Every One Of Me (22 page)

"Open them, love. Open your eyes," he whispered.

When I did, he quickened his thrusts, but held me close,
smoothing a hand down over the side of my breast and under me to lift my hips
up, finding that same spot from before. I felt the pressure once more, the
build up that would probably push me into unconsciousness, but I didn't care
about that. I wanted it, reached for it and once again, found it. With a roar,
he faltered and his final thrusts were untamed until he stiffened against me
and spilled himself inside me whispering my name tenderly.

When he collapsed against me, he murmured words of love,
over and over, and buried his face in my neck while we waited for our hearts to
slow down.

"Amazing," I muttered and pulled his face to mine
to cover him with kisses.

He smiled and did the same until our lips found each other,
ending in a tender and emotional kiss that made me dizzy with happiness.
"Phenomenal," he breathed.

We kissed and caressed, both sated and spent. After a while,
he moved off of me, pulling me with him and holding me in his arms as I rested
my head in the nook of his shoulder and stretched my arm across his stomach.
His fingers lightly moved across the skin of my arm, back and forth, forcing my
eyes to close from the pleasure of it.

I was right about the unconsciousness and I gladly went.

Charlie

I held Tess for hours, dozing in and out, but wanting to
watch her sleep in my arms more than anything else. She looked so peaceful when
she slept. It used to be my favorite time to watch her, but now? When she came,
I knew there wasn't anything in this world that was more beautiful than that.
She didn't hold anything back and she didn't have to with me. I had never felt
the pressing need to give all of myself to someone until tonight. She had all
of me now and I had no plans to take any of that back.

She loved me.

God, when she said it to me, I thought I would die from the
joy of it.

I swept my fingers through her hair and listened to her
breathing. The throb in my face and at my side was very noticeable now, but
there was no way I was going to move from that spot. I turned to look at the
clock on the nightstand, 5:00 AM. Still pretty early. I had to remind myself
that Tess had been travelling most of the day before and hadn't stopped until I
had thoroughly loved her and she finally drifted off to sleep.

Hundreds of questions kept running through my mind. Where do
we go from here? Can I ask her to come move in with me or is it too soon? What
is
she
thinking now?

I know I sounded like a girl, but these were questions I
needed answers to so I didn't screw anything up. I had waited fifteen years, no
way was I going to mess it up now.

Tess stirred in my arms and my fingers froze in her hair.
Her eyes flickered open and she laid still for several long seconds seeming to
take everything in. Her head was now on my chest and her arm was still wrapped
around my stomach. She slowly lifted her head and looked up at me.

"Hi."

 "Hi," she replied and if I loved her voice
before, the just woke up, scratchy version was sexy beyond all reason. She
lifted up and tried to move off of me, "Sorry. I'm kind of smothering
you."

I pulled her back against me and held her tight, "I
liked it."

She chuckled and relaxed against me while I resumed playing
with her hair. She rang her fingers over my chest, back and forth, exploring
the dusting of hair I had there and it tickled like crazy, but I didn't want
her to stop so I bit the inside of my cheek to distract myself.

"Thank you, for last night," she whispered.

I sat up and put my back against the headboard, bringing her
with me. "Why would you thank me for something I have wanted to do for
years?"

She smiled and faced me, our noses a mere inch apart,
looking in my eyes and finding something there that she apparently hadn't seen
before by the look on her face. "When did you know that you loved
me?"

"I told you that already, didn't I? That night at your
mom's?"

She nodded. "But tell me again, everything.
Please?"

I kissed the tip of her nose and moved her to straddle my
lap. She wrapped her hands around the back of my neck and pressed close to my
chest. I had been hard when I woke up, and her sitting like that only made it
worse. Or better, I guess. "Fourth grade, my first day of school as the
new kid, first recess of the day. You were playing hopscotch and wearing your multicolored
scarf that I swear was brighter than the sun. I couldn't take my eyes off of
you. Your hair was braided and bounced up and down… you were beautiful."

She was smiling so wide, my heart nearly leapt out of my
chest. "I never saw you until later that year. You were walking toward me
during recess and I was so excited, but then something happened and I never got
to talk to you. What was it?"

"Amanda. She came running from the playground shouting
about how your brother had beat up Michael Stower for spitting on the girls. I
remember thinking that I needed to meet him before he beat
me
up,"
I laughed.

"But, you never talked to me after that. Not until
Michael…"

"I was too shy. I never got the chance to do it and
every time I did, someone else would get your attention and I was too
embarrassed to do anything about it, until Michael dumped the sand on you. I
had been watching you play and saw him coming toward you. I didn't get there
fast enough, but I think I took care of things, don't you?"

She laughed, a full belly laugh that made me smile and want
to ravish her all over again. "Yeah you did. After that, we were
inseparable. You were always there for me and I knew that we would be friends
for a long time."

She kissed me quickly and ran her fingers through my hair,
making my eyes roll back and a moan slip from my lips. She giggled and ran her
fingers over my face, studying me as if she had been wanting to for so long,
but never got the chance.

"And you? When did you know, love?"

She blushed, but didn't look away, "It might have been
that day you saved me, but when I think back, I think I really knew I was in
love with you our first day of 6th grade. We were in homeroom and I was
assigned to sit next to Jimmy Marshall. I always hated him, but since we had
the same last name, I was stuck next to him all the time. You were on the other
side of him and when you saw how mad I was, you begged the teacher to switch
the two of you so I wouldn't have to sit by him. He was always pulling my hair
and drawing on my clothes or tipping over my pencil box. You agreed to stay
after school every day for a month and help the teacher clean up the room in
order for her to switch you."

