Elise leaned into me again, and I looked down at her. “Hey,” I whispered.
“Hey, there. I can’t believe I kissed you in front of everybody in this room,” she mumbled.
I raised a brow. “If I remember right, I’m the one who kissed you.”
“But I asked.”
“Maybe. Or perhaps we did what we should have.”
“I still can’t believe you’re also the guy I saw across the coffee shop.”
“When your mouth went slack, and you just couldn’t help but fall in love with me?” I teased.
She rolled her eyes. “Yes, sure, that’s exactly what happened.”
I snorted and kissed her softly. “Merry Christmas, Elise.”
“Merry Christmas, Dillon. I got you a gift, you know.”
“I thought you were my gift.”
“And what? Are you going to unwrap me later?” she asked, her voice low.
My dick went hard, and I swallowed. “Well, if you’re going down that path…” I began and laughed. We’d been together the night before in quiet peace, but the teasing was slow to come. It would take time. We’d been through too much in the past month, and we were still finding our footing. But we would. Because we’d found each other. “I love you,” I whispered.
“Hey, I love you, too. Now, let’s get some cheese before the rest of the horde steals it.”
“You always say the sweetest things.”
I kissed her again before we went to join the others. I hadn’t meant to fall in love at my age. Hadn’t thought I ever would. I’d always been the one who helped my family when I could and watched my brothers fall in love one by one, each under harder circumstances than the last as the years went on. They had each come to me for and with advice. It had taken falling in love myself to realize the chance they had taken for that hope.
A chance I had freely fallen into.
One I would take again and again when it came to Elise.
She was more than my one night. She was my everything.
Mackenzie
After fifteen years, you would think I would be used to searching out and finding my boyfriend. However, it seemed to annoy me more and more these days. Mostly because finding Sanders sometimes took an act of God. My heart hurt too much at the moment to focus on others.
I knew he had to be in the house somewhere. After all, this was his holiday party—his and his roommates’. I just needed to find him. Even though he was usually the life of the party, he sometimes liked to step away and give himself some space. It made sense. He was great at being the center of attention until it got to be too much, and he needed a break. Just to breathe. I was the same way, so I knew I would probably find him in his room as Dillon had said.
I waved at the others, though I didn’t recognize a few. This wasn’t my home, even though I had been staying here for the past week. I needed to find a new place to live, and through the worst set of unimaginable circumstances, I might’ve found some new roommates. But I didn’t want to think about that right now. I didn’t want to think about the fact that I would be a replacement. A placeholder for someone I truly adored and would rather have in my life with me living in a box on the street. I missed Corinne.
I shoved those thoughts from my mind and walked up the stairs. Sanders’ room was in the center of the five bedrooms upstairs. Apparently, the guys had all drawn straws or something to find out which one of them would get the biggest room. I remember Sanders grumbling that he’d wanted the largest room, mostly because he had the most stuff, but he hadn’t minded in the end. As long as he had had a place to sleep so we could go to class, he said he was fine. And that was good with me.
I heard rustling inside the room and figured he must be changing or something. I opened the door, a wide smile on my face.
And then the floor fell out from under me. I didn’t know if I saw rage, anger, sadness, or an end of everything that I had thought purposeful.
Sanders sat on the edge of the bed, his pants down to his knees, his head thrown back in ecstasy. He’d tangled his fingers in the hair of some redheaded girl I had never seen before, and her lips were around my boyfriend’s cock—around my future husband’s cock.
Tonight was a holiday party. A party to say goodbye to a semester and a friend we all knew and loved and had lost too soon.
And my boyfriend was getting a blowjob from a girl who wasn’t me.
She hummed, and Sanders let out a grown. I knew what was coming next. I’d given that man enough blowjobs in my life to know exactly what he looked like when he came.
He came hard, his whole body practically vibrating, and the girl lapped him up, the two of them not even realizing I was there.
Was I supposed to say something? Was I supposed to run out and yell and do something?
This wasn’t happening. I had plans. Everything was in place. I was going to marry him, we were going to have careers and a family. Those were the plans we had discussed. It wasn’t just me. We may joke that I was an anal-retentive bitch who liked things in order, but Sanders had been there right alongside me, making those promises, those plans.
We were supposed to get engaged next year. He’d told me so.
And now some girl was sucking him off.
I must have made a sound because the girl looked up, her eyes wide. She scrambled back immediately. Oh, this one knew what she had done. She wouldn’t be so scared if she didn’t know who I was. Even if I didn’t know who the fuck she was.
Sanders looked at me then, tucked his now flaccid penis into his boxer briefs, and cringed. “Hey there, hon. I didn’t know you were coming up here.”
I just blinked. His words echoed in my head, and I tried to keep up. “Are you kidding me right now? You’re getting a blowjob from a girl, and now you’re blaming me for walking into the room that I have spent every night in this past week? Our friend died last week, Paul. We’re still mourning, even if we pretend what’s going on downstairs is a party.”
Paul Sanders swallowed hard. “Hey, you know it’s just for fun. It’s only a blowjob. I mean, really, don’t freak the fuck out. I’m just trying it out, babe. We’re going to be together for the rest of our lives. I don’t want to be with just you, though. I’m sure you’ve gotten off with some other guy or given a blowjob. I mean, it’s what we do, right?”
My mouth filled with bile, and I felt like I surely couldn’t be hearing what I thought I was. This was not happening. This couldn’t be happening.
Instead of saying anything, instead of standing up for myself as I should, I nearly fell backward as I started to run. I ran right into Pacey’s chest. Tanner was at his side, both of them glowering. Tanner fisted his hands at his sides as Pacey wrapped his hands around my arms, keeping me steady. Sanders finally stood up and zipped his fly.
“Hey, guys, can you give us some privacy? It’s just that me and my girl have a few things to discuss.”
“I...I need to go...” I whispered. I wasn’t even sure I’d spoken aloud, but Pacey’s hold tightened slightly.
“Oh, we’re going to have this out right now,” Tanner growled. “What the fuck do you think you’re doing? I should kick your fucking ass for hurting her.”