The Hardest Fall

“I’m clean, too,” I whispered breathlessly when he let me breathe for a second. My mind was all jumbled up. Was I too late to say that?

“Good,” he murmured and hearing his voice did something to me. He moved his hands under my butt and somehow managed to spread me open wider, manipulating my body in ways I wasn’t prepared for. My butt hurt from his grip, but I didn’t mind the pain; it only fueled what was coming. Suddenly, everything faded away and all I could hear was the rush and roar in my ears. Every nerve ending in my body screamed, and it was all too overwhelming.

“Dylan,” I moaned, half whimpering. “Dylan, right there—faster, yes. Please.”

“Right here?” he asked, fucking me harder. “Are you going to come on my cock? Do you want me to give it to you harder?”

I was seconds away from sweet death, and I only wanted more. My answer was a gasp and an arch of my spine.

“Yeah, that’s it, baby. I’m going to fuck your sweet pussy every day until my last breath, Zoe,” he murmured before biting my neck and sucking my skin, and that was all it took for me to get pulled under by an intense orgasm. He kept fucking me through it, his thighs hitting my wide open legs with the loudest smacking sound as my world turned upside down in his arms.

My breath hitched as he pressed two fingers right against my clit. “Come on, Zoe. Let me have everything.” My toes curled, my eyes rolled back in my head, and I completely froze. Every muscle in my body tensed as pleasure surged through me. I’m not sure how many seconds I lasted without breathing, but when it was over, I couldn’t breathe quickly enough. I gripped his hard, unyielding biceps and groaned as loudly as I could as he slowed yet somehow deepened his thrusts.

“Shit, Zoe,” he murmured, and before I was ready for it, he pulled out, pushed me down with a hand on my stomach, and came all over me in thick spurts. I was fascinated by the way his hand moved on his cock. His hold was tighter than I would’ve dared to squeeze, and he drew out every single drop. I felt a wet line slide down the side of my waist, tickling me.

My body bucked in response and I tipped my head back, closing my eyes.

“Stick a fork in me—I’m done.”

I heard a tired chuckle then felt hands moving on the tops of my thighs.

“You should see the way you look right now.” His words came out just a little more than a whisper, and each one was a caress on my naked skin.

I closed my eyes and stretched. “Let’s do that again,” I said with a dopey smile on my face. “I don’t have the strength to open my eyes, but I can totally do that again.”

This time his chuckle was louder, and it made me shiver all over.

Dylan cleaned me up then kissed me for a full minute. I was over the moon. He helped me dress and then I watched him pull on his own clothes. We managed the impossible and lay down on the couch together. It was worse than his narrow bed in the apartment, yet it couldn’t have been more perfect in my eyes.

“I can’t wait to fuck you in a normal bed.” His voice was all sexy and drowsy, and I’m not ashamed to admit that I wouldn’t have said no to another go, but he looked so sleepy, so tired.

I kissed him, just a gentle sweep of my lips, and his closed eyes opened to find me.

“I don’t want to miss you like that again. You make fun of me for saying it, but you’re my buddy, my best friend. I don’t want to let you go, no matter what.”

“I’m not going anywhere, baby. It’s just us from now on.”

“Just us.” I exhaled, the words giving me life, and then I hesitated. It wasn’t the time, but… “But, you won’t be here next year, and if—”

“Don’t even finish that sentence, Zoe. We’ll figure everything out when the time comes, but believe me when I say I have no intention of letting you go. Just let me sleep with you in my arms and we’ll take it one step at a time tomorrow, okay?”

I snuggled in closer and closed my eyes, breathing in his scent.

Just when I was about to drift off, right in that between space, his voice brought me back to the room.

“I’m going to hate myself for even asking this, but what’s your number?”

I opened my eyes halfway, my brows drawing together in confusion.

“What? What number?”

“How many guys have you slept with?”

“Dylan…” I groaned. “I don’t think that’s—”

“Tell me.”

I sighed. “Three.”

“Three,” he repeated, his body tense around me.

“It’s not that many, and I definitely don’t want to hear yo—”

His body tensed further behind me. “Not that many?” he asked incredulously. His fingers pulsed around my wrist. “That’s three too many.” I felt him rest his forehead against the back of my head. “I wish I could’ve been your first. I know I probably sound like a caveman saying that, but even picturing you near another man makes the blood boil in my veins. I can’t stand to picture you in someone else’s bed, lying just like this.” He pulled me closer. “Just me from now on—I’ll be the only one touching you, kissing you, holding you, fucking you.”

“You won’t hear any complaints from me on that,” I returned after a few seconds passed and his body gradually thawed.

That night, I got the best sleep after weeks of being miserable, and I was pretty sure Dylan did too.

Chapter Thirty

Dylan

A few months later…

It was the big day—draft day. I’d woken up before the sunrise in the hotel room we were staying at in Arlington, Texas, where the draft would be held. My dad, my mom, Amelia, Mason, my agent—everyone was there to support me. Well, all but one. The one person that was missing had just landed fifteen minutes ago, and I was getting restless and impatient waiting for her at the airport.

When she still hadn’t come out, I headed for a shop to grab a bottle of water. I wasn’t sure if my excitement was because I was about to see Zoe or because of the big day—probably a mixture of both—and even though it sounded ridiculous to miss her so much since it’d only been a handful days since I’d left her back in Los Angeles in the shitty little apartment we shared with another student, I’d already accepted that everything was different with her.

I’d never been a jealous person in my life, not to the extent that I was with Zoe, and while sometimes the intensity of my feelings for her scared the shit out of me, I wouldn’t have had it any other way. If it meant I’d feel like a Neanderthal trying to keep her away from every person who had a dick between their legs, I’d make my peace with it. As far as I knew, she had no complaints either, which might have had something to do with the fact that I kissed her senseless every time she was about to complain, but we’ll never know for sure.

As I waited in line to pay for my water, someone poked me in the shoulder. I turned around and there she was, smiling, glowing, bouncing on her feet, hands covering her mouth.

My lips stretched into a big grin.

“Where did you come from?”

Instead of answering, she squealed and wrapped her arms around me. Chuckling, I returned her hug and held her tighter. After a long moment, she looked up at me and smiled.

“I missed you.”

“Yeah?”

“You have no idea.”