Boundless - Chapter 1
Pierce
I’m shoving out of my mom’s house with enough noise and force to sound like a hoard of elephants. Gripping the letter in my hand, I tilt my head from side to side, trying to crack my neck.
Too much tension.
Too much stress.
Maxwell had me on a job last night, and it seems my little bird had some time with my mom while I wasn’t there.
My room was clean. My house was clean.
It even smelled like fucking chocolate chip cookies, which made me angry as fuck until I finally found them stashed away in a bag inside of my room.
She knew mom would sell them off.
I sigh, slowing my walk when I make it to Rae’s driveway. Looking up, I notice her bedroom window is cracked open.
Something I’ve told her to stop fucking doing.
Rolling my eyes, I walk toward the front door and keep myself as restrained as possible when I knock my fist against the wood.
Immediately, I hear Everlyn’s wheelchair gliding across the wood floors. We just put them in last week in hopes that she’d have an easier time of it.
Not that she’s getting any better.
The door swings open and Everlyn backs up, waving me in.
“C’mon, Pierce, help me with something before you go find my daughter.” Her voice is weak today, weaker than normal.
I swallow and nod, following as she rolls down the hallway toward the kitchen. Once in the room, I see that all the food from the fridge is laying across the counter tops haphazardly. Raising a brow, I focus my attention on Everlyn, who is currently struggling to hold onto a bag of flour.
“Let me grab that, Ev,” I say, swallowing back the need to bark commands at her to stop.
“Now, you leave me alone, Pierce Jackson, or I’ll whip you just for thinking I’m too weak to do this.” She waves her hands around the kitchen, and it clicks in my head what most of these ingredients are for.
Everlyn makes the best cupcakes. The cake is chocolate, with peanut butter filling in the center. She tops it off with a mix of both flavors for the frosting. I swear I’ve never tasted better.
“Hey, mom, I’m going to head over to Pierce’s house and talk to him about what I told you earlier. I’ll be back la–” Rae stops in the doorway, noting the mess, and me in the middle of it with her mom. Her face turns bright as a tomato, and I grin at her, holding up the letter she had placed under the bag of cookies on my bed.
“Hey, Rae,” I tell her, wiggling the paper in the air to torture her a little bit more.
She swallows, pushes her hair from her flustered face, looks at her mom wide-eyed, and licks her lips, all before those pretty little blues journey back to me. “Uh..h-hey.” She waves at me, her face scrunching up in confusion and frustration.
I chuckle a little and Evelyn smacks me on the side of the thigh.
“Hey!” I tell her, jokingly swatting her hand away. I shove the little letter in the back pocket of my black jeans and cross my arms over my chest.
“You two help me meake these cupcakes, then go do whatever you had planned.” Everlyn’s smirk is hard to miss, and Raven scoffs, huffs, stomps her foot, then shakes her head, all in quick succession.
She’s fucking adorable when she works herself up like this. I want to see how far I can make that blush descend before–
Down, boy.
Slow and steady.
We’ve been in this race for a decade now, and we’re still ahead.
I clear my throat before turning toward the counter and grabbing the mixing bowl, passing it down to Everlyn. She won’t let me do a single thing for her. I simply keep handing her the items she points to.
Eventually Raven joins in with us and the kitchen somehow looks messier than it started. Flour coats the counters. Filling and icing stick to my hands and fingers, as well as the corner of Rae’s mouth. That tiny glob of sugar has been tempting me for the last fifteen minutes as we’ve been cleaning up.
Not one single fucking time have I crossed that line. Not since we were fourteen, and she tempted me into our first kiss.
Watching her try to date guys during high school was pure torture, and having the knowledge that Jimmy took her virginity is a thousand times worse. I can’t fathom knowing how many kisses he shared with her before she finally called it quits in April at our junior prom.
We’ve been eighteen for two weeks now, and with senior year coming up?
I can’t watch this shit show anymore.
Clearing my throat, I toss the last of the paper towels away and lean against the counter, ignoring the flour that now coats my black t-shirt. “Whatcha up to today, Blue?”
“Huh?” she squeaks out.
I laugh silently and shake my head at her, wiping my thumb along my lower lip to try to hide my grin. “I asked what you’re up to today, besides making cupcakes with your mom?”
Raven’s eyes flit toward her grinning mother, who has now taken it upon herself to leave the room, winking up at me on her way out.
“I’m going to take a nap so you two should probably get out of here so you don’t bug the living hell out of me.”
Everlyn’s so helpful. Sometimes.
“I guess I’m heading out of the house,” Raven says, though she’s not looking at me. Her glare is trained at the place where her mother just was.
“I have a bone to pick with you, Blue.” She whips her head around, our gazes meet, and I grin ear to ear in response.
“For what?” she asks, folding her arms across her chest, which forces her tits up.
Llamas in speedos. Pineapples. Baseball...
“A little letter you left me last night. C’mon.” I reach my hand out and wait for her to take it. The moment she does, I tug us out of the back door and toward the only place I could imagine going for this conversation.
