23. Blake
Chapter 23
Blake
Last night was a fucking dream.
It must have been. There is no way an angel like Alexis would want me like that, would ever moan so beautifully with my name on her lips and my cock buried deep inside of her. And yet she’s here, snuggled up against my chest. The most beautiful girl I’ve ever seen.
“What are you staring at, weirdo? Do I have something on my face?” Alexis rubs her eyes with the base of her palm, trying to hide that cute little yawn I adore. Between the Vermont trip and yesterday, I’ve run her ragged, and I’m willing to bet good money that once I drop her off at her dorm she will sleep for a day straight.
“Seven layers of skin, roughly one-hundred-and-three freckles, and a smile as addicting as air,” I muse. “But nothing that doesn’t belong there, no.”
Alexis raises a brow. “You counted my freckles?”
“I have to do something while you’re hogging the blankets and I’m freezing my ass off, don’t I?” I brush my lips against her velvet skin just to feel her, to have tangible proof this is real.
A soft laugh echoes through the tent, igniting a surge of flutters in my chest. I’ll never get tired of that laugh. “You’re built like a furnace, anyway. You don’t need blankets.”
I give a shrug that admits she’s right, but before I can say the words a trumpet plays some god-awful tune right outside our tent.
“I think that means we have to get out there,” Alexis says.
She’s right, though I don’t move. I never want to get out of this tent, out of this terrible, uncomfortable bed. I never want to let go of her. What if I will never get the chance to hold her again?
Alexis has already given me so much more than she owed. But if these past few months have taught me anything, it’s that I never want to be apart from her again. Going back to being friends, it would kill me. Having kissed her, felt her, loved her…Alexis Moore is the woman, the one who eclipses the whole of her gender.
I don’t want to spend another day where I’m not hers, where she’s not mine.
Rolling her eyes like she can read my mind, Alexis wriggles from my grip. I mourn the loss of her at once, and she makes it to the mouth of the tent before I can drag her back into my chest. The weak winter sun illuminates her face in a golden hue, accentuating the blush on her cheeks into a deep crimson.
I haven’t said anything suggestive yet, so there is only one thing that could bring out that adorable look: the sudden realization that an entire field of people heard her scream out my name last night.
Have they gathered into a judgy, gossiping mass? Are they staring at her like she’s lesser somehow?
Not on my watch.
I dive forward to follow Alexis out of the tent and in one smooth movement I sweep her off her feet, holding her with ease as I kiss her cheek. Surprise crosses Alexis’s pretty face and she laughs, though whether that’s the surprise or the nerves, I’m not sure.
“Too sore to walk,” I say to our neighbors with a wink, and a laugh ripples from my chest as Alexis swats at my shoulder. I see the camera pointed straight at us, though, and know this visual could earn us a lot of votes.
Besides, there is no way they didn’t hear us last night—best to own up to it. Alexis will forgive me for being an ass once she doesn’t have to worry about tuition. I hope.
The stares of our competition follow us all the way across the field, making Alexis shrink under their weight. By the time we reach the picnic blanket from last night, a small breakfast waiting to be devoured, her face is buried in my neck to drown them out.
“Don’t give them the satisfaction of seeing you cower, Sunshine.” My lips brush against her hair, pressing a gentle kiss to the top of her head. “You outshine them all, and they know it. They don’t stand a chance in hell of winning this. You and I…we’re the only thing that matters now.”
I gently set her down so her back is facing those fuckers. Maybe that way it’s easier for her to forget them. Sitting opposite her, it sure makes it easier for me to stare them down.
“He’s going to kill us.”
I turn a bread roll over in my hands. If they were warm once, it doesn’t feel like it. “Who is?”
“Levi,” Alexis says, her voice louder now. “There is no way this won’t spread around the school, and he’ll inevitably find out.” She rubs her eyes again, and for a moment I’m worried she’s about to cry. But her voice is steady when she says, “What a mess, huh?”
A knot forms in my stomach. “Do you regret it?”
“NO! No, don’t even think that, Blake.” Alexis leans forward to give me a reassuring kiss. “It’s just…Levi and Alissa set us up, but ever since things started to change between us…I don’t know, things are kind of weird right now.”
I pause, staring at the roll in my hands. I hadn’t even considered what effect me loving her for real would have on her relationship with them. Perhaps I should have gotten ahead of this thing before it could hurt her. “I’m sorry. I know how much your family means to you.”
“You mean just as much,” she says softly, and something in her voice makes me meet her gaze. “You’re mine, right?”
I nod, breathing out the last of my nerves as I look into her steadfast gaze. “Yours, always forever.”