15

15

KADE

FLASHBACK

Icheck the time on the boarding passes to Greece, texting Stacey back and forth for an hour before she lets me know her suitcase is securely shut after she jumped all over it and she’ll see me after her last class.

She wanted to take my car this morning, but I’d rather punch myself in the balls, if I’m completely honest. She’s fucked up Jason’s car, which I had to take the blame and pay for, and I refuse to let her do that to my new black Audi R8.

We were practising away from the main roads and any living species. She’s not shockingly bad but not exactly good either. She now knows how to drive at least but not safely. I’d trust Base blindfolded and on every drug possible before willingly getting into a car with her on a public road.

Milo and Hopper follow me around as I clean my room for the eighth time, getting rid of any specks of dust. I walk the dogs while smoking a joint, and gather snacks and make Stacey a sandwich.

It’s late by the time she finishes work and I pick her up, and she falls asleep on the way to the manor. Her head rolls when we hit the gravel road, and I slow down a little, keeping her hand locked in mine. I glance over at her every few minutes, that warmth in my chest building every day.

She gives me a sleepy smile when we stop on the manor grounds.

The dogs run to her as soon as we walk in the door, me pulling her suitcase along, her carry bag on my shoulder. They ignore me as she lowers to her knees and scratches their ears.

“I told you they love me more,” she says, sticking her tongue out at me when I give her the middle finger. “You’re just jealous.”

Not at all. In fact, seeing the dogs all over her is way better than them being wary, like they are with my friends and even Luciella. Not that my sister ever gives them any attention.

When Stacey gets excited and jumps around, they copy. When she sleeps, so do they. When she cries during a movie or after watching a video on her phone, they cuddle into her for emotional support. When it’s time for bed, they wait for her to finish brushing her teeth and washing her face before climbing in with us.

Yep. They definitely love her more.

Maybe they’ll change their minds when she sings.

Once we get to my room, she changes into my T-shirt and a pair of shorts that do nothing but tease me. When the movie starts, she’s on her front, knees bent and kicking her legs lazily, facing the TV while I sit with my back against the headboard.

I hold her ass cheek, squeezing it, and she giggles then starts humming along to the song completely off-key. I’m distracted, obviously, as my eyes stay on my fingers sliding under her shorts, kneading at her.

“I think you should let me fuck your ass.”

She slaps my touch away. “I’ll hurt you.”

I chuckle and pull her to me. “You could try.”

She snorts. “I’ll crash your car.”

I narrow my gaze on her. “I believe you.”

Stacey grins. “Never. I’m such a better driver than you.”

“Stacey, you could have lessons for the next hundred years and wouldn’t even come close.”

She smiles and goes back to watching the movie, and I watch her. I don’t think it’s even a case of being in love with her anymore. Is there an emotion that’s stronger than love? If not, I’m creating one.

It’s like a mixture of love and not being able to breathe unless she’s around – thoughts that run wild wondering what she’s doing, where she is, if she’s thinking of me. It’s the butterflies that flutter like maniacs when I know I’m going to see her soon.

The Stacey Rhodes Effect.

“Oh my God!” she rudely yells, and both the dogs’ heads snap up as my heart restarts. “This is my favourite song!”

“Don’t,” I warn her as she gets to her knees, readying herself.

“Ready, doggos? Sing with me!”

The first note of “From Now On” she screams has me contemplating ending things with her.

Even the dogs are confused as her voice threatens to destroy every mirror, glass and ornament in the room. I’m surprised the windows aren’t smashing in.

I rub my face. “Please stop, Stacey.”

But she doesn’t.

“Fuck, my ears feel assaulted,” I say, covering them as she throws her arms out to the sides to emphasise every word she belts out.

To my horror, Stacey gets to her feet on the bed as the chorus hits, arms outstretched as she jumps up and down, still singing along.

Milo starts howling along with her. Hopper and I stare at each other, silently pleading for help as she shakes her hips and whips her hair at parts that don’t even slightly fit the movement.

