Page 37

CHAPTER 37

TOMORROW?

JACKSON

T he door clicks shut, and I’m on him, pressing his body against the door by plastering my front to his. I press a heated kiss to his lips but pull away to see how he’s feeling from all the chaos that just took place. “Well that was…”

“Yeah,” he sighs, scrubbing his hand over his face.

? * “Want a drink?” I ask him. He looks at me deadpan, and I laugh. “Coffee then?”

“That literally sounds like heaven.” Smiling, I turn on my heal and head toward the kitchen. Filling the kettle, I set it on the stove to boil some water and ready the dripper with a filter and some grounds. I reach into the cabinet and grab two mugs, but when I turn around to ask Theo if he wants any cream he has his arms crossed over his chest, and his faced is pinched in confusion. “What?”

Slowly, he lowers his arms and moves toward me, stopping once he’s about two feet away. “Ummm… how did you know where all of that was?”

Fuck.

I wasn’t even thinking about what I was doing. I just… did it. “Would you believe me if I told you it was just a really good guess?” Theo raises his brow. “Fine. Ummm, so you know when Clay and Rocky won the tournament last year?”

“Yeah…”

“Okay, well I got really drunk down at Jack’s that night. I don’t remember hardly anything from the time I left the bar to when I woke up on my floor the next morning.” The kettle starts to whistle behind us so I turn the burner off and pour some water over the grounds.

“What does that have to do with you knowing where all of my shit is?” Theo asks.

“Well, you see… Ugh, jesus christ I can’t believe this is happening… Well, when I woke up the next morning my laptop was open as the program I use to sometimes, maybe, possibly, tamper with security systems was running… and… well…”

“Holy fuck, just spit it out, Jackson.”

“I broke into your house in the middle of the night when I was drunk and put cameras everywhere and I’ve been watching you on them for months and I also have been spying on you on the security cameras in the athletic center and I also put one in your office and I know it’s a really big invasion of privacy and while part of me is sorry the other isn’t because even when I was royally pissed at you and wanted nothing to do with you I couldn't shake the desire of wanting to just see you all the time so you can be mad at me if you want to and I probably deserve it but between this and the black eye I think that makes us pretty much even now don’t you? Okay, good. Glad that’s settled.”

Theo just looks at me slack jawed for a moment before asking, “Where?” I look up at the vents in the ceiling. His eyes follow mine, and he looks back at me and sighs. “Jackson…”

“I know, I know. I fucked up. But I did it when I was drunk, and they were already there. There’s not one in your bedroom or your bathroom, so it’s not like I watched you and Bridget have sex or anything, which I’m sort of gathering that never happened. Thank god. And I never stared at you naked… well, besides that one morning you spilled a bowl of oatmeal on your lap while you were eating breakfast in your underwear and took them off in the kitchen before you went back upstairs.”

“Jackson…”

“And I never showed it to anyone else, I swear. I’m the only one that ever looked. It wasn’t really that often really. Only like once, maybe twice a day. And when there were other students in your office I never watched because that’s a huge invasion of privacy. Which I realize is ironic…”

“Jax…”

“But it was bad enough I was spying on you, I didn’t want to make it worse, by watching some poor unsuspecting student and?—”

“JACKSON BAKER, WOULD YOU STOP TALKING!”

My jaw snaps shut as I stare at him wide-eyed. Breathing heavily through my nose as I try to replenish my lungs of the oxygen they just lost during that rant.

What the fuck was that all about anyway?

“It’s fine.”

“I don’t blame you, it really wasn’t very—Wait, it’s fine?”

Theo slowly moves toward me as he shrugs nonchalantly. “Yeah, it’s fine. I mean, I should probably be more bothered by the fact that you’ve been spying on me for almost a year, but after everything I’ve done to you…” He reaches me but doesn’t touch me. His green eyes just look deep into mine. “I’m choosing not to care.”

“Y-you don’t care?”

Theo shakes his head. “Nope.”

“I’ll take them down. I swear.”

His fingers reach out to grab at the string of my sweatpants. “Well, maybe you could take them down… tomorrow?”

A slow smile spreads across my face. “Tomorrow, huh?”

Both of his hands find their way under my shirt and rest along my waist. “Tomorrow,” he says softly. “I’ve had enough arguing. Enough apologizing. Enough wishing we would have done things differently. I just want us. You and me. No secret engagement. No being afraid I’m going to get fired. No wanting each other in secret. For once… just us. ”

“You really want to do this now? After we just kicked your fiancée out of the house?”

“Ex-fiancée, but, yes,” he says as he leans his face into mine.

“Before we’ve even figured out what we’re really going to do?”

“Mhm,” he replies as his lips ghost mine.

“But—”

He half-sobs, half-laughs against my lips. “Jax, please. We’ll deal with the rest of the questions tomorrow . Just shut up and fucking kiss me.”

Theo pulls his bottom lip between his teeth, and despite how mentally, emotionally, and physically exhausted I am, the only thing I can think about is having it between mine. “I think you have yourself a deal, Mr. Young.”

* ? For You - Lithe, Roy Woods