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I Need You Tonight

"We're fine mom. I promise. How's the concussion?"

"It's better, baby. Are you sure you're okay? What about Tibby?"

"She's okay. She wasn't conscious for the worst part of it all, a psychologist talked to her in the hospital, and I've been keeping an open dialogue with her. Are you sure your head's okay, mom?"

"I have a hard head. You know that. Besides, dad's taking great care of me." Mom let out a little sigh and there was a pause that raised my anxiety level to knew heights. "Jill, you should have told me and your dad everything. Whatever made you think you'd have to keep something like domestic abuse from us?"

And there it was. The skeleton in the closet. I knew I wouldn't be able to avoid it. Not after dad came home to find mom on the floor, concussed from the butt of Gregg's gun. The truth had to come out.

"I just wanted to pretend it really didn't happen," I whispered.

"It just breaks my heart," mom whispered and I knew that she was crying. Crying for me.

"You have to believe that I never thought he would--" I choked on the last few words.

"Honey, I know you didn't think he would use me to get at you. I'm just so glad that he can't hurt anyone anymore."

I brushed a tear from my cheek but another slid down in its place. "I know."

"Soooo..." mom's voice changed, an inflection of amusement flooding her voice. "Brian Littrell."

I blushed. "Mom."

"Is he as good looking now as he was in high school?"

I laughed, the tears drying up. "Mom!"

She laughed. "What?"

Suddenly, I felt someone watching me. I turned around on my bed and my eyes widened. It was like he had heard his name. Brian leaned against my doorway, his head tilted back, his hooded eyes on me. Realizing he was caught, he gave me a little finger wave. He was naked from the waist up, his pajama bottoms riding low on his hips.

"I've gotta go mom."

"Is he there?"

"Goodnight, mom."

"I love you, sweetheart."

"Love you, too."

"Oh, and Jill--"

I hung up before she finished. "Hey."

"Hey."

"I love the way Tibby sleeps."

I smiled. "It's different."

He grinned. "I think she's part bat."

I laughed. "Maybe."

"Sorry to interrupt your phone call." He didn't look too sorry. "You're mom doing okay?"

I nodded. "She told me she's fine. She was more worried about me and the kids than her head."

"Does mom not trust me again?"

I smirked. "Maybe."

He rolled his eyes and I spotted the sixteen year old lurking within. "Lame."

"Totally."

"Did you tell her you're staying?"

I pulled my knees to my chest, wrapping my arms around them. "Nope."

He suddenly looked concerned. "You are, right?"

For the first time in forever, I felt...playful. I wiggled my toes. "Maybe."

"Maybe?" He straightened up from his slouched position and walked into the room. The look on his face changed yet again. It was a look I had only seen briefly, the look he had given me in the restaurant before he had kissed me. He got to the bed and sank his hands into the mattress, leaning over.

"Maybe?" he repeated.

My mouth went dry. He was so close. He smelled good, that fresh out of the shower smell of body wash and shampoo. I looked straight up at him.

"Maybe I'll take you up on that offer of seeing what the schools around here have to offer."

He leaned closer. "I like that idea."

"You do, huh?"

"I do. Know what other idea I like?"

I took a deep inhale of him. "What?"

"You," he lifted his right hand and snaked a finger around the opening in my tank top. In a bold move, he pulled it forward and his eyes drifted down. "spending the night in my room."

Reflexively, I began to shake my head no. His finger flicked forward and touched the v between my breasts.

"Let's reason," he said in a voice that was much more mature and much sexier than I remembered his bedroom voice being. My eyes drifted closed. "You know I won't hurt you." His finger flicked forward again. "My intentions are quite the opposite."

I licked my lips. "I know."

"And," his breath warmed my cheek. "I want you. I need you."

I bit my moistened lip. The temptation was so strong. I had been walled up for so long...

"Don't make me," he kissed my cheek once, twice, three times, moving closer and closer to my lips. Ever so softly he kissed me. "use the shot in the foot defense."

I giggled and it felt so good to giggle. So foreign, but so normal with him there like we were two kids beneath the bleachers. So good in fact that I threw my arms around his neck and kissed him hard.

It was this kiss that took us from two old high school lovers to a whole new playing field. A whole new planet in a whole new solar system. The intensity rose immediately. Brian pulled me up with him as he straightened up, his hands taking their time sliding along my breasts before snaking around to my back. He moaned into my mouth and I let myself relax in his arms. We pulled away, my lungs aching for air. I pressed my lips against his bicep, shivering slightly at the thought of what might be. His roaming hands gripped me under my ass and hoisted me up. We ended up nose to nose, lips to lips.

"Well?"

I wanted to say yes so bad. Yet, the protective force that had been on red alert so long wouldn't back down. "Tibby...Cole..." "I'll sneak you back before curfew," Brian whispered teasingly. His hands dug into my ass. "Jilly, please baby."

I stroked the back of his neck. I shimmied down him and felt him there, hard and waiting. "Yes." It was like the flip of a switch. We were out of the room and in the hall. His lips were on mine and we bumped along the walls as he groped towards his room. By the time we hit the sheets, I knew that the sex was going to be much different than it had been before. This man was sweet on the outside and fire on the inside. My first clue was with the skill in which he parted my knees and the voracity of his tongue on the inside of my thigh, boy shorts be damned.

My second clue was the realization that he had been blessed with a last minute late-teen growth spurt.

And my final clue was the way in which he held me afterwards, like he was never going to let me go again.