Chapter 49
Bear
We're in the club, the night before Pen flies back home.
The knowledge is lodged somewhere between my ribcage and my lungs, hurting every time I breathe.
It's why I bring her closer, even though we're already sitting next to each other.
With an arm around her shoulders, I pull her until she's leaning against me.
She follows my lead with a smile on her face. Her hand lands on my thigh, for once.
We may be cuddling at the club, but her eyes are on Dom. The whole crew is here— except for Rafa as usual— and everyone is paired up except for the tight end with short hair and tattoos to rival mine.
"I met Mariana," Pen tells him. "She's beautiful."
Dom shakes his head like he doesn't have patience for our antics. The whole group surrounds him on a mix of sofa and armchair placements, with Pen and I at the end of the circle near the railings.
"Mariana seems really cool." Evie presses her lips together not to smile. "I only met her in passing, but she said she's moving to Seattle in a couple of weeks."
"You lot can't and should not interfere." Dom casts his eyes at the dark club ceiling. "I'm serious."
"We can," I say.
"As for should…" Saint starts.
"Being serious never stopped any of you before," I add. "Everyone here but you has gotten an intervention. Saint's was right before the championship. Mine was just a little while ago. You're up next, don't you think? You have a few months."
Pen turns to me, a curious look on her face. "You got an intervention?"
I glance at her. Her eyebrow arches my way. She blinks at me innocently.
I lick my lips, considering my answer, wondering if I can give her a quick kiss in front of our friends. They know a lot, but Pen and I haven't been quite that free around them.
I nod. "I have."
And it's the reason I'm considering the kiss, and not kissing her, at the same time.
"What about?" she asks.
I gaze around my friends. Some of them stare at us with curiosity, and others with a challenge.
I ignore them and smile at her. "I'll tell you next time we have a chance to really talk."
I chew the inside of my cheek. That won't happen for another week, most likely. Too far, too soon.
"How's the bucket list going, by the way?" Ames asks. "For no reason at all."
She's one of those who stared at us with a challenge.
Pen studies everyone with suspicious eyes. "We only have one official item left. I want to be swarmed by puppies."
"Oh, that's so sweet!" Nat exclaims. "Are you going to adopt one?"
I gaze at her like it's totally up to what she wants. It is.
"Go ahead," I say. "I'm taking notes, since I'm planning it."
"Let's postpone the puppy swarm." She bites her bottom lip. "It's definitely not the right time. I'd like to see my dad fully recovered first…"
"He'll be okay." I rub her arm. "There's no rush."
"After twenty years of friendship," Damián says, "I'd say you've waited long enough. No need to postpone things too much."
"Maybe." I give him a hard stare, so he knows I understand his subliminal message. "But in my mind, that means we can wait a little longer. It won't change much in the grand scheme of things."
"Anyway." Pen takes a deep breath. "I don't want to meet all those pups and fall in love with one if I can't take it home. What happens then? I'm not the kind to fall out of love very easily, and dogs have a way to get into my heart…"
I gaze at her. "If you fall in love with a pup, then we get the pup."
I wish she loved bears more, not going to lie.
She smiles my way. "If you're going to promise me that, then we definitely have to wait until my dad is better."
"Deal." I kiss her face.
"Is that it?" Saint asks. "Is that all you have left of the bucket list?"
"Of the official one, yes," Pen says.
"Is there an unofficial one?" Dom asks with a mischievous grin.
I didn't tell my friends anything about helping Pen with her sexy list, but they don't need to be told to jump to all sorts of conclusions. Even a broken clock and all that.
"She keeps coming up with random things." I lift an eyebrow, explaining anyway. "So we keep adding to the list."
"At this rate you'll end up being married for… how long?" Dom asks.
"Undecided," I say.
Pen needs extra support for the next little while. I can linger in the crossroads until we're at the other side. They say patience is a virtue. I'll wait and hope her heart ends up considering me for more. I'm happy if it results in making this marriage last way longer than originally planned.
"Mhh. How interesting," Logan says.
Evie hits his arm. Logan raises an eyebrow at her.
"And how's your dad doing?" Evie asks Pen.
"Getting anxious, which is to be expected." Pen seeks my hand. "My mom is doing her best to help, but I'm joining forces with her tomorrow."
"He'll feel better when you're around," I say.
Evie smiles. "And we'll all feel better when he wakes up after surgery."
"It's going to be okay." I kiss her temple. "I'll keep the crew in the loop."
"Is there anything we can do to make your night better?" Nat asks.
"I'd appreciate a distraction," Pen replies.
Ames grins. "We could go back to teasing Dom about Mariana."
We laugh. Pen relaxes next to me, and soon my caress turns to gentle fingertips on her shoulder. It lets me get lost in my mind, half-listening to the banter around me.
My wife wants to be distracted again, and a loose plan starts to take shape in my head.
It's been at least an hour since I brought Pen to cuddle next to me. It's nearing ten at night, the time when she and I agreed we'd leave. I have to get the show started, if I'm hoping to treat her to a little surprise.
I lean to her and speak into her ear. "Ready to go home?"
