Chapter 16
Bennett
I might look like I’m keeping my shit together, but it’s a facade. I’m freaking the fuck out on the inside.
This is really happening. After avoiding each other, and us tripping through this stupid little dance we’ve been doing, we’re finally talking.
Me naked, him clothed, in the locker room shower at the hockey rink. But still, we’re doing this. Right here, right now.
And I’m so damn afraid, because depending on what he says next, I’m about to put it all out on the line. If he rejects me, if he tells me he won’t ever be ready for something real with me, I’ll accept it. Doesn’t mean it’s not going to break my heart.
Because, despite trying to convince myself otherwise, I know I’m in love with Easton. I always have been. Only the love I had for him when we were younger was different than the love I have for him now.
Back then, it was new, exciting, but also confusing. Now it’s raw and charged, thrilling and terrifying.
I’m no longer confused. I know what I want. It’s the man in front of me, piercing my soul with his hazel-green eyes.
He stares at me for a long beat, and every second twists my heart into knots. “I never hated you,” he rasps.
He’s told me this before, back when the truth came out about him and Taylor. But hearing it here, now? Witnessing his raw vulnerability so openly? It feels sincere.
“I wanted to hate you. Trust me, I did. It would have made life a hell of a lot easier. But I couldn’t.” He huffs out a laugh. “Because it’s you. Bennett Tatum. The best friend I could dependon for anything. The boy who saw past money and status, where I lived, and who my parents were, and only saw me.”
My pulse is going wild, my body trembles from the electricity in this moment. I stand silently and listen to every word he says, trying not to say or do anything that might fuck up the moment.
“You were my person. The one thing in my life that never let me down. How could I not fall in love with you, when you're so damn easy to love?”
Fuck. There goes my damn heart.
“I thought maybe with time those feelings would go away. That this was just some stupid crush, because I was a dumb kid who literally had nothing else to lose. But as the years went on, there was always this piece of me missing, something that I was longing for. I tried to convince myself I hated you, and that you meant nothing to me. But the moment we became roommates, forced to be together all the fucking time, I realized that I never hated you at all. If anything, I crave you more now than I ever have in my life.”
“I mean, have you looked at me?” I rasp with my heart lodged in my throat, trying to make a joke, as I wave at my naked body. “I’m pretty irresistible.”
His lips curve into a smile and I feel droplets of water from his soaked hair hit my cheeks as he shakes his head. I damn near die, because holy shit, this is reallyhappening.
“I can’t argue with that.” He licks his lips, stepping forward. We’re so close, so fucking close. I want to reach out and grab him, crash my lips to his, and consume every fucking inch of him. “But it’s not just your body I crave. It’s all of you. The banter, the stubbornness, the times you make me want to strangle you, but also the times you make me want to hold you. Kiss you. Touch you.”
I swallow hard, head spinning, body buzzing with anticipation.
“You drive me fucking insane in every way.”
“What are you trying to say, Easton?” I love his confession, but if I hear a but, or this heads in another direction, I think I’ll actually die in this shower stall.
“I’m trying to say that I fucking love you, you dumb ass.” He growls. The next thing I know, he’s grabbed my face with both hands and crashes his mouth down onto mine.
Everything inside me lights up like a fucking Christmas tree, like fireworks going off inside my veins. My stomach is in knots in all the best ways, and fuck, I’m harder than I’ve ever been in my entire life.
I grab the back of his head, kissing him with just as much fervor. He licks the seam of my lips, asking me to let him in. When I do, and our tongues tangle together, I revel in the taste of heaven and sin. I’ll never get enough.
“I love you, too,” I pant against his lips before kissing him again. “You fucking own me, Easton. You always have, and always will.”
He growls against my lips, kissing me harder.
I lose sensible thought as my body thrums with pleasure.
This kiss... it’s different from the last, but just as wild.
I’ve wanted this for so long, never allowing myself to give up hope that one day I’d have my best friend back. Not only my best friend, but the man I’ve loved for so fucking long.
