Growing Pains Keeping Me Up At Night - Chapter 7 (Early Access) (Patreon)

Kira

With all of her applications in progress, and one good day behind them, Kira decided to try for cordiality… until the Summer. Then she’d run away to whatever university would take her and have three years to sort herself out.

In the sanctuary of Vanessa’s house, she had been able to pour over all the options and talk openly about it without fear of Aiden appearing around a corner and catching her. She had no idea how he would react, but she knew she didn’t want to find out. Vanessa was the only person she knew who had been to university within the last quarter of a century, although she had attended the one in their local town. Too close, not an option for Kira, but she still wanted to hear every story and every bit of advice her best friend could give. Her fingers paused on her keyboard… when had she stopped calling Aiden her best friend? Even just in her head? Kira shook said head and focused on the bright laptop screen. That wasn’t important now. Once she was at uni, then she could think about things. Only then she could address her feelings, in the privacy of some room in a dorm. If her parents let her stay anywhere with other humans, which she hadn’t broached yet…

Her hands had stopped again. She huffed and Vanessa gave her an encouraging smile. Kira returned it and set her focus back on the essay.

After the sun had set, she shuffled back to the Bonnet mansion with her laptop case stuffed with notes and printouts. The chill of the dark rattled her bones and her teeth even in the short distance between houses. Lugging her cargo into the first reception room she came to from the back door, she noticed that, strangely, there wasn’t a staff member in sight. If she wasn’t carrying so much crap, she would have shrugged to herself. Instead, she flopped onto an antique sofa with a relieved sigh.

The armchair that faced away from the door, she now realised, was occupied.

“Aiden!” she said in awkward squeaky greeting.

“Hey,” he said, it sounded strained. His forced smile had a grim undertone, too.

Not himself.

“You… okay?” Kira asked, struggling to hide the awkward tension in her voice. She tucked her papers behind her butt as nonchalantly as was possible while splayed across a sofa.

Aiden shrugged. “What about you?”

“Yeah… I’m…” Kira mimicked his shrug.

They sat in silence for what felt like hours but was probably only a few minutes. Kira wished there was some paint she could watch dry, then she wouldn’t keep accidentally looking at Aiden’s face and reflexively giving him nervous smiles.

Not himself at all. Aiden would never pass up a chance to tease her or mess with her. Now he just sat slumped in his chair. His storm clouds were bristling around him, but she couldn’t fathom why. He didn’t seem mad at her.

The silence continued. She didn’t want to leave him like this, but she also couldn’t fathom what was wrong. Or what to do. Or what to say.

Uncle Elijah appeared in the doorway, his forehead crumpled and his mouth tight. Kira thanked whichever deity had answered her prayers for a distraction.

“Can either of you explain why I can hear Lucia singing ‘I’m gonna beat some ass’ to the tune of Thrift Shop?”

No matter how hard she strained her ears, Kira couldn’t hear her godmother’s voice. “No, Uncle,” she said uncertainly.

“Aiden?”

“No,” Aiden grunted.

“Okay. Something else must have upset her. Let’s hope I find her before she does any damage.” From down the hall she just about caught him add, “I don’t think mother is home right now…”

“What do you think that was about?” Kira asked lightly. Hoping to bring him out of his funk by discussing their conspiracies for who his mother might be out to murder.

Aiden shrugged.

“I’m torn between placing my bet on your dad forgetting something or my dad painting over something,” she joked.

“I’d put my trust fund on my grandmother being a racist bitch,” Aiden growled.

Kira started. “What?”

“Nothing.” He stormed out in a blur. The door seemed to slam of its own accord behind him.

Kira sat for a few moments, frowning. Then, she gave chase. Something was definitely wrong, and Grandma Bonnet was the culprit. She might not be able to do anything about the Bonnet’s elder matriarch, but she needed to do something to help Aiden.

She marched into his room without knocking and found him hunched on the corner of his perfectly-made bed. He didn’t sleep properly anymore. Vampires could reach a trance-like state, a bit like lucid dreaming or snoozing, but it wasn’t necessary. Like a kicked dog, he lifted his head mopily. His jaw was tight and his eyes sad. Kira pressed the door shut behind her and shuffled towards him. The pinch in his lips almost hinted at restrained tears. He couldn’t do that anymore, either.

“Aiden,” she said softly, attempting to soothe.

Large, marble-carved hands drooped over his knees, he pulled them up and crossed them over his chest defensively. There was no shooing or refusal when she reached the toes of his shoes and let hers line up with them. She bent over him, letting the tips of her fingers trail over the domes of his knees.

“Aiden,” she repeated. A little more demanding.

“I don’t want to talk about it,” he grumbled.

“But-”

He shot up. Instead of falling on her ass she fell back into the cradle of his arms. His lips pressed to hers, hot and hard. Frustration mashing against her mouth.

She pried her face away with a gasp. “Aiden!”

“What?” he grunted into the nook of her neck.

“Tell me what’s wrong.”

“Then can I kiss you?”

Kira hummed non-committally.

“And touch you?”

She ran her tongue over her teeth as she mulled it over. It was a trade, not a free-for-all…

“Fine.” She leant her face back as far as her spine would bow. “Tell me.”

