Chapter 28
Chapter twenty-eight
Emily
Eight days. Thats how long it’s been since I last saw him.
Only eight days. I shouldn’t miss him this much.
Not someone I have just started dating. Not someone who was supposed to be a rebound and I didn’t want to date in the first place.
And not when I have literally spoken to him every day, be it text, phone call or FaceTime.
Nothing beats actually being with him, though.
Being wrapped in his arms with my head on his chest, breathing in whatever expensive aftershave he is wearing.
I’m going to need to commandeer a hoodie of his or something for next time he is away because the smell of him thaws something in me, I go from wound tight and tense to a melting pool of calm in just one whiff.
My phone rings where it is connected to my in-car Bluetooth and I answer. “Hey, just checking in. The girls miss you,” Dan says, and I hear his twins shouting something along the lines of ‘miss you Emmy’ in the background. I grin.
“Miss you too, girls,” I shout so they can here.
“What you up to today? We’re going to the park soon, if you wanted to join? Help me round them up when they run in opposite directions?”
“I wish I could.” I cringe as the guilt of not seeing the girls since Christmas creeps up my spine. “I’m picking Jack up, he’s been away.”
“Oooh, I see. Start seeing one celeb and you just bin off all your old non-famous friends. I get it,” Dan says, teasing.
“100 percent,” I agree. “Can you set up an introduction with Taylor Swift?”
“Can he?”
“I don’t know. I don’t even think he was in one of the VIP tents at the Eras Tour. I think he just bought tickets. Oh my god!” I gasp in mock horror. “What if his people don’t even know her people? Am I wasting my time here?”
“Sounds that way,” Dan chuckles. “How is it going with you two, anyway?”
“You want the details?” I ask, surprised Dan would be all that bothered about hearing the gossip, he normally just lets me get on with it and come to him if I need him.
“Not the kind of details you give Jess.” I can almost feel his cringe, “But like, I don’t know, I mean.
You’re picking him up, when all his team are going to be there.
So I take it it’s getting serious? If you don’t want to tell me that’s fine, I know you like your privacy,” he adds quickly at the end, as if he is trying not to spook me.
I take it for the invitation it is, to use him to sort through my feelings.
I sigh. I have been too closed off with my friends in the past. The fact that Dan still feels the need to tiptoe around me when asking for simple details about someone I am seeing is so stupid.
He has been one of my best friends for years.
He’s been there for me through everything and all he’s asking for is to be able to continue to be there for me, but this time before shit hits the fan.
I pinch the top of my nose and scrunch my eyes whilst stopped at a traffic light. Why am I always so scared to let people in? Be brave, he’s your best friend, he has never judged you. He just wants to know what’s going on with you.
“It’s going good,” I say quickly. “We have been making as much time for each other as we can. Mostly doing things in private because of the press and trolls and stuff but we have been managing. It’s nice. He’s nice. You know?”
“I do know, yeah.” I hear the smile in his voice.
“I think I really like him,” I admit, shocking myself. Not just at the admission, but at the fact that I have actually told someone.
“You think?”
“No. I mean, I don’t know. I just know I haven’t seen him for over a week, and I miss him like crazy.
I thought him being away frequently was going to help me not get too close and keep my wall built.
But. I don’t know. I guess Jack got behind the wall.
He built a gate, or smashed a hole, but he’s there, sat with my heart. And that’s scary.”
“It is,” Dan agrees, not giving me anything else. Giving me space to talk through my thoughts. This is why I normally go to Dan for advice, he did a stint with the mental health doctors and psych, and from that he has become basically a free, if not quite fully trained, therapist.
His minimal contribution to the conversation has me continuing, “Jack is gentle, and kind and I don’t know. Maybe if he continues like that, maybe I could let him have it. My heart?” It would fit so perfectly in his big hands. He would keep it warm and beating.
Dan asks the one question that I have yet to think about, let alone be brave enough to ask myself. “Do you trust him with it? Your heart?”
I answer honestly, “I want to.”
***
Jack
I step off the bus and I am hit in the side by what feels like a missile. It almost knocks me off my feet, but I catch it.
No, not it.
Her.
Emily.
She wraps her arms around tightly my neck and her legs follow around my hips.
I drop my head into her shoulder and breathe her in: lavender, honey, home.
I grin as I raise my head and lift a hand to stop Dex in his tracks behind her.
The security guard is obviously furious that he has been bested by the five foot seven, brunette in my arms. Once he has got the message that she’s not just some random stalker that has decided to attack, he backs off and I can use my surrendered hand to pull Emily tighter into my chest.
“Bro, the rest of us wanna get off and go home, too,” a voice behind me says.
I turn and see Kieran, along with half of the team, standing on the steps of the coach watching us with varying degrees of amusement on their faces.
I realise I have stopped right at the foot of the steps to the coach, blocking the exit.
“Not that we’ve all got quite as warm a welcome waiting for us… ” Kieran quips.
Emily looks up and takes in the players behind me, her cheeks blaze bright red.
“Oops. I’m sorry,” she says to Kieran as she shifts her weight as if to dismount.
I squeeze her tighter, letting her know that’s the last thing I want her to do, and step to the side so the rest of the team can depart from the coach.
She finally looks at me then, her forest green eyes blazing as they meet mine.
Her smile is small and shy, the total opposite to the wide grin I know I sport.
She’s here, in my arms. I feel whole again.
“I missed you,” I whisper and run my nose over hers, nuzzling.
Her shy smile becomes a full grin just before I meet her lips with mine.
It’s just a small kiss, a light pressure and she breaks it too soon.
