Another New Life Read online

  Troy smiled and grabbed Ryan's keys as we headed out the door.

  In my past, I hadn’t wanted anyone knowing I had sex, which was ironic since everyone knew I was having sex.

  I walked into the store and heard myself saying to the clerk, "Where are the condoms?"

  Troy blushed as he pulled me along to the aisle. We stood there overwhelmed by the diverse packets of condoms.

  "Do you have a preference?" I said.

  Troy grabbed a packet and read, "This one is ribbed for your pleasure."

  "I don't think we need any pleasure enhancements," I said, and smashed my body up against him and kissed him on his neck.

  "Shh, why don't you announce it on the PA system," Troy said.

  "We can take a poll from the customers to see which ones they prefer." I laughed at his embarrassment. "Relax, no one knows us here."

  "Hey, Miranda." I turned around, and there stood Aunt Alaina with a box of tampons in her hand. I hid the box of condoms behind my back. Troy took it out of my hand as I walked over to give her a hug.

  "Hey." I could feel Troy laughing his ass off. "What are you doing here?"

  "Shopping," she said while looking at Troy.

  "Alaina, um, this is Troy Anderson. Troy, this is Alaina Preston."

  Troy held out his hand. It took Alaina a minute too long to accept it.

  "Nice to meet you, finally," Troy said.

  Staring Troy up and down, Alaina asked, "What have you been up to? I haven't heard from you in a while."

  "I'm sorry. I've been kind of busy."

  "It looks like it," she said as her eyes darted back and forth between Troy and me.

  "We were heading to The Loop for dinner. You want to join us?" Troy asked.

  I looked at Troy. Did he just say that?

  Of all the things I wanted to do tonight, having dinner with my weird aunt was not on the list.

  "I'd love to." Alaina waved her box of tampons at us and headed over to the next aisle, "I'm going to finish some shopping, and I'll meet you guys there in ten minutes."

  "Okay," Troy said. He grabbed a box of condoms and pushed me to the cashier.

  "What did you do that for?"

  "Come on, Rand, give the women a break, she wants to make sure you're okay."

  "In two minutes, she learned all she needed to know about me. I'm fine. I'm healthy. School’s great. I have an amazing sex life that I thought would be continuing in the next five minutes."

  “We’re ten minutes for home.”

  "I guess you'll never know what I had planned for the car ride," I said with a sly look on my face. He leaned over and bit my neck as he whispered in my ear, "You can tell me about it on the way to The Loop."

  "Nope." I climbed into the car. "Missed your chance."

  "We'll grab a burger, make small talk with Aunt Alaina, and she leaves you alone for another couple of months," Troy said. "We'll be naked again within the hour. How bad could it be?"

  ***

  Two hours later, we pulled out of The Loop parking lot. My brain exhausted, but relieved. Alaina wanted a play-by-play account of my first three months of college, including details on how Troy and I met, and she wouldn't allow us to leave until she heard it all. Troy more than accommodated her curiosity, and I sat and listened.

  By the end of dinner, she and Troy bantered back and forth as if they were old friends.

  The entire ride home all I could think about was how to tell Troy it wasn't necessary for him to charm my family members. I've never cared what they thought before. I didn't see that changing now.

  The real reason I didn't want Troy and Alaina to sit down and share a meal was these type of settings lead to the type of stories I didn’t want to talk about. While I was pretty sure Alaina wasn't aware of why we left Colorado, I didn't want the conversation to head in that direction. I'd done a great job of avoiding the topic thus far, and there was no need to tempt fate. Troy knew all he needed to know about my past.

  We returned to the empty house. My plan involved us heading straight for his bedroom, removing clothes on the way. Troy had other plans. He headed to the kitchen, grabbed a bottle of water, and sat on the couch. I stood in the middle of the room, trying to figure out why we weren't naked already.

  Troy stared into space and then settled his eyes on me. After what happened this afternoon, I should have known what he was thinking, but I didn't. We connected during sex, but standing in front of him watching his mind churn, I didn't have a clue. I could ask him, but I wasn't sure I want to hear the answer.

