No Strings Read online

  “Brody,” I tried, but he was too focused on moving me so that he could get my panties off. I adjusted a bit to help him, and then we were back. I was completely naked, straddling Brody, my whole body flushed with lust and anticipation, the wet heat between my legs almost dulling completely any pain that lingered from last night.

  “How do you feel about this position?” Brody asked gruffly as he began to slowly and gently thrust his denim clad hips up into me.

  “I…” I hesitated for just a moment. I may not have had any clue about what to do now, but I loved the feeling of being over him like this, being able to see him just however I wanted to. “You may have to help me a little,” I whispered.

  He nodded, but I barely saw it because I was leaning down to kiss him, and he was kissing me back. Brody wrapped his arms around me tightly, holding me to him, bare chest to bare chest, and I was writhing against him as our tongues danced together, as I deepened the kiss and got as close as our lips could get. It was messy, it was breathless—

  It was hot.

  And then I was sitting up and reaching between us, fumbling with Brody’s jeans until I was able to get them undone and lift up just a bit to shove them down his hips. He sprung free, and my mouth watered.

  Brody almost didn’t have time to reach over to the bedside table, grab a condom out of the drawer, and then quickly slide it on before I was lining myself up over him and slowly sinking down. I was too impatient to have him. Too desperate. Too turned on. Too needy.

  I needed him. Now.

  Our eyes were on each other, and I let out a slow, heavy breath as Brody’s jaw clenched and I continued the slow, hot slide.

  When I was fully seated with Brody all the way inside, neither of us moved. He was clenching his jaw tighter than ever, and I was adjusting to the size of him, allowing the slight burn of pain to slowly turn into one of pleasure. Brody opened his eyes after having shut them tightly when I’d gotten him all the way inside, and they were blazing as they met mine. The look in his eyes was even more intense than the night before, and there was something different there this time. Something more. I knew I wouldn’t be able to tear my eyes away even if I wanted to.

  Slowly, I began to move my hips against his, stretching for him, letting him in, my hands braced on his stomach right between my legs while his roamed all over my body. I reveled in the feel of his length sliding in and out of me. Along my walls that were wet with my arousal. Deep inside. Deeper than anyone had ever been.

  He was gorgeous beneath me. His eyes were bright with lust and need, his cheeks just ever so slightly pink, his chest rising and falling with deep, heavy breaths that mingled in the air with mine. I sped up my movements, completely in control, letting the sensations guide me, and my heart grew. It flooded with feelings and emotions that I knew I shouldn’t feel. But his eyes were so deeply on mine, fervent and full of life, and I never wanted this connection to be severed. I never wanted to look anywhere but at his eyes.

  Suddenly Brody grabbed my hands and pulled me down slightly so that my hands were clasped in his on either side of him on the bed, and he was moving his hips in a rhythm with mine, thrusting up faster, harder, deeper with every movement. I cried out, gasped, and moaned with every grind of my hips down onto his. Every thrust of him deep inside me. Every brush past the spot inside that I hadn’t known existed.

  His eyes were searing into mine, and I swallowed past the lump that suddenly formed, unbidden, in my throat.

  “You’re beautiful,” Brody panted out, tightening his grip on my hands. “This is amazing,” he said, breathless and lusty, voice gone rough with need. “You’re amazing.”

  I whimpered above him, my hips moving a bit more frantically as I chased my release.

  “Catrina,” he moaned, his voice climbing a bit higher. He let go of my hands and grabbed my hips tightly so he could move me along his length. I bent, sinking my hands into his hair and kissing him passionately, both of our eyes still open and on each other. The intensity of the moment almost unbearable.

  “I always want you right here,” Brody breathed, hands holding me hard. “I never want to stop, Catrina.” As he spoke, his lips were moving against mine. “I can’t.”

