Page 67 of Endurance
“Bullshit,” he growls, his eyes wild on mine with determination. “I know you, Belle.”
He twists his hips in a way that hits a spot so deep, I’m not sure it’s ever been touched before. Recognising how I respond, he begins rapidly thrusting up inside me, punching that spot over and over and over. I claw and scratch at anything I can find. His hair. His face. I even bite down on his shoulder at one point, desperate to find control over this painful climb.
Right when I think I’m going to blast into the universe, he stops all movement and says, “Admit it.”
I growl, my fiery eyes snapping to his. “Fine, I care! I want to tear that girl’s eyes out. Are you fucking happy?”
He yanks my face down to him and I feel his triumphant smile as he captures my lips. Pulling back, he murmurs, “That girl I was talking to in there…those women…All I spoke about was you and how incredible I think you are and how amazing your job is. I even told them about your fucking hospital charity.”
My breath is heavy as I process his words, but I don’t even have a chance to respond before he suddenly quickens his pace inside of me. My hands grapple for purchase, but they are reaching for the unknown, flailing in the dark shadows and trusting that Tanner will continue to never let me go.
My hard and fast climax takes me completely off guard in all its Tannerific glory. I could sing at the electric tingle all over my body that I so desperately needed after all the wrath and anger I felt moments ago.
Tanner follows seconds after. We’re both slick with sweat and panting for a while before I roll off of him. Then he moves to pull his jeans up, which only made it down to his thighs.
I feel his come dripping out from between my legs. “You don’t have a tissue in here, do you?”
He winces and eyes my legs. “I don’t…but…here.” He reaches into his pocket and pulls out a pair of my knickers. Not the ones I was wearing tonight, but the ones he nicked out of my suitcase in Manchester.
He shoots me a lewd smirk. One that brings me right back to how we were before. A little nuts, but happy. He shrugs and I laugh, sounding a bit insane but not giving a shit.
I use them to clean up and then toss them out the window toward the dumpster. Tanner side-eyes me.
“Oh, did you want to keep those?”
“Not as long as there are more where they came from.” He winks.
I sigh and slide back into my clothes, smoothing down my hair so it’s not glaringly obvious to the rest of the world that I was just angry-fucked in an alley.
“So what now?” I ask.
“We’re doing this.” He says it so simply as he throws his arm on the back of the seat behind me and plays with a tendril of my hair. His eyes are perfectly serious. His breath is smooth and steady. The angry, maniacal glint in his gaze from before is gone. He brushes the back of his finger along my cheek with one hand and says, “No more fake dating. No more bullshit. You’re mine. I’m yours. We walk back in there and we act like it. But this time, it’s not an act.”
My heart skips a beat, so I decide deflection is the best response. “Stop barking orders at me, you fiend.”
He leans across the seat and kisses me with a tenderness that feels as if it was reserved specifically for this moment. “Woman, say you’re mine.”
I sigh against his lips. “Why do you need to hear it so badly?”
“Because I fucked up once and I won’t do it again.” He pulls back and his hands begin to tremble as he runs a nervous hand through his hair.
“What’s wrong?” I ask, feeling the sudden shift in him. I slide across the bench and hold onto his arm.
He swallows hard and stares out the windscreen while he speaks. “My mum died when I was three and I didn’t know much about her, other than what she left behind.” He turns and pierces me with a serious look. “There was this one note from her that I’ve always connected with. I had all but forgotten about it until earlier today when I came across it again.”
“What did it say?” I ask, searching his eyes and finding a vulnerability he has never revealed to me before.
“It said, ‘When you don’t know what to do, sit still.’” He sighs heavily with realisation dawning on his features. “I was sitting still before, Belle, but I’m done with that now. This is new territory for me, but I’m asking you to move…with me.”
I smile at his sincerity and take his hand in mine, dropping a kiss on the back of it before answering, “Let’s get our arses in gear then.”
Possessive pride courses through my veins as I hold Belle’s hand and walk back into Welly’s Pub. I wanted her here with me before I knew that I wanted to be with her. Officially. It’s simple. Having her near me, breathing the same air as me, makes me happy.
And fuck if I could use some happiness right now.
The idea of introducing her to some of my teammates tonight gives me a thrill. They’d all been winding me up most of the night for “wifing up” as they say. I’ve done the same to Cam, truthfully.
The girls I was talking to earlier were some of the nicer WAGs of my teammates who were genuinely curious about Belle and what she does at the hospital. They’ve never seen me serious with anyone, and their eyes were wide with amazement when I told them about the one surgery Belle described to me in great detail. It made me proud of her even though she wasn’t mine to be proud of.
