The Exception (11 page)

I could feel him smiling against my lips. “I love the effect I have on you, Em,” he whispered, so close I could feel his breath on my neck, causing my skin to tingle on every surface his breath touched. His words managed to ease my nerves and I sank back into his kiss, losing myself until I felt his hands stop at the top of my rib cage. He must have felt my body tense because he broke the kiss, leaving us both breathing heavy. “You are calling the shots tonight, Blondie. Nothing will happen unless you want it to.” he uttered huskily.

I could barely think, much less respond, as his fingers teased the top of my lacey hipsters and he peppered kisses across my collarbone. “Jake,” I sighed. I could tell he enjoyed hearing his name breathlessly escaping my lips because he reconnected his lips to mine and kissed me hungrier than he had before. His hands were everywhere, roaming across my bare skin. Each pass of his fingertips made me crazy in a way I never knew was possible.

I was so lost in the moment that I almost didn’t hear Jake utter, “Don’t let go.” When he started to move, what he said registered. Without hesitating, I wrapped my legs around his waist as he stood up from the chair. He never broke the kiss as he walked us back into my room and gently laid us back down on my bed.

Though I have never been drunk, I imagine this is what it must feel like. Your head in a blissful fog, consumed by thoughts of things you would never be brave enough to do sober. Each kiss from Jake seemed to pull me deeper and deeper into this state of being wonderfully out of control. I reached down and began to tug at Jake’s shirt until it was up by his shoulders. With one smooth motion Jake lifted up and shrugged out of his soft tee, revealing his toned torso that I couldn’t resist running my fingers down. I have never in my life been so bold. I knew that if there were any more light than what was being provided from the moon, my cheeks would give away what I was feeling in this moment.

Breathe, Emma, Breathe.

When I looked back up at him, he had a smug smile on his face and just like that all my hesitation went back out the window. I reached up and tangled my fingers into his hair, bringing him back down and connecting my lips to his.

The last thing I remember before falling asleep was Jake’s lips on mine.

Chapter Nine

When my alarm went off the next morning, it felt like I hadn’t slept at all. I was so exhausted I couldn’t even think straight. I went to turn off my alarm but was held in place by an arm. An arm? And just like that, last night came flooding back into my memory. I smiled as I looked over and saw Jake lying on his stomach beside me. He was even handsome with his cheek squished into the bed. I began to sit up but only made it up to my elbows before being pulled firmly into his side.

“Mmmm. Five more minutes.” His eyes weren’t even open yet, and he was so gosh darn cute. How could I say no?

“You have three,” I laughed, “And then I have to go get ready for school.”

“Only three? Then I guess I have to make the best of them.” With one swift movement, I was looking up into his eyes. I wrapped my arms around his neck as he lowered himself down to connect his lips to mine.

“Emma! You had better be up already,” my sister was practically shouting as she banged on my door. “Mom says she needs you to take me to school, and I don’t want to be late! I just have to finish drying my hair.” I froze. Oh my God! McKenzie and my parents were all just a door away from seeing Jake. Here. In my bed. “Emma! Hello?”

I shot up, bumping my head on Jake’s chin in the process. “Yeah! OK. Got it! Ready in ten,” I panicked, running my hand over where I had just inflicted pain. Then I looked over to see Jake doing the same thing.

“You OK? You sound like…”

“Fine, Kenzie. Just running late. Meet you downstairs, mmkay?”

“Alrightie. But you better hurry.”

Jake was stifling a laugh as we heard her walk away. I swatted his arm and tried to sound stern, but just looking at him with his hair messy from just waking up made that very difficult. “You so cannot get caught in here. They would kill both of us. And I’m too young to die.”

“Yeah, it would be kind of hard to date you if your parents killed you,” he teased. He threw the covers back and got out of bed. I quickly faced forward and could feel the blush spread across my cheeks as he pulled his jeans on, then walked to my side of the bed.

Wait. When did his jeans even come off? Did he consciously sleep over last night?

“I love you, my blushing beauty.” He kissed the top of my head, then walked over to my window, pausing to look back over at me before he climbed out. “Now hurry up and get ready. I can’t wait to see you today,” he shot me a wink and then he was gone.

Not ten seconds later my sister was bursting into my room, freaking out that I was still in bed. “OMG, Emma! I can’t believe you are still not up! You have less than ten minutes until we need to be walking out the door, and I am not leaving this room until you are ready. You clearly cannot get motivated to get up and moving on your own. What is with you today? This is so not like you to be running this late?”