  “Brody! Ahhhh…”

  My climax whooshed through my entire body so forcefully that my limbs began to tremble and my blood was rushing through my ears. With my eyes on him, I saw, rather than heard, Brody call my name as he released himself inside me, and I continued to moan as I felt the liquid heat flood the condom, arousing me all over again.

  After a few moments, I collapsed onto Brody’s chest, and his arms came around me immediately as I buried my face in his neck, breathing him in. He smelled like cologne and sweat and sex, and I thought it was the single greatest smell I’d ever inhaled.

  Several minutes passed before I lifted my hips and felt Brody slide out of me. I whimpered as I heard Brody mutter a curse as I moved my bottom half off of him. He adjusted so he could take off the condom and then reached to toss it into a trashcan beside his bed before he rolled back into me. He put his arms around me so that my chest was pressed to his, my body only shifted to the side a bit.

  Brody kicked the rest of the way out of his jeans and then angled his body toward me so he could catch my eyes. One of my arms was bent under me, holding onto his shoulder nearest me, and the other reached up so I could brush his hair off his damp forehead. Then I put that hand on his chest and rested my chin on top of it.

  “Hi,” he said in a low voice.

  I smiled. “Hi.”

  Brody lifted the corner of his mouth in a smirk. “Thanks for letting me interrupt your studies.”

  I shrugged slightly. “I couldn’t concentrate anyway,” I said, my voice near a whisper.

  “Why not?” Brody asked, matching my tone and arching an eyebrow.

  “I was thinking about you,” I said. I blushed at the words I hadn’t thought out and buried my face in his chest so he couldn’t see my embarrassment.

  I didn’t want him to think I wanted him to be my boyfriend. I didn’t want him to think that I misunderstood what we were and drive him away as quickly as he’d come. I just wanted to be with him. To have him hold me like this.

  “Hey.”

  Brody brought one of his hands up to me so he could tilt my head toward him. He was smiling when I met his eyes. “I like that,” he said.

  I bit my lip against a smile. “You do?”

  “Of course I do,” Brody said in an amused voice. “It’s only fair since I haven’t stopped fucking thinking about you since the other night by the reservoir.”

  My heart hammered quickly several times in my chest before I was able to smile, trying not to think about what his words meant. And he returned my smile, making my heart race even more. But then he turned more serious.

  “Why did you leave?” he asked. “This morning?”

  I shrugged as he began to run his fingers along my bicep absently, his other arm bent behind his head. I couldn’t dare tell him the actual reason. I couldn’t tell him I was too afraid of the feelings I felt for him to possibly stick around, that if I stayed I would end up ruining everything by telling him that I wanted to practically die in his arms, that was how badly I never wanted to leave them.

  “Last night was good, right?”

  I nodded slowly with a smile. “Amazing,” I said.

  Brody frowned a bit. “I know I got a little, you know, um, carried away, so I—”

  “I wanted it,” I said, blushing only slightly. “I liked that you got carried away.”

  “I didn’t hurt you?”

  I shook my head. “No more than you had to.”

  I stared into his eyes, my chin still resting on my hand on his chest, and he gazed right back, the smallest of smiles gracing his beautiful features. My heart was thumping in my chest, and I was positive that he could feel it, but I didn’t care. Not right now. I just wanted this moment with him for as long as I could have it. I would think about th
e implications and the consequences in the morning.

  I had laid my head on his chest, and I had been listening to his breathing and his heartbeat for a while, dozing here and there after he had pulled the blankets up around them. My head was tucked under Brody’s chin and he had turned slightly to his side so that we were pressed against each other, well and gone into cuddle mode, me occasionally snuggling against him, making Brody tighten his arms around me. He was hugging me to him, and I was so content that I started to feel lighter than air, almost like I wasn’t in my own body. I placed a soft kiss to his chest when I was pulled out of one doze when the flash of the memory from him coming to me in the library went through my mind. I loved how much he wanted me, how he couldn’t wait, and it was as if all of my worries from just before were gone.

  Of course I had done this for me. I wanted Brody, and he wanted me, and there was nothing in the world wrong with that.

