Chapter Twenty
Mateo
“You feel amazing like this,” I say, moving in slow, swirling motions. Teague is lying facedown on the bed, braced on her elbows, a pillow under her hips. I’m flush on top of her, propped up on my hands, my cock buried so deep inside her I’m in fucking heaven.
“I love the way you fill me up,” she says, making this even hotter. Over the past thirty-six hours, she’s become an expert at dirty talk.
She’s so wet and tight right now, the friction is off-the-charts good, and I’m close to coming. I’ve got to get her off a second time first, though. I run my nose along the back of her neck, drop openmouthed kisses to her soft skin. “I love having your pussy squeeze me.”
That gets me her signature sexy hum. “It likes to squeeze you.”
“Your pussy or you?”
“Both.” She writhes beneath me like she’s desperate for my cock to bring her release.
Sex has never been this fucking good before.
I rotate my hips with a little more thrust, enough to give her what she wants without slipping out of her tight channel. I nibble at her earlobe, lick down to where her neck meets her shoulder, and suck on the delicate curve there. I want to mark her. I want any guy who looks at her to know she’s unavailable.
She sighs. Every sound she makes is fucking sexy as hell and my balls tighten further as they bump against her. We’ve been like this for a while and I’m literally about to blow. I kiss back up to her ear while I grind against her, my cock hitting the perfect spot inside her to make her unravel. “Come for me.”
She clutches the sheet in her hands, throws her head back, and a long, low moan escapes her lips followed by, “Oh my God!”
She vibrates with pleasure. The bed shakes. I throb.
Then I’m coming. Hard. I groan as my orgasm barrels through me sweeter than the dozen or so that came before it over the past two days. We’ve done everything I can think of, and I wish we could stay in this room forever.
Teague drops onto the comforter. I slip the pillow out from under her, then slowly pull out. I tie the condom and toss it in the trash in the bathroom. When I catch sight of myself in the mirror I don’t recognize the guy looking back. He’s beyond content. Out-of-this-world happy.
I return to the bed and lie next to Teague, holding her back to my front so we’re spooning. I lace our fingers together and bury my face in the crook of her neck. “You smell perfect,” I say. “Feel perfect. Look perfect. Basically, you’re perfect.”
Morning sex apparently makes me complimentary. Not that what I say isn’t true. It is. But it’s also our last time. We need to pack up and go soon, and I’m feeling some weirdness I don’t know what to do with. Except compliment, obviously.
She wiggles against me, trying to get even closer. “Thank you.”
I hug her tighter. “Not to brag, but I think I set your body on fire.”
Her laugh is music to my ears. She rolls over so we’re facing each other, tucks her hands underneath her cheek. That she’s so comfortable lying naked with me is a rare thing. Because you don’t ever lie around naked with a girl.
“I believe bragging entails knowing, not thinking,” she teases.
See? Perfect.
“Tell me about this,” I say, rubbing a finger over the small, simple anchor tattoo at the base of her thumb. I’ve been meaning to ask her about it for a while.
“What do you want to know?”
“Does it have special meaning?”
“It does. My sisters and I got matching ones last Christmas. I was struggling with my breakup with Rod, and Erin had wanted to get a tattoo for a while. She dragged me and Vanessa to the tattoo parlor and told us we were getting inked. We chose an anchor to symbolize our bond as sisters. That no matter what happens in our lives, or how rough things get, we’ll never sink or be without strength or stability because we have one another.”
“That’s really cool.”
“It makes me feel close to them even though we’re in different states. Erin wants me to jump out of an airplane with her next.”
“You going to?”
“No way.” She shivers like she’s cold, so I grab the blanket off the chair next to the bed and drape it over her waist. I’m not stupid. No way am I covering those sensational tits of hers. Her pretty blue eyes smile at me. “Thanks.”
I hope my eyes are smiling back. “So skydiving’s not your thing?”
“Not even a little bit. Would you do it?”
“Sure, if the opportunity arose.”
“Yes, but would you do it naked?”
“Erin’s done it naked?”
Teague nods. “She’s crazy. In a good way,” she’s quick to add. “She and her fiancé are always going on some adventure or another.” She says this with admiration—and longing, I think.
“You could do something crazy.” I palm her ass and haul her closer. She scoots over willingly, hooks her leg over mine.
“Like what?” She pulls the blanket up higher, covering her chest and baring our tangled legs.
“You tell me. There’s at least one thing in that gorgeous head of yours that you secretly want to try.”
“You first. Tell me something no one else knows.” She bats her lashes at me. “Please?”
Since I have this crazy need to know everything about her, I’ll answer any question she wants if it gets her to reciprocate. “Promise not to laugh?”
Her eyes light up. “Promise.”
“I’d like to camp out in a tent by a river and eat only what I catch.”
