Page 75 of Phantom Faceoff
Wildfire
Right now?
Me
Don’t you have practice in the morning?
Wildfire
Don’t care. Want to see you.
Me
Why didn’t you say so before?
Wildfire
Didn’t want to push. What we did was hot, but it was a lot. Sucks, though. I miss you.
My fingers speak before my brain has a chance to catch up.
Me
I miss you, too.
I hold my breath, and the next message comes quickly.
Wildfire
Meet me in the quad? Willow tree.
Zander is sitting against the tree when I get there, the moonlight filtering through the willow catching on his hair and making it appear almost white. When he spots me, the softest, most indulgent smile graces his lips, and it’s like a vice squeezing around my ribcage.
Something has shifted in us. I can’t pinpoint exactly what it is, but it pulls me closer, snuffs out the hesitation trying to sneak it’s way in.
I sit cross-legged on the ground in front of him, the nipping night air drawing goosebumps on my exposed arms. A tank top and pair of flannel sleep pants are all I threw on before the anxiety ushered me out the door.
“Couldn’t sleep?” he asks, and even just hearing his voice lights up the pleasure receptors in my brain.
“I often don’t,” I say, wringing my hands together, unsure what to do with myself.
Zander’s expression grows contemplative, his chin resting on his fist while his eyes roam the empty quad.
“I don’t like when we don’t speak,” he says. “I’d rather take sex completely off the table than have you ghost me like that.”
The words hit me in the chest so hard I stop breathing. It’s only for a second, but it creates a burning in my airway that spreads into my heart and through my gut until my entire body feels like it’s on fire.
“I don’t know you that well,” he goes on. “Not as well as I’d like. So, I don’t know what your hangup is, but I want to respect it. If that means we stop fooling around, so be it.”
“So you can go fool around with someone else? Hard pass.”
It doesn’t register that my voice reeks of jealousy until Zander’s shocked expression flips into an amused one.
“Feeling possessive, Daddy?”
I close my eyes as a full body shiver takes over. If there’s one thing that night with the three of us unveiled, it’s that there’s something deeper for me with this Daddy desire. And Zander ticks every box I discover.
“I wasn’t quiet because of the sex. Or because of Julian.” I nip and gnaw on my lip, trying to piece the words together. “It was after. When we were all lying in bed together.”
