**Will there be a new another part out tomorrow (Saturday/after I sleep)? YES!! Very quick question: Who would you be interested in reading the backstory (prequel) about more? Comment on your choice(s)!
CAMERON
FINN
ANNABETH
BEN/TRAVIS (They're a package deal, let's be real)
I hope you like this chapter, it's a little shorter than usual but like I said, another one is on the way after I get some sleep, which is why!**
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Travis.
When we got home, it was torture.
Everyone went to the living room. Hannah went to Cam's room and I watched her with envy. I'd never wanted her life more than this moment.
"Can we do this later?" I blurted out as we stood in the living room, my hand on Lacey's back under her jacket.
She leaned back against my hand and my fingers ran against the fabric of her shirt.
"You don't have to be here," Cam said for the millionth time.
I groaned as everyone went to sit down, including Lacey. I moved behind her and sat on the couch, pulling her onto my lap because I was going to go insane if she sat too far away from me right now. I'd calmed down and gotten the anger out of my system on the way home. Thinking about Lacey took care of that really quickly. But thinking of Lacey caused other things to become more pressing. Like the absolute fucking need to kiss her.
I clenched my jaw and wrapped my hands around her waist.
Cameron rolled his eyes at me, making a point that I saw and I gave him the finger. I wasn't sure if he saw that or not because I didn't move my hands from Lacey's waist but he could suck a dick.
She was angled diagonally on me, with her side and her back pressing against me. I leaned my head down against the back of her shoulder and closed my eyes, letting my head rise and fall with her shoulders as she breathed. I was so close to her neck I could practically taste it.
They all started talking but I was too busy picturing Lacey underneath me on my bed, her hair spread out around her. My hands wanted to roam her body, take off her clothes, make her forget both our names.
I felt her say something, but couldn't repeat what she said if I was paid to do it. She turned around slightly, angling her back so she could try to look at me but I kept my head on her shoulder and my eyes shut, willing to hold onto the daydream.
"Right, Travis?" Real Lacey asked.
"Mhm," I said.
That must've been the right answer because she leaned back into me and they kept talking again.
I wanted to tell her to leave. I was so close to her ear. I could whisper it right now. But others were close to us. I didn't think it would go unnoticed and that would be like a giant neon sign over our fucking heads about my intentions, which I doubted Lacey would be okay with. Maybe if I thought it hard enough, she would sense it.
No, she had to know. She was sitting on my lap. There was no way she couldn't feel the hardon that was screaming at my intentions right now. She had to know right? Was she ignoring me? Or had she just not noticed? I could practically hear her saying, Travis, focus, now. I held in my sigh because I didn't want to be here.
I pushed my head up from her shoulder but refused to pay attention. Instead, I focused on her back. I snuck my hands underneath her jacket again but kept to the outside of her shirt because I didn't want her to turn around or move.
My fingers kneaded into her back right above her jeans as my mind started to race, thinking of that creep earlier touching her. I wanted to kiss her. Hold her. Be the only one who could touch her like that. I wanted to be the only one who she touched like that in return.
An ache started to pool in my chest. I stuck one of my fingers under her shirt, brushing her skin and she jerked slightly from the sudden contact before relaxing into my hands. I kept quietly kneading my fingers, with just one on her skin so it wasn't so obvious.
Snapping. Someone was snapping. I started bobbing my head to the beat as I continued to think about the feel of the rest of Lacey's skin.
"Travis," Annabeth's voice interrupted my Lacey-induced fantasy.
I clenched my jaw and glared. "What?"
"You're not listening," she said.
That wasn't a question so I didn't respond and just kept massaging Lacey's lower back. I raised an eyebrow expectantly at Annabeth, waiting for her to fill me in on what was so damn important. I didn't want to think about Scully, who almost choked me out, or the suppliers that tried to harass my girlfriend right now. I wanted to have a moment of peace where I didn't have to worry for once today.
I told Lacey to worry only if I was worried and that was a damn fucking lie. I was always worried but she helped settle my racing heart.
Annabeth glared right back at me and I narrowed my eyes. I wasn't going to admit I wasn't listening if that's what she wanted.
"Are you feeling okay?" Lacey's voice softened my face.
She turned in my lap and I held in a groan at the movement against my lap. I dropped my hands to my sides. Lacey placed her hand gently on my cheek and then on my forehead.
"You feel hot," she said.
That didn't sound right.
I was pretty sure all my blood had relocated to below my hips awhile ago so everywhere else should've been freezing. I should've looked blue, starving for blood circulation based off what I was feeling between my legs.
