LOGINJackson’s hands paused between my legs when I said that. He raised an eyebrow as he looked down at me.
“Just sexual…” he repeated, his voice low.
I nodded even though it wasn't a question. “You wanted me, I wanted you. We both had what we wanted, and we'd be lying if we said it was just a one-time thing.” That sex was too good to be a one-time thing. I don't know about him, but I definitely don't want it to be a one-time thing. “So we should just keep it that way. Purely sexual, and not expect anything else from each other.”
He kept staring at me, and then he hummed softly. His hands went back to washing my core like he’d done this countless times, and I wanted to melt. In shame or arousal, I couldn't tell.
“I know.”
I exhaled as something uncurled in my chest. “Good.”
He washed the soap off me, and then turned me to wash my back. I wanted to object, say I had hands that functioned perfectly well, but it wasn't every day a sexy Englishman washed you while he slowly massaged you. So I pressed my mouth shut and accepted the free massage.
His thumbs dug into the back of my neck, and another moan of relief slipped out of me when I felt the tension slowly fade.
“This must be why your panties are always up in a bunch,” he whispered as he closed the little space between our bodies, and I stiffened when I felt his dick resting on my ass. A very hard, and very heavy dick. “There’s so much tension in you.”
“It’s not intentional,” I muttered as he kept on.
“I know, darling.” His voice grew softer. “I know.”
After he was done washing my back, he turned off the shower and led me out. I wanted to object too when he started drying me up, but didn't. I was distracted by that erect shaft between his legs. Wasn’t… wasn't he going to do anything about it? My voice might still be hoarse, and I was still sore, but I was up for round two. I wanted to stack up as many orgasms as I could before this night ended.
But Jackson just went on drying my hair even as my eyes kept dropping to his dick. After that he just… he just left me sitting on the bed as he went back to the bathroom. I listened as the shower was turned on, sitting very still as I waited, still naked. My body was still humming, literally vibrating, and I had to rub my thighs together to find a bit of relief.
When the shower turned off, my spine stiffened as he stepped out, drying his hair with a towel, and looking so delicious. Droplets of water dripped down his body, and I wanted to lick him the way they were licking him. His bicep flexed as he dried his hair, his very much still erect dick dangling between his legs as he moved.
God, this man cannot be real.
He put the towel away and walked to me, his eyes heated and fixed on mine. He stopped in front of me.
“So…” he said, his voice low. “What now?”
I swallowed. “Huh?”
What now? How about you spread my legs apart like the Red Sea, and drive that beautiful cock in me until I’m–
“Do you want me to drive you home, or you’d rather stay since it’s late?”
I blinked at him. And then blinked some more. Did I hear him right? “H-huh?”
“Has your vocabulary been limited to that one word?” he asked, an eyebrow raised, his voice serious.
“But…” I stared down at his dick before I stared back at his eyes. “But you’re–”
I pressed my mouth shut.
Will he think I'm too loose, or have a high libido? I mean, his dick was about to poke me in the eye, but what if that’s just normal for him? I swallowed my words.
“I’ll sleep over.”
He smiled softly, and my heart skipped a beat. He walked to the other side of the bed, and it dipped with his weight. He got under the sheets, and then tapped the side of the bed.
“Come on.”
I stared at him for a while before I sighed deeply and got under the sheets as well. I turned my back to him, maintaining a distance from him. But then he wrapped his hand around my waist, and I gasped softly when he drew me closer to him until his chest was pressed totally to my back, and I… I could feel… his dick pressing into my ass.
Was he really going to sleep like that? No, the better question was: do fuck buddies sleep like this? In a position so… intimate? And the way my body completely melted into his arms was embarrassing and alarming, and yet I felt so… safe. I didn't want to move a single inch.
His arm was tight around my waist, but then it moved up to my stomach, and he just… touched it, pressed it a bit, and drew lazy circles around my navel.
I don’t know why, but that made my eyes burn. Geez, I was running high on different emotions today. He nuzzled his face into the back of my neck before his nose moved to my hair, and then he… he inhaled softly.
“God,” he muttered in a rough voice. “Your scent is mixed with mine. It’s bloody intoxicating.”
I couldn't say anything. My throat was too thick to form words.
“And you feel warmer than I thought,” he muttered, chuckling softly like this was an inside joke.
I swallowed to push the lump down my throat. “H-how many times have you thought about it?”
His hand pressed into my stomach in an almost possessive way. Now, I was just being silly.
“I’ve lost count.”
“So… you’re always thinking about me?”
He didn't answer immediately. “Like I told you in the kitchen that night, you’re consuming me.”
I said nothing else. I just stared ahead, feeling the solid, warm body behind me.
Have I… have I ever been held? I never knew my mother. I didn't know if she was dead or alive, and Marshall has never, for one day, talked about her. Did she use to hold me? Was there a time when Marshall held me? Was this really the first time I've been held so… lovingly? God, I was really pathetic.
“Will I see you at the game tomorrow?” Jackson asked in a sleepy voice that made him sound… cute.
Cute, Siri? Fucking seriously?
“Yes,” I answered, hoping he was too sleepy to notice the slight shake in my voice.
