grady
. . .
18 Years Old
Cleo’s handwas warm in mine as she led me through the house and back out into the humid summer night. It hadn’t been hard to slip away from the party, not as our parents laughed and drank and ate, reminiscing about the good old days and bickering about the best bands of the eighties.
“Where are you taking me?” I asked. Cleo didn’t answer, but she giggled as I pulled her back into my arms as we stopped near my truck. “It would be awfully rude of you to break things off now that I’ve made your family fall in love with me.”
Cleo rolled her eyes. “They already loved you.”
“I don’t know. I think your dad still had reservations, but after that performance? I don’t know, I think I sealed the deal.”
“Oh, you do, do you?”
“Mmhm,” I nodded, placing my hand along her stomach and pushing her up against the side of my truck. Her eyes darted between us as I stepped closer, leaning in until our lips were only an inch apart. “You’ll never be able to get rid of me now.”
“What if that was part of my plan, anyway?” Her voice was so small, so casually cruel to herself that it almost broke myheart. She tried to laugh, to make it seem like she was joking, but I knew better. “What if I did it so you won’t leave me?”
Cleo had come a long way from the unsure, shy, bumbling sixteen-year-old girl she was when we first started dating, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t still dancing with demons I never understood. I could see them sometimes. I didn’t even think she realized she was mentally detaching sometimes until it happened. It was hard to watch her become a shell of her former self, but I did my best to show up and reassure her I wasn’t going anywhere.
“Oh, bluebird… I could never leave you. You’re stuck with me. Don’t you see that?” I set the guitar down at her feet and cupped her face. Her eyes matched the night sky, sparkling with hope and barely contained nerves. “I’d give you anything you asked for—anything you needed—to get that through your head.”
“Anything?”
I nodded. “I mean, I may not be able to hand over a million dollars right now—” she smacked my chest lightly “—but if you give me a few years, I could probably get it.”
I’d save up every penny I ever made if she asked me to.
She bit down on her lip. “What if I didn’t want to wait anymore?” I blinked, staring down at her perfect face in the pale moonlight. She looked like an angel. She looked like mine. “What if I wanted to give you the last piece of myself that I?—”
I kissed her, tentatively at first, but it didn’t take long for her hesitancy to bleed away to urgency like always. It seemed to be one of the few times Cleo didn’t get lost in her head. She let her body act on what her mind would never let her. The anxiety was gone, and in its place was a quiet sort of confidence that only got me hotter.
“Is that a yes?” she asked a little breathlessly.
“That’s a hell yes,” I told her, maybe a little too eagerly.
Cleo chuckled, intertwining our fingers as she brought herhand up to kiss each knuckle gently. “Then you better put that guitar up and follow me.”
I didn’t need to be told twice. Hell, I wouldn’t have even needed to be told once if we’d already crossed that line before. “Oh, yes, ma’am.”
I did as she told me, quickly setting my case on the backseat of my truck. And then, just because I could, I shut the door and scooped her into my arms. She shrieked as I hoisted her over my shoulder and smacked her ass. “Where are we going, bluebird? Tell me right now.”
“Someone’s eager,” she murmured.
I was an eighteen-year-old kid. Of course, I was fucking eager. I’d spent more nights than I could count taking care of myself because her kisses and soft touches left me wanting more after I left. And sure, we’d done other stuff, but it never satiated that need for her. If anything, it only spurred me on.
“Cleo,” I warned, letting my hands travel up the length of her thigh. Somewhere along the way, I’d forgotten just how short her little dress was. It wasn’t long until I was grazing the soft cotton of her underwear. “Two can play the teasing game.”
I ran my finger along the seam, enjoying the way her body reacted. She sucked in a sharp breath, clutching at my shirt as I made my way toward the back of the truck. I didn’t think anyone would come out to look for us, but it was better to be safe than sorry.
“The treehouse,” she gasped as my hand slid between her thighs. “Right now.”
I turned my head, pressing a kiss on her hip. “Someone’s eager.”
“Now I know how it feels,” she murmured.
We made it to the treehouse in record time. Honestly, I was shocked I hadn’t tripped and taken us both down to the dirt. Even if we had, I didn’t know if that would’ve stopped us. I’d kept my hand where it had been before, fingers splayed againstthe smooth expanse of skin. Something Cleo was all too aware of as she tried squeezing her legs together and squirming for just a hint of friction to relieve her ache.