Our playground.
It might be weird for us to hang out at an old elementary school park at our age, but it’s been abandoned for as long as we’ve known of its existence. It’s our safe haven, and has been home to most of our secrets since we were nine years old.
After a short walk from Raven’s house later, we stand beside each other on the edge of the seat of dead wood chips. I don’t let us stay there for long, simply twining our fingers together and tugging her forward.
She talks the most when she doesn’t have to look at me.
Rae places her jean-short covered ass on a swing and grips onto the chains, her knuckles turning white from the strain.
Biting the inside of my cheek to hold my grin at bay, I walk behind her and grip directly above her hands, my pinkies brushing against her thumbs. I watch the goosebumps rise on her flesh, and the redness creeps along her skin again. I can’t help what I do next.
Leaning down until my chin barely touches her shoulder and my cheek brushes against the shell of her hear, I breathe out before speaking. “Nervous, little bird?”
Raven squeaks, swallows hard, then hops up out of the swings. She spins to face me, one hand on her hip and the other pointing toward me like her mother usually does to both of us when we’ve been up to shit.
It’s as hilarious as it is adorable.
“You...you...UGH!” She yells out, flailing her arms in the air.
“Me...me...what, Rae?” I let my grin out this time, my heart lurching in my chest when her eyes narrow and her nostrils flare with her anger.
“Don’t copy me, you asshat. You’re not a child anymore.” She waggles that finger toward me again before she groans, and covers her face with her hands.
I take the opportunity, as I always do when it comes to her, and slide right in front of her, our bodies barely touching but the heat between us hiking up a notch.
“Oh, I’m very aware that I’m not a child anymore, Raven Hill,” I let my voice drop until it sounds like a growl. She shivers, and I lean in, still not touching her. My lips barely brush her ear. “Are you?”
Stubborn Raven doesn’t move away from me, but when her whole body shivers? She swallows nervously, and I wish I had given her something proper to take down her throat.
Jeesh, Pierce, laying it on thick already.
“Am I, what?” she whispers. Her fingers tremble, showing me how nervous she is.
“Are you aware that we’ve grown up?” I allow myself a moment to touch her. Tracing my fingertips from her shoulder to her hand, I watch as more goosebumps form in their wake. “Are you aware that we have held back for so long that I’ve formed a particular box in my head in which my ache for you stays?” I take her earlobe between them gently. She whimpers, and my dick uses that as his cue to jolt to attention. “Are you aware that your little note told me all I need to know, and that I’m struggling to hold back right now? That I’d just love to fuck you against the closest surface I can find?”
“Why don’t you, then?” She asks. Her voice is stronger than before. Her confidence is coming back to her.
“Because this requires a conversation. Not a letter, and not a half-assed attempt.” I pull back after placing a kiss onto her cheek, and grin when she glowers at me. She’s all hot and bothered and flustered and that’s exactly where I want her to be for me.
At least until I can take her to a proper spot and make love to her for the first time.
“Pierce, you little shit,” she grits out, glaring at me. She moves her trembling hands to her hair attempting to fix it back into place.
“Eh, you’ve called me worse. Come on, sit,” I tell her, pointing at the merry-go-round. We’ve shared most of our souls here. This isn’t any different.
She walks toward it, laying down with her head in the center. I make my way around, slowly spinning it, before resting my body across from hers. With my legs and feet dangling off the edge, and my head in the middle with the crown of my skull touching Raven’s, we spin and watch the clouds in the sky above us.
“I should have talked to you in person, but I was scared,” she whispers after a few minutes of silence.
“Yeah, probably, but it went well with the cookies that you made with my mother.” I sigh, shutting my eyes to attempt to hide the vision of them spending time together.
Who knows what Chloe Jackson would have told her.
Lies, most likely.
“She’s been having a hard time lately, PJ.”
“Raven,” I grit out. She knows I hate that fucking nickname.
“Sorry. But I’m right. She’s been having a harder time than normal, and I think it’s because of my mom.”
Yeah, no. It’s not Everlyn. Not at all. She had to be under Maxwell’s bullshit, and he’s constantly using her, and sending me out more. I’ve never felt this exhausted before.
Living a double life and keeping it from the closest person to you?
Not ideal.
I sigh and reach my hand up, finding Rae’s and twisting our fingers together. I bring her knuckles to my lips and press a soft kiss on them. “It’ll be okay. Thanks for hanging out with her.” Hopefully she didn’t share too much with Raven.
“Mhm.”
It falls quiet, and it becomes clear that I’m going to have to break the ice in this situation. Though, I guess Rae did that with her letter already.
I sit up, forced to release her hand from my hold so I can grab the paper from my back pocket. Twisting around, I cross my legs and look down at Raven, meeting her gaze.
“So...”
“Ugh, can we forget it?” she squeaks out, covering her face with her hand again.
“Absolutely not,” I say, laughing when she groans. “C’mon. It’ll only be painful for two point five seconds.”
“That’s what he said.”
