“Together,” he finished for me. “We’re together. If you need a label that’s cool. You’re my girlfriend.”
“Ooh! Jensen Rose has a girlfriend,” I singsonged. He tickled my ribs until I begged him to stop, laughing so hard tears had formed in my eyes.
“And you have a boyfriend, sunshine. Don’t you forget it.”
“I won’t,” I said on a blissed-out sigh. “And even if I did, my boyfriend’s kind of a hothead. He’ll be sure to remind me.”
“Damn right he will.”
Chapter Fourteen
Shane
Sixteen years old
Looking at my reflection in the bathroom mirror, I brushed the strands of hair off my forehead and studied my face closely, trying to find any signs that I looked different. Because I certainly felt different.
Shane Hendrix was crazy, stupid, head-over-heels in love. And as of a few minutes ago, she was also no longer a virgin.
At the thought of that, my reflection blushed pink and smiled goofily.
It had been . . . incredible. The pain I’d always heard about was there in the beginning, a nasty pinch then a brutal burn. But he’d been so gentle. He worked me up beforehand, making it so I was good and ready before pushing himself inside. He’d gotten me to a point where I was comfortable, but I hadn’t been sure I’d be able to get off. He’d set those doubts aside, using his hand between my thighs to make me come while he was inside me.
Jensen and I had officially been a couple for four months, and not once had he pushed me for sex before I was ready. The decision was all mine to make, and he’d been so patient. It felt like we’d been together forever. Our relationship didn’t feel like a naïve, clichéd high school relationship. It was intense and magnetic and consuming, sure. But it was also so much more. I might not have had a real boyfriend before him, but I’d been observant. I saw the drama that came with being part of a teenage couple. The fights, the drama, the constant breakups just to make up the very next day. I’d never wanted to be any part of that.
But that wasn’t what Jensen’s and my relationship was like. Our need for each other was so extreme it sometimes scared me, but whenever I started to feel overwhelmed, he’d be there to talk me off the ledge. We didn’t fight, at least not really. He could still be an ass from time to time, that egotistical side rearing its head, but I didn’t hate it like I thought I would. It had actually become something I liked. Most of the time I thought it was funny. On the times I didn’t, I’d throw attitude his way until he stopped acting like a jerk, and then we’d move on.
The only drama we’d experienced in the past few months was from other people. Rina and Ronny might not have been together anymore—not a shocker—but that hadn’t stopped either of them from trying to push our buttons. Unfortunately for them, it didn’t work. It was easy to ignore the annoying bullshit that didn’t matter when you had someone at your back, and that’s what Jensen and I did for each other. I had his back and he had mine, always.
We were solid in a way I’d never seen with the other kids at school. In fact, I’d only seen it once in my life, with Aunt Caro and Uncle Scooter.
There was only one issue we had that was niggling at me. Unfortunately, it was a big one.
“You fall down and crack your head in there?” Jensen called from his bedroom. “Knock once for no and twice if I need to call an ambulance.”
I pulled the bathroom door open and rolled my eyes at him, trying to hide my blush and the fact that I suddenly felt really nervous behind a curtain of my hair as I moved through the surprisingly clean room to his bed. He was sitting on the edge in nothing but a pair of boxer briefs, watching me with a soft, gentle smile on his face as I padded my way to him, tugging at his T-shirt to try and cover more of my exposed legs.
“Hey,” he said quietly, grabbing my hips as soon as I was within reach and spreading his legs so he could pull me in between them. He locked his arms around my waist so I couldn’t get away and tipped his head back to get a better view of my face. “You okay? I didn’t hurt you, did I? I tried to be careful, I swear.”
“No,” I said quickly, placing my hands on his bare shoulders, letting the heat of his skin seep into me. “No, you didn’t hurt me. It was . . .” I tried to find a word that would encompass everything I was feeling, but nothing seemed big enough, so I settled on, “great.”
“Then what’s goin’ on in your head?” It always amazed me how easily he could read me, given we really hadn’t been together all that long. “Something’s obviously bothering you. I want to know what it is.”
“It’s not about what just happened,” I said meekly, glancing to the bed where we’d just had sex for the first time. “It’s just . . .”
He gave me a little jostle. “Just what?”
“This is the first time I’ve been in your house since the day we met. Are you—” My voice broke. “Are you embarrassed to be with me?”
His whole body rocked backward, causing me to sway with it. “What?”
“It’s just that I’ve never met your parents. We’ve been together four months, were friends for two months before that, and you’ve never once brought me over to meet them. The only reason you brought me here today was because they aren’t home. I can’t help but think—”
“It’s not you,” he said sharply.
My forehead pinched into a frown. “What’s not me?”
“I’m not embarrassed to be with you. You’re the best fucking thing that’s ever happened to me, Shane. I love you more than you’ll ever understand.”
My chest fluttered at his admission of love. “I love you too, bunny,” I said, using the nickname I’d come up with for him as a joke. He rolled his eyes every time I called him bunny or Snuggle Bunny, but he never asked me to stop, and I thought maybe he secretly liked it. “But if you aren’t embarrassed to be with me, why haven’t I met them? I mean, you’ve met my family. Hell, you spend more time with them than you do here.”
His arms released me as he let out a heavy sigh and collapsed back onto his bed. I crawled over him, straddling his sides and resting my behind on his thighs as I poked at his chest. “Talk to me. Something’s obviously bothering you, and I want to know what it is,” I said, repeating his earlier words back to him.
I let out a little yelp when he moved fast, flipping me to my back. He propped up on one elbow, hovering over me and brushing the hair off my face. “I haven’t brought you here before because I don’t want you to meet them.”
A sharp, piercing pain like I’d just had a knife shoved into my chest shot through me. I pulled a breath in through my nose and worked to beat back the burn behind my eyes as I pushed at his shoulders. “Get off,” I muttered. “I want to go home.”
He grabbed my wrists and pinned them to the mattress on either side of my head. “Shane, stop. Listen to my words. I didn’t say I don’t want them to meet you. I said I don’t want you to meet them. If there’s anyone alive that I’m embarrassed of, it’s them. I love you so much it sometimes hurts to breathe, so please, please, baby, don’t think for a second I’m ashamed of you,” he pleaded, desperation filling his eyes. “You’re everything to me. I can’t lose you. Not now. Not ever. You’re it for me, sunshine.”