  A great night spoiled by Aunt Alaina and her big old box of tampons.

  "What's the matter?" I asked, my curiosity getting the better of me.

  "I feel bad for her." Troy took a sip. "She seems kind of sad."

  "Yeah, she is sad. Oh well."

  "You weren't very nice to her," Troy said, "She wants to get to know you, and you shut her down."

  "I don't want her in my business."

  "She's your family. You shouldn't turn your back on family."

  "Really? Troy, what is this about?"

  "It hit me how you never talk about your family."

  "This is a problem for you?" I crossed my arms and leaned against the wall.

  "Remember how close our families were, how much time we spent with them."

  "We were ten, we had to spend time with them. We had no choice."

  "It was more than that." He sounded irritated. "We went everywhere together, vacations to the lake and football games. I spent as much time with your dad as I did with my own. You remember how much my mom loved you? You were the daughter she never had."

  "I remember," I whispered.

  "I don't want you to regret not getting a chance to know your aunt. She seems pretty cool."

  "If you want to get to know her, be my guest."

  He stared at me his eyes narrowed.

  I let my arms fall to my side as I walked over toward him.

  "Troy. My parents and I aren't close, and I don't know that woman any more than you do. It's taken all the mental capacity I have to let you in. Can we call that a victory and worry about the rest next year?"

  Maybe he didn't understand how hard it was for me to open up to him, to let him into my life. I had gotten this far without having a mental breakdown. Troy meant so much to me and I trusted him, but even amazing sex didn't remove the burden of the secret I still carried. The closer we got, the more I knew I had to keep what happened to me to myself. Or did I?

  I could come clean; I wanted to. What was the worst that could happen? At least, it would help him understand why it was so hard for me to trust people.

  "Right before we moved, I found my mom in the backyard staring at your house crying. I asked her what was wrong, and she said she missed her best friends. I said me too. It freaked me out. I never asked her about it again."

  I sat down on the coffee table and held on to the side of the table. The conversation was heading in the wrong direction, and I needed to stop it or detour to another topic, but he continued.

  "I told my dad what happen when he got home that night, but it never came up again. Then we moved, and they got divorced, and I only saw my dad once a month."

  I shook out my hands, not realizing how hard I had been holding on.

  "She wanted to move back to Texas to be near my grandparents, but I think it was more than that." He rubbed his face and tilted his head back.

  I wanted to comfort him, but I was afraid to move.

  "If I had a chance to get to know my family again, I would. Have it be like it was when we were kids," he said.

  We didn't talk about our families much. I had no idea what happened to his, but I wasn’t surprised.

  "How is your mom? Why doesn't she come up to visit?"

  "We're not close. I feel like every time she looks at me, it makes her sad. So we kind of avoided each other for the last eight years." He dropped his head and covered his face with his hands.

  I reached for
his hands and he flinched, but then sat up and reached for me.

  "The only time we would talk is after I visited my dad, she would drill me with questions. I don't know. I guess she wanted to make sure he wasn't corrupting me or something."

  So much for avoiding the topic. My brain worked over a few questions I had until it arrived at one I thought would be innocent.

  "Did you hang out with your brother on those visits?" I had no clue what I would do with the answer. I'd done a pretty good job of not thinking about Troy's brother at all, but a perverse curiosity got the better of me.

  "No, he was never around, and we never visited dad at the same time."

  I concentrated on not reacting to this information, but my shoulders relaxed, and I stifled a sigh. I wanted to tell him the truth. Maybe it would decrease some of his sadness and confusion as to why his family split up. I knew he deserved to know the truth.

  I looked up at him and found the sadness in his eyes dissipating as he took my hand and brought it to his lips. I loved the way he looked at me, and I didn't want it to stop.

  "I'm sorry for getting all weird on you." He pulled me into his lap and held me tight. "We're together, let's focus on that. I just want you to be happy."

