Page 17 of Hold Me Closer

Teo

" A re you sure this is a good idea?" Nadia eyes me, suspicion clouding her hazel eyes as we drive toward her place. "As soon as they see your SUV parked out front, they're going to lose their minds."

I cut my eyes in her direction, grinning. "Let them, butterfly."

"Easy for you to say. Your manager doesn't think I'm the devil."

My smile grows. "The devil, huh?"

"Close enough."

I laugh quietly, reaching for her hand. "I'm a changing man, baby.

I promised my publicist to be on my best behavior so I don't fuck up your reputation.

No more bar fights. No more fighting during games.

" I pause. "I even agreed to consider alcohol education and partnering with a charity for an image overhaul. "

Nadia blinks wide eyes at me. "Alcohol education?"

"I'm not an alcoholic," I murmur, pulling to a stop at a traffic light beside a blacked-out limo. "But half the goddamn world thinks I'm drunk when I get in bar fights. The league wants me in alcohol education to prove my commitment to self-improvement. Or some shit like that."

I still think it's bullshit, and I don't particularly want to do it. Is football really worth all this? I'm not sure it ever has been, honestly. That's the thought I keep coming back to. Once upon a time, I loved the game. I loved being on the field. But is that even true anymore?

I'm not sure it is. I'm not sure it has been in a long fucking time.

"You aren't drunk when you fight?" Nadia asks.

"Nope."

"Can I ask…?"

"They all deserved it," I say, already knowing where her mind is at.

"I know everyone thinks I'm an out-of-control asshole, but…

the fights I've been in have been justified.

I didn't get off without charges because I play football.

I got off because the alleged victims were trying to slip shit into drinks, pawing women who didn't want to be touched, or causing problems. I handled the problem. "

Nadia eyes me for a long, silent moment and then laughs quietly. "God, Teo. You're exactly the same in every way that counts, you know that?"

"What does that mean?" I ask, hitting the gas when the light changes.

"You were the same way when we were kids. You were a protector. You protected me. You protected Zoya and your sisters. You protected everyone around you." A smile dances at her lips. "I always loved that about you."

"I always worried I protected you too much," I admit.

"How so?"

"You liked to hide in the background when you should have been the star, butterfly. All eyes should have been on you, but you hid behind me." I take a left turn onto her road. "It worried the fuck out of me."

"I hated being the center of attention back then."

"Your song says you hid in my shadow, feeling small, baby."

"That's not what it meant," she whispers. "The song is about you leaving. I felt like I was left standing in your shadow, invisible because all you could see was the game."

I swallow hard, hating that I ever made her feel that way. Christ, if I could do it all over…

"I don't feel that way anymore, Teo. I understand now that you weren't choosing football over me. It felt that way at the time, but…I get it now." She gives me a tiny smile. "And I'm proud of you."

Fucking hell. She's killing me. All I ever wanted was to make her proud. I'm not sure I'm worthy of it, but it feels good as hell to hear her say it anyway. And it feels even better to know she means that shit.

I clear my throat roughly.

We ride in silence for a minute before curiosity gets the better of me. "What made you finally decide to really give music a chance, butterfly?"

"Zoya and my dad," she whispers.

I glance over at her.

"They found my songbook," she explains, her voice soft.

"No one had ever seen it except for you.

But Zoya is Zoya, so she looked through it, and then she gave it to my dad and told him that he needed to look through it, too.

He read through my songs, and then he came to me and told me that his only wish for me was happiness.

I didn't have to be perfect. I just had to follow my heart, no matter where it led me.

And then he handed me the songbook and told me to follow my heart.

" She laughs ruefully, glancing over at me.

"Now that I think about it, I kind of wonder if he was trying to nudge me back to you.

But at the time, I thought he was giving me his blessing to run off and become a musician instead of going to college. So that's what I did."

"He's so fucking proud of you, butterfly. He brags about you to everyone who will listen. My Nadia is big star. She is genius with a pen and angel on microphone ," I murmur, mimicking Knox's deep, booming voice.

Nadia's delighted laugh spills across the SUV. "That sounds like him."

"It's exactly what he says." I grin over at her. "He thinks you hung the moon."

"I think he did too," she says.

"Yeah, I know." She's always been a daddy's girl. And he's always been fiercely protective of her. I will never tell her, but he's been mad as hell at me for the last six years. At least, it feels that way.

He looks at me sometimes like he wants to know what the fuck I'm waiting for, what the fuck I'm doing. And I've never had an answer for him. I avoid him a lot when I'm home. It's easier than seeing the disappointment in his eyes. Knox Mikhail is not a man I've ever wanted to disappoint.

I always wanted to make him proud and be someone he would be proud to call his son. I wanted him to know that he could trust me with Nadia, that I'd take care of her the way she deserved. Maybe one day, he'll trust me with her again the way he did back then.

As we approach her place, I slow to a crawl, scowling at the cars parked every which way up and down the street. "Jesus Christ, baby," I mutter. "You need security."

"Gee," she huffs at me. "I wonder why?"

A flicker of guilt rushes through me. I should have considered the ramifications of announcing that we were dating more carefully. I knew the media would jump on it, but I honestly expected them to have moved along by now. Clearly, the fuck not.

This story isn't dying out nearly fast enough. If anything, it seems to be growing by the day.

"I'll take care of it," I promise. "But you aren't staying here alone tonight. You can either come back to my place, or I'll stay with you." Either way, I'm not leaving her here with the fucking paparazzi camped nine deep on her doorstep. Fuck that noise.

"That is not going to help matters," she groans, eyes wide.