Against the destruction of my eardrum, I chuckle. “You’re supposed to be a good dancer.”

She gasps and turns to me, hands on her hips, then jumps off the bed. “Hopper. Up!”

Hopper listens, getting to Stacey’s height as she holds his paws to her shoulders, both of them dancing around the room. She does the same with Milo, even though he’s giving me a confused look, and still she keeps singing.

She looks cute, so I keep watching her – the grin and giggle, the dazzle in her eyes, the free way she moves around and lives her life.

But her voice is shockingly bad.

She hits a deep note from Hugh Jackman, and I’m impressed. “Right, fine. That was good.”

But then she switches to the girl and my ears feel like they might explode again.

She and the two dogs jump on the bed as the song comes to an end, and she attempts to copy the dance moves, kicking her legs out and falling on her ass next to me.

“You’re going to break the bed for the completely wrong reason,” I say, watching her with my own grin as she tries to catch her breath while the dogs bark to tell her to keep going. “You sound like a strangled cat by the way.”

Stacey dramatically gasps, her chest rising and falling, a sheen of sweat on her face. “How do you know what a strangled cat sounds like?”

I look at the invisible watch on my wrist. “I just witnessed it for the last five minutes and forty-nine seconds. Seriously, why the fuck was it on for so long?”

She turns and places her palms on my chest then rests her chin on them, forest-green eyes looking right into my broken soul. “We’re getting married to that song, so the longer the better. Maybe not a walk-down-the-aisle song, but definitely one we can do a duo dance routine to. Can you dance actually?”

“After that horrendous performance, you think I’d marry you?” I smirk and glance at Milo and Hopper, who are both staring at us. “Even the dogs are traumatised. I fear for our future children.”

“If there are ever any future children, they’ll be blessed with your looks and my personality, especially my voice, and you’ll love them for it.”

My mouth stretches wide, my eyes wrinkling at the corners as I smile. “The world would need to hide if we ever had children. They’d undeniably be heathens.”

She tuts, shaking her head, then shifts up to kiss me. “Our little heathens.”

On the drive to the airport, Stacey keeps changing the songs on the radio, so I grab her wrist and lace our fingers together. “Why are you nervous?”

“I’m not,” she replies, but I’m not in the slightest bit convinced by the shy tone she uses.

“We don’t need to go if you don’t want to. I know we’ve travelled a lot the past two months.”

“No! God, no. I want to go,” she says desperately, turning her body to face me while I pull onto a back roads. “It’s just…”

I raise a brow. “What?”

“Don’t laugh at what I’m about to say, okay?”

I can’t promise that. “What’s wrong?”

Her lips flatten, and she drags her gaze out the window to the trees passing us by. “Idon’tthinkyoulikemeanymore.”

I frown. “Eh?”

She huffs and drops her head against the headrest. “Is it because I’m gaining weight?”

I pull into the side of the road, cut the engine, rest my hand on her seat and turn to her, completely dumbfounded. “Excuse me?”

“You haven’t touched me in nearly a week.” She raises a shoulder, her voice low. “I thought, maybe, it was because I’m changing? The pill is messing me up so much, and I’m so, so goddamn moody. I blew up at you the other day, and it was over nothing. I keep thinking you’re losing interest in me, which is fine if you are, but I’d rather know.”

I literally asked her hours ago if I could fuck her ass. “I could never lose interest in you,” I say instead. “Where is this coming from?” Did I do or say something?

“So you’re still attracted to me?”

I smirk, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. “‘Attracted’ is not the label I’d use when it comes to you. It’s way more than that. You’re beautiful, in all your moodiness – I think you’re the most amazing person in the world. And you’re all mine.” I lean forward and capture her lips in a claiming kiss. “Mine.”

“Yours,” she whispers, grabbing my face and sinking against my mouth. Everything else ceases to exist as the tip of her tongue swipes across my lips, and I part mine, both of us tasting, licking and sucking as we deepen the kiss.

