And then he just stares, his cheeks flushed from how he kissed me and his lips wet. His eyes roam over my face, drinking me in, and my heart twists with a warm ache. I wish this didn’t mean so much to me. I wish I’d never gone to that school.

But it means everything to me, just like Aden. I can accept that it happened to me because I have to accept it. I’ll never appreciate it. I’ll never be grateful to anyone at that school.

The one thing I’m grateful for is Aden.

I’m grateful to him for surviving. I’m grateful to myself for doing the same.

He comes in for another kiss, slower and gentler but just as hot. I taste him once, then twice, and then we’re all over each other again, pulling at each other’s clothes.

Aden picks me up. I sling my legs over his hips and wrap my arms around his shoulders and kiss him like I’ll never get to kiss him again while he walks us to my bedroom.

Then he strips my shirt over my head and pushes the rest of my clothes down and off. I run my fingertips over his bare skin. He has scars underneath his shirt. Some of them are from school. Others happened after. I kiss them one by one, caressing them, and drag my hands lower until I wrap my hand around his hard length.

He groans, his head dropping back, and lets me stroke him a few times, working the droplet of precum from his tip over the head.

He’s so fucking hot.

With a firm possessive grip, he puts his hands on my waist and pushes me onto the bed.

Aden crawls over me, pushes my knees to my chest, and holds them there while he devours me. His tongue laves over every inch of my pussy. He licks me like he’ll die if he can’t keep tasting me, stroking the tip of his tongue into my entrance, then finally working his way up to my clit.

I don’t know how many times I come with my hands in his hair. I just keep pulling him in and in and in, and he keeps working at my clit until I’m oversensitive and gasping.

“Aden,” I say, pushing his head away from my thighs. “Aden. Just—just a minute. I can’t—I can’t⁠—”

“Mmm. Can’t you?” He keeps one hand on my thigh and slides two fingers into me, sliding them in and out at a slow pace. I clench down around them, so he buries them deeper and finds my G-spot.

“Oh, God, Aden, Aden. That’s so—oh, God.”