“You want to rough it. That’s brave, not funny.”
“It’s pretty lame.”
She rolls her eyes. “No it isn’t. Wanting to do something you haven’t done before is respectable. I take it you never camped as a kid?”
“You’ve met my mom, right? Not that we didn’t have great vacations as a family. They just entailed a little bit nicer accommodations.”
“Little bit?” she says with sarcasm, scrunching up her cute nose and bringing her thumb and pointer finger together to give me the “tiny bit” sign.
“Yes, little bit,” I say, tickling her. She’s so sexy adorable I can’t keep my hands off her. The blanket falls away as she tries to tickle me back.
“Stop, stop,” she says while laughing.
I stop. Cover her back up. “Okay, your turn now.”
She takes my hand and holds it with hers underneath her cheek. “I want to ride a motorcycle across the country.”
“That’s badass.”
“I’ll never do it, but it’s fun to think about.”
“Why won’t you do it?”
“My parents would freak out. My brother has a motorcycle, and my mom and dad hate every time he rides it. I wouldn’t want them to worry.”
“Don’t tell them.” The frown she gives me says she doesn’t keep secrets like that. “Or tell them about it after the fact.”
“What if something happened?”
“Like you had an amazing time? They’d be stoked for you.”
“It’s really that easy for you, isn’t it?” she asks, sitting up and crossing her legs. She’s facing me, holding the blanket to her chest. Her hair is mussed. Her complexion is ruddy. She’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.
“What is?”
“Living without uncertainty.”
That she pegged me like that makes my heart beat a little faster. I sit up so our knees touch and pull some of the extra blanket over my lap. All of a sudden I want to get a few things off my chest.
“I was certain I was a great soccer player, that I’d get a college scholarship and then play professionally. I was certain I loved Allie and that one day I’d ask her to marry me. I was certain I was dreaming when I ended up in a hospital with a fucked-up leg and my girlfriend telling me she didn’t want to be with me anymore.”
“Mateo,” she says quietly.
“I wasn’t certain I could handle all that at once. I said some pretty shitty things to my family and friends because I was pissed at the world. It took a while for me to accept my new situation, but once I did, I found I could handle it. I realized I was still the same determined person I always was and being positive was actually a lot less stressful than having doubts.”
She leans forward and drops a soft, tender kiss on my lips. “You’re amazing.”
“Thanks. Coming from you, that means a lot.” Especially when lately, the hint of doubt in the back of my mind won’t fucking leave me alone for a second. I’m not sure what it’s about. Career? Family? Teague? Whatever it is, it’s annoying as shit and I’m hell-bent on overcoming it.
“I am a know-it-all when it comes to good people. You didn’t start out that way, but you grew on me.”
“Oh, I grew on you?” I’m ready to introduce her to my growing affection again when a loud rap on the bedroom door startles us.
“We’re leaving,” Henry calls out. “Thanks for your help this weekend, Teague.”
Teague covers her face with her hands. “You’re welcome!” We really couldn’t keep this thing between us a secret, since I was constantly out of sight, but I know none of the guys will say anything.
I reach over and check the time on my cell. Shit. I roll off the bed and start to dress. I’m supposed to meet my sister for lunch and want to help Teague clean up before I go.
“About Henry,” she says, pulling a loose-fitting sundress over her head.
“Don’t,” I tell her. Henry is an asshole and a cheater and he definitely doesn’t deserve Madison, but Maddie knows this about him and doesn’t need any reminders, especially not with the wedding only a few weeks away. “Don’t say anything.”
She stares at the floor for a moment. “But do you think he had sex with that stripper?”
“He’s been unfaithful before.”
“What? That’s horrible. How can Madison marry him?”
The quiver in her voice kills me. I wrap her in a hug. “I don’t know. They’ve been together a long time and I guess…I don’t know what I guess. I talked to her about it once before, a couple of years ago. I’d heard secondhand from a friend that he was cheating on her. She’s family to me, and I fucking hate him for how he treats her. I’ve no respect for the guy, but after a brief breakup, they got back together. The fact that I said something to her almost ruined our friendship, so I keep my mouth shut now.”
“I’m worried she might ask me about this weekend. What should I say?” She pulls free of my arms, picks up the hair tie on the nightstand, and puts her strawberry-blonde waves in a ponytail.
“We don’t know for sure what he did, but if I know Maddie, she won’t ask for specifics.”
Teague’s mouth opens, then closes. She starts to strip the sheets off the bed rather than talk further on the subject.
And suddenly she’s not talkative at all. I’m not sure what I said to render her quiet, but as the minutes tick by, she grows more distant. I go over our conversation in my head. If I know Maddie… That could be construed as me knowing other girls, too, which, given I’m about to walk away from what happened between us this weekend, might be bothersome. I can’t hide my familiarity with the opposite sex, though.
