CHAPTER 5
GEMMA
A tapping sound has my eyes popping open. What the hell was that? I glance around, but all I see is darkness. There is barely any moonlight shining in and the frosted cling I put on the window muffles it anyway. Still, I know I heard something.
My entire body stills as I listen intently. When I hear the sound again, my head snaps toward the window. There’s a dark shape on the other side of the faux frosted glass. Seeing it there startles me, but I’m not terrified.
I should be terrified, right?
While I watch the shadowy figure, it raises a hand and taps the glass again. That sound. So familiar.
It only takes me a second to realize it is the sound that woke me up. I’m torn between investigating what is going on and calling the cops. I should call for help.
But I don’t.
I swing my legs over the side of my bed and rush over to the window. Without thinking about it, I slide the window open and my jaw drops open.
“Keaton?” I hiss out his name, unsure if I’m actually seeing what I’m seeing.
“Gemma,” his voice is rough like gravel.
“What are you doing here?”
“I don’t really know,” Keaton admits and his eyebrows pull together.
There’s just enough light to see the crease right in the middle of his forehead. As much as I want to reach out and touch that spot, I hold myself back.
Why the hell is he here?
The ache from earlier hits me in the center of my chest again. It was only hours ago that he kissed me and then told me he shouldn’t have done it. His instant regret was like a damn tsunami, and I was the one taken out by it.
His regret was the worst part, especially seeing it written all over his face. I’ve wanted to disappear a few times in my life, hating the reality I was living in, but that feeling was a million times stronger when he said he shouldn’t have kissed me.
He said he shouldn’t have kissed me.
I feel like I’m fucking bleeding out all over again. Without even realizing it, I take a step back from the window. Keaton sees the action for exactly what it is.
“I do know I owe you an apology,” the sincerity in his voice almost brings me to my knees, but I force myself to stay standing.
“No,” my voice is hard, “you don’t. You don’t owe me a damn thing.”
“I do,” he leans through the window. “I kissed you and then I acted like a complete imbecile.”
“It’s fine,” my voice is flat and I take another step back.
As if he knows how tempted I am to slam the window shut again, Keaton puts both of his hands on the sill. Like I wouldn’t close the window on his hands? He thinks I won’t, but I’m strongly considering it.
“Don’t even think about it,” there’s a warning in his voice, but I’m not sure it’s one I’ll heed.
“You have no idea what I was thinking about,” I try and argue with him.
“As if I can’t see how much you want to slam my hands in the window,” he throws right back at me.
I do. I really fucking do.
“The thought hadn’t even crossed my mind,” my tone is defensive as hell, but I don’t care. “I did think about calling the cops.”
Suddenly, Keaton’s fingers grip the sill harder and he’s using his upper body to pull himself up and into my room. I stumble back as he tumbles inside my house.
“What are you doing?” My question comes out high and shrill.
“I’m climbing into your window to stop you from shutting me out and before someone else calls the cops,” his voice is firm as he stands up and brushes himself off.
“I wasn’t going to,” I try to argue with him, but the way he shakes his head tells me he’s not buying it.
And he shouldn’t.
“I’m not climbing back out,” he tells me in a tone like he’s negotiating something.
“That almost sounded like a promise.”
With my teasing words, all the humor drains from Keaton’s face. He steps closer to me and everything in me wants to step back. I force myself to stand still. His arm wraps around my waist and he pulls me flush against his chest.
“I hurt you,” his voice is a low rasp.
“I’m fine.” My lips press together in a thin line. “Really.”
“I hurt you,” he says it again as if I’ll be more likely to agree a second time.
I’m not.
“I regret what I said,” his voice is soft and coaxing.
When I arch an eyebrow, clearly not buying it, his face falls. “You regret kissing me,” I counter.
He sighs and shakes his head. “I don’t.”
My eyes narrow as I take him in, his features are a mask of disappointment and yearning. “You acted like you did,” I pout.
“I was a fool and I let my mouth get away from me. I’ve spent years staying away from you and telling myself it was the right thing to do, the only thing to do.” His words come out fast, like if he says them fast enough then they’ll make sense.
They don’t.
“You’ve spent years staying away from me?” The question comes out of me full of bewilderment.
I’ve been doing the same thing. As much as I almost let those words slip out, I keep them inside. Barely. While biting into my lip way too hard.
Keaton runs his fingers through his hair and it’s almost like he’s fighting himself. Suddenly, he straightens and I know a decision has been made.
“Saying you’re like a sister to me has been bullshit for a long time.”
My jaw falls to the ground.
“It was true,” his voice goes up like he has something to prove as he waves his hands slightly in front of him.
“Then when you came back from college, it was different. And strange. I don’t know the woman you became during those years, and it feels like I missed a lot.
I know you’re not the girl you were anymore.
It’s been easier to just keep it the same, even though it wasn’t. ”
“I think that’s the most words you’ve said to me in years,” the words tumble out of me, part indignation, part awe.
“I know it is,” he husks. “What I said earlier was a lie. What I should have said was that I should have kissed you sooner.”
Then his mouth is on mine. His lips pry mine open and his tongue invades my mouth. My fingers grip his shoulders, needing the feeling of holding onto him to keep me present in this moment. I tilt my head to deepen the kiss.
“Keaton,” I moan into his mouth.
He freezes for a moment, but then he kisses me harder. My entire body melts into his. When he lifts me, the action is effortless. Then my back hits the bed and his large frame covers mine.
