slow circles, and I found myself closing my eyes.
“Eyes open,” Grey ordered.
I whined out a moan, but listened. I forced my eyes open, halfway, and looked at him in the darkness of the room as he rubbed my clit. He leaned down, and I felt his mouth against my neck, lips kissing up the side of my throat. Burning heat flooded my body.
“Grey…” I moaned. I rocked my hips against his hand, desperate for more.
“I heard what you liked,” Grey whispered into my ear. I knew what he meant. Someone had told him in High School, I’d been beyond embarrassed.
I didn’t care at that moment. My senses overwhelmed by emotion and pleasure.
I looked down a bit, realizing that my thighs were bare to him. My stomach knotted as I remembered the scar. It started to burn, my pulse racing for an entirely different reason. I felt my hands shifting to cover it with the blanket, hoping Grey wouldn’t see it. It was dark, after all.
A mix of pleasure and pain snapped my anxiety.
I gasped as he bit my neck, teeth sinking into my flesh. My back arched against his hand.
Grey’s hand shifted, and two of his fingers tested me. They pressed against the wet entrance of my pussy, then slid in.
“You’re so fucking wet,” Grey husked. He kissed along my jaw, so close to my mouth I could almost taste it, but didn’t. As I tilted my head to attempt to meet his lips, he tilted his away, and instead bit at my jawline, down to the other side of my neck, where he bit hard again.
“Shit!” I moaned. My hips rocked against his pumping fingers. My pussy tightened around his fingers as his thumb started to massage at my clit again.
I felt his hard cock in his jeans press against my hip.
“Fuck me,” I begged.
“What’s that?” Grey asked, his fingers pulling out of me. My hips were left squirming against nothing needily. A thrill set through me as I watched him suck my fluids off his fingers.
“Please,” I panted, “Fuck me.”
“My pleasure.”
Grey hurried out of his pants and boxers. I struggled out of my wet, tight panties and tossed them to the side.
Grey grabbed me by my thick hips and flipped me over with a huff.
I gasped as I rolled onto my stomach, still wearing my tank top and bra, but I didn’t care. The lower half of my body was all I cared about at that moment.
Grey put a hand on my ass, pushing it up slightly, and I felt the head of his cock against my slit. My eyes closed and my toes curled as he pushed in inch by inch until his thick cock bottomed out inside me.
“Fuck,” I groaned and my fingers gripped the blanket and sheets underneath me.
“God, you feel so fucking good!” Grey moaned as he pumped his hips.
His cock filled me over and over again, bringing me so close to coming I could barely stand it.
“Yes, harder!” I arched my back up, pushing my ass against his thrusts.
My pussy throbbed in pleasure, dripping along the inside of my thighs. I felt the pressure building to a head inside me. Warmth spread from my cunt to my thighs and stomach. A shiver of pleasure shot up my spine and I gasped. No sound would come out of my open mouth, eyelashes fluttering. My entire body tensed as I came.
“Fuck Kelly, I’m gonna cum,” Grey moaned.
My hips bucked up as he thrust three more times, hard and slow. His cock throbbed inside me, and I suddenly felt empty.
Warmth hit my back and my ass cheek.
“Fuck, fuck,” Grey groaned, low, and the hottest thing I had ever heard in my life.
Even while my body started to relax onto the bed, my hips still twitched.
Grey shifted off my body. I felt the bed dip as he laid down beside me. I sighed, as cool air from the ceiling fan rushed over the front of my body.
It was silent for a long moment. I looked over at him, looking into his soft green eyes. They were just the same as they had been in High School. Filled with angst, but right then I saw them in a way I had never before. Laced with pleasure and bliss that was caused by me.
My entire body felt like it was floating, my head dizzy with happy hormones. He looked so beautiful in the moonlight that shone through the blinds.
Get it together.
I reached a hand out to the side and searched around for my phone. I squinted as I brought it to my face to look at the time.
Ten thirty.
“Why are you even home?” I asked.
Grey chuckled low. “I don’t always get home from work at sunrise,” he insisted.
I pursed my lips, set my phone back down, and rolled onto my side. My breasts squished together as I did so, and I watched his eyes shift to my cleavage, still tucked into my tank top.
“What do you even do?” I asked.
There was a pause, and he pulled his eyes away from mine. My stomach tightened.
“Grey, don’t tell me you’re still wrapped up in…your family’s shit?” I asked.
Grey blinked and looked back into my eyes. His lips pulled up at one corner.
“No,” he insisted, “Security, I work with Malak. You can ask him.”
I eyed his face. “You sure about that?” I asked.
I hadn’t wanted to get involved with Grey in High School because of his family. It made me nervous to think he was still running with them, family or not.
“Yeah,” he insisted. He looked into my eyes so deeply that I suddenly didn’t doubt him.
I sighed and cuddled close to him.
Thank God for the comfort fuck.