  “Catrina?”

  I jolted a bit, but simply hummed in response.

  “I want to keep doing this,” Brody said quietly. “Me and you.”

  Frowning a bit, I considered what he was saying, my stomach doing a weird swoop. We had already pretty much talked about this. Outside class, we had discussed no strings, keep going casually until we didn’t want to anymore. But did Brody mean something different? I was too scared to suggest it, so I simply said:

  “Me, too.”

  I waited for Brody to say something more, but minutes later, I heard him snoring softly, and I was left alone with my swirling thoughts.

  ◆◆◆

  It felt... almost surreal to be sitting out by the reservoir with Talia, Callum, and Carver after the past few days that I had had.

  It was late afternoon on Friday, a few days after Brody came to me in the library, and I had seen him every night since. He had soccer practice until around nine o’clock every night, but after practice he would text me and drive his car to pick me up. He drove a really nice black BMW that made me joke with him once again about how rich he was, which only made him shake his head and laugh.

  Ever since that first night, I always made sure to wake Brody up in the morning. Sometimes I woke him up in—ahem—creative ways, but I just had to make sure I got back to my apartment before Talia woke up. She was a late sleeper most days and slept like the dead, so if she suspected that I wasn’t spending the night in my room, she hadn’t said anything yet. And since that was completely unlike her I knew she must not have known I was leaving and not coming home for the past three nights.

  Outside in the afternoon sun, it felt strange to go back to my “normal” life after these nights I’d spent with Brody, after such an enormous and significant thing in my life had happened and I couldn’t even discuss it with my best friends.

  In all honesty, I probably could have told Talia. I looked over at my friend, who was telling an animated story about something that had happened in the library when she was there in between classes earlier. Her bob hair cut was nearly perfect as always, a few wispies flying here and there as the unseasonably warm March wind blew across the water.

  I could have told Talia and she wouldn’t have judged. She just would have freaked out and wanted all the details, and truthfully, I was still sorting out the details in my own head, so explaining everything to Talia would be extremely difficult.

  Brody and I hadn’t talked about keeping things between us a complete secret, but it seemed to be a somewhat unspoken thing, especially because of the casual nature of it. Brody was Gabe’s best friend, and Gabe would flip if he knew what Brody and I had done, not to mention probably blabbing about it to his sister, my brother, probably some of our cousins, and possibly Uncle Conrad. And I was absolutely not ready to deal with the inquiries and exclamations of my family.

  So I was resigned to sitting in a circle with my friends by the reservoir, pretending my life was everything that it always had been, while trying desperately not to look a bit down the way to where I knew Brody was sitting with Gabe, Holly, Ben and Bryant, Tabitha, and Xavier. The whole freaking crew.

  And I wanted to look. Damn, did I want to look over my shoulder at Brody, see the sunlight reflecting on his blonde hair, kissing his cheeks and making him flush the way I had seen him flushed when he was over and under me the past couple nights. I wanted to send him a small smile, let him know that I was thinking about him in a very specific way and that I wanted more, of course, maybe even tonight, maybe even right now, but I couldn’t. I couldn’t give anything away to anyone so all I could do was sit there and pretend to listen to my friends, while trying not to jump every time I heard Brody laugh.

  He had texted me earlier to let me know that they would be down by the reservoir. I think he let me know because he knew it was one of the places I loved to go on Friday afternoons, and he knew he and his friends would be there. And he definitely knew that his friends were not on my favorites list right now.

  I had managed to get my mind off of Brody for just a moment, enjoying my time with my friends, when I heard my name being called. I looked up and saw Gabe waving at me as he and his pals walked by, apparently having had enough of the afternoon sunshine and heading back toward campus.

  “Hey Gabe,” I said, waving. My friends said hi to him, too, while I snuck a glance at Brody who was looking at me like he’d been having all the same thoughts I’d been having earlier.

  But I was jolted from my heated exchange of eyes with Brody when Holly Goldsmith spoke up.

