Fuck, I’m proud of her.Of course I am.
But there’s this sharp ache in my chest I can’t ignore.All I can think about is that I won’t be there to see it.That sharp little ache doesn’t ask for permission; it just settles in.
She finishes her burger and licks the sauce off her fingers.
My eyes fall to her mouth, and it hits low, my cock thickening fast.
Fuck.
That mouth owns me, and she is completely unaware of it.
I don’t even think.I just blurt out the first thing that comes into my head.
“Do you really think you could ever date someone like me?”
Her fingers freeze mid-lick.
Fuck me, I have to shift in my seat because my cock definitely isn’t sitting right in my jeans anymore.
She blinks slowly, as if she’s trying to figure out whether she misheard or if I’ve truly lost my mind.
“I’m serious,” I say, gaze locked on hers.“Would you?”
She pulls her finger from her mouth so fucking slow I nearly groan.Wipes her hand on a napkin as if she’s buying time, but I see it.That flicker of something in her eyes.
“Someone like you,” she says, tasting the words, “You mean the guy who fucked half the cheer team?”
My mouth twitches.“So you’ve been keeping tabs.”
She rolls her eyes.“You weren’t exactly subtle, Reece.”
I lean in, elbows on the table, a cocky smirk slowly curling at the corner of my mouth.“You say that as if it bothered you.”
She doesn’t answer
So I say it for her.
“No, I wasn’t subtle.I was loud as fuck.I acted like none of it mattered because most of it didn’t.But with you, Red… you were never just another name or another body.You were always the one I noticed when everyone else blurred out.”
Her lips part slightly.That perfect mouth stills as she lifts her head and meets my gaze.
“You were never part of the noise,” I say, my heart pounding as if it’s trying to break through my ribs.“You were the thing I wanted to protect from it.The only thing that ever made me want to be better.”
Silence grows thick between us, hot and charged.
“I know I’ve fucked a lot of things up,” I say.“But I don’t want to screw this up.I don’t want to be that version of myself anymore.Not when you’re sitting across from me, looking at me like I might still have a shot.”
My voice cracks a little on that last word, enough to make it real.
“I want you, Red.Not for the night or for a quick hook-up.This is for fucking real.”
“I don’t know,” she says finally, voice soft.I watch her blink, trying to make sense of me.“You confuse me like crazy, Reece.One minute you’re an asshole, throwing out bullshit to piss me off.Next, you’re telling me stuff no one else gets to hear.Things that really matter.It’s hard to keep up.”
“I confuse the hell out of myself too,” I admit.
Sam watches me.She is cautious, waiting for whatever disaster I’m about to create next.
“But I want to date you,” I say, and fuck, it slips out so fast.No filter or safety net.Only the truth, crashing through my chest and into the space between us.“And yeah, I’ve never done that.But I want to try.With you.”