“Sorry, Kenz,” I said smiling, “Just tired today I guess.” At this point, I really didn’t care about the big, sappy grin on my face or the fact that it took me longer than it should have to tear my gaze from the window and look at my sister.

She looked over and saw the window was still open. Her jaw dropped as she drug her gaze back over to mine, “Was Gabe here all night?”

“No. Guess I never shut the window last night. You know I can never get him to leave. Must have been so tired it slipped my mind.” My voice was way too cheery. Kenzie was definitely going to catch on if I didn’t start acting like the non-morning person that I really was.

“Uh, huh. Right.” She cocked one of her eyebrows up and gave me a look. “I seriously can’t believe you would do this to Jake. He is so perfect, and so cute, and clearly crazy about you.”

A little taken aback by my sister’s accusation, I kicked my legs out of the covers and started to get out of bed. How could she think I would ever cheat on Jake? On anyone for that matter? “I would never do anything to jeopardize what I have with Jake. I really like him. No, I’m in…” I paused as I slipped on my jeans from yesterday that were still on the floor, realizing that I was gushing.

“Oh my God, Emma. You love him. You’re in love with Jake!” she squealed. “And oh.” She glanced back over at the window, and I knew she knew. “You are so busted, Emma Crawford.”

“Please don’t tell mom,” I begged as I walked over to grab a t-shirt from my closet and slipped it on.

I was twisting my hair into a bun when my sister crossed her arms. “What’s in it for me?”

I looked over at her while I put the finishing touches on my hair. “Seriously? What about sister code, or I’ll owe you when you inevitably need my help?”

“Yeah, whatever. Just remember this the next time I need a favor.” She was all smiles, and I could tell she was enjoying every minute of this.

“Oh, I’ll remember this all right. You know, Kenz, sometimes you can be a real pain in the butt.” We both laughed, then I grabbed my flip-flops and we were out the door.

***

I was surprised when I saw Maya standing with Jake, Evan, and Gabe when I got to school. I thought that after yesterday, I was for sure going to have to track her down today. But there she was talking and laughing like everything was fine, doing what Maya does best, ignoring the problem and putting on a face to hide her true feelings. Yet this time everything was not fine, I was not fine with what went down yesterday. I was about to say something as I walked up, but Jake beat me to it.

“Morning, Blondie,” Jake greeted, pulling me into him with a shit eating grin on his face. “You look tired today. Not get much sleep last night?”

Gabe immediately took the defense. “Come on, man. I wasn’t even over there last night. So it wasn’t me keeping her up this time.”

“I believe you, bro,” Jake smiled as he slapped Gabe on the back, causing my eyes to go wide and me to turn a dark shade of red. One glance at me, and it only took a moment for realization to sweep over everyone. I was so embarrassed and irritated that Jake had just handled that the way he did. He made it seem like a lot more happened last night than it did.

Maya looked over at me with wide eyes, knowing all too well a group reveal is not how you want everyone to find out the details of your relationship. “Emma. Emergency bathroom meeting. Now.” She reached out for my arm, but I yanked it back.

Between sleep deprivation and everything that happened yesterday and just now, I snapped, “Are you kidding me? So we are friends again? Now that my life isn’t “oh so perfect”? News flash Maya; it doesn’t work that way.” In the back of my mind, I knew I should take a moment to stop and clear up any misconceptions, but I was on a roll.

Then I turned to Jake, “And seriously? So glad I could provide you with bragging rights. Looks like the joke’s on me this morning.” With that, I knew I had solidified what everyone was already thinking, but in the moment I didn’t care.

I didn’t bother looking at anyone else before turning and rushing off to Spanish class. Once I had I sunk down in a corner seat, I realized I forgot my book in my locker, but there was no way I was going back out to get it. Maya tried a few times to get my attention during class, but I ignored her. This time I was the one that needed a little space. Thankfully she seemed to understand that, or it just pissed her off, because she left me alone the rest of the day.

Jake texted me all morning, apologizing for how things went down and for being such a jerk. Right before lunch I told him to stop texting me and that I needed time to think. He texted back saying that he respected that and would be there whenever I was ready to talk.

I wasn’t really hungry at lunch but knew I would regret not eating later; so I went through a drive-through and ate it when I got back to the school parking lot. I had never eaten lunch by myself before; it kinda sucked, but I was way too embarrassed to face any of my friends.

Once I’d had time to cool off, I wasn’t sure what it was that made me freak out the way I did. All I knew is that I was embarrassed about the entire thing. And that I was mad at Jake for making it seem like we had done more than we had. And that if we had done more than just kiss, that he felt like he could announce it to the whole freakin’ group! And I was mad at Maya for acting like EVERYTHING was fine and then just assuming that I’d had sex with Jake – when I clearly haven’t – though that’s not what any of my friends currently think. Humph.

