Chapter Fifty-Two Will
CHAPTER FIFTY-TWO
WILL
Ours, baby
T HE JOB OFFER FROM T ESSA D IAZ SITS IN MY INBOX LIKE AN ARMED bomb, waiting for me to either defuse it or let it blow my life up. A campaign job in DC, working for one of my father’s biggest critics.
It’s so tempting.
And so fucking risky.
I just had lunch with Case, and we spoke about it in length. He thinks I should take it. But Case doesn’t know my dad. He can’t grasp the sheer force of my father’s wrath.
Now, I’m driving home from the diner, still torn, and after several more minutes of vacillating, I call the one person who might actually give me valid advice.
“Hi, kiddo.” My stepmother answers on the second ring, her voice wafting out of the car speakers.
“Do you have a minute?” I ask Kelsey. “I need to talk.”
“Of course. What’s going on?”
I turn at the end of Main Street, driving in the direction of Hastings’s residential neighborhood. “I got a job offer. A big one. Campaign work.”
“I know. Your father told me.”
I frown. “Oh. Okay.”
“And I knew it would only be a matter of time before you called to talk about it.”
I hesitate, feeling the words catch in my throat. “Harper Wozniak has been really critical of Dad in the press.”
“Yes, she has.”
“Dad flipped out when I told him.”
“Yes, he did.”
“So what do I do?”
The silence on the other end of the line is loud.
“I know,” I grumble. “It’s a shitty move.”
“Very much so,” she says wryly.
Frustration seizes my throat. “I get that. But it’s exactly the kind of work I want to do. I can’t just wait around for the next opportunity. This is right in front of me.”
“Will, you can’t take that job. It would be terrible for your father’s image. Do you realize what it would look like? His own son working for the opposition? It would tear him apart.”
I gnaw on the inside of my cheek. I knew she’d say something like that. But hearing it still makes my chest tighten.
“Fuck his image, Kels. I’m tired of living my life worrying about what it looks like for him. This is my career. My life.”
“I know, honey,” she says. “But you’ve worked so hard to get to where you are, and I just worry that taking this job will make everything more difficult. Not only for him but for you . The media machine will spin this, and it won’t be kind. It’ll become a mess you don’t need.”
“I can handle the media. And I don’t care what they write about me.”
“Listen to me, Will. Sometimes, the right job isn’t the one that comes first. It’s the one that fits with who you are. And I don’t think this is it.”
“Yeah, maybe.”
“Whatever you decide, though, I’ll support you.”
Will she? Because it sounds like this is one of those rare times when she’s firmly siding with my father.
But maybe that’s telling. Maybe it’s a sign that this job is not the way to go.
After we hang up, I’m no closer to figuring out what the hell to do. Her advice lingers in the back of my mind, but I hate that a part of me feels obligated to consider my dad’s image in all this.
When I get home, I hear Beckett’s voice before I even open the door.
“Yo, Larsen!” he calls out as soon as I walk in. “Got news.”
I toss my jacket on the hook in the front hall. “What kind of news?”
He grins from his perch on the couch, looking way too excited for someone whose team got knocked out in the semi-finals last night.
I’m still pissed about that. The game had been tied nearly the entire time. We could’ve taken that shit to overtime. Instead, Nazzy took the stupidest penalty known to man, giving Michigan State a power play thirty seconds before the last buzzer. They scored, and we lost. The end.
Certainly not the greatest way to end an otherwise flawless season, but I also can’t complain, considering we won the championship last year. You can’t win ’em all, right?
“I got a job offer,” Beckett reveals.
“Seriously? That’s great, man. Where?”
“Sydney.”
“No shit?”
“Yeah. Ocean conservation work.” He leans forward on his forearms, looking like a kid who just found out he’s going to Disney World. “But that’s not the best part. I talked to Charlie. She came by to chill for a bit when you were out with Colson.”
“Okay?” I’m not quite following.
“Our girl got accepted to the grad program at the University of Sydney. Come on. Tell me that isn’t fate or something.”
“You’re kidding.”
“Nope. I asked her if she’d move there with me, and she’s thinking about it.”
Wait. What? He asked her to move with him?
My heart does a weird little flip at the thought of Charlie moving halfway across the world.
Beckett notes my expression and snorts. “Mate. I’m telling you because I want you to come too.”
“You want me to just pick up and move to Australia with you and Charlie?”
“Why not?” He shrugs like it’s the simplest thing in the world. “You’ve been wanting to travel, to do something different, right? This is it.”
I shake my head, laughing at how absurd it all sounds. “I don’t know, man. I’ve got this job offer too… I still haven’t decided what I want to do about that.” I pause for a moment. “You really think this could work?”
“Yeah, I do. But it’s up to you. All I know is I’m going. And I want both you and Charlie with me.”
Charlie comes back later to spend the night, and the moment she walks through the door, Beckett’s eyes light up. Jesus. He’s got it bad.