“Without those two adults?”
“Yes.”
His hand pressed into my stomach again. “Thank you.”
I squeezed my eyes until white spots dotted my vision when they did something ridiculous: they burned.
Yeah, fuck Toria and her stupid advice. Fuck that happy ending nonsense. Sure, I do want a happy ending with him. I want a happy beginning, middle, and ending with Jackson. All of that and more! Damn it, I had even been thinking of the perfect future together with him. Yes—and fuck you—I’ve been thinking of going somewhere with him, getting a house, three dogs, and maybe one cat. We could live like that for a few years, then get married, and decide if we wanted kids. I'd already mapped out the perfect future, the perfect ending.So yeah… Use him? USE him? How on God’s green earth can I use him when I was in love with him? I was madly in love with that man, and it made me realize that I was never in love with Michael. No. No, I was just in love with the attention and the idea of love, the idea that someone finally wants me. But this painful shit with Jackson? This soul-crashing devastation? Yeah, this was love. This was love in its purest, fucked up form.So how was I going to us
“I thought you might be gone already,” Toria said as we settled into my hotel room. “Jackson already booked my flight,” I said, opening a beer. “I leave in two days.”“Hmm. So what are you going to do till then? Stay cranked up in here?”“Probably.”“I could show you around, you know.”I thought about it for a second and shook my head, sipping my drink. “Thank you, but no.”I had thought about leaving and just going to tour on my own, but every time I thought about the possibility that I might run into him out there, I shook off that thought. Maybe I would have seen him with his hand around another woman’s waist, laughing with the boys and acting like that night didn't happen. But seeing him on screen tonight, I don't think any of that might have happened. I wanted to ask Toria what happened and why he looked that way, but then I might sound like I care, which I very much do, and I wanted to stay cool and keep up this nonchalant act until I was out of here.And so I sipped my drink
SIRIHe… lost. I stared at the TV screen in my small hotel room, my eyes wide, hands squeezed together and pressed to my chest.“He lost,” I whispered it out loud like it would make sense if I did so. I told myself I wasn't going to watch the game, that I would stay away from my screen and just wait for my flight back home two days from now, but I couldn't. I couldn't let the chance of seeing him, even though it was from a screen, slip away. As soon as his team had skated onto the ice and the camera zoomed in on them, my eyes had found him immediately, and I knew something was wrong. His skin was too pale, his eyes looked too sunken, and he kept flexing his wrists over and over, to the point I was sure everyone in the arena must have noticed. And I could have sworn that he was trembling. The game started, and it was even worse. Everything about the way he moved, to the way he could no longer hide his trembling, was wrong. It filled my heart with dread and panic. I couldn't relax a
PRESENTThe smoke of that cigar, laced with a chocolate scent, burned into my nose even though he was across the street. The scent was the same: the cigar lit, resting on his lips, lifted in a smile. A small smile, soft and gentle. Not like that frightening smile he had on his face that night that still sends a chill down my spine. Elijah M’Call still looked the same even seven years later. His black hair was slicked back from his face, dotted with gray. His grey eyes were wrinkled at the corners from age. His shoulders were still broad beneath his tailored suit, and black leather gloves covered his hands.He still looked and dressed the same. Nothing had changed.After that night, I had cut every tie with this man. I made sure I never heard a word from him or received a single penny. I moved into Jacob’s house, and his mother accepted me without a single complaint, letting me stay until I could rent my own place. I didn't speak to my mother for two years after that. She came to my
CONTENT WARNING: This chapter contains references to domestic abuse and may be triggering to some readers. Reader discretion is advised. ~.~“I can think of a few things that can make you quit hockey,” my father said, his voice relaxed, but his face was filled with hell. He stood chest to chest with me, and I fought every instinct screaming at me to lower my eyes, to pull back. I fought them and stood perfectly still, not letting that dark look intimidate me.“What?” I spat. “Are you going to pay the coach to kick me out of the team? Then I'll just find another team to join.”“Jackson, please,” my mother whispered, and that just made my fists clench harder. Why was she calling me back and not her husband? He was the one threatening to take my dream away from me! My hopes for a better future, and still I was the one being called back? Did she really think I would just roll over and accept this bullshit? Bloody no. “That is way beneath me, Jackson,” he said in a low voice, acting li
SEVEN YEARS AGOThe sun had long since set, and the neighborhood was dark by the time I strolled in through the back door, my shoes tied together by their laces and hanging around my neck, my hands shoved into my pockets. Hopefully my parents were asleep by now, and I wouldn't have to deal with either of them. It was exhausting to look into their eyes these days and act like everything was fine when I harbored a little bit of hatred for my father. Okay, maybe it was more than a little bit, but I won’t tell if you don’t. I spent time at Jacob’s house long after practice, then came home and lied through my teeth, saying the coach sucked us dry with practice, which is why I was so late.You can’t blame me. The atmosphere in this house was depressing, and hearing my father whistle while he smoked his cigar, acting like all was right and fair in the world, was pissing me off when I could see my mother was losing weight, when I could clearly see she was losing her shine. She just needed







