Page 110 of Our Secret Moments

I laugh, throwing my head back as she continues moving around. “I get it. I get it. Now can you sit down so I can read it?”

I try to reach for her when she walks my way again, but her hands fly up into her hair, tugging on the ends of her curls. “Ah! I’m too nervous! I’m going to close my eyes. Actually, no. I’m going to go into your room. Wait. No. I’ll stay here.”

“Sweetheart,” I urge and her panicked gaze set on mine. “Just sit down and let me read it. I’m going to love it. I know I will.”

She takes in a deep breath, closing her eyes. “Okay,” she whispers. She moves to sit next to me on the couch before changing her mind and sitting across from me instead. “I’ll sit here. It’s less torture if I’m here.”

“You’re going to freak out either way,” I mutter, leaning over to pick up the paper from the coffee table. I watch as she curls up into the chair as I slowly let my eyes linger to the sheet in front of me.

The design is already perfect. It’s a pale green colour with darker greens on the outlines, resembling a real traditional magazine. The front page is a faded photo of the team, one of the first team pictures we’ve ever taken. I smile to myself, knowing just how much we’ve changed since then.

I open the newspaper and I’m instantly in awe with the way she writes. She crafts every sentence perfectly. Every joke is executed with ease. Every fact about football is thrown in so casually that you wouldn’t need to be an expert to read it.

I read through all the profiles she’s made on every single player on the team. She accurately describes Wes as a ‘thunder on the pitch and a ball of sunshine off the pitch.’ I laugh when I get to the part where she writes about our day in Fired Arts and the family dynamic of our team. She writes carefully at length about the atmosphere being around us in social settings and when we’re training. My eyes linger over a few words when I look over my profile.

Connor Bailey is a sweetheart. And I don’t mean that in the way a granny would call her grandson a sweetheart. Imean, he is genuinely sweet on the inside and the outside. You could often find the team joking about how he takes things too seriously, or how he always tries to keep them in check, but I see someone who cares for his team like they’re his family. Someone who would give the shirt off his back for anyone on the team and open up his home for any of them. There’s not a mean bone in his body and it amazes me how he manages to get through each match unscathed and with a smile on his face, win or lose. You’ll know that just by having one conversation with him. You know exactly the kind of person he is instantly and you’ll have a toothache from just how sweet he is.

Something catches in my throat when I read the rest of the paper. Every line is sculptured to perfection. Every word she writes speaks to me in a way nothing has ever done before. When I look up at her and she’s still watching me read, I try to speak, but nothing comes out. I’m in complete an utter awe of her.

“What do you think? Is it good? I know what Rotford said, but maybe it was a little too much. You know… all of your part. People are going to think that we’re–”

“It’s perfect, Cat,” I say, cutting her off as I set the paper back down on the table. She’s too far away from me. I stand up from the couch and it takes me two steps until I’m in front of her. She looks up at me, those chestnut eyes filled with worry and self-doubt. “It’s fucking perfect.You’reperfect.”

I can’t help myself anymore, so I grab her from her seat as she squeals. I fall back into the chair, pulling her with me as she wraps her arms and legs around me. The sappy smile on her face makes me pepper her with kisses across her face and her chest as she giggles in my arms.

“Do you really think so, or are you just saying that?” she manages to ask through her contagious laughter.

“You make me sound so smart,” I say, pressing a soft kiss to her lips, “like I actually know what I’m talking about. Like you just get me.’’

“Idoget you,” she replies, smiling against my mouth as she pulls back. “It’s you that has done this, not me. You have the biggest heart out of everyone that I know, and you love and care for things so easily, so effortlessly and so selflessly. You give so much of yourself to others, to help others, and I just want to squeeze you sometimes and tell you how amazing you are because you don’t hear it enough. I know it might not seem like much coming from me, but seriously, Connie, you’re the best at everything you do. Well… maybe not baking, but you’re trying and that’s what matters.”

Her words settle on my chest and it pinches when I look up to see the serious look on her face. “You were doing so well until that last part, baby,” I murmur, leaning up to steal the smile off her lips, pressing my lips to hers.

It feels like we’re kissing for the first time. Everything about her – aboutus— feels fresh. It’s like we’re trying something new. I thought that feeling would fade after the first few weeks, but it hasn’t. If anything, it’s just grown tenfold.

She laughs against my mouth, pulling away from me. She sighs heavily, glancing out the window into the spring afternoon before looking back down at me.

Her eyes soften and my chest rises and falls, suddenly out of breath just by looking at her. “I love you, Connor. I have so much love for you that it drives me crazy. I’m in love with everything about you, everything you believe in, everything that you are. I’m in love with all of you. Wholly. Completely. Everything all at once.”

Her words take me back to the first time I reallysawher when I was seven years old and I justknewshe was it for me. It takes me back to the first time she let me hug her when shescraped her knee after she fell off her bike. It takes me back to the time we walked along the path back to our estate, barefoot as we held melted popsicles in our hands. They take me right back to the very first time I kissed her and she kissed me back.

“I love you too, Catherine. You’ve got the most brilliant mind I’ve ever known. You make my world tilt on its axis whenever you’re around. I’ve loved you for as long as I can remember. I’ve been in love with you before I even knew it myself,” I say. She takes in a deep breath as I wrap my hands around her waist, pulling her as close to me as possible. I kiss the top of her chest that’s poking out of her dress. “Sometimes, when I think about you too much, I get dizzy. It’s like my body doesn’t know what to do with all the love that I have for you. It’s maddening.”

She responds by pressing her lips to mine. She starts off slow and I let her take the lead. Her lips work over mine seamlessly, her hands curling in my hair. The pace picks up when she pushes her chest closer to mine, causing my back to fall against the chair. She starts to trail kisses across my jaw, gently grinding in my lap.

“I love you,” she murmurs against my skin. “I love you so fucking much, Connor.”

A low groan escapes my throat when she moves against me again, still kissing my jaw. I don’t think I could move, or guide her in any way even if I wanted to. Her hands delve deeper into my hair, her hips moving on their own accord against the soft fabric of my plaid pyjama pants.

She reaches down between us to tug the hem of my shirt, still kissing me. “I want this off.”

Fuck. I love it when she’s in control.

“Yes, ma’am,” I mutter and she smiles. I waste no time pulling it over my head and her hands are all over me instantly.

I love this side of her, when she’s completely caught up in the lust that she forgets to be her proper and poised self. She’sjusther.She rolls her hips against me again and a soft whimper leaves her mouth when her core contacts my hard cock.

“Fuck, baby,” I mutter. My hands slide higher up her thighs, her wetness immediately covering my fingers. Just as I expected, she’s not wearing any panties. “Is this all for me?”

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