She nods, but I don't move away.
"Good," I say. "We still have time for a… pit stop, before we leave."
I make sure my breath caresses her skin. My hand is on her back now, and I can feel the shiver that runs down her spine.
To anyone looking, it might seem like an intimate moment, like the million such moments Pen and I have shared before.
To anyone who doesn't know we said we'd marry platonically, it might look like a simple quiet interaction between husband and wife.
But I bite her earlobe so she knows exactly what I'm up to.
I nibble on the fleshy bit. "There's one item we can cross off your list before you go back home tomorrow."
She takes a sharp breath in. "Are you serious?"
"You said you wanted a distraction."
She pulls back to stare at me, eyebrows high on her forehead. "I did not expect that."
"Wouldn't you say it's a nice distraction from… everything?"
She gives me a slow nod. In the violet lights of the club, gooseflesh appears on her skin.
"I'd start with a kiss if I could," I say. "Right here. To get you in the right mood."
"And you can't?"
"Our friends would get confirmation that we're not strictly platonic anymore. Dom might get a reprieve."
"Mh, yeah. We can't have that."
And yet, neither of us seems to care. Pen doesn't turn to check if they're looking, and neither do I. The beat of the music still reaches us from below, but it goes ignored. She and I are in our own little world, nevermind the couple hundred people around us.
"But I really want to kiss you." I press my lips to her cheek. "I need your lips." A little closer to her mouth. "In public." Right at the corner of her mouth. "Before I do things to you in a secluded corner of the club. The kind we don't want witnesses for."
She shakes her head. Her hand has barely moved on my thigh all night, but she changes her mind. Her fingers go up my leg— not too much, but enough.
"That kind of kiss sounds evil," she whispers, "if you don't plan to explain it to our friends, before we disappear in search of a dark corner."
"I won't explain a thing tonight. Let them stew in their questions. All I want is a kiss, and the thrill of crossing another one of your sexual fantasies off your list."
"You want to kiss me so badly that you'd be willing to risk more interventions?"
"I don't care about that much at the moment." I caress her temple, bringing her hair back behind an ear. "But if it helps, we'll tell anyone who wants to know that kissing in public was part of the performance."
I hate the idea, but if she doesn't feel anything for me like that, then it will be a performance for her. A fun little interlude in the story of our friendship. For me, it's the way I'm trying to get to her heart.
"What do you say?" I ask. "Can I kiss you?"
"How cute of us." She licks her lips. "You're asking permission for a kiss, when we've done so much more. Basically non-stop. Including now, when kissing is foreplay for something else. Or is this the whole of the distraction? A tease? A promise, perhaps?"
"It's only the start." I kiss her cheek, then closer to her lips again. "I'm starving that badly right now."
"If your goal was to get me hot and bothered, then congratulations. You won."
"Yeah?"
I gaze into her eyes. She searches mine. Her lips part.
"Yeah," she breathes. "I like the thought that you can't hold back. That you're starving for me."
"Is that right?"
She licks her lips. "Why would I lie?"
I lick my bottom lip.
She stares at me with wide eyes and parted mouth. "I told you I want to be had. Do you feel like making a claim in front of our friends, too?"
I lock eyes with her. She challenges me. So I…
Fuck it. I crush my lips into hers, witnesses be damned. She lets me. She matches me. The kiss is insistent, severe, if measured— no tongues, but plenty of passion. It's a question. An answer. A declaration.
Warmth spreads through me. My blood rushes south.
She fists my shirt. I'm kissing her in front of everyone, and it's my own version of a confession.
With this kiss, I'm admitting that nothing matters more than Pen and I, finding our way through everything she wants.
Through all the things still unsaid between us.
A long yeeessss echoes in my head. Power runs through my veins.
This feeling is familiar— it's what I felt when the Strike won the championship a few months before.
It's hard to believe I didn't recognize it then.
I could have kissed her just like this. Except she might have not responded like she does today, with hunger of her own, had we not gone through the past few months.
It hurts to stop, but I do. The statement is made. Anything more, and I'll go beyond PDA in front of my friends. And something in me knows I can't push her too far, too fast. Her heart needs to catch up first.
I get up and send a quick prayer to the compression underwear gods. Pen blinks up at me, confused by my sudden movement. I clear my throat and offer her a hand, inviting her to stand next to me.
Everyone gapes at us.
"We're leaving," I say. "Her trip and, you know."
Silence for a second. I count up to three, and I'm about to run away with Pen rather than wait for a response, when we get the first reactions.
"Finally!" Dom says.
"Is this really happening?!" Saint adds.
"Good night, everyone." Pen waves and is the first to walk away.
"So this is how it happens." Logan frowns at Evie. "Who the hell won the bet?"
I let Pen pull from me, but I face our friends for a second longer. "See you guys on Friday at TD."
Pen takes me by the hand and pulls me towards the stairs.
"You're not fooling anyone," someone shouts from behind us.
But we're already halfway down to the first floor, and unable to make out who was the one to speak. It's fine. I don't care, and Pen doesn't seem to either. We have much better plans at hand.