Page 52 of Paper Hearts

“I…” He swallows, shaking his head as he rests it against my forehead. “I don’t think I can.”

“Try, please?” I wiggle my hips again and tighten my legs around his waist.

He nods and starts moving again, a slow rhythm of him dragging his erection back and forth over my center. “I’m warning you now,” he whispers, his words tickling my neck. “I’m gonna come in my shorts any fucking minute.”

“Okay,” I breathe, my feet flat on my mattress now, arching myself into his movements. He pauses, reaches inside his shorts, and then makes contact with my center again, his hand pressing into the mattress beside my head.

It’s another minute of his panting, grunting, searching for the exact spot, and thenithappens. My first orgasm. My toes curl. A sensation that starts low in my stomach spreads through my thighs to my toes and then back up to my center. I cling to Ender’s body, gripping him so tightly it’s as if I’m clinging to him to breathe. I am because nobody else makes me feel like this.

Ender grunts and drives his hips forward, his entire frame rigid and jerking. “Fuck,” he groans in my ear, holding onto me as if his life depends on it. All the air leaves my body and I stare up at him, watching his face as he, too, experiences what I assume is an orgasm. His lips are parted, his eyes closed, panting out quick breaths before his entire body collapses on mine.

I smile, hiding my face between his neck and shoulder.

“The last time I came in my shorts I was fourteen,” he complains softly, shaking his head.

The mention sends a stab to my heart thinking of what Arya told me that first summer. Ender and Kamila dry humping in the movie room.

“I’m sorry,” I say, not knowing what else to say.

“Don’t be.” Shifting his weight, he moves his hand to my cheek, his thumb brushing my lip. “Did it feel good?”

I smile and shiver beneath him. “So good I want another. Did you… like it?”

He nods, but I’m not granted words. His lashes lower, a smile on his lips, and then his hand lowers. Trailing over the side of my body, he slides off me to the side on the edge of my bed. Before I know what he’s doing, he has his hand inside my panties. Taking his index and middle finger, he slides it between my folds and then removes it. And then sucks on his fingers. “Your pussy tastes so good.”

My cheeks heat and I want to put my mouth on him, there, but I fear what his reaction will be.

Sighing, he turns over onto his back. “I have to go.”

“Why?” I whine, fisting his shirt and wishing he wouldn’t leave.

He presses his lips to my temple. “Because. My sister is in here, and if your dad finds out I just got his daughter off, he’ll kill me. And I really need a fucking shower now.”

Our eyes meet in the darkness. “He’d cut your dick off.”

Ender smirks. “We can’t have that, can we?”

“No way.” I shake my head dramatically, like I can’t live without him now. “I’m gonna need that again.”

He laughs, falls out of my bed, and then the window, waking up Arya, who wasn’t asleep at all.

Crawling over, she rests her chin on the edge of my bed, her smirk mirroring her brother’s. “Did you have your first orgasm, Hads?”

I nod and cover my face with my pillow.

22

WHEN I SNUCK INTO HIS BED

“So your dad thinks you should be a construction worker like him?” I ask Ender, waiting for Arya to get her bathing suit on so we can take their uncle’s boat out. “Is that why you guys fight so much?”

We spend most days out there but today, Ender’s irritable after a fight with his dad. I keep thinking maybe he’s going to leave. I can see the need to disappear on his face.

“I don’t know what the fuck he thinks.” He laughs but the sound is off. It’s sharp and bitter, annoyed. “He thinks I should take over James Construction. My granddad handed it down to him, and since Greer didn’t, well, I might as well.”

“What’s wrong with that?” My legs dip over the edge of the dock. I watch the ripples in the water. “Wouldn’t you want to work with him?”

He stares at the water as he speaks lowly. “Just because it’s his business,hisdream, doesn’t mean it’s mine. I don’t want anything to do with that piece of shit. I have my own life that doesn’t revolve around him and that stupid fucking business.” Turning his head, he glances over at him. “Money is a status for him. I don’t even think he likes what he does. It’s just the fact that he owns his own company.”

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