Torn (37 page)

“Ohhhh,” I cried as he moved
forward, impaling me again.

“Stay with me,” he coaxed as he
repeated the motion, his hips undulating against mine. I tried to switch off
from the sting of pain and to focus on how amazing it felt to have his body
smothering mine, to feel those sparks of pleasure as he moved inside me. The
more he did, the more my body seemed to relax and open up, accommodating him,
letting him slip deeper inside.

“Nate, oh my God, Nate!” I moaned.

“You feel so good, Sky. So wet
and warm, like home. I could do this with you forever,” he whispered against my
lips.

I lifted my head and let my lips
touch his lightly, both of us gasping at the same time as he moved a little
faster. He eased his tongue into my mouth and I closed my eyes as he thrust in
time with his hips. My core was on fire, my nerves sizzling, firing messages of
pleasure to my brain which started to override that element of pain. I knew he
wasn’t fully inside me yet, he was holding back, but I wanted all of him. I
dragged my heels up the mattress and tucked them behind his knees, feeling my
hips stretch and open me wider. He grunted and pushed firmly, squeezing my
fingers hard, and I felt his balls brush my bottom as he buried himself so
deeply inside me, I wasn’t sure it was possible for two people to be closer. We
continued to kiss gently as he started to move properly, thrusting in and out,
in and out, his pubic bone stimulating my clit with each forward push as I felt
my body start to respond. I started to move against him, the two of us rocking in
unison, my legs shifting up higher, wrapping around the back of his thighs.

“Nate,” I mewled as I pulled my
lips away from his to gasp for air. “Oh God, don’t stop, please don’t stop.”

“Oh, baby, I never want to stop
doing this with you,” he murmured in my ear. “You feel too good,
so good
.
You’re so close, I can feel your muscles trying to milk my cock, desperate to
feel me spill inside you, and fuck, do I want to empty myself into you, to
claim you. You’re mine now, Sky, totally mine.”

“I’ve always … been yours, Nate,”
I cried. “Oh God, I think I’m coming.” I opened my eyes and panted for air as
our bodies worked as one, a sheen of perspiration coating both of us, enabling
us to slide against each other as we built up to our climaxes. I could hear
from his labored breathing, could tell from his clenched jaw muscles, that he
was fighting coming, waiting for me to get there first. It was like nothing I’d
ever felt before, so different to the clitoral orgasms he’d given me. I’d
thought they were powerful and intense, but the sensation building inside of me
now was so much more. “Oh yes, yes, oh Nate.”

“I love you, Sky,” he grated out
through gritted teeth, his forehead damp from his exertions.

“
Nate
!” I whimpered his
name as my toes curled, my whole body stiffening as heat rushed from my core,
up my spine, and set off a series of explosions in my brain that left me seeing
stars as my orgasm blossomed and ravaged my body.

“Sky,” he grunted, his body
stiffening against mine as he plunged so deeply, I could have sworn he’d just
ruptured something inside me as I rippled around him. A weird sensation of heat
filling me as he came was enough to have me sobbing, suddenly overcome with
emotion at what had just happened.

“I’m crying!” I exclaimed. I
never cried. What was happening to me?

“Hey, hey, sssshhhh, it’s ok,
it’s ok,” he soothed, as he released our hands and quickly rolled us onto our
sides, his arms tightly clenched around me. He hooked his leg over my hip as he
remained buried deeply inside me, occasionally twitching, sending the odd
aftershock racing though my body. I nuzzled my face into his damp chest as
tears of happiness streamed down my face. “Thank you,” he whispered, one of his
hands stroking my hair. “You have no idea what you giving yourself to me means,
especially not today when I needed you the most. Was it ok for you?”

“Beautiful,” I sniffed. “What
about … did I do ok?”

“Better than I ever imagined you
would be. And it will just get better and better each time, Sky,” he replied,
kissing my temple before reaching to drag the fur blanket back over us as we
just lay in each other’s arms, listening to our heartbeats adjust to beat in
time together as we came down from our high.

“Are you sure you’re ok?” he
asked as he stood outside, while I held my side door to the bedroom open. I
didn’t want to go in through the front door in case my parents were still up.
My eye makeup was streaked, my hair had tumbled out of its styling and looked
matted and disheveled, and I had a huge hickey on the side of my neck.

