“I know,” he says, kissing the hickey and nuzzling into my neck. “I like how literal this is.”
“Possessive jock,” I mutter, shaking my head, which only makes him laugh.
“Only about you, baby.” He winks at me in the mirror. “Now let’s go, I want to meet your family and friends properly.”
“Of course you do, you’re not the one with a giant hickey on your neck,” I say, playing with my shirt to see if there’s a way I can hide it.
“You wanna give me one, even it out?”
He spins me around to face him and bears his throat to me. I’ll admit, the temptation to graze my teeth over his skin and suck until he’s covered in marks is very high.
“You’ve got a press conference tomorrow, I know your media team are supportive, but I don’t think a hickey will give the right impression.”
“Fair, another time then, next time we see my parents, I promise, my neck is all yours.”
“Deal,” I laugh, wrapping my arms around him and leaning in for a kiss.
“As much as I love kissing you; you’re stalling,” he says.
“I’m not stalling, just trying to make up for lost time.”
“We’ve got our whole lives ahead of us, plenty of time for me to make it up to you.” He kisses me softly, cupping my face in his hands. “I love you.”
“I love you too,” I say, loving that I can say this to him without fear, it feels so natural, so right. “Come on, let’s go and get this over with.”
“You’re making it sound like you’re about to walk the plank or something.”
“I’d rather walk the plank than stand in front of my mom with this hickey on my neck.”
We enter the yard outside the clubhouse hand in hand, and the conversations stop, all eyes turning to us. Stephen wasright, it will be obvious to everyone what we’ve been doing for so long.
“Did you two… talk… about everything you needed to?” Diablo says, and the guys start whooping and hollering.
“Alright, alright!” I hold up my hand to quiet everyone. “In case you missed it earlier, this is Stephen.” I nod my head to him and smile. “And yes, he was my roommate at Winbrook, but he’s also my boyfriend.”
Everyone cheers and my mom and Beth jump up to hug us both. Boyfriend. He’s used that word a few times now and it still doesn’t feel real, but he said it himself, he’s out. There will even be a press conference tomorrow announcing our relationship. Shit. I have a boyfriend… a ridiculously hot, pro-football player, boyfriend.
“I knew it, I knew this would all work out,” Beth says, grinning as she pulls us to sit next to them.
“Sure you did,” I chuckle.
“No, I did.” She turns to my brother. “Didn’t I tell you that this would all work out.”
“Mmm, I’m not sure that you did,” he says, winking at me behind her back.
“Why are you lying? We literally talked about it.”
“Nah, I don’t think we did, princess.”
“We did; we definitely did—” she looks between us and sees the looks on our faces. “Fuck you both, okay.” She nudges Diablo. “You’re meant to be on my side.”
“I’m also meant to be on my brother’s side,” he chuckles, “I can’t win.”
“Yeah well, you lose more if you’re not on my side,” she says, crossing her arms over her chest and pulling away from him in jest.
He leans in to nuzzle her neck, but she brushes him off.
“Okay, you’re right, you did call this. Come on, I was just messing, princess.”
