Page 76 of Personal Foul
“Oh, I am. Youareobsessed with me. I didn’t even need to ask you to pretend, did I?” I kiss my way down the side of her throat.
“I never pretend with you. I never have to. It’s why I like you so much.”
“Like me? You gonna marry a guy you just like? I think you need to raise your standards, Princess,” I start to rock into her again, taking her deeper.
“Oh fuck.” She lets out a little gasp.
“You just like my cock?”
“No. It’s perfect. I fucking love it. I love the way you fuck me, East. So much.”
“I know you do, Princess. I can tell.” I pick up my pace, fucking her harder and faster and she follows my lead, her breathing and her moaning getting louder underneath me. “I love watching you like this. The way you take me so-fucking-well.”
She starts to whimper, countering my strokes with rolls of her hips, and I can feel her tighten around me as she chases her release, and her nails rake my back so hard I know I’m going to find blood when I look.
“I need you, East. I love you, and I need you so much,” she confesses, just before I can feel her whole body tense and shudder underneath me.
“I love you too, Princess.” I take her mouth with mine as I start to come hard inside her, fucking her through the last few waves of it until I finally slide out of her, pressing my forehead to her stomach. I feel her fingers in my hair, gently running through. I press a kiss against the soft curve of her hip and then stand to take the condom off and toss it.
When I turn around to look at her, she looks so thoroughly fucked, so satiated, that it makes my heart tighten and strain in my chest. I feel lucky. That she let me give her something she needed, that she confessed so much to me. That she came to me when I needed her.
“East?” she whispers, reaching out for me, and I climb back into bed next to her.
“Yeah, Princess,” I answer her.
“How much I want you scares me. That’s why I’ve been distant. Because I know how this ends. How we end. And I’m scared of how much it will hurt.”
“How will we end?” I ask, puzzled because I haven’t given any thought to it. I’ve just been focused on the fact that I love her, and she won’t let me come close enough to even tell her these past weeks. That I finally have her, and there’s hope for us.
“You’ll get drafted. Deep down you know you will. I know you will.”
“That won’t change how I feel about you.”
“You say that now. And I believe you when you say it, but you can’t know the future.”
“Neither can you. Alexi Lalas or some other guy could walk into the bar tomorrow and sweep you off your feet. Steal you away.” I tease because in this moment I’m happy, and I don’t want to think about all the ways this could be ruined between us.
“East… I’m serious. I want you to understand. I don’t want to hurt you. I’m not trying to, but I’ve lost so many people in my life. I don’t want to set myself up for another one. I can’t do it. My heart can’t take it.”
“I understand.” I kiss the backs of her knuckles and squeeze her hand in mine. “But I can’t take being away from you. I can’t take the way you hold me at arm’s length and won’t let me be there for you. I need you.”
She kisses my shoulder and then rests her head against it. “I need you too, but then where does that leave us?”
“I don’t know.” I kiss her forehead. “But we’ll figure it out.”
THIRTY-TWO
Wren
For girls’night tonight, we’re all at the bar so that Liv and Kenz can try the new food we have planned for the reopening and so they can take advantage of the open bar. Because let’s be honest, I’m gonna need them liquored up when I tell them I’ve been lying to them for several months.
“Oh, this one is good. What is this?” Liv asks, her hand hovering over her mouth as she chews.
“Deep fried salted caramel pretzel bites”
“Sooooo good.” Kenz looks at us both wide-eyed as she takes a bite of it.
“And with that beer you picked?” I ask.
