Page 46 of On Thin Ice

“She's such a good girl…” Sean teases and I hear a slap, followed by a loud, “Ow!” from Sean. I make a mental note to kiss my best friend's face several times later to thank her for keeping my man in check. “Don’t ever, say something like that to me again Sean Taylor or I will remove your balls from your body in your sleep.” She warns and the sound of Sean’s footsteps quickly follow, the sound getting closer before he steps into my bedroom looking like a frightened deer, locking the door behind him.

“She’s scary,” he breathes and I turn away to hide my proud smile. “She may even be scarier than you.”

“Wanna find out how scary I am?” I twist back, darkening my eyes and purposefully dragging my eyes up his body until I find his throat, watching his heavy gulp. “Thought not.”

I climb under my duvet around an hour later, Sean and I having stuffed our faces with Oreos and ice cream whilst watching a shitty film that I didn’t see the ending of because by that point Sean’s tongue was down my throat. He climbs in beside me and I move over, making a cold strip of mattress apparent between us.

His eyes immediately look at the gap, then at me questioningly. “What are you doing all the way over there?”

I decide to tease him, purely because it’s fun and I haven’t done it for a while. “I want some space tonight.” I turn over so I'm facing away from him, but only a second later he’s yanking me back across the bed, wrapping his arm across my chest and trapping both my legs under one of his.

“Fuck the space.” He mutters into my neck, peppering repeated kisses there and making me shiver.

I groan playfully. “God, you’re so needy.”

He squeezes me tighter, his body warm and comforting around mine. “I know, I just have this uncontrollable need to be touching you at all times. I’m sorry if it’s annoying.”

Great, now I feel like a bitch.

I twist in his tight grasp, turning over to face him. “It's not annoying, I've just never had a guy want me like this, I'm not used to it.”

He grips my chin between his fingers, pulling my eyes up to hold his. “Well, get used to it, because we’re endgame baby.” He presses a delicate kiss to my lips, shit eating grin following after and I bury my face into his warm chest, floating into a dreamless sleep.

Chapter 37

Sean

I swipe my arm across Callie’s mattress…cold. My eyes fly open and I search the room for her briefly before climbing out of bed, heels of my palms rubbing at my tired eyes. I drag the zip open on my overnight bag, digging around for the pair of grey sweatpants I packed last night before coming here and that’s when I notice the murmured voices in the kitchen. Callie’s dorm is pretty small, so you can almost always here every tiny noise from whatever room you’re in. There are definitely three voices out there, Callie’s, — of course, I’d know her voice anywhere — Molly’s and I think Anais must be home too. The three of them haven’t had any alone time together for at least a week before I came along and whisked their friend away to my lair for endless sex and cuddles. So, I decide to give them a minute to catch up before I go out there and kidnap my girl again. We both have a full day of training today so I was hoping to keep her in bed until the very last minute, but she obviously had other plans. To be fair to her, she’s a monster when she hasn’t had a coffee in the morning so I should probably be grateful that she’s out there, sipping away at the liquid gold before I undoubtedly piss her off over nothing. I crack the bedroom door, taking a seat on Callie’s velvet, pink dressing table chair and leaning back, gazing up at the fairy lights that hang loosely from her ceiling. “Have you told your boyfriend you’re in love with him yet?” Molly says and I hear a mug being placed down firmly with an echoed clang on the marble island.

Callie blows out a quiet breath and I'm immediately straining to hear every word she’s about to say.

“No…” she mutters and I just know she’s picking nervously at her fingernails. “But he said he loved me by accident yesterday.” Oh shit, I really thought she may have missed that. I should have known, that girl doesn’t miss a thing.

Anais chimes in, “By accident?”

I hear as the three of them sip their coffees and I'm pushing down the breath that’s sitting deep in my throat. I don’t want to risk any tiny sound coming out and them catching me listening. Like I said, the walls in this dorm are made of paper or something and I desperately need to hear how this conversation pans out.

“He said it in passing but…” another deep breath from my girl before she sighs, “it felt right, hearing it coming from his mouth.”

I hear a bar stool or two squeaking as they are pushed back across the tiled floor and I guess Callie’s friends are moving closer to her, hugging and smothering her in their love like girls do.

Callie clears her throat and I can hear the bubble of tears in her voice. “He makes me so happy, like happier than I ever realised I could be. Going from being with a guy like Joel who degraded me and made me feel like I was never good enough for him. To Sean, who tells me I'm beautiful every damn day and makes me feel so safe and wanted, has made my heart literally double in size.”

I’m a puddle. Melted into hot, molten liquid on Callie’s bedroom carpet from her words.

Molly murmurs, “So tell him that, he needs to hear it.”

I do, I do need to hear it, but not until my baby is ready to say it. I won’t push her.

“I can’t,” Callie squeaks and I'm practically bouncing up and down at the bedroom door, desperate to get out there and listen more closely. “I do feel it, honestly I do but the words feel like they’re stuck in my throat and my heart is forcing them to stay there. My body is trying to hold onto the last smidgen of vulnerability that I have left, I've given him every part of me and telling him I love him would mean he has my heart to break if he chooses to and I'm just not ready for that yet. I trust Sean, I mean that, I trust him with my whole being but it’s like I'm still waiting for something to change between us. Maybe he’ll get bored of me or decide this one woman thing isn’t what he wants.”

As if I could ever get bored of her, she’s crazy.

The girl has me in a chokehold I swear to god, I'm almost panting as I listen to the conversation trickle off, Anais and Molly offering supportive and comforting words to my girl and my feet take me down the corridor before I ask them to. Poker face Sean, you heard nothing.

As I round the corner into the kitchen all three sets of eyes fix on me like I just walked in on something I shouldn’t have. Little do they know I heard everything anyway but my lips are sealed for now.

“You three ok?” I say totally innocently as they all pull their faces back to their original shape.

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