Chapter 46
CHAPTER FORTY-SIX
MIA
“ I literally cannot believe our freshman year is almost over,” Tara says from beside me as we sit, listening to the professor wrap up our late afternoon class.
“I know,” I reply. “I have zero idea where the past three months have gone.”
Tapping her pen against her notepad, as she always does, she keeps her eyes straight ahead. “Yeah, if I’d spent them mainly beneath an NHL superstar, I guess all my days would blur into one as well.” She side-eyes me, pursing her lips together. “They do say time flies when you’re having fun.”
A couple of rows in front of us, I watch as two girls look behind and at me for the hundredth time in the past hour. They turn back to each other and smirk, clearly saying something, which I’m guessing is about me and probably not a compliment.
“Want me to say something?” Tara asks, her eyes still trained on the professor, but I know she’s referring to what I’m looking at.
Since Jessie and I went public with our relationship, I’ve mainly been left alone by other students. But there’s always the few who like to make shit up. The latest rumor is that I’m knocked up and I tampered with my birth control to trap an NHL player.
At what point will women realize that spreading shit about other women only perpetuates negative stereotypes? I mean, so fucking what if I was pregnant? I’m not, but why try to shame me for something that, for one, has absolutely nothing to do with them anyway?
I lean back in my seat and close my notes as the professor gathers a stack of marked assignments, ready for us to collect as we leave class.
My stomach knots in anticipation. I could really do with a high grade on this paper since social psych is exactly the area I want to major in.
I shrug a shoulder. “Nah, it’s fine. Haters gonna hate. I don’t need to waste my energy on false rumors. Especially when they clearly aren’t my girls.”
She tilts her head slightly to the side, and I’m surprised when Tara’s face fills with emotion.
She swallows thickly. “Listen, I know I don’t often say serious things, but I want you to know that I’m so glad we met this year. I’ve got friends I made before I was out of diapers, but somehow, I feel closer to you. I guess how much time you’ve known someone doesn’t always count for much. It’s how they make you feel.”
I watch as Leo and Hugh collect their marked assignments from the front. Scanning the paper, Leo throws his head back and squeezes his eyes shut. I’d say that is not the look of a happy student.
Shame.
As Tara goes to get up, I take her by the hand and pull her back into the seat next to me. Keeping ahold of her hand, I wait for a couple of students to clear from behind us.
“A lot of really good people have either come back into my life this year, or I’ve met them for the first time. You are absolutely one of those people. You are loyal to a fault, and I’m so sorry I questioned you that day.”
She smiles and squeezes my hand tighter. “I always got you.”
We get up from behind our desks, and I draw in a deep breath as I stare down at the last two papers on the table.
When we take the stairs down to the front, Tara stops in her tracks. “If this grade is terrible, then there’s only a month left of the year and one more grading. There’s no way I can pin all my hopes to pass on that.”
I collect both the papers, Tara’s result sits on top, a huge black B scrawled across the front.
On a smile, I hand it to her, still not brave enough to look at my own.
When she registers what she scored, she lets out a high-pitched squeak and clutches it to her chest. “This is absolutely thanks to your late-night library sessions!”
Gritting my teeth, I fold my paper in half and go to put it in my bag, but at the last second, Tara snatches it from me.
“Don’t you dare! I want to share in your victory.”
“Ugh, it’s going to be bad, isn’t it?” My hands fly to cover my face as she slowly opens it up. “Actually, no, don’t tell me.”
“Hmm, you sure about that?” she asks.
“Yep. Absolutely positive.”
“Well, that’s a shame since you smashed the absolute shit out of it.”
When I pull my hands away from my eyes, the big A greets me with a note from the professor congratulating me on one of the most comprehensive accounts and understanding of environmental factors and how the behaviors of others could have an effect on the mind, both short- and long-term, especially at a young age.
Tears well in my eyes as I stare at the grade and note.
“You okay, babe?” Tara asks.
“Yeah,” I say, thoughts of Jessie, my mom, and the impact they’ve both had on my life rushing forward.
“Okay,” Tara says, handing me the paper. “Well, I say that’s enough tears for today. I’m not working tonight, so how about we head to the bar to celebrate?”
I nod and take one last glance at my paper before putting it in my bag. “Yeah, sounds perfect.”
