Where I Belong (Alabama Summer #1)

“I have a feeling that I’m going to want to punch you, so you might want to leave before your face and your truck get mangled.”

Instead of responding, I walk past her and make my way back out to my truck. My mind is scrambled and my heart feels like Tessa has taken her keys to it. The girl of my dreams turned out to be Mia fucking Corelli. What the fuck? She’s not passing through for a while, not for several months. She’s here. My angel is here for the whole summer and she wants nothing to do with me.

* * *

Chapter Four

Mia

“Well, I did not see this coming. Not in a million years.” Tessa slumps down on the bed I’ve been curled up on after I shared my naughty little secret with her. She paced during that run down, her jaw hitting the floor the moment I said I lost my virginity to her brother. “This. Is. Crazy. I mean, first of all, I had no idea you were still a virgin. Fuck you very much for not telling me. Although I’m not sure I would’ve believed you, considering what you look like.”

I smile weakly at her compliment. “Yeah, well, I wish I still was. I can’t believe I was stupid enough to not ask his name last night. This shit could’ve been easily avoided.” Because there’s no way I would’ve went through with it if I’d have known that mouth belonged to Ben fucking Kelly. The boy that made me cry daily for five years. The boy that made me feel insignificant. The boy I hated.

“I don’t really see what the big deal is here. In fact, I think it’s pretty fucking awesome.” She moves up the bed and places her head on the pillow next to mine. “How was it anyway? Did you come?”

I roll my eyes at her bluntness. “You’re disgusting.”

“I’m nosy, and I can pretend it wasn’t my brother.” She twirls her hair around her finger, smiling at me. “Spill it, Mia. I’ve shared all my sexcapades with you over the years.”

“Without me asking. I’d love to be able to forget some of those horrific details.”

“Oh please. Like you haven’t enjoyed living vicariously through my pussy. My very STD free pussy by the way. You make it sound like I’m a hooker.”

I cover my face with my hands, hearing Tessa laugh softly next to me. If I am going to share how her brother got me off, I don’t want her to see how much I enjoyed it. Because I didn’t. I’d never enjoy anything involving him. And the tightness in my core that is forming at the very memory of last night has nothing to do with that jerk. I grunt heavily before confessing. “It was beautiful. He was sweet and playful, but he also knew exactly what he was doing. I definitely came. A lot.”

“How much is a lot?” I hold up my hand, hearing her soft gasp. “Holy shit balls. Ben can get it.”

Dropping my hands, I roll over and face her. “But I don’t want Ben to get it. I don’t want him to be the guy that took my virginity. I hate him, Tessa. You know how much I hate him.” It wasn’t a secret. I never hid my feelings for him years ago and I wasn’t trying to start now. As long as those feelings stayed familiar. I was used to hating Ben. Those feelings I could deal with. Not whatever the hell it was that I felt last night. Or didn’t feel. Cause I didn’t feel anything.

“Mia, are you that same girl that used to live here? The girl that wouldn’t dare say a cuss word or wear a bikini like the one you’re currently rocking the hell out of?” She smiles and playfully wiggles her brows.

“No. I guess not,” I reply flatly. I knew exactly where she was going with this, and I didn’t really want to hear it.

“Well, Ben’s not that same jerk face loser that would pick on you every chance he got. He’s actually pretty tolerable now.” I try to roll away from her but she grabs my arm, keeping my gaze. “He’s not that guy, Mia. He hasn’t been for a while. And I think you know that deep down.” She pauses, her lips turning up into a sassy smile. “There’s no way that same guy would’ve made you feel the way you felt last night.”

“Icky? Nauseating? Because that’s how I felt.”

“Yeah, okay. Tell that to your five orgasms.” She sounds as unconvinced as I feel.

Whatever. Even if he did own my body, I wasn’t going to admit it to Tessa. Or myself for that matter. “This is so not the way I was hoping to start off my summer.”

“I can’t imagine starting it off any better. Hot sex that resulted in five glorious orgasms? I’ll take things I’d give my right arm for for two hundred, Alex.” She bumps her shoulder against me and slides off the bed. “I know two men that would help greatly in a situation like this.”

“I’m not interested in your vibrators. We’re close, but we aren’t that close.”

I hear her chuckle as she disappears down the hallway. This is unfreakingbelievable. The man I couldn’t get out of my head since I laid eyes on him last night turns out to be the asshole I longed to forget. It was Ben who made me feel hot and wanted for the first time in my life. It was Ben who ignited my skin and made my insides burn, and not in the STD kind of way. It was Ben who I screamed for last night and who I never wanted to leave this morning. Benjamin fucking Kelly. He made fun of my body for years, but last night he worshipped it. Telling me how good I tasted. How amazing I felt. How he wanted to stay deep in my pussy until the day he died. And I was torn between wanting to take back everything that we’d experienced together not even twenty four hours ago and asking him to touch me again. Every time I closed my eyes, I felt his hands on me. His breath on my skin. His tongue on my clit. His cock in my pussy. He claimed me last night and I hated that I loved it.

Tessa appears in the doorway, two pints of Ben and Jerry’s ice cream in her hands. “I say we rent something nonromantic and devour the contents of these containers. You’re in desperate need of a girls’ night and I’m coming at you hard.”

“Is that Half Baked?” Damn. I haven’t had that in years. She nods and smiles wide. “You’re awesome. I’m so in for girls’ night.”

“That’s what I was hoping you’d say. Get changed and plant your perky ass in front of the TV.” She leaves me to do just that, and I don’t waste any time. I throw on a sundress and meet her in the living room, diving into my ice cream as she scrolls the movie selections.

“Wolf of Wall Street or Captain Phillips?” she asks as she flips through the On Demand section.

“Wolf of Wall Street. I don’t feel like crying and seeing Tom Hanks held captive by pirates will probably wreck me. You know I love that man.” I’ve been hooked on Tom Hank’s films since I watched Philadelphia. And don’t get me started on The Green Mile. I cried like a baby when Tessa and I watched that together. The electrocution scene? I can’t even.

She starts up the movie and we sit back, both digging into the meals that will surely ruin any appetite for dinner. We are halfway through the movie and our pints when Tessa’s phone rings.

“You’re interrupting girls’ night, I’ll have you know. And the penalty for your crime is death by dick removal.”

I giggle around my spoon, my eyes widening as Leonardo DiCaprio snorts coke off some chick’s ass.