“I’m fine, just sad we can’t
spend the night together. You could stay and sneak out in the morning,” I
suggested, clutching the lapels of his jacket as I looked up at him.

“I wish I could, but I really
ought to go and check on her. I was pretty harsh when I left, I need to go and
apologize.”

“Call me later or in the morning,
ok?”

“Promise.” He pecked my lips and
I kissed him back, then sighed as I let go of him and opened my door, stepping
inside.

“See you later,” I smiled.

“See you later.” He returned my
smile, but it didn’t quite reach his eyes.

We’d had a wonderful night, just
lying in each other’s arms until the last possible moment, but I’d felt him
change as he drove me home. Was he regretting it now? Had he lied to spare my
feelings? What if I hadn’t been all that, if I didn’t compare to all those
experienced girls he’d been with? He jogged up the steps, giving me a wave as
he exited the gate, and I sighed and shut my door, replaying our conversation
after he’d come. I’d asked if it was ok for him, and he’d said “Better than I ever
imagined you would be.” What did that mean? He thought I’d be crap and I was
ok? Liam had stressed how important sex was to men. What if Nate was
disappointed that he’d held out for this long only to have mediocre sex?

“Sky Torres, stop overanalyzing
this,” I warned myself as I stripped off and jumped into the shower. “He loves
you. Even if you were awful, you’ll get better with practice.”

I turned off the lights and
snuggled down in bed, wincing to feel the soreness between my thighs, but my
stomach warming at the knowledge that of all the boys in the world to lose my
virginity to, I’d lost it to Nate Hudson.

Thank you for a perfect
Valentine’s night, Ace. I love you x

I tried not to read anything into
it when after two hours, I still didn’t have a reply.

Sky

The Morning After

I sat cross-legged on my bed and stared
at my phone, repeatedly checking it for messages even though I knew that my
phone would alert me. I couldn’t help it. Something in my gut told me something
wasn’t right. He’d promised to call and he hadn’t, and that made me feel
physically sick. He always called me when he crawled into bed, no matter the
time, and we’d taken to talking for a while, then keeping an open FaceTime call
while he waited for me to fall back to sleep. If ever there was a night that
I’d needed our routine, last night was it. I’d promised myself not to be the
needy or clingy girl, but right now I was desperate to hear from him.

“Sky, are you awake?” Mom called
from outside my door.

“Yeah,” I replied, quickly raking
my hands through my hair and pulling it over my shoulders to hide my hickey. I
hadn’t even made it as far as my dressing table to cover it with some makeup
this morning. I’d been to the bathroom to pee and brush my teeth, then I’d
returned to this sitting Buddha pose for the last two hours.

“So, how did the date go?” she asked,
closing the door behind her. I looked up at her and felt my bottom lip starting
to shake, and before I could stop myself, tears were rolling down my cheeks.
Her face dropped in an instant. “Sweetheart, what’s wrong?” she exclaimed as
she rushed to my bed and flopped down next to me, wrapping me in her arms.

“He hasn’t called me,” I
whimpered.

“Oh, Sky. He must be busy, it’s
only ten a.m. Besides, it’s Saturday, won’t he be at baseball practice or the
garage?” She wasn’t wrong, he was due at the garage today, but it wasn’t like
he didn’t have five minutes to send a text.

“You don’t understand,” I stressed,
gripping the arm she had across my chest tightly. “He promised, and after what
we did …
Mom
,” I choked as I tried to breathe.

“You had sex,” she guessed,
understanding flooding her voice. “Don’t read into this. He loves you, even
your dad can see it. There has to be an explanation.”

“What if I was so bad, he doesn’t
want to see me again?” I sniffed as she rubbed my back.

“Then he’s not the sort of man
that you want to keep dating, Sky,” she sighed. “When you love someone, truly
love them, you accept them, faults and all. Besides, he knows you were a virgin,
right?”

“Yes,” I nodded, wiping my nose
as I sniffed again.

“He’s not exactly going to have expected
you to turn into Jenna Jameson for your first time, sweetheart.”

“Mom!”