I unclip our belts and drag her into my lap. “Never doubt how I feel about you again, got it?” I snatch her bottom lip between my teeth, sucking on it until I let it snap back. “Do you want me to prove how I feel about you?”

“Yes,” she whimpers as I pull her hips down, grinding my hardening cock against her.

“This is what you do to me,” I tell her as I use my grip on her to rock her hips on me, the underside of my dick rubbing against her entrance and clit through the little black dress she’s chosen to travel in.

She devours my mouth, hands in my hair as she moves against me, and I palm her ass, making her ride me through our clothes. She gasps as she finds the perfect rhythm, gripping the steering wheel from behind to use as leverage.

“Fuck,” I say, my brows furrowing in concentration as she pulls her dress off and tosses it in the passenger seat. Her thong slides against me with each grind, and I can see how soaked the small piece of material is.

I move it aside and sink two fingers into her, and she lets out a soft cry.

“Ride my fingers, Freckles.”

She does as she’s told, her hips rolling, her nails sinking into my shoulder as her mouth silences any more words that might want to fall from my lips.

Her pussy is warm and tight, her walls wrapping around my fingers as I start fucking her with them, curling them and thrusting knuckle deep. She moans in my ear, and if I don’t get my cock inside her now, I’ll come in my pants.

We both work fast to free me from my shorts, and waste no time as she lifts her hips and slowly lowers onto me, my cock disappearing inch by inch into her wet pussy.

She rides me until she’s moaning and shaking in my arms. When she struggles to keep grinding, I thrust upwards at the same as I yank her hips down, fucking into her in a way that has her tits bouncing in my face. I capture a nipple with my teeth, sucking, then grab the other and pinch as I feel her strangling my cock.

“Oh God,” she breathes. “Oh God.”

I throw the door open, making sure I stay inside her as I lift her up, holding her against me as I lower her onto the front of the car. I push her chest so she lies back, and I ease out slowly, before thrusting hard and making her scream.

Thank fuck it’s dark and no one is around.

I watch each inch slide out of her, coated with her arousal, the thick head nearly out before I thrust deep. I take the back of her knee and put one of her legs on my shoulder, giving me a better angle to fuck her.

She kisses me as I lower my body onto hers, both of us on the car now, pressing my pubic bone into her clit while I slide in and out of her slowly.

We’re surrounded by trees, and her moans and our heavy breaths are probably echoing in the wilderness, but neither of us seems to care. She sucks on my tongue, and I bite her lip, grabbing a handful of her hair and tilting her head to the side to kiss down her throat.

Her entire body quivers as I suck on the sensitive spot under her ear, so I do it again, harder, licking and biting and letting out a deep moan as my balls tighten again.

I flip her over and ease into her from behind. Her pussy is soaking, dripping down her thighs as I fuck into her again, all the way to the hilt.

The angle I’m hitting and the way her ass is shaking has me seeing stars. Black spots crowd my vision as I grit my teeth, wrapping her ponytail around my fist and using the leverage to fuck her harder.

There’s only the sound of slapping skin and her moaning my name, then Stacey lets out a pleasurable cry as her pussy strangles me through her orgasm. It crashes into her like a tidal wave, but I don’t stop. I keep the pace, yanking her hips back so she only has her hands on the car. I lean over her and drop my hand down from her waist to between her legs, and coat my fingers in her arousal.

She screams as I go faster, circling her clit with equal speed.

My cock throbs inside her with each hard thrust. “Fuck, Stacey,” I growl as I screw my eyes shut – then go completely still as I come inside her, my orgasm nearly decking me. “Fuck.”

It takes us a few moments to come down from our highs. I ease out of her slowly, mesmerised by the sight of my cum leaking down her thighs. Turning her around to face me, I grab her jaw and kiss her while still attempting to catch my breath.

“Does that prove I still want you? That I’m attracted to everything about you?”

All she can do is nod, dazed, her eyes completely dilated.