"I'll have security here before I leave tomorrow," I promise, scowling at the paparazzi as we drive past. They immediately start snapping photos and shouting questions at us. One shoves a goddamn microphone up against the window like we're really going to shout a soundbite back at him. Moron.

"Your game," she whispers, her face falling like she just remembered it.

"Yeah. We fly out tomorrow."

"How long will you be gone?"

"We'll be back on Friday."

I pull up her driveway, relieved when none of the vultures try to follow us onto her property. They're invasive as hell, but they know how trespassing laws work. Put enough of them in jail for coming onto private property, and eventually, they get the point.

I park right outside her door, killing the engine. "Bye Week is next week. We'll have three days of practice, and then the rest of the week is ours." I turn toward her, my eyes locked on her face. "Just so we're clear, I intend to spend every goddamn minute of it with you, butterfly."

"Oh, really?"

"Mmhmm."

"Well, I'll have to check my schedule. I'm a busy star, you know."

I narrow my eyes, which makes her laugh.

"But I suppose I can fit you in somewhere between the glitz of the recording studio and the glamor of…no, actually, there's nothing glamorous about practice," she says. "But you can come."

"You're saying all my favorite things right now, Nadia."

Her brows furrow with confusion.

"Fitting me in. Coming." I smirk, waggling my brows. "I'm not hearing anything here that sounds like a bad time to me, baby."

"Oh, yeah?" She unlatches her seatbelt, crawling halfway across the console to plant her hands against my chest. "Then you're going to love what I say next, Teo."

"Say it," I growl as she leans down, pressing her lips next to my ear.

"Come inside," she breathes before nipping my throat.

"Oh, fuck yeah," I growl, my dick immediately turning to steel as I palm her ass.

W e barely make it over the threshold before I've got her pinned to the front door, running my hands all over her gorgeous body again. Christ, I can't believe all of this is mine. I can't believe we're here. I can't believe she's looking at me like she is right now.

"Kiss me," I breathe, boosting her up in my arms to straddle me.

I don't have to tell her twice. Her lips come down on mine as I slip my hand between us, raking her dress up her thighs. In seconds, I've got her panties out of the way, and my fingers between her legs.

She squirms beneath my touch, her needy clit swollen and aching already. She's so fucking wet already, still soaked with a combination of our juices. Something about that is damn sexy.

"Teo," she moans, throwing her head back against the door.

"Quiet, butterfly. They'll hear you."

"Don't care. Keep doing that."

"You mean this?" I grind my thumb against her clit, making her gasp and shake. "Or this?" I press two fingers inside her, curling them up to stroke that sweet spot deep inside.

She shouts my name, clawing at my shoulders as she comes undone around my fingers, mewling like a little kitten. Goddamn, that sound. This moment. Her. This right here is everything.

"I love you," I breathe against her ear.

She gasps, her eyes flying open wide.

"Maybe I'm not supposed to say it yet. I don't fucking care. It's true, butterfly. I never stopped. I love you."

"Teo." Tears well in her eyes, threatening to spill over. "Every single minute of the last six years, my heart was yours. I love you too."

"Christ," I groan, pressing my forehead to hers. I was wrong a second ago. This is everything. Her. Those words ringing around us. This is peace. And goddamn, it's beautiful.

I kiss her again, stroking that sweet spot. She gasps and mewls, flying right back to the edge for me. So responsive. So fucking sweet.

"Take my cock out, butterfly," I whisper against her lips.

She's an inventive girl. She doesn't even use her hands, instead tugging my sweats down with her feet against my ass. My cock springs free, the hard bastard immediately pointing toward her perfect pussy.

"God, I love that sight," she moans, staring unabashedly. "Come inside, Teo."

"Little minx," I growl, lining up at her entrance when my dick twitches, eager to obey.

She grins at me, her eyes dark and heated, a little glimmer of mischief in the depths.

And fuck, I missed that sight. She was always so playful with me.

I love knowing she never lost that. That we haven't lost it.

Even after all this time, it's still there, naturally falling into place between us.

I lock eyes with her, falling still until she focuses on me. I want her full attention, want to command and adore her. And I want her to hear me.

"I love you, Nadia Mikhail," I murmur when she settles, staring at me intently. "I've always loved you. And I will always choose you."

I thought I was doing that back then—choosing her, putting her needs first. But I went about it all wrong.

Not this time. I understand now what I couldn't then.

I'd never been without her. I'd never experienced life without her at my side.

I didn't comprehend the emptiness of walking through life alone, of having everything and still feeling like not a goddamn thing mattered.

She was always smarter than me, though. Even back then, she understood what waited without people to ground us.

How lonely it could be. How goddamn little it mattered.

Her perfect future wasn't just her perfect future—it was ours.

It was never my dreams she was putting first. It was ours. I just didn't understand.

I get it now. And I won't fail us again.

"I love you, Teo Kirby," she whispers.

I surge forward, filling her in one deep thrust.

She cries out, my name ringing out around us.

I growl hers, lifting her up and down my cock.

She works with me, rocking her hips, taking me deep. We kiss and touch, loving each other to the brink again and again. Until my fucking legs burn and my chest aches. Until she's sobbing my name, writhing against the door in ecstasy, her pussy fluttering all up and down my cock.

For one perfect moment, we tremble on the edge together, our eyes locked, words of devotion spilling between us.

And then we shatter, falling to pieces in each other's arms. My fucking legs give out. I land on my ass on the floor with her draped across me, both of us panting for breath, both trembling.

"Hold me closer, Teo," she whispers, pressing her face against my throat. "Never let me go."

"Never," I vow, wrapping her up in my arms so tightly I'm not sure where I end, and she begins. "Fucking never."

This is my future now. And this time? This time, I'm fighting for forever.