Page 59 of Hold Me Closer
"Like you quitting football?" She arches a brow at me.
"Are you pissed about it, butterfly?"
"No," she whispers. "I understand why you did it. I'm proud of you for deciding to walk away from something that wasn't serving you. I just wish…" She huffs a sigh. "I don't know. I'm having complicated feelings about hiding, I guess. It feels wrongthat we're hiding my stuff while you're dragging yours out into the light."
"It isn't wrong, baby. It's different. I've spent six years destroying my reputation and life. You've spent six years trying to rebuild yours and learn to stand on your own feet. You don't have to rip at your scars just because the world wants a show. That isn't healing. Doing what you're doing, fighting every day to stay ahead of it and keep putting one foot in front of the other, that's healing." I brush my lips against hers again. "Now, I'll be doing a little healing of my own, too. It doesn't have to look exactly the same way for both of us to mean we're going in the same direction."
"I love you," she whispers.
"I love you too. So goddamn much, Nadia." I deepen the kiss as she slips her hands into my hair, claiming her lips, claiming her. Pouring my whole fucking soul into it. She lights up in my arms with a whimper, pressing her body close to mine.
"You know what this means?" I pull back to ask.
"What?"
"I won't have a job when your tour starts. There's nothing to keep me from going with you now."
She stares at me, hope a blazing sun in her eyes. "Teo, seriously? You're going with me?"
"Yeah, butterfly. If you'll have me."
"Yes!" She squeaks, throwing herself back into my arms.
Within seconds, we're lost in each other, moving together, drowning. It's fucking perfection as she rocks against my cock, her tongue sliding against mine.
I stand with a groan, pulling her up with me before we get carried away, and I fuck her on the floor.
She stumbles against me, panting for breath.
"There's somewhere we have to go first, butterfly," I murmur when she meets my gaze, a question in hers.
"Is it the bedroom?"
"Two places," I amend, scooping her up into my arms.
She laughs, flinging hers around my neck. "Where's the other place?"
"Home," I whisper, carrying her toward the stairs. "We're going home, baby."
Chapter Fifteen
Nadia
Two Months Later
"Jesus, butterfly," Teo groans, staring at me like he's ready to snap as I splay myself across my childhood bed, wearingnothing but the old jersey of his I found hidden in the back of my closet.
Back then, it swallowed me. Now, it's stretched obscenely across my breasts, my bare ass peeking out from the bottom. Judging by the look on his face, it looks better on me now than it did then.
Then again, I don't think that look has left his face once in the last two months. They have been some of the best months of my life. There have been a lot of tears and a lot of laughter. We've done a lot of healing and forgiving. We're slowly making peace with the past and finding out who we are together now. So much of who we were together then is still there, shining bright. But there are new facets to us, too, brand new things we discover about one another every day.
Like the fact that Teo is obsessed with watching streamers on YouTube. Or the fact that I knit when I watch television now. Or the way we can just stare at each other for hours, perfectly content without saying a word. Or how, if we spend any length of time apart, as soon as we're together again, we're in each other's arms like magnets. Or the fact that we can't make it through an entire night without one of us waking the other up to fuck at least once.
I love it so much. I love who we are together. I love every new discovery. The future feels so damn bright for once. I know he feels it, too. He's always smiling, always so fucking happy. Even after a day at therapy, he's…just fucking happy.
The world wasn't surprised by his announcement. They didn't destroy him over it, either. I think most people were relieved to see him reaching for a lifeline. They want to root for him. I think they always have.
The reporter who has my story hasn't released it. There have been whispers about me and Teo and our past, but no one istalking about what I went through back then. If they know, they aren't sharing it.
