Page 30 of Price of Victory
“Now? Now I’m going to lie here and try not to look too smug about the fact that I was right.”
“Right about what?”
“About how good we’d be together. About how much you wanted this, even when you were pretending you didn’t.” He smirked anyway.
I should have been annoyed by his cockiness, but instead, I found myself smiling. “You’re insufferable.”
“And yet here you are, naked in bed with me.”
“Here I am,” I agreed, settling more comfortably against his chest.
He pulled me closer, his fingers tracing lazy patterns on my back. “For what it’s worth, that was even better than I imagined. And I have a very good imagination.”
“Aiden?”
“Yeah?”
“This doesn’t solve everything, you know. Between us, between our families. It doesn’t make any of that go away.”
He was quiet for a moment, his hand stilling on my back.
“Maybe not,” he said finally. “But it changes things. At least for me.”
“How?”
“I don’t know yet. But it does.” He tilted my chin up so I was looking at him. “I’m not walking away from this, Rhett. From you. I hope you know that.”
I wanted to ask him what that meant, wanted to push for more details about what this meant for us going forward. But I was exhausted, both physically and emotionally, and the warmth of his body against mine was making it hard to think clearly.
“I should probably get some sleep,” I said reluctantly. “Early practice tomorrow.”
“Right. I should go.”
But neither of us moved. We stayed there in the quiet of my dorm room, holding each other in the aftermath of something that felt significant and life-changing and terrifying all at once.
Whatever this was, whatever we were now, there was no going back. The line had been crossed, the bridge burned, and I wasn’t sure if I should be terrified or relieved.
Maybe both.
When Aiden finally did leave, slipping out into the hallway with a soft goodbye and a promise to see me at practice, I lay alone in my bed, staring at the ceiling and trying to process what had just happened.
Everything had changed. I could feel it in the way my body still hummed with satisfaction, in the lingering scent of his cologne on my sheets, in the way my heart seemed to be beating a different rhythm.
For the first time in months, the restless energy that had been plaguing me was gone, replaced by something that felt like contentment. Almost like peace. Like the beginning of something I wasn’t ready to name but couldn’t deny anymore.
I closed my eyes and let myself remember every moment, every touch, every sensation. Tomorrow, I’d have to figure out what this meant. But tonight, I was just going to let myself feel satisfied and wanted and completely, thoroughly changed.
Tonight, that was enough.
TWELVE
AIDEN
I wokeup to sunlight streaming through the floor-to-ceiling windows of my apartment, and for a moment, I couldn’t figure out why everything felt different. Then the memories came flooding back in vivid detail. Rhett underneath me, his head thrown back in pleasure, my name falling from his lips without an end. The way his hands had gripped my shoulders, the soft sounds he’d made, the way his entire body had trembled when I’d finally pushed him over the edge.
My heart hammered against my ribs, and I pressed the heel of my hand against my chest like I could somehow slow it down. This was exactly what I’d been chasing for weeks, what I’d been pushing toward with every flirtatious comment and calculated touch. I should have felt victorious. I should have been smug with satisfaction, ready to add another conquest to my impressive collection.
Instead, I felt like someone had handed me something priceless and incredibly fragile, then told me to walk across hot coals without dropping it.
