Chapter 39
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Hatch
The flip from misery to joy was instantaneous. She was finally here in my arms, where she was meant to be.
I was in love with this woman, and I wanted everyone to know it.
But first, I would tell her. With my mouth, my hands, my body. I would tell her with every kiss, every touch, every moment between us.
Lifting her up, I headed to the bedroom, needing room to work. Quickly we stripped, each moment we weren’t touching a torture. My mouth found hers, moved to her neck, her shoulder, her throat. Repeat. Not an inch of her went untouched.
“I love your body,” she said. “I love how well it fits mine.”
Said just as I entered her, finding that perfect fit, loving how we just made sense. Our gazes locked and held as I moved inside her. She had never been shy with me, but there had been a reticence before, a reluctance to acknowledge the growing connection between us.
Not anymore. This was Summer in full bloom.
“You feel so good,” I murmured against her mouth. “You feel fucking perfect.”
She squeezed her muscles, testing my mettle. “Think you can hold on?”
“You’ll never let me forget it, will you?”
“Not a chance, Flash Man.”
“Better than Dino Boy. Or Boat Boy. Or St. Hatch of the Blue Balls.”
I kissed her laughing mouth. How strange to feel such happiness in her presence when for so long I’d felt nothing but misery. I kept the thrusts slow and deep because that was how she liked it. And I loved anything that kept my woman happy and our bodies and souls connected.
I grasped her hand, laced my fingers through hers, and whispered, “I love you.”
I didn’t need to hear it back. The freedom of being finally able to tell her, to say it aloud while we were joined as one, was about as much as my pea-sized brain could take right now.
Her body told me everything I wanted to hear. That slick slap of our flesh, the breathy moans as each stroke found new points of pleasure, that final sob as she came. The sounds of Summer, the woman I adored.
And when I finally found release, I roared her name loud enough for the gods to hear and be put on notice. She was mine, and I was hers.
A while later, we lay wrapped in each other as I traced patterns with my finger on her shoulder. A perfect peace surrounded us.
“By the way, your sister knows,” she said.
So long harmony.
“Apparently your seduction-by-cheese tipped her off. I can’t believe you were so careless.”
I squeezed her tighter and burrowed my nose in her neck. “I don’t care who knows.”
“You’re not going to be a social pariah if people find out. That’ll be me. Dash is going to think something was going on all along.”
If people find out? More like when.
“I’ll handle Carter. You won’t have to even speak to him. And if he says another word against you, he’ll regret it.”
She didn’t respond to that. So she was worried, but if this was going to work, we had to push through walls.
No way was I letting her go now that we had finally figured this out.
I had stumbled before when I should have steamrolled over the situation and taken my shot. Now no obstacle would stand in my way.
A phone buzzed.
“That’s mine.” Summer reached over to grab it. “It’s a text from Ryder. He wants to talk to me.”
Watching her face light up at the prospect gave me such a thrill.
“Better call him back then.”
“Okay.”
She pushed back the sheet and gave me a glorious view of her curves as she bent over, looking for her underwear.
“Cheese has treated you well,” I said as I smoothed my hand over that peach of an ass.
She smiled over her shoulder. “Not just cheese.”
With Summer on the phone in the other room—she had dressed before returning Ryder’s call because she thought it would be odd to speak to her former boss naked—I took a moment to assess the current state of play.
Orgasms delivered and received. Check.
Feelings discussed and hearts flayed open. Check.
Sneaky plan in motion. Check.
I lay back, more than a little self-satisfied because finally everything was going my way.
Summer knew how I felt about her.
My dad and I had talked it out—damn, I wish I’d done that sooner.
And my mental block when it came to skating with Carter would soon be a thing of the past now that I knew the root cause. Summer and her amazing analysis had opened a whole new world to me.
This next year was going to be fucking awesome.
She appeared at the door, looking far more somber than the situation warranted.
“Everything okay?”
“You asked Ryder to offer me a job?”
I had asked him to keep my part in this under the radar. But Summer was no fool. She would wonder what had changed to flip Ryder’s thinking.
“It’s an internship with the Rebels. What you wanted. You get to do this thing that’s your dream.”
You get to stay with me.
“I don’t want your help. I don’t need your help.”
“We all need help, Summer.”
She threw up a hand. “And I’ve accepted about as much as I can. I’m accepting help from people every day.”
“How is that a problem?”
“Because there comes a time when I need to stand on my own two feet. Make my own way. I can’t be relying on you like I did with Dash.”