“Okay, well, mocktails are better than I initially gave them credit for,” Tara says as we push through the door and out into the early April night. “When you told me you were driving and couldn’t drink, I was kind of disappointed, but to be honest, I’m now grateful,” she explains as we walk toward my car, parked at the back of the lot. “I might even take the opportunity to study some more when I get home—you know, since my head isn’t fuzzy.”
I’m about to ask her who she is and what she’s done with my friend when a pair of lights flash at the end of the lot.
“Is that at us?” Tara asks, peering into the dark.
The lights flash again, and I get a better look at the red car. But it isn’t mine—or I should say Jessie’s—although it’s parked next to it.
Looking around, we’re completely alone when the lights flash several more times.
“Yep, it’s definitely at us,” Tara confirms.
My phone buzzes in my bag, and I root around inside, pulling it out and opening a message from Jessie.
Jessie
Are you just going to stand there all night or come over here and kiss me?
Leaning over my shoulder, Tara rests her chin on it. “Does he have a brother?”
I know she didn’t mean anything by the statement, but I can’t help but feel the pang of sadness over Will and on behalf of my boyfriend.
“Only child, like me,” I reply, typing out a message.
Me
What are you doing here, and whose car is that?
Jessie
Get your ass over here, and you’ll find out.
Lifting her chin from my shoulder, Tara sets a kiss on my cheek. “I’d say you should walk that sweet ass over to him because I think he just bought you a car. I’ll catch you tomorrow in class.”
“Let us give you a ride,” I say.
Tara shakes her head and smiles at me. “No way. The campus bus is due in, like, one minute, and whatever Jessie has planned for you both, something tells me it’s meant to be alone.”
My eyes are wide as I take a couple of steps forward and turn over my shoulder to wave goodbye. “You think?”
She quirks a brow. “Living the dream, girlfriend.”
Jessie’s already out of the red BMW Coupe and leaning against the hood, his hands in the pockets of his post-practice sweatpants.
“Come here.”
Opening up his hoodie, he brings me into a hug, wrapping it around us. And when he pulls back the collar of my jacket and sets an open-mouthed kiss against my collarbone, a swarm of tingles unleashes throughout my body.
“Do you like your new car, Sweetheart?” he asks.
I take it in. “You really bought this for me?”
He holds out his hand and wraps his little finger around mine, leading me to the driver’s side. “I’ve been wanting to spoil you, and, well, now, I can buy you everything you deserve without anything hanging over my head.”
The engine is running, and the interior is nice and warm when I take a seat and run my hands along the leather steering wheel, the new car smell mingling deliciously with Jessie’s cologne.
He shuts the driver’s door and jogs around to the passenger side, climbing in next to me.
I turn to him. “This is really nice, Jessie. An amazing surprise.”
He leans across the center console and tips my chin up with his finger, our lips almost touching as his eyes sparkle with excitement. “I have so much to tell you, but first …”
I about double over with laughter as he squeezes his frame between the seats, asking me to join when he finally makes it into the back.
On a smirk, I get out the car and then climb into the back, using the provided rear door.
“Smart-ass,” Jessie jibes, pulling me inside and shutting the door behind us.
He maneuvers me so I’m straddling him in the middle seat, my head almost touching the roof.
“So, what else do you have to tell me?” I ask, twizzling a piece of his hair around my forefinger, our noses practically touching in the small space.
Lifting his hand from my waist, he pulls at the ponytail, and my hair falls around my shoulders.
Instantly, I feel the mood between us shift from joking around to something more serious. I can tell by the look on his face that it has something to do with his dad.
Smoothing a palm down the back of my head, Jessie keeps his eyes on me as they glisten in the soft street lighting that illuminates the sidewalk. “My dad got taken back into custody today.”
I pull back, my hands now planted on his shoulders. “He did?”
He nods. “A couple of days ago, I decided to make a statement to the police. I’d never felt like I could speak up, but I got to thinking about what you and Ashley have been saying to me. The support Jensen’s been giving me too. Plus, some of the therapy unearthed memories involving my dad that I couldn’t stay quiet over. I needed to find peace and closure, and speaking up felt like the right thing to do as part of my journey. Maybe even sending a message to others that it’s never too late to come forward and call out their abuser.”
“Jessie …”
He brings his lips to mine, halting me in my tracks.
