Chapter 27
Wesley
Even speeding ten miles over the speed limit all evening, I didn’t arrive at Louise’s house until almost two in the morning. I pulled up into the driveway of the house I’d been to so many times before, and memories began to flood my system. Memories of holding Olivia’s hand while we rocked on the porch. Memories of kissing her underneath the porch light. Memories of coming in and having dinners with them that consisted of pizza and movies because her mother was a terrible cook. Memories of trying to sneak up into her room just before her mother caught us at the top of the steps.
I was so lost in my thoughts that I didn’t realize the porch lights had turned on until I heard the front door open.
My eyes landed on a figure coming out of the house, and I froze when I saw it was Olivia. Even though she was in her pajamas, it didn’t look as if she’d gone to bed yet. Her beautiful hair still sat wonderfully on her shoulders, and her eyes seemed alert and wary. For a split second, I wasn’t sure what to do. I didn’t know if I should back up and get out of her life or if I should run toward her and wrap her up in my arms.
So, I decided to take the middle road, and I stepped out of my car.
I saw the shock roll over Olivia’s features as I started walking toward her. With each step I took, her features became clearer and clearer. Her bloodshot eyes and her puffy nose. Her reddened cheeks and her dried lips. Olivia had been crying to her mother.
Because of me.
“Wesley?” she asked.
“Hey there, Olivia,” I said.
“What are you doing here?”
I wasn’t sure how to start this conversation. I wasn’t sure how in the world I could begin to apologize for laughing at her. For accusing her of being anything like my mother. Of laughing at her when the most vulnerable of statements tumbled from her beautiful lips. Even as the skin cracked on top of them, I still wanted to pull her into my body. Even though she looked as if she had just been through hell and back, I still wanted to slowly peel those clothes off her body.
Only this time, my heart lurched for her as well.
“I had to find you,” I said.
“Why?”
I stepped up onto the porch and slowly made my way to her. I reached my hand out to see if she would recoil, and when she didn’t, I slowly slipped it around her waist. The cool air of her mother’s home hit my face, causing goosebumps to rise upon my neck. My hand fit perfectly in the dip of her back, her curves pressing into me as her body shielded me with warmth.
“I couldn’t make the same mistake twice,” I said.
“What mistake?” she asked.
“The mistake of letting you go. Again. Like I did in high school.”
“I don’t understand, Wes,” she said.
“When I left you in high school, you know, before graduation? It was because I was scared. I was so angry with my mother for all the things she was doing, and there I was, falling in love with a girl. A girl who had all the potential to hurt me just like she had, but I found myself not caring.”
“You—wait, you loved me in high school?” she asked.
“So much more than I was ever willing to admit. Until now, that is. Olivia, I didn’t know how to love you. I didn’t know what that was supposed to look like. I had people who told me they loved me, and then they put everything else before me. I grew up without a father to show me how to treat a woman, and then I grew up with a mother who showed me how she enjoyed treating alcohol. I had no idea what I was doing, and I was scared.”
“Wes, why in the world didn’t you talk to me?” she asked.
“Because I was a stupid, angry boy who had a chip on my shoulder. I felt I had something to prove. I felt I had to prove my strength and unwavering ability to not be fooled by people around me. I left you because I wasn’t strong around you.”
“Yes, you were, Wes. You were the strongest person I knew in high school.”
“Not that kind of strength,” I said. “Olivia, I was weak to you. To your eyes and your smile. To your hair and your body. To your voice and your touch. And it scared me and angered me. I was seventeen, and I had no idea how to process any of that. My inability to grow up and talk cost me the one thing that meant the most to me, and I’m not willing to do that again. I’m not willing to let you go again because of my inability to do something, Olive.”
“What are you saying, Wesley?” she asked.
“I’m saying that I love you, and that I have no issues with that. Not anymore.”
I held her gaze for quite some time before her hands began to slowly run up my stomach. I felt her hands grazing up my chest, giving my muscles a light squeeze before she hooked her arms around my body. I watched her lips, seeing her teeth slowly bite down on her lower lip before a grin graced her cheeks.
“You love me?” she asked.
“You are, single-handedly, the best thing that has ever happened to me. For years after high school, I did nothing but dream about you. About all the times we shared and the way you used to look at me. And when you popped up at that bar, everything came flooding back. It was like I’d been hit by an eighteen-wheeler, and I couldn’t even breathe. There aren’t enough words in the English language to communicate how much you mean to me. I love you, Olive, and I can’t let you slip from my hands again.”
Olivia rose up onto her toes before she planted a kiss at the corner of my mouth. I smiled, leaning in to her, trying to capture her lips with mine before she pulled away. I pressed her body closer to mine, wanting to feel every bit of her warmth before she pushed me away, but all she did was utter the phrase I never thought I’d ever hear from her again.
“I love you, too, Wes.”
I felt Olivia’s hand clasp my own before she slowly pulled me into the house. I shut the front door behind me, my eyes grazing over her body, and I watched as she slowly turned off all the lights in the house. She placed her hand to her lips, shushing me lightly before she held out her hand. Then, the two of us slowly ventured up the steps.
I felt my skin beginning to tingle. It was just like the days in high school. The evenings when I came over without her mother’s approval because I had to taste her. We’d tried numerous times to sneak into her room just so I could see her sprawled out on her bed, but her mother always came out of her room just before we could sneak to safety.
But now, as Olivia was closing the door to her bedroom, all I could do was think about all the times we had failed up until this point.
Suddenly, a pair of arms wrapped around my waist. I turned around in Olivia’s arms before her lips flew to mine, and I felt something inside me pop. I silenced my groans as Olivia’s hands traveled to my ass, and the moment she backed me up to her bed, we went crashing to the mattress. Olivia pulled back, placing her finger to her lips one last time, but all I did was remove her hand before I placed my lips upon hers.
My hands ricocheted down her sides, sliding her shirt up as I tried to get to her voluptuous breasts. Olivia’s hands pushed my shorts off, the fabric hitting the floor before her fingertips hooked into the band of my underwear. I peeled her shirt off, watching her tits spring to life, and then I descended my lips down around her pert nipple as she arched into my touch.
I could tell she was muffling her moans. The way her legs parted for me with ease was something that shook me to my core. My cock was already leaking, trailing wet stains along her sheets. Slowly moving down her body, I worked my lips all over her. My hands grasped the fabric of her pants, pulling them down her legs as my tongue dipped into every crevice her body had to offer.
But the moment I smelled the scent of her pussy, something inside me snapped.