Page 148 of Unloved

“I’m coming,” she whimpers, legs snapping up around me where I’m still kneeling between her thighs. “Matt.”

The sound of my name as she comes, with the fantasy she painted to get herself there, are enough to have me coming so hard I see stars, arm trembling to keep me upright as I paint myself across her stomach.

We both stay still, panting for a long moment, before I turn to kiss her cheek, the corner of her mouth, her forehead, reverently.

“Stay there,” I say softly. “I’m gonna clean you up.”

“Okay,” she mutters, lax and sleepy, arms stretching out aboveher head as I walk backward to the bathroom, tripping hard into the wall. It gains a laugh from Ro on the bed, which is enough for me to be thanking the immediate shoulder pain.

I return with a warm, wet washcloth to clean her skin, then roll her away to scoot in after her. Drawing her to my chest, I play with her hair and press lingering kisses to her curls as she grows softer and heavier in my arms.

“Sleep, princess.”

CHAPTER 53Ro

I have a date—with Matt Fredderic.

Not our first date, but I am determined this one will be ourbestone.

After having toast and jam for breakfast, Matt left me to get ready forour first real date, advising me only to dress warm and cozy.

But it’s adate, one I am giddy with excitement for, which means I try on about fifteen different outfit ideas until it looks like my wardrobe exploded onto the floor. When the tears of frustration start up, I open my laptop and dial my best friend.

“Hey,” Sadie says slowly, looking half asleep. Her hair is a knotted mess of a braid, one eye still closed, a gray shirt almost hanging off her shoulder with how stretched the neckline is.

“Did I wake you up?”

She huffs a breath. To some it might sound sarcastic, but that’s a Sadie Brown laugh.

“Considering it’s nearly 11 a.m., yes, but I should’ve been up hours ago.” She mutters under her breath something aboutoverprotective hotshots.

“How’s the ankle?” I ask, settling on the end of my bed with my computer in my lap.

Sadie sprained her ankle the weekend of the guys’ Harvard away game. She hadn’t really told me directly what happened, but it had todo with overtraining the muscle. Accompanied by the sudden firing of her figure skating coach, and I’m getting a better picture—especially with her boyfriend, and his entire family, beingveryprotective of Sadie and her brothers.

“Fine.”

She rolls her eyes, just as a faraway male voice shouts, “Not fine,” over her.

I laugh and shake my head. “Is that Rhys?”

“No,” she says before he pops up over her shoulder in the frame, slumping back on the bed.

“Yes.” He grins into the camera, pulling his shirt down like he put it on to be polite for me. “Good to see you, Ro.”

“Hey, Rhys.”

His brow furrows slightly as he wraps his arm around Sadie’s middle and pulls her to slump against his chest.

“Are you at the dorms?”

“Nothing like Millay for the holidays,” Sadie and I say together in singsong. We’ve spent almost every holiday together at Millay—apart from my week trip home at Christmas. In the past, I’ve gone all out making ridiculous decorations or themed parties for the boys.

We giggle at our inside joke, but Rhys clearly does not find it funny.

“We have room here,” Rhys says. “If you wanted to get out of the dorms. You can always come hang out with us.”

Sadie softens, gray eyes filled with wonder as she gazes at her boyfriend out of the corner of her eye. “Yeah, Ro. It would be fun. Liam and Ollie would love it.”

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