“I know I should’ve probably told you about my intention to formally report it, but until the second I made the call, I wasn’t sure I could go through with it.”
I swallow hard, my emotions rising into my throat. “I’m so proud of you for doing that, for speaking up.”
He drops his forehead against mine. “Some of the memories that have come back to me involve domestic abuse against my mom. Others potentially explain how some of my scars I covered with tattoos got there. I think I finally worked out why I got the tattoos and why they’re birds.”
“Why?” I ask.
His lips shake with emotion. “I think it was all subconscious like the memories I had were trying to break free and be heard. But I covered them, knowing they needed to be acknowledged, but I was too scared to show my scars. Burying all of this only hurt me more, and as a kid, I didn’t know what to do. So, I just got inked.”
“I-I don’t know what to say,” I reply, relieved tears tumbling down my cheeks on his behalf.
He draws in a steadying breath and wipes at my cheek. “My mom stayed silent for years, probably out of fear of what he’d do. But he can’t get away with it, Mia. I know I’ll have to testify in court. I know it will be in the media. I’m so damn scared, but I have to do this—for me, for her, for us. I have to make sure he doesn’t walk free. The case won’t go to court for a while, but your dad wants to help support me through it financially; he’s going to pay for my lawyer, who thinks my dad will get the book thrown at him and be made an example of. Texas law allows charges to be pressed against him for crimes committed many years ago. Graham told me I should use all the money I earn to make a life for us both. So, I am.”
He tucks a lock of hair behind my ear as his blue eyes scan my face. “We got the house, Sweetheart.”
My hands fly up to cover my mouth. “Really?”
He reaches up and pulls them away. “Really. But don’t cover those pretty lips. I like it way more when I have access to kiss them.”
I shake my head. “I can’t believe it. It’s beautiful, but we’re going to rattle around in it—you know that, right? It’s huge for just the two of us!”
He smirks. “Technically, three, and we’ll probably need all the space we can get with his huge ass knocking around the place.”
Reaching into his pocket, he fetches out his phone and taps the screen a couple of times.
My eyes struggle to focus on what I’m seeing. A big mass of fur is the image in front of me.
“He’s still a puppy, but a rescue,” Jessie says. “We can go meet him tomorrow and collect him in a few weeks.”
My hands cover my mouth again as I stare at the beautiful Saint Bernard puppy. “You didn’t … you got me a dog?”
He nods and swipes to another picture. This one of him lying on his back and playing with a red toy.
“I don’t know what to say,” I reply, taking the phone from Jessie’s hand and staring down at the photo. “He’s beautiful.”
Jessie nods. “The only thing we need is a name. The shelter asked me to think it over before tomorrow so they can complete his paperwork. But I said it was your choice. So, give it some thought.”
I shake my head, already knowing. “I don’t need any time to decide.” I bring my hand to the side of his face and smile. “I want to call him Ginger.”
Looking down at the phone in my hand, Jessie’s eyes are glazed when they return to mine. “None of this would be happening if it wasn’t for the strength you gave me. Turning up at that library was the best fucking thing I’ve ever done, Mia. Shutting out all the noise, telling me I had to keep away from you, and listening to my heart—it hasn’t just changed my life. It’s given me the one person I needed to haul me off a path I didn’t want to be on.”
Setting down his phone beside us, he reaches across into the car door pocket and pulls out a black-and-white top.
When he unravels it and holds it out in front of him, more excitement fizzes inside me.
“Your jersey,” I whisper.
“Wear my name and our number while I eat you, Mia. I’m fucking starving.”
My pussy pulses as I shrug off my jacket, and he pulls the jersey over my head. It’s way too big as it hangs off me. But I’ve never felt this sexy while wearing anything before.
I never want to take it off.
His breath hitches in his throat as his eyes trail over me.
Reaching down between us, he slips his hand underneath the hem. “You look like total perfection in my jersey. Now, sit on my face and let me lick your pussy while you wear it.”
I look around at the tiny space, my pussy throbbing. “In here?”
A cheeky smile traces his lips. “Right here.”
Reaching down and to the side, Jessie adjusts the electric driver’s seat, sending it all the way forward, giving him just enough room to slide down beneath me as I rise to my knees and hover over him on the back seat.
