Page 106 of Sack

He didn’t fuck her.

They weren’t having sex.

They were making love.

And it was beautiful.

He waited for her to come again before he let himself go, and he held her eyes for that, too. She saw everything he wanted to show her. Love swirled in the dark depths of his eyes along with the remorse he still clung to.

She ran her hand up his arm, over his shoulder to cup his jaw. And she finally lost his eyes when he closed them to nestle into her hand and kiss her palm.

“This is me hanging on.” He opened his eyes again to look at her. “And this time I’m not letting go. I love you, Ivy.”

He meant that. With the conviction she saw when she stared into his eyes, she knew without a doubt he meant that. So, it was the easiest thing in the world to say, “I love you, Colt.”

And mean it, too.

Chapter Twenty-four

Colt

Colt stared at the painting on the easel. Ivy’s school was having an open house of sorts, and she’d invited him, wanting to share that part of her life.

He’d wanted that too. But now, staring at the empty field with the harsh glow of painted lights illuminating it, and the sickness it brought to his stomach, he wasn’t so sure. He hadn’t thought he could feel worse about himself.

He’d been wrong.

“I really hurt you, didn’t I.”

Ivy stood beside him. She pulled her eyes from the painting to look at him. “Yes.”

“I think, all along, I subconsciously knew you were the one, but I was too stubbornly set on my mission and so stuck in my head, I didn’t see it. I blurred the lines with you—treated you like a girlfriend with one hand while pushing you away with the other. No wonder you left me.”

She placed a hand on his arm. “You confused me. And for my well-being, I had to.”

“I know.” He turned to her, cupping her neck, and running a thumb along her jaw. “I see it now.” He stared into her beautiful gray eyes. Eyes that he knew shed tears over him. “I’m so damn sorry. Not just for pushing you away but for hurting you. I never wanted that.” He dropped his forehead to hers and closed his eyes. Then in a gruff voice, he whispered, “The last thing I ever wanted was to hurt you.”

Her fingers trailed up his neck to tangle with the short hairs at the back of his head. “We can’t change the past. And I wouldn’t want to. To give up the bad parts, I’d have to give up the good. And there’s not one minute of being with you that I want to forget. But the past is the past, and now it’s time to move forward. I love you, and you love me. That’s all that matters.”

He kissed her tenderly on the forehead, wrapped an arm around her shoulders and turned them to once more look at her painting.

Ivy might forgive him, but it would be a long time before he forgave himself.

“Are you nervous?”

Ivy looked at him raising her brows. “Why do you ask?”

Colt reached over and took her hand. “You’re fidgeting.”

She quirked her lips. “Maybe a little. It’s not every day a girl meets her boyfriend’s parents.”

Colt turned off the engine and unclipped his belt, but he didn’t make a move to get out of the car.

It had been a crazy couple of weeks but in a good way. The team had been practicing just as much if not more but instead of going home and calling Ivy, he got her in the flesh. He discovered he didn’t have to sacrifice one to have the other. She was his biggest cheerleader, and hell if that didn’t make him try all the harder.

He’d been a fool in more ways than one.

And now it was the night before the big game. The game he’d been trying to reach his entire career. But instead of being locked in his head, mad at the world, thinking that was the only mentality he needed to win, he was relaxed and focused, knowing that whatever happened he would still be a winner as long as he had Ivy at his side.

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