She sighed at the memory and seemed like she was looking off
in the distance, like she was seeing it all again. "I knew I loved you
then. You were always saving me or doing things to make life easier for me. I
think that's why Trevor liked you so much and why Mom never had a problem with
just the two of us always hanging out. They knew I was safe with you."

I pulled her toward me and kissed her tenderly. All those
years of wondering. All the years of being scared to say anything to her about
how I felt because I was afraid I would lose her friendship. "Guess we
both should have said something, huh? Seems like we could have saved ourselves
a lot of heartache."

She shook her head, "No, I think things would have
turned out a lot worse. We might have broken up and torn our friendship apart,
who knows? I can't beat myself up about it anymore because I can't change
it."

"You are right," I muttered and pulled her close
again, this time kissing her hard and long until she was breathless and
flushed. "I'm not going to waste anymore time, though." I moved my
hand between her legs, finding her already wet. She gasped and kissed me,
hungrily. When I pressed a finger inside of her, her hips rolled forward,
trying to pull me in deeper. I couldn't wait any longer. I grabbed her hips and
positioned her above me. She held onto my shoulders and sank down over me, wrapping
me up in her tight sheath. She was heaven.

We moved together perfectly and when I bent to take her
breast in my mouth, she threw her head back and moaned. She was close and I
could feel her muscles tightening around me. She just needed a little push.

I moved my hand between us and massaged that small bundle of
nerves that would send her over the edge. She started riding me harder and
faster, throwing away all her reservations. I smiled at the revelation that
Tess was even more wild and passionate than I gave her credit for.

I sucked her nipple into my mouth harder and quickened the
motion of my fingers.

"Yes, Charlie. Oh, God…"

She came violently and her muscles tightened in waves,
pulling my own orgasm out of me as I slammed my hips up against her.
"Tess," I cried as I filled her up, pumping into her slowly as the
pleasure took me.

Heaven.

***

Later that morning, Trevor and Benny showed up and forced us
to go out. I was perfectly fine staying in bed all day with Tess, but
apparently she needed some clothes if she was going to stay with me until
Sunday. I thoroughly disagreed, but we went shopping anyway.

Tess was reluctant to let me buy her things, but I wouldn't
take no for an answer and with Benny on my side, she had no way of putting up a
fight. I did agree to only get her enough for her stay in New York, which
consisted of a couple pairs of pants, some shirts that Benny said were an
absolute necessity, a little black dress to go out to a fancy dinner that
night, and two pairs of shoes. Tess was furious and Benny kept throwing clothes
over the door of the dressing room and forcing her to try them on. I loved
spoiling her.

At one point, Benny asked for my credit card so she could
take Tess to get something 'extra special'. I had no clue what it could be, but
by the look on her face, I knew I would like it so I handed the card over and
they said they would meet up with us at the hotel later on. Trevor and I hauled
the shopping bags with us.

He was quiet as we made our way back to the hotel. I had no
idea what to say to him either. I had just been with his sister and the
situation was awkward to say the least, so I decided to ask him about Benny.

"So, how long did you guys stay out last night? Benny
seems like the all-nighter type."

He smirked and pulled off his sunglasses, "Yeah, she
is. We didn't get back until 4 this morning and what do you know? My sister
wasn't in her room when we got there so instead of going back to the suite and
finding out that you two had… ugh!... I just stayed in the other bed in their
room."

"I figured you would."

"Yeah, well, I had some good company, I guess."

I raised my eyebrows in question, "Did you two…?"

"No! No, man, I'm not a cheater, you know that. We just
talked and fell asleep. I was exhausted and she had been dancing all night, so
she fell asleep pretty quick."

"She seems like a good catch." We made it to the
hotel and I opened the door for him.

He frowned and put his sunglasses back on, covering up what
he was really thinking, and looking ridiculous because we were now inside.
"Yeah, I guess she is. But I have Ellie, so…"

Yep. He has Ellie. What a shame. Looked like Tess and I
would have to find a way to make him see things a little clearer.

"Don't hurt her, okay, man?" Trevor mumbled as we
stepped onto the empty elevator. He still had his shades on and was looking
down at his feet with his hands in his pockets.

"I won't. You know how long I've waited for her,
Trevor. I'm not about to screw things up now. Not when I finally got her
back."

"I know. I just worry… you know? About her and what she
is going to have to live with for the rest of her life. I worry about you, too.
She isn't going to hesitate to leave again if she thinks she should. And she's
a worrier, it won't be easy to make her see that you are in it for the long
haul. She's stubborn."

That she is.

"I won't give up, Trev. We got her back and none of us
are going to let her go." I slapped him on the back and he finally took
his sunglasses off, folding them and putting them in the pocket of his shirt.

"Right," he replied weakly.

We were silent as we made our way to the suite and I had a
feeling he was going to bring something up that wouldn't be so pleasant. I was
right.

"What happened between you two the last time you saw
her… before she left?"

I closed my eyes and sat on the couch while I thought back
to that day. The day I screwed up. "We were getting some of her stuff
ready for college. She had told me about some things that happened over the
summer, things she couldn't remember, people telling her she was a liar. She
was upset. I couldn't ever stand to see her upset, you know that."

He nodded, "Me either."

"She was worried about having problems in college.
Worried about blacking out. Worried that it had happened more often than she
thought. She was afraid that her anxiety about college would cause problems. I
told her that I was worried about it, too, and your mom. She had no idea that
we knew what was going on. I tried to convince her that we were all there for
her and wanted to help her, but she was convinced that she had been screwing up
everyone's lives. I guess I don't blame her after I told her how concerned we
all had been. She said she was a burden to me and her family and she took off
before I could argue with her about it. I thought she was just going to blow
off some steam, then come back so I went home. I never should have gone home
without seeing her first."

"It's not your fault, Charlie. None of us should have
kept it from her, we should have talked to her about it long before..."