The Best Kind of Forever (Riverside Reapers Book 1)

HAYES

From the moment Aeris kissed me, I’d been fighting a semi. Now she’s in my room, looking like a wet dream in her jeans and oversized sweatshirt, and my dick’s harder than steel.

“I never thanked you for the picnic,” she says, and I’m so distracted by the pleasure swamping my gut that I can barely focus on her face.

“Aeris, you don’t—”

She severs my words by working the buttons on my shirt with her fingers, her tongue wetting the bottom of her lip.

Thank me for the pic—oh. OH.

“You don’t ha—”

Her hand shoots out to cover my mouth, and my heart flip-flops under her touch. There’s a hint of the devil in her eyes.

“Hayes, please shut up.”

I nod, letting her peel my shirt off, and she runs her hands up my stomach, her fingernails lightly marking my skin. I help her out of her hoodie, revealing a small tank top that barely contains her breasts and showcases that luscious jewel in her belly.

I groan into her mouth, capturing her lips in a sloppy kiss that shows her exactly where I want this afterschool special to go. Her pebbled nipples are giving me a high salute from the chill coming through the vents, and she presses her cleavage up against my chest.

Her voice is low and husky. “I’m going to make you feel good.”

I’ve never been a religious person before, but after today, I think I’m gonna need to go to confessional.

I stay pressed up against my door, hoping that nobody in the house can hear what’s about to transpire. The lower half of me is mashed against her abdomen, and when she rolls her hips, I have to bite my tongue to stop from moaning.

I arch against her. “Are you sure?”

She hums, and it’s a buzz against my mouth. “I’m sure.”

In one fluid motion, my pants are at my ankles, and she slides my boxers down. My dick springs out immediately, slapping against my stomach. A noise of surprise sails out of her, and a stroke of blush turns her skin an incendiary red. I’m bigger than average. And no, that’s not me tooting my own horn. It’s a widely known fact.

I expect Aeris to change her mind, but she doesn’t. Everything is a blur. One second, she’s in front of me, and the next, she’s down on her knees.

Her lips suction around the head of my cock, and they’re pillow soft. She begins to slowly move up and down my shaft, not fully taking me, only clamping halfway and squeezing slightly as her mouth slips up my length. Saliva helps with the traction she’s created, and her tongue laves at the vein running along the underside of my dick.

“Holy…fuck.”

I feel my thighs grow hot, and then suddenly, my whole body is ablaze. Oh my God. She knows exactly what to do with her tongue, exactly how to stroke me, and she swirls it around the tip, licking up pre-cum.

She removes herself from my appendage, and I already miss the warmth of her mouth. “Go on, Hayes. Beg me,” she commands, still sexy as fuck with a string of spit hanging from her chin.

I’m so caught off guard that I can’t possibly form a response to that. Who knew Aeris Relera had a dominant side to her?

“I may be the one on my knees, but you’re going to be the one begging.”

“Please, Stacks.” My dick’s in so much pain, and Aeris’ mouth is the only relief that I’m interested in chasing. Not to mention that this whole assertive thing she has going on really does it for me.

“Please what?”

I let my hand start to stimulate me, but it’s subpar at best, and I have no idea how I’m going to masturbate anymore without thinking about her plush lips. “Please suck me fucking dry. You have no idea how long I’ve waited for your tonsils to know what the tip of my dick feels like. How long I’ve wanted to splatter my cum over those perfect freckles of yours,” I growl lowly.

She takes me fully into her mouth this time, her cheeks puffing out slightly. She gags when I hit the back of her throat, but she continues to milk my granite-hard erection, adding a hand to pump the base. Her eyes water, and more saliva ropes down her chin. Her fingers don’t fully connect around my girth; a few good inches of space exists between her index finger and thumb.

If she continues like this, I’m gonna blow my load in two minutes.

Desire breaks over me as I brace myself against the door. “Fuck, yeah,” I moan, a little too loudly. “Just like that.”

I shut my eyes completely, welcoming a prolonged span of darkness. I can hear the murmur of electricity pulsating through my veins, alighting my body, my impending orgasm rising from the ashes of pure pleasure. Orange and red flames devour me whole, choking me. I gasp for the sweet release of air, but an intense wall of heat slams into me instead.

I throw my head back. “Aeris, I—fuck—I’m going to come.”

Her name on my tongue is a dangerous combination, and I just pulled the trigger. She somehow sees that as a challenge to make me come faster. I nearly disintegrate when she cups my balls and massages them in her palms.

She then moves one hand to knead my ass, her thumb lightly brushing over my asshole, and that’s all I need before I’m coming so hard I can’t see straight.

Her eyes darken as she looks up at me through her lashes and swallows. She then wipes away the cum trickling down her chin, flashing me a provocative smile.

Oh my God. That was, undeniably, the best head I’ve ever gotten. Once I pull my boxers back up, I lead Aeris over to my bed, lying down and patting my bare chest.

“Come here.”

She snuggles up next to me, resting her ear over my heart, using her finger to lackadaisically trace the outline of my abs. I kiss the crown of her head, using one hand to gently comb through her hair.