“He fucking better not have!” I bark out, narrowing my gaze. I roll my eyes when I notice how playful she looks and flip her off.
She giggles as she sits up and twists around, mimicking my position. Licking her lips, she inhales deeply before meeting my gaze once more.
I wish I could stay in the depths of those pretty blues. I’d be a happy, happy man.
“Go for it. I’m ready for you to make fun of me pouring my heart out.” She fidgets with the hem of her shorts, biting down on the lips I wish I could kiss again.
Four years is a long time to taste something you’ve been craving for a lifetime.
“Alright, so first, did you seriously start this out with ‘Roses are red’?” I hold back my laughter, though it’s hard as hell to do when her face turns a bright red.
“Okay, listen here, you complete asshole,” she grits out, snatching the letter from me. Taking a deep breath, she trains her gaze on the words and begins to read it aloud to me. I have it memorized, however, and plan to keep it seared into my memory for eternity. As she nears the end of the letter, I struggle to keep a straight face as she reads, “Roses are red, violets are blue, it’s been ten years, do you finally want me, too?”
It’s quiet for a beat, but her eyes meet mine and we both bust out into laughter. I hold my stomach as I lean against one of the metal bars, tears falling from my eyes.
“Shut the hell up, Green,” she grits out, though she’s laughing just as much as I am. “What the hell else was I supposed to write? The letter I wrote you when I was what, fourteen, fifteen? That one was the serious truth and you just ignored it.”
“We were fifteen, and I did not ignore it, Raven. I told you–”
Her voice pitches low to imitate mine, and we both laugh as she speaks, “There’s no need to ruin what we have with silly feelings that could ruin our friendship later on.”
I shrug, and chew on my lip. My gaze lands over her shoulder toward the forest, contemplating bolting from this conversation.
“Has that changed or are we at a stalemate again?” she whispers. It’s barely audible, and I inhale deeply before meeting her gaze.
It’s solemn and full of regret.
“Hey,” I tell her, leaning forward and placing my finger beneath her chin. I lift her face up toward mine, closing the distance between us slowly. “We have one good shot at this, and we gotta call it quits if it’s going to ruin what we’ve had. But I’m all in if you are. I can’t watch you with someone else’s hands on you ever again, Blue. It’s the world’s worst form of torture.”
Her eyes flit between mine for a moment before she nods, swallowing nervously after licking her lips.
“Words, Blue. Always give me your words.” My heart is beating erratically in my chest, and I’m not sure how much longer I can last without tasting her lips, taking her in my arms, loving her for the eternity we’ve promised each other since we were kids.
“I’m all in,” she says, the worst barely leaving her lips before I descend on her mouth with my own. I taste the peanut butter filling we made earlier. Smell the strawberry soda scent that always lingers around her. Feel the way she’s frantically wrapping her nails into my shirt, scraping my skin through my clothes. Hear the little moans coming from her, animalistic and uncontrolled.
I see nothing, because my eyes shut tightly.
This could be a dream, and I’m sure it is. When I open them up again I’ll be in a waking nightmare.
The same one I’ve always lived in, only now the stakes are higher.
Pulling back from her, I press my thumb to her lower lip and bite down on my own, feeling how it’s as kiss-bitten as hers currently is. My gaze flits between those pretty blue eyes and I smile softly, my heart galloping a million miles a second. “I love you,” I confess.
“You too,” she whispers back, her hands clenching and unclenching in my shirt.
Neither one of us knows how to let go right now.
“No,” I say. I lean in to place a gentle kiss to her nose. “I love you from the bottom of my soul, Raven, and I don’t tihnk you know what it means to actually be all in with me.”
She giggles and shakes her head, biting at the tip of my thumb. Pulling back, she brackets her hands on either side of my neck, resting them on my shoulders. With a fiery look in her eyes, she grins wildly.
“Nope, the thought needs to leave your head.” I can tell the thought that sprung into her brain is trouble with a capital T.
A common occurrence with her.
“Oh, Green, I have no idea what you mean. So do you want to–”
“Nope,” I grit out again, placing one last kiss to her forehead before I fix us both up. We walk toward her mom’s house, hands locked tightly enough I can feel bruises forming between my fingers.
“She’s probably napping, so I’m going to stay out a bit more. What are your plants?” Raven looks up at me, vulnerability shining in her eyes.
“Taking you out, of course. Did you think I’d claim you as mine with words and kisses alone?” Wrapping my arm around her shoulder, I grin and place a kiss to her temple. “We’re going on a date.”
She tries to push away from me, nearly panicking.
Raven has to dress properly for every occasion so she can enjoy the experience to its fullest.
“Five minutes, Rae,” I tell her, raising a brow pointedly at her, “then I’m coming in after you.”
She sighs, meets my gaze one last time when her feet cross the threshold of her mother’s house, and smiles shyly. “Be down in a sec, Green.”
She blows me a kiss and I catch it, both of us laughing softly and awkwardly at the gesture.
Knowing her five minutes will be more like twenty, I walk toward my own house to get ready.
This might be the last first date we both will ever have.
