Truly

by Carmel Rhodes

“I see you, Truly. If my brother was stupid enough to drop you, you better fucking believe I’m going to pick you up. I will own you, every inch that belonged to him will be mine.” I swallow at the conviction in his words. At the finality of them. I stare up at the demons dancing in his eyes, and in that second, I know that I should run. I turn and bolt for the stairs. “You can run, Little One,” he calls after me. “But I will chase you, and I won’t stop until your innocence is smeared all over my cock.”

Noah Tedesco is hot, I’ll give him that, but so was Ted Bundy.

Life is like a sink full of dirty dishes—you stick your hand in, and hope there isn’t a knife at the bottom.

“Devin isn’t here. Noah is and he’s hot, and rich, and completely obsessed with you. What would be the harm in giving him a chance?” “Because he’s also a psychopath with a god complex?” I deadpan.

Becca shrugs. “Ethan has a small penis, but he knows how to use it.” I laugh. “What does that have to do with anything?” “No one’s perfect. You just gotta learn to take the good with the bad.” “Sounds like settling,” I say. “It’s only settling if the bad outweighs the good. I can search my whole life for the perfect man and never find him. I want a real man who loves me, one who may not be everything I want, but who’s willing to be what I need.”

“How would you feel if I came to you smelling like another man?” He wraps a hand around my throat, the other finds the slippery opening between my legs, and he growls. “I’d kill him and fuck you on his corpse. This is mine.”

I stroke my hand up and down his shaft, equally as possessive, as he finger fucks me. “Then this is mine.” “Do you know what you’re agreeing to?” “You’ve stripped me naked and thrown me into the shower. I don’t think I have much of a choice in how I’m going to lose my virginity. At this point, I don’t even mind parting with it, but I will not be a number in your line up. If you’re fucking me, then you’re fucking only me.”

“Just once, I’d like you to respect a boundary I set. Just one.” “Just once, I’d like you to smile at me like you smile at him and tell me good morning, Daddy.” He grins, rubbing a finger across the scar on his chin.

“This is my pussy, Truly. I’ll eat it whenever the fuck I want.” The fight dies on my lips with the first swipe of his tongue. Hot and wet, he laps at my core as if I’m the best thing he’s eaten in months.

“Truly—” He opens his mouth, then closes it, choosing his next words carefully. “I have always noticed you. You just noticed him first.”

“You were flirting with her.” “Okay, maybe, but I’m not attracted to her.” “Yeah, right, because her big boobs and blue eyes are so hideous.”

“She’s pretty,” he admits, “but she has nothing on you. When you’re in the room, you’re the only person I see. I didn’t mean to flirt with her. I didn’t even notice how big her boobs were. I just wanted to have fun with my girl tonight.”

“I hate you,” I spit, as he clicks the buckle in. “I don’t give a fuck,” he spits right back. “The pussy is just as good when you’re pissed as it is when you’re happy.”

“He said, and I quote, the one with the purple hair belongs to me.”

“You don’t get to keep this from me. This belongs to me,” he says, lifting my left leg over his shoulder. “Mine to lick. Mine to kiss. Mine to finger. Mine to fuck.” He drops a kiss on my inner thigh before looking up at me with wild eyes. “Mine.”

“Then act like it,” I say, my backbone is finally making an appearance. “You want free rein over my body? Deserve me. You want to own me? Earn me. You don’t get to parade other girls in my face and then feign innocence. You want to keep doing fucked up shit to me? You want to keep using me as an outlet for your rage, then prove that I can trust you to lead me down that dark path. If you want me, if you want to possess me, then I get to possess you too.”

“I’m not your prince, Truly. Our story isn’t a fairytale. I don’t vow to always be kind, or do what the world deems as right, but I will always do right by you. I will always protect you. Plus,” he pauses, and I can feel the corner of his mouth tip up, “I’ll fuck you better than the prince ever could.”

His hands find my ass and he pulls me to him. “Goddamn girl, I might have to put a baby in you tonight.” He smirks against my lips. “A you look hot would suffice.” His mouth finds my ear. “You look hot, so hot, it’s taking every ounce of strength I have not to push you back inside that room and peel this fucking dress off your body.”

“Because I’m in love with you,” he says with so much conviction that I have no choice but to believe him. “Because I think I fell in love with you the first time I saw you.”

His legs eat up the distance between us. His hands find my hips and my body sparks with recognition from his touch. “I tried to leave you alone, Tru. I tried to let you go. But tonight, when the whole school was cheering for me, yours was the only face I wanted to see. And you weren’t there.” “That’s because I am not yours anymore.”

“Also, I want my hoodie back.” He taps a few buttons on my phone, then hands it back before tucking a strand of hair behind my ear and bopping me on the nose. “Hoodies are for girlfriends. You can have it back when I can have you back.” Then, the fucking asshole stands up and saunters away.

“I am a work in progress, Truly, but I am in progress. I know I haven’t given you much of a reason to forgive me, but you told me I needed to decide if I was the boy from the treehouse or the man you fell in love with on the road.” He shifts up onto his knees, cupping my face between his

palms. “You told me you couldn’t keep bending yourself to make me comfortable, and I realized I don’t want to be the kind of man who makes you bend. I don’t want to change the person you are, Truly. I only want to change your last name.”

love you,” I pant. “I love you so fucking much.” He catches me around the waist. “Say it. Say you’re mine.” I smile up at him, tears clouding my vision. Noah was never the prince in my story. Ours was never a fairytale, but fairytales are boring. Maybe our once upon a time was dark and dirty and raw, but it was ours. It led us here, and I can honestly say, there’s nowhere else I’d rather be. “I’m yours.”