“Good. Remember that when you have any doubts. You’re stuck with me, Freckles.” I raise her chin to look at me when her head drops and kiss her again. “Get used to it.”

I help her get dressed, and we stop at the closest bathroom so she can use the toilet. We grab food, and once the car is parked at the Ride and Fly, we do some shopping. I buy her a Kindle and perfume, and us both a camera, before settling in the pub while we wait to depart.

“Your cum is leaking out of me,” she randomly tells me as she takes a picture of our boarding passes. The group of grannies nearby give us a horrifying look. “No, I’m serious. When I sneezed? Boom.”

I choke on my beer. “Sometimes I wish you’d keep this shit to yourself.”

She sips her fruity cider. “You love it.”

I love you, I want to say. But instead, I laugh and say, “Drink up. We board in twenty minutes.”

Greece is hot as fuck considering it isn’t peak season.

On the first day, we explore the area and book matching tattoos for the last day. I drew us a dead rose with some lyrics from The Greatest Showman mingled into it.

We eat, drink and go to the beach. I watch Stacey as she sunbathes in a tight little bikini. Try not to get hard as I rub sun cream over her back and legs, and try not to push into her as I carry her in the water.

A few days later, while we’re sitting in a restaurant, a little girl, about four years old, has lost her parents. Stacey asks if she’s okay, and when she starts to cry, I take her small hand and we search for the parents. When she gets really upset, I carry her through the restaurant, asking the owner if he’s noticed anyone looking for their kid.

She’s starting to burn, so we buy a high factor of sun cream, and Stacey lathers her with it while I jump into other shops and ask if anyone lost a kid.

An hour later, she’s asleep in my arms, and I’m hunting on my phone for the nearest police station, since it’s nearly midnight.

Stacey is looking at me with a strange expression, and I raise a brow. “What?”

“Seeing you with kids makes me feral,” she says in a whisper.

I chuckle and take her hand, still managing to carry the little girl while we walk towards the station. Stacey keeps silently screaming that I suit being a dad.

The parents are running towards us when we reach the station, and thank us while hugging their kid. They’re crying and tell us she ran off while they were talking to other holidaymakers.

I give the kid a high five, and an officer thanks us again before we leave. But Stacey is still going. She keeps informing me that she’ll come off the pill in exactly five years and can’t wait to see me with my own kids.

Wishful thinking, right? She must feel the same way about me as I do her surely?

I love her, and I want to tell her I love her, but what if I’m being too pushy?

Maybe I should tell her how I feel and see her reaction. Maybe it’ll be good to know we’re on the same page. She is my girlfriend after all. I should be honest about my feelings.

On the fourth night, we spend all day at a pool with a swim-up bar, and we’re smashed and kissing in the water. People can see us, but who cares?

You see this girl here? She’s mine.

“You need to stop,” she says, giggling. “You’re hard and there’s like thirty people in this pool with us.”

“Maybe they’re into voyeurism.” I wiggle my brows as I rock her against my dick, which is, definitely, without a doubt, harder than steel. “Will my Freckles be a little exhibitionist and fuck me in front of all these people?”

We’re drunk, happily bobbing around in the water, enjoying time together like other couples here. I like this. No, I love this. I love her. I love her so fucking much.

“I have a better idea.”

I hum and kiss her throat, on my tiptoes to keep us above the surface. “I’m all ears.”

“Let’s go to the beach.”

“I’m not into getting sand in my ass crack,” I say as she takes my hand and leads me out of the water. I wrap my arms around her as we walk to the sunbeds. “But I won’t refuse a blowjob.”

“Shut up.”

I shut up.

Once dried and clothed, Stacey takes my hand again, leading us past the fire dancers that usually have her mesmerised, down the narrow lane that opens up to the beach. We’re staying along to the right.

I grin and watch her as we pull off our shoes and walk in the sand with our bare feet.