“I’m not him.”
She looked exasperated. “I know that! But you’re a professional athlete with a big career that will always come first.”
I shook my head. “Who says? If you prove yourself with Ryder and the Rebels brass, you can get a job anywhere.”
“Oh, is that what you’re going to do? Make every franchise hire me when you’re traded?”
“If I have to!”
She stared at me. “Hatch—”
“I can’t always be the good guy. Sometimes, I have to take what I want.” I threw back the covers and stood upright. Let her see what I was offering. The whole fucking package. “And I want you.”
She held my gaze, and I would have kissed her—I needed to kiss her—but she had to make the move here. She was the one with doubts.
For the first time in my life, I had none.
She remained still. “This ‘can’t always be the good guy’ thing? Are you saying that because you came on board the Rebels for your dad?”
“Right. I didn’t want to disappoint him, so I made that move for him. Now I’d like to make a move for me. I waited a long time for you, Summer. Are you telling me you’re going to invent some other reason for us not to be together?”
She took a step back, in the completely wrong direction. A weird look came over her face.
“Maybe you should have made a move five years ago before Dash and I were truly a thing. Maybe everything happened this way for a reason. As a warning to me not to get involved with an athlete. I’m no man’s trophy.
I’m not some prize to be won because you think you deserve it after you’ve suffered for so long.
Suffering you brought on yourself, I might add, because you decided it was better to be a jerk to me instead of getting to know me. ”
This was going all wrong. I had obviously hit a nerve.
“That’s not what I meant.” I cupped her jaw and drew her close. “I’ve never thought I deserved you. But I do think you’re a prize, and I’m prepared to work like hell to win you. Is that so bad?”
Her eyelids fluttered. “No, it’s not.”
“Tell me you don’t care for me, Summer.”
“I can’t do that. You know I can’t. But ...” She trailed off.
Fuck, that hurt. She cared, but not enough to make this work. “I see.”
“I’m not sure you do. Of course I care about you, but I’ve already said I can’t jump into something so soon. Now you’re finding me a job and deciding how my life should be arranged. I just jilted my fiancé less than six weeks ago! This is happening way too fast.”
Not fast enough for me. Summer was right about one thing, though: I should have fought for her back when I had the chance. Now the window was closing, and my fingers were about to get slammed.
“So we keep it under the radar for a while. We’ve done a good job so far.”
“Oh sure! Conor knows, as do Addy, Rosie, and Franky. Jason, too, no doubt. Probably your parents, Aurora, and even Tilly! We’ve done such a great job. Are you seriously telling me I should be announcing a new relationship to the world and look, he got me a job, too?”
“These are just details. Try to look at the bigger picture.”
She snatched a quick breath. “I am. I turned down the internship.”
“What?”
“I had to, Hatch. The only reason Ryder gave that to me was because you asked him. And of course, the Kershaws always get what they want.”
“Not always,” I said morosely.
“I couldn’t take something I didn’t earn, but I did ask him about the internship program with the affiliate. It’s less competitive, and he said I could apply for a spot there. He’s confident that with the work I did for Scott and his recommendation, I should be able to get it.”
My heart leaped. This was more like it. “The Rockford Royals? That’s great. A long commute, but we can make that work.”
She pulled away. “The internship is two months, and I need to live close by the offices. I have enough savings if I live on ramen.”
I understood that she needed to do this, but it didn’t mean we were over. Did it?
“I could come visit. Or you could come here.”
She placed a hand on my chest. “No, Hatch. We need to call a halt to this madness.”
Not now. Not when we were so close to the finish line.
“Summer runs again, huh?”
She jerked back, like I’d slapped her. Well, Sunshine, the truth often felt like a blow.
“This time, I’m running toward something.
There’s a difference. After Dash, I said I would put myself first. I meant my career—and now I have a chance to work in the field I love.
To learn on the job.” She sniffed. “You were never supposed to be part of that equation. Falling for you was not part of the plan.”
Plans changed. People fell in love. Surely she was flexible enough to go with the flow.
She reached up, cupped my jaw, and kissed me, soft and perfect. I tried to hold onto that sweetness, but she pulled back before I could drag her in deep.
“Let’s part as friends, Hatch.”
Friends? My heart was fucking breaking here. I had opened a vein and she was supposed to be the suture.
“After all we’ve been through, ‘friends’ is the last thing I thought we’d be.”
She peered up at me. “Is it so bad?”
“No, Sunshine,” I lied. “It’s not so bad.”