Tanner
Tanner did everything he could think of to keep himself awake. He didn’t want to risk falling asleep just to find out it was all a dream. Belle’s apple shampoo filled his nose. He hadn’t realized how much he’d missed the smell, the feel, and the warmth of Belle beside him all night until he finally got it back again.
Eventually the exhaustion of the day, and the sheer ecstasy of having Belle close to him, took over and he drifted into the most peaceful sleep he’d had in more than two weeks. Since the very first night he’d spent in her dorm at college, he’d always slept best when Belle was next to him.
The bright sunlight streaming in the window pried his eyes open. Relief swept through him when he looked down and saw that Belle hadn’t disappeared. His breathing stuttered when he realized she had turned during the night and now was facing him, cuddled into his chest, a small smile curving her lips. She’d slept that way for years, but he didn’t pay attention.
Her long lashes rested against her cheeks and he picked out a dozen freckles that were barely visible, but pretty damn cute. Her left hand rested on his chest beside her face and he grinned at the glittery nail polish she had chosen. He could spend the rest of the day lying here, exactly like this.
But today was Sunday. And Tanner was on a quest to stop being a self-centered asshole, which included making the gorgeous creature sound asleep next to him breakfast.
He slowly began to pull his arm from under her head, being as careful as possible not to wake her.
But Belle clung to his white shirt with the first movement, snuggling deeper into his embrace. “Just five more minutes.”
Tanner grinned and kissed the top of her head. “You can stay here as long as you want sweetheart. But I need to go make breakfast.”
“I release you of all your culinary duties for today.” Her eyes stayed closed and she kept a firm grip on his shirt. “Because I’m just too comfortable and I’ve missed you too much.”
Her words struck him in a way he knew she never intended. “You could have told me, Belle.” He held her closer, just to remind himself she was really here, in his arms. “You could have told me I was gone too much. That I’d stopped doing all the important stuff. That I wasn’t…”
She released the death grip she had on his shirt and smoothed her hand over it. She propped her chin on his chest and fixed him with an open expression. “That you weren’t Tanner anymore?”
He swallowed. Well, hell. That was one way of putting it. “Sweetheart, I—”
Belle covered his mouth with her hand. “Bathroom. Now.”
She clambered over top of him and tugged his arm until he got out of the bed and followed her. “Belle, I mean, hell, I’ve missed you too and I’ve really, really missed…but I don’t think the shower is the best…” He stopped talking when she plopped his toothbrush in his hand, generously covered in toothpaste. “Wait, what’s this?”
Her eyebrows shot up and white foam trickled out of her mouth as she grinned around her toothbrush. “Ith your toothbruth,” she mumbled. She spit into the sink and the running water swirled the mixture down the drain. She lifted her eyes expectantly, toothbrush poised to attack her teeth again. “We both have morning breath, but I want to kiss you, so get to brushing.”
Tanner laughed as he obediently began scrubbing his teeth. But his laughter died when Belle hopped up onto the counter between the double sinks. He spit into the basin and wiped his mouth with the small hand towel she held out to him. He stood in front of her and ran a hand over the bare length of thigh visible under her short nightgown. “You want to kiss me?”
Belle’s eyes widened and her hands slid up and down his arms. “Mmmhmm.”
He took a step forward and her legs automatically parted. Damn, that was a gorgeous sight. He dipped his head down and paused, his lips a breath away from hers. “Are you sure, Belle?”
Instead of answering, she wound her fingers through his hair and pulled his mouth to hers. When her lips softened under his, he groaned and deepened the kiss. His fingers trailed over her body from her soft, silky thighs up to her already heated neck and back down. Next they journeyed under her nightgown, and her responding gasp made him smile. “Do you like that, sweetheart?”
Belle’s only reaction was to tighten her thighs around his legs. He dropped his mouth to her ear and sucked on her earlobe. “How about this, Belle?” His lips trailed down her neck. “Is this okay, sweetheart?”
“Y-yes,” she whispered. “Yes, Tanner.”
