Chapter 24
CHAPTER
TWENTY-FOUR
PRESTON
“I don’t think I can go in there with you, babe,” Sawyer says, squeezing my hand. We’re on campus, standing outside Professor Graves’s office. I’m going to tell him that I want to graduate on time—this spring, to be exact. Sawyer’s come with me for moral support.
I’m not afraid of talking to Professor Graves. I’m afraid of what comes after, of having to tell my dad that despite graduating on schedule, I won’t be joining the family company. I'm dreading that conversation, so much so that I’ve projected my dread onto the meeting with Professor Graves.
“I know, I just…” I cling to Sawyer’s arm.
“You don’t have to talk to your dad yet. That’s a problem for future Preston. Just focus on what’s right in front of you now.” Sawyer always knows what I’m thinking, always knows exactly what to say. “I’ll wait right here for you.”
I nod, take a deep breath, and steel myself. Then I march toward Professor Graves’s door and knock.
“Come in!”
I shoot Sawyer one last glance and he gives me an encouraging smile, then I go in.
“Preston, how are you?” Professor Graves looks up from the papers he’s reading and gives me a friendly smile.
I take my usual chair, perch on the edge of the seat, and fold my hands in my lap. “Hi, Professor Graves. I’m doing well. How are you?”
A little furrow appears in his brow and when he speaks, there’s a bit of laughter in his voice. “I am also doing well. Thanks for asking. What did you want to talk about today?”
I clear my throat. “My defense.”
“Oh good.” He leans forward, folding his arms across the top of his desk. “Have you decided what you want to do? I still think you should go ahead with this spring, especially with how quickly your research is coming along. But ultimately, the decision is yours.”
“Yes, I understand.” My heart feels like it’s untethered and bouncing around in my chest, trying to escape. “I, uh, I’ve decided to, uh, stay on schedule.”
Professor Graves breaks out into a wide smile. “That’s wonderful. I’m glad to hear it. In fact, I was just chatting with the dissertation committee chair about which doctoral candidates we need to fit into the defense schedule. I included your name in hopes you’d come around.”
My heart is still racing, but now that the words are out and Professor Graves appears happy with my decision, I breathe a little easier.
“Yes, thank you.”
Professor Graves studies me for a moment, then continues more softly. “It’s going to be fine, Preston. Your research is solid. You know your material inside out. You’ll blow them out of the water.”
I nod as tension slowly eases from me and I slide deeper into the chair, slumping inward. “Yes, I know.”
A look of confusion passes over Professor Graves’s face. “So why do you look so worried?”
“It’s not the defense,” I say, too quietly for him to hear.
“What’s that?”
I swallow thickly and speak up louder. “It’s not the defense. It’s after I graduate. My parents want me to go work for them, but I don’t want to.”
“Oh.” Now he looks surprised as well as confused. “Do you have alternative options?”
I shrug. “I guess I can apply for post-doc positions.” That’s what most people on my career trajectory would do. But with the whole Sawyer-Fitz thing and the football incident, I haven’t looked into any.
“In that case, you might just be in luck.” Professor Graves turns to his computer and clicks on a few things. “We don’t currently have any post-docs in our department.”
“Yes, I know.” It would’ve been the most obvious option for me.
“But we’ve been in discussion with the administration about carving out a budget for one.”
I sit up at Professor Graves’s announcement. “Really?”
He nods. “Really. The work you’re doing is cutting-edge stuff, Preston, you know that. It would be a shame for us to lose that when you graduate.”
I think I know what he’s implying, but I don’t want to jump to conclusions and get my hopes up. My heart starts racing again, but this time in excitement rather than fear.
“Now, there’s no guarantee the budget will be approved, but we’ve made a strong case and I think the administration is willing to come on board.”
I shift to the edge of my seat again. “Really?”
“And again, no guarantee, but if the budget is approved, you would most likely be our top candidate.”
“I would?” This could be it. This could be the answer to everything. I’d have a job after graduation. A good job that I’d love. I wouldn’t have to go to another school or move to a different city. Sawyer and I could stay exactly where we are, where we’re happy.
“Yes, Preston, you would.”
“I… I… I don’t know what to say.”
Professor Graves laughs softly. “You don’t have to say anything right now. Nothing is set in stone. I just wanted you to know that we’re pulling for you.”
I nod. “Okay. Thank you.”
“Don’t thank me yet. We can celebrate when the contract comes through. Now, for your dissertation, how about we schedule a time next week to see what holes we need to patch up before your defense?”
We settle on a time, then I float out of his office in a daze.
Sawyer’s exactly where I left him, waiting outside Professor Graves’s office. “How’d it go?”
I slot myself into his side, winding my arm around his waist. “Good, I think. He said they might have a post-doc position for me.”
“Oh?” Sawyer says as he directs me down the hall.
“Yeah, they’d be creating a new position.”
“Just for you? That’s amazing!” He gives me a gentle shake.
I don’t try to fight the grin bunching up my cheeks. “It’s not finalized yet, but it sounds promising.”
“Still. We should celebrate.” We step out into the cold early December air. “What do you want to do? Go get dinner? Drinks? Watch a movie?”
“Hmm.” I smile up at him, doing my best to look seductive. “I want to go home. To bed.”
Sawyer chokes on nothing at all, then nods frantically. “Mmhmm, yep, we can do that. For sure.”
We grab a rideshare back home and the second we step into our apartment, I’m on him.
We leave a trail of clothes from the front door to Sawyer’s—really, our—bedroom, and by the time we hit the bed, we’re both naked.
“Sawyer, please.” I press myself against him. I want Sawyer to take me, to fuck me, to pound into me and tear me apart.