I managed to avoid everyone after lunch but had no idea how practice was going to go down. I was just so embarrassed about what happened earlier, mostly about how I acted. I contemplated telling coach I wasn’t feeling well and taking a sick day. I knew he would believe me, and that it would totally work because I never missed practice even when I was a little sick.

I had just convinced myself that’s what I was going to do – get through my last class and call coach after school – when I saw Jake standing by my locker. He looked like a mess. For a moment I felt bad for him, but then I remembered what he did this morning and brushed right past him.

“Emma, we need to talk.” His voice was strained. Again, I had a second where I wanted to make it all better, but the anger came back too quickly.

“Jake, I have nothing to say to you.” I didn’t even look at him as I reached out to open my locker. But he was quicker. His hand slammed next to mine, preventing me from opening it. OK, now I was really mad. “Move Jake. I need to get my book and get to class. I don’t want to be late.”

“You’re not going to class,” he said firmly.

I whipped around and shot him a look. “Excuse me? You do not get to start telling me what I can and cannot do, Jake.”

“We need to talk, Emma,” He repeated with the same firmness in his voice.

“You’re starting to cause a scene. Move and let me get my stuff so I can get to class.”

“We can do this here or we can go to my truck, but you are not doing anything else until you hear me out. I am not losing you over a misunderstanding.”

“Fine, I’ll manage without my book.” I turned and started to walk away.

“Why are you making this so difficult?” he grumbled loudly. Jake quickly closed the space between us, grabbed my bag and threw it over one shoulder, and me over the other. 

“Jake, you are being such a jerk. This is ridiculous. Put me down!” I attempted to free myself but my efforts were a lost cause. By this point, most of the hallway had stopped to look at us with shocked faces.

“Quiet down, Emma. You’re starting to cause a scene,” he mimicked, using my own words against me. Not wanting to gain any more attention than we already had, I gave up and rested my chin in my hands as he carried me out of the building.

When we finally made it out to his truck, he tossed my bag in the bed, opened the back door, and set me down on the seat. “Like I said, we need to talk.”

I smirked, “Like I said, I have nothing to say to you.” I crossed my arms and refused to make eye contact with him.

“Damn it, Emma. You are so stubborn. That’s one of the things I love about you. Do you hear me? I love you.” He took my cheeks in his hands and forced me to look at him. I didn’t say anything for a few seconds and neither did he. “I am so sorry about this morning, beautiful. I did not mean for things to happen the way they did. I’m such an ass. I don’t know what came over me, but I just needed Gabe to know that he was not the only one who could crawl through your window. And then you turned so, so red. And everyone just assumed…then you got all mad and stormed off, confirming what everyone was thinking.”

“Oh great. So this is all my fault now?” I steamed.

“No. No, of course not. It was a series of misfortunate events. But, Emma, I love you so much. I’ve been worried all day that I was going to lose you over this when I never meant for any of it to happen the way it did.” He lowered his hands to my knees and dropped his head.

I took a minute to think about everything that he said. I already knew things wouldn’t have gone down the way they did if I could have laughed it off and not freaked out. More importantly, after hearing him out, I believed him when he said he didn’t mean for any of it to happen the way it did. So because I was being freaking emotional, I have tortured the both of us all day.

“OK,” I finally said. He looked up at me with the saddest look on his face, which caused me to laugh. “I don’t think you meant for everything to happen the way it did.” His eyes got wider and a look of relief took over his face.

“I really didn’t, babe, and I am so sorry that it did.”

“Oh so it’s babe now?” He looked at me questioningly. “Apparently you like B’s. That’s cool, everyone has a thing.”

“Emma, what are you talking about?”

“Well first there was Blondie, and now apparently there’s babe,” I said matter-of-factly. “You know, I actually kind of like when you give me nicknames.”

He smiled that perfect smile of his. “Oh, I can think of a whole bunch of things to call you.” He slipped his hands around my waist. “Beautiful,” he said as he kissed my lips. “Sexy.” He peppered kisses across my jaw. “And my favorite, mine,” he whispered, placing a kiss on my neck and sending chills throughout my entire body.

“Yours huh?” I teased, although there was no denying it. My heart was his. I was his, and I knew that there was no going back.

“Yes, mine.” The possessiveness in his voice was causing my body to react, and this time I didn’t care. I reached out for him and circled my arms around his neck. “Today, tomorrow, and forever,” he whispered the last word so quietly that I couldn’t quite make it out, but before I could ask him what he said, he claimed my lips with his.