Page 85 of Remember Us This Way

Noah pops the button before slowly dragging the zipper down, and as his thumb hooks into the waistband of my shorts, he pauses again, his gaze lifting back to mine. “If you want me to stop, just say the word,” he tells me, his lips hovering above mine.

I tilt my chin, capturing his lips in mine, kissing him slowly. “Don’t you dare stop,” I whisper. “I’ve never been so ready. I want this with you more than anything.”

A soft groan rumbles through his chest, and he deepens our kiss as he works my shorts and underwear over my hips and down my legs. I kick them off my feet, and as his hands trail further south, my eyes flutter with anticipation.

Reaching between us, I work his belt buckle open and pop the button on his jeans. He helps me push them down, and then I feel him there, and I suck in a breath as the nerves finally begin to creep in. I’ve never done this before, but I’m more than ready to learn how.

Noah takes his time with me, worshiping every inch of my body as I hook my thigh over his hip. My fingers tangle in his hair, and just when I think it can’t get any better, I feel his fingers at my core. He watches me as he works my body, making sure I’m okay, but I’ve never been so good in my life.

I gasp, sucking in a deep breath as a moan slips from between my lips, and I can’t wait a second longer to reach down between us and curl my fingers around him. Slowly working my hand up and down, I get a feel for what I’m doing, and as his head falls to my shoulder, a low groan rumbles through the room, and I can only assume I’m doing something right.

He keeps working me, making me feel things I never thought possible, until his eyes come back to mine. “Zo?” he asks, those dark eyes still searching mine. “Are you ready?”

I nod, holding his stare, the electricity pulsing between us so raw and intense.

His lips come down to mine again, and I feel him reach across the bed to his bedside drawer. There’s a crinkle of a wrapper and then his hands are down between us, and I feel him right there at my entrance. “I don’t want to hurt you,” he tells me, visibly swallowing as if he’s nervous. “I’ll go slow.”

All I can do is nod again, the anticipation burning through me as his palm finds mine, and he laces our fingers together, squeezing gently. Finally, he closes the gap between us, slowly bringing us together as he inches inside of me.

It burns in a way I wasn’t expecting, but he takes his time, allowing me to adjust and get used to the alien feel of his delicious intrusion. As I take a shaky breath, his lips come down on mine, his other hand brushing over my hip and down between us to that sensitive bundle of nerves.

He gently rubs, and as my eyes roll with undeniable pleasure, my body finally starts to relax. He smiles against my lips, and with that, he starts to move, blowing my mind and showing me just how good it can be.

34

Noah

Sitting on the edge of Zoey’s bed, my head falls in my hands. We have one more night together, less than twenty-four hours before I’m packing my bags and heading to college, and despite the smile that she forces across her face, I know she’s breaking inside.

I try to tell her that it’s only two hours away and remind her just how often I’ll be home. I don’t mind driving back every night if she needs me. Nothing is going to change, but it doesn’t keep her from reliving the hurt she felt when I forced the distance between us after Linc’s death. And I’m not going to lie, despite the easy-going murmurs of confidence I give her, I’m feeling it too.

As a kid, I hated being away from her, and I hated going on family vacations unless I was able to bring her with me. A few times, I flat-out refused until Zoey had her bags packed. The three years without her almost killed me, and now? Fuck. It’s going to be hard, but we’ll be alright. This is the exact reason why I didn’t select another city to play in, otherwise, I would have been a fucking wreck. She would have had to come with me and complete her senior year wherever I ended up, even if her parents said no.

Zoey is my everything, my whole fucking world, and one day, once college is over and I’m signed to the NFL, we’ll finally start our lives together. I can see it so perfectly. Zoey is the type to want dog babies before we even think about real ones. Probably a cat or two as well, maybe a bird or a bunny. It’ll be a zoo, but it’ll be our zoo. Just the thought of starting a family with her gives me chills.

She strides out of her closet, ready for tonight’s party, and as I sit up, she climbs straight into my lap and straddles me. It blows me away. Ever since we took our relationship to the next level and slept together, her confidence has shone like the fucking sun. She was never exactly shy with me, but I’ve since realized just how much she held back, but not anymore.

“What are you thinking about?” she asks, her arms looping around my neck.

“Wouldn’t you like to know,” I say, gripping her by the ass and lifting us. Her legs immediately lock around my waist, and I walk her straight back into her closet, kicking the door closed behind her as my lips come down on hers.

She laughs and mutters something about ruining her hair and makeup that she just spent far too long on, but she does absolutely nothing to push me away. Instead, she’s the one to pull me closer. Then just like the first time I really kissed her in this very closet, I press her up against the wall. The need I have for her is simply never sated.

My lips drop to the base of her neck as she reaches down between us, freeing me from my pants as I reach beneath her short skirt to remove her panties. “Condom?” she pants, bringing my lips back to hers.

I fish one out of my back pocket, and she takes it from me, tearing it open with her teeth before rolling it into place. Then finally, I’m there, pushing into her as she holds on to me, both of us panting with a deep hunger until we’re exploding with intense pleasure.

Once she’s settled back on her feet, her underwear fixed in place, she steps into me, pressing up on her toes to kiss me. “Are you ready to go?”

“We could just stay here,” I suggest, not really in the mood to party tonight, but that’s exactly what summer is for, and with Zoey by my side, it’s been the best summer of my life.

“You leave tomorrow,” she says. “And as much as I’d love to stay right here and do that all over again, you have to go. It’s the last time you’ll see most of these guys. Besides, it’s not like we have to stay all night. Just a quick stop to show your face, and then . . . just you and me.”

I groan, pulling her in hard against me. “What the hell happened to you? You’re usually the first person to suggest skipping these things, and now you’re dying to go?”

Zoey scoffs as she pulls out of my arms and strides across the room to grab her phone off her desk, shutting off the music. “Trust me, I’m definitely not dying to go to this thing,” she tells me. “Maybe you’ve forgotten that apart from you, I literally had no one to talk to at school, so going tonight is only going to remind me just how many friends I don’t have. Buuuuut, you have about a billion of them, and they’re all desperate to see you one last time.”

“I don’t give a shit what they want.”

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