Page 55 of Accidentally Forever
“I’m not a glutton for punishment. I promise. I’m not going to roll over anytime he begs me to. But one day he might find his way out and need that hand. And then I’m going to have to figure out what to do then.”
“I’ll kill him if he hurts you,” I vowed.
Alarm raced over her features. “Don’t say that. Because sometimes I feel like it’s the truth.” She went to her toes and kissed the bottom of my jaw before moving away to put our breakfast back on the burner.
I watched as she used my kitchen with such ease, as if she had done this countless times before.
I wanted her in my kitchen. I wanted her in my home. In my bed. And it terrified me. Because I wanted this so much. This domesticity. This idea that we could just talk to each other even when we were scared.
But it felt like something was coming.
Either Travis. Or hell, even my parents.
At the core of it, we were figuring out who we were to each other. Or maybe, I was figuring out what I was to her. Because I always knew what she was to me even when I was ignoring it. But the powers that be were circling. And someday they were going to hit home.
However, as I watched her bend over to reach foranother pan, teasing a glance of that sweet pussy, I held back a groan before pushing out all thoughts of the dangers to come.
And instead I managed to be in the moment.
Though I knew it wouldn’t last forever.
“You know,I still don’t know why I’m here,” I grumbled at my best friend.
Lex just beamed. “What, you want to be at home with your girlfriend?”
“Oooh, girlfriend,” Kingston teased. “That’s a big word.”
“I’m sorry that your reading comprehension is so low that ‘girlfriend’ seems like a big word,” Lex drawled. “But it is appropriate, is it not, Crew?”
I sipped my beer and glared at the lot of them. Tonight was guys’ night, a night that I usually enjoyed. But after the fight Aria and I had that morning, and our subsequent making up when I ate her out on the counter, I couldn’t help but want to be home. Not hanging out with a bunch of dudes who were like my family and way too inquisitive.
“Not quite sure my relationship title with your cousin has anything to do with you.”
“You see, that is where you’re wrong,” Dash put in. “Because she’s family. Andyouare too. However, not in the way that would make this weird.”
“Please, just stop talking,” Lexington said with a start. “And, Crew? Is girlfriend an appropriate title? Because if you just say a friend with benefits, or chick you are banging, I’m going to have to use the baseball bat we are about to pick up for the batting cage and hit you with it. And then it will be a whole thing, and I’m just not in the mood to deal with the ramifications of kicking your ass. So much paperwork.”
“Especially because we would have to clean up the blood, and whatever other liquids end up around,” Kingston said with a mock shudder.
I grimaced as the others broke out into laughter. “That is such a visual. Thank you for that. Now, let’s not ever talk about it again.”
“Seriously though, girlfriend?” Lex asked, fluttering his eyelashes.
“Are you asking me out?” I joked.
“Not when Aria claimed you first.”
“You know, this is why people thought the two of you were dating for so long,” Dash stated as he pointed between the two of us.
I shrugged and drained the rest of my beer before picking up a water bottle and heading toward thebatting cage. “My girlfriend, Aria, and I are doing just fine. Don’t worry about us.”
Although that was not quite the truth because I was worried. Waiting for the other shoe to drop, for there to be an issue, or for anything that kept circling us to finally break whatever fragile hold we had in this sense of peace. Because times like this didn’t just stay as they were. They didn’t just happen for people like me. Sure, my friends could go out and find the loves of their lives and keep them, but I knew the statistics. It wasn’t always going to work.
One day soon Aria would wake up and realize she was so much fucking more than I was. That she deserved more.
She’d realize exactly what lay within her veins and leave. She’d go around the world and take photos that could rival anyone’s. She’d continue to win the awards she always blushed at and thought she wasn’t good enough for. She’d move on.
And leave me behind.
