Breathe With Me (Playing For Keeps #5)

by Becka Mack

Obsessed with him? As fucking if. I only spend every second of my free time with him to appease him. He sleeps in my bed every night because he’s big and warm and it’s winter and cold and I’m a princess.

“If I haven’t already made it abundantly clear, I’m fucking crazy about you, firefly.” “It’s been six days,” I croak. “I know. And I know that scares you. Scares me too, because I know this feeling is only gonna grow. Keeps me up at night, just staring at you, because suddenly it feels like my world is centered around a single person, and I am terrified that without you … everything collapses.”

“Baby, you don’t need to fight off anyone.” “But I can. I can take them, all of them. At the same time. I’ll do it, I swear.” A quiet chuckle, and Emmett touches a kiss to my lips. “There is zero doubt in my mind.” “It feels like you’re calling me crazy.” “It feels like you’re calling me yours.” My eyes move between his before I finally admit, “I am.”

“Nobody will ever see you again if you ever touch another woman,” I whisper against his lips. “I’ll go full ‘Goodbye Earl’ on you. They’ll be searching for their beloved missing hockey player for decades.” “You’re unhinged.” “You made me this way.”

“This feels weird, huh?” Emmett asks. “Respectfully, you’ve come in all three orifices of my body more times than I can count. This morning you made me take the stairs instead of the elevator so you could hear the way my moans echoed in the stairwell while you held me against the wall and ate my pussy. Yes, having a first date now feels a little weird.”

“I’m a really good listener,” I promise quietly. “If you’re going to be Mr. Cara Hunter one day, I want to know everything.”

“My thoughts, all of them lately, are about you. When I think about tomorrow, about next week, next year, or ten years from now … I think about you. I’m not going anywhere.”

At the end of the day, the only opinion of you that matters is your own. Be proud of yourself, and celebrate every win, even if it seems small. Life is too hard to not give yourself credit.” Emmett smiles. It’s broad and cheek-splitting, bright and sunny, full of wonder, appreciation, and something else … something that feels … warm. Safe. “I can’t believe I get to fuck you for the rest of our lives.”

“Did you call me Carter Bucket?” I frown. “Sorry, do you only go by your first name?”

It’s Adam who’s the first to crack, both hands over his face as laughter explodes from his chest. “She … called … you … Carter Bucket!”

“It’s Beckett,” I think he mutters under his breath. I touch my ear. “Pardon?” “It’s. Beckett. Carter Beckett.” My brows jump. “Really? Not Bucket? Huh.”

“Emmett, your girlfriend hurt my feelings.” “She hurt your ego,” he corrects, stuffing a tortilla in his mouth. “’Bout time someone did.” “Whatever we’re doing clearly isn’t working,” Garrett adds quietly, and when my eyes snap to his, a grin spreading over my face, his cheeks burn bright red. “What?” “You talk! And you’re funny!”

“Oh, fuck.” His hands go to the sides of his face, eyes wide, a little horrified. “I think…am I…?” “Dating the female version of Carter?” Adam winks at me. “Yup.” “Don’t insult me like that,” I say. Carter scoffs. “What’s that supposed to mean?” “It means you treat your body like Christians do the body of Christ at mass. Everybody gets a taste as long as they worship at your feet.” Carter thinks for a moment, then grins, leaning back in his chair. “You’re right, Care. I am a god to some women.”

“Who’s Olivia?” “My bestie.” “Oh?” Carter’s brows rise, and he looks from me to Emmett. “Is she⁠—” “Absolutely not,” Emmett and I say at the exact same time, followed by a “Heeey!” and a high-five across the table. “Nobody ever lets me have any fun,” Carter grumbles.

And Carter? Carter’s already loading two plates up, counting out twelve tacos each. “No. Absolutely not.” I wave my hands in front of my face when he pushes a plate in front of me. “I’m twenty-four. I’m not engaging in a taco-eating contest with you just to prove that I can do it.” * * * I engaged in a taco-eating contest with Carter Beckett just to prove that I could do it.

“I can’t believe I’m spending our first date vomiting, and you’re still here.” “Still here?” Emmett smiles, crouching in front of me. His fingers thread through my hair as he gathers it on top of my head, securing it in a knot before tipping my chin up, guiding my eyes to his. “Baby, where would I go? I am wherever you are, no matter what.” “In sickness and in health?” “Always.”

“I’m going to marry you, Cara. I see my future as clear as day.” “Yeah? What’s it look like?” Emmett cups my cheek, resting his forehead against mine. “It looks like you.”

Look, I’m a reasonable guy. Easygoing. There is little in life I need to keep me happy. My wife by my side, and her hand in mine every day that ends with y.

