Chapter 52 Nate
FIFTY-TWO
nate
The initial plan was not to sneak into Olivia’s room while we had company.
But her demands contradicted that—when it came to Liv, I was not a strong man.
I lay on the pull-out couch in the basement and listened for the rest of the house to settle.
Thank God Austin was a creature of habit—I’d gotten to be an expert in his bedtime routine.
Powerless. I was powerless to resist Olivia.
If she said come, I followed. She dangled sex, but it wasn’t the only thing I was desperate for.
Her eyes, the way they spoke to me, even when she used no words.
Her soft touch—oh, how stingy she’d been with that at first, but now showered it on me whenever we had a single moment alone.
The first moment I met her, I felt something stir. I wanted her, yes. But fuck, the layers of Olivia—she was my future. Now I needed to convince her that it was not only possible but that I could be her everything.
How do you convince a woman who’d only been disappointed by the men in her life that you’re the one who’s different?
We hadn’t talked much about what would happen at the end of the season, but I doubted that Austin would want me around this winter. The summer was quickly drawing to an end, and it was becoming increasingly apparent that there would be no playoff season for the Minutemen.
Going back to Alabama held even less appeal now that my mother and Coach Dobbs were in the honeymoon phase of a new relationship. Boston had become home to me.
I’d walked in on an argument between Austin and Olivia; she’d been pushing him to sell the house to her at market value, and he’d refused.
Even I knew that it wouldn’t be possible for him to give his sister a break on the house in the middle of a divorce.
Massachusetts was a no-fault state, and Ashley was entitled to half of everything, even after she cheated.
My rookie contract had given me access to more money than I’d ever had, but it wasn’t anywhere near Austin’s wealth or means.
Did I see myself in Olivia and Cooper’s life long-term? God willing—yes. Falling for Olivia went hand in hand with falling hard for Cooper. I loved the kid—and I didn’t want to do anything that would make him uncomfortable.
When I was certain that the rest of the house had fallen asleep, I crept upstairs and into Olivia’s room. She was sitting up in bed, reading a book.
“Hey,” she whispered, with a shy smile brightening her face.
“Hey, you.” I slid into bed next to her, and she moved to straddle my lap.
Both of us were still fully clothed. She cupped my cheek and searched my face before brushing her lips softly against mine.
Letting her lead, I opened for her when I felt her tongue trace my lips, begging entrance.
Her soft moans sent a shock right through my chest. If this woman couldn’t be mine, if this wasn’t real, I’d rather be alone.
Because I could chase this feeling for the rest of my life, and never find it if Olivia wasn’t at my side.
“I need to talk to you,” she said and peppered my face with kisses.
“I’m listening.” When a tear slipped down her cheek, panic seized me in the gut. Oh, no, I’m not gonna let you slip away without a fight.
“I said no feelings, Nate. Demanded it. And I didn’t follow through on my part. Shit, I couldn’t. But now I’m floating in this—this swill of feelings—and I fought them. But I can’t do it anymore.”
“What can’t you do anymore?” Fuck, don’t say it. I shook as I held her; she couldn’t end this now. I swore my heart seized in panic as I waited for her to speak again.
“Fight my feelings for you. Nate, I am so in love with you, I don’t know what to do about it. I don’t see a future—but then I do. It’s hope, but hope has let me down so many times.”
Relief rushed through me, and I pulled Olivia into my arms. “Let me love you back. The rest we’ll figure out together.”
“Well, it sounds pretty simple when you put it like that.”
“I love you, Olivia. I’ve never doubted you were my future, not from the second I met you. We’ve got some shit to figure out, but that’s gonna be on our own terms. Okay?”
“I need you.”
“How do you need me? You tell me, and you’ve got me.”
“Inside me. Right now.”
Her mouth captured mine, and her hands frantically tugged at the elastic waist of my athletic shorts.
She slipped the leg of the tiny sleep shorts she wore out of the way, and before I had time to be thankful for those barely there shorts, she’d lowered herself onto me, and I was fully seated inside of her.
“Fuck foreplay, I guess—”
“Every second I’m with you is foreplay.” She hovered over me, eyes not leaving mine as she began to move. The way she worked her hips as she sought her own pleasure—fuck.
“I’m not going to last long.”
“I don’t want you to. I need you to fall apart. I need to know that this means as much to you as it does to me.”
“Livvie,” I said, my hand on her hips, stilling her. “I’d burn it all down for you if you asked.”
Her hips started to move again, her breath hitching as I felt her begin to squeeze my cock, a telltale sign that she was close. “Good, because that might be exactly what happens.”
Fuck if I didn’t follow her right over that ledge, her tight pussy milked my release from me.
I loved when Olivia was chasing her orgasm, but what I loved even more was the moments right after she finished—when she burrowed into me, seeking more of my touch.
“I can’t get close enough to you, Nate. I’m so scared.”
“Of what?”
“The world. The world won’t understand us.”
“We get to choose who is in our world.”
“But can we? When the women are posting on social media about your old lady girlfriend—you’re not going to wonder?”
“Have you looked at my social media?” I asked. The team’s head of social media, Colby Crosby, had tried to get me to post more. But when I did, it wasn’t what she was looking for. I turned my account over to her, and now it’s just a bunch of pictures of me signing balls for kids.
“Yeah. Your followers are all women.”
“And you’re telling me that none of your social media followers want to sleep with you? Those women, that’s not reality. They don’t know me, and I don’t know them. And I don’t give a fuck about what anyone says about our relationship—with one exception.”
“Who?”
This one hurt to say, because there was only one person who mattered outside of our little one-plus-one equation. “Cooper. It will kill me to hurt him.”
“He loves you.”
“Yeah. As a houseguest, as a ballplayer, all things that don’t matter. What about as your boyfriend?”
“I’ve never dated anyone—”
“I know. I’m never going to be okay with you keeping me at arm’s length. I’ll listen to you and support you as we figure out how to let Cooper know about us, but there needs to be an end date to the secrets.”
“You should never be someone’s secret.”
“Same goes for you.”
I held Olivia against my chest until we both began to fall asleep.
“I’ve gotta go, babe.”
“I know. Doesn’t mean I like it.”