Finding Our Forever: (A Defining Moments Novel) (14 page)

“Oh God,” she moans while pressing herself toward me.

I ravage her with my mouth, knowing I need her to be completely relaxed and ready for me. The moment my finger enters her and she clamps down on me, I know she’s right about the possibility of there being pain. She’s so tight. Her body shivers and she whimpers out my name, but I continue teasing her with my tongue until her body relaxes.

I crawl back up her body and press my lips to hers eagerly. She wastes no time deepening the kiss and reaching down to slide her hand up and down me.

“Condom,” she whispers against my mouth.

I jump off the bed and grab my jeans from the floor. Pulling the condom out of my wallet, I toss it to her and she immediately rips the package open with her teeth. Such a lovely sight.

I stalk up the bed toward her and she squeals when I jerk her to me, crashing my lips into her. She reaches between us and sheaths me, never once removing her lips from mine.

I move my body in sync with hers, grinding against her. She’s ready.

Sitting back up on my knees in between her legs, I rub myself against her center, coating us both. When I press against her, she stills, her eyes meeting mine.

“Just say the word and I’ll stop, baby,” I whisper to her. Leaning forward, I crush my lips to hers, deepening the kiss as I push into her as gently as I can. She gasps as I press in further but doesn’t tense up as I expected her too.

“Holy hell, you feel so good,” I grind out, trying not to lose my shit before I’m even completely inside her.

“More, Eli, I need more,” she pleads, and I press into her a little more. Her hands find their way to my ass and she’s pressing me down and pushing herself forward. When I’m fully seated, we both stop breathing for a second.

“Are you okay?” I pull back to look in her eyes so I can see the truth.

“Yes. Thank you for being so gentle with me,” she whimpers, before lifting her hips a bit, making the smallest circle and causing me to growl at her.

She giggles lightly before pleading in my ear. “Please.”

My movements start out slow and gentle, but quickly become more. What began as sweet has turned into us both racing for the finish line.

Sara reaches behind me and pulls my head toward hers, pressing our foreheads together, staring into my eyes just as she sobs out my name, and I release into her.

I collapse on the bed beside her, hauling her body against mine.

“That was amazing,” she whispers into the dark room.

“I agree with that assessment, Ms. Calhoun,” I reply groggily. I need to get up, but I’m so tired. I feel her move away from me, and when I peek up at her, she’s standing beside the bed naked, smiling down at me.

“Get up, sleepyhead, before you fall asleep,” she laughs.

“Don’t wanna,” I protest. She reaches for the blankets, but I see it coming so I try to wrap myself in it so she can’t rip them off.

“If you don’t get up and go to the bathroom, you’re going to make a mess of my bed, and then
you
will be the one changing the sheets,” she teases.

Shit. The condom.

I roll out of bed and stride across the floor to the bathroom. I glance back and catch her eyeing my ass.

“You like?” I joke.

“More than I should admit to,” she replies before diving back into the bed and pulling the covers up over her.

After I’ve finished in the bathroom, I return to find my beautiful girl curled up in a ball fast asleep. I pull my boxer briefs back on and head to the kitchen to get a glass of water.

Just as I get to the end of the hallway, I hear a deep growl and it makes me stop immediately.

“Diesel, it’s me, boy,” I whisper-yell, reaching for the hall light. When I click it on and my eyes adjust, I see Diesel by the kitchen island, his hair raised and the growl still coming from him. Holy shit. If I didn’t know this dog loves me, I’d be shitting myself right now.

“Diesel. Here, boy,” I say in my regular voice. The moment he hears me, he relaxes and walks toward me, tail wagging. I guess I was wrong about him. Anybody who came into this house that he didn’t recognize would definitely get the shit scared out of them. The growl was vicious.

I take Diesel outside to use the bathroom and draw in a deep breath of the cool night air. I love being outside at night. I’m not sure what it’s called, but I feel at ease in the dark. Makes me want to go camping. I wonder if Sara is into outdoorsy stuff. I’ll have to talk to her about that because I’d love to take her camping.

After Diesel does his business, we make our way back inside and I scurry back into bed with my girl.
My girl.

When I snuggle under the covers and pull her to me, she comes willingly and lays her head on my chest. I could definitely get used to this. Sleeping with a woman in my arms isn’t something I do. I mean, I’ve fallen asleep after sex before, but I always wake up before morning and leave. I’ve never slept cuddling someone.

Times are definitely changing.

She breathes in deep and lets out a little snore, which I find adorable. She’s completely worn out and that makes me feel like I did my job.

I listen to her breathing and it soothes me to sleep quickly.

THE NEXT TWO
weeks fly by, and Sara and I spend all our free time together. We haven’t discussed her leaving again. She hasn’t mentioned if she’s talked to her parents or Ramzi about it. I have a feeling her mind is made up about going already and I’m okay with it. I think.

With Monday being the start of the first week of finals, I know I won’t see her much this week, and since it’s Sunday, I ask her to go out to dinner with me tonight. We’ve been together a lot, but we haven’t done much other than hang out at her place or mine, and although I’m not complaining about the insane amount of sex we’ve been having, I really want to spend more time with her outside of the bedroom.

She agrees to dinner tonight, and since it’s fairly early, I decide a good solid couple hours at the gym would do me some good.

Ben strides out of his room just as I finish packing my gym bag.

“Hey, bro, wanna hit the gym with me?” I ask him without looking up. When he doesn’t answer, I swing my head toward him and stop instantly.

