Naughty or Nice - Alexis Winter Page 0,13
worth it then, you’re not worth it now. Sorry, buddy,” she replies, and I know exactly what they’re talking about. The relationship I ruined there. I told myself it was for her benefit. But it wasn’t. It was all for mine. I didn’t want to think of my friend’s hands on her. Even if she didn’t know it, even if nobody knew it, she was mine and only mine. Still is. I just have to figure out how to go about this.
“Come on, Felicity. Give me a shot. I swear, I’m a changed man. I’ll take you back to my place right now and will make sure you enjoy your night. You know he won’t do that.”
He? Who’s he? Me? I’m going to fucking kill Greg. He knows how I feel about her. Maybe he thinks it no longer applies since we’re all adults now. It still applies.
“Nah,” she says. “I’m holding out for something better.” She gets up and grabs a ball, stepping up to the line.
Greg stands and I do too. I look at him with my eyes set. “The rules still apply here, you know? Nothing has changed.”
His shoulders fall. “Come on, man. You’ve had your turn for years now. You ain’t done nothing about it. Move over and let some of us have a turn.”
I shake my head. “Touch her, you’re dead.” I walk away, heading outside for some fresh air to cool off.
I lean against the hood of my car and cross my arms over my chest. My breath comes out in little clouds in the freezing night air. I left my coat inside but right now, I don’t even notice the bitter cold. I hang my head, staring at the gravel beneath my feet. I try telling myself all the usual shit, but it’s not having the same effect it usually does. It’s not making me back down. Instead, I’m just telling myself how stupid I am for holding out this long.
I don’t look up until I hear the crunch of gravel. I look up and find Felicity walking toward me. “What are you doing out here?’ she asks, coming to a stop in front of me.
I shrug. “Just needed some fresh air. It was a little crowded in there.”
She nods once, then moves to lean against the hood with her arms crossed just like I am. “It is a little crowded in there. And it stinks. I forgot how badly a hundred feet smell mixed with the scent of stale beer and grilled onions.” She laughs and I smile.
Silence falls between us for a moment. I look over and notice she’s also not wearing a coat but has both of ours in her arms.
“You need a coat.”
“You seem off tonight. What’s up?” She ignores my comment.
I shrug before looking over at her. “It’s just being back here with you and all of them. It makes me miss that time of my life, you know? I wish…I wish we could have known back then that we were in the good ol' days. Makes me wish I would’ve done things a little differently. Does that make sense?”
She nods. “It does. I think about that all of the time though. I don’t have to be here for me to think of it.”
“What do you wish you could do differently?”
“Well, I wish I never would’ve wasted any time with that jackass Greg in there,” she giggles out, but her tone quickly turns serious. “I wish we could’ve gotten closer.”
“How so? We were already pretty close,” I remind her.
“Back then, the only thing I wanted was to be pinned to the hood of this car by you.”
I look over at her and it’s like the world stops. Everything stops, everything but us as we stare into one another’s eyes. Her chest is rising and falling quickly. As is mine. But it’s out there. She’s said the words. Does that change anything? No. Is it enough to stop me this time? No. I’m too weak to keep this game up any longer.
Before she can process what’s happening, I’m spinning around, positioning myself between her legs, and laying her back on the hood of my car as my lips find hers. Our coats fall to the ground but I don’t care. This isn’t the first time we’ve kissed, but it is different. This time, I’m not worried about ruining her future. She’s a grown woman now and she knows what she’s doing. She isn’t some eighteen-year-old kid who doesn’t know