by Lainey Davis
The air is heavy between us and my hands start shaking. I want so badly to tell Baxter the truth—to stop hiding how I feel and just take that leap. Ask him what he’s trying to hide. Let myself be with him.
Down the hall, Tim is probably coming to and having to make a choice.
Baxter was right about the rabid paparazzi. Social media “influencers” and sports reporters flooded into the hospital as soon as Kevan was done talking. I saw online pictures from the banquet hall, with Kev stroking Tim’s hair in his lap after I set his shoulder.
Tim’s either going to have to lie to the media to keep up the ruse that he’s straight, or he’s going to risk losing his family to be with the man he loves.
Baxter and I both lost our families a long time ago. We know how dark that path can be. But right now, sitting across from him at the shitty hospital cafeteria, it doesn’t feel so scary to reach out and rub his leg. So I do. “Bax,” I whisper. He rests his hand on top of mine on his rock-hard thigh. “Take me home.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Bax
By the time I get Olive back to my place, she’s shaking all over. I don’t know if she’s cold, or if it’s the adrenaline. It’s probably both, if memory serves. I don’t say much in the car. Something definitely shifted with us after hearing Kevan’s story. The way she put her hand on my leg in the cafeteria…that was different.
I’m not expecting any of my roommates to be home yet—they’re probably all still at the damn banquet gossiping about what the hell happened with me and Kevan. But I’m relieved all the same when the suite is empty. I get Olive right inside the door and start peeling her out of my suit jacket.
“Livvy,” I say, my voice quiet. My throat tight. “You’re trembling and you stink.”
She laughs a little, but her teeth are chattering. “You always get the shakes after something intense. We need to get you in the shower, baby,” I say to her, and she nods, pulling her arms across her chest, shivering. I step into the bathroom and crank on the hot water in the shower, and then come back out to her. Olive is struggling to unstrap her shoe, hopping on one foot with shaking hands.
“Let me do that,” I tell her, kneeling on the floor in front of her. I gently lift one foot and try to get the straps unhooked. The buckle is tiny and I have huge fucking troll fingers. That’s what Olive calls them. I finally manage both shoes and I see that her knees are knocking together. It’s definitely adrenaline. She must have been totally holding back how shaken up she was to have to help Tim like that at the dance.
“Hey,” I whisper, helping her out of her pants. Trying not to look. I’m just helping her. Just helping my friend. “You never told me what had you upset at the banquet. When you ran off.”
She shakes her head. “It’s ssssstupid,” she says, through chattering teeth.
“Not stupid,” I tell her, rubbing my hands up and down her legs, trying to warm her up a bit before I help her get in the shower. Fuck, the skin on her thighs is like silk. “You could never be stupid.”
I move my hands to her bare arms, rubbing her soft skin. I feel her start to relax under my hands and I see so much trust in her face. God, she’s perfect. “You knew just what to do today, Livvy,” I tell her. “I’m in awe of you. You’re magic,” I tell her. On my knees in front of her, my face is just about level with hers. I extend my head up and kiss the tip of her nose. She sucks in her breath in a little gasp. “Your touch always makes me feel better, Olive. Always.” I’m rubbing her face now, her collar bones in that sexy fucking tank top that reeks of Kevan’s puke.
I can see her nipples standing out, straining against the fabric. I swallow, trying my hardest to remember that I’m trying to help her here, that it would be totally sleazy to make a move on her when she’s shivering. “Let me put you in the shower,” I say, and when she nods, I pick her up.
I love the weight of her cradled in my arms. I love the feel of her curves against me. “I wanted to look sexy,” she says, her voice quiet.
“You what?”
“At the banquet,” she says, shrugging out of the stained tank top. I grab it from her and throw it away, trying not to look at her body as she stands in front of me wearing just a bra and panties. “I wanted to look sexy so someone would want to sleep with me,” Olive says.
I close my eyes and rest my head against the tile. I’m trying to maintain discipline and it’s not going well. “Are you ok getting in the shower?” I need to get out of here. I need to keep my eyes shut. I need to respond to what she said in a way that doesn’t ruin everything.
