Page 71 of Until You're Mine
She sagged against me, and I held on to her, anchoring her to me. Or maybe I was anchored to her. All I knew was that I wanted to stay that way forever.
At least that was what I thought until she yanked off my shorts and boxers, rolled a condom over me, and then lowered herself onto me, all the way to the hilt.
She pushed me back against the cushions when I reached for her. “You rest your arms. I’m going to take care of you.”
Something about the words made me feel like I could fly and like I was going to crash, and I wasn’t sure which scared me more. So I shut all that out and focused on the here and now and the girl fucking me into sweet oblivion.
Chapter Forty-One
Brooklyn
Instinctively I knew something was off. At first I thought I was only disoriented because I was in Shane’s bed, his warm body wrapped around mine. But then it hit me. The extra bright sunlight and the fact that I felt so rested as opposed to being ripped out of my deep sleep.
I shot up in bed. “What time is it?”
Shane groaned.
I reached over to the bedside table and grabbed my phone. “Shit.” I shook Shane. “Weren’t you supposed to be at the gym early this morning?”
He opened one eye, and when I thrust my phone into his face to show him it was nine thirty already, he swore and climbed out of bed. His movements were stiff, and I could tell his muscles were, too. “I was supposed to spar with a guy from another gym at nine. I’ll call Liam and hope he’s in a good mood. Considering I’m already thirty minutes late, I doubt I’ll get that lucky.”
“Three texts and one message,” he said as he picked up his phone. “Yeah, today’s going to suck.”
Grunts accompanied his getting dressed, and I noticed a bruise on his hip that I hadn’t seen last night. Did they really have to push him that hard? Or were they punishing him because he’d dared to start a relationship with me? Liam and Finn thought they were looking out for me, more overprotective than spiteful, but Dad was another story, and I wouldn’t be surprised if his anger was over Shane not being a good little soldier. Or me not being one.
I finished getting dressed and met Shane in the living room.
He already had his duffel bag packed and ready to go. “You want to ride with me? Or you could stay. I don’t have time for breakfast, but you’re welcome to anything you find.”
“I’ll run home and shower.” Not that people wouldn’t know I’d spent the night with him, but wearing yesterday’s clothes screamed walk-of-shame, and I wanted to give my family fewer reasons to be irritated. “Wait. Do you think they’ll be harsher without me there? If so, I’ll come with you.”
A resigned smile spread across his face. “It won’t make a difference, but I love that you worry about me.” He paused for a quick kiss. “I’ll be fine. I’ll prove my dedication to the team and to my training, even if it kills me first.”
“See, that would be funnier if you didn’t grunt every time you moved.”
“We cavemen type just do that. No more worrying, okay?”
“Okay,” I said, although we both knew I was lying. “I’ll be in soon.”
The second the door closed behind him, my gut dropped.One night. One night of official coupledom and we’d gotten too comfortable and screwed up. No excuse would be good enough in my family’s eyes, and while I’d reassured myself that a relationship didn’t have to get in the way of Shane’s training and upcoming fight, that belief cracked. The idea that we could work despite the odds stacked against us fractured as well, the two broken notions mixing together and making a hell of an argument for quitting while we were ahead.
But I didn’t feel ahead, and my brain didn’t want to listen, since it was contrary to everything it wanted. So I decided that the name of the game today would be denial. Hey, it seemed as good a way to get through the day as any.
…
Denial would be a lot easier if the universe wasn’t determined to rub my face in all the ways I was wrong.
My desk chair creaked as I leaned forward and skimmed through the email pulled up on my laptop again. I should be excited. Iwasexcited. The Golden City Art Exhibition only offered two highly coveted spots to unknown artists, and I had landed one of them. The exhibition garnered tons of attention from the art world; it would be an impressive addition to my portfolio, one that would make galleries take a closer look. It was a huge break for me, and it validated that I was good enough. Apparently they’d emailed me a couple of weeks ago, but when they didn’t hear from me, they looked up my information again and found they’d used “Brooke” instead of “Brooklyn” in my email address.
My gaze snagged on the date again, and while completely ridiculous, I hoped that it’d somehow changed. My first thought had beenYou’ve gotta be fucking kidding me.Karma had to be playing a joke on me, and since I always tried to live on the up-and-up and spread cheer around, I couldn’t figure out why it was picking on me.
“Hey, gorgeous.”
I glanced up at Shane. He was sweat-covered and breathing heavy and sexy as hell. His smile dropped. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing,” I said, too quickly.
“I’m fine, you know that, right? The sparring session went well, and sure, your brother’s still pissed at me, but that’s nothing new. I figure at least now he has a good reason.”
