Page 15 of Somewhere Only We Know
“What was that you called me?” It’s a rhetorical question but one I need her to say out loud. I bring my hand up to her face and gently pull her bottom lip out from between her teeth and angle her face up to meet my eyes. “Talk to me, J.”
The yellow of her shirt brings out the flecks of gold in her honey brown eyes. There are days when I feel I could get lost in them and never find my way out.
“You’ve been calling me your girlfriend for the last month and I’d get all flustered when you would call me that. I tend to do that when you’re around.” I listen intently and smile as she rambles. One thing I’ve learned about Jax is that she needs to get her words out to get to the point. “You should hear the thoughts running through my head. The things I want to say to you, but don’t because I’m me and you’re well,you. And I shouldn’t be nervous around you because you’re my Nate and maybe officially putting a label on us like that is juvenile…”
Jax trails off and I let her words soak in. I do wish that I could hear her thoughts. It would make it so much easier to finally know what she’s thinking. Jax is an enigma. I’ve been trying to figure her out for years, but in doing that I’ve fallen so hard for her.
“It’s not.” I tell her when she sits there awkwardly waiting for me to say something. “And you’re my Jax. But yes, you are also my girlfriend which by default makes me your boyfriend.”
Boyfriend, I watch her mouth the word and the smile that spreads across her face melts every bit of tension I felt from a few seconds ago. “Doesn’t that mean this should be sealed with a kiss? You know—just to make it official,” she says through a smile.
“I have heard that’s what you do when you come to an agreement,” I play into it. “Come here.”
Jax leans forward and our lips meet. Soft at first. Just a light touching of our lips before she’s leaning closer to me. My hand dives into the hair at the nape of her neck and hold her still, not wanting to go further than this. But herhands and fingers claw at any piece of fabric she can grip onto. Realizing this is a battle I’ll lose, I lean back and haul her into my lap. Jax’s legs on either side of my hips are like a weighted blanket when you need something to ground you.
I may have been waiting years to kiss her. But Jax seems to have been waiting her whole life to kiss me. She’s as starved for my touch as I am for hers. Roaming my hands along her body, I wrap an arm around her waist and the other around her thigh and walk into her bedroom. Not breaking the kiss, I crawl onto her bed and rest myself in the cradle of her thighs. Even though I still haven’t showered from my game and we have places to be, I can’t find any reason to stop kissing her.
Jax’s hands slide under my shirt and grip at my skin. Our tongues dance together like they’ve done this a hundred times before. I hike her leg high around my waist, opening her up and rolling my hips into her center. Her sigh-moan lets me know she likes this. That she wants more. And with the sounds she’s making, her hips moving and searching for something—Jax makes me want to forget all about us taking this slow.
Breaking the kiss, I trail kisses down her neck. Licking and suckling at the skin. Reveling in the sounds traveling up her throat. Jax tries to slide my shirt up my body but I pull away from her and try not to smile at the pout on her plump lips.
“No.” I tell her with lightness in my voice. While I’m certainly not a virgin, I haven’t been with anyone since coming to college and I’m definitely not as experienced as other guys my age claim to be. And with Jax, I’d want our first time together to be special.
“Why not?” She asks and plays with the drawstring on my shorts. The tugging of the strings sends little shockwavesthrough my body and I have to focus on tomorrow’s game to get through this.Temptation.
“Because I haven’t showered and we have some place to be.” I emphasize my point by placing a quick kiss on her lips and rolling off her bed. “I’ll be ready in fifteen minutes.”
Jax leans up on her elbows. “We could’ve been done in five.”
“No we couldn’t have.” I tell her and pull her to the edge of the bed by her ankles.
Her chest heaves and she looks up at me with eyes so full of hope, wonder, and desire. “Why not?”
“Because I need at least five, maybe ten, minutes to make you come with my fingers,” I explain. My hands trail soft paths over her exposed thighs and goosebumps pop up in response. “Then I need another ten, maybe fifteen, or even twenty minutes eating your pussy.” The room has gone deathly still. Not even the sound of our ragged breathing is audible over the lust covering us. “And then, only then, when you’re ready and begging for my cock,” I map out what I plan and my hands spread the width of her thighs, my thumbs coming dangerously high to her center, “will I give you what we both want.”
I back away as quickly as I can and beeline towards the room I’m staying in. I turn the water in the shower to ice cold and hop in, hoping it will calm me down. It slightly does the job, but my blood is still simmering under the surface. Getting out of the shower, clean and cold, I hurriedly dress and walk back out to a waiting Jax. She’s changed into a dress with thin straps and sandals that show off her hot pink toenails. I smile because it’s so her and wrap my arm around her shoulder as we walk back out to my car and to the place I know she’ll love.
9
NATE
PRESENT DAY
“So, what was it?” Bryce pushes and I kind of want to throttle him for not being able to read the room. “Orwhowas it is what I should be asking.”
“She was my best friend in college,” I tell the group. And I don’t miss Jax chugging down the last of her beer.
Bryce slaps his hand on his chest. “Friends to lovers. A true classic. My sister is going to love this.”
“Are you a romantic, Bryce?” Kamryn asks in a teasing way. Maybe not really searching for an answer, but she’s about to get one regardless.
“Are you kidding? The trust that’s already built up. The comfortability between two beings. You can’t get that anywhere else.”
“But that’s unrealistic,” Jax pipes up and her words just shoved a dagger in my chest. “It doesn’t matter how much trust is between two people. All it takes is one moment or onetextto destroy it all.”
Bryce looks on the verge of tears and despite all of the teasing he’s going to make someone very happy. “But what about the second chance?”
She leans forward and sets her empty glass on the table. “I don’t think it’s realistic for everyone. Sorry, Kam.”
