Chapter 36
Chapter Thirty-Six
Noah
Sorry to Disappoint
“Who wrote Dracula?” I ask, trailing kisses down Savannah’s stomach.
Her final exam is tomorrow, so it makes the most sense for her to go home and study.
I finished my last exam yesterday and have no reason not to be out celebrating with the rest of the team who’s still around, or to head home, but I have absolutely no interest in leaving this bed. Or in Savannah not being in it.
“I’m pretty sure they won’t quiz me on who wrote it so much as ask me to write an essay about its themes,” Savannah points out, but she’s panting as I pull down her panties. I don’t know if I’ll ever get over seeing her like this.
“Do you want me to stop this and go find your notes?” I threaten, kissing the inside of her thigh while looking up at her, just waiting for her to tell me to stop.
“I really should go back to my dorm and review…”
I run my tongue over her entrance, which is already glistening. I’m playing dirty, but while she needed the quizzing for her planets class, she could probably teach this one based on how well she knew the material when I had her study cards.
“You were saying?” I ask, kissing the inside of her thigh again as she bucks her hips, trying to get me back where she wants me. Where I want to be.
“After breakfast, I’m going home,” she says.
“Okay.” I wasn’t expecting her to come back after her exam yesterday, so this is bonus time, and I plan to take advantage of it.
I put her legs over my shoulders and taste her sweet pussy, smiling against her as she moans and sighs.
I could come just from her taste, from her fingers running through my hair, gripping me as she comes.
“Maybe this afternoon,” she decides. “The exam is at one, so…”
I cut her off with a kiss, not because I don’t care, but because having her here makes me fucking selfish and I don’t want to waste my time with her arguing when I’ll take whatever she’ll give me. Which is terrifying.
My dick rubs against her core and Savannah moans my name.
It takes superhuman strength to pull away from her long enough to put on a condom before I can bury myself inside her, thrusting deep like I want to fuse our bodies together.
She’s gripping me like I’m all she ever needed, whispering my name as she kisses the crook of my neck and we both come undone.
I stay inside until she stops pulsing around me, placing a quick kiss on her nose before I pull out and dispose of the condom, instantly miss the connection.
Savannah goes down the hall to the washroom and I’m left wondering how much of an asshole it would make me if I locked her in my bedroom for the rest of the day.
I hear a car door slam outside, quickly followed by our front door, which is usually unlocked when one of us is home, but I’ve been locking it now it’s just me and Savannah, and we tend to walk around with minimal clothes on.
“Dave?” I try, since he’s the only one within driving distance, and I’m hoping strangers don’t have the key.
“Sorry to disappoint.” Colt looks like he hasn’t slept in days.
He throws his bag on the floor and kicks off his flip flops, which aren’t appropriate for the foot of snow outside, then walks past his room to collapse on the couch in the living room, which tells me he doesn’t want to be alone. Not that he’d ask me to stay.
“What happened to Mexico?” I ask cautiously, heading to the kitchen to start both the coffee maker and the kettle, not sure which one he needs.
“My dad.” He pulls out a few airplane liquor bottles and downs them, one after the other, so I decide food and talking first, then maybe a nap.
“Your parents joined you?” He’d called it ‘our place in Mexico’, but I always assumed he meant the hotel they go to, not that they own real estate there.
“No, just my dad. With my old English teacher.”
I picture an intervention over his grades, then immediately dismiss it, but I don’t connect the actual dots before Colt adds, “He didn’t know, but I think she was trying to fuck me through him, which is all kinds of messed up, even if he wasn’t still married to my mother, who I now have to lie to.”
“Let me put a shirt on, then you can explain everything from the beginning.” It’s a flimsy excuse to leave, but Sav is definitely done by now, and I need to apologize profusely and let her know that I have to take care of Colt.
“Bring the tequila Owen hides in his closet. Or I’m sure David has something good.”
I don’t really want to intrude on my roommates’ bedrooms, or give Colt more alcohol when he smells like a bar, but I would also want to get shitfaced in his situation.
Savannah is in my bedroom, dressed and clutching her backpack while biting her bottom lip, waiting for me.
“I’m so sorry—” I start.
“I can smell him from here,” she stops me.
“Would it be better if I slip out when he isn’t looking,” she offers, which I immediately turn down.
She’s not sneaking out the back door like some dirty secret when she’s…
I don’t know exactly, but I know what I would want her to be, if I didn’t have to deal with everything else.
“Or I could make food to soak up that alcohol and drown some emotions.”
I love you is on the tip of my tongue. Not because I mean it in that real way when you’re actually in love, but because I don’t deserve this girl and she’s fucking perfect.
“That’s very sweet, but you have an exam, and—”
“Fuck, is Sav here?” Colt calls from downstairs, which could be because he hears us, or saw her shoes, or noticed all the baked goods on the counter and knows that wasn’t me. “I’m so sorry dude, I’ll just hide in my room and be real quiet, you guys can—”
I sigh and go back downstairs, where Colt is already retreating into his bedroom.
“She was about to head home and study. I can drive her and pick up some food on the way back?”