I feel my eyes lighting up too.
Because I also have it bad.
She looks between us as if sensing it. A small, knowing smile plays on her lips, like she can read us both better than we can read ourselves. Like she understands exactly what’s going on inside our heads without us having to say a word.
“Hey,” she says, bending over to take off her little suede ankle boots. Now that the weather is warming up, she’s gone back to wearing her good-girl pleated skirts and cropped sweaters, and my gaze drinks up the sight of her.
Beckett crosses the room first, pulling her into his arms. The way they fit together makes my chest tighten, but in a good way. It’s not jealousy; it’s knowing that what they have, what we all have, is real. It’s ours.
I move closer, my hands brushing her waist as Beck kisses her. She melts into him, and I can’t help but smile as I watch them, feeling the same heat stir inside me. This has always been something we’ve done together, this shared intimacy that somehow feels even more intense because we both love her in the same way.
When he pulls away, I’m right there. I tilt her chin up to me, and our lips meet. The kiss is slower, lingering, and I feel her melt into me just as much.
We’re all in sync tonight, going upstairs without a word. Beckett is the one who leads us toward the bed, tugging off his shirt as I follow. I take Charlie’s hand, guiding her down onto the mattress between us. Beckett sucks gently on her neck, and I run my hands over her body, loving the softness of her skin under my fingers.
The three of us have done this before, but tonight feels different. There’s this unspoken understanding. Raw emotion. The connection between us is more than physical. It’s something I can’t even fully explain.
She moans softly as he kisses his way down her body, and I watch, mesmerized by the way she responds to both of us. When I kiss her again, it’s slow, sensual, and full of everything I can’t quite say.
“Goddamn,” Beckett chokes out.
He’s staring at Charlie’s underwear. Pink, lacy, with a little white bow. A grin springs to my lips.
“Baby,” he says, his voice hoarse. “As much as I love this bow, I’m gonna need to take these off. I want to see your pussy.”
My dick grows impossibly harder, and my jeans suddenly feel too small. I shove them off my hips, kicking them away. The moment my cock juts out, Charlie wraps her fingers around it.
“You taste so good,” Beckett whispers.
I glance down in time to see his tongue lick a slow, teasing stripe from her clit to her perfect tiny asshole. Jesus . I thrust into our girl’s hand, my balls tightening with pleasure.
Charlie’s breathing grows ragged as Beckett starts licking her in fervor. Sucking her clit in his mouth before flicking his tongue over it, again and again, until she’s writhing on the bed. She spreads her legs even wider, splayed out for him like a goddamn feast.
“You’re so beautiful like this,” I murmur, my lips grazing the side of her breast. I lick my way to her nipple and circle it with my tongue.
Beckett’s face is buried between her thighs. He groans, and I see him reach down to stroke himself, fucking his own hand as he fucks her with his mouth.
“Look at what you do to him,” I tell Charlie, squeezing her tits. “He can’t get enough of you. Neither of us can.”
Her breathing gets choppier.
“You’re ours,” I say in her ear. “Fucking ours, baby. And we’re yours.”
My words seem to have an effect on both of them. I can’t fight my amusement as they both come without warning. Beckett shoots into his hand, grunting against her pussy, while she grinds his face as her orgasm shudders through her. She’s barely recovered from it before she’s pulling me on top of her, desperately grasping my cock, trying to put it inside her.
“I got you,” I say, curling my fingers over hers.
I thrust deep, and it’s overwhelming in the best way possible. Being inside her. It’s like every part of me is wrapped up in her, in this moment. She gasps, and her inner muscles grip me tight, her nails digging into my back as she tries to get me even closer, deeper. I give her every single inch. Everything I have. I’m tethered to her in a way that goes beyond anything I’ve ever felt. I glance up, catching Beckett’s eye as he watches us. He feels it too. I can tell.
As I fuck her, I feel every pulse of her body, every heartbeat, and when I finally find my release inside her, it knocks the breath right out of me. Groaning, I collapse on top of her for a moment before rolling us over so I don’t crush her with my body weight. Beckett lies beside us, his arm draped over both of us, his breathing slowing as sleep begins to pull him under.
I’m exhausted too, but my mind is still racing.
I can’t stop thinking about how much I love this, and the thought of anything coming between us makes my chest clench. As much as I’ve been trying to figure out my next move, I realize now that I already know what I need to do.
I slide out of bed, careful not to wake them. They’re both sound asleep now, Beckett holding Charlie close, the two of them looking peaceful and content. I grab my phone from the nightstand, staring at the message sitting in my inbox, awaiting my response.
I open the email and start typing.
Tessa, I appreciate the offer more than you know, but after careful consideration, I’ve decided not to accept the position. Please let Pamela know, and thanks again.
I hesitate, only for a second, then hit Send, a strange sense of relief washing over me. This isn’t about rejecting the job—it’s about choosing them.
Choosing this life, right here, right now.