“You hear that, Em? Having you stab me with needles is going to bring us closer together.” She grins up at me in that scary, sexy way that gets me going. “You stab me, I pounce on you and try to kill you.” My mouth dips to her ear. “It ends in hate sex and you coming all over my c⁠—”

“No ejaculation, period, for five days.” My jaw unhinges, and a scoff tumbles from my mouth. Cara leaps to her feet, smashing her pointer finger against the desk. “And just who in the fuck do you think you are?” I throw my arms in the air, because throwing my chair would be frowned upon. “The goddamn cum police?”

“If it weren’t for me, you’d be a dad already.” My chest tightens, heart pounding at my rib cage. I shake my head adamantly, as if I can shake the traitorous thoughts right out of her head. “If it weren’t for you, I’d be alone and miserable. We both know I don’t exist without you by my side.”

You’re a wildflower, rising again and again, growing without abandon, no matter the weather. You’re a firefly, baby. When the stars are tired, you light your own way, and the way for everyone else, too.”

“You, Cara Brodie, are a once-in-a-lifetime woman, and you can do anything.”

She sniffles, nose scrunching. It draws my attention to the teensiest freckles that live there, scattered like stars. I remind myself that she’s a galaxy, and I’m just the moon lucky enough to be in her orbit. She holds my whole universe in her skies.

“I love you, Mr. Brodie. How did I get so lucky?” “I Stockholmed you, remember?”

“Your smile, your legs, that red dress you wore the night we met, your hand on my chest when we fall asleep each night, and the way you look first thing in the morning.” Slowly, she opens her eyes, keeping them on me as I remove the needle, capping the tip before I twist it off and toss it in the sharps bin. “What?” “Five things I love about you for every second the needle is in you.”

“Now come for me, baby.” She does, strangling my cock before she drenches it, squirting all over the counter as I empty myself inside her, my face buried in her slick neck. “Oh, baby,” I murmur, watching as my cum drips from my favorite spot. I gather it on my fingers, fucking it back into her pretty cunt before making her suck my fingers into her mouth. “I love when we make a mess.”

“What if we all didn’t have sex? To support Care and Em in their forced celibacy. I mean, it’s only five days.” Cara squeezes Jennie’s shoulders. “What a lovely idea, Jennie. You’re such a good friend.”

But it’s sweet, gentle Rosie who storms up to Jennie, shouting familiar, angry words at her. “And just who in the fuck do you think you are? The cum police?”

“What do you say we skip the skating and go back to your place? I’ll let you tie my hands behind my back and jerk off on my boobs again.” I smile at the memory and brush my thumb over her lip. “No sense in wasting all that cum. I’d rather feed it to you.” “You’re fucking filthy,” she murmurs, a full-body shiver running through her. “I love it.”

Do you know what does matter to me, though?”

“That you spent the last three weeks having your best friend teach you how to skate so that you could do this with me.” Cara gasps. “She told you about that?” “There may have been some videos. I especially loved the way you starfished on the ice and complained about how exerting physical effort for a man is beneath you.”

But it’s not the sex I’m insatiable for; it’s the woman. The way my heart pounds when she opens up the door, the way my blood simmers and my nerves settle the moment she’s in my arms. The way she tastes when she presses three simple words to my lips, three words I never knew I needed: I missed you.

“I love you.” Her gaze snaps to mine. “What?” “I love you, Cara. And I don’t care that it’s only been three weeks, and maybe you think I’m a little crazy. I’ve been crazy since the day I took one look at you and told myself you were it for me, and I’ll be crazy for the rest of my life, because there’s nothing sane about the way I love you.”

“I love you, too, Emmett.”

My man is an addict, suffering all the telltale symptoms of withdrawal. Can’t blame him, really. When the pussy is this good, a day without it is like a day in the desert without water.

Sheila’s wide eyes come to me. For what, I don’t know. Help? She’s not going to get it from me. I’m so horny, I contemplated masturbating with a cucumber yesterday when I was prepping a salad for dinner. It was the only thing in the house comparable to Sir Tom, the Pussy Slayer. That’s Emmett’s cock, in case that wasn’t clear. I gesture with my hand for her to answer. “My man asked a question.”

One time, after dinner at his parents’, he took me ’round back. Ripped my dress open and held his hand over my mouth while he slid inside me beneath the stars. I could hear his mother on the other side of the kitchen window, droning on and on about how she couldn’t wait for him to get sick of me.” She checks her fingernails. “Seems he never did get sick of me. Must’ve been all those backflips I did on his cock.

It’s never been lost on me. Emmett might have been the one that forced us together, but I’ve been hanging on with all my might since. My heart hasn’t been mine since the day we met. Now, it wanders around outside my body, and that’s as powerful as it is terrifying.