  "I am happy." I kissed him. Moving from his lips down his jaw, to the vein in his neck.

  "You driving me crazy when you do that."

  I giggled, feeling how much my kisses affected him press against my hip.

  I shifted into him, and he moaned. He placed his hands on the side of my face, staring into my eyes for seconds before his lips were on mine.

  I gasped as he picked me up and carried me toward his bedroom, our lips never losing contact. Until we walked into the wall.

  We removed clothes while laughing and fell into bed. Troy started to roll on top of me, but I stopped him. I wanted to play with him the way he played with me this afternoon.

  I straddled his lap and closed my eyes, enjoying the feeling of him rubbing up against me. I leaned over and kissed his face, his forehead, eyes, and nose. I proceeded down his neck and chest. My tongue followed a trail down towards his abs. I stopped to kiss each muscle in his six-pack. I couldn't resist.

  I continued down his body, enjoying the way he tasted. I could live off of this man.

  He lay back with his hands laced behind his head, watching me. I wanted him to feel as good tonight as he made me feel this afternoon.

  It seemed fair.

  I kneeled on the bed between his legs. I looked up at him and smiled, thinking about what Rhonda said earlier. She was right. He was perfect. Better than that, he was all mine.

  I wrapped my hand around him and moved it up and down. I kissed the tip and tasted him while keeping my eyes glued to his. I had done this before, and thought I was pretty good. I had no complaints, but I felt self-conscious. The way his lip curled at the corners into a sexy grin as he watched me was all the encouragement I needed.

  I pushed my fears aside, dropped my eyes, and went for it. I wrapped my lips around him and felt him get harder the further down I went. I did it again, this time daring myself to look into his eyes. He replaced the grin with a sigh and collapsed back on the bed. In minutes, he was begging me to stop.

  He pulled me up and kissed me in such an appreciative manner I couldn't help but laugh as I continued to touch him with my hand.

  "God, you're so sexy. You need to stop that too, or I'm finished."

  I let go long enough to grab a condom from the nightstand.

  I rolled the condom on, and he exhaled, as if preparing himself for what was next. I lowered myself onto his lap, feeling every inch of him from the inside out. We moaned in unison as Troy placed his hands on my butt, and we moved together. Torturing ourselves by going slow. Trying to make it last.

  "You are so beautiful," he whispered, and I tasted his words.

  The pace brought me over the edge, and we both stopped moving until I caught my breath.

  Then Troy picked me up and carried me over to the dresser. The exact spot where it all started. The light from the bathroom illuminated the sweat forming on his neck and jaw. I tasted it, fixated on the perfect shape of his lips, his jaw, and his earlobe. Every place my eyes fell, I had to taste. I thought he was closer, but his slow movements went on and on until another orgasm swelled in me. I tried to hold off, wait for him, but I couldn't. I had no control over how my body reacted when he touched me, tasted me, moved inside of me. My body had a mind of its own, which was good because my scrambled brain couldn't think if it wanted to. He didn't wait for me to recover this time, his short slow strokes moved longer and faster, and I held on as he finished with a low, deep moan. His breath hot on my skin.

  When he could speak, he said my name over and over again: "Miranda, Miranda, Miranda."

  I watched the shape his lips made when he said my name. I placed my fingers on his lips as he said my name over and over again. I loved the sensation on my fingertips. I loved the way it sounded coming off of his lips.

  I loved the way he held me and looked into my eyes. I loved the way he made me feel.

  My thoughts stopped when he leaned over and whispered, "I love you, Miranda."

  ***

  Did he just read my mind?

  Maybe I played some Jedi mind trick on him to get him to say it first.

  Troy moved us back over to the bed and laid me down. He grabbed a blanket and spread it over us. With Troy on his side, I turned away from him. He nestled up behind me and wrapped his arms around my waist. I needed to think and couldn't seem to do that while under his gaze. He kissed down my neck while rubbing his fingers down my arms. I wished he would stop for a second so I could generate a coherent thought.

