35. Balls Deep
CARTER
I plan on soaking up every single one of these hours I have left with Olivia before my road series.
That’s precisely why I woke her up at the crack of dawn with my head between her legs and haven’t let her go back to sleep since.
That’s also probably why she’s passed the fuck out on my lap right now, not even stirring at the way I keep shouting at my TV.
“Did you get shot again?” Garrett screams into my headset. “How the fuck are you so bad today?”
“There’s a hot chick sleeping between my legs!” I shout back.
“She’s always between your legs!” He goes quiet for a moment, and Adam and Emmett chuckle. “Okay, that sounded bad. What I meant was you’ve had her all weekend. Focus on staying alive. You’re bringing the whole team down.”
“Yeah, yeah,” I mutter, navigating my player up a set of stairs.
“That place was loaded with guys two minutes ago, Carter,” Emmett says as Olivia stirs in my lap. “Make sure you—” his words die a heavy sigh as my screen splatters with blood, my character collapsing to the ground after being shot point-blank in the head, “—check. Dude, what the fuck?”
Olivia smiles up at me, blinking her bleary eyes, fluttering those dark lashes.
“Beckett? You there?
“Olivia must’ve woken up.” Adam knows what’s up.
“I gotta go.” I’m already tearing off my headset, ignoring the way Garrett shrieks in my ear about being in the middle of a mission. “Ollie’s up.”
She starts crawling up my body, but I lay my hand on her collarbone, pushing her down to her back.
I slip my hands around her waist. “Snack time.”
“Again?”
“I’m always hungry, Ollie, and there’s nothing I’d love more than to eat your pussy one more time, then bend you over the couch and fuck you so hard you feel it in your throat. I’d also settle for cuddling.”
It’s highly inconvenient that at this moment my front door beeps twice and swings open, the voices of two occasionally incredibly annoying females filtering into my house. Olivia stiffens below me, and I growl out something like a sigh-groan, collapsing on top of her.
Jumping off the couch, I round the corner of my living room, spreading my arms wide when my eyes land on the three people taking off their things in my front hall, the dog who’s shifting excitedly on his paws, ready to pounce.
“What the hell are you three doing here?” I look at Hank. “I thought Ollie and I were picking you up later for dinner.”
His shoulders pop up, palms raised in an innocent shrug. “Wasn’t me.”
Jennie rolls her eyes, releasing Dublin from his lead.
He comes bounding over, jumping up with two paws on my belly, and I bury my fingers in his soft fur.
“That’s BS and you know it, old man.” She leads him down the hallway.
“Mom and you were on the phone plotting this for nearly an hour this morning.”
Mom throws her hands in the air. “It’s not fair that he got to meet Olivia and we didn’t!”
“You can’t just walk in here unannounced!” I shout back, gesturing at the way Olivia approaches like a terrified animal, tugging at her sweater. “We could’ve been naked!”
“Carter!” Olivia calls in horror at the exact moment my mom plants two fists on her hips, hits me with an unimpressed look, and growls out, “Carter Beckett!”
Jennie gags. “Ugh. Gross. Not an image I want burned into my retinas.”
“Then you should’ve knocked, because I was almost balls d—”
“ Carter !” Olivia half shrieks again, slapping a hand over my mouth. “For the love of God, please stop. Please .”
I smile against her palm before twisting and slinging an arm around her waist. “Sorry, pumpkin.”
Hank’s snickering in a way that makes me less mad at him. “That’s my boy,” he boasts before reaching toward us. I take his hands, but he frowns, slapping them away. “I don’t want you . I want Olivia.”
“Oh for fuck’s—”
I’m cut off by Olivia’s giggling, the way she shoves me out of the way with one hip and embraces Hank. “This is so much better than what we had planned,” she tells my family.
Mom approaches Olivia with her arms wide, wearing the most wondrous smile, like she never thought this would happen. “I never thought this day would come,” she cries. Told you . “My little boy, all grown up with a girlfriend !”
“Only took him twenty-seven years,” Jennie mutters, then happily claps Hank’s hand.
“Hi, pumpkin pie,” Mom croons, folding Olivia into her embrace.
“ Mom !”
“What? That’s what you call her, isn’t it?” Her smirk is unnecessary, and yet oddly familiar.
Jennie snorts. Once. Twice. She keels over, slapping her knee.
“ Pumpkin pie ? You-you-you—” another snort , “—you call your girlfriend pumpkin pie?” Is she crying?
“So much for that big, bad fuckboy rep you’ve been rocking all these years.
” She’s fucking crying. “I mean, we get it. You love your girlfriend.”
