Second Opinion (19 page)

CHAPTER 17

SIX YEARS BEFORE THAT

I wanted to tell her how I felt, but I wasn’t sure how.

I had been officially friend-zoned.

But she had to know how I really felt. She had to have some clue I wanted more than just friendship with her. I flirted with her constantly. We talked multiple times each day.

And now that we were back in school, we had the advantage of seeing each other every single day again.

I have my good friend the Captain to thank for finally getting up the nerve to kiss her for the first time. And by the “Captain,” of course, I was referring to Captain Morgan.

I’d gotten stupid drunk on rum, and she was pretty tipsy herself. I wasn’t so drunk I didn’t know what I was doing or saying, but definitely drunk enough to make confessions a sober conscience would avoid.

It was a few days before Thanksgiving break. We still had classes that would be pointless because so many students left early to go home for the holiday, and I’d convinced Rachelle to hang out in my room. My roommate had already gone home, and campus was relatively quiet. We both realized we’d had too much to drink when I challenged her to a game of
Super Smash Bros
and neither of us could focus on the screen.

We’d pulled up two chairs in front of my couch to get closer to the television screen.

Instead, we laughed at our attempts to play, and she threw down her controller, stood behind me, and covered my eyes. “I’ll bet you twenty bucks you can play better blind than looking at the screen,” she challenged.

“I’d be a fucking moron to turn down twenty bucks. I guarantee I can play better looking at the screen.”

She laughed so hard that she fell backwards onto the couch.

“For a smart girl, that was a pretty dumb bet.”

Her laughing became the hysterical kind where she was shrieking and gasping for breath as she sprawled out on my couch. I tossed my controller beside me, abandoning the game, and I knelt next to her.

“I’ll bet you I can beat you if we
both
cover our eyes, though. Just to even the playing field.”

“Okay, I’m in,” she said, finally calming down enough to take a deep breath. A huge grin was plastered to her face still. “What’s the wager?”

“If I win, I get to kiss you.”

Her smile faded and her eyes widened.

“To… kiss me?”

I nodded.

“Like
kiss
kiss?”

“What are you, twelve? Yes. I’m going to stick my tongue down your throat.”

“You want to kiss me?” she asked.

“Rachelle. How can you not know this?”

She looked genuinely confused, and even through my drunken state, I watched the understanding dawn on her face. She went from looking confused to looking like she wanted me to kiss the fuck out of her.

“If you want to kiss me, Grant, just kiss me. I don’t need some stupid bet for that.”

“You don’t?”

She shook her head slowly, all traces of the hysterics from moments before now gone. She sat up on the couch, and we just stared at each other for a minute.

I was about to kiss the girl I’d fallen in love with. I’d been scared to do anything about it for the past year, but I didn’t want to wait anymore. I wanted to kiss her, and I wanted her to know what I felt for her. We wouldn’t need words because everything would be revealed in my actions.

I moved in so I was kneeling between her legs. I slid my hands up her thighs, and her breath hitched. I felt her legs squeeze around me, like she was hugging me with her knees.

I leaned in slowly because I wanted our first kiss to be gentle.

It was anything but.

She grabbed the back of my head with her hands, and our lips collided with passion. Every kiss to follow would model the first.

Every time I’d kissed a girl for the first time, tongues had been tentative and slow. This was not the case with Rachelle.

Her tongue explored my mouth like she was an archaeologist on an expedition to find a rare fossil. She sucked my tongue into her mouth, her own tongue swirling against mine. I felt all of the blood in my body rush right to my dick as I thought about what other talents her tongue might possess.

I slid my hands further up her thighs. She was wearing shorts, and I slid my hand under the material until I caught the edge of her panties. She moaned into my mouth, a green light for me to move forward, so I did.

Our kiss became somehow more intense. She shoved her breasts toward me as I fingered the material separating her pussy from my hands. I needed that thin piece of material out of my way so I could ravage the woman I’d wanted since the day our eyes had first met in COM105.

Because this was a
woman
. The others I had kissed in my life had been
girls
. But the way Rachelle kissed me put her into a new category. She knew what she was doing; she may have only been two years older than me, but she was worldly. She knew what she wanted, and she wasn’t afraid to take it, but maybe I’d been the exception to that rule. Based on the way she was kissing me, our attraction had been mutual. But if she’d wanted me the whole time as much as I’d wanted her, I couldn’t help but wonder why this hadn’t happened sooner.

