Chapter 29 Nora #2
“How much time do you have?” I ask. There’s only one thing that I really want to do right now.
“Declan is sending his plane for me,” Alex says, giving me a sheepish smile. That quickly fades. “I just have a few hours. Enough time to pack up some things—Astrid is going to send everything that I don’t need right away—and say goodbye to some people. I want to tell the team myself if I can.”
I nod. I like that he wants to see everyone in person and explain. But I need him for about an hour.
“I think you should do that,” I say. “But can we go to my house for a little bit?”
His eyes search my face. I don’t want him to wonder what I’m talking about, so I shift, sliding into his lap and straddling his thighs. I take his face in my hands and kiss him.
He groans, his hands going to my hips, fingers digging in as if he’s trying to hold onto me.
I kiss him deeply, then lift my head. “I need you. One more time.”
He swallows hard and nods. “I’m yours.”
I almost sob at that. Oh, how I wish that were true.
“Let’s go,” I say, sliding off his lap and standing.
He looks around. “Is the club over?”
It’s not, but I’m going to do something that I have never ever done before.
I’m going to leave one of my clubs early.
Neither of us wants to rush. I might have expected him to throw the door open, carry me through it, and press me up against the wall. Or bend me over the couch. Or even spread me out on the table, not even bothering to go to the bedroom.
All of those images make my body heat and my pulse thump. But Alex doesn’t do any of that. He doesn’t seem in a hurry at all.
I push the door open, and we both step inside, taking off our shoes, then he links our fingers together and leads me up the staircase toward the bedroom.
Next to the bed, we stop and he cups my face, dragging his thumb over my lower lip.
“I feel like I’ve been here so much longer than I have. So much has happened.”
I know exactly what he means. “It also feels like you just got here yesterday.”
He nods. “Maybe it will never feel like it’s long enough.”
Okay, I can not let him say things like that.
It’s already breaking my heart that he’s leaving.
And not in the same way as the other guys who’ve left.
This was always the plan for one thing. But I can also sense his hesitation.
I think part of it is that he feels that he’s disappointing me.
I also think he might have some reasons he’d like to stay.
That makes this harder than saying goodbye to the others. They wanted to go.
I know once Alex is in Portland, he’ll be happy. That’s his turf. Coaching for the Grays will be second nature. He’ll be able to walk into coffee shops all over the city and be welcomed. There will definitely not be straw polls declaring that Brussels sprouts are better than Alex Olsen.
Still, I like that he’s not racing out of town.
“I was going to wear one of your Revelers jerseys, but I can’t buy a Grays jersey with your number on it now,” I say. “What do people do when they have a crush on one of the coaches?”
He makes a little growling noise back in his throat. “I’m going to send you one of my old jerseys. As long as it has my last name on it, you can definitely wear it.”
Dammit, I can’t let him talk about that stuff either. That sounds intimate, possessive. Almost girlfriend-like.
That will be over when he gets to Portland, too.
I don’t know that there’s anything safe to talk about.
We can’t talk about him leaving, or I might end up crying.
If we talk about his time here in Rebel, it will make saying goodbye harder.
If we talk about anything sweet or funny, I might do something stupid and tell him that I’m falling in love with him.
So instead, I kiss him.
He happily, greedily, dives into a kiss with me.
His hand slides up into my hair, cupping the back of my head, his fingers tightening in the strands so that he can angle my head the way he wants it as his tongue strokes in along mine.
I wrap my arms around his neck and arch my body into his, needing to be closer.
He tears his mouth away and looks down at me. “Why are we standing up with clothes on when we could be lying down naked?”
“That is a very good question,” I say as I start tugging at the T-shirt he’s wearing.
He strips my Parks and Rec polo over my head, unhooking my bra and tossing it to the side before stopping to help yank his shirt over his head.
Our hands bump as we each reach for the other's pants.
I laugh and take a step back. “You do yours, I’ll do mine.”
