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CHAPTER FORTY

Cameron

Six months later

Brady comes barreling out the front of my dorm building with the final box in his hands. It’s move-out day, marking the end of our third year here at Avix University.

“Last one!” I clap, cheering him on from my seat like the proper passenger princess he’s forced me to be today. I did at least bring down what I could carry on my way to my spot in the cab of his truck.

He finishes his game of packing Tetris , fixing the last box into the back beside his, and lifts his hands into the air in victory.

I give him a celebratory cheer, and he flexes his muscles like he’s on a stage at some sort of muscle-man competition.

A few people around honk and whistle, and Brady grins, eating up the attention, but the only one he really cares about watching is me.

And I am glued to the man.

My man.

My man who finished out the season as the number-one defensive end in all of college football. I’m so fucking proud of him.

He closes the tailgate and walks over to the grass pathway before heading back and hopping into the cab of the truck.

He tugs me to the middle, into my seat, and when he turns to face me, he has two dandelions in his hands, the petals long gone, leaving only the white wisps behind.

He holds one out to me as he rolls his window down all the way and smiles. “Make a wish.”

I smile at my gentle giant and close my eyes, making a quick wish. Together we blow the little seeds, watching as they float away out the window.

“What did you wish for?” I ask as soon as we’re buckled.

He merely smirks and presses a quick kiss to my temple. He prepares to pull away, but before he can, I reach out and set something on his dash.

His hand freezes on the gearstick, eyes glued to the little clay molding. His head snaps from it to me and back again before he reaches out and takes it in his hands.

He inspects it a little closer, and I laugh when his fingers glide over the sharpest point.

“Brady!” I smack him and he grins.

“Did you make me a mold of your body, baby?”

“It’s my boobs and pierced nipples, but yes, yes, I did.” I smile, proud. “Remember back in, like, I don’t even know, October maybe, when I told you I made you something in class?”

Brady’s jaw drops. “No.”

“Yes.”

He sits back so he’s half leaning on the door, frowning at me. “You mean to tell me I could have had the mental image of my favorite part of you in my head for all those long showers I had to take after you started torturing me with pretend mouth fucking?”

“That is exactly what I mean. Too bad it got lost in my room at some point and I forgot about it.” I grin, taking it back and grimacing at how bad my molding skills were back at the start of the semester. “I literally just found it today under the bed.”

Brady swipes it from my hands, pressing a hard peck to my lips. “Mine,” he mumbles against them, then sets the little clay boobs on the opposite side where I can’t reach.

I sit back with a smile, and we’re on the road a minute later, this time without having to stop for coffee before hitting the highway because he already had one in here waiting for me to claim it.

Ari, Mason, and the others left ahead of us, but Brady needed some extra time, so of course I hung around until he was ready. He said he had another stop to make before he could be here, but we aren’t all that far behind.

“So Mom said they have all the rooms set up at the house—Ari and me in the master, Chase and Noah are in the spare, and Paige in what was my room before we moved to the city house. Mason, Payton, and the baby aren’t staying; they’ll come for the party tomorrow but go back to his parents’ at the end of the night, and because Vivian and Evan aren’t pretending their kids are wearing chastity belts—though I’m starting to wonder if I have on an invisible one and no one’s told me”—I give him a pointed look, but he only smirks at the road—“anyway, they get to sleep together in Mason’s room, and Vivian has a spot for Deaton all set up in Ari’s. ”

“How do you think Noah’s going to do not getting to share a bed with Ari when today marks day twenty since he’s seen her and day one of their only two months of uninterrupted time they’ll get all year?”

“About as well as you will,” I tease.

“Yeah, I notice you didn’t mention my name in there anywhere. Where am I supposed to sleep?” He smiles.

I think back on what my mom relayed, not catching she left him out completely. “Huh.” I tip my head, staring at his profile. “Maybe my dad made you a pallet next to his side of the bed?”

Brady laughs, his right hand coming down to clench around my thigh. “I wouldn’t put it past him, but he didn’t sound all that surprised when we told them we’re together on Christmas break.”

“Pretty sure your mom talked to my mom the second we pulled out of your driveway back in November. She kept giving me those mom eyes, you know?” I think about it.

“How they get all dopey and cartoon-like, round and glossy but in a cute way. She definitely saw something we hadn’t fully figured out yet. ”

“Oh, I’d figured it out.” Brady smirks. “I basically told my dad I wanted you, and he pretty much told me I already had you.”

I gape. “What? How? What did he say?”

He peeks at me a moment. “I might have gotten in my head a little and worried you wouldn’t understand some of my choices. He was quick to tell me I was wrong.”

“Brady…” I whisper, but he only grins, wrapping his arm around my shoulders this time so he can tug me over and kiss my head without taking his eyes off the highway.

“I love you, baby,” he promises.

And he says it at least five more times in the six or so hours it takes us to get home.

“I did not!”

“Oh, sweetie, you did.” My mom laughs. “You pissed, and you were wearing a summer dress, so it got all over the bottom of the playpen, and when we picked Brady up so we could get everything cleaned, we realized it had somehow gotten on him too. His little shorts were all wet on the one side.”

I glare at my mother as everyone around laughs, and Brady tugs me down onto his lap, not caring that everyone is around not even pausing to think about it. It’s just second nature, his need to be close. To have me close.

I do blush a little, though, and my mom doesn’t pretend to not notice the way the other moms do.

“Aw, she’s blushing.”

“I am not blushing,” I lie.

“It’s just a little piss, Cam. Nothing to be embarrassed about.” Ari grins.

“Bitch, I’m not embarrassed about peeing while I was sleeping when I was three.” I smirk, settling in Brady’s arms more. “Besides, clearly young me was smart, marking her territory and all.”

“You mean like I did on Thanksgiving when Trey tried to dance with you…and everyone but me knew he had gotten engaged on live television a week before that?” Brady cocks a brow.

That gets a laugh out of everyone, and then the conversation turns from me to the next person. It’s Ari’s parents’ turn to tell embarrassing stories.

Brady’s arms curl around me, his nose running along my cheek and drawing goose bumps to my flesh.

We still haven’t had sex, but our foreplay is stuff for the playbooks.

We are on point and in tune with the other person in ways I can’t imagine others could be. It’s that good.

“I, for one, like it when you blush,” he whispers, his hands pushing a little firmer against my lower belly. “My favorite is when you blush all over. I had no idea that was possible.”

I turn my head, smiling at him over my shoulder. “Anything is possible if you just believe.”

“I love it when you quote Gen Z movies to me.”

“I’d like to quote some X movies to you, if you know what I mean.”

Brady waggles his brows, and I choke back a laugh when his dick twitches against my ass.

Someone slaps my arm, and