Chapter 25
Ace
I jog up the steps and press the button to the doorbell. I look around to make sure that her sisters are gone. I hear her footsteps coming closer to the door, and my heart speeds up even more. I look down to tell myself that it's fine being here. We are best friends, I remind myself. "What did you forget?" she asks when she pulls the door open, and I look up at her, and all she can do is smile, which makes me smile. "Ace." The pain that I had in my chest is gone with one look at her. "What are you doing here?" she asks, and I wait for her to move aside so I can go in.
"I was waiting for your sisters to leave," I tell her so she knows I've been here a while. The minute I pulled up to my house, I turned right back around and headed for her. I had no other plan but to talk to her.
"Well, they just left," she says finally and moves away and I step in.
"I know. I was waiting down the block for them to leave," I reply, and she looks over at me, her eyes opening wide. "I felt like I was on a stakeout." I laugh awkwardly as she walks to the kitchen, and I follow her. I've been here so many times, but this time, it feels like I'm in uncharted territory, and maybe I am. I stand in front of the island while she goes to the fridge. "Listen," I say when she opens the fridge and grabs me a water bottle. "Sorry, that came out a lot harsher than I wanted it to." She hands me the bottle of water, and I grab it but put it on the counter. "I know that we said that what happens on the island stays on the island."
"But," she cuts in, coming around to my side of the counter.
I think of how to say the next part so I don’t scare her away, but instead, all that comes out of my mouth is, "I'm still on island time."
She smirks at me, coming even closer to me. "Is that so?" This right here is the Shelby that I want. Not the Shelby who was quiet and scared to say anything. I want the Shelby who isn't shy around me. I want the Shelby who comes up to me and kisses me just because she wants to.
My hands come up to push the hair away from her face, tucking it behind her ears. "That is so." My heart speeds up, and it feels like it's going to come out of my chest.
"Isn't that a coincidence." She tilts her head to the side and looks up at me. She literally takes my breath away. "So am I."
That’s the last thing she says before I slam my mouth down on hers. It's been about two hours since the last time I kissed her, but it feels like an eternity. I wrap my arms around her waist and pick her up. Her legs wrap around my waist, and she wraps her arms around my neck, and instead of walking to the bedroom, I just put her ass on the counter. Her hands are on my shirt, pulling it up, while I leave her lips to kiss down her neck. Our hands fly everywhere in order to get us naked. Her shirt is almost ripped off her, while her hands are on the button of my pants. My cock is dying to get out and into her, my mouth salivating to taste her even for a minute.
"Condom," she pants, and I stop moving.
"I don't have any," I state, and she just looks at me. "Why the fuck would I have condoms?"
"Don't you carry them in your wallet?" She glares at me, and I'm glaring back at her.
"Why the fuck would I carry them in my wallet?" I ask her. My cock cries out at the thought of not being inside her.
"You're a guy," she says, and I just stare at her. "Why aren't you ready for any situation?"
"Because," I say, stepping away from her. "I'm an adult, and I don't do random hookups."
"Hmm," she says, looking at me. "Interesting."
"Why is that interesting?" I ask her. "You've known me forever. How many times have I banged someone in the bathroom?"
"Never," she confirms in almost a whisper. "Oh, I think I have condoms," she says, clapping her hands and getting off the counter to run to her bathroom. I watch her run up the stairs, and all I can hear is, "Motherfucker." Then she comes down the stairs. "My mother threw them out." I try not to laugh, but I can't help it. "It's not funny. She went through the house and threw out everything she thought was Joseph’s." She holds up her finger and runs for her phone. "We can order them."
"We are not ordering condoms, Shelby." I put my hands on my hips. "I can run out and buy them." I reach for my shirt, and she cocks her hip.
"I'm on birth control," she says, and I stop moving. "And, well, Joseph always used one because he didn't want to take a chance of me getting pregnant." She looks down at her hands. "I mean, I guess I should thank him for that.”
“Not a fan of talking about Joseph when you’re naked,” I grumble between clenched teeth. “I mean, I know you two had sex, but I don't want to talk about it."
"What about you?" She looks at me, and I roll my eyes.
"Think about that question again," I tell her, and she just stares at me. "It would be irresponsible."