I help her straighten up the rest of the house in relative silence before it’s time I take off. I’ve got my duffel bag over my shoulder and fuck if I know the right thing to say.
It’s safe to assume by unspoken agreement we both know there’s no going back to “friends” after this. I have too much respect for her to treat her as a fuck buddy. And she’s not that kind of girl anyway. She’s got forever in those baby blues. She took a walk on the wild side this weekend, but now it’s back to reality. I can’t be what she wants, so I need to walk away before I hurt her.
I’m never at a loss for words, and Teague definitely deserves something from me here, but there’s a soccer ball–sized knot in the back of my throat.
She makes it easy for me. Of course she does.
“Thanks for a great weekend,” she says before kissing my cheek and backing away.
Fuck that. I haul her up against me and kiss the shit out of her. She melts against me, wraps her arms around my neck. We kiss until I know I’ve got her.
Wanting more.
Because that’s what I do.
Leave them wanting more. Not my best moment this time. I’m a selfish ass.
But the joke is on me, because it hurts like hell leaving her.
…
I’ve stayed away from Teague for a week. No calls or texts or in-persons. This morning at the radio station I met the latest girl to be booted off the reality show So You Think You Can Sing. She did an on-air guest spot before I arrived to do my report. She’s twenty-four, pretty, friendly, and Trina introduced me as her “neighbor” visiting the station before suggesting I take this girl out for drinks tonight.
I couldn’t say no.
It’s my job to hang out with members of the opposite sex.
I love my job.
Yes, that’s me talking myself into loving my job. Because this morning, I’m not really feeling it. Which apparently showed in my report. And this isn’t the first time. For the past few weeks, Trina says, I’ve seemed different. The slant to my reports isn’t as compelling. I’m paid to push the single guy’s mentality, she reminds me, or it could compromise my job.
I failed at soccer. I don’t want to fucking fail at this.
To make matters worse, I’m also about to come face-to-face with the girl I can’t get out of my head.
I tried telling my mom I had a ton of things I needed to get done today, but it’s rare she asks me to pick her up for lunch, so here I am.
“Hey, Briggs,” I say as I enter the lobby of the building.
“Mr. Gallagher. It’s good to see you, young man.” Since the last time I was here I was able to snag a spot in the parking garage and take the elevator from there, I haven’t seen Briggs in a while.
“You, too.” I stop at his desk to shake his hand. “You been working out? I think your grip is stronger.”
“Or you’re slacking.”
“That’s probably it,” I say with a smile. “You still owe me that footrace.” Briggs was a track star back in the day and still runs to stay in shape.
“Just giving you more time to practice.”
“Appreciate it.” I hit the button for the elevator. “See you around.”
On the ride up to the third floor, I think about what to say to Teague. Correction. I think about what not to say to her. I miss you. I want you. Go out with me.
Maybe she’ll already be at lunch, or doing wedding errands elsewhere.
Or. Be at her desk, cell phone in her hand, a pale, scared look on her face like she’s two seconds away from breaking apart.
“Teague?” I say. “You okay?”
She blinks up at me, totally unfocused. Her eyes are wet, her lips trembling. She shakes her head.
“Hi, sweetie,” my mom says. “I thought I heard you come in.”
I don’t even see her. All I see is Teague. “What’s wrong?” I dial back the urge to jump over the desk and hold her.
Teague looks from me to my mom, who’s now standing at my side. “I have to go,” she says, her voice shaky. “I’m sorry. I have to go.” She reaches under the desk and brings out her small purse. Her hand is shaking. Shit, as she gets to her feet, her whole body is shaking.
“Teague, what is it?” I ask.
My mom walks swiftly around the desk and puts her hands on Teague’s shoulders. “What happened?”
“Ma…ma…my dad is in the hospital.” A big fat tear rolls down her cheek. “He had a…”
“It’s okay. Take a deep breath,” my mom says.
“He had…” Her voice quavers with emotion. “He had a heart attack. I have to go home.”
“Of course you do,” my mom says with reassurance. She understands this. She lost her father to an undiagnosed heart condition when she was twelve—young enough to be scarred by the tragedy, and old enough to remember every minute of it.
Teague trembles under my mom’s steady hold. “But you’re in no condition to drive yourself home or to the airport. Mateo will take you.” She glances at me. I nod. “And I’ll call and book you a flight. I’ll text you the details. Someone will be there to pick you up when you land?”
“Yes.” She stares at my mom like it’s the first time she’s seeing her. “Thank you.”
I hurry around the desk and take Teague’s arm. “Let’s go.”
She gazes at me with gratitude and something else too earnest for me to examine at the moment. The most important thing is getting her safely on a flight home.
“I’ve got you,” I whisper in her ear as we walk out of the office, so fucking grateful I showed up when I did.