Page 112 of Spring Awakening

“Baby, if you think I haven’t thought about you in every position imaginable, you’d be wrong. I imagine you everywhere, all the time.”

“You love me,” she gasps, moving away from his neck to look at him.

“I do.” He smiles, lifting himself into a sitting position so they’re chest to chest. “I do love you.”

“You love me,” she repeats, a dazzling smile across her face.

“That’s what I just said.” He laughs, his hand around the back of her neck. He presses his lips to her collarbone, and she moves on top of him, his spare hand gripping her hip. He can feel the tingles in his spine as his balls tighten, but fuck, he wants her to come first. He flips them over.

“Tell me,” he whispers. “Tell me you love me.” It sounds as desperate as he feels to hear her say it. He’s not even sure why he needs her to say it. But suddenly, it’s all he can think about. He thrusts faster, harder. “Mal—”

“I love you,” she moans. “I love you—fuck,fuck—” She arches her back, her hands clawing at his neck as she comes, and it’s all he needs to fall over the edge with her, burying himself as deep in her as he can. Zach can barely catch his breath as he pulls out slowly, flopping onto his back and pulling Mali over to him. He disposes of the condom before he lets himself get comfy, but it’s a gargantuan effort. When he’s back, Mali leans against his chest, and he twists her hair between his fingers, thinking if he stayed here forever, he’d probably be happiest person in the world.

CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

Zach’s alarm vibrates frombehind him, but he can’t move to reach it because Mali is asleep on his arm. Buffy pushes his paws into Zach’s back, a fair warning that he’ll scratch him if the noise doesn’t stop.

“If you don’t go to the Fun Day, Frankie’s going to kick you off the team,” Mali mumbles. But her hand is wrapped around his thumb, so he’s probably going to stay right here. Zach bends like an acrobat to turn his alarm off without moving Mali and without disturbing Buffy. He frowns when Buffy moves moments later. Zach wonders if Buff will sleep downstairs when they get another cat, or if he’ll become territorial and sleep on his face. Mali shuffles, and Zach grumbles.

“No…” He pulls her closer.

Her legs slide between his, and she’s so warm it should be criminal. “I’m not getting her to let you back on when she does.”

She kisses his forearm once, twice, three times. Mali stretches, and Buffy jumps off the bed, sauntering out of the room like he’s done with them. Her bum drags across his erection, but he’ll let it slide, just this once.

Zach kisses her shoulder. “You will.”

It’s been a full week of being her boyfriend, and he never wants to be anything else. He gets to wake up with her, he gets to hear her pillow thoughts, he gets to love her. He gets to touch her when she wakes up from a filthy dream.

She moves against him again with a moan. “How long until you have to leave?”

“You just said I’d get kicked off the team if I didn’t get up right this second,” he whispers, but his hand is already against her thigh. She laughs, but she tilts to accommodate him.

She links her fingers with his, pressing her lips to his knuckles. He leans over until he can whisper in her ear.

“On your knees, honey.”

Mali brushes powder over her face as she dances to Beyoncé. The Titanian Fun Day is today, and she’s silly excited. Ezra has been working so hard behind the scenes. Hopefully, they’ll be able to announce the junior league when the press gets there. Mali wonders if Cam is going to turn up. She’s supposed to be Ezra’s cheerleader, but she’s been bailing from so many events lately. Mali packs the spare Adebayo jersey she has just in case. She’ll get her dad to fill in for Zach. It’ll be cute, and traumatic.

The past week has been better than Mali thought it would be. Zach’s happy—genuinely happy—and he seems so much lighter now that he’s not constantly thinking about leaving, that there’s no grand upheaval in his future. She wonders if he’s going totalk to his brother ever again. Devon has dropped off letters, but Zach hasn’t opened them yet. Mali won’t force him to. She has no idea what that kind of betrayal would feel like, but she does know Zach. Still, she’ll give it a couple weeks.

Her phone buzzes next to her, and she can’t wait for Miriam to move in so she can turn the sound off. She smiles when Zach’s name comes up.

Bro of my life: Can you grab my wallet

Bro of my life: i miss you

Bro of my life: and can you grab my wallet pls

Bro of my life: I love you

Mali: where is it? But yes

Mali: even though you didn’t send me the voice notes from before you knew you were staying

Mali: I love you anyway

As she expected, he sends them all through, and she immediately mutes Beyoncé and presses play.

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