“I fell off the bed.”
“Shit, are you okay?”
“You said shit,” I whisper.
“Yes, but you know you’re not supposed to say that.” He taps my nose. How does he know where my nose is? It’s so dark in here.
“You shouldn’t either.”
“Fine, but are you okay?”
“My leg hurts.”
“Which one?”
I shake the one that hurts and I feel his hand on it as he shines his flashlight. “It’s okay I don’t think it’s broken. We won’t have to cut it off.”
“Cut it off!” I shriek with a giggle. We’re silent for a minute when I turn to look at him as best I can. “It’s too dark here. Can I sleep in your room with you? Please, I’m scared. Or will you stay here with me?”
“Your princess bed is probably a little too small for me.” He stands up with me still in his arms and grabs his flashlight. “You can stay in my room.” He starts walking out of the room when I stop him.
“Wait, my bunny!”
Not that I needed it. When I had Cal, I felt safer than that bunny has ever made me feel.
“You good, Mads?” Cal looks at me, his hand on my shoulder and I nod. “Yeah, I just… thinking about that first storm. Do you think the power will go out?” I wince as I think about how dark this house gets with it almost completely surrounded by woods.
“It might, but you know I’m better prepared than I was ten years ago.” He’d changed out of his suit and was now in basketball shorts and one of the few Academy t-shirts I hadn’t stolen that showed his sharp biceps.
I need an orgasm, stat.
“I know, still freaks me out.” I grab my backpack from his hand and make my way up the stairs.
I don’t know when exactly my feelings for Cal changed from superhero to star of all my sexual fantasies. When I was younger, I would tell him that I loved him, that I was going to marry him, and attack his face with kisses on a daily basis. It was innocent, in that schoolgirl crush way.
And then one day, he touched my shoulder in the same innocent way he always had and I blushed. Hard. I couldn’t have been any more than thirteen. For a year, I tried to make sense of my feelings, wondering how it was that I was starting to feel these things for a man that had practically raised me.
I’m sick, I thought.
I tried to ignore the thoughts.
And then I discovered what I could make my body do after a little too thorough exploration one day in the shower. Sasha and I had stolen her mom’s Cosmopolitan one day and decided we were going to figure out what all the fuss was about. Not together, but separately and report our findings.
Long story short, I was home alone, thank God, because Cal’s name slipped from between my lips the moment I fell over the edge of my first orgasm.
That was three years ago.
I’ve been fucked ever since.
“I’M NOT DOING IT.” I cross my hands in front of my chest as a scowl finds my face. I stare at the beautiful pink bike that Cal had bought me for my birthday and turn my face back to his as he kneels next to me. “I refuse.”
He pulls his sunglasses off his face and his chocolate brown eyes meet my icy blue ones. “Maddie, come on. You have to learn to ride a bike without training wheels.”
“I tried. I failed.” I huff.
“You fell one time.” He puts his index finger up in front of my face.
“Because you let go.”