“I talked with my agent today. He said I should go on a podcast and answer some questions about our relationship, but I didn’t want to agree to anything before talking with you,” I say, wishing I could hold her in my arms forever.

When I was with Macy, my career was the most important thing to her. With Aeris, I don’t feel like I need to put on a show.

“Do you want to do it?” she asks, propping her chin on my chest so she can look at me.

“Tell the entire world that Aeris Relera is mine? Fuck yeah, I wanna do it.”

“If you’re sure, then I’m going to support you,” Aeris promises, pride layered in her tone, a light-hearted smile tilting over her mouth.

I hook my finger under her chin, pulling her in to me so I can kiss her. I can taste my own saltiness on her tongue, and even though she just emptied everything out of me, my dick wants to go for a second round.

When she draws back, she runs her hand over the Roman numerals above my chest. “What does this tattoo mean?”

I take in a deep breath from the bottom of my lungs. “It’s the date my mother died.”

“Oh, Hayes…”

“It’s okay. I got it to remember her.”

I’d really rather not ruin the moment by thinking about my dead mom.

“What about the tree? On your back?” she inquires.

“I knew you were staring at my back that night,” I jest.

Aeris flicks me on the arm as she rolls her lips together. “I wasn’t staring. I was observing.”

I laugh. “The tree represents resilience and growth. I try to look at it every now and then to remind myself that I’m more than my struggles. And when you were observing me, you were also drooling a bit.”

“I’d be offended if you weren’t right.”

I grab her small hand, interlacing our fingers together. Macy never asked me about my tattoos—no girl has. When I talk with Aeris, it’s like I get a break from the harsh reality of the world, and for just a moment, get to live in a bubble of pure bliss. Spending time with her has never felt like an obligation. And when time flies, the only thing I want to do is rewind the clock.

“Thank you, Aeris. For always being there. For being so understanding,” I say, and a foreign feeling prowls out from the shadows of my tortured consciousness—a feeling dangerously close to love.

She sits up on the bed, crossing her legs and placing her hands in her lap. “I don’t want there to be any secrets between us.”

I cover a dry choke with a cough—hopefully well enough—and I slide my back up against my headboard. No more secrets. And that includes the huge secret of me only pursuing her in the beginning to fix my reputation. The huge secret I’m too afraid to tell her because I know she’ll leave if she finds out.

I don’t think I could ever tell her. It would ruin her. It would ruin everything we’ve built together, and I don’t want any of that to go away.

I’m half-expecting her to start grilling me over everything I’ve done in my twenty-three years of life, but she starts talking.

Aeris takes a fortifying breath, interlocking her toilworn eyes with mine, ones I swear I can see moisture in. It’s crazy how quickly her demeanor has changed, and it’s making the bud in my throat grow to the size of a tumor. What is she about to tell me? Why is she so upset?

Her lower lip pops out with a tremble, and she looks about seconds away from crying. “Promise you won’t be mad, okay?” Her voice is small and unsure, almost like she knows she shouldn’t be asking in the first place.

Not a great start.

“I promise,” I tell her. And I do…to the best of my ability.

Her confidence languishes and her guard lowers, revealing the shell of a girl who’s been broken one too many times. I hate seeing Aeris sad. I want to fix whatever it is that’s bothering her, but I need to remember that I’m here to listen, not to come up with a solution to all her problems.

“I had an ex named Wilder. We dated for two years. There were, um, there were a lot of things wrong with our relationship. He was manipulative and cruel and judgmental, and I cared for him a lot more than he cared for me. I’m honestly not even sure why I stayed with him for as long as I did. I did everything I could to make him happy. I dressed differently, I ate the food that he suggested, I didn’t talk when we were around his friends. There was one point when I would’ve done anything he asked of me.

“When Roden passed, Wilder abandoned me when I needed him the most. I don’t know why, and I don’t think I’ll ever know. I kept blaming myself for driving him away—convincing myself that it was my fault he no longer wanted to be with me. I always took the fall for his mistakes. In my eyes, he could do no wrong, and that did a number on my self-esteem.

“So when I first started seeing you, I was worried about being vulnerable around another person. I was afraid I’d have a Wilder 2.0 on my hands. He always had an opinion on my body, and there are lingering parts of me that still believe his toxic words. I’m sorry I’ve waited this long to tell you, Hayes. But that was the reason I was so hesitant to go out with you.”

Wow. Aeris just dropped a lot on me, but I think what hurts the most is her not seeing herself the way I see her. Yeah, I’m fucking angry over her douche of an ex, but we’ll get to that later.

“Oh, Stacks,” I whisper, reaching my arm out to graze her knee. When she doesn’t flinch away, I settle my hand on her leg, hoping that the gesture will at least soothe her a little bit. “I’m sorry you went through that. And I feel so honored that you trusted me enough to tell me.”

“I know that you’re nothing like him. I’m sorry that I held back from you in the beginning.” The pain in her tone is strong enough to topple a small fleet of ships, and she dismisses the water in her eyes with a rub of her hand.

