Page 9 of Somewhere Only We Know (Healing in Cincy #4)

NATE

COLLEGE, SPRING SEMESTER - MAY, JUNIOR YEAR

T hank goodness we’re local for regionals and super-regionals.

I don’t think the team would survive a road trip for these games.

This is the best we’ve played all season, but it would only take one blow on our house of cards to ruin the mojo we’ve got going on.

But now since campus is closed, those of us not local have had to find other places to stay.

Luckily, or unluckily, for me Jax urged me to stay at her family’s house.

I felt like I was living in a museum for those few days when she went out of town for her sister's graduation. Thankfully with baseball, I’ve been out more than in, but when I’m there all I do is make up reasons to kiss her.

And that’s bad for someone whose focus needs to be on baseball.

Okay, maybe a little temptation is fine.

Me: Headed to the bus and then I’ll be at your place.

Jax: Are you finally going to tell me where we’re going?

Me: Nope. See you soon girlfriend .

You would think that with us testing the boundaries of our new relationship it would be awkward.

But, no. I just have the added bonus of knowing more intimate details of my best friend.

We’re in the winner’s bracket of the tournament.

Otherwise, I wouldn’t have planned a date with Jax for today.

Her parents mentioned how much she loves greenhouses, butterflies, and learning about all different types of plants. That gave me an idea.

The seat next to me fills with one of my coaches. I take off my headphones and give him my attention.

“What’s up coach?”

“Have you given any thought to what’s after college?”

“Look for internships or maybe enter the draft,” I say with less confidence than I’ve ever felt.

“You should. Enter the draft that is. Nate, you’re one of the best outfielders I’ve had the pleasure of working with.

You do solid work at the plate, you see the outfield better than some of the professional players I’ve watched, and you’re an excellent teammate. Any team would be lucky to have you.”

I look at him like he’s sprouted two heads. I like baseball, but enough to have it as my career? Five year old me would be jumping in his seat. But twenty-one year old me? Not so much.

“Thanks, coach. That means a lot.”

He pats me on the shoulder before going back to his seat.

As we travel down the highway and back to campus, I try to picture myself as a professional baseball player.

It’s not that I think being an athlete is a bogus job.

It’s that I’ve never been able to picture myself as a professional athlete.

Well, that’s a lie because every kid has dreamed of playing professionally.

But the realistic side of me always thought I would use my architecture degree .

I’ve loved how buildings were made since I was little.

And I’m not talking about the actual building of them, but the blueprints.

We all have to start somewhere and that’s what architecture is.

Starting from scratch and becoming something worth something.

Same with photography. While I knew I would never pursue a simple hobby and attempt to turn it into a career, finding a subject and turning it into art means something.

But baseball? That’s all talent and despite what my coach says, there are more talented baseball players than me.

We round into the school and start gathering our things.

Once parked, we all hurry off with instructions to be back here at seven in the morning.

Groans chime in, but it’s lighthearted. We have one more game until the next round and while I’m excited, I’m also nervous.

These could very well be my final games here if I decide to enter the draft.

This could mean leaving Jax and I’m not ready for that.

She’s been by my side for the last three years and to think our time together is limited scares the shit out of me.

Throwing my bag in the trunk, I round to the front of my car and start up, heading to Jax’s house like I’ve done dozens of times.

A few minutes later I pull up to her family’s house and park on the street.

I walk up the long driveway and give a courtesy knock before walking through the front door.

The house is quiet with her parents at work and her sister living with her boyfriend.

Sliding off my shoes and lining them up next to the others by the front door, I take the stairs two at a time and turn right when I get to the top.

When I first came over to Jax’s house freshman year, I was floored by how big her house was.

My parents house in Virginia is nothing to scoff at, but this house is huge.

Naturally, I was intrigued by the angles and lines of her house and how this place is an actual home instead of just a blueprint.

The low hum of music comes from Jax’s room whose door is wide open.

I find her on the balcony that looks over the backyard with her iPad in her lap and doodling away.

Quietly, I place my bag in the hallway and creep into her room.

When she gets her iPad out, sirens could be going off and she wouldn’t hear them.

Is it dangerous? Yes. But she also gets this cute look on her face and her tongue peaks out from the corner of her mouth.

I step up behind her and cover her eyes the same way she usually does to me.

“Holy shit,” she gasps.

“Guess who?”

“The plumber?”

“Nope,” I tell her feeding into this.

“Hmm. If not the plumber then maybe my boyf–” Jax cuts herself off.

While I’ve been shouting from the rooftop that Jax is my girlfriend, she’s still shy when it comes to labels.

That hasn’t bothered me because I know where I stand with her.

But to hear her getting close to finally uttering that word is a feeling unlike any other.

I move my hands from her eyes and come around to sit on the matching footstool and move it closer to her. My legs cage her in but Jax avoids my gaze and looks back down at her iPad. Wanting her to talk to and look at me, I carefully take the device from her hands and place it on the other chair.