I assume it’s because we are surrounded by people and she’s not ready for that kind of PDA, but she surprises me by lifting my cap from my head and placing it backwards on her own.
“That’s in the way,” she says as she leans down and devours my mouth with hers.
From her position in my arms, she is higher up than me, so she controls this kiss.
She is not holding back. When her tongue hits mine, a growl rumbles low in my throat.
I meet every stoke of her tongue with mine, straining my neck up to keep up with her.
The kiss recalibrates my brain with the taste of her, reminding me of how her lips fit perfectly against mine.
There is only her and me. Us. Right now, in the whole world, all that matters is her, in my arms, kissing me.
I feel my cock hardening in my pants and from where she sits on my hips, I know she can feel it too.
Emily pulls back mocking me with a teasing grin, “So easy to rile up, Mr Cartwright.” She whispers as she wiggles where she is sat rubbing her centre against my hardening length.
I grit my teeth at the friction, she knows exactly what she’s doing to me.
I stare right into her eyes as I grab her chin with one of my hands.
Keeping my voice low so only she can hear it I say, “When I’m around you, just know I’m always riled up.
I’m constantly riding the edge of being indecently hard in public.
Now, if you don’t stop your wiggling, I’m going to take you back on to that team coach and fuck you until the only name you can remember is mine because you will have been screaming it for so long.
I don’t give a fuck who hears or sees us, but I think you might. ”
Emily’s eyes widen, her mouth popping open as if to argue but she quickly catches herself as she remembers where we are. She turns her head left and right taking in all the team members that are thankfully, mostly concerned with their own business.
She shifts her weight to jump off me again and this time I let her.
I keep one hand on her hip as she stands facing me, I’m not willing to stop touching her yet, even if she needs a little distance whilst around these people.
Lifting her arms she takes my hat off her head and leans up on her tiptoes to place it back on mine.
She slowly lowers back down and I feel her breath on my neck before she speaks, “Maybe not on the team bus, but I like the sound of the end of that plan.”
I chuckle looking down at her, “Perfect, what you up to tonight?” I wink.
“You two done? It was getting to the awkward stage where I was waiting to say bye so I wasn’t rude, but then I was just watching you kiss so I was kind of a pervert,” Kieran says as he walks over to us.
“Nothing new for you to be called,” William says from his side.
I’m grinning when they reach us. William glances down noting where I have joined my hand with Emily’s as she stands at my side, but he doesn’t say anything.
I turn to Emily and explain who they are, “Em, this is William, our captain, and Kieran, the keeper.” She smiles at them and says a polite hello.
“Guys.” I turn to the two people I am closest to on the team, “This is Emily. My girlfriend.”
I feel Emily flinch at my side at the title, we haven’t spoken about putting a name on things, but what else is she? The woman I’m seeing is not enough. The woman who I want to spend the rest of my life with, although true, probably way too much.
“Nice to meet you, Emily,” William says with a smile as he shakes her free hand.
Kieran is next, he leans in and stage whispers, “Make sure he buys you a Porsche.”
“I’m more of a Ferrari kind of girl,” she quips back, and it has both of the men chuckling.
“Shit, I knew you were rich, but two Ferrari's rich!” Kieran steps back clutching his chest. “Why don’t you date me instead?” This makes Emily bark out a laugh as I roll my eyes at Kieran.
“I don’t drive a Ferrari, so there is no first one for there to be two,” I gripe. “But if you want one, I could get you one.” I direct the last at Emily, who blanches and shakes her head.
“And besides, you can’t date him,” William joins in. “It would be awkward considering you have a thing for his sister.” My head snaps up from admiring Emily to Kieran who quickly drops his gaze to his new trainers.
I open my mouth to ask what the actual fuck, but Emily steps in and places a hand on my chest sensing my displeasure in finding out that piece of disturbing information.
“And, as we’ve just established, he’s taken and has some car shopping to do, so we best get going.
” I feel her pull me towards the car park by the hand she’s still holding and I let her.
Kieran has a thing for Aimee? Since when?
Does she know? Over my shoulder I hear Kieran ask William why he would say that in front of me and William tells him he never would have the balls to do it himself.
Damn fucking right. I turn to walk back to the boys, but Emily’s gip tightens on my hand and pulls me back to keep walking with her.
“Eugh,” I say in disgust, shaking my head as we get to Emily’s Toyota Aygo. “He’s going to fuck my sister, isn’t he?”
“Ummm…” Emily says making a face that has me knowing she thinks yes, and that she doesn’t want to say it. “Why don’t you worry about your own sex life,” she suggests and pats me on the chest, placating me.
Reaching inside her hoodie pocket she flicks her car keys into her hand and on reflex I reach out for them. “Oh, come on,” she scoffs. “It’s my car, let me drive it.”
“It’s a lunch box on wheels,” I reply, lifting a brow at her. “And I’d like to drive.”
She glares but hands me the keys, not arguing at my need to always be the driver. “A little respect for the vehicle, please. A lunch box on wheels it may be but it’s a lunchbox with a brand new exhaust.” She winks.
“Your Ferrari will have brand new everything,” I tease as we buckle in.
“Will I be allowed to drive my new Ferrari? Or will you not trust me in that too?”
The bite in her tone makes me flinch. “It’s not because I don’t trust you behind the wheel,” I say honestly.
I do trust her, and if I am going to get out of this rut I am in then I need to at least try at being a passenger with someone.
If I’m going to freak out, I know I would be comfortable doing it with her.
She turns to me in surprise, “Then why can’t I drive now?” she asks.
“Because I don’t need to be worrying about being in a car accident right now. I’m busy worrying about other things.”
“Like what?”
“My own sex life.” I wink.