Empire High Betrayal(58)

What? “But…” my voice trailed off as he grabbed one of his t-shirts out of a drawer. “What if I’m ready?”

His hand paused on the drawer.

I swallowed hard. I loved him. I loved him so much that just thinking about him when we were apart made my chest hurt. I wanted to marry him. I wanted to have his children. I wanted us to be us forever.

I leaned over and opened up his nightstand drawer. And I pulled out a condom from his annoyingly large box of them. I placed it on the bed beside me and pulled my shirt off over my head.

His Adam’s apple rose and fell.

I pushed off my skirt too. And I was just reaching down to take off my heels when his hand caught my ankle.

“I can do that,” he said. He slowly undid the strap and let one shoe fall to the ground. And then the next. He kissed the inside of my ankle, his lips trailing up my leg torturously slowly. Until they stopped at the top of my thigh. “Are you sure?” he asked. His voice sounded tight, like he was having trouble keeping control.

I loved his fingers. I loved his tongue. But I wanted all of Matthew Caldwell. Not just pieces of him. All of him.

“I’m sure. I love you. I couldn’t be more sure.”

He moved on top of me. “I love you.” He kissed my forehead. “I love you.” He kissed the tip of my nose. “I’m so fucking in love with you, Brooklyn.”

I grabbed the back of his head and lowered his lips to mine. He kissed me senseless. He’d told me that he’d be all my firsts. First kiss. First touch. First taste. First love.

My fingers dug into the muscles of his back. God, but this? This first was everything.





Chapter 23


Saturday

I was pretty sure Matt agreed that this first was everything too. Because he kept wanting to do it over and over again. Not that I was complaining. But I was sore. I wasn’t sure how I was going to walk around his house today without anyone catching on to what we’d done all night long.

I tried to move my leg and groaned. Ow.

Matt laughed.

I opened my eyes and looked up at his smiling face. His head was propped up on his hand and he was staring at me.

“Were you watching me while I slept?” I asked.

He reached out and tucked a loose strand of hair behind my ear. “Maybe?”

“Do you know how creepy that is?”

“I like looking at my girl. What’s wrong with that?”

I didn’t bother trying to hide my smile.

“You better get used to me staring at you all the time. You signed up for a forever of it.”

I laughed and propped my head up on my hand too. “About that…what are your actual thoughts about getting married. For real?”

“I told you I want you to be Brooklyn Caldwell.”

“I know. But…when exactly were you thinking you wanted that to happen?”

“Brooklyn Sanders, are you asking me to marry you?”

I laughed. “Never mind.” I started to sit up.

“Hey.”’ He grabbed me around the waist and pulled me on top of him.

I straddled him as his hands found my hips.

“You mean you want to pick a date?” he asked.

“Do you?”

“We could fly out to Vegas tonight.”

I laughed. “Stop it, I’m serious.”

“I’m serious too.”

“You’re not serious.” I splayed my hands on his chest. “You’re crazy.” I shouldn’t have said anything. We were too young. He thought I was just messing with him. “Are you hungry? I’m starving.” I tried to move, but he kept his hands locked on my thighs, holding me in place.

“I’m crazy in love with you, Brooklyn. I wasn’t joking about Vegas. But we never really talked about what kind of wedding you wanted. Do you want the whole shebang? The white dress?” His hands ran down the sides of the t-shirt I’d borrowed from him. “The flowers? All that?”

Honestly I had never really thought about it before. All I knew was that Matt was everything I wanted and needed. And I could so easily picture walking down the aisle toward him. I nodded. “I do want all of that.”

“And when do you want it?”

“I assumed you were thinking after college?” I asked.

“I wasn’t thinking after college.”

“You weren’t?” I stared down at him.

“No.”

The way he was staring at me made my heart race. I swore it was beating so loudly that he could hear it. “Then when were you thinking?”

He smiled up at me. “I asked you first, baby. When do you want to get married?”

“Well, I heard the fall is a great time for a wedding.” At least, that’s what Justin had said. And I trusted him.

“It’s fall right now,” Matt said.

“Is it?” I laughed as he tickled my side. “Stop it!”

Somehow I wound up beneath him, his body pressed against mine.

“The fall is pretty busy with school and football practice,” he said.

True. Justin acted like my fairy godmother, but I wasn’t sure he actually had magical powers. A fall wedding would have to wait for a long time. “Which is why you do want to wait till after college?”