AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Don’t, Bear.”
“Don’t what?”
“Play games with me. I’ve had enough of that shit from you to last a fucking lifetime, and I’m officially done.”
“No games. Regardless of anything else going on around us, you must know I’m serious about that shit. From day one I’ve made no secret of the fact that you press every button in the bedroom for me. It’s just anything outside it where we had major problems. Until last night.”
“What do you mean, until last night? What’s changed?”
“I don’t know. Nothing I guess. Everything. Me. Seeing you go through that shit... I just couldn’t... I don’t know.”
“But you weren’t there.” I watched him closely as I spoke, taking note of his reactions.
“What do you mean?”
“You weren’t in the room.”
“How do you know? Everyone was masked and cloaked.”
“I just know. I couldn’t ‘feel’ you, or smell you. When we’re in the same room, I’m acutely aware of your presence, even if it’s only because I want to grind glass into your face. I know it’s the same for you. We can feel each other. Besides, even with a mask and cloak, I know your silhouette. You’re so much taller and broader than anyone who was present, by a long way. And if that wasn’t enough, the shoes were a dead giveaway.”
“Shoes? What do you mean?”
“Well, I kind of have a thing for shoes, which is a very tame and not altogether accurate way to describe my obsession. Weirdly, it tends to be the first thing I notice about someone, which is unfortunate given that on second and subsequent meetings people are rarely wearing the same shoes, so it can make identification quite difficult when I can barely remember their face. Anyway, your shoes weren’t there. Xavier’s were. And his sidekick, and a few other guys I’d scoped out earlier in the evening at the reception, who I thought were part of the group. Yours—no.” I continued to watch him, loving the look of confusion on his face. “Which begs the question, how do you know what went on, if you weren’t there?”
“I wasn’t there in person, for all the reasons you mentioned, apart from the shoes, but I had a live video feed to my phone via a tiny camera on the bookshelf. I saw the whole thing as it happened. I was totally twisted by the end, and that’s why I fucked it up.” What?
“You...?”
“I set off the sprinkler system.”
There’s no fucking way. “You’re lying.”
“Why would I lie? I pussied out on the plan, fucked the whole thing up, and possibly our futures, and now everyone hates me. You, the guys, Coach... hell, I even fucking hate myself right now.”
“I don’t hate you.”
His head snapped my way, and he stared at me long and hard. “Well you should. I screwed up, big time. I hurt you.”
“You’re right. One hundred percent. I absolutely should hate you. But like I said, I don’t. I hate who you associate with, and what they represent, stand for, and do. I sometimes…actually often hate your actions. But I don’t hate you. Hate the game, not the player, and all that. Why did you set off the sprinklers?”
“When we’d come up with the plan, I’d had my doubts, but everyone else was into it one thousand percent, so I had no choice but to carry on regardless. Still, I had a nagging feeling I’d struggle with the execution. I mean, it was kind of all good in theory, but in practice, when I could see the whites of your eyes, I figured it might be a sticking point for me. I was right. I also suspected that, just like you said, you’d be able to recognize me, even with the disguises. Especially if we’d just been together moments before. Hell, I know for a fact that I still smelled of you at that point.”
“Wait. So, you hauling me off and screwing me like a man possessed was all part of the plan too?”
“Kinda, but not really. It was the only part of the plan I fully fucking approved of, let me tell you. I mean, I needed no encouragement to ‘take one for the team’ and get it on with you. It wasn’t even close to being a hardship. In fact, the only hard part about it was my dick, from the moment I saw you at the reception in that dress. You were a fucking heart attack on legs. Jesus...” He grinned, flashing the killer dimple again.
“Actually, that’s not strictly true. I was hard before I even laid eyes on you. Just thinking about fucking you had me pitching a tent. Then you arrived and I was inflicting bodily harm on myself folded into my pants. So, to answer your question, even if it hadn’t been an official part of the plan, or if there had been no plan at all, I would have been looking for a way to get time alone with you. And by get time alone, I mean fuck.”
“I gathered.” At least he was honest.
“Anyway, it turns out that I misjudged myself. I thought that I could stomach seeing it all go down if I was a little removed from the scene and watching onscreen. But even that proved to be too much. I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t put you through it, or if I’m honest, I couldn’t put myself through it. It hurt me to see you hurt.”
Chapter 35
Bear
I honestly didn’t know who was out of their seat and up first. Or who touched whom first. I had no idea who started kissing whom first. I didn’t have a clue whose mouth opened to receive whose tongue first, or who bit or scratched first. I wasn’t sure whether I pulled her head back with her messy bed hair bunched in my hand, and slipped my hand around her throat first, or whether she tweaked my nipples first.
