Paper Airplanes (30 page)

“
Good morning,” he mumbled, tightening his arms around me.

“Morning.”

“I’m glad last night wasn’t a dream. This is a nice way to wake up.”

“I have to agree,” I said, turning to face him. “Hi.”

He smiled, his expression sleepy and his eyes hooded. “Hi.”

I kissed him then, picking right back up where we left off the night before.
I might have caught him off-guard, but Jared started to wake up the more I pressed forward, his kisses becoming more urgent with each passing second. When he took charge and rolled us so I was beneath him, the feel of his weight and his masculine scent engulfing me made me want him more than I ever had before. My hands slid up his arms to feel the hard curves of his muscles beneath his t-shirt, and I cradled his hips between my thighs, pulling him closer, as he groaned into my mouth.

He dropped his head to my shoulder, his
warm breath panting against my skin. “Doing that is going to get you in trouble,” he cautioned.

“Who said that wasn’t my intention,” I told him as I w
rapped my legs around his waist, pulling him even closer. The hardness I felt there pressed back against me.

He lifted his head and looked at me. “Are you serious?”

I nodded as I curved my hands over his shoulders to his back where I splayed them wide, holding him against me. “Completely. I’ve never wanted anything more than you in this moment.”

“God, Cassie,” he breathed out, his voice raspy as he pressed against me, telling me he wanted exactly the same thing.

Then he dipped his head and kissed me again, slowly grinding against me, making me want so much more than what we were doing. I slowly snaked my hand between us so I was cupping him through his basketball shorts. Neither of us had bothered to change out of our clothes the night before, so I was still wearing my sundress, and he was dressed in what he’d been wearing when I came over.

He dropped his head to my shoulder again, his lips kissing a trail along my
bare shoulder to my collarbone to my chest. My whole body was on fire from his touch, his kisses and just his general closeness. I let my head fall back as he brought his lips back to mine, kissing me deeply as his hands slid up my sides and tugged the top of my strapless dress down, his mouth kissing me as he brought one hand up to cup my breast. The other raked down my side to the bottom of my dress and slid up my thigh. His fingers teased the edge of my panties before moving them aside, and then he was stroking me, evenly, methodically, making me moan from the concentrated pleasure in that one area mixed with what his other hand was doing. It was all sensations and heat as he continued to kiss me breathless.

“Get a condom,” I
breathed around his lips after his finger had dipped inside me and was driving me to the brink of insanity.

Last night we’d held off, held back and savored the simple fact of being together, but this morning, in the warm light of a new day, I wanted everything with him. I wanted to be his, to feel his solid naked body wrapped around mine, to feel connected to him in a way I’d never felt with anyone before, because although there would be a raw, animalistic feel to what we were doing, I knew nothing could compare to the feeling of having sex with someone I loved.

And I did love him. So much that it was scary at times, but I’d felt an unexplained connection to Jared Lansing since the day I’d met him. I hadn’t felt it years ago when I’d known him in high school, not at all. Back then he’d just been a boy I couldn’t have felt more different from. And I couldn’t chalk this change up to how he looked either, because even though so much about him had physically changed, there was something intrinsic that drew me to him like no one else in my life. And it had been there since the beginning.

I could tell he felt it too. When he looked at me, it was as if he was looking into me, like he knew me better th
an what six weeks of being friends had gotten us. We were connected in some way, and I couldn’t explain it. I wasn’t sure he could either.

Without a word, Jared reached for his nightstand drawer, opened it and then cursed before slamming it shut.
He rolled off of me and onto his back, glaring at the ceiling.

I looked over at him, his chest rising and falling rhythmically. “
What’s wrong? No condoms?”

He shook his head. “I gave them to
Austin last week.”

“Why would you do that?”

He looked over at me. “Because he’s seventeen, his girlfriend isn’t on the pill, and it’s only a matter of time before they seal the deal. I wasn’t taking any chances.”

“Well, that was nice of you. Sucks for us, but
it was probably a good idea.”

“It was the worst idea in the history of the world,” he said dramatically, making me laugh.

So I rolled over and hooked one of my legs between his, my body half-draped over his. I slid my hand up his thigh and into his shorts, massaging him slowly.

He looked over at me. “What are you doing?
Don’t do that.”

“
Relax. I’m improvising,” I said as I moved so I was straddling his legs. “Have you not been in this situation before?”

He looked up at me as I reached with both hands to pull his shorts and his boxers down. “Not that I can recall.”

I smiled. “There are many other alternatives to make you feel just as good,” I said as I slid back on his legs and then leaned forward and closed my mouth around him.

“Holy shit,” he said when I caught him by surprise, and he
practically shot off the bed.

I held his
hips in place, forcing him to stay still. And he did, finally, relaxing into the moment. After a several minutes I felt him start to writhe beneath me and knew he was close. I loved making him feel that way, so thrilling it was to feel him come apart like he was.

“Cassie,” he rasped out, and I looked up at him.
He met my gaze with a desperate expression. “Get off.”

I appreciated nothing more than a man who was considerate enough to let you know when he was about to come. Nothing worse than a surprise assault. And I wasn’t a big fan of swallowing anyway. So I pulled back, took him in my hand and finished
what I’d started, letting him spurt into my hand as he relaxed beneath me with a soft groan.

His eyes were closed, and his arm was thrown over his forehead. “
Holy shit, I was not expecting that.”

I
laughed. “You’re welcome,” I said as I leaned forward and kissed him.