"Do you want to go lie down?" she suggested.
"Um." What was happening? Was she going to ignore me and then boot me out of the room?
She put her hand back up to my forehead and then one to my neck. "Maybe it's from your head injury," Lacey frowned and then looked at the group. "Is it okay if I go make sure he lies down?"
Cameron nodded.
Ben looked at me with concern, "You're not feeling okay?"
I was feeling fine apart from the clusterfuck that Lacey was doing to my mind.
"I'm good," I confessed.
Lacey stood up and I put a hand over my lap to make sure nothing was noticeable.
"It's okay to need a break," Lacey spoke with so much compassion in her voice that when she frowned, I frowned. "Your neck is still purple. You said you were tired earlier. Just a little rest won't hurt, please."
Maybe I did need to lie down. I stood up, making sure no one caught a glimpse of my pants as I did so. Lacey smiled like she was trying to get an injured animal to come near her and waved me forward once before she walked out of the room.
Ben raised his fist when I walked past him and I bumped it with my own, feeling like I was in a daze because did I look sick or something? I poked my cheek. It didn't feel hot.
Lacey stood at the door of my room, holding it open for me. I walked passed her into the room and as I turned to face her, she shut the door quietly.
"What's wrong with you?" she asked me as she shimmied out of her jacket and let it drop to the ground.
"I don't know?" My eyes were glued to her jacket.
She walked forward and grabbed a fistful of my shirt, pulling me towards the bed.
"Wait, what?" I sputtered out, trying to catch up to her mindfuckery.
Lacey paused by the edge of the bed and pushed my jacket off my shoulders.
"Are you trying to say you've had your hands all over me for the last forty minutes innocently?" She climbed onto the bed. "Because nothing you do is with innocent intentions."
My mouth formed into an 'o' for half a second before I grinned. I crawled onto the bed after her, wrapping my arms around her waist and pulling her up against my body. A small squeak came out of her and I covered her lips with my hand.
"Shut up, liar, before they hear you," I whispered. She laughed lightly against my hand and so I moved my hand to slide against her hip under her shirt.
"We'll have to be quiet," she said and I knew she wasn't talking about her squeaking.
In the end, it wasn't an issue because we were slow and Lacey was quiet. And even if no one was home, I don't think I would've changed anything because I wanted it to last forever. We moved together slowly, kissing, and drawing it out because I wanted to stay between her legs for the rest of my life.
I told her exactly that.
She closed her eyes but a smile was on her face.
"I love you," I whispered in her ear and kissed her neck as we moved.
"I love you," I repeated in her other ear.
I was hers a long time ago and I didn't care if I had one, two, or ten lives left in this. Lacey was in my life now and I lost her once already. I wasn't going to lose her again and that's what it came down to. I would fight like hell to keep her safe. And I knew she loved me and part of me figured she would make sure I was safe as well. And if we were both looking out for each other, then we couldn't lose each other. I loved her, I wasn't going anywhere unless she asked me to, and she deserved to know after everything she'd done for me to get here.
"I love you," I kissed her forehead.
She gripped my shoulders and soon we were coming undone and kissing harder.
After, she practically jumped out of bed, threw on her clothes and said she had to go to the restroom. I threw away the condom and got back under the covers of my bed. Maybe I did something wrong.
Maybe it wasn't good.
Too many I love you's? What was the acceptable amount to tell someone during sex?
I scratched my head. She came back in, rubbing her face and I tried to look casual but abandoned the cause when I saw her face.
She stripped out of her pants, leaving just her shirt on and crawled under the covers, my eyes glued to her. I definitely did something wrong but she still hadn't said anything.
I put my hand on her shoulder, "Why are you crying?"
Lacey waved at me as if it was no big deal before she used her hand to air her face a few times. "It's nothing."
"What did I do?"
Her glassy eyes found mine and tears started to pool on the edges, successfully throwing me into hell.
"You didn't do anything wrong!" she whispered urgently. "I promise, Travis. It was amazing. Too amazing."
I narrowed my eyes. "Your face says otherwise."
She shook her head, "Ignore it-"
I cut her off, "Unlikely."
"It's just hormones. They're all over the place during sex and it was really good and my body just turned it into tears."
A tear started dripping down her cheek so I brushed it away with my finger, "So this is a happy tear?" I held my finger up between us.
Lacey sniffed, "Yes. An unintentional, happy tear."
I studied her face but I didn't think she would lie to me. Or, not about this. Maybe she would lie to me about me looking like I was on my deathbed to get me to my bedroom but not this.
