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“Because, I can promise you this… if I fucked you,” I swear I hear him groan, “you can bet your ass you’d remember it.” I let my lips brush his cheek as I lower my feet to the ground.
Football is an art, really. A hand-selected bunch, each for very different reasons, pieced together to form the biggest and best, most in sync, combination of fight and fury. There’s nothing gentle about the way these boys work.
Nate’s standing in my doorway, looking every shade of sexy, a little uncomfortable, and a lot pissed off.
It takes him a minute to meet my gaze, but when he does, a look of possessiveness passes through them briefly. Weird.
He glances back at me, a small smile now tipping his lips. “I may not play games, but if I want something,” his gaze flicks to my mouth, “I make sure I get it.” His eyes are meaningful, his smirk deadly. “I just never found anything I wanted to keep before.”
Dishonesty is a pointless trait. All it does is cause problems and distrust.”
Back on the porch, when she smiled over her shoulder at me, my stomach bottomed out, putting me off balance. I had to lean against the damn post to keep from making a fool of myself.
I’m not a clumsy guy, but this girl’s got me trippin’ over myself in every which way and she doesn’t even know it. That smile she gave me; I’ve never seen it before. It was real. Lethal. I want to see it again.
“Make yourself useful and cut the veggies.” He chuckles and walks to the other side of the kitchen to start. “You know how?” I ask him, not bothering to turn around. “I can cut lettuce, Kalani.” I bite back a grin. “Just checking.”
A beautiful simplicity of nothingness. The ultimate escape.
“Yeah.” He licks his lips. “Looking at you gets under my skin.” He drops down an inch. “Thinking about you fucks with my head.” Another inch. “Hearing that raspy, sexy ass voice of yours gets me riled up,” he rumbles quietly, his body now brushing mine. “And touching you? Touching you sets me on fire,” he whispers.
“You look good like this.” His voice is deep and gravely. “Like what?” I pant. His sexy smirk finds his lips. “Flushed and under me.”
Next thing I know, his soft lips are on mine. His kiss is more demanding and territorial than anything, but right now, I don’t mind. Not giving a damn about the gasps and giggles and screeching chairs, I throw my hands around his neck and kiss him back. Not even caring when my candy falls to the floor.
“Because, for some reason, the thought of saying goodbye to you does something to me. I don’t like it. It makes me feel like I’m losing something.”
“My grandpa didn’t allow goodbyes; said that’s not something he and I would ever have, a goodbye.”
Handsome: it’s okay to want something. No pain, no gain. I’m wondering if he’s right.
Austin was right, she’s mine. She just doesn’t know it yet. Whistling, I throw on my A’s hat, grab my keys, and head out the door. She’s about to find out.
“Kalani is a free-spirited girl. She picks and chooses who to trust. Once you’re in, you stay there. Always. No matter what.” She drops her hand and steps back. “Remember that.”
All I know is, this girl next to me... I want to keep her here. Now to convince her that’s where she wants to be.
“It comes and goes as it pleases, taking with it the remains of the day or the hours before, washing away all traces of attendance, all the memories. Nothing is as powerful as the rain.”
“Me and football, we go way back. I was literally on the field in the womb.” I laugh lightly, looking out the large window that overlooks the hillside. “Football’s more a way of life than anything else, in my eyes anyway. I love the hot summer days and cool winter nights. The ambience of the crowd is enough to excite you sometimes, and the smell. But the dedication behind each player,” I smile, “that’s my favorite part. It’s a controllable magic, driven by pure determination that most people take for granted.” I shrug, facing forward again.
“So, I now own half of a professional football team. So, my grandfather has two Super Bowl rings and was inducted into the Hall of Fame. Who cares that my parents owned and operated the number one sports photography company in the country? While those things are awesome, they’re mine.”
“You are my girl.” Nate grins.
“Yeah, well. He isn’t mine, either.” Nate steps into my space, forcing my eyes back to his. “Maybe I want to be.” “Want to be what?” “Yours.” He tips his chin.
“Let me wake you up, Kalani.” My eyes flutter closed as the soft words I’d spoken to my grandfather flow through me. “You can go to sleep... I’ll wake up for you.”
