Page 28 of Just Forever

“Pull them lower so I can feel it too,” I say.

“My intelligence?”

“Is that what we’re calling it now? Because in that case, come here and share some of that intelligence.”

He throws his head back and laughs, and it’s quite a sight with his bare chest and pants open in the front, his dick bulging in the dark blue boxer briefs.

I push myself up from the couch, not tired at all anymore. It’s amazing what proper motivation can do.

I walk toward Ryker. His silvery gray eyes are shining as he watches me approach.

I stop in front of him and cover the bulge with my palm. He sucks in a breath.

“Suddenly, I have this uncontrollable thirst for knowledge,” I say, voice already throaty and low. “Think you could insert some into me?”

Ryk’s eyes fall shut for a moment while I massage his dick, and his lips part on an exhale before his gaze finds me again.

“I’ve always considered it my duty to help those in need.”

“And I am. So very, very needy. I feel so… empty right now.” I give his cock another experimental squeeze, look up through my lashes, and lick my lips. “But I have a feeling you could fill me up nicely.”

“Oh fuck,” Ryk says through a desperate laugh as he hauls me against him and crushes his mouth down on mine.

I barely manageto get some sweats on before I have to run to the door and get the food, leaving Ryker to finish his shower. By the time he gets out, I have the food laid out on the coffee table, and I’m sitting on the couch. I watch him walk into the room dressed in a pair of shorts and nothing else, scrubbing a towel over his hair. Droplets of water are glistening on his golden skin.

He raises a brow when he sees me looking at him.

“What?” he asks.

I shake my head. “Nothing. Do you want something to drink?”

“I’m good.” He goes and puts the towel away, turns off the overhead lights, then sits down next to me. I toss him the remote, and he cues up the show we started watching last week.

We’ve only lived here a few weeks, but Ryker’s been dragging me around furniture stores to pick out a couch and a bed, a coffee table, and a colorful, too-big rug. There’s also a desk, an office chair, and shelves for the corner of the living room that’s going to double as an office, so I’ll have somewhere to study, and a whole bunch of odds and ends that never even entered my mind but that Ryker deemed necessities.

I tried not to think about the cost too much, but when Ryker insisted on paying for everything, I sucked it up and dipped into the trust fund John left behind. It was that or living off Ryker’s money, so I picked the lesser of two evils. I’m gonna use that trust fund to pay for medical school anyway, so in the grand scheme of things, it doesn’t really matter. Also, after contemplating and analyzing stuff, I figured out I’m absolutely petty enough to use John’s money to get myself a shitload of nice things he never wanted me to have. A good education. A home. A few trips here and there. There’s a bunch left even after I’ve paid for school, so I’m gonna find the kind of charity John would not approve of and make a hefty donation.

Ryker pulls my earlobe, and I snap my gaze back at him.

“Where did you go?” he asks.

“Just…” I’m not really in the mood to insert John-talk into this evening. “Not important. Put on the episode?”

We put our feet up on the coffee table and eat while we watch. Once we’re done with our food, Ryker lies down and pulls me down in front of him, wrapping his arms around me. I relax against his wide chest and lean my head back, resting it against his shoulder. He presses his nose into my hair and inhales.

I never used to do this—sit back, unwind, and loosen up. I was always too busy with studying and work, but now I have Ryker, and he’s coaxed me out of that cycle.

He plays with my hair, and I feel almost boneless.

I glance up at him and smile.

“I love you,” I say.

He grins back. “Ditto.”

RYKER

The next fewweeks pass too quickly. It’s not that I’m not excited about September and the start of the season, but it’ll also mean I get to see Lake less. This whole summer, we’ve been practically glued to each other. I think we both needed it after spending last year as we did—only seeing each other once a week, and that was if we got lucky.

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