Page 51 of Absolutely Pucked
“Yeah, I know. But Tucker wasn’t easy to get along with back then, and our relationship was…complicated.” I didn’t want to tell him the ways Tucker had tormented me back in school. I wasn’t going to even attempt to ruin the way Ford thought about his best friend. “I spent too many years trying to be the one who made my parents happy. I’ve stopped since then, but it was too late for us to ever be close. If you’re asking if anything I did was out of malice, then no. It would be a fuck of a lot easier if it had been.”
Ford bowed his head. “Did you steal her on purpose?”
I didn’t need to ask who. Tucking my knuckle under his chin, I drew Ford’s gaze up. I needed him to believe my words. I would probably never be able to convince Tucker of the truth, even with the mountain of evidence I had. But if one person could believe me, that was all I needed.
“Falling for her was the worst mistake I ever made. And not because she ended up being a monster. Thatwas probably my karma. It shouldn’t have mattered what she told me or what I thought was the truth. She should have been off-limits.”
“How long after the hospital before you two—” he started, then stopped. I didn’t need him to finish his question.
“Seven months? Maybe eight? Tucker had stopped talking to me by then. After he was released from rehab, he’d cut me off. She showed up at my house one night, and we got drunk, and she cried. I made a mistake with her.”
“Drinking and fucking her.”
“And believing her,” I told him. “She spent that night telling me that Tucker had cut her out. That he wanted her to be with me—a man who wouldn’t spend his life struggling. And it sounded like the truth back then. He’d been so…fuck, he’d been so down on himself and so hateful. It was exactly the thing I imagined he would have said. I thought…” I took a breath for this confession. “I thought if I could mend at least one heart in this shitty situation, maybe everything would be okay. I had no idea she was lying.”
He was silent for a long beat. “You know Tucker believes you two were having an affair, like, in his hospital room, right?”
I had some idea about that now. I hadn’t at the time. For so long, I’d assumed he was pissed because I went there at all. But Delia had played the both of us against each other so fucking well. “I know, and I’m not searching for absolution, okay? It’s just the truth. I also know it doesn’t matter to Tucker anymore. That’s why Icould never bring myself to walk up to his front door and tell him.”
Ford was quiet again, which told me he truly believed the same thing about me. Which, of course, he did.
“I believe you.”
Ford’s confession was like a blow to the chest. I hadn’t expected it. I knew he wanted me. I wasn’t a fool. But I knew he loved Tucker more. Unable to help myself, I grabbed him, yanked him against me, tipped his chin up…
And I kissed him.
He froze for a moment, and panic rushed up my spine because those had definitely not been kiss-me signals, but just as I pulled back, he gripped my shoulders and kissed me back. It was messy and a little awkward, but his tongue was warm against mine, and his fingers were cool and shaking as they dug into my skin.
I groaned, long-held-back desire rushing through me, and the fact that I had this again was almost too much for me to comprehend. I held him like I was afraid he would disappear. Like maybe this was all some elaborate fever dream and I was still homeless, in the rain, now delirious.
“Killian,” he gasped.
He didn’t say my name often, so hearing it rush from his lips like a prayer made my dick kick and my face go white-hot.
“What do you need? What do you want?” I asked. My hands roamed his body, feeling him grow hotter, moving restlessly against me.
“Anything. Everything. Want your dick in my mouth,” he mumbled.
Oh shit. Everything felt surreal as he shoved me back against the headboard and used his impossibly strong hands to prise my legs apart. My dick was hard, tenting in my sweats, a small wet spot making the light grey darker.
He licked his lips, a hungry look on his face as he stared down at the outline of my cock. Then he looked up at my face. His pupils were dilated, and his cheeks were mottled pink. “Can I have your dick?”
“You can have anything you want,” I told him. And I meant it. For as long as he wanted. Eternity, if he’d take it. Weeks was more likely, but I’d agree to just about anything if it meant he wouldn’t stop this.
Groaning, he swallowed hard, then balanced on his knee and maneuvered so he was between my legs. His hands rucked up my shirt, urging my arms up so he could pull it off. He traced a touch around my right nipple, then my left, and they pebbled at the slightest graze.
“Let me?”
I wrapped my hand around the back of his neck and forced him to lock eyes with me. “Anything,” I repeated. “I mean that.Anything.”
He let out a puff of air, then nodded and dislodged my hand before diving down and taking my left nipple between his teeth. He bit hard—not enough to really hurt, but enough to send sparks shooting all the way down to my feet. My toes curled, and my calves went so tight they were rock hard.
“Fuck, fuck,” I gasped.
He groaned, then did the same to my right side before kissing down my chest. My head thudded backward against the wall, eyes tight shut because if I looked at him, I was going to shoot off right there on his face before he got the chance to get his mouth around me.
I breathed as slowly as I could manage, lifting up when he patted the side of my ass, and with a single tug, he had my sweats off. My dick bounced against my stomach as I dropped back down, and it was obvious he was as desperate as I was because he wasted no time.