He tugged her nightgown over her head before any rational thoughts could stop him. The very breath was ripped from his body as he looked at every inch of her body.
After several long minutes staring at her, he raised a tortured gaze. “Stop me if—”
“No stopping,” she answered before claiming his mouth again.
His greedy hands felt every part of her soft skin, remembering each spot that made her gasp and moan. His mouth moved to her neck and he lightly started sucking where her pulse was thumping in time with his heart. Tanner’s fingers outlined her panties before finally sliding in and stroking the sensitive skin.
Belle whimpered under his touch. “Tanner, please.”
His lips curved against her shoulder as he left a path of light kisses. Every teasing swirl of his fingers made her breath grow shallower. He sealed his lips against hers just as she started to scream his name, only sliding his fingers out of her when her breathing slowed.
Tanner picked her up, carried her back to their bed, and gently laid her down. He propped himself on his elbows over her, planting soft kisses on her cheeks, her nose, her lips. “I love you so much, sweetheart,” he whispered against her skin. “I love every little sigh you make, I love the way your skin tastes, I love the way your fingers feel on my body.”
He ran his tongue in a long line down from her neck to her chest and after a few minutes of undivided attention continued making a path down to her navel, dipping his tongue in and grinning at her sharp intake of breath. “Tan-ner.” Her voice broke over his name.
As much as his body screamed at him for relief, he forced back every desire and focused on her. His Belle. She deserved so much more, but right now he was determined to take care of her. Just her.
He peeled her underwear down slowly, replacing it with his mouth and his hands, reveling in the feel of her fingers toying with his hair. She always loved playing with his hair and he always loved playing with her.
His physical need grew to painful proportions with every sound she made and every drop of her on his tongue. But his need to show her that for the first time in a long time he was making everything about her overrode the demands of his body. When she finally cried out, he rested his sweat-slickened forehead against her abdomen, breathing deeply and desperately, trying to gain some measure of control.
Belle tugged on his head to bring him back up to her mouth. Her cheeks were tinged with pink and her eyes wide. “Tanner, th-that was…I-I mean…y-you need—”
He cut off her words with a kiss. “I need to go make you breakfast, sweetheart.” He grinned and walked away before his overwhelming need for her kicked in.
***
Welcome to Wake Forest University School of Business.
He read the subject then read it again before even opening the email. It was already February and he was certain he hadn’t made it into the MBA program when week after week passed with no response. The tightness that had been present in his chest for so long finally eased.
The truth was, he was far less concerned with making it into graduate school than he was with leaving Belle. The very thought of going to a different school made him nauseated.
His very first instinct was to grab his backpack and laptop and run from the lecture hall to call her. Make plans to celebrate. But graduating with his Bachelor’s was kind of required for graduate school and leaving in the middle of class certainly wouldn’t endear him to the professor standing twenty feet away, droning on about international business ethics.
Twenty long minutes later, he slipped his phone from his pocket and pulled up Belle’s number without even looking. “Hey sweetheart, where are you?”
“Umm, I’m just leaving the library. Why?”
Her tone immediately brought a frown to his lips. “Everything okay, sweetheart?” This didn’t sound like Belle. He got the distinct and extremely uneasy feeling she was keeping something from him.
“Everything is great, baby, what’s up?”
This time her voice was far too chipper and did nothing to lessen his discomfort. He pushed it aside with a shake of his head and leaned his back against the wall, allowing everyone to pass him in the hall. “I got in, Belle!” His proclamation came out far louder than he’d intended. Clearing his throat, he lowered his voice. “I got into the MBA program and we need to celebrate, sweetheart.”
There was a slight pause that Tanner was certain was only a few seconds long, but it felt like much longer. “Congratulations, baby!” Her voice seemed fake, and he could swear he heard someone else and a door closing.
What the hell was going on?
“Belle, are you sure—”
“Tanner, baby, listen, I gotta go but, um, don’t you have practice tonight? So you won’t be home until after seven or something, right?”