  “Hey Catrina!” she called out.

  “Hey Holly,” I responded evenly, putting a hand on Talia’s knee when I saw her tense out of the corner of my eye.

  Holly smiled saccharinely as she met my eyes. “Still a virgin?”

  A lot of things happened all at once.

  Talia sprang up to her feet and Carver followed, creating a human barricade between Talia and Holly. Gabe whipped his head toward her and said “cool it, Holly,” more sharply than I had ever heard him speak, but then Brody opened his mouth and I held my breath.

  “Holly, are you serious?”

  “Oh, who cares?” Holly said turning toward him. “I was only kidding.”

  Brody rounded on her, and I couldn’t help but notice how the rest of his friends, wide-eyed, seemed to take several unconscious steps backwards. Gabe moved to stand at my side protectively.

  “First of all, it was a shitty joke,” Brody said angrily. I noticed that his nostrils flared slightly. “Second of all, you have no damn right to make fun of someone about who they have or haven’t slept with,” he said, jerking his head in my direction. “And like I told you the other night, no one—not one of us here—has ever made a comment about the number of partners you’ve had or who they’ve been,” he said, giving her a knowing look. “Because commenting on and having an opinion about someone’s sexual exploits is gross.”

  My heart skipped. What did he mean, like he told her the other night?

  “It’s none of your business if Catrina is a virgin or not, just like it’s none of our business what you and Ben and Bryant do together after a few drinks,” he snapped.

  Holly’s face fell in horror, but I couldn’t even be triumphant. I was too busy being stunned at Brody’s reaction.

  “And I know Catrina is far too good of a person to point any of that out, and she’s far too good of a person to engage in this, but I’m not,” Brody said, shoving a finger at his chest. “You’re lucky that I’ve put up with it for even this long, and it’s going to stop,” he said. “Now.”

  “Brody—”

  Holly tried to speak but he cut her off with a wave of his hand.

  “And for your information, Holly, she—”

  Brody faltered for a moment, and my stomach burned—don’t tell me he’s going to say what I think he’s—

  “She doesn’t have to do anything she doesn’t want to do,” he said, recovering quickly. “And what she does absolutely does not now nor will it ever concern you. And I will tell you one last time.” He
took a step closer and she stepped back, looking at him in fright. “You have no right to make her feel bad for that, and Holly,” he said, voice going a bit lower in warning, “If we ever have to have this conversation again, you will regret it.”

  And with that, Brody turned toward me. “I’m sorry,” he said, voice and features softening, and he turned on his heel, leaving every person standing there left in stunned silence.

  It was about an hour later, and Brody and I were in the locker rooms near the soccer field where I had snuck to after leaving my friends after the incident with Holly. I had immediately texted Brody to ask where he was and after several minutes, he said he was kicking the ball around. I knew he did that when he was agitated. So I told my friends I wanted to go for a walk, alone, understandably, and no one questioned it. Then I had practically run after Brody, finding him kicking a soccer ball into the net over and over and over, smoke practically coming out of his ears until he saw me rushing toward him. My stomach had fluttered at the way his features changed from anger to soft joy as soon as he turned.

  Now we were kissing the hell out of each other, both of us breathing heavily through our noses but both equally unwilling to come up at all for air, just as we had been as soon as I had run up to him and thrown myself in his arms, not even caring if anyone saw.

  I was swirling with emotions over what Brody had said earlier. I wanted to show him how much it meant to me. I wanted him to understand the impact his words had had. No one had ever stuck up for me like that, especially no one that wasn’t my family.

  Brody was perfect. He was fucking perfect. Gorgeous, smart, loved by everyone, and add to that the fact that he was protective when he needed to be and a freaking fantastic kisser, and I was a goner.

  I wanted to kiss him until I physically couldn’t anymore. First, because I was so happy for what he had said and done, and second, because if I stopped, I was afraid I would spew a lot of words that he did not want to hear.