“No, you don’t need to apologize for anything,” I tell her, pulling her quailing frame into my steady one, letting her bury her face in the junction of my neck.

“You’re so incredible, Hayes. I just wish I looked better for you.”

Wrath kickstarts a fire in my chest. “Stop.”

Uh-oh. There’s that notorious Hollings temper, rearing its ugly head. I need to get my anger under control. I can’t just be blowing my top whenever Aeris needs me to stay calm.

She pulls away from me to sniffle. “But—”

The growl in my voice is unintended, but I don’t apologize for letting it slip out. “No buts. I’m not going to sit here and listen to you talk badly about yourself.”

Tears travel an errant path down her cheeks, watery pearls adhering to her lashes. A tiny sob sputters out of her, and she tries to twist away from me, but I hold her still. I wipe the wet space below her eye with my thumb, then delicately glide it over the dark circles.

“Aeris, do you trust me?” I ask tenderly.

She nods, but the deflated look on her face makes my heart feel like it’s cracked in half and is spilling out onto the floorboards.

“Undress for me.”

A frown underlines the curve of her brows. “What?”

“Do you trust me?” I repeat, stripping my voice of its natural roughness.

She hesitates for a second, but then starts removing her clothing until all that’s left is her stunning, naked body. Everything about her is perfect, all the way down to that trimmed triangle of hair just above the sweetest pussy I’ve ever tasted. Just the sight of her sends my body into full throttle, pleasure kindling in the pit of my stomach.

She covers her chest with her arms, looking anywhere but at my eyes. I get up from the bed, then shed my boxers so we’re on an equal playing field.

I kneel down in front of her, resting my hands on her waist. “Tell me which parts of your body you don’t like,” I command, looking up at her, watching as curiosity eclipses her expression.

“Hayes, I’m not going to—”

“Tell me which parts of your body you don’t like.”

She’s quiet for a beat, but then her lips start to move. “I…I don’t like my stretchmarks,” she says, shuffling her feet a little, still holding her arms against her torso.

I run my hand over her thighs, noting the raised texture of the scars, letting my finger stray over each individual branch of lightning. My lips travel over the marks, and I press a cluster of kisses against her flawless skin. “Your stretchmarks are beautiful. Your body had to adjust for a change in weight and growth, and I think that’s pretty amazing. Scars are reminders of what we’ve endured, but also reminders of what we’ve overcome.”

“They’re still so raw and red. They stand out.”

“They don’t stand out, Aeris. You stand out. Everything about you is captivating. You have this effect on people that I can’t explain. You light up every room you walk into. It’s like every emotion you feel is projected off you. When you’re happy, it’s contagious. And when you’re sad, I feel it in my own heart. So when people look at you, they aren’t judging you, okay? They’re envious.”

I have no idea if any of this is mitigating her worries. I hope it is. I hope I can take some of her pain. She pauses long enough for my doubts to burgeon, but then she blows out a breath and pinches her lips together.

Her next set of words barely come out. “M-my…stomach. I don’t like my stomach.”

When her hand moves over the area, I gently push it aside. I plant an array of kisses all over her belly, feeling her shiver under my mouth. “I love your stomach.”

“It’s not flat,” she cuts in.

“Do you think I care if it’s flat?”

I beat her to the answer by kitten-licking her piercing, and I move my hands down to stop her legs from trembling.

“You have a soft belly. That’s all it is. You need to eat. You should be consuming at least two thousand calories every day. I don’t care where those calories come from. If you want to eat your weight in chicken nuggets, I’ll buy you every single bag.”

Since I’m still on my knees, I can’t get a good look at her face, so I have no idea what she’s thinking right now. But judging by the silence, she’s either plotting my murder or suppressing sobs.

“I never want you to hide from me. I want every part of you, as you come. You’re beautiful, and I’ll remind you every day until you believe me.”

“You might be waiting a while, then,” she warns.

“You think I’m gonna be deterred by some waiting?”

Tears break through her eyes. “I just won’t be able to…”

I stand up and cradle the side of her face. “Hey, I don’t expect you to suddenly love yourself overnight. I just want you to know that I’ll do whatever I can to help you get there.”

She glances at my hand and shrinks away from me. Her fingers wordlessly come up to touch the little bumps on her cheeks, her mouth depositing a weighted sigh. “I don’t want you to touch my acne scars. I’ve tried everything to get rid of them, but nothing’s worked. I hate them, Hayes. I hate that I always feel the need to wear makeup. I can’t even go grocery shopping without putting concealer on.”

My hand inches toward her scars, and I wait for her to give me consent to touch there.

When she gives me a cautious nod, I familiarize myself with the pockmarked skin, seeing nothing wrong with the remarkable girl in front of me. “You don’t need to wear makeup, Aeris. Your rawness is gorgeous. Your scars are natural, and I love them because they’re a part of you.”

“You don’t need to say all of this stuff,” she mumbles.

“I know. I want to. And since you’re my favorite subject, I’m never going to shut up.”