“So,” I pull back, looking up at him again. “Just so we’re clear. You’re mine, as in only mine?” He nods. I nod as well, before turning to head back to the house. “Whoa.” He jumps, snagging my retreating hand. “Where you going?” he questions, his brows furrowed. “I don’t share, Handsome.” I shrug, jerking my head in the direction of the party. “Figured it best to let Olivia know that now.”
My fingernails dig into his forearms. “If you’re mine…” “I am.” He squeezes my ass, pulling me even closer. “Then I’ll always fight for you.”
“You told me what you see in my eyes. Well, I see things in yours, too. They always have a shadow, a little something in them, hiding a part of you.” His hand lifts from under mine, coming back down to cover it. “But it’s gone tonight. Your eyes; they’re big and bright and beautiful.” His eyes skim me one more time. “You’re beautiful.”
“Parker’s my friend, and I’m his.” Nate doesn’t say a word. “He’ll be around awhile, probably forever, and I won’t deny him when he needs me.” I pause on purpose, making sure he’s hearing me. The tick in his jaw tells me he is. “Unless you needed me more.”
“You’re mine,” he growls, his fist tightening in my hair.
His eyes narrow. “You do realize, when I say you’re mine, that doesn’t just mean you only fuck me and I only fuck you, right?” He raises a brow. “It means your everything is mine, Kalani. All of it…” he says, his finger tracing my bottom lip, “is mine. All of you.”
“I’m gonna fuck you long and hard.” His hands case mine behind my head. “Then soft, and slow,” he whispers into my skin. “All night long, that way you can’t make me leave.”
“I think I know, but you have to figure it out on your own, Kalani.” “How?” He shrugs. “What if I don’t? Figure it out, I mean.” His hands slide under my ass, gripping me as he stands. He sets me on the bed and leans down, his lips hovering over mine. “Then it’ll be me who’s numb.”
Nate’s unknowingly healing pieces of me I didn’t know needed mending, helping memories and feelings I forced my brain to forget to resurface. I hadn’t realized, when I shut down my psyche, I’d also lost all the good moments in my life. But when you don’t allow your mind to sit idle, when you force it into the here and now only, I guess it’s inevitable. It’s also tiring. And I’m tired of being tired.
Those chocolate eyes implore mine. “I love you.” I’m shaking my head before he even finishes. “Yeah, Kalani.” He nods, sureness carrying his voice. “I do. I’m in love with you.” “No. You’re not,” I shoot back, my body turning to cement. He smiles and I don’t miss the chuckles around us. “Yes, I am. And you’re in love with me, too.” “No, I’m not.” He steps into me. “Yes. You are. I know you are.” “You don’t know shit,” I whisper, unable to catch my breath, my eyes darting across his face, searching for a sign of... something.
“Tell me,” he growls. “Tell me I can touch you, please you, whenever and wherever I want.” He licks my neck. “Tell me…” “You can do whatever you want to me, Handsome.” I look over at him. “I’m yours.”
Graduation day is a day for emotions to run high. It can be the happiest day for some and the saddest for others. It’s a day where some take chances, others realize their regrets, and some just flat out get wasted and carry on like any other day in high school.
He opened me up to the good, the bad, the ugly. Gave me no choice in learning the great, all-consuming, soul-binding warmth I never knew existed. Never wanted.
“Because my heart beats in your chest, and yours in mine. We’re blended in each other in deeper ways than even we understand.” She’s full-on sobbing now.
“We fumbled pretty good, didn’t we?”
“I’m not going anywhere. Ever. I’m gonna stay with you, love you, forever.” She smiles and slides her hands up my neck. “I know.” She tilts her head and raises a brow. “Ready to show me what forever feels like?” I nod. She nods. We’re on the same page.
“But she’ll come.” My brows pull in. “Who?” She shrugs against me. “The one who needs a hero.” Her words are so simple, so sure. She wants her friend to find what he’s looking for; what she feels he needs. “Whoever that is… she’ll come. And he’ll be ready for her when she does.”
“Arianna’s had a thing for Chase since they were kids, but Mason won’t allow it, if Chase is even interested. My dad seems to think he is, but Mason’s his best friend. I’m not sure Chase is willing to risk that.”
Because she’s here; she’s got me. And she does, all of me. Everything I am, everything I have or will have, is already hers.
This girl. This blue-eyed, black-haired girl, who had no one and wanted nothing, chose me. She let me in, let me love her.
She’s so beautiful. So perfect. So… mine.
