Caught (Camren)

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Catching up was not a priority once we arrived at Lauren's new house. With a quick introduction to the one story home and a lock of the front door, we were on each other within seconds. She gripped the dripping hair at the base of my skull and pulled my lips to hers, wasting no time in meeting my tongue with her own. My hands wandered her entire body as if I'd forgotten what she felt like. For a while, I had, but only because she wasn't there for me to touch. Now that she was in front of me once more, all the memories of what she felt like, of what she tasted like, sounded like, and looked like underneath me came flooding back at once. All of those thoughts crowding my mind at the same time were too much to handle. I placed my hands on her backside and lifted her up, letting her wrap her good leg around my waist and wrapping the numb one around it myself. I pressed her against the door, holding her tightly in place as my lips wandered the soft flesh of her neck. Her breathing was sharp and shallow as she threw her head back against the wooden frame.

"The...the bedroom is down the hall," she said breathlessly.

I lifted her away from the door and carried her through the house, my lips never leaving her neck. I couldn't see anything with her in front of me, but I finally bumped into a door and kicked it open, throwing her down on the mattress and helping her reposition so that she was in the middle of it. I crawled on top of her, immediately feeling her lift up the hem of my shirt and slide her hands underneath. My skin was cold from the rain, but her touch was so warm. It shocked me for a second to feel the blood physically pulsating through her after she'd felt so cold for so long. I sat up, able to do nothing but stare at her below me and admire her. I wanted to feel her, to kiss her, to touch every inch of her body with mine, but all I really wanted was to see her. I wanted to know that she was really there.

"What's the matter?" she asked.

"I don't know," I answered quietly. "I mean...nothing's wrong, I just...can't believe you're here."

"I am," she smiled, pushing up my shirt more and dragging her hands down my abdomen.

I pulled the shirt off the rest of the way and tossed it on the ground. Lauren impatiently pulled me back onto her and connected our lips again. I could tell she was getting antsy. I could feel the tension in her muscles and knew how desperately she wanted a shift in dominance, but her leg allowed hardly any movement. I stopped and stared down at the brace, wondering if she'd ever attempted to take it off.

"I hate it," she huffed, evidently reading my mind. "I can take it off, but I'd rather have it on. At least it reminds me that there's nothing there, you know? When it's just my leg, sometimes I forget that I can't walk. It's a let down every time."

"You should take it off, Lauren," I told her. "You'll never know if you can walk again if you always have it on."

"Maybe I will one day," she shrugged. "But for now, you can take it off, and then you can take the rest of my clothes off with it."

I smiled and reached down to the brace, unhooking the three locks that held it in place and sliding the entire thing down her leg at once.

"Are you sure you want it off?" I teased. "I think you would look sexier with it on."

"If that's what you're into now, then by all means, I'll put it back on," she joked.

I laughed once and held her hands as she sat up so that I could remove the sweatshirt I'd given her. I removed both the hoodie and the shirt she wore underneath in one quick movement, and then my eyes blatantly wandered her chest and her stomach. I traced the shape of her scars with the tip of my finger, starting with the one on her arm, then the one on her shoulder, and finally the one right next to her heart. They didn't seem like flaws to me. They just seemed to serve as reminders that she'd survived. She looked so much smaller, so delicate and breakable, but still so beautiful. It had been so long since I'd had the chance to admire her. I watched as her chest rose and fell with each breath, admiring not only her body, but the fact that she was actually inside of it. Her lungs were working on their own again, breathing in the air around us in shallow bursts. Her heart was beating. Lauren was very much alive, and she was there with me again. I laid her back down and pressed my lips to her neck, then across her collarbone, and down the valley between her breasts at the same time that I reached under her and unclasped her bra. I didn't look as much as I wanted to, but instead continued the trail of kisses down her stomach and to her waistline, her hand tangled in my hair to guide me. I unbuttoned her jeans and started to pull them ever so slightly off of her hips, but my own desire to taste her lips again got the better of me and I moved back up to reconnect them. She kissed me once but quickly pulled back.