But he doesn’t, he slows down. He holds my face between his palms and peppers featherlight kisses all over my forehead, my eyes, my cheeks, my jaw, the corners of my mouth.
The bruising on my face has mostly faded, with only a few lingering yellow spots near my eyes.
Still, he’s gentle with me and I feel like the most precious treasure under his attention.
“You’re beautiful,” he murmurs. “Gorgeous. Stunning.”
It’s not the first time Sawyer’s said these things to me. In fact, he seems to say them more and more these days. The words make me whimper and tremble. My instinct is to deny them, to hide from them, but I force myself to stay in Sawyer’s embrace and endure his praise.
He kisses down my neck to suck on that spot where my pulse is strongest. I drop my head back to give him access and my hips go forward, looking for something to grind my hard dick against. Sawyer slips his knee between my legs and I rub my aching dick along his thigh.
“Please, Sawyer, please.”
With a growl, Sawyer grabs me around the waist and hoists me into the air. It’s a few steps to the bed, then he drops me onto the mattress and I squeal in delight as I bounce. I scramble backward as he comes after me.
Sawyer catches one ankle, then the other, holding me open so he can wedge his shoulders between my thighs. Before I can prepare myself, my dick is in his mouth.
“Sawyer!” I cry out, hips coming off the bed as Sawyer takes me deep into his throat. It’s so hot, so searing, that sweat immediately breaks out across my skin. “Oh god!”
Sawyer doesn’t let me go. He holds me in his throat, swallowing around the head of my dick like he wants to consume me whole. I want him to have every single part of me. I want him to take me apart and make me his.
He’s panting and breathing hard when he finally pulls off. My dick glistens with his saliva, the foreskin retracted and the head so engorged it’s red.
“So pretty,” he murmurs before tracing his tongue up and down my length.
I squirm and thrash when he turns his attention to my balls, pulling each one into his mouth, sucking on them, tonguing them.
The sounds Sawyer wrings out of me don’t sound human anymore.
They’re low and guttural, like they’re coming out of the deepest, darkest parts of me.
They’re high and squeaky when Sawyer works his way down to my perineum, bathing it with long, slow licks, nipping with his teeth.
The sounds skyrocket when he pushes my legs up to expose my hole.
“Sawyer!” I scream as he bends down to eat me out. His tongue is so dexterous and strong, probing at my hole and pushing inside. He scrapes his teeth across my sensitive skin and rubs his stubble all around too. Everything is on fire, burning through me, ravaging me.
“Please, Sawyer, please! I need you.”
Sawyer, ever the athlete, moves quickly, reaching across the bed to fish the lube from the nightstand. Then he turns back to me and carefully eases me onto my side.
“Yesss,” I hiss. This is my favorite way to get fucked. From behind, with his body molded to mine, his wide chest against my back. Sure, it’s harder to kiss this way, which is a shame, but we make up for it with lots of kissing before and after. “Hurry, please, hurry.”
“I’m here, babe, I’m right here. I’m gonna give you what you need, everything you need.”
Sawyer slots himself behind me and his erection seeks out my hole like it’s a precision-guided missile. I push myself back, moaning as he slides into my body.
The stretch is divine. The fullness is so satisfying. I would live every moment of every day like this if I could, with Sawyer seated entirely inside me.
Our size difference means I fit perfectly into the curve of Sawyer’s body, his dick aligned with my hole, his chin hooking over my shoulder to kiss my ear and nuzzle my neck. I was designed for this, for Sawyer to use me like this. I was made to take his cock.
“Fuck, Preston, you feel so goddamn good,” he murmurs, hauling me against him.
I whimper and snuggle back some more.
Sawyer’s got one arm trapped under me, bent so he can reach my chest and nipples.
His other arm roams freely, gripping my hip, flattening across my stomach, reaching down to cup my balls and stroke my dick.
He does it all, torturing my sensitive zones, lighting up my nerve endings, while he pumps himself steadily into me.
Everything is hot, everything tingles. Every touch and stroke sends pleasure bursting through me.
“Sawyer.” My voice is softer now, wistful and intimate. I whisper into the small space between us, this little bubble we’ve created where nothing exists except our bodies, connected so deeply I don’t know where I end and he begins.
“I love you, Preston,” Sawyer murmurs, the words winding through me and lighting me up from the inside out. “It shouldn’t be possible to love someone so much, but I do. You’re the air I breathe, the sustenance that fuels me. You’re a drug and I’m so addicted to you I’ll die without you.”
“Yes, yes, yes,” I agree because he is all those things to me too. My eyes prickle with tears and my dick grows harder in Sawyer’s palm. I tremble and quake as my orgasm draws near.
“You’re the reason I wake up every morning. The reason I eat and sleep and live. You’re my reason for being, my purpose in life.”
The tears spill over, hot on my cheeks and soaking into the pillow. I dig my fingers into his muscled forearm and clench tightly around Sawyer’s cock in my body. I want to keep him inside me. I’m empty without him. I’m nothing without him.
“I love you, Preston. I love you with every fiber of my body, every neuron in my brain, every molecule of every cell.”
I’m close, so close, and Sawyer’s going to make me come with his words. His thrusts are steady and unwavering, hitting me deep inside my body, in my soul.
“I love you, Preston. I love you. I love you. I love you.”
I explode with Sawyer’s endearments echoing in my ear. The orgasm rips through me, turning me inside out, pleasure so profound it makes me sob.
Then Sawyer is orgasming too. Fully sheathed inside me, pouring his cum into my body. There’s no barrier between us, nothing separating us. In this moment, we’re one entity, one heartbeat, one life.