Relentless(29)

He smiles as he slips his arm around my waist and pulls me closer. I swallow hard as his erection jabs my thigh through his boxers.

Oh, God.

He leans in to kiss me and, as soon as his lips touch mine, my body relaxes into him. I slide my arms around his neck as he rolls me onto my back. He pushes my legs open with his knee as his fingers skates up my side. His tongue flirts with mine and my nipples perk up beneath the fabric of my bra. He grinds against me as his hand cups my breast and I know this is it. We’re going to have sex.

He slips his hand underneath me and pulls his head back when his fingers find the hook on my bra. “Is this okay?” he asks.

My heart is pounding, but the need throbbing between my legs is more intense.

“I want this,” I say with a nod. “I want you.”

He unhooks my bra and watches as I slide the straps down. I toss it over the edge of the bed and he gazes at me with a deep sense of wonderment and longing in his eyes. He lays a soft trail of kisses from my sternum to my breast and I let out a small gasp as he takes my nipple into his mouth.

His fingers move lightly over my belly to my hip. He grasps the waist of my panties and looks up at me, his eyes questioning if he can remove these, too. I nod and lift my hips so he can slip them off. He takes off his boxers and he supports his weight on his elbows as he kisses me slowly. His lips graze my jaw as he moves to my neck then down to my breast again. He keeps going until his head is between my legs.

He looks up at me, a smile in his eyes, then his mouth is on me. His tongue swirls around my swollen clit and, it’s been so long, it doesn’t take much. I come quick and probably too loudly. His body slides over mine as he slinks up and kisses my forehead. He smiles as he slips a condom out of his nightstand and rips it open with his teeth.

I can’t breathe.

The nurse wheels me out of the hospital room and, after what I’ve just been through, I’m surprised I have enough energy to be frightened by the sight of the person standing ten feet ahead of me next to the nurses’ station. Joanie Tipton hands the nurse behind the desk a piece of paper then turns toward me.

Senia steps in front of the wheelchair to block me from Joanie’s view, but it’s too late. Joanie has already seen me. And by the shit-eating grin on her face, she knows exactly why I’m here.

Of all the people in the world, Joanie is the last person I want to see here. She’s had it out for me since our senior year in high school when Chris and I were broken up for three weeks and he still rejected her invitation to the prom. She showed up at the Knights’ house the day before he left in July to wish him well. Chris and I were just getting ready to leave to celebrate my birthday a month early. Later that night, I used Joanie as an example of all the groupies Chris would have access to on tour. I told him we should break up so he could get all that stuff out of his system. I didn’t think I could handle finding out he’d faltered while we were still together.

Joanie doesn’t know I used her crush on Chris as an example of why we should break up, but as she stands there smiling at me I know she will move mountains to tell him she saw me here today.

I’m not in the right state of mind to deal with Joanie. My chest muscles ache from three days of uncontrollable sobbing and I’m woozy from the mild sedative I was given twenty minutes ago. As she approaches us on her way down the corridor, the panic builds inside me, but it manifests only in tears.

“What the fuck are you staring at?” Senia snarls at her, and Joanie’s smile vanishes just as she disappears somewhere behind the wheelchair.

The nurse continues to push my wheelchair forward, but everything moves in slow motion compared to my racing heartbeat. She’s going to tell Chris everything and this time I’ll lose him forever.

“Claire.”

Adam’s voice shakes the memory loose and I open my eyes to find him sitting next to me instead of lying on top of me. Cool tears stream down my temples and into my hair. I quickly wiped them away before I sit up and curl my legs into my chest.

“What happened?” I ask as I stare at the foot of the bed to avoid looking at him.

I don’t want to see the expression on his face. I don’t want to see just how crazy he thinks I am.

“Nothing. You squeezed your eyes shut and started crying. Nothing happened. I swear.”

I feel exposed, emotionally and physically. I want to gather my clothes and get out of here, but I’m too afraid to move.

“Do you want to tell me what happened?”

I shake my head as I straighten my legs out in front of me and pull the sheet up to my chest to cover myself. “You think you want to know what happened—what made me drop out—but you don’t understand that if I tell you you’ll want nothing more to do with me.”