“Bax,” she says. I hear her pull back the curtain and climb in. “Come in with me.”
Come in with me, like it’s nothing. But at this point my control is gone. I have the woman of my dreams standing in front of me, naked and wet.
“Warm me up, Baxter,” she says, so I climb into the shower in what’s left of my tux. I blink beneath the water and stare at Olive. I stare at her from the tips of her painted toes and all up her magnificent body to her brown eyes, that are scanning mine and looking for an answer.
“You are the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen,” I tell her in a hushed voice.
My hand reaches out and cups the back of her neck, pulling her against me beneath the spray of the water, and then I’m kissing her and everything else melts away.
Like my dream the other night, her lips are pillowy and soft, hungry and wanting. I increase the pressure, the intensity, needing more of her. My tongue explores her mouth and I feel little moans escape her while her hands gather the wet fabric of my shirt.
Olive pulls back from the kiss. “I need you, Baxter,” she tells me. “I’ve always needed you.” And then she delves in, her tongue running along my teeth. I feel her teeth close in on my lower lip and my eyes fly open in surprise.
“Livvy.” My voice sounds hoarse and ragged. “I need you so fucking bad.”
One of my hands snakes around her waist, rolling along the swell of her hip. The other moves from her neck to her lower lip and as I rub my thumb along her sensitive skin, she sucks it into her mouth and groans.
Shit.
I take a step back and start peeling out of my wet clothes. As I struggle with my belt, I feel Olive’s hands on my waist. She helps me slide the wet pants down in a clump with my boxers and my cock, achingly hard, springs out. I hiss when she reaches a hand out to stroke my length.
“Christ, that feels good,” I tell her. I’ve imagined this moment thousands of times over the years. I jerked off repeatedly to the idea of touching a naked Olive. But the reality of doing that is so much better than any fantasy I dreamed up. To be here with her, actually holding her—she has me on fire.
Olive’s hands dance across my chest in the water, igniting my blood and sending shivers of pleasure through my spine. Suddenly everything about her feels too far away. I lift her up and she wraps her legs around my waist as I settle my hands against her ass.
“Bax, yes,” she whispers as I back her up against the tile wall. We fit together perfectly. Her center is pressed right against my crotch and I can feel her pert nipples against my chest. I find her mouth again with mine and dive in like a man starving.
Biting at her lower lip, I whisper, “tell me what you like, Olive. I want to make you feel good.”
She closes her eyes as I pull one hand up to cup her breast, my thumb tracing the rosy peak of her nipple. “I don’t know, Bax. I’ve never done this before.”
“Really? Never?” I knew I was a bear about keeping guys away from Olive, but I didn’t know she was a virgin. The thought of being the first man inside her, of claiming her and never letting go…I almost finish right here in the shower before we begin.
“I want you to be my first, Bax. Please.” Olive wraps her hands tightly around my neck and pulls me in, nuzzling her nose against mine and kissing me again. I start to worry about what this means, about where we go next. But that all fades away when I hear her moan my name. I’m left with pure wan
t and need, laser focused on Olive and making her mine. As she begins to rock her hips and I feel her moist heat against my cock, I realize I’m going to need more space than a shower stall to do this properly.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Olive
I CAN’T BELIEVE this is really happening. I can’t believe I finally took the leap and told Baxter that I want him. I worried so much about what it would feel like, that I’d be awkward or he’d be turned off by my inexperience, but he has my blood singing in the shower and his little moans make it seem like he’s as into this as I am.
Bax reaches behind me and shuts off the water and, still carrying me, stalks down the hall to his bedroom. I laugh, because we’re both still soaked and dripping wet, but Baxter doesn’t seem to care. He places me gently in the middle of his bed and runs his fingers through my wet hair.
“Olive,” he says. “I want to make you come.” I feel the blush creep up my body, but one look at the hunger in his eyes and my timidity slips away.
My breath hitches as he drops his mouth to one breast, sucking and pulling as the tender nerves fire throughout my body. His big hand covers my other breast, kneading and gently rubbing until he switches sides. When both nipples are drawn long from his mouth, he pops off and the cool, wet air makes my nipples pucker even more.
Bax leans on his elbows, his weight settled in between my legs, and stares down at me like I’m a work of art. “So beautiful,” he says, and his wandering hands trace along my sides, brushing the tops of my thighs and then spreading me open.
“Oh,” I gasp as he slides a hand inside me, rubbing along my slit. I’m wet, and not from the shower, but from the things he’s doing to my body.
“You like that, baby?” Baxter looks up at me to make sure I’m comfortable, but his fingers are making me feel so good I have no words.
I nod my head and, with that permission, he drops a kiss right onto my clit. I feel the warm heat of his breath and then his tongue slides inside me. My hands fist into his hair as he begins to lick along my seam, thrusting his tongue and groaning. My hips begin to roll against him involuntarily, lifting off the bed to meet his mouth until Baxter adds a finger along with his tongue.
He bites my clit gently between his teeth as his finger slides inside and I detonate. “Baxter! Yes! I’m coming now, now, NOW,” I scream. I thrash on the damp sheets, moaning in pleasure until he starts to crawl back up my body, peppering kisses all along my stomach.
“That was amazing, Livvy,” he says, his voice low and reverent. “I’ve dreamed about what you’d look like when you come.”
“Mmmm.” I can’t get it together to answer him, to ask if I met his expectations, but he grins and says, “The real thing is better.”
Climbing fully on top of me, he nestles against my body and I love the weight of him, the feel of my nipples against his warm skin, the slight tickle of his chest hair. I wrap my legs around his waist and I feel the huge length of his cock, hot and throbbing between us. “I want you inside me,” I say to him. “SO much, Bax.”
He kisses me again and starts to reach for the night stand, but I catch his arm. “Wait,” I say. I can taste myself on his mouth and I find it so arousing I almost forget what I was planning to tell him.
“What is is, baby?”
“I’m on the pill,” I tell him between kisses. “I’ve been on it awhile for other stuff…and I trust you.”
Rising up onto his forearms, Baxter cocks his head to the side and studies me. “What are you saying?”
I reach up to stroke his curls, my curls now, and run my fingers along his jaw. “I’m saying I want you to make love to me with nothing in between us. Just us.”
“Oh fuck, Olive,” Baxter moans and I see a bead of pre-cum glisten at the tip of his cock. I reach out to explore this most unfamiliar part of him, tracing my fingers along the ridges and veins, wondering how it will feel to have this hot length stretching me open.
I can feel his heart rate increase as I continue and I start rocking my hips again, grinding against his hard body, desperate for another release. “You make me so hot, Bax. Please!”
“Oh, Livvy. You don’t need to beg me,” he says, adjusting his position. He puts a hand to his cock and lines the head up against my body. I feel tight with anticipation, but he kisses me so softly. “Are you sure? Are you sure you want it to be me?”
“Bax,” I gasp. “It’s always been you. Please.”
When he slides in, so slowly, I feel a sting at first and our eyes meet. He stills as my body adjusts and before he moves again, I see his eyes well up. “Livy,” he whispers. “I love you so much.”
“I love you, too, Bax. I’ve always loved you.” My hands press into his back, drawing his chest against mine, and I wrap my legs further around his hips as he sinks a bit deeper inside me. “Feels so good,” I whisper, echoing his words from the other night.
When Baxter begins to move, my ability to concentrate evaporates. This connection I feel with him is so powerful, so huge, and through it all, my body sings with desire as he strums up every nerve ending I’ve got. Each thrust of his hips catches my clit just right so the tingling sensation builds as he gains momentum.
His eyes close and he presses his forehead against mine, rocking gently and then picking up the pace to thrust hard. Our bodies are in synch and my hips rise to meet his. “Oh, fuck, Livvy, this feels so fucking good,” he grunts out.
I feel the delicious, slippery glide of his skin moving inside my wet heat, and I bear down until I’m gripping his cock with everything that I’ve got. His eyes shoot wide open and he holds my gaze as he reaches in between us. His big thumb works tight circles on my clit until I’m moaning his name again. “Bax! Yes!”
I come again, and my body contracts, squeezing his cock impossibly tight until his body tenses, too. I feel the hot spurts of his release deep inside me again and again as he moans, my name on his lips. I can hardly believe I have him in my arms this way, naked and beside himself, spilling inside me. “Livvy,” he whispers as he comes. “Oh, fuck, baby, I love you.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Olive
I WAKE UP naked, curled around Baxter in bed, and so unbelievably happy. Every muscle in my body aches when I inhale after a night spent making love repeatedly. I feel like I have so much ground to cover with Baxter, so much time to make up after so many years of wanting him.
Every time I told him I was exhausted and needed to sleep last night, he bit my ear lobe and told me he needed to try just one more thing. Then he made me come so hard I saw spots.
His alarm goes off around 9 for his PT before Sunday workouts. He opens his eyes, long ashes curling at the ends, and his face is so close to mine.
I love that I feel this nearness with him, this electrifying new honesty where I can just kiss him when I feel like it. Which is all the time. As his phone vibrates and dances across his night stand, I pull him in and moan into his mouth.
“Mmmm, morning, Olive,” he says. “Baby, you’re going to make me miss my session.” He juts his hips forward and I gasp, feeling him hard against my belly again.
“How can it just jump right back up into action so fast?” I reach down to grab my new favorite body part, but Baxter pushes my hand away.
“He knows what he wants,” he says. “But I’ll have to catch you a little later, ok? I have to keep my shoulder loose.”
Bax climbs out of bed and I admire the shape of his ass, his thick, powerful thighs. He rummages around in his drawers and tosses me some clothes to put on since mine are presumably still crumpled in his hall, covered in puke or wet from the shower. “Here, babe, you can wear these til you get home and changed.”
He watches while I slip into his t-shirt, snorting out a laugh when the short sleeves reach nearly to my wrists. “What am I going to do about shoes,” I muse, trying to imagine myself walking home in my heels from last night.
“If you hurry your ass up, I’ll drop you off outside your dorm and you can
just run in barefoot.” He crawls back across the bed and kisses me as I wriggle into his sweats.
I can’t stop thinking about the sound of his voice when he tells me he loves me, which he does at least ten times during the ride to McPherson Hall. In a dreamy haze, I unlock my door and change for my own shift at the training room.
It doesn’t even occur to me to check on Tim as I walk to work, humming and remembering the feel of Bax’s fingers along my body. Remembering the slick, smooth sensation of him filling me. The way his cock feels gliding in and out of my body…I can’t believe I’ve been missing out on this for so long.
I don’t notice the awkward silence in the training room until I’ve hung up my bag and turn around to see Emily staring at me, biting her lip. “What?” I whisper to her, looking around. There’s a few swimmers scattered around, but mostly the room seems quiet. And then I see Justin glowering in the door of his office.
“Olive, get in here,” he says, his voice cold. “Now.” He turns around and I hear the groan of his desk chair as he sinks into it.
My eyes go wide and Emily reaches out to squeeze my hand. “It’ll be ok,” she tells me. “I promise. I’m going to stay right here and keep my eyes on the office, ok?”
My heart pounds as I walk toward his office, and I’m barely inside before he starts screaming at me. “Do you have any idea what the hell you’ve done?”
Justin shouts about practicing medicine without a license and unsupervised, reckless behavior. “You could have permanently injured Tim,” he screams. “In a room full of doctors. There was absolutely NO REASON for you to do what you did.”
I know it’s not worth interrupting him to explain the chaos of that hallway. I don’t need to tell him that Tim was in agony and that I had Bax call 911 immediately. I believe eventually, Bax could have procured one of the doctors from in at the banquet, but pandemonium would have ensued in that hall. I stand patiently, biting my lip and listening as Justin yells at me until I hear him utter the unthinkable.