I would talk if I could. All I seem to be able to do is scratch at my nape, and I hate the way my face burns. When my mom releases her from her talons, Olivia gives me a soft, warm smile that makes me feel like she’s lit me from the inside out.
Mom swats Jennie’s shoulder. “Don’t tease your brother.”
“He teases me all the time!”
“He teases you because he loves you; you know that.”
“Yeah, Jen.” Out come the grabby hands. “Just let me hug you. I love you.”
“Get away from me!” Her gaze slides over Olivia, mouth tilting. “You’re too small to make a decent human shield.” She considers it for all of a split second before she says, “Ah, fuck it,” and sidesteps behind Olivia, gripping her biceps and ducking behind her shoulders.
That might work, except my arms are long as hell, so I wrap them around both of them and crush them into my chest. “Group hug,” I sing out as Jennie groans and Olivia snickers.
I may hate them for showing up unannounced, but right now, I’ve got my all-time favorite people in one room, and nothing makes me happier, especially as I watch the way Olivia so effortlessly fits in with them, like she was always meant to be here, a part of our family.
I don’t even mind when she tells everyone about the time she shaved her brother’s brows off in his sleep because he broke her hockey stick and carved it into a walking stick, eliciting an evil gleam in Jennie’s eyes as they touch mine, like she’s plotting.
Two hours later when she’s standing next to me grating cheese for homemade pizza, I’m still guarding my eyebrows.
“You fell hard and fast, little brother. Did you hit every branch on the way down too?”
“Huh?” My head lifts, smiling at the way Olivia throws her head back with a laugh at whatever Hank’s saying. Something dirty, judging by the way my mom smacks his arm. I turn to Jennie. “I’m almost five years older than you.”
“But your mind is so, so small, fuckboy.”
I flick her between the eyes. “Do your job.”
She does, with as much flourish as I do most things, one foot popped behind her as she sprinkles the cheese over the sauce. She’s nothing if not dramatic. “Does she know you wanna marry her?”
“What?” My gaze ricochets between my annoying sister and Olivia.
“I said does she know you’re in love with her.”
I slap a hand over her mouth, wrapping her in a headlock. “Shut up or she’ll hear you.”
She bites the flesh of my palm until I release her, cradling my hand against my chest, and when Olivia steps behind me, wrapping her arms around my middle, I can barely breathe.
“What are you two fighting about?”
“ Nothing !” I kinda-sorta shriek. The look I pin Jennie with says she’ll be the one with no eyebrows if she says anything.
“Well, it was supposed to be a surprise, but Carter was telling me he’s finalized the details on horse-riding lessons for us this spring. He thought you’d like to come with me.”
Olivia peers at me. “Horseback riding lessons?”
I can’t believe she’s buying this shit. I give it exactly one month until Jennie tells her the entire thing was a ploy to: A) get what she wanted, which at this moment, are the lessons she’s been dropping hints about since her birthday passed; and B) distract from the fact that I’m in love with Olivia and don’t want her to know yet.
Only one month, because I’m impulsive and bad at keeping secrets, so I can’t imagine holding out much longer than that.
Case in point, forty-five minutes later when we’re at the dinner table, I’ve got her foot tucked between my legs, because apparently I can’t not be touching her.
“We went skating on Capilano Lake last weekend and I beat Carter in a race,” she’s proudly telling my family.
“You cheated in a race.”
She hums thoughtfully, chewing her pizza. “That doesn’t seem like something I’d do.”
“It’s something I’d do just to knock him down a few pegs,” Jennie says. “Carter said you coach your niece’s hockey team and teach high school fitness. That’s so cool! Did you ever dance?”
“Only when I’ve been drinking. I’m not overly rhythmic. I did figure skate for a few years though.”
“She coaches the girls’ volleyball team at school,” I add.
“Did you play too?” Jennie asks, amused.
Olivia nods. “From sixth grade to my final year in university.”
Jennie folds her lips into her mouth. Her shoulders start quivering, and a tiny snort leaves her nose. I hide my smile behind my palm, staring down at my plate as I try not to laugh.
Olivia’s gaze bounces between us. “What?”
“It’s just…” Jennie jerks forward as a small laugh escapes. “I mean—” snicker , “—can you even—” covers her mouth, “—reach the net?” She bursts out laughing at the exact moment I do, both of us folding over the table, and Mom smacks me upside the head, even though I’m not the one who said it.
Olivia’s eyes narrow as she pins her arms across her chest. “Oh, I see. You two Beckett children are one and the same.”
“Assholes?” Mom guesses. “Yeah, blame their father, not me.”
“Be nice to your girlfriend, Carter,” Hank calls from across the table as he slips a piece of pepperoni to Dublin. “Or she won’t let you try any of the fun stuff from the book we’re reading.”