When his hand finds my bare thigh, he pauses. “Is this okay?”
“If you don’t touch me and finish what you’ve started,” I groan, “I’m going to kick your ass.”
Keaton buries his face in my neck, his lips sliding along my skin while his beard makes the spot even more sensitive. My legs wrap around his waist, and I grind up against him. Just when I have him right where I want him, his large hand grips my hip to push my body back down against the bed.
“I want you,” my back arches as the words drip from my lips. “Please.”
“Fucking hell, my Gem,” he growls before gripping the edge of my large shirt and tugging it up with his teeth.
Heat rushes through me and I gasp when he sits back and manhandles me enough to tug the shirt free from my body. His eyes sharpen as he looks down at me, my tits bouncing from where the shirt caught.
I probably look like a mess, my hair a wild halo around me while my entire body flushes. He doesn’t look put off. With one fluid motion, he reaches back and pulls his shirt off before tossing it away without a single care. The way he looks at me has a shiver racing down my spine.
“I’m not going to be able to hold back,” there’s a warning in his tone.
“I don’t want you to.”
Did I just say that? Was it my voice that is so high and breathy?
With a growl, he reaches between us and tears my panties down my legs. I’m a fumbling mess as I reach for the athletic shorts he’s wearing. I push them down over his hips and just when I hook a toe to push them off all the way, he plunges two fingers inside my soaked pussy.
“Yes,” I hiss while my hips try to lift off the bed.
But Keaton is there. He covers me completely, bracing me against the bed and not allowing me to move.
The way his fingers fuck me makes me even wetter. His fingers curl just right, and my eyes roll back in my head.
“You’re so damn beautiful, all flushed for me,” he growls.
My hands grip him tighter, needing him to stay put. If he pulls away from me, I don’t know what I’ll do. It would be a travesty.
“You know,” I barely moan out the words, “I didn’t even invite you in.”
He chuckles with his lips against my collarbone. “Are you still going to call the cops?”
“Depends,” I groan.
“I’ll convince you to leave them out of this.”
Those words sound like a promise too. A dangerous one. I can almost feel his determination as he kisses down my chest until he can suck one of my nipples into his mouth.
When he pulls his fingers out of me, he grunts, “You’re going to squeeze my cock so good.”
A moan falls from my lips as he settles between my thighs and the hard length of his cock slides between my pussy lips, already slick with my arousal. The sound rumbling in his chest is filled with a possession which I’ve only ever dreamed of hearing.
“I need you,” my voice is strained.
I’ve never felt my body react this way. Not to anyone. Only ever to him.
“Fuck,” the word comes out of his throat almost garbled. “This is your last chance to back out. Once I’m inside you, I’ll never be able to let you go.”
“I don’t want you to,” the truth is pulled out of me, a haze of lust wrapping around me and making my head spin.
His eyes slide down my body and lock onto my weeping pussy before his eyes slide closed slowly. “I didn’t bring a condom.”
The grimace on his face is almost comical, but I’m too turned on to find any real humor in it. My body arches and my skin feels like it’s on fire. I know the only thing I need is for him to push inside me.
I’ll burn hotter, but the release will be so worth it.
My eyes follow the same path and a desperate ache blooms in the pit of my belly. I want to be filled by him; and he will fill me fucking perfectly.
“I’m on birth control and have a clean bill of health.” I barely get the words out, but I know he needs them.
Keaton grips the base of his cock and slides the tip up and down my slit. My hips twitch, but the way his body is draped over mine doesn’t give me much room.
“Stop teasing me,” my words are a plea.
As he starts to slide inside me, my walls clench before stretching around him. It feels so good, my body arches toward him, my hips rising, wanting him deeper. The moment he’s fully inside of me, filling me completely, we let out matching sounds of satisfaction.
Something breaks within him. I feel it happen.
He starts moving. He’s slow and measured at first, but as my body responds, as I move to meet his every movement, he speeds up. The sound of our ragged breathing fills the room along with the satisfaction that only comes as his flesh collides with mine.
Every breath I take is hindered, the pleasure skyrocketing and making everything around me hazy. Everything except the feeling of his cock filling me.
Stars dance behind my eyes, and my nails dig into Keaton’s back. He hisses out a breath just as he slams into me and I can feel the tension building in every contraction of his muscles.
Our bodies move together, pushing and pulling. Every movement builds into something more, something bigger.
“I knew you’d feel perfect,” he grits the words out through his teeth.
When my legs come up and clamp around his hips, the angle makes him go deeper while scraping against a spot inside of me which he finds unerringly. Our eyes lock and his lip curls back as he starts to pound into me.
His movements are frantic and hungry. My mind goes fuzzy and nothing else matters beyond the pleasure building inside me. Just when I’m sure I can’t take it anymore, it all collapses.
An orgasm washes over me as my head tips back as I call out his name like a siren. I feel him shudder as he moves over me, his hips pumping while the glide of him teases my orgasm to rise to new heights.
“My Gem,” he growls as his teeth nip at my neck and his cock pulses inside me.
His entire body is like stone, but the weight of him is perfect.
The warmth of his cum fills me while his ragged breath caresses my neck. Warmth mixes with satisfaction as I use my hands to run down his back instead of clawing at him. I feel the indents I’ve left behind and try not to feel smug about it.
“I’m glad you didn’t call the cops,” his words are filled with breathless amusement.
I can only giggle as he rolls us and he settles me against his chest. I’m afraid this won’t last, probably not even until morning, but I’m going to hold onto it for as long as I can.