“I was a virgin when I first
slept with your dad, and I didn’t have a clue what I was doing. Neither did he,
but he didn’t care. The fact that I was offering myself to him, that he was my
first, was all that mattered to him. I’m sure Nate feels the same regardless of
his experience. For a guy with a reputation like his, he’s been more patient
than I was expecting. I don’t believe he’d brush you off now. Have you tried calling
him?”

“No, not since I messaged him
last night,” I admitted, sitting up to grab a tissue and blow my nose, feeling
embarrassed to have cried in front of her. She sighed and shook her head,
clasping my face as she brushed away my tears with her thumbs.

“It’s a modern world, Sky. You
don’t have to sit back and wait anymore. You want answers, then you call him
and ask if everything’s ok.”

“I’m scared, Mom. I love him so
much.”

“I don’t believe he’s going to
dump you, not for a second, but surely it’s better to make the call and find
out than to sit here crying, which I never see you do, while you twist yourself
into knots?”

“I guess.”

“Ok, I’m going to go and make you
a coffee and some waffles while you call him. Then you can come up for
breakfast and tell me that everything’s fine and let me see that smile of yours
that I love so much. Ok?”

“Ok, Mom,” I nodded, giving her
half an attempt at one. She swept her hand over my temple and hair and leaned
in to kiss my forehead, then headed to the door.

“Oh, and Sky?”

“Yes, Mom?”

“Cover that hickey with some
makeup before your dad takes a few steps backward in this coming-around-to-Nate
mode, ok?”

“Ok,” I giggled. “You won’t tell
him about, you know?”

“Christ, no. He’d castrate him!”
she uttered as she shut the door behind her. I giggled again and went to the
bathroom to wash my face, doing my best to cover the dark purple bruise on my
neck, then took a deep breath and went and grabbed my phone. I pressed his
number and held the phone to my ear as I paced the floor, that feeling of
sickness coming back full force when it went straight to voice mail.

“Where are you, Nate?” I
whispered as I stared at the screen. What if something had happened to him? He
might have had an accident on the way home and I was sitting here feeling sorry
for myself. I jumped as my phone started ringing, Josh’s picture appearing on
the screen as if he was telepathic, and I quickly swiped it, my finger shaking
as my heart started to race.

“Sky, I can’t move him, he’s not
responding to anything I do.
Please
, please come now, I need you. He
needs you, Sky,” Josh sobbed down the line. Everything started spinning.
Something bad
had
happened. Nate wasn’t moving and was unresponsive. I
felt my heart shatter as my whole body shook and I tried to gulp in some
breaths of air, feeling like a hand was slowly choking me. Not Nate, not my
Nate. “Sky, please!” Josh begged, then the call was terminated. I collapsed
onto the floor, the phone slipping out of my hands, as I screamed for Mom.

Nate

The Night Before

I walked into the house and tossed my
car keys into the bowl on the hall table, trying to wipe the inane grin off my
face.

“Good night?” Josh asked as he
lifted his head from his books. “Actually, don’t answer that, I don’t want to
know.”

“Yep, it was, and no, you don’t,”
I confirmed as I ruffled his hair, making him glare at me and knock my hand
away.

“Cut it out,” he muttered, trying
to rake it back into place.

“So, hit me with it. How bad?”

“Not a peep, and before you ask,
the alarms haven’t gone off either, so I did as you said and left her to stew.”

“Hmmm, maybe I was too harsh
earlier,” I admitted, hating that I had to come back to reality after the last
few hours. I was still high from it, not just the fact that I’d finally had sex
again, but at the look on her face as she’d come, at hearing her mewl my name
as she’d hit her peak, at the way she’d clung to me after. I’d been ready for
round two within minutes, but I didn’t suggest it, knowing she’d probably be
sore.

“No, you said what needed to be
said. I just hope it’s sunk in. Why don’t you go and see her and I’ll make a
coffee.”

“Actually, I’m starving. Any of
that Chinese from the other night left?” I asked as I stripped off my jacket
and vest.

“I thought you were going out to
eat, you made reservations at The Stratosphere,” he stated, giving me a puzzled
look.

“Yeah, we kind of never made it
there,” I shrugged.