“What was that you called me?” It’s a rhetorical question but one I need her to say out loud. I bring my hand up to her face and gently pull her bottom lip out from between her teeth and angle her face up to meet my eyes. “Talk to me, J. ”

The yellow of her shirt brings out the flecks of gold in her honey brown eyes. There are days when I feel I could get lost in them and never find my way out.

“You’ve been calling me your girlfriend for the last month and I’d get all flustered when you would call me that.

I tend to do that when you’re around.” I listen intently and smile as she rambles.

One thing I’ve learned about Jax is that she needs to get her words out to get to the point.

“You should hear the thoughts running through my head. The things I want to say to you, but don’t because I’m me and you’re well, you .

And I shouldn’t be nervous around you because you’re my Nate and maybe officially putting a label on us like that is juvenile… ”

Jax trails off and I let her words soak in. I do wish that I could hear her thoughts. It would make it so much easier to finally know what she’s thinking. Jax is an enigma. I’ve been trying to figure her out for years, but in doing that I’ve fallen so hard for her.

“It’s not.” I tell her when she sits there awkwardly waiting for me to say something. “And you’re my Jax. But yes, you are also my girlfriend which by default makes me your boyfriend.”

Boyfriend , I watch her mouth the word and the smile that spreads across her face melts every bit of tension I felt from a few seconds ago. “Doesn’t that mean this should be sealed with a kiss? You know—just to make it official,” she says through a smile.

“I have heard that’s what you do when you come to an agreement,” I play into it. “Come here.”

Jax leans forward and our lips meet. Soft at first. Just a light touching of our lips before she’s leaning closer to me.

My hand dives into the hair at the nape of her neck and hold her still, not wanting to go further than this.

But her hands and fingers claw at any piece of fabric she can grip onto.

Realizing this is a battle I’ll lose, I lean back and haul her into my lap.

Jax’s legs on either side of my hips are like a weighted blanket when you need something to ground you.

I may have been waiting years to kiss her.

But Jax seems to have been waiting her whole life to kiss me.

She’s as starved for my touch as I am for hers.

Roaming my hands along her body, I wrap an arm around her waist and the other around her thigh and walk into her bedroom.

Not breaking the kiss, I crawl onto her bed and rest myself in the cradle of her thighs.

Even though I still haven’t showered from my game and we have places to be, I can’t find any reason to stop kissing her.

Jax’s hands slide under my shirt and grip at my skin.

Our tongues dance together like they’ve done this a hundred times before.

I hike her leg high around my waist, opening her up and rolling my hips into her center.

Her sigh-moan lets me know she likes this.

That she wants more. And with the sounds she’s making, her hips moving and searching for something—Jax makes me want to forget all about us taking this slow.

Breaking the kiss, I trail kisses down her neck. Licking and suckling at the skin. Reveling in the sounds traveling up her throat. Jax tries to slide my shirt up my body but I pull away from her and try not to smile at the pout on her plump lips.

“No.” I tell her with lightness in my voice. While I’m certainly not a virgin, I haven’t been with anyone since coming to college and I’m definitely not as experienced as other guys my age claim to be. And with Jax, I’d want our first time together to be special.

“Why not?” She asks and plays with the drawstring on my shorts. The tugging of the strings sends little shockwaves through my body and I have to focus on tomorrow’s game to get through this. Temptation .

“Because I haven’t showered and we have some place to be.” I emphasize my point by placing a quick kiss on her lips and rolling off her bed. “I’ll be ready in fifteen minutes.”

Jax leans up on her elbows. “We could’ve been done in five.”

“No we couldn’t have.” I tell her and pull her to the edge of the bed by her ankles.

Her chest heaves and she looks up at me with eyes so full of hope, wonder, and desire. “Why not?”

“Because I need at least five, maybe ten, minutes to make you come with my fingers,” I explain.

My hands trail soft paths over her exposed thighs and goosebumps pop up in response.

“Then I need another ten, maybe fifteen, or even twenty minutes eating your pussy.” The room has gone deathly still.

Not even the sound of our ragged breathing is audible over the lust covering us.

“And then, only then, when you’re ready and begging for my cock,” I map out what I plan and my hands spread the width of her thighs, my thumbs coming dangerously high to her center, “will I give you what we both want.”

I back away as quickly as I can and beeline towards the room I’m staying in.

I turn the water in the shower to ice cold and hop in, hoping it will calm me down.

It slightly does the job, but my blood is still simmering under the surface.

Getting out of the shower, clean and cold, I hurriedly dress and walk back out to a waiting Jax.

She’s changed into a dress with thin straps and sandals that show off her hot pink toenails.

I smile because it’s so her and wrap my arm around her shoulder as we walk back out to my car and to the place I know she’ll love.