He managed to kiss me back, but I could tell he needed a few minutes to recover. So I slid off the bed and went to wash my hand. When I came back, I snuggled next to him, and he wrapped me up in his arms.

“Just give me a minute. I want to return the favor,” he breathed out.

I smiled, the anticipation
of what he was offering making me quiver. But then there was a knock on his door that interrupted the moment. Jared just laid there, his eyes closed, his arm wrapped around me.

“Don’t you want to get that?” I asked him.

“No.”

The banging got more intense.

“I think you should see who’s at the door,” I told him.

Jared grumbled, but then he rolled out of bed and pulled his shorts up. I heard him padding into the living room, and a few seconds later the door was yanked open.

“What?” he asked whoever was on the other side. My guess was Scott. I waited to hear his cheerful voice, but instead I heard Austin’s voice.

“Do you have a girl here?” he asked, no doubt noticing my bag that I’d dropped when I’d walked in
the night before.

“Maybe. Don’t worry about it.”

“Nice,” Austin said. “I hope it’s Cassie. It’s about time you hooked up with her.”

I smiled at that. See, everyone knew we were supposed to be together.

“What do you want?” Jared asked him.

Austin
took a deep breath. “Diana’s worried because Scott didn’t come home last night. She figured he just crashed out here, but she asked me to check just in case, because he’s not answering his cell. I’m going to go out on a limb and assume he’s not here, unless you two had a threesome with Cassie, which although she’s hot, I’m not gonna lie, that would be pretty gross.”

“Hey!” I called out from the bedroom. “Not cool,
Austin.”

“Hi Cassie,” he yelled to me. “I wasn’t implying that you’re gross, but would you really hook up with Scott and my brother at the same time?”

“No, that’s gross,” I yelled back to him.

“See, told you,” he yelled back.

Yeah, I could see his point.

“Okay, seriously,” Jared interjected. “No one here is planning to invite Scott over for a threesome. He’s
not here.”

Jared was trying to act annoyed, but
I could hear the concern in his voice. It wasn’t like Scott to just disappear. It hit me then that I’d left him with Marley, and if he hadn’t come home, there was a good chance she hadn’t either. Or she’d ditched him. I was going to kill her if she did that.

I jumped out of bed,
yanking my dress up and down since it had basically been floating around my waist for the past half hour, and then walked into the living room to get my phone. I grabbed it out of my bag, saw that I had no missed calls and then dialed Marley. She didn’t answer, so I called again. Still no answer.

Grabbing my
bag, I turned to Jared. “I need to see if Marley came home last night. She was with Scott.”

“I’ll come with you,”
he said, opening the door and pushing past Austin who was still standing outside.

I followed him out and we trudged across the pool deck to the grass and around the side of the house.
He took my hand in his as we walk silently toward my house, both of us thinking along the same lines. What if something had happened to them?

I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw Scott’s Acura parked in my driveway. He must have crashed in the guest room, which was odd since if he was able to drive home, it didn’t make any sense that he’d stayed three houses down from his. I wasn’t sure what to think.

I wordlessly unlocked my front door and came face to face with my parents.

“Cassie?” my mom questioned,
taking in the scene in front of her.

Jared and I
were both rumpled from sleeping in our clothes and then spending the past hour making out. I hadn’t bothered if fix my hair before we’d left his house, so I was sure I looked like a complete mess. My mother’s gaze shifted to where Jared was still holding my hand.

“Hi Mom. Hi Dad. You remember Jared, right?”

“Yes. Hello, Jared. How are you?” my mom asked.

I’m not sure my dad knew what to say.

“Hi Mrs. Witter. Mr. Witter,” Jared said softly, his hand gripping mine tighter.

“Up early, Cass? O
r are you just getting home?” my dad finally asked, reading the situation way to well.

I swallowed as I felt a blush creeping up my face. I had no reason to feel guilty. I was twenty years old. But it didn’t matter. Getting caught by your parents doesn’t feel good at any age.

“I, uh, I stayed at Jared’s last night. It was late when I got off work, and we sort of fell asleep watching a movie.”

“Right,” my dad said, the skepticism clear in his eyes.

“Joel,” my mother hissed at him, and I felt my blush deepen. Next to me Jared was blushing just as hard.

“What? I can’t be upset that she stayed out all night with
a guy? I’m her father, Lynn.”

My mother rolled her eyes at me, and I smiled. Then she turned to my father. “
Remember that she’s been away at school for two years. Something tells me this isn’t the first time she’s stayed out all night with a boy.”

“Mom!”

I did not need Jared hearing that. Granted, he knew I’d dated other guys, but I wasn’t in the habit of sharing the intimate details of what I’d done with them with him. We’d only been together for eight hours.

My mom
turned back to me. “Well, it’s not the first time you stayed out all night, is it?”

“No, but I don’t want to talk about it,” I said
through gritted teeth, jerking my head subtly in Jared’s direction.

“Oh, right. Sorry,” she said as if just realizing that she shouldn’t have said that in front of him.

“Anyway, where are you two headed?” I asked brightly, changing the subject.

“The farmers
’ market,” my dad said. “And then we’re going to a movie. You kids want to come?”

I could only imagine the look of horror in Jared’s eyes at that suggestion, so I didn’t even look over at him.

“Aww, thanks for the invitation, but I think we’ll have to say no,” I told my dad. “You two have fun. We’re just going to go upstairs.”

As I said that
it looked like my father’s head might blow off of his body, but he didn’t say anything. I might have laughed if he told us to keep the door open.