His confusion quickly turned to anger. She never asked when he’d be home and she certainly never tried to get off the phone with him. “Yeah, sweetheart.” The endearment, spoken out of habit, was clipped. “I’ll be home after seven.” He clicked the phone off and stormed out of the building toward his next class.
Hell to the no. She was hiding something, and there was no way he was going to screw around at some stupid baseball practice.
For the next three hours, Tanner’s mind ignored everything the professors said in his last two classes and raced from one possibility to another with the most insistent thought being someone else in his home with his Belle. The thought that had been hanging at the back of his mind since he picked her up from class and noticed the eyes of her classmates following her out. The thought he voiced when she came home late from study group two weeks ago. And the same thought that created their first fight.
His mind conjured up the image of Belle packing her bags, and that cooled some of his anger. Some. He sat in his truck for a few minutes, allowing his temper to cool before slowly driving away from campus and reminding himself repeatedly there was no reason to break the speed limit on the way home. And he certainly didn’t need to entertain any notions of breaking down the apartment door.
Dammit all to hell. He had no reason to be jealous. They had been dating for nearly a year and a half. They lived together for crying out loud. Belle was as loyal as anyone he’d ever met.
But she was oblivious to the fact she was the sexiest damn thing on two legs. Never noticed the looks she got nearly everywhere they went. Hell, she didn’t even know that his own brothers drooled every time she walked in their house.
Tanner, however, wasn’t. Not in the slightest. He’d made sure the guys on both his teams kept their thoughts, their eyes, and especially their hands to themselves where she was concerned, but he couldn’t control the whole campus. Hell, the whole world.
And that realization coupled with the memory of half of the male population in her class checking out her tight little ass when she left the room had been driving him insane for the past month.
He forced himself to take the stairs one at a time instead of racing up them at double speed. He took a deep breath and checked his watch before turning the knob at their apartment. He was home two hours earlier than she expected. Whatever she was up to, he’d find out soon enough.
There wasn’t a calming technique around that could have prepared him for the sight laid out before him when he walked through the door. Dozens of unlit white candles of various shapes and sizes were placed around the room, a black cloth with a strip of gold material running down the middle covered their small coffee table, and two champagne flutes sat on top. Balloons with the word “Congratulations” emblazoned across the front were attached to a weight in the middle of the table.
Well, hell.
His backpack slid to the floor with a thunk, and at that moment it registered that he could hear the shower running. If he turned around and left right then, Belle would never know he had been here. Never know his mind had spiraled him into another jealous fit and—
The water turned off and, before Tanner could make up his mind, she emerged from the bathroom with a small shriek when she saw him. Dammit. Why did she have to be wrapped in nothing but a towel? His body immediately reacted to that little tidbit of information, despite his best efforts to bank his desire.
Her face fell, and he cursed himself. “Tanner, I, um, I didn’t expect you home. I-I…” She swallowed, and tears collected at the corners of her eyes. “I wanted to surprise you.”
Stupid, distrustful, short-tempered, son of a bitch. He smiled as he cursed himself silently. “Sweetheart, you did surprise me. This is amazing and thoughtful and…” He crossed the room to gather her in his arms and pulled her close. “Wait, how did you get all of this together so fast?”
Pink tinged her cheeks, and she focused on his chest. “I-I didn’t. Remember when my study group went late?”
Tanner nodded, feeling his guilt amplifying. Their first fight. And if he told her the truth, he had a sneaking suspicion they’d be gearing up for their second.
“Well, I wasn’t totally honest.” She sighed and finally raised her eyes to his. “This one guy in my group is the teacher’s assistant for the Dean of the business school, and he told me you got in that night. I-I didn’t want to tell you. I wanted you to get the letter, but I wanted to be ready…”
Well double hell. He really didn’t deserve her.
He lowered his mouth to hers and felt her lips curve before she pulled back. “It’s a little out of order,” she stepped back and tugged at the knot on the towel, letting it pool at her feet, “but since I’m more appropriately attired for the end of our celebration and you’re so very clearly ready…” She grabbed his hand and pulled him toward their bedroom.