Chapter 45 Violet
FORTY-FIVE
VIOLET
NOVEMBER | COLUMBUS, OHIO
Colton’s door swung open and revealed perhaps the second most haggard version of him I’d ever seen: sweatpants with a hole in them, a shadow of a black eye, a baggy t-shirt.
I didn’t expect him to be in a ballgown, so I came similarly dressed, albeit with no holes in my clothes.
I lifted the bag and drink carrier in my hands.
“I come bearing gifts.”
A reluctant smile hit Colt’s lips. “You’re the best.”
I toed out of my shoes by the door, and when I set the goods on the counter, Colton launched himself at me. He folded me into his arms, head hanging so he could kiss the top of mine.
He didn’t say anything. I held him back by his shoulders and filled the silence. “Thank you. For standing up for me. I didn’t need you to, and I would have been fine moving on, but . . . it felt nice. Seeing you go to bat for me like that.”
Colton’s steely gaze passed over my chest, the hollow of my throat, following up to my face. “I’d do it again if it would undo everything.”
I snorted. “I wish that’s how it worked. If so, whatever hex Kitty’s put on him would already have him six feet under.”
Colt chuckled. “I’m glad you have her. She’s scary, but she loves you.”
“We’re scary together.” I rubbed his arm. “But how are you?”
He sighed. “A little bit of everything.”
I winced. “Are you going to lose the captaincy?”
“Maybe.” Colt lifted a shoulder. “Player safety will review the play, I’m sure. Might get suspended. Might lose my role. But honestly, I don’t really care.”
I shook my head. “You didn’t have to do that for me. To risk your career for me. You do care. Those guys are your family.”
“I don’t think you get it,” he said. “None of that shit matters. At all.”
Tears sprang to my eyes, my breath halted in my chest, and my heart picked up. My voice was barely a whisper. “What?”
Colton’s hands rested on my hips. “That’s all just stuff. Status. Money.” His teeth sank into his bottom lip before his gaze rose to mine. “They’re my family, but so are you. And none of that matters more than your peace.”
A single tear streaked down my cheek and I lifted my hand to touch around his increasingly black eye. “Maybe you don’t understand, then,” I said.
Colton was getting agitated, breathing faster, eyes flicking rapidly between mine.
I placed my hand on his heart. “My peace is with you. You are my safe place. You’re the one I trust with everything.
And I want to be all those things for you.
You don’t have to fight for me. I’m already yours. Every part of me.”
Colt’s bottom lip trembled and he sniffled.
The icy blue eyes that I cherished watered, but all I could do was smile. “You’re everything to me, Colton.”
Colt’s hand cupped my neck for the second before his mouth sealed to mine.
I moaned against his soft lips, his rough stubble, the tears on both of our cheeks.
His tongue brushed the seam of my lips and it made my stomach dip just like it did when he first kissed me in his college house.
When he kissed me after Kitty’s wedding.
When he kissed me in the supply closet at work.
Kissing Colton was as thrilling as the first drop on a roller coaster, as comforting as a favorite blanket fresh out of the dryer, as much a part of me as my own skin, my fingerprints.
This was it. I’d run from it twice, and now I’d had the joy of coming back to it twice.
Colton Jones was the love of my life.
I pulled away just enough to get out his name. He must have thought I was chiding him for kissing me too hard, because he switched to slow, drugging kisses. I let myself get lost there: his hands on my waist, up my spine, his body firm, angling me backward slightly and tucking me against him.
I broke our kiss again and put my hands on his pecs. “I love you, Colton.”
A tiny gasp escaped his lips. “Love? Not loved?” He emphasized the D on the end of love. A new glossy sheen covered his eyes.
“Love. Today. Now. Present tense. Future tense.”
His mouth opened and closed. He swallowed. His chest heaved with one breath, two. My eyes passed over his face, trying to figure out what I was seeing. Was he shutting down?
“Say someth—”
“I never stopped loving you, Violet. Never. Not even for a fucking minute. Not even when I was so frustrated with you that it broke me. Not even when I wasn’t sure I’d ever see you again.
There is no plane of existence, no parallel universe where I don’t love you.
It is, always has been, and always will be you for me. ”
I smiled, cupping his cheeks and letting him continue to hold me close. “When you said you loved me at the wedding?”
He laughed and rolled his eyes. “Biggest fucking liar. I was still in love with you then.”
I tipped my head from side to side. “Kinda figured.”
Colton pinched his lips together and narrowed his eyes at me. “I love you even though you’re a brat.”
“You love me because I’m a brat.” I rubbed our noses together.
“Yeah, probably,” he sighed. “But you love me because I’m a pushover and give you everything you want. Classic brat behavior.”
I guffawed. “Okay, well, whose fault is that? You’ve trained me to expect a certain lifestyle.”
“A certain lifestyle? I’ll show you what fucking lifestyle to expect.”
I giggled into a kiss and let him scoop me off the ground.
My legs wrapped around his torso as he walked us into his bedroom.
I trapped him with my thighs as he laid me back on his bed, working kisses along my collarbones and down my breastbone.
Colt was starting to go lower, but I wasn’t ready for that yet.
My hands locked under his arms to pull him back up to my face.
“I want to taste the woman I love,” he said.
I chuckled and tapped the tip of his nose. “That’s very romantic, but I need you to kiss me more.”
He laughed, a dry, raspy sound, then planted a quick kiss on me. “I think kisses are probably more romantic than eating pussy.”
“Well, that’s debatable. But what’s more important is that you love kissing.”
Colton nuzzled my neck, and his words puffed against my ear. “I love kissing you and I love kissing your pussy. Maybe both are romantic.”
“Probably one more than the other.”
He grinned and stayed suspended above me on his elbows, eyes softening after he shrugged. “But you love me.”
“Yes. I love you. And you love me.”
Colt’s lips quirked up and he took a moment to examine me. “So much, Violet. I love you so damn much.”
I gripped the back of his neck and pulled him down to my mouth, then latched my ankles behind his lower back.
He hummed into my mouth, and we stayed that way for a while, groping, making out, biting, teasing, gasping for air.
I savored it all, his delicious weight bearing into me, all the places he was firm, and all the ways his touch was soft.
Things got more aggressive and breathless as we wrestled and tried to pin each other down. He finally got me down, one wrist in each hand.
“Do you have enough data, doc?” he rasped, grinding his cock along my center. “Can I move on to the next stage of the experiment?”
I cackled and wiggled under him. “Let me go and get naked, you goober.”
He hooked his fingers into the waistband of my sweatpants. “You first.”
He sat back on his heels to pull my pants down and over my feet and threw them off the bed.
Then he peeled his shirt off by the back collar in one swift move, looking like a god with all his rippling muscles, drowsy eyes with his hair falling just above them, his erection poking up from his sweats.
He smirked. “Take a picture. It’ll last longer. ”
I shaped my fingers into a frame and held them at different angles until he pounced on me.
He pulled me flush to him, wrapped his arms around my waist, and rolled to his back, putting me on top of him.
He shucked my shirt off and started wrestling with my sports bra. “I need to see my favorite titties.”
I couldn’t stop smiling as I sat up in his lap and lifted the bra over my head. His hands coasted up and down my naked torso, eyes tracking the movement. “You are so perfect.”
“So are you.”
“Now that we got that out of the way,” he said, tugging on the backs of my thighs, “come sit on my face so we can decide if it’s romantic or not.”
“You’re sure?” I asked.
He swatted my ass. “Please. Come on. Gimme.”
I crawled up to settle my knees on either side of his head and notched my hands into the headboard. Colton glanced up. “You’re giving it the first test drive. You’ll have to rate the usage experience.”
“Giving what the first test drive?”
“My bed frame. I got new sheets and a new mattress too. But you’re the first to hold the headboard.”
My brow wrinkled. “Wait, why?”
Colt shrugged. “You’re allergic to scented detergent. I didn’t want to risk you having a reaction, so I got new sheets and a new bed.”
My jaw fell open. “You’re serious?”
“Yeah? Why wouldn’t I be?” We exchanged a long look, his face framed by my thighs. His eyes darkened and he squeezed my ass. “You can thank me by letting me eat you out.”
Well, he asked for it.
I lowered my hips onto his face and the pleasure seared through me: tender lips, skilled tongue, harsh stubble, rocking hips, and squeezing hands. I gripped the headboard and held on for dear life, the sensations taking over. “Colt, it’s so good.”
I sat forward, resting my hands on my thighs and throwing my ass back with abandon, not even caring how lewd I looked.
I was with Colton: the man who supported me through anything and everything.
I had no doubt that he liked doing this to me, his hand reaching to my neck and dragging between my breasts.
His other hand cupped my ass, accentuating my movements as they got more stilted.
He moaned against me again and I sank into the experience: riding his face, squeezing my breasts, and relishing in his tight grip on my ass.