Music plays in a nearby bar, and I spin her around twice, pull her into me to take her waist and slowly dance her backwards until her back hits the wall of a cave, water crashing just behind it.

“I always fancied you – did you know that?”

She wraps her arms around my neck. “You had a strange way of showing it.”

I lick my lips, alcohol clouding the anxiety that might stop me from talking. “I wanted you from the beginning. I wanted you so fucking much, it drove me insane. I hated you because you were my sister’s best friend. I knew you couldn’t stand me.”

Stacey’s lips part, and she silently studies the serious expression that matches my tone.

“When I got dared to kiss you, I begged myself not to fuck it up.”

She slips her fingers into my hair. “Me too.”

I want to smile, but the nerves are kind of catching up to me. “It’s only been half a year, but it feels like longer. You’re everything to me, Stacey. Everything. I think about you constantly, and I get excited when it’s time to see you. I’ve never been attracted to someone before; did you know that? Never. Not once did I come across someone I found attractive. I thought I was broken, that my emotions were limited, but I just hadn’t met you yet.”

Her eyes water, but she just listens.

“I want it all with you. I want to go home and tell everyone that we’re together, that we’re going to have kids and grow old together. Do you want to know why?”

“Why?” she asks, so softly.

I take her face in my hands, stroking hair behind her ears. “Because I love you. I’ve been in love with you for ages – it’s been all I’ve thought about. And I keep falling more in love with you every single fucking day.”

A tear slips down her cheek, and I swipe it with my thumb. “You love me?”

“I do. I’m in love with you, Freckles.”

Her bottom lip trembles, her body easing against mine. Voice shaking, she whispers, “I’m in love with you too.”

My heart explodes in my chest as I lower my head, pressing a tender, loving kiss to her mouth. “Are you going to be my forever, Freckles?”

She nods, and we both break into a smile, giggling, and kissing as I press her against the cave wall before dragging her back to where we’re staying.

“Are you recording me?”

Stacey grins, her phone raised while I try to dry myself.

“And here, ladies and gentlemen, is my wonderful boyfriend Kade Mitchell.” She zooms in on my abs. “He’s new to the gym, but look at these!” She slaps my sunburn, and I contemplate throwing her off the balcony of our hotel room. “How lucky am I?”

I rub my hair with a towel while she records the room only wearing my black top, no fucking underwear, her hair wet, dragging the camera over the large bath we spent hours in last night. Then she goes onto the balcony to show the camera the view.

The sun is setting over the sea, the sky an orange glow that we’ve watched every night for the last six days. One more night and it’s back to reality.

“And over there” – she points to the cave next to the beach – “is where Kade told me he loved me for the first time.”

I laugh and pull on my shorts, following her onto the landing.

“He said I was everything to him, and that we were going to grow old together and have loads of babies.” She pouts. “He was drunk, to be fair. So maybe he doesn’t love me.”

So needy. “I do love you.” My arms wrap around her waist. I was drunk when I confessed my feelings, but they weren’t lies. “You’re exaggerating, Freckles.” I place a soft kiss on her neck. “‘Loads’ wasn’t the word I used. If I remember correctly, you cried and said you loved me too.”

She taps something on her phone, and our faces appear on the screen. “We’re cute.”

I raise a brow, and she flinches when I try to tickle her. “Stop calling me cute.”

“But you are! You put cream on my back and carried my beach bag all day.”

“I was trying to get my hole,” I reply, and she slaps my arm.

“I’m recording this and you keep being dirty!” My girlfriend gives me a look while I slowly work my fingers under her top, skin on skin. She tilts her head to me, so we’re cheek to cheek. “Stop it.” She bats my hands away from groping her tits then changes the subject by saying, “Tell the world, Kade. Who’s the best driver?”

I snort. “This again? Considering you nearly crashed my new car, I’d say you lose this one.”

She rolls her eyes, leaning into me. “What nineteen-year-old has a black Audi anyway? Such a goddamn predictable rich boy.”

“You weren’t complaining when I had you bent over it.”

