I can feel Chase’s movements slow and become steady, his thrusts intentional as he holds my hips and I can feel his build up.
“Oh, fuck, fuck, fuck.” His words are quick and low when he moves, until finally he stills behind me, and my body falls into the mattress.
My hands just want to keep touching her. I can’t help but feel territorial over this woman lately, even more now that we’ve experienced each other this way. If any part of me thought sleeping with Summer would be awkward, I couldn’t have been more wrong. Being with someone has never felt so goddamn right.
I glance at her from the corner of my eye, her bare chest rising and falling with deep breaths. She runs her fingers over my thigh and I let out a sigh at the touch.
“I’ve always wondered what this whole thing looked like,” she says as she turns on her side to face me. Her breasts fall in front of her and it takes extreme self-control to not put my lips on one.
“I want to add to it.” I touch the ink on my skin as she traces the lines.
“What do you want to add?”
“I want to add an anchor near the compass. And the coordinates need a touch up too.”
She nods at me, but her eyes still remain glued to my leg.
“I’ve only ever been able to see to the bottom of the compass.” She laughs to herself, skimming her fingers up my thigh toward the ship I have tattooed. “The ship and the coordinates are new to me.”
There’s a pink tint to her cheeks when she finally glances up to me. I run my hand down her body, pulling her thigh over my leg, feeling the warmth between her legs on my skin.
Summer pulls the blanket up over both of us, snuggling herself closer to me as she does. She smells like coconuts on the beach as she nestles further into my body and my arms wrap around her.
“These are all for your dad, right?” she asks, her head resting on my chest as the fan spins above us.
“Yeah.”
“But you have them in a place that almost no one will ever see?” she questions.
“I guess they’re for me. My way of… grieving.”
I feel her nod against my chest.
“I can understand that. He warned me about you, you know?” She chuckles, and I pull my head back a little.
“What? When? And why?”
She laughs again as she trails her fingers over my chest. “At the party you had before you went to college. I was only fifteen, I think. But everyone knew I had a major crush on you. I never tried to hide it, though. So I guess that part is on me.”
I try to think back to that summer before I left for college, but truthfully it’s in bits and pieces.
“Your dad came up to me while I was sitting on the porch watching all of you guys play football in the backyard. He handed me a bottle of water and sat down right next to me. Hewas making jokes as you guys all ran around, telling me who he thought out of your friends might get drafted.”
“Who’d he say?” I ask, curiosity needing to know where he was wrong since I’m the only one of my friends who actually did.
“None of them,” she whispers. “And he didn’t say it in a rude way. More just like a scout, observing, you know? He said Randall was good, but had no discipline. Vick was smart, had potential, but probably wouldn’t stick with it long enough to make a real go at it…”
“What about me?”
“He said you’d be a first round draft pick.”
A labored chuckle leaves my chest as a small lump forms in my throat before I force it down.
“I challenged him, of course. Said he was just saying that because you were his son, but he threw it right back to me. He said you had a lot to learn, a lot of growing up to do, he had a whole list of things you needed to do before you’d be ready. But he was sure you’d do them all.”
I pull Summer closer to my chest as we lie in bed and my memory races through my time in college in a flash. Every workout, every meal plan, every practice and game. All the nights I said no to parties, to dates. The weekends I would come home for a quick visit and my dad wouldn’t mention a thing about football, he’d let me be home, he’d let me rest and recharge. He always told me that my home should be my safe space. The place I would refocus my mind and recharge my body. I still try to abide by that even today.
“Jack,” I whisper, shaking my head, and Summer laughs.