When I feel his warm breath against my already-dripping pussy, I expect him to push my panties to one side. Instead, material tears as he rips them off me with both hands, throwing them onto the floor beside him.
“Lower,” he commands.
I spread my legs wider, and his face disappears beneath his jersey.
When I feel his tongue tease my clit, I whimper, already so close to coming.
On a growl, his hands come to my hips, pushing me down. “I said I was starving, and I meant it.”
“I’ll suffocate you,” I cry out as his tongue fucks my pussy.
Lifting me up for a brief second, he swipes his tongue through me as one of his hands traces the curve of my ass, dipping underneath the back of the jersey. When he gently slides a finger into my soaking wet asshole, I cry out into the silent parking lot, the windows of my car steaming up around us.
“If I die right here, with your cunt in my mouth, my fingers teasing your sweet ass, and my name stamped across your back, I’ll have zero complaints, Sweetheart.”
I lift the hem of the jersey so I can see what he’s doing, and he pulls out his finger and brings it to his lips, sucking off the taste of me.
“That’s so hot,” I tell him.
He offers me a cheeky smile and then spits onto his fingers. “I warned you I have a filthy mouth, and now I want to finger your ass properly. Can you be a good girl for me and hover that pussy over my mouth while I do it? Because I guarantee you’ll squirt.”
My head falls forward onto the headrest in front of me. “Yes.”
“Good girl. I’ll make a slut of you yet.”
Taking more of my release onto his finger, he reenters my ass and slowly pushes it all the way inside. His other hand grips my left hip, pushing me down onto his face.
“Jessie!” I cry as I lean forward into the headrest, granting him easier access to my ass as he pumps his finger, touching deep inside me.
Since his mouth is full of my pussy, he doesn’t say anything in response, but by the way he growls against me, I know I’m giving him everything he wants.
After a couple more strokes of my ass, my moans increase as I dangle over the edge of coming harder than I ever have before.
He must know I’m not far away by the way I’m contracting around his tongue, and he pulls me back up. “Grab the headrest, Mia, and spread those gorgeous thighs as far as they’ll go for me.”
Wrapping my arms around the two headrests, I slowly ease my thighs apart until I’m practically doing the splits over his face.
When he pumps me again, pressure builds inside me, and I know I’m about to release all the way down his throat.
“I’m coming!” I gasp. “Take me.”
At the final second, he lifts the jersey up with his free hand, letting me watch the way he swallows me down as I gush straight into his mouth. I’m gripping the headrests so hard that I’m sure my nails are damaging the leather, but I don’t care.
I’m so turned on.
His hand falls to my upper thigh as he slowly grinds me against his face, his other hand still gently fingering my ass.
“I’m so in love with you,” I whisper against the noise of him playing with my wet pussy. “You are everything, Jessie Callaghan. Fucking everything.”
His finger speeds up, wanting to wind me up again. I don’t know how much I have left to give, but there’s no way I’m moving from this position.
On the third pump of his finger, he strokes deep inside me, and I come again, but this time in silence since I want to listen to the way he moans around me.
Finally, when he’s convinced I’ve nothing left, he pulls his finger out of my ass, and I instantly feel the loss. I want his cock to take me in there someday; I know it.
As he lifts me up, he swipes his tongue through me and over my sensitive clit. “You did so fucking well, Mia. I love all the ways you let me corrupt you.”
When he slides back up to a sitting position, I straddle him and watch as he sucks me from his fingers again.
With no panties on, I know I’m leaking all over his gray sweats, and somehow, that turns me on more.
“I want to fuck,” I plead, grinding myself against him, already desperate for more.
He throws his head back into the rest and chuckles. “And I want to leave you like this—bare, in my jersey, and driving home in your new car, thinking about the way I’m going to rail you so fucking hard the second we walk through our door.”
“From behind?” I ask.
Placing his hand at the nape of my neck, he pulls me in for a long, passionate kiss. “Fast, slow, from behind, with you riding me, in every way possible, and all night long, tangled up in each other. Just you and me, Mia. Just you and me.”
With my emotions riding high, I take in a deep breath, feeling like now is the right time to ask the question I’ve held off for over four years.
“Always? Are we always, Jessie?”
When his eyes pool with tears and a single one trickles down his cheek, I know there’s nothing sad in his reaction.
“Yes, Mia. Always.”