Page 36

CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

MIA

A s we pull into the parking lot of my dorm building, Jessie puts his car into park and pulls off his glasses.

It’s a bright early March morning, and the first signs of spring are pushing their way through on the trees.

Right after he finished giving me my third orgasm, we took a nap together in Jensen and Kate’s spare bed.

“Do you have the sheets?” I turn to him, a playful smile on my face despite being nervous to be back on campus.

Leo could literally be anywhere, and he’s absolutely the last person I want to see.

Flipping his black baseball cap backward, he leans across the center console and smiles against my cheek, setting a kiss on my cheekbone. “You’re so fucking cute. I stripped the bed and put them in the washer before we left.”

Through the passenger window, I look across at my dorm building. “I’ll be a few minutes while I grab some stuff. Tara is home, so I want to explain that I’m gonna be staying with you.”

He rests his forearm over the steering and twizzles his glasses around on his fingers. “I’m coming in with you, Sweetheart.”

Getting out of the car, he rounds the hood and pulls my passenger door open, taking my hand in his, and we start walking across the lot.

We’re halfway to my dorm when Jessie pulls up, and I stop alongside him, my eyes searching his when I realize there’s something eating at him.

He takes a deep breath and looks across to my dorm building. “The second we go public is the second pictures hit the internet. I want you to know that’s what I want, too, more than anything, but it will mean he will know who you are.”

With his free hand, Jessie pulls off his cap and runs a stressed hand through his hair, the stitches on his jaw already starting to heal. “I want you living with me for so many reasons, Mia. But as your boyfriend, I also need to know you’re safe, and I’m confident you will be if you’re in my secure apartment building and sleeping in my bed. I’m going to look into us moving right away so he doesn’t have my address anymore, but for now, this is the only way we can have what we both want. I know he won’t know your address here, but when he finds out what college you go to, it won’t be hard, and trust me, I know their security systems here are about as good as the heating.”

An icy sensation creeps up my spine. “You really think he’d go that far? Like, come after me and those you love?”

Running his tongue across his bottom lip, Jessie sets his cap back on his head. “There’s only one thing in the world Wayne Callaghan cares about—money. And I’m his meal ticket. I need to get my mom to Seattle and cut off his funds. When that happens, he’ll do everything in his power to hurt me, and you will be priority one. Even with a restraining order, he’ll do what he can to get to us.”

I drop my gaze to the ground, my hand starting to tremble in his. “What if you just go to the police over him now?”

Jessie must feel my anxiety when he brings my other hand into his. “Sure, I could, but they’d just open a child abuse case, and Mom would get dragged into it. He’d do more damage while they were investigating what had happened twenty years ago.”

He pauses and looks off to the side, his eyes becoming glossy.

“If you don’t want to do this with me, if you want to walk away or wait until my shit show of a life is in a better place, then I get it. I can’t stand here and lie; it would break my fucking heart to be without you. But I’d do it. I’d let you go to know you were safe. At this point, there isn’t anything I wouldn’t do for you. Just say the word, and I’ll step into oncoming traffic or throw myself off High Steel Bridge. I’ll literally do anything to keep you happy, even if it tears me in two.”

I don’t hesitate when I bring one of his hands to my lips, kissing his knuckles softly. “I’m not scared of Wayne fucking Callaghan. The only thing I’m scared of right now is going right back to where we were—apart or trying to be together and hiding.”

Dropping our hands, I pull him across the parking lot and toward civilization. “Now come help me pack.”

Two guys are pushing through the entrance to my building when we approach, and Jessie takes the door handle.

They stop dead in their tracks when they recognize his face and then across at me standing with him.

“Uhh, um, thanks,” one of the guys stutters as they move away, the other looking back over his shoulder, nearly walking straight into a bench.

Jessie leads the way up the stairs, taking them two at a time, his fingers still laced through mine.

After so long of sneaking around and years of having to hide who we were to each other, the feeling of being out in public feels crazy in all the best ways.

When we reach my door, Jessie holds out his hand for my key and takes it, opening the door and pushing through. The broad smile on his face tells me he’s feeling the same kind of way—that we made it. We’re finally getting our chance to be together for real.

“Babe, I thought you said th—” Tara waltzes out in her nightwear and robe, her head down and in her phone. When she looks up and registers who I’m with, she stops dead.

