Chapter Sixteen
After the talk with my brother, I returned to Aiden’s room.
“So, my brother found out about Jake and the party,” I said and tossed myself on the bed.
His eyes went wide. “I swear to God, I didn’t say a word.”
“No, I know. But you’ll be happy to know he has been suspended for the rest of the semester, you won’t have to worry about him on the field for now, at least.”
He grinned. “That also means I don’t have to worry about him ever coming near you again.” He crawled on top of me and pinned my wrists to the bed above my head. “I’ve been waiting all night to do this.”
The kiss started slow but quickly heated up when he slipped his tongue into my mouth, and it became a battle of the spit. His hands slid under my shirt and teased the hem of my bra before it was ripped over my head, my pants followed not long after.
His expert hands explored every inch of my body and lit every particle of skin ablaze until I was a sweaty hot mess against the sheets. I was panting like a dog and writhing like a snake, my legs locked up long ago as he pumped into me and brought me to blissful ecstasy over and over again.
I was on the highest star possible, and I wasn’t coming down until I burned out.
We had laid in bed and tried to catch our breath after several rounds of what might’ve been the best sex I had ever had, though I didn’t have many experiences to have it compared to.
“I still can’t believe this is happening,” Aiden mumbled.
I flipped over onto my stomach to look at him. “What do you mean?”
“Isn’t it obvious by now? I’ve tried pretty hard to hide my feelings for you, I denied them for years because I never thought it would happen between us. Your brother made it very clear from a very early time that I was to never harbour any feelings toward you other than that of an older brother. I broke that promise when I was 13 and you were 12, we went to your cottage for a couple of weeks in the summer and we spent one-night making sand castles together.”
I laughed when I thought of the memory. “That was when you started liking me?”
“I think it was more I realized I had already liked you, but we were just kids, I didn’t know what those feelings meant until that night. I realized how much I liked spending time with you, and that every time we parted I was anxious for the next time I got to see you, even if I knew that was the next day.”
My heart had begun to swell at his words, and I wanted to cut him off to kiss him for being so utterly adorable, but I also wanted to hear more.
“But I’m glad I didn’t say anything back then. It might have been torturing these past years, I was always scared you’d find the man of your dreams and it wouldn’t be me, then I’d have to watch you both run off into the sunset,” he chuckled, but there was no humour in his tone. “I don’t think it would have worked out if we tried dating at that age.”
“I don’t think it would’ve either, we were too young and naïve. Hell, I’m still pretty naïve myself, but the reason I lack experience and never dated anyone before was because I always held out hope that you would confess to me one day.”
“Did you know I liked you?”
I shook my head. “I was an ignorant little girl with a crush, it’s what we do. We fantasize that our crush secretly likes us back and we sit in seclusion until that day, which for most never comes. But I guess fate is being nice to me after all the bullshit I’ve gone through,” I giggled and hugged his waist.
He ran a soothing hand through my messy hair, and I could feel something was wrong before he said anything.
“We never really talked about how you felt after that night,” he said.
“It’s okay, I don’t really feel much except resentment toward Jake and what he did. My brother and I spoke about it briefly before I came up here, and I told him that if you weren’t there to rescue me before anything happened, it might have turned out a lot worse, but it didn’t.”
He smiled and dropped the conversation, satisfied with that response, and most likely felt that it was a topic that was over and done with. He slid down and kissed me on the head, then wrapped me in his arms and turned over.
“Sweet dreams, Ry.”
~*~
I managed to sneak out before anyone was awake the next day and returned to the dorms to crack down on the assignments that I neglected all Saturday. Isabelle was out for most of the day which gave me the perfect chance to zone in and get shit done.
I wanted to text Aiden to meet up, but we had to lay low a little, so no one caught on to how much more we had been hanging out. Sure, we were best friends, but it was obvious he was much closer to Avery, and I was just the third-wheel little sister.
“Ugh, this sucks,” I groaned. I flopped over onto my textbook and took out my phone to scroll through social media but was interrupted when there was a knock at the door.
I opened it and saw the twins to my surprise. “Hey guys, what’s up?”
“Mind if we come in?”
“We have something we wanted to talk about?”
I looked back and forth between them. “Uh, yeah sure.”
They walked in and I pulled up my desk chair while they sat on my bed.
“So, first we wanted to say we really didn’t invite Leah to bowling that night,” Kendra said.
“Yeah, we felt really bad that she came in and ruined your vibe with Aiden,” Kinsley added.
I felt the blood drain from my face. “Wh-what do you mean? I wasn’t vibing with Aiden, he’s my best friend.”
Kendra rolled her eyes. “Oh, please. We aren’t blind.”
“We practically share the same brain, and we’ve both concluded –”
“You like Aiden,” they chimed together.
Of all the people to figure out my one secret, it had to be the two biggest gossipers in the school. Oh, lucky me.