Stupid Girl(86)

Brax found my lips with his and kissed me with a gentleness that belied the fury he’d grown up with, and he held my entire body with his; legs entwined. At last, he pressed his lips to my temple, kissing me tenderly, and then he looked down at me, and his eyes shined in a way I hadn’t noticed before. He said only one word, and that word made me shiver.

“Mine.”

He dragged his lips over mine and it was a possessive kiss, and I found I liked that. I breathed him in. “Mine, too,” I whispered.

Brax rolled off and pulled me with him, snugging my body tightly against his; he held me close within the muscles of his arms, and my cheek rested against his stone-like chest. I splayed my fingers over his stomach, tracing the defined cuts of muscle, the sharp V’s at his hips. As my eyes closed, and I reveled in his warmth, I decided then I could stay just like this for the rest of my life. Right here, in my bed, wrapped in nothing but Brax. On a contented sigh, I drifted off into a deep, fulfilled slumber.





My eyes fluttered open, and I blinked through the early morning gray haze of light filtering my room. Rain fell, a constant fall of dreary outside my window. A draft moved over me, and I glanced down at my bare shoulders. I was naked, beneath my sheets. Brax and I had made love. My hand reached for him but only found a cold, empty spot beside me.

I jolted up, clutching the sheet over my breasts as I scanned the shadowy corners of my silent dorm room. “Brax?”

No answer.

After quickly checking my cell phone and finding no missed calls or texts, my gaze fell on his duffle bag, sitting zipped against the far wall. Maybe he went out for breakfast? He hadn’t mentioned early baseball practice, and he knew Steven and I had traded shifts and I had off today. Like me, he usually went for a morning run. But in the rain? And wouldn’t he have awakened me? Something nagged at me, though, bit into me, deep down. Disappointment? That had to be it. I’d assumed I would wake up tangled in Brax’s strong arms and legs. Where had he gone?

Memories of our lovemaking crashed over me; I recalled every single touch, every single kiss, and how his lips caressed me. Details scorched into my brain for eternity. A smile turned my mouth up, and I rose, pulling the sheet with me and wrapping it around my body as I made my way to the shower. Maybe he went out for coffee, and I’d been in such a dreamy state of contentment I hadn’t heard him leave. Tilting my head back, the steamy water poured over my face, and I noticed a delicious burn between my thighs. Another smile tugged at me as I remembered what caused it. Lord, so that’s what the fuss was all about.

With my wet hair wrapped in a towel, I tugged on the jeans Brax had expertly flung to the floor, chose a clean tank top out of my drawer and pulled it over my head. Rubbing my wet hair vigorously in the towel, I let my unruly locks hang long and limp to air dry as I pulled my physics book out and laid on my stomach across my bed to study for the mammoth exam I had coming up on Monday. Time ticked by; my concentration was next to nothing. An hour. An hour and a half passed and no word from Brax.

Finding myself re-reading the same pages twice, three times, I flung the book aside and grabbed my cell phone. After trying to reason with myself about why not to sound pathetic and text Brax, I lost the battle and sent him a short message.

Me: Hey, Boston, you there?

I waited, staring at the tiny screen on my unfashionable old flip phone, but after fifteen minutes with no response from Brax, I decided that to sit around the dorm room would do nothing except allow my mind to wander. And wonder. So I gathered my physics book, my pack, and headed to the library to study. Wherever Brax was and whatever he was tied up doing, he’d surely text me when he finished. Meanwhile, I had to study. No choice.

The campus was as still as the air when I cut across the lawn and started toward the massive three story brick Winston library. I’d slipped on a long sleeved shirt that snapped down the front, along with a hoodie to keep away the light rain still falling. Not exactly chilly, but more so than usual, especially with the dampness. I couldn’t help but dart my gaze all over as I walked, looking for Brax. Where in the world was he? After the night we’d shared it seemed so unlike him to just … leave me alone. It was Saturday. Where could he have gone?

I reached the library and climbed the steps, and pushed into the cool interior, peeling off my hoodie as I did so. Smiling at one of the librarians I’d come to recognize as she busied herself behind the horseshoe entry desk, I hurried past her and made my way to a quiet back corner table in the astronomy section, where I hung my jacket on the back of a chair and sat alone. Fishing my text from my pack, I opened it up, took a deep breath, checked my phone. No message. I turned the volume off, leaving it on vibrate. No getting around it, Brax was heavy on my mind, and despite how whole he’d made me feel the night before, doubt began worming its way into my brain. I closed my eyes briefly, forcing out negative thoughts before they had a chance to latch on. I was being ridiculous. Something came up, he didn’t want to wake me, and he left quietly. Whatever had kept him, he’d been unable to use his phone. Could be any number of things, I reasoned. Physics, Beaumont. Big test coming up. With a frustrated silent swear at my new distraction, I dug into my studies.