2. Tate Thibadeau
I looked around my living room again, trying to see it through a girl’s eyes. And not just any girl.
Everly Miller .
Ev was a breath of fresh air. Beautiful, like so many of the chicks I talked to, but not obsessed with it. She was sweet and funny and awkward. She talked a lot when she was nervous. She was so smart that she breezed through her classes and could discuss almost anything. And she was so real that I couldn’t fully believe it. I damn sure didn’t deserve it.
The crazy shit was, even though I was undeserving, I could tell she loved me. And I was realizing, I loved her, too.
That was a problem, though.
My life was mapped out.
Overachieving high school scholar-athlete. HBCU to continue my family’s legacy and connect me to our people. Future Ivy League grad student for the pedigree and the connections. Respectable career and then politics. Pretty little wife with the right lineage and the right “look” to help my career and birth my children. Everly’s family was more than comfortable, but they weren’t old-money wealthy. Their background was what my father would call “common.” And, as gorgeous as she was to me, she was on the heavier side. My people would eat her alive, have my awkward, bookish baby as insecure, self-conscious, and bitter as they were. I couldn’t introduce her to them.
My phone vibrated against my desk, pulling me out of my thoughts. I smiled as I walked over and reached for it.
Everly:
Outside
Me:
Here I come.
Immediately, I started for the door. I shared this house with my annoying ass cousin, Quad, but he was gone and by the time he got back, he’d be so fucked up that he passed out. Our frat was hosting a little party tonight and co-hosting a bigger one with all the Greeks tomorrow. I figured I could bring in Ev’s birthday with her, then hit the yard early and the party later.
I opened the door, ready to walk to her car and escort her in. I was surprised to see her in front of me, her finger hovering over the doorbell. I frowned down at her.
“Why you didn’t wait on me? I told you I was coming,” I fussed gently, even as I pulled her soft body against mine.
Sighing, I closed my eyes for a second. Chilling with Ev in my arms—that was peace.
“Who gone mess with me over here?” she sassed as I stepped back and took her hand.
“Anything could happen, Everly,” I said, closing and locking the door.
I set the alarm before leading her to the couch and gesturing to the remotes on the coffee table. “Find a movie. I’ma make some popcorn.”
She smiled up at me, pretty teeth gleaming, brown eyes shining with affection. Again, I thought about how I didn’t deserve her.
I made the popcorn old school like she liked—kernels in a deep pan on the stove. Before dumping it in a bowl, I added butter, salt, and a little cayenne. She liked that, too. I set the dish on a tray, then searched through the cabinets until I found a pack of mini-candy bars. I threw them next to the popcorn, grabbed two root beers, and strolled back into the living room.
I rolled my eyes when I saw Reese Witherspoon talking to her sorority sisters on Legally Blonde . My Youngin’ loved this silly ass movie. But I knew she’d compromise and watch something I liked later.
Halfway into the movie, I paused it.
“Tate, what you doing?” she whined.
I cupped her pretty face.
“I ain’t tryna hear all that. It’s midnight. Happy nineteenth birthday, baby.”
I opened the drawer on the coffee table and pulled out a box, the distinctive shade of blue making her eyes light up as she grabbed her cheeks.
“Tate! Oh, my God!” she whispered as I pulled one of her hands down and put the box in it.
Leaning forward, she pressed the sweetest kiss to my lips. She gasped again as she opened it and saw the three, diamond-adorned bangles in three shades of gold.
“This is too much! I can’t?—"
I put a finger against her lips, shaking my head as she fussed. On her, I’d spend a million times the 25Gs I dropped on this gift. Shorty’s worth was priceless.
“Thank you,” she whispered, holding the box to her chest.
I kissed her forehead.
“You welcome. You wanna start the movie back up?”
Everly bit down on her lower lip as she looked at me. Slowly, she shook her head. I frowned as she stood up and held out a hand to me. I took it but didn’t move, even as she pulled me.
“Where we going?” I asked.
Her grip loosened as she met my eyes, her gaze uncertain.
“To… to your room. Unless you don’t wanna go?”
It was a soft question, revealing how vulnerable she was. If I were a better man, I would’ve turned it down outright. She was so sweet, so innocent. I should’ve reassured her, insisted we restart the movie.
But I was a selfish muthafucka.
And she was just so fucking beautiful…
“Ev, you don’t have to… not because of that gift,” I said lamely, even as my dick swelled and I grasped her hand.
She smiled then. “It’s not the gift. I-I want to, Tate.”
And she really wanted to. I kissed and touched and licked and sucked her through her nervousness until we were here.
My hips between her lush thighs.
My dick against her untouched entrance.
My lips on her sweet mouth.
I pressed forward.
Even as her nails dug into my skin.
Even as her body arched beneath mine.
Even as I felt my throbbing dick tear past the last proof of her innocence.
Even as I greedily licked the tears that seeped from the sides of her closed lids.
“I’m sorry, baby,” I whispered as my hips started an involuntary rhythm, thrusting into the sweet, hot tightness of her over and over.
Her beautiful eyes opened, wet from the pain, sultry from the pleasure.
“It’s okay,” she murmured as her hips finally, hesitantly, met mine. “It’s okay.”