“Hurry up,” he tells me, his eyes hot as I unbutton, unzip, and push everything down my legs.
He does the same, and a moment later, we tumble onto the mattress together.
“I need to taste you,” he tells me, braced on his forearms above me. Our noses are nearly touching. “I need to kiss every inch of you, then I want to fuck you deep and slow with you spread wide open for me, taking everything I can give you. That’s how I want to think about you when I’m not here.”
I swallow. “You can have whatever you want,” I tell him honestly.
He starts at my lips, kissing me deeply again, slowly, almost leisurely. Then he kisses his way down my neck over both collarbones, down between my breasts, before he pauses on each, taking several minutes to tease each nipple.
My hands are tangled in his hair, and I’m breathing hard. “I thought you wanted time to say goodbye to everybody else.”
“Everybody else who?” he asks against my left breast.
“The team, the other players.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” he says.” The only thing that exists for me right now is you and this sweet body that I am forever addicted to. “
“I just don’t want you to regret—”
He lifts his head. “Wildflower.”
“Yeah?” My nipples are tingling, and my pussy is aching.
“This is where I want to be. Where I need to be. Everyone, everything, else can wait.”
God, I should not let him talk. It’s killing me slowly. I bob my head up and down. “Okay. I just don’t—"
He growls again. “Clearly, I need to work a little harder on getting you out of your head. I don’t want you to be thinking about anyone or anything else but me and my magical mouth.”
I grin. “I promise you’re doing a great job.”
“Well, there’s a difference between great and mind-blowing.”
His hot mouth travels down the center of my torso, and he settles between my thighs, and I don’t think about a single other thing for the next forty-five minutes.
After, we lie together, completely spent, for nearly twenty minutes without saying anything.
My head is tucked under his chin, he has one hand on my ass, the other is stroking up and down my back.
I have one leg draped over his, my hand on his stomach.
We’re pressed together, touching everywhere we can.
I know that when he gets up and leaves, even if he makes other stops in town before heading to the airport, this is goodbye for us.
Finally, he speaks. “Would you come to Portland? To visit me?”
Oh, God.
I wasn’t expecting him to invite me to Portland.
It’s not the same as being asked to move there with him, of course, but I’ve given no thought to this at all.
Of course, he wasn’t supposed to be going to Portland so soon either.
And I suppose that I thought by April… I don’t know what I thought would happen by April.
I wasn’t thinking that far ahead. He just got here.
So how can I have feelings like this for him? It’s too fast. It’s been a whirlwind. He’s only just started to settle in. And who knows if his good feelings about Rebel even would’ve lasted?
“I don’t know, maybe,” I say very noncommittally. “I am really busy. We have so many holidays coming up. And there’s always… stuff.”
That sounds completely pathetic.
He’s quiet for a long moment, then nods. “Yeah, of course. I get it.”
Thing is, I know he does get it. He understands my town, my family. Me.
He just got here, but he’s had a full dose of what my life is like.
“I should get going,” he says. “I really do want to say goodbye to some people, and I have to get on that plane.”
He does. I know that. Of course he does.
“Good luck,” I tell him as he sits up, disentangling our body parts. I swallow, hoping to keep my voice from sounding scratchy. “I hope Portland is everything that you want it to be.” I mean that with all my heart. I want Alex to be happy.
I start to sit up, but he puts his hand against my chest. “Will you stay? Just here in bed like this? This is how I would love to remember you.”
That sucks the air out of my lungs. He wants to remember me. That definitely sounds like I’m not going to see him again. But I still nod. “Okay.”
He looks like he wants to say something else, but instead he bends and kisses me. Then he pushes up and gets dressed.
He stops in my bedroom doorway and looks back. “This was…amazing,” he says. “And I don’t mean just now. Not just just now. All of this. You. Rebel.”
I know what he means. I give him a smile. “I’m glad.” I swallow. “Take care of yourself, Alex. Please.”
He just nods, then turns and leaves.