“Oh, I see. One minute we’re moving in together, then suddenly, you’re talking me out of my career.” She grabs me hips, struggling to shift me, and in a moment of generosity, I let her flip me onto my back so she can straddle me instead. “Next you’ll be chaining me to the bed.”
My eyes must light up because she sits back on her heels and laughs. “Oh. Don’t think I don’t see you, Mr Clarkson. I understand your evil intentions.”
“And what are you going to do about them?”
She shuffles down my body, leaning to push my tee shirt up so she can trail kisses across my abdomen. “I’m going to teach you a lesson.”
I give a long groan. “No more lessons. It’s bad enough I still have them at school, I refuse to learn anything at home.”
“Really?” She touches the tip of her tongue to the base of my shaft, giving a lick that’s more of a tease than I can stand, and I grab for her.
Esme ducks and jerks out of reach, laughing. “That’ll earn you a detention, naughty boy.”
“Hm. If you’re running it, I’m in.”
I lean forward, grabbing her so securely that she can’t wriggle away and haul her naked body against me, raining kisses across her head. “You’re my good luck charm, you know that?”
“Hm.” She wraps her two hands around my right biceps. “These form because of luck, do they?”
I roll over, pinning her beneath me, loving every movement, every squirm, every tingle of frisson that runs through my skin at her touch.
“There appears to be an outrageous imbalance in our clothing situation.” Her fingers scrabble across my body, attempting a remedy, but I capture her hands with mine and press them to the mattress above her head.
I close my eyes and let my forehead drop until it rests against hers, our breaths synching. My mind wanders to the boy I was when she left me, reexperiencing that twisting despair.
I replay the first moment I saw her again, after ten months of striving, of working, of thinking it would most likely be for nothing. That I wouldn’t be able to do the thing I wanted so desperately to do.
She’d been standing at the window in the study, far from the heart of the party, staring down at the back yard with a wistful expression on her face.
Then she’d turned…
I open my eyes again, cupping her jaw and rubbing at the spot just in front of her ear, the bit that never fails to make her shiver. Every part of me is at peace as I press a kiss to her lips, soft, then harder, devouring.
A kiss that tells her I’ll never get to the finish of everything I enjoy about her. That even if she ran to the ends of the earth, I’d be there waiting.
CHAPTERTWENTY-EIGHT
ESME
Seb linesup the penalty as the match goes into overtime. I hold my clenched hands pressed against my mouth, teeth worrying at my knuckle. He counts out his steps, twisting his body until I can’t understand how he hopes to angle the kick.
Then he runs. Closing the distance with his sturdy grace. His foot lifting the ball high into the air before momentum carries him past it, so he has to turn to see if it makes it over.
I clench my teeth, wincing in anticipation of it hitting the upright, then burst into a whoop of joy as it sails between the goalposts.
Even shouting at the top of my lungs, the sound is drowned out by the noise from the rest of the spectators. As the first home game of the season, the stadium is packed to the gills.
I stand on tiptoes, trying to see if the district coach appears impressed, but I’d need a ladder to get a clear view, so return my attention to Seb. His teammates swamp him, one using his shoulders as a springboard to leap into the air, others ruffling his hair, thumping his back, shaking his neck.
Everyone smiling. Everyone ecstatic.
As soon as the moment is over, I turn to fight my way down into the stands. Once I make it to ground level, I wind through the throngs so I’m near the tunnel as the players exit the field.
The moment Seb’s eyes find me, he runs in a different direction to his team, catching me in his arms and swinging me in a circle while he presses ripe kisses against my cheek, much to the pleasure of the match photographer who was in the perfect place to capture the shot.
While the rest of the players head to the changing rooms, he sways from side to side, seemingly unbothered by the crowd of thousands of people watching us.
I steal a glance.