“You didn’t eat at all? You’re
always damn hungry.”

“Ermmm, no, nothing to eat,” I
confirmed as I rolled up my shirt sleeves, glad I’d tucked it into my jeans so
he wouldn’t notice the missing buttons. Well, nothing to eat if you didn’t
count going down on Sky, not that I was going to tell him that. “We just talked.”

“Yeah, more like stuck your
tongue down her throat for the night. You know what, I don’t want to discuss
this anymore. There’s a plate left, I’ll stick it in the microwave for you.”
Josh shuddered and headed to the kitchen as I laughed and made my way down to
Ma’s room. Even though she didn’t have any plates left to hurl at my head, I
still knocked gently.

“Ma, it’s Nate. Can I come in?” I
called. I waited a moment but had no response from her, so quietly opened the
door, wondering if she’d already fallen asleep. I was surprised to see that she
wasn’t in her chair or in bed, and sighed as I saw the orange stains on the
wall from where she’d hurled her dinner at me earlier. I went over to check the
window. She’d worked out a way to circumnavigate the electrical feed to the
alarm on the last system, so even though Josh hadn’t heard one go off, I wanted
to be sure. But it was firmly locked. I turned around to see her bathroom door
was closed and cocked my head, smiling to hear running water. Thank God for
that, she was finally cleaning herself up. I walked over and knocked on the
door.

“Ma, it’s Nate, I’m home. You
want me to make you something to eat?” I called. I waited a beat, then knocked
again. “Ma, you listening, or ignoring me?”

There still wasn’t a reply, which
made me frown. Usually I either got a torrent of abuse for having left her
alone, or she started crying and clinging to me, beyond excited to have me home
again. I pressed my ear up against the door but couldn’t hear anything at all,
expect for the sound of the water running.

“Ok, you’re ignoring me, that’s a
new one. I’m gonna eat my dinner while you finish up in there, then I’ll bring
you some and we’re gonna talk, ok? And I mean talk. No more yelling or
screaming, I can’t handle it anymore.” I went to move away and registered that
the carpet felt soggy, and looked down at my feet. “What the fuck?!”

There was water pouring out from
under the door, leeching into the beige carpet, but that wasn’t what made my
heart sink. It was the fact that the semicircular sodden patch of the pile was
stained pink where the water was creeping across it. Fuck. Fuck!

“Ma, open the fucking door,” I
yelled as I started beating on it. “Open the fucking door, right now!”

I rattled the handle, finding
she’d locked it, and cursed again, then tried ramming it with my shoulder,
again and again. Finally I stood back and lifted my foot, wishing I was wearing
my heavy boots right now instead of these fancy fucking dress shoes. I started
kicking above the handle with my heel, again and again.

“What the hell’s going on?” Josh
exclaimed as he barreled in. “You’re making more noise than she usually does.”

“Get out, now! And go call 911,
we need paramedics right now,” I ordered, not even stopping my attack on this
fucking door, which seemed to be indestructible.

“Nate?”

“Just do what you’re told, Josh,
and don’t come back in here. Do you hear me? No matter what, you don’t step
foot in this room again,” I barked. There was no way he was going to see
whatever stupid thing she’d done in there, not when she did it on his watch.
He’d blame himself, and he wasn’t to blame. I was. I should never have yelled
at her or left her alone tonight. It was all my fault. I snapped my head around
as I realized he hadn’t moved. He was rooted to the spot, his eyes on the pink
water seeping under the door. “Josh! Go call for help, I’ve got this until they
come, ok?” I tried to soften my voice, but right now I didn’t have time to
comfort him.

“O … ok,” he nodded, swallowing
hard as he looked up at me, his face draining of color.

“Good boy, now go.” He finally
sped out of the room and I turned to face the door. “You are messing with the
wrong fucking guy tonight,” I warned it as I walked back and then charged at
it, bracing myself as I slammed into it and heard the frame splinter. I fell
forward as it ricocheted off the wall and landed with a wince on my side in a
few centimeters of warm pink water. I scrambled up and shook my head. “No, no,
no, no. What did you do?” I whimpered, choking a ball of emotion that I didn’t
have time to acknowledge back down.