Stacey groans and lowers her phone. “Hey! I can’t show this to our future kids if you’re going to say things like that!”

I laugh against her neck, hugging her tighter to my body.

She’d asked if I ever wanted kids, albeit we’re only nineteen and nowhere near ready or in a position, but the idea of having a family with her seems so… right. Not now obviously; no one knows we’ve been dating for months, but in years to come, having children with Stacey Rhodes, definitely.

I reckon Mum and Dad and Ewan would rip me apart if I made them grandparents before they’re fifty.

Once we’re ready, we head to the karaoke bar near the hotel. Stacey’s hand is soft in mine, her freckled skin more defined by the sun, her hair shiny and falling down her back in dark waves. She documents everything, videoing our fingers interlocked, the view, the smile on my face when she says something ridiculous.

Fuck. She’s so beautiful.

We’ve come to this bar every night, always ending up smashed and singing on the stage with a dozen older couples. I’d usually be disgusted by my behaviour, but this holiday is different – we aren’t sneaking away just to have time together like we usually do; we’re an actual couple – in love and preparing to tell our families about our relationship. I can finally tell my friends everything too.

She claims to have softened me, but that’s impossible – I’m always hard.

Her family won’t like me. I’m Tobias Mitchell’s son after all. I already met her dad, and he wasn’t happy with me breaking into the yard. Her stepbrother Kyle will have something to say, but I don’t give a shit. My main concern is Stacey and how she’ll feel when everyone tells her she can do way better than me, that she shouldn’t be with the son of a psychopath.

Regardless, we’re in Greece, enjoying the sun, sea and sex. Everything else can fuck off.

Seems like “King and Queens” by Thirty Seconds to Mars is our jam for the night. Stacey asks someone to record us, and I swallow my fifth shot of vodka and follow her to the stage like a lost puppy.

My throat burns from how loud we’re yelling through the chorus. I kiss her in front of the crowd, and they cheer as I lift her into my arms.

When we get back to the hotel room, naked and wrapped up in each other’s bodies, we watch the clip, and it’s as horrid as I expected. Stacey sounds like a drowning cat, and she keeps giggling at her own voice.

But we look happy.

Her giggles turn into a belly laugh as we keep watching the video, as I lift her from the stage, spin her around in my arms while we stumble out of the bar and fall into the sand. We’d stayed there talking for ages before making it back here. She must’ve not known the recording was still on.

Dez and Base would refuse to be friends with me if they saw the shit I got up to with her. But she always brings a fun side out of me, like her happiness is infectious, and I’m perfectly fine with it.

Just wait till my dad hears about this trip. He did pay for the first few, to help us vanish from reality for a bit, but I’ve worked with Ewan a lot to save, and Stacey had some money set aside, so we combined our savings for this holiday. I told him I’d tell her I loved her, and he was excited for me – said he’s seeing a new side to me that he never knew existed.

Stacey does that. She showed me at the beginning of our relationship that there was more than doom and gloom, that my low moods were controllable, that the hatred I had for the world shouldn’t define who I am.

She taught me everything I needed to fall for her. Even my drawings are getting better.

Stacey sits up on me, thighs either side of my waist, camera in hand.

“Really? More pictures?” I raise a brow when she snaps two more. “Live in the moment, Stacey.”

She beams. “I am. I just want to have loads of things to look back on.”

I sit up and kiss her. “You say that as if something bad might happen to one of us. I’m going nowhere, and neither are you.”

Stacey brushes her fingers through my hair, her eyes still hooded and dazed from her third orgasm of the night. “Can we stay here forever?”

“When it comes to you, Freckles, I’d do anything.”

And I mean it. She wants to stay here; I’ll make it happen. She wants to move to a different planet; I’ll have us on the next fucking rocket out of here.

“Even let me drive your car again?”

“Well…” She giggles as I flip us over, settling between her legs. Her nose is red from the sun, and I press my lips to it gently. “Anything but that.”