Then her fingertips brushed against my cock, and all coherent thought left my brain.

Because when a girl’s hands were on my cock, nothing short of a life-threatening emergency mattered. Even emergencies were up for debate.

Another moan escaped her throat when she felt how fucking hard she made me. I pulled back from our kiss and grinned. I couldn’t help it. Everything about the moment was perfection.

And then it just got better. She took the moment to rip her shirt off over her head and toss it to the ground, and then she removed her bra.

Two gorgeous breasts stared me in the face. I was eye level with her nipples. They were pink and plush and beautiful.

If I’d imagined her naked body a million times, not once did I get it right. Not once.

Because she was perfect.

Completely, absolutely, totally fucking perfect.

I dove in head first, because what else is a nineteen-year-old faced with perfection supposed to do?

I wanted to motorboat that shit, but I held back. Instead, I kissed one breast as I fondled the other. “Suck it,” she said, and somehow our innocent kiss had turned into much more than I’d expected.

I did as she commanded. She shoved her breast further into my mouth. “Harder,” she commanded. Harder I gave.

“Lightly with your teeth,” she said, and I did as I was told.

I was rewarded with a carnal hum that rumbled low in her chest.

I liked being told what to do, but more than that, I liked pleasing Rachelle. And I wanted to please her by sticking my cock in her.

It was all I’d wanted for a year.

I’d hooked up with a few other girls when I realized Rachelle would never feel the same way about me, but she’d always been the one on my mind. It hadn’t been fair to the rest of them, but it couldn’t be helped. Rachelle was always on my mind,
always
, and I knew I’d never find another girl who competed in the same league as the woman I was about to fuck.

I shifted us suddenly, and Rachelle was positioned beneath me on the couch. I hovered over her, balancing my weight on one arm as my other hand trailed a path across her torso. We were still separated by far too many clothes.

I thrust my hips toward hers, and she stretched her neck back on another one of those long, low moans. That noise out of that mouth sent a bullet of hunger through me.

Our kiss slowed. Her fingertips cradled my face, her touch light against my scruff.

I opened my eyes for just a second because I needed to see her face. Her eyes were closed, but the look of pure ecstasy as we kissed was nearly enough to cause me to lose it.

I loved her.

I loved her with a strength I didn’t know I had.

I loved her so much I physically felt every little piece of it, and the one second glance would be forever etched into my memory as the most content, beautiful moment I’d ever experienced in my life.

I pushed up off of her and worked the button on her shorts. She lifted her ass so I could pull them down her legs. I pulled her panties with them, because let’s face it, they’d just be in my way, and then I got rid of my own jeans and boxers. I grabbed a condom out of my desk drawer (because where else does a college student keep them?) and tore it open. I rolled it on, and I felt her eyes on me as I grabbed my cock in my own hand. I glanced up and locked eyes with hers.

I watched the unbridled lust cross her features as we stared at each other for a few beats. I had wanted this moment, dreamed of it more times than I could count, and now that I was in it, it all felt like a dream. I almost wasn’t even sure what to do.

Almost.

And then we attacked each other like the horny animals we were. She let me take the lead, and I hovered over her and plunged my cock right into her. “Jesus Christ,” I growled as I felt her tight pussy pull me all the way in for the very first time.

“Oh fuck, Grant,” she murmured, her voice a soft plea.

And then I started moving. I thrust slowly into her, confident drive after powerful drive. I watched as her tits bounced and her face contorted in pleasure.

I couldn’t hold on long. Not when I’d waited so fucking long for this. It was going to be quick, but I didn’t want her to see me as a three-pump-chump, so I held on as long as I could.

But the pleasure. Oh God, the pleasure.

It was like nothing else I’d ever experienced. I’d had a decent amount of sex for a guy my age, but this wasn’t normal sex. This was every single secret feeling I’d hidden away from the girl who had become my best friend poured into the intimacy we were sharing.

Her moans started getting louder and louder as I felt her fingernails scrape down the skin of my back. I kept up the pace as I powered slowly and lovingly into her, and it was exactly what we’d both wanted. What we’d both needed.

