Chapter 27
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Though she’s a fast walker, Charlotte’s no match for me in a sprint. She cuts left, darting into a cluster of giant aspens. I leave my bucket behind and lunge, hooking her around the waist.
She shrieks with laughter, the force of her forward momentum testing my balance.
I pull her to me, her back to my chest. We come to a stop, both of us breathing hard.
I press my face into her sun-warmed hair and inhale her gingerbread scent now mixed with blackberries and sweet earth.
I draw it all the way into my senses so I’ll never forget it.
“William,” she huffs, leaning back into me, her breathy whisper laced with something desperate.
“Don’t tell me to let go.” I slide my nose along the back of her ear. I brush my lips against her skin. She tilts her head to the side like an invitation.
“Okay,” she pants. “I won’t.”
My pulse leaps into my throat and my heart is beating so hard I’m sure she can feel it against her spine. I urge the handle of her bucket from her grip and press a soft kiss to the back of her ear. A quiver vibrates down her stomach .
I set her bucket down and kiss lower, to the soft curve of her neck, and suck her skin between my lips, savoring the hint of sweat and her warmth.
Her thighs tense together, which makes the tight curves of her ass rub against my dick.
I barely catch the groan before it leaves my lips.
She reaches up, her fingers sliding through my hair, like she’s trying to keep me close.
I’m getting painfully hard against my zipper and I’ve barely touched her.
Fuck, we haven’t even made out yet. We’ve barely kissed.
But I’ve been dreaming about her nonstop. Dreaming about kissing her. Touching her. Unlocking all her secrets.
Everything is different with her. But there’s something familiar about it too. Like this isn’t the first time I’ve fallen for her. Like we’re picking up where we left off in a past life. I can’t explain it, and I’m really fucking ready to stop fighting it. Pretending it’s not what I feel.
I press my hand to the plane of her stomach, right below the waistband of her shorts.
If nothing else to keep her from rubbing against me like that.
Doesn’t she know what that does to me? Her breath stutters in her throat and her chest is rising and falling with her quickening breaths.
I spin her around and back her against the nearby aspen, then pin her hip in place and lean in.
For an instant, I think she’s going to stop me, but then her lips part and her lashes flutter closed.
I kiss her, sucking on her plush bottom lip, then swirling with my tongue.
She fists the center of my T-shirt and kisses me back, her soft lips so full and tender against mine, her tongue soft and so fucking sexy, a shiver rolls down my back.
There’s an intensity to her kisses, like she’s as hungry for me as I am for her. Like she’s not afraid to give in to what she wants. To be on the receiving end of that is fucking addicting. A little surprising, given how by-the-book she always plays it. Always so put together. In control.
That I could be the one to break through all of that, to get a glimpse of what she keeps locked away…
it hits me in my deepest place. Makes me fall even harder.
Because we’re not so different th at way.
The person I am for my team and at school…
it’s only a part of who I am. The real me wants more than to be some jock.
With Charlotte, I feel like maybe that’s possible.
A breeze stirs the branches above us, making the golden evening light dance around us and filling the air with the whisper-hush of quaking leaves.
I step closer, bringing our bodies into contact, and kiss her again, willing time to slow down.
Because I know what’s coming at the end of this kiss and I’m not ready.
I will never be ready.
I’ve kissed plenty of girls, but none of those encounters comes close to what I’m feeling right now. Like gravity could stop working, and I’d be content to float away as long as I get to take her with me.
I edge underneath her T-shirt’s hem to touch her warm, bare skin, memorizing the perfect dip of her waist. Her breath hitches at the contact, and her eyes flutter open.
I stare down at her, breathing fast, my fingers gripping her gently, but with enough pressure to feel the tremor running like an electric current just under her skin, the steady rise and fall of each breath.
She’s still fisting my shirt like she thinks I might stop kissing her.
“Is this okay?” I ask, feathering my thumb in little circles above her hip.
She gives a shaky sigh. “What about…”
“Nobody has to know.” I wince in anguish because only an asshole would say something so careless.
Her eyes flash with hurt.
“Fuck, I didn’t mean it like that.” I press my forehead to hers, and to my relief, she doesn’t push me away, instead giving a slow sigh.
“How did you mean it?” she asks in a rush, letting go of my shirt and pressing her hand to the center of my chest.
I clasp it in place, like it can keep her from pushing me away. Not that I’d stop her, but… “It doesn’t have to be impossible.” Fuck, it’s just like that stupid song.
“What are you even asking me?” she says, her gaze lifting, those gorgeous hazel eyes searching mine for the truth .
I don’t have an answer, at least not a good one. I cradle her face. “I don’t want to be with anyone else.”
Frustration plays across her face. “But you want me only in secret? So you can keep your friendship with Theo? Lead the team to glory this year?”
My heart slams against my ribs like storm waves on a beach.
If Theo finds out I’ve been kissing his sister, he’ll beat me to within an inch of my life.
I could bear it, and I’d prove him wrong because I would never hurt Charlotte.
But what if he turns the team against me?
I might be able to win them back by next season, but there’s no guarantees.
In many ways, I’m still an outsider. My belonging isn’t a given.
Even the best QB can’t win games alone. I for sure can’t make my full ride to Oregon come true alone.
“Shit.” I rest my forehead against hers again and sigh in defeat. She’s right. “Then we’ll wait.” What other choice is there? Because I’m not turning off how I feel. I’ve tried. I can’t do it.
She pushes me backwards, anguish tightening her gaze. “Meanwhile, what…I just put my life on hold?”