  He didn't seem to be concerned I hadn't responded.

  Moments later, Troy's snores vibrated off the back of my neck and sent shivers down my spine with each breath.

  I turned around, trying not to wake him up. I watched him sleep, placing my hand on his chest to watch it rise and fall.

  His body shifted as if even in sleep he needed to be close to me and show me how much he loved me. Despite the shivers and chills, warmth spread throughout my core and without a doubt, I knew I loved him, too.

  "Troy, wake up," I said a little to loud. His eyes shot open.

  "What's wrong?" The concerned look on his face made me laugh. "What's so funny?"

  "Sorry to wake you." He settled back down.

  "It's okay." He yawned and closed his eyes.

  "I have to tell you something." I tapped him on his forehead with my fingertips.

  "Tell me."

  "No, you have to be awake." I kissed his ear. "It's important."

  He blinked his eyes, and when they stayed open, I said, "I love you, too."

  He smiled, leaned over and grazed my lips with his. "That's nice."

  Then he rolled over and went back to sleep.

  "Troy."

  "What?" He sounded angry, but he grinned like a kid. He tackled me. I tried to get away but didn't mind being caught.

  He pinned me down with one hand while tickling me with the other. "Say it again."

  "No."

  "Say it."

  "Okay, okay,"

  He stopped tickling me, and I took the opportunity to catch my breath. "What did you want me to say?"

  "You think you're funny, don't you?" Our naked tickle fest started to turn me on. Troy gave up and kissed me instead.

  I placed my hand on his chest. "I want to tell you something."

  He shifted his body, and I rolled on my side facing him.

  "You know just because you told me you loved me doesn't make all my issues go away, right?"

  "Yes, I'm aware," he said, a bit too quick for my taste, but I let it go.

  "To be honest, no one has ever said it to me before."

  "How do you like it?"

  "I liked it, but it’s scary and so grown-up."

  "We are grown-ups."

  "You really feel like a grown-up?"
>
  "Yeah, well, most of the time." He propped his arm up on a pillow. "Well, sometimes." He thought for a second, "Actually, no. I don't feel grown-up at all."

  I pulled him close, burying my head into his neck. "Me neither."

  ***

  I wasn’t sure how much sleep we got but waking up the next morning wasn't easy. I ignored the alarm until I realized I needed to get to class. I rolled over, being careful not to wake him.

  "Where are you going?"

  He pulled me back down and held me tight, trying to coax me back to bed with his kisses. One of us had to be the strong one.

  "I have to go to class," I said.

  "No, you don't. Stay here with me."

  His groggy morning voice sounded so sexy, but we both needed to get up.

  "You have to get up too." Remembering he had practice and a plane to catch.

  "No." He started squeezing my breast and kissing my neck. I had to push his hand away and remember why we needed to get up.

  "Oh, okay. You want me to call the coach?"

  "Depends. What are you going to tell him?"

  "I'll tell him you can't go to the game because you're going to spend the rest of the weekend in bed with your girlfriend."

  "I see your point." He let me go. "Whose bright idea was it to have sex knowing we wouldn't be able to do it again for two days?"

  "Hmm, yeah, timing sucked." I headed to the bathroom.

  "I could join you in the shower," Troy said.

  "Troy, man, wake up. You better not be talking to me. We got to be at the facility in like thirty minutes," Ryan said from the other side of the door, and I heard him laughing.

  "Dammit," Troy said. "I'll be out in a minute."

  I headed into the shower while Troy packed for his game.

  "Leave the water running," Troy yelled from the bedroom.

  As I stepped out of the shower, he greeted me with a towel and jumped in.

  I turned around to watch. The way the water running down his back and his butt made me wish I could liquefy myself and take the same journey. Damn, he had the most amazing body.

  The muscles on his back flexed, and I grew strangely possessive of those muscles. Along with his strong arms and athletic legs. His body now belonged to me, and mine to him. I had to touch it. I stepped back in the shower and wrapped my arms around his waist.