“I’m fine man, you guys enjoy the day and I’ll just…”
He looks so defeated, I’m not even surprised when Savannah says, “I was hoping to make French toast before leaving, if it’s not an intrusion? Pretty sure I missed breakfast in the dining hall, and—”
“Want me to crack the eggs?” Colt offers.
“That would be perfect,” she assures him, and it’s dangerous, because I’m letting her into every aspect of my life, and so far, she isn’t running.
She’s rolling with the punches, being super understanding and helpful, which is something I can’t get used to.
Because I know what happens when you do.
But it’s Christmas, and Colt already has the eggs out, and I’m so tired of fighting it.
Colt doesn’t say any more about his father showing up in Mexico, but I get the impression his parents have a very ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ marriage where the image matters a lot more than the truth.
And I guess your parents abandoning you at Christmas for work or a couple’s trip is somehow less hurtful than your father choosing to sleep with your high school English teacher instead of spending the holiday with you.
I would have expected him to fly home to be with his mom, but judging from the call he took on speakerphone while we were doing the dishes, she’s on a yoga retreat in India and won’t be accepting any more calls unless someone is dying.
Savannah refuses to leave until Colt passes out on the couch, which I feel terrible about, but he seems a lot less depressed with her around.
And not like he was pretending everything was fine, but he gave her a hug to thank her for the food, and while the first thing I felt was a stab of jealousy, she didn’t let him pull away, and he clung to her like a lost boy needing comfort.
I brought the garbage out to the bins, and when I came back, we all pretended it never happened, and that Colt’s eyes weren’t red, but he was…
not as happy as he usually is, but at least he seemed like he’d be okay.
Thanks to Savannah.
“I’m sorry,” I say once I pull up to her dorm.
“This was not at all how I wanted to spend our last day together before the break.” I want to delay Savannah getting out of the Jeep, but we left Colt on the couch and after he discovered stashes of alcohol in the cupboards, I don’t feel comfortable leaving him for too long.
“You’re an excellent captain,” she tells me. “But an even better friend. He’s lucky to have you.”
I shrug it off, because my current thoughts toward Colt aren’t very friendly, and a part of me wishes I’d been selfish.
“When are you back on campus?” I ask, completely changing the subject.
“Probably just before the semester starts. Maybe a bit earlier to get some last-minute writing done, but definitely after New Year’s. You?”
“We have the College Classic in Florida, so I’ll be back here training the day after Christmas.
” She looks like she feels sorry for me, that I have to miss out on all that family time, but if last year is any indication, I’ll be itching to get away by then.
I can bring Izzie to the rink with me and put in face time with Tatum, but my mom disappears inside herself at Christmas, because it was my dad’s favorite holiday.
“I admire your dedication.”
I shrug, maybe feeling a little guilty for that avoidance. “We get back on the first.”
She nods like she doesn’t know what to do with that information, which makes sense, because I’m trying to make plans with her so I can see her as soon as we’re both back, but I keep ignoring the line that separates casual from serious, friends with benefits from relationships, and while I don’t think I can be what Savannah deserves, I selfishly want to spend all my time with her and do all the relationship things.
Without this actually being a relationship.
Because those bring pressure and expectations, and lead to me letting her down, which I don’t ever want to do.
“Do you get time to relax before the semester, or more training?”
“We’ll probably get a day or two off before business as usual.”
I can see Savannah’s mind working and would give a lot to know what she’s thinking, but then it looks like she’s spiraling, or at least not enjoying where her mind is going, because her brow is furrowed, which is what gives me the courage to ask, “Once you’re back, wanna have a sleepover?”
“If you want me to.” She looks confused. Or skeptical, and both are my bad, but I double down on the cocky friends with benefits persona.
“We can celebrate. Naked.” I purposely check her out, eyes slowly moving down her body, and I want nothing more than to drag her into the back seat and worship her.
“Pretty cocky of you, isn’t it?”
She’s thinking I want to celebrate winning my hockey game, which hasn’t happened yet, but she’s supposed to hear back from her series proposal soon, and I have no doubts on that one. Either they take her story, or they’re idiots.
“Odds are I won’t be the only one with something to celebrate,” I say, but she looks nervous, so I decide not to bring it up. “Isn’t us being together again something to celebrate?” I tease instead.
“Of course.” She rolls her eyes.
“Are you going anywhere?”
“Staying home, mostly.” She shrugs but looks shifty, guilty even, and I try to remember if she’s mentioned an ex-boyfriend she might visit, but then she adds, “We might go out of town to support family along the way…like my cousin has a piano recital.”
That’s when I remember her brother is in the NFL, and they usually have games around Christmas, so going to see him is probably how they’ll spend the holiday together. But I shouldn’t know this, so I pretend I believe she’s going to watch piano.
“Sounds fun.”
“You’re sarcastic, but she’s awesome. Any instrument, any genre…Stevie’s made grown men cry.”
“Glad I’ll be out of town.” I’m teasing, but the way her face just lit up, I’m not sure if it’s still a euphemism for football or if she also has a cousin she wants to go see, but her enthusiasm makes me think that I wouldn’t mind going to whichever one if I could sit beside her and watch her smile like that.