“Only until the season is over.”
She huffs a frustrated breath, then slips past me, picking up her bucket and heading for the truck.
I run my hands through my hair and stare up through the alcove of branches to the deep blue sky. Damn it. I’m not asking her to wait forever. But she’s right. It’s a shitty thing to ask. How could I be so fucking selfish?
At the truck, I set my bucket next to hers and close the tailgate. When I get behind the wheel, Charlotte’s on the far side of the cab, looking out her window.
“Forgive me,” I say, which is different than being sorry. I don’t like that my honesty hurt her or made her feel like she doesn’t deserve to be put first. She absolutely does. I just don’t know how to do that without risking…well, everything else.
Her eyes tense with an emotion I can’t read. Remorse? Frustration? “I hate that you’re under so much pressure. ”
A trickle of relief rolls down my spine. She should be pissed at me, but she’s not. “Comes with the territory.”
“But it means making sacrifices.”
Fuck. I’m not stupid—she’s making an effort to understand. But I also don’t want her feeling sorry for me either. I made my choice long ago. A choice that’s given me every opportunity.
Except the one where I get to be with her.
Fuck.
But there’s always a price, isn’t there?
“I won’t ask you to wait for me, Charlotte,” I say, swallowing the tight knot in my throat. “But I’ll wait for you.”
Her eyes widen. “You don’t mean that.”
I cock an eyebrow. “You underestimating me, blackbird?”
She gives me half-laugh, half sigh. “Ohmygawd, you’re nuts.”
I grab her thigh and drag her closer. “Maybe.” But I meant what I said. I don’t want to be with anyone else. And it’s not like I don’t know how to be disciplined. Fuck, it’s the story of my life. “Just don’t go falling head over boots for someone else while you’ve got my heart on a string, kay?”
She scoffs. “Head over boots? Holy hell, Will. You’re making, like, zero sense.”
The thought of anyone else with her drives me fucking insane, but what if her prince charming comes along tomorrow, ready to give her what I can’t? “After the playoffs, you better be ready to drop everything, because I’ll be coming for you.”
Her eyes brighten. “You’re serious.”
“Kiss me, Charlotte. Make it a good one. I need it to last.”
Her face stills and her lips part with a slow sigh.
Then she lifts her chin and kisses me. It’s tender and sweet, like a promise, and then her fingers are in my hair and her tongue darts out, tangling with mine.
I deepen the kiss, my blood heating in my veins, making my pulse tap harder beneath my skin.
Maybe asking for this last kiss was a mistake, because waiting on the other side is the agony of watching her walk out of my life. Of trying not to care if she ends up with someone else.
So I pull her onto my lap and urge her close, gripping her waist. So I can at least pretend for a little longer that she’s mine.
One kiss leads to another, the heat between us like some kind of drug because I want more of it.
More of her. I caress up her back and dive one hand into her hair, cradling the back of her neck.
Her breaths quicken. She caresses both sides of my face, her touch at once sensual and tender.
She tilts her hips to get me closer, like she needs more of me too.
I don’t care that I’m lost in her right now. All I can think of is how to stay lost.
A soft buzzing and Charlotte’s laughter as she pulls away is like coming out of a trance.
I blink at the soft blue sky outside the truck, then at Charlotte reaching for her fucking phone.
“Don’t answer that.” I lunge for it because I’m not ready for the outside world to break us apart, but she pulls back, laughing, her eyes so pretty in the golden evening light.
“Will!” she protests, trying to squirm free.
I tickle her and she squeals, jolting so violently over my lap that I nearly come in my jeans. But she gets the phone from her pocket, her cheeks turning even more pink when she reads the caller ID.
“Oh shit. It’s my dad.”
It’s then I remember her six o’clock curfew. I don’t know what time it is, but by the lowering light, it’s definitely later than that.
“Hey, Dad,” Charlotte says into the phone, still breathing hard, her brows bunching together. “What?” Panic fills her eyes. “Is she okay?”
Fear tightens inside me. Who’s hurt? I wait for more, my eyes locked on Charlotte’s face.
She climbs off me and runs her palm down the back of her head, lost in whatever Ray is saying. “Okay,” she says, all color draining from her face. Her gaze finds mine but her expression is tense, scared. “Yeah, Will can drive me.”
I slide the key into the ignition. The clock on the dash blinks to life: 6:47. Fuck.
Charlotte pulls on her seatbelt. “We’ll get there as soon as we can,” she says, then nods, as if Ray can see her.
I turn the truck around and head out of the gravel parking strip, yanking my seat belt into place as I accelerate toward the other end of the field.
Charlotte and Ray end their call, and she slumps back against the seat. “It’s Morgan,” she says in a shaky voice. “There was an…accident....” She shakes her head, fighting tears. “She’s going into surgery right now. There was…internal bleeding.”
A car crash? How did it happen?
I reach for her hand. However it happened, it sounds bad. “I’ll get us there as fast as we can. Is she at Evergreen?”
“Yeah.” Her palm slides into mine. She’s shaking. I press a kiss to the back of her hand.
Her lips quiver. “The driver was drunk.” A tear breaks loose but she swipes it away. “This is my fault. I…I lost track of time. If I’d been home, this wouldn’t have happened.”
“We both did.” I don’t want her blaming herself, but I can practically see her mind’s gears spinning out of control.
I’m still holding her hand and I don’t plan to let go. “Hang in there, okay?”
She rubs her lips together and nods. “Okay.”