Aiden glanced away for a moment before he answered. “Grandma said I can’t speak properly.”

“What do you mean?”

“Like… my vowels.”

Kira scrunched her face, still confused. Aiden had the slightest tinge of his mother’s accent, and his mother’s accent wasn’t thick by any means. His vowels occasionally sounded like they came from the back of his mouth rather than the front like Kira and the other Bonnets. It was sexy, and got more noticeable when he was heated.

“There’s nothing wrong with your accent-”

“I don’t want to talk about it anymore,” he huffed, yanking her close again. “That’s what’s wrong, now I get to kiss you.”

Kira could only give him an exasperated look before he connected their mouths again. There were worse deals to have made. If she had an ounce less pride she’d let herself enjoy it… It’s funny how quickly a mere ounce can melt away. Kira sunk into the taste of him, the clutch of his hands over her, the hunger he took her mouth with.

Perfectly preserved skin, frozen at a mild and unassuming temperature, void of ticks and pulses of rogue functions just beneath. Kira was a mess in comparison. Her own body was burning up, with the slightest skim of sweat mingled with goosebumps. Heart thrumming almost painfully, pulsing in every patch of skin his fingers ghosted over. Nothing was within her control, her body reacted in any way it wished and she had to simply ignore it - let the mesh of his tongue against hers draw her mind away.

The fingers found her underwear, they dipped in and she clawed at the shoulders of his shirt. When he spun her, she kept the material knotted in her fingers. With her back to his front, the angle of his arm around her hip, of his fingers curled against her, gave the perfect angle to press inside. Kira gasped as one finger entered her, and Aiden’s mouth covered hers again from above.

Once, twice it bounced into her and she moaned against his lips. So good, but not enough. Her thighs widened in primal response to more fingers approaching. She had started with zero control, now she had to be in the negatives. In debt to her own sense.

Fingers joined the first, one by one, until three thick digits were thrusting in and out. Kira keened against Aiden’s hard chest, shoes sliding on the carpet as she wriggled back against his fingers. She didn’t know how to contribute, how to make it more. The padded push against one spot inside of her jerked her spine straight and almost crossed her eyes. There, that was the more she needed. Aiden’s chuckle around her tongue was liquid fire coursing through her.

Like a switch had been flicked, the fingers inside of her suddenly began to vibrate against that spot and a scream shot out of her. Their mouths broke apart and her own cracked whines filled the room.

She didn’t know you could feel something so indescribable. It was hot and cold and intense and too much and not enough and her entire body seemed to curl up around his hand as though she were in spasm, her legs shaking and her breaths gasping.

“What-” she gasped. “What the fuck?!”

That chuckle again. Dark and hot. “You’re telling me you honestly never thought about what I could do with my… enhanced abilities?”

“Why would I- Ah!” Another scream broke free.

“Right there?”

“No!”

“No? You want me to stop?” His fingers slowed until they were barely dipping in and out of her. She groaned in frustration, he had started something she needed finished. Was it worth her pride to push him away and run to her room and try to do.. this… to herself? When she didn’t answer, his fingers began to retract and her thighs jerked together to trap his hand.

“Wait,” she whispered pitifully, “d-don’t stop…”

She could feel his grin pressing into the back of her neck. The only way she could have reached an even higher level of humiliation was if she had to face him, to look upon his smug face.

“Tell me what you want,” he growled against her throat.

“No,” she whimpered.

“You don’t ask, you don’t get.”

“Please.”

“Mmm, I’m not feeling enough desire yet…”

“Aiden,” she said slowly. “Please.” She stressed the word hard and leant her head back against him, her eyes sliding closed in defeat.

“You’ll learn how to beg properly soon,” he promised. She hated how it heated her in places that already burned. But she ignored the comment because the long fingers plowed back into her and left her speechless with their buzzing sensation.

It didn’t even take a full minute. She came apart between his arms with a scream that cut itself off when her voice cracked. Thank god her eyes were still shut.

After the burst of orgasmic energy left her lethargic and droopy against him, Aiden lowered her to the bed and she hid her face in the sheets. His chuckle sent a clenching through her already overstimulated core. She groaned quietly in response.

“You okay?” he asked, barely restraining the amusement from his voice.

Kira grunted, and peeked out of the rumpled sheets with one eye. Aiden stood over her with shining eyes full of pride and cruel excitement.

“To answer the question that I’m sure you’re desperate to ask: yes, I can do that with my tongue.” He poked said tongue out with a wink before striding out as though nothing had happened, although a slight bulge could be seen at the front of his jeans if you knew to look. His mood exuding considerably brighter.

On his bed, Kira attempted to gather herself again. Her legs had yet to regain their feeling and her hands trembled beneath her. Her breaths shuddered out even as they slowed, and fatigue washed over her like soft waves lapping at her consciousness. She couldn’t fall asleep here… especially not looking so debauched… but it was as though he had dragged every once of energy she had out of her body with nothing but a pair of fingers and now she was the shell left behind.

Maybe a short nap wouldn’t be so bad. Who would dare enter the Bonnet heir’s bedroom without permission? Except her, that was.