With Love

Chapter Thirty-Seven

Is anyone obsessed with some of the songs coming out from TikTok? Flowers by Lauren Spencer Smith??? AMAZING.

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The next morning I woke up wrapped in Finn's arms. His hand trailed up and down the bare skin of my back. Last night he let me cry into his shoulder until the tears had dried on his shirt until my skin had hardened once more and my resolve built itself back up, piece by piece.

Before he let me leave the library, he lay me down on the rough, ancient carpet and for the next hour, made me forget that anyone else in the world existed besides the two of us.

We snuck into my room just after midnight, once the house had fallen asleep. He whispered reassurances to me until I had fallen asleep, my hand clutching his tightly.

"So, you don't want your parents to know about us?" he asked shortly after I suggested he sneak out of my room before everyone else woke up. Knowing my father, he would have already gone through all my files locked away in my office. He was an asshole like that.

I rolled over until my body lay across his bare chest. He stared up at me while I looked down at him. He reached up and brushed a few strands of curls out of my face so he could see me clearly. "It's not that I don't want my parents to know about us, it's the fact that I don't want my father to know because that is one more thing that he can control me with," I explained, tracing my fingers over his skin, watching his muscles tense and his body shiver.

Finn raised an eyebrow. "You don't think he's already figured it out?"

I shook my head, resting my chin on my hands. "You heard that comment about Franco, he thinks I'm still sleeping with him," I said casually before a thought nagged in my brain. Look at me, caring about other people's opinions now. "You...you know that I have no," I swallowed roughly, "feelings for Franco, right? Our history is very much over."

His lips twitched into a cocky smirk. "I'm not worried." His fingers brushed over the cut on my cheek.

Well now. My eyebrows scrunched suspiciously. "Not even a little bit threatened?"

He gave me a full-blown smile. "Nope, he had his chance with you, and clearly it wasn't enough to keep your attention, I'm not too worried about it."

My lips parted in surprise as a rush of heat tore through me. Oh my god. I crawled onto my knees and brought my face closer to his. He wrapped a hand in my curls and angled my head to the side, brushing feather-light kisses down my neck. "How do you always know the right thing to say?" I murmured, breathy moans leaving my lips as I tried to move my head to give him more access.

Finn pulled my hair until my face was in front of his. "It's not hard to pay attention to someone like you," he said softly, his blue eyes boring into mine. I placed a hand on his throat gently and bent forward, his hand going slack in my hair as I kissed him.

For five seconds I didn't care if my father knew about Finn. For five seconds, my father could walk right in and nothing would make me tear my attention away from this man. I knew that at this moment I would do anything for Finn. He listened to me, he knew things about me because he paid attention. He cared about my day, whether or not he wanted to hear the gory details.

He cared about me. And it honestly felt like this was the first time in my life that someone actually did.

"What?" He asked softly, narrowing his eyes at me.

I blinked, not realizing we stopped kissing and for the last however many moments, I had been staring down at him. "Nothing," I said with a soft smile.

He leaned up, kissing my lips quickly. "I'm serious, I could listen to you talking about the weather for an hour and still find out some new interesting fact." His fingers trailed over my curves, kneading my skin.