Fall with Me (Playing for Keeps, #4)

by Becka Mack

Jaxon Riley is . . . okay. He turned the heating up two degrees to 72 without me asking, because I was walking around wrapped in a blanket. I made an offhand remark about the single shelf in the shower not being big enough for all my products, and even though he said maybe that’s a sign to use fewer products, when I came home from lunch with the girls, there were brand-new floor-to-ceiling shelves in one corner of the shower. A step stool magically appeared in the pantry a day after he walked into the kitchen to see me scaling the counters so I could reach the mugs on the top shelf, and even though he explicitly said Mittens wasn’t allowed to sleep with me, when my emotions got the best of me one night, the door creaked open, Mittens was tossed inside, and then the door was promptly shut again.

“I think you’re funny and cool and you’re definitely the most beautiful girl I’ve ever seen in my entire life. You’re also strong and brave, and nobody is worth you feeling worthless.”

A rough palm skates up my throat, gripping my jaw, tilting my face to his. “What do you want, honey?” “You.” He licks the corner of his mouth, right where a grin is starting. “’Bout fuckin’ time” is all he murmurs before his mouth collides with mine.

Jaxon is . . . living. Fresh air. An endless sky dotted with possibilities. He’s the deep breath before a scary step, the thundering of your pulse as you close your eyes and jump. He’s life beyond four suffocating walls, where stepping outside is like seeing in color for the first time.

Lennon is mine in the morning. Her sleep-rumpled curls, piled on top of her head, spilling down her neck. Her lazy, quiet smile, and the bright sparkle in her brown eyes after an incredible sleep following the dicking of the century. The baggy cropped T-shirt hanging off her shoulder, the morning sun kissing her copper skin. The drop of coffee that clings to her plush lower lip when she pulls her mug back, and I have to stop myself from swooping in, catching her mouth with mine and stealing that droplet.

If there’s one thing I know for sure, it’s that this man sees me. He hears me. He knows me. He makes me feel happy. Safe. Valued. He makes me feel capable. And that right there? That’s a powerful, magnificent feeling.

I’m looking at her like she’s the sunset, and I’m seeing it in color for the very first time. That’s how I’m looking at her.

But I don’t want to fall alone. I want her to fall with me.

“Looking at you, knowing you exist in my world, that you could be mine one day and gone the next, is the most overwhelming thing I’ve ever felt.”

Lennon is mine. My best friend, the hand in mine, the weight lifted off my chest. She’s the sunrise when I spent too many years in the dark, and breathing easier for the first time since I was a kid.

“I’ll wait, Jaxon. I don’t care how long. Because this? This is a once-in-a-lifetime feeling. You’re a once-in-a-lifetime find. I’m not walking away.”

“Here it is, honey. I love you. I am so goddamn, mind-blowingly in love with you, and the thought of losing you is killing me. I don’t want you to go. This place only feels like a home when you’re here.” I whisper my final plea. “Please, honey. Please stay.”

“There is no one alive who could love me better than you do, Jaxon. You love me the way I always dreamed of being loved. The way I deserve to be loved. And I’m going to love you the way you deserve to be loved.”

There is nothing in this world that could pull me away from you, Jaxon. You are my best friend, my line, and my home.