{18+ COMPLETED • COLLEGE ROMANCE}
When a college freshman with a learning disability and a reputation collides with a straight-A, straight-laced girl in the dorm kitchen one night, he sees the darkest parts of himself reflected in her. But the two o...
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M A D I E
November Twenty-Third
Four
The voice of the sea is seductive;
never ceasing, whispering, clamoring, murmuring,
inviting the soul to wander.
-The Awakening, Kate Chopin
—
I didn't turn around.
Heavy breathing, tingling limbs, soft brown eyes turned hard and eager—they were all things that were making it difficult to actually move.
But mostly, I needed to search Bren's face and ask him a silent question first. Because if I turned around, and he walked away from me again like yesterday, I didn't think I could handle it. I needed him to be sure.
It had been hard to sleep this morning after the conversation with Bren yesterday. My brain kept wanting to slip into memories of that night with Quinton, wanting to dissect it for more evidence of the truth that I now knew. How had I been so blind? It always came back to that.
I wrestled with it. Was it a symptom of my weakness? Or did it just mean that my strengths lie elsewhere, and they were stronger for my lack of sight?
Ultimately, I fought off the rising waters that threatened to drown me again. Because I refused to let Quinton take away my ability to swim free. And I refused to let him take Bren from me. Bren, who was giving me back control. I was never going to be able to change what happened between Quinton and I. But my future with Bren was at my fingertips.
I just needed to turn around.
Bren's lips twitched while I watched him. He gave a silent, reassuring nod. And I decided that was enough for me.
I spun in his arms, and Bren crushed us together as soon as I'd flipped around. And then we were kissing. I wasn't sure who kissed who. It was an instant entanglement of lips and tongue.
Refusing to release each other, we tripped over our feet in a stumbling approach to the massive bed. Our movement stopped when Bren's heels ran into the end of the mattress, and I broke away from his lips reluctantly. But only so I could explore the rest of him like he'd done to me.
Bren's breath hitched as I pressed my mouth to his neck, my tongue dancing across his skin as I kissed a path down his body. He kept a hand on the back of my head as I went, his fingers lightly playing with my hair in absentminded twists and twirls.
Kissing the expanse of his chest was achingly intimate. His breathing was so harsh, his heartbeat so rapid. And I felt it all.
I brushed my hands down his sides before flattening them on his abs. He tensed beneath my touch. And I felt it all.