"Right." She walks to me and gets on her tippy-toes, kissing under my chin. "I mean, there are lots of things we can do without a condom." Her tongue comes out, licking down my neck, and then stops. "Oh my God," she says, turning around and running to the front door. She throws her luggage down and unzips it.
"What in the world are you doing?" I look at her as she starts to throw things out of her luggage.
"I was picking up my stuff," she huffs, getting her toiletry bag. "And I picked up . . ." She zips open her bag and pulls out the sleeve of condoms. She throws her hands up in the air like she just made a touchdown. "These and was too lazy to take them out." She gets up. "Now, where were we." I can't help but laugh at her. "I think . . ." She walks back to the counter and gets on it. "You were right here." She motions to the middle of her legs. "And you were going to slide one of these on." She holds up the condoms in her hand. "And fuck the shit out of me."
"Shelby." I say her name. "You are the only one who can make me laugh and get me hard all at the same time," I declare, walking to her. I grab her face in my hands.
"I'm one of a kind," she tells me with a smile on her face, and I want to tell her I've always known that, but instead, I just kiss her lips. "Hmm,” she moans when I push her back and open her legs more. She lifts her hips, and as soon as I throw her legs over my shoulder, my mouth devours her. "Now this is what I'm talking about." Her hands get buried in my hair, and for the rest of the night, we spend it naked.
The sound of her alarm rings as soon as I thrust inside her and come. "Now that," I say, lying on her and turning her to the side, "is what I call perfect timing."
She kisses my neck. "I'm still half asleep," she mumbles, and I laugh, pulling out of her and walking to her bathroom. I get rid of the condom, and when I walk out of the bathroom, she is on her stomach. I walk back into the bathroom and step in the shower expecting her to be up when I walk back out, but instead, she is still on the bed. I sit beside her and kiss her shoulder and she moans.
"Coffee?" I ask her, and she just mumbles as I grab my boxers and head downstairs. Grabbing my pants from where I left them in the middle of the kitchen, I put them on, then start the coffee. Opening the fridge, I see that she has enough things to make her an omelet that I know she loves. I whisk the eggs when I see her coming down the stairs with her hair piled on her head and wearing a robe. “Morning.” I smile at her, and I see a little drop of water on her neck.
“Morning,” she says, stopping and kissing my shoulder before walking over to the coffee machine to pour her coffee. “It smells so good,” she says, taking a sip of her coffee as she sits on a stool and watches me. I plate her omelet and then mine, going to sit next to her.
She takes a bite of her omelet and leans over to kiss my lips. "Does this still mean we're on island time?" I ask her, knowing that we definitely have to talk about things. At least I know that I have to talk about things. She just looks at me, and I can't tell what she is thinking, or maybe it's because I don't want to know what she's thinking. I get this uneasy feeling in my stomach. "What are we doing?" I finally ask the question I've been wanting to ask her for the last two days.
She puts down her fork, avoiding looking at me. "I have no idea," she says honestly.
"What do you want?" I put my own fork down, the food not feeling so well in my stomach.
"I don't know." She shrugs her shoulders. "What do you want?"
"I want to be able to take you out on a date," I tell her, and I can see her shoulders slump just a bit.
"Do you really think that's a good idea?" She looks at me. "Like, think about it. I was getting married a week ago, and now I'm dating." I don't say anything to her, and when I don't, I can see that she is getting nervous. Her hands shake a bit. "How would that make me look?" I can't say anything to her. I can't even find the words. All of them are stuck in my throat as I listen to her make excuses about why we can't do what I've been dying to do for the past fucking five years. "How would that look for you?"
"I don't give a shit about how it would make me look," I answer her finally.
"Well, I do," she says. "It's going to be like, oh look, he took her out because he felt sorry for her. I can't even imagine the gossip that went on when I left. I can just hear the whispers, and I am going to have to hold my head high when I walk into a shop and people see me and point." She looks down, and then I see a tear escape the corner of her eye. "I just can't do it." I take a deep breath as my heart pounds in my chest. Pushing away from the counter, I grab my white T-shirt from the floor. "Ace," she says my name and I take one more look at her.
"I guess I know where we stand," I clip, grabbing my shoes. "Have a nice day, Shelby," I say, walking out of the house and closing the door behind me.