“When we have kids … a nursery. Shelves filled with all the books we’ll read them, sitting in the window, where the sun will shine through each morning and kiss their cheeks, where all the stars will dance above them night after night. We’ll sing songs and we’ll dance and we’ll laugh and we’ll grow. And when we put them to bed each night⁠—” I catch her around the waist as she spins around the room, hauling her against my chest, cupping her cheek as my thumb moves over her lower lip. “I’ll tell them that if the only stars in my sky were them and their mama, that would be all I need.”

“No!” Connor grips my wrist, shaking his head frantically, eyes wide. “You hafta blow, Unca Em. It hot.” “Oh, right. I forgot.” “Like dis.” He blows at my cold chocolate milk, then pats my knee with a grin. “Now.” “Thanks, buddy.” I take a sip. “Mmmm. So good. Thanks, Lil.” A loud blow sounds from my left, and I look at Jaxon across the table in the playhouse, staring down at Ireland, his shirt fisted in her teensy hand as she hangs onto him for balance, yanking him forward while she blows into his teacup, except her thoughtful gesture comes with a hint of saliva. “Ohhh, yummy…” Jaxon grimaces, then smiles down at Ireland, patting her head. “Thanks, princess.” She shoves the teacup toward his mouth. “Dink!”

“My specialty.” I look at the cookies, then back at him. “It’s just Oreos.” “Just Oreos?” He scoffs, tearing off his oven mitts and tossing them down on the table. “I literally toil away in the kitchen for you to say it’s just Oreos?”

She would be a really, really great mom.” Lily grins. “Really great. And you’d be a really great daddy, too, you know.” The weight on my chest eases. “You think so?” “Uh-huh.” She giggles as Ireland throws herself into my lap, holding onto my neck as she stuffs my cookie in her mouth. “You’re the best uncle.”

“Look at me, Care. This isn’t easy, I know. That’s okay. The only thing that’s come easy in my life is loving you. I’d spend the rest of my life fighting, as long as it’s you I’m fighting for.” Tired eyes move between mine, like she’s looking for the lie, but she won’t find it. “I love you,” she tells me, the words quiet but so damn sure as she twists into me, slides her soft hand along my jaw, brings my lips to hers. “There is nothing in this world I love the way I love you,”

“You know you don’t need to ask so nicely. There’s nothing I love doing more than loving you.” She gasps, hips lifting as I sink inside her, slow and deep, just how she wants it tonight. Fingertips press into my jaw, bringing my mouth down to hers. “You do it so well.” “Only thing I was made for.”

“I’m never ready to say goodbye to you, Care. Think about retiring every season just so I don’t have to be away from you.” “You do not,” she scoffs, and the playful way she wiggles her ass against my cock makes me smile, because every moment she’s not feeling like herself makes me hurt for her. “I do. You’re the only thing in this world I love more than hockey, and you win by a fucking landslide.” She sighs, a quiet, content sound, as she pulls my hand to her belly and snuggles into me. “You’re my landslide, Emmett. Everything I thought I knew fell to my feet when our worlds collided. Then we rebuilt a world together, and I finally understood why good things needed to end so something so much more beautiful could be built in their place.”

“I kinda think they’d be good together,” Emmett murmurs, resting his head on my shoulder. “Don’t you?” Do I think Carter Beckett, notorious womanizer, arrogant himbo, and Olivia Parker, innocent teacher, my best friend, angel, princess, would be good together? I flop my head over, pouting at Emmett. “I really do.” He snaps upright, eyes alight, hands clapping. “Right? She’d keep his ego in check and he’d entertain the fuck out of her!” “He makes her laugh so much, doesn’t he? I love seeing her smile the way she does around him, and then the way she immediately gets all scared because she realizes he makes her happy but she’s supposed to hate him.” “And he’s obsessed with her but pretends he can’t figure out why. Like, dude, you can’t stop thinking about her, you bought her a Christmas present, invited her to your house when you never have girls there, and she barely gives you the time of day, but you’re gonna pretend like you don’t have the biggest crush ever? Come on.”

“How are you doing this right now? You drank so much I caught you, Garrett, and Adam sliding down the basement banister.” He shifts all his weight to one arm, lifting his other so he can flex it. “Muscles for days, baby.” I flop my limbs around like noodles. “I feel like a turtle who fell on her shell and can’t get up.” “The most gorgeous, drunk turtle I’ve ever seen.”

“Happy New Year, firefly. Last year was the best year of my life because I spent it with you. I can’t wait to spend all of them with you.”

Morning, firefly. I met you a year ago today, on my birthday and New Year’s Day. A new year, but with you, it felt like a new beginning.