I pull Melody’s hair away from her face before tracking my index finger down her cheek. Her tears have dried, but the river cascade they careened down her cheeks is still noticeable.
With my lips pressed against her temple, I say, “Wake up, Melody. We need to get you home before your dad sends out a search party.”
She can’t hear the words I speak, but she can feel their vibrations against her skin. We discovered just how sensual that is for her in the wee hours of this morning when I growled her name into her pussy. It sent her freefalling into ecstasy in an instant.
It works just as well this time around. I’ve barely hummed her name for the second time when her eyes pop open. She drags them across my room, no longer holding our shirts we dumped on the floor last night before locking them on the window. “Shit! What time is it?”
While she slips out of my bed, grimacing through the touch of pain I’m sure most woman experience after losing their virginity, I shake my head. “I don’t know. My cell battery died at the hospital, and for some reason, I forgot to charge it.”
The morning wood I mentioned earlier throbs when she grazes her teeth over her kiss-swollen lips to hide her smile. Her response exposes the groove between her brow isn’t there because she’s regretting what we did earlier this morning. She’s panicked about her father’s reaction to her being out all night.
I’m freaked as well. So much so, I’m tempted to check my driver’s license before walking Melody home to ensure my organ donor registration is up to date. If Mr. Gregg kills me, which is a very high possibility, the least I can do is make sure Joey gets a new heart.
As Melody tugs her riding pants up her legs, her brows cinch more. “Did you clean your room while I slept?”
“No. Why?” I join her in glancing around my room. Now that she’s mentioned it, the shirts we left discarded on the floor are neatly folded on my desk, and the bin I placed the two used condoms in has been emptied. “Oh shit.”
“Your mom was in here.” Melody’s head flops back so she can peer at the ceiling. “How? You barricaded your door with a chair…”
I stop watching her sign when the flush of a toilet sounds through my ears. I completely forgot about the Jack and Jill bathroom attached to my room because Joey’s room is on the other side, and he’s in the hospital.
Melody’s wide eyes snap to mine when the heavy stomp of a pair of boots vibrates from outside my room. Like many other deaf people, her sense of touch and awareness of those surrounding her is greatly heightened, which means she knows as well as me that there’s only one person in these parts getting around in boots.
After signing for her to remain calm, I scamper off my bed and race to my door. Melody’s eyes bulge when she takes in my erect cock. Even with the possibility the boot-stomper is her dad, I’m sporting a boner. I could’ve thrown on some pants, but my family ranch was built many moons ago, so it has those old skeleton key locks that make perfect peepholes when you need to snoop.
A relieved sigh rolls up my windpipe when I spot Phoenix making his way down the stairs. Mom would’ve placed him in Joey’s room as the loft, which was once his room, is being converted into a campaign office for my dad. It’s full of corny posters of my dad smiling his slick, wonky-ass grin. That’s the only feature I got from him—my wonky smile. It frustrated me when I was younger, but as I got older, I realized it could’ve been a lot worse. I could have been handed his personality.
“It is Phoenix.”
Melody looks relieved for all of two seconds before her panic returns. “I doubt Phoenix would have gathered the laundry from your room.” I smile when she flops onto my bed with a groan before dragging her boots over from the dresser. When she spots my grin, she signs, “Why are you smiling, BJ? Your mom is going to hate me.”
I brush off her worry with a wave of my hand. “Why would she hate you? She loves you.”
“She won’t when she discovers I popped her son’s cherry.” Her eyes pop out of her head. “Twice.”
I realize cockiness is contagious when my chest puffs high at her remark. Yesterday we were best friends precariously tiptoeing toward possible lovers. Today we’re best friends who are lovers.
When Melody continues to fret, I join her next to my bed. “Seriously, my mom is the least of our problems.”
“Don’t remind me.” She finishes doing up her laces before standing from the bed. “I don’t think you should walk me home today, BJ. If it is late enough for Phoenix to be awake, Dad would have awoken hours ago.”
“We need to tell him about us. He won’t be happy if we keep this a secret from him.” And neither will I. I waited years for this, so the last thing I want is to pretend it never happened.
“I will, just not the morning… you know…” she thrusts her hand between us as her cheeks redden like beetroots, “… we did stuff.”
I’m an ass for smiling, but I can’t help it. Usually, I’m the blusher in our duo, so I love that we’ve switched things up again for the second time in less than twenty-four hours.
“So, you will tell him about us?”
Melody nods without pause for thought. “Yes, of course, I will. I would just rather this cool down first.” She swivels her hand around her flushed face and loved-up eyes.
“Okay. I am fine with that.” The gleam in her eyes doubles when I use her shirt to tug her closer to me. “But can I kiss you before you leave? I don’t think I can wait another ten years to do it again.”
Melody slaps my chest as her mouth falls open. “You better not make me wait another ten years. That was pure torture.”
“I tried to lessen the gap.” She slants her head, more in confusion than to ensure the aligning of our mouths doesn’t render her incapable of reading my lips. “Do you remember the time we were hiding out in the barn for one of the nighttime drills?”
After a few seconds of deliberation, she nods. “When we bumped heads?” When I raise my chin, she asks, “How old were we then? Thirteen?”