She clenched around me first, and that was my signal. It was also the exact moment when I lost total control. She screamed out as I grunted my release, and I felt her clenching around me over and over and over, going on and on forever. I emptied myself into her as her body shuddered beneath me. I watched her as every ounce of pleasure played across her gorgeous face, and finally she slowed and her eyes opened.

“Holy fuck, Grant,” she whispered.

I couldn’t hold myself up any longer. I collapsed onto her chest, still connected to her, and she stroked her nails lightly down my back.

“I love you, Rachelle,” I said quietly. “I think I’ve always loved you.”

I couldn’t help it. The words were out before I could stop them.

She was quiet. I didn’t need a response, but I sure as fuck wanted one. I lifted myself up to look at her. Her eyes were glistening with unshed tears, and I stroked her cheek with my knuckles.

“I love you, too,” she finally whispered, and then I kissed her. This kiss was different. The intensity and the passion were still there, but this kiss was about all of the emotions we’d been feeling but had been too scared to share.

We just lay silently for a long time, both of us lost in the emotions and the moment. I finally pulled out of her and pushed myself up off of the couch.

She sat up, and I passed over her clothes as I started putting my own back on.

“Is this what we’re doing now?” she asked.

I shrugged, and then I grinned. “I know I’d like to do that again.”

“Promise me one thing,” she said. I’d promise her the moon if she asked for it.

“What?”

“Promise me this doesn’t change anything.” Her eyes were desperate, her tone begging.

I knelt between her legs again, just like I’d done before we’d had sex. “You’re my best friend, Rachelle,” I said. “Of course this is going to change things. Now you know how I’ve felt since the day I met you, and that means something.”

She nodded. “Promise me however this goes, we’ll always be friends.”

I smiled. “Now that’s a promise I can make.” I pressed my lips to hers, and I couldn’t help but feel like the luckiest man in the world.

CHAPTER 18

PRESENT TIME

I stared out my windshield. I hadn’t moved from my space in Avery’s lot as the memories of Rachelle washed over me like a warm blanket.

Maybe a warm, wool blanket. The rough, scratchy kind that still somehow reminds you of home and childhood and comfort even as it prickles against your skin.

A smattering of rain hit my windshield.

It was just enough to fuck up the gleaming shine I strived for on my brand new car, something that normally annoyed me.

But on this night, I couldn’t help but think of the irony.

It never rained in Arizona. The valley of the sun wasn’t called that because of the average number of days it rained.

But Rachelle and I had a history with rain. 

We’d had our highs, and we’d certainly had our lows.

I finally started the car as I thought back to one of our roughest lows. While it had been difficult at the time—more so for her than for me—it was one of the events that had brought us the closest together.

Everything supposedly happens for a reason, and the clarity of the events that made up our past was striking to me even at the time.

The reason it happened was to bond our relationship, to help us see we were meant to be together. Because when couples help each other through the darkest times in their lives, that’s when true love—forever love—forms.

Well, that’s what I’d always thought.

I ran my windshield wipers as I wondered what the hell I was going to do.

On the one hand, I wanted to see her. I wanted to hear what she had to say to me. I wanted the apology I deserved.

But on the other hand, I was just starting something brand new with Avery. I couldn’t allow my past to step in and ruin it, but I wasn’t sure if I had the strength, the inclination, or the willpower to stop it.

I backed out of my space and headed toward home. I knew I was leaving a bewildered Avery behind, and my phone dinged with a new text. So now I had one text from my past and one from my present, both wanting answers from me.

I didn’t have to read Avery’s to know she’d either be pissed or worried. I’d left her hanging. We were going to have a fun night together, a night she was in charge of, and I’d bailed. She’d been cracking open a beer for me, and I had just yelled to her, “Avery, I need to go.”

I hadn’t waited for a response.

I needed to just drive. I needed to block out everything. It was one of those rare moments when I wished desperately that I lived somewhere other than the desert of Arizona. I needed a beach. I needed some water. I needed to run or swim or do something to clear my mind.

Because I wasn’t just running away from Avery. I was running straight toward my past, and I couldn’t think of anything more dangerous than that.