“Shit, sorry,” Jessie says awkwardly, scratching at the back of his neck. “I thought with it being the afternoon, you’d be, umm …” He waves a hand at Tara.

“Dressed?” she replies, quirking a brow.

I stand next to my boyfriend and fight back laughter as he flushes.

“Yeah.”

She shrugs a shoulder and walks over to the fridge. “I had a late night last night, and today is my only free day, so it’s a pajama day for me.”

Jessie nods and looks around the space as we take off our shoes. “I’m gonna use the bathroom if that’s okay?”

Tara points at the door. “Just over there. But maybe you already know that since this isn’t your first rodeo.”

I flare my eyes at Tara as Jessie steps into the bathroom and closes the door behind him.

Tara’s casual demeanor drops the moment the lock clicks, and her head whips to mine. “Fucking hell,” she whisper-squeaks. “He’s even hotter up close. You actually weren’t shitting me, were you? H-he really is your boyfriend.”

I can’t help it as a big, cheek-aching smile spreads across my face. “Nope, not shitting you.”

Tara pours herself a coffee and takes a sip. “We’re good though, right?”

Crossing the kitchenette, I wrap my arms around her and bring her into a hug. “Absolutely, we are. It should be me apologizing again. I jumped to conclusions, and I shouldn’t have. I had literally no idea about Leo, so by process of elimination, I panicked and pointed the finger at you, and I’m sorry.”

She waves a hand in front of her like it doesn’t matter, but I can see the sadness on her face. “Honestly, it’s fine. At this point, I’m more pissed at that asshole.” She sets down her cup and blows out a breath. “And the fact that we were all supposed to be going back to Riley’s after the game next week. I guess that isn’t happening, and I’m kinda gutted. I like their cocktails.”

“You can still come,” Jessie says, coming back into view. “Just sit with us. We’ll be there after the game. You can even come to that if you like. There’ll be enough seats in the box, and I can get my hands on an extra ticket.”

Excitement lights up her pretty face. “Are you kidding me? My dad will go wild when he finds out I’m not only going to a Scorpions game, but I’ll also be hanging out with the players afterward.”

Jessie swings his arm around my shoulders and kisses me on the side of the head, and I watch as Tara visibly melts.

“Let me know his name and I’ll get him a signed jersey.”

“Ugh, I’ve died and crossed into some kind of alternate, way better universe,” she replies, making me chuckle.

Thumbing over his shoulder to my bedroom, Jessie turns to me. “Want me to get started?”

When I messaged her this morning to say we’d be stopping by, I hinted that I was going to be staying with Jessie for a while. I nod, and my boyfriend takes off in the opposite direction.

I turn back to Tara, taking her hand in mine. “I hope you know this has nothing to do with what happened. We just need to spend time together. Like I told you last night on the phone, we’ve been apart for so long, and I?—”

She squeezes my hand in hers. “I get it. Like, really, I do. Plus, he’s giving you his car, and in all seriousness, babe, what girl wouldn’t want to spend each night beneath …” She nods her head in Jessie’s direction.

A schoolgirl giggle bubbles out of me. “I have zero complaints, trust me. But seriously, come to the game and then Riley’s afterward.”

“Oh, I will; do not worry. My lunch buddy, Charlotte, is going to lose her mind when I tell her later.”

Remembering Tara isn’t like me and makes friends way more easily makes me feel less guilty for leaving the dorm. Knowing she has loads of people around her on campus.

She leans into me. “Also—and don’t take offense here—every time I’ve brought a guy back, I’ve had to be quiet, and let’s just say, I’m not usually, so I can definitely be a little louder now.”

I shake my head and smirk in response.

“I’m not looking forward to our next class with Leo.”

Groaning at the thought, she refastens her robe. “I’d say, based on the text messages we exchanged last night, he will be making himself as unnoticeable as possible for a while.”

“What did you say?”

“Similar to what you did that night in the bar. He told me that you called him a dickhead and he was pissed at the mixed signals you’d been giving him. I said what he did to you and Jessie was one thousand percent little-dick energy, and I’d be making sure all the girls on campus know he was a crap lay and an absolute asshole.”

With that, she plants a kiss on my cheek and saunters off. “I expect you to pick me up in that posh new car of yours next time I see you. Oh, and …hot.” She spins around, fanning her face with one hand, her coffee cup in the other, as her eyes motion to Jessie before she disappears inside her room.