"I love you," I told her again, just to make sure she didn't burst into tears again.
She smiled.
"I love you, too."
Lacey sat up and pushed some of the blanket away from my chest before brushing at her eyes once more. Her hands roamed my bare chest, seeking out the various scar tissue that littered my body. Her fingers danced over my collar bone, around my shoulder blade, and down one of my arms.
She lifted up my arm like she knew what she was looking for and pointed to a scar on my bicep that from a bullet a few years ago that grazed me.
"I was here for this," she said.
"Were you?" I asked, not that I doubted her but I had too many scars to remember the specifics of which ones were what.
"Yes. The first day I was in Melkin with you," Lacey said matter-of-factly.
Her hands started moving again but I watched as she started tracing the patterns of my tattoos now.
"We match." Her eyes were focused on the Casey tattoo and she pulled her shirt up and over her head, revealing hers.
My hand reached out and brushed against her ribcage to feel it. I'd seen it a few multiple times since she got it but it always made me happy to know that I was the only one who really got to see it.
I traced the lines of the markings and watched goosebumps form on her skin. She swatted my hands away as she pulled the sheet up around herself a bit, even though she was sitting.
She traced a jagged scar along my stomach.
"What's this one from?" she whispered.
I hmmed for a moment. "Glass, I think."
This time, she didn't ask, but I felt her point to a spot on my right side. But there were a lot of scars in that general area so it was hard to tell which was which.
"That's either from a skateboard accident when I was a kid or that fight a few years ago you helped out on. The one where you didn't get shot at."
"Ah, the one where you dropped me from a window," Lacey said fondly.
"No," I frowned. "Someone threw you out of it. I caught you."
She laughed and moved onto my other arm and I could listen to her catalog my entire body if she kept talking like this. It was intoxicating.
"And this one?"
"I don't remember."
Lacey didn't dwell on it or ask if it was because I had so many scars that I didn't remember or if it was because I was blitzed out of my mind when I got the injury. I was glad because I wouldn't have known the answer to that question, either. Instead, she moved her fingers further along my chest.
"A gunshot," she pointed out a mark on the other side of my body and I hated that she knew what that type of scar looked like. I hated that she had to live with one of those scars on her own body.
I leaned up a little to look where she was pointing. "That was my first one."
"Hm," was all she said.
She felt along my hip to where I knew you couldn't feel the scar but there was light discoloration.
"Road rash. It used to be worse," I provided before she could ask.
"Where did Annabeth shoot you?" she asked.
I pushed the blankets as far as I could down my body from how I was lying and Lacey got the hint and removed them the rest of the way since it wasn't on my upper body. I pushed myself up on my elbow and pointed to a point on my upper thigh.
"We do match," she repeated, observing my bullet wound.
I didn't have the heart to tell her she could have a scar pretty much anywhere and we'd match.
Her finger traced the scar gently before she spoke, "Is this why you told me mine leg wouldn't stop hurting? Because you knew?"
"What?"
"When you dragged me out to the middle of nowhere to kill me when I first came back and you frisked me like a robot."
"What are you talking about?" I pushed some of her hair behind her ear to get it out of her face. When was I ever a robot?
She slapped my leg lightly, "You know what I'm talking about. It was right after the fire alarm at the hotel and you were making sure I didn't have, I don't know, some tracking device only Ben knows how to get his hands on, on me and you asked about my leg and I told you it hurt and you were like yeah it's gonna do that."
I could remember what she was talking about, that part I knew, but I had no idea when I would have ever told her that her leg was going to keep on hurting.
"I don't think I said that."
"Practically, pretty much," she said, flopping back down beside me and pulling the covers over both of us. "I remember I was mad at whatever you said so I'm pretty sure you implied it would keep hurting."
I rolled my eyes, "My leg doesn't hurt. Yours won't either. Happy?"
"Finally. Yes. That's what I've been waiting around for, now I can go back to my regular life far away from Melkin."
"Shut up," I said, smacking her with the pillow that I had been using. "I'm going to FedEx you back there in a box at this rate."
She threw the pillow off her face, causing it to land down by our stomachs. With ease, she leaned forward and kissed me softly.
"Just promise to poke holes in the box for me when you do," she whispered against my lips.
I laughed.
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Again, I hope you liked the chapter. There will be another out after I sleep, eat breakfast, and finish the last ~400ish words. Vote/comment/tell your friends/have a great rest of your day! I'm going to bed. I love you guys!