Holy shit. He just smirks and continues into the kitchen without answering me.

His left arm has a big tattoo on it. We’re talking elbow to shoulder. He’s sporting a semi-beard and he looks way more muscular than I remember him being.

“Jesus, dude. When’d you get that tatt? Mom’s gonna shit,” I laugh out. “And to tell you the truth, I don’t think you need to hit the gym.”

Ben shakes his head and laughs before turning to look at me.

“I’ll hit the gym with you. We need to chat anyway, and since you’re always stuck up Sara’s ass, I don’t get to see you much anymore,” he jokes. It’s good to hear him joking and see an actual smile on his face for once.

“Whatever, asshole. What’s with the tatt?” I ask him seriously.

He just shrugs and heads for the door. His gym bag is already packed and sitting there. “Lots of things changing these days, bro,” he mumbles as he opens the door and steps out.

We take my truck to the gym since we both have to come back to the apartment afterward anyway.

“So, what’s going on with this Sara chick? You seem to be pretty involved in this one,” Ben asks when we pull into the parking lot of the gym.

“You could say that,” I reply. “She’s great, but we’re just having fun.”

“Just having fun, huh?” he mimics. “You two are basically attached at the hip if you’re not at school, so what gives? Serious relationship time for the manwhore?”

That title never used to bother me. Ben has basically called me that since I lost my virginity at the age of sixteen. It was somewhat true in high school. I did get a lot of ass. But for some reason, it bothers me now.

“I’m not a manwhore, Ben. Yeah, I’ve had my fair share of the ladies, but I wasn’t hurting anyone. They knew from the beginning that I wasn’t relationship material,” I scold. “It’s not like I promised any of them anything past a few dates and some earth-shattering sex.”

Ben laughs. “Earth-shattering you say?”

“Whatever,” I retort with a roll of my eyes. “Look, I like Sara, a lot actually, but she’s going away to school in Arizona in a few months. We’re just enjoying our time together before she leaves.”

Ben just nods and continues to stare out the window.

“So what’s going on with you, ya big bastard?” I ask. “You don’t spend much time at home these days, and from the looks of it, you’ve been taking up residency at the gym.”

Ben chuckles before replying. “Yeah, well, I also found myself a lady friend. I’m just not whipped.”

What the hell?

“What do you mean you found a lady friend? You have a girlfriend and you didn’t tell me!” I shout at him.

“Calm down, dude. She’s not my girlfriend. Let’s just say we’re exclusively using each other to scratch an itch, and I’m telling you now.”

“So, basically what you’re telling me is that you have become the manwhore,” I choke out before laughing myself to tears. He’d always given me a hard time about not being serious with anyone. I mean, hell, I don’t think Ben lost his virginity until our freshman year of college and he dated her for about six months or some shit. He’d always wanted the wife, two point five kids, and the house with a white picket fence. Honestly, the only one-night stand I’ve ever seen him have was the blonde he took home from the bar a few weeks ago. That must have popped his one-night-stand cherry and now he’s addicted.

Ben just shakes his head and rolls his eyes. “It’s one chick, Eli. It’s not like I’m banging the whole cheerleading squad.”

“Hey, don’t knock it. They knew what was up,” I brag, wiggling my eyebrows.

Ben laughs loudly and smacks my shoulder hard enough to shove me into the driver side door, making me swerve.

“Jesus, lay off the ‘roids, dude,” I mumble while rubbing my shoulder with my other hand.

Ben just laughs and turns the radio up. It’s nice chatting with him. It’s been too long since we’ve done this.

The moment we enter into the gym, I realize how much time he must be spending here. Almost all of the trainers talk to him and a few of the gym bunnies come rushing over to fawn over him.

Where the hell have I been since this bullshit started?

We spend a good two hours at the gym, and by the time we leave, I’m exhausted. I needed this workout. I’ve been slacking lately and need to be more dedicated to it. I feel so much better when I consistently work out. Plus, it’s a
huge
stress relief for me. When our parents were going through their divorce, Ben and I lived at the gym. It was our way of coping I think.

Just as we pull back into our apartment complex, there is a loud bang when my tire blows and one side of my truck starts to lean.

“Damn it,” I roar. I park in the closest parking space I can get to. Not now. I have less than an hour to shower, get ready, and pick up Sara for our date. My spare is a standard tire, not the big ones I put on it a few months ago, so my truck is now completely out of commission until I can get to the tire store.

“Don’t worry about it. I’m not going anywhere tonight, so just take my truck,” Ben replies quickly. “We’ll go get you a new tire in the morning.”

“You’re the best brother ever!” I yell as I run for our apartment door, not even waiting for him to follow. I have shit to do.

I’D TOLD SARA
that we were going to dinner in a fairly fancy restaurant and to dress nicely. She took that seriously apparently. When she opens the door to her house, I take in what she is wearing, and it takes every ounce of my strength not to rip it off her and never leave her house.

She takes a step back from the door and holds her hands out as if asking my opinion. She makes a small turn and then speaks. “Well, what do you think? Nice enough?”

I step inside the doorway, shutting it behind me, and pull her into me, pressing my lips to hers ever so softly. She looks like a dream.

She’s wearing a navy blue wrap dress that hangs just above her knees. It hugs her tiny curves like a glove and she looks amazing in it. Her hair is down around her shoulders and curly. Curly, as in natural curls, not as though she curled it with one of those thingies.