Chapter 21 #2
She shook her head and took a step back, so Levi let his hands fall.
“When you first shrugged off Principal Crawford cutting the program, I had you pegged. You were here because you had to be, and once you went back to the life you actually cared about, you wouldn’t think twice about this program or these kids. ”
Levi held a fist to his chest like she’d just stabbed him. “Ouch.”
Haddie winced. “It was way safer to think that the guy I met in that hotel bar was some fantasy I’d built up in my head.
” She toed the soccer ball toward her, then rolled it up her shin, and bounced it off her knee.
Then she held it against her torso like a shield before blowing out a breath.
“But you did the car wash. And you’re out here now learning for your students, and… ”
And what, Haddie? He wouldn’t interrupt her, but Jesus, the ache in his chest was going to swallow him from the inside out.
So he held her gaze even when she looked away, and when her eyes met his again, he gave her a soft, encouraging nod.
She let out a nervous laugh. “You’re kind of great.”
The corner of his mouth tugged into a lopsided grin. “Last I checked, being kind of great was a good thing. Have the rules changed?”
She tossed the ball at him, which he caught.
“Great doesn’t last, Levi. I have a lifetime of experience to back that up.
If you’re just some guy I live with—along with a few extra benefits—and you leave at the end of the school year, then I’m no worse for wear.
But if I care about you and then you go?
” Without the ball in her hands, she wrapped her arms around her torso.
Levi could barely keep it together. It should be his arms holding her tight.
It should be him comforting her and telling her that location and distance didn’t have to mean loss.
But the king of would-haves and should-haves wasn’t going to make a promise he knew he couldn’t keep.
He’d already disappointed the people who mattered most to him, and it would kill him to add Haddie to that list.
He wanted to tell her so many things, but the universe had other plans.
With an unexpected crash and dark-gray clouds obliterating the late-afternoon sun, the sky opened up and drowned out his words.
Together they scrambled to grab the cones and shove the soccer ball back into the mesh bag.
They ran through fast-growing puddles to toss the equipment back into the shed.
After Levi snapped the padlock closed, he pulled Haddie into the narrow space between the shed and concession stand, where the shallow awnings of both roofs provided temporary shelter from the storm.
They were soaked. Rivulets of water streamed down Haddie’s face and over her lips as she stared at him with what looked like a thousand questions pinballing through her brain, the same questions—he guessed—that made his own logic short-circuit every time she was near.
Couldn’t and shouldn’t felt a million miles away when she looked at him like that.
Levi wanted more than friends with benefits, but above all else, Levi wanted her. So he would take what she was willing to give and figure out later…later.
“We can run!” he called over the deluge, knowing that, however treacherous, trying to make it home was the logical thing to do.
Haddie shook her head. “I don’t want to run anymore!” she replied. “I’m so tired of running.”
Before he had time to piece together whether or not she meant the physical act of running or something else, her fists clenched his wet shirt, and she tugged him down to her as they crashed together in their own storm of hunger and need.
Their kiss in the fitting room had been wild and unbridled, but this felt like something feral. Like if they didn’t devour each other, they’d both disappear.
She pushed his back against the shed so she now stood under the steady waterfall of rain that made its way in between the two roofs.
She licked her lips as the water streamed down her face, and Levi groaned.
Then she braced her palms against the shed on either side of his shoulders, her body slamming against his.
She rocked her pelvis against his unmistakable erection, and a growl tore from his lips.
Levi slid her soaked shirt up above her bra and cupped her breast, his thumb and finger pinching the taut peak of her nipple. Even amid the storm he could hear her moan, and the sound of her pleasure—of him being the cause of that pleasure—set his blood on fire.
“Haddie,” he ground out, his own voice unrecognizable to his ears. “Is this… Is it friends with benefits…or more?”
“I don’t know,” she answered, her lips still against his. “I just can’t not do this anymore.”
He swore. “Me neither.”
They kissed and nipped and tasted, moans and whimpers escaping their lips as Haddie’s fingers teased the waistband of his shorts, and he remembered his words in the fitting room.
This isn’t how I imagined our first time.
And neither was this.
“We need to get back to the apartment,” he said, not believing the words that were coming out of his mouth when he knew instant gratification was only a matter of her hand sliding just a tiny bit lower.
Haddie opened her mouth to protest, but his hand was already around her waist. “Come on!” he called, and then they dove headlong into the storm.