Page 36 of Catch Me (Becoming Us #4)

Travis

After our tacos, I was beyond stuffed. We’d eaten them while watching The Last Sharknado , because why the hell not? I must’ve fallen asleep at some point, though. When my eyes opened, it was going through the end credits, and the sun was low, casting shadows in the living room.

I groaned as I stretched out my legs. My elbow collided with something, and I sat straight up.

An arm came around my chest, pulling me back down.

I wrapped my fingers around Roman’s bicep and turned my face so it was buried in his abdomen while I splayed out on his lap.

My other hand hung off the couch, and I stroked his bare calf.

He adjusted, probably trying to hide the fact that my touch was turning him on.

“Enjoy the movie?” he asked in a deliciously husky voice.

“Mhm.” I used my teeth to lift his shirt above his belly button, then kissed his skin.

“You fell asleep.”

“Did not,” I mumbled against his stomach. “Was watching the whole time. ”

“Sure you were. Fuck.” He groaned as I kissed the side of his ribs.

“Tacos might be an aphrodisiac for me.”

“So, you liked them?”

“I won’t say no if you make them again.”

Just as I was moving my lips lower, Tessa leapt onto the couch. Roman laughed and reached out to pet her ears. “You’re neglecting her.”

Letting his shirt fall over his stomach, I sat up and scratched her chest. “She just doesn’t know how to relax.”

“Sounds like someone else I know. We should take her on a walk.”

“Yeah,” I sighed. “She did get left behind when we went running this morning.”

Her head cocked, which told me she knew exactly which crime I was talking about. If I didn’t make it up to her, she’d probably hold it against me for life.

“Okay.” I got to my feet and stretched. “But just a walk.”

“Being lazy?” he teased.

“Nah, but I can’t talk to you on a run. There are a million things I need to learn about you before the weekend is up.”

He didn’t say anything, and his lips settled into a line. I wanted to ask about it, but he got to his feet.

“I’ll change.”

And like that, he was gone, just a disappearing figure down the hall.

I looked at Tessa and arched a brow. “He’s a tough nut to crack. We can do it, though, huh?”

She barked, her tail going a hundred miles an hour.

Yeah, we could do it. He was stubborn, but so were Tessa and I.

*****

“Alright, turbo!” I called. “I said just a walk.”

Roman chuckled beside me, which was one of the only sounds I’d heard from him since we left the house.

Something had made him retreat into his protective shell, and I was determined to bring him back out, but I knew that I couldn’t do it by force unless I wanted a fight on my hands.

An anxious dog could be more dangerous than an aggressive one, simply because they were unpredictable.

As much as I wanted to push Roman, there were some t imes when I needed to let him come to me, otherwise I’d get bit.

“I’ve never known how to relax,” I said, putting one hand in my pocket as we walked. I let my other one brush against Roman’s, giving him a chance to get used to it. He pulled it away immediately, but after a second, he relaxed again. “My parents had their hands full with me.”

“What were you like?”

I smiled, enjoying the fact that he wanted to know. “Exactly how you’d expect, probably. By the time I started walking, I was also trying to climb trees. I jumped off of everything and gave my mom a heart attack on the regular. They always let me get it out, though.”

“Will you tell me about your mom?”

“She was like sunshine,” I replied, staring into the trees ahead of us. “She loved to garden and be in nature. We used to go on hikes every weekend, even when it rained.”

He breathed a laugh. “She sounds like you.”

The thought warmed me. “She said I had the kind of spirit that needed to grow. Like, if you put a plant in a small pot, it won’t reach its full potential, so she wanted me to explore the world around me without holding myself back.

‘You’re gonna be sad sometimes,’ she told me.

‘That’s life, but it’s better to be sad surrounded by pure and beautiful things.

’ That’s why we went on a hike when I lost my first game of the season in sixth grade.

“She could also put the fear of God in a man,” I went on.

“If I was really acting up, she could shut it down with a single look most of the time. Usually, she didn’t have to do that, though.

I respected the hell out of her and hated to disappoint her.

My dad—he looked at her like she hung the moon. ”

Roman’s fingers brushed mine, and I thought it was intentional, but he didn’t take my hand. “She seems like the best person.”

I hummed my agreement. “Only the good die young, right?”

This time, he let our palms slide against each other. I took the initiative, feeling like he was ready for it, and threaded my fingers with his. It took him a second, but he curled his fingers over my hand, and I couldn’t hold back my smile.

“What . . .” He paused. “What happened to her? ”

I squeezed his hand. “I’ll tell you sometime. It’s your turn to tell me something.”

“Ugh, fine.”

His acceptance made me perk up. “Why Chicago?”

“It’s a good school.”

“Try again. I’m not asking for surface-level Roman tonight.”

He huffed. “It is a good school, but also... I guess I needed some distance to figure myself out. Without all of these other influences. Without the things that shaped me into who I was, because I didn’t really like that person.

I didn’t know what I was looking for when I left home, but I knew that I wouldn’t find it there. I also knew that...”

“What?”

His voice was quiet when he responded. “I knew if something didn’t change, I’d stop convincing myself to keep trying.”

My chest constricted. I wanted to go on a spiel, but I could tell from the way his grip on my hand loosened that he was already close to pulling away from me. I let him drop my hand, but I slung my arm around his shoulders and planted a kiss on his temple, which made him tense.

“Loser does dishes,” I said before I shoved away from him and sprinted for the house.

His footsteps behind me told me he’d taken me up on the challenge. For a second, I thought about letting him beat me by a hair, but that sort of shit wasn’t in my nature. Tessa won, of course, and I came in second. Throwing my arms in the air, I turned around to gloat.

Roman’s chest was rising and falling rapidly, and he was locked on to me. The expression was sort of feral.

Fuck the dishes.

I closed the distance between us in two strides. As my hand settled at his nape, his arm wrapped around my waist, pulling me as close as humanly possible. Unless we were naked.

Our mouths collided ungracefully, all teeth and tongue and desperation.

He backed me up, throwing the door open without pausing.

It didn’t take long for us to reach the kitchen, and when I collided with the island, I lifted myself onto it.

He stepped between my legs and let his hands shift to my thighs .

Unable to simply let it lie, I gripped his hair and pulled him back a fraction. “Look at me.”

He met my eyes and cocked a brow. “I’m looking. It’s making me sorta nauseous.”

“Do I make you nervous?”

“Nah, you’re just kinda ugly.”

I punched him in the stomach, making him grunt. When he looked at me, though, he was smiling.

“Roman,” I said, getting serious again. “You don’t have to figure everything out alone.” When he tried to turn away, I took him by the chin. “I can’t stop the things you feel right now or as you keep going. They’re inevitable. But if you ever feel like that , you’re going to tell me.”

He turned his head, breaking my grip. “Don’t do that.”

“I have to.”

“I’m not one of your followers asking for help,” he snapped.

The corner of my mouth lifted. “You kinda were, though.”

When he tried to step back, I wrapped my legs around him, holding him in place. He could’ve gotten free, but he didn’t try.

“I’m serious,” I told him. “Doesn’t matter where you are or what’s going on. I’ll be there. I’m sorta clingy, remember?”

He nodded once. “Maybe I need that.” He said it barely loud enough for me to hear, like he really didn’t want to put those words out in the world. But he had. And that was a beautiful thing.

I yawned and glanced at the clock on the stove. It was barely ten, but I was beat. Maybe I’d blame Roman for emotional distress or some shit.

He took my hand, pulling on it until I hopped off the counter. “You’re tired.”

“Maybe a little.”

“Go to bed or you’ll be grumpy when your child wakes you up at five.”

I groaned as I maneuvered out from between him and the counter.

He didn’t do much to make it easier for me.

Once we made it down the hall, he walked directly into his room, leaving me behind.

It was worse when he pulled off his shirt.

Dropping onto his bed, he laid on his back and positioned his arm behind his neck.

Was he flexing? Asshole .

Even though I wanted to touch him, I turned and opened my door.

But, self-awareness be damned, I turned right back around and memorized the hunger in his eyes as I headed straight for him.

Putting one knee on the bed, I grasped his jaw and held him in place.

I stopped just before our lips met and drew in a long breath.

When he tried to close the small distance, I gripped him tighter.

“I’m going to think about the way your cock felt against me while I make myself cum.”

His lips parted and a small, desperate sound escaped. It took everything I had to keep myself from kissing him.

Stroking his jaw with my thumb, I continued. “If I knew that you were doing the same, right across the hall...” I groaned and brushed his nose with mine.

Without another word, I released him and forced myself to leave the room. I closed his door, then mine. My heart was racing as I undressed and climbed into the bed. The fact that I was in it alone was a bit depressing, but the idea of doing exactly what I told him I would felt thrilling.

I’d barely touched my cock when my phone buzzed. It nearly fell out of my hand when I saw the picture he’d sent me.

Holy fuck.

Jesus.

I was having a stroke, for sure.

Blowing out a shaky breath, I stared at his very hard, very beautiful cock on the screen. With his fingers wrapped around it, I got a pretty good idea of how thick it was. I wasn’t in need of any motivation to get myself off, but it certainly didn’t hurt.

Another text came in and I smiled.

Roman: Just so you know I’m doing the same

Well, I wasn’t a ‘send nudes’ kind of person, but it’d be rude not to return the favor. While I stroked myself, I stared at his cock and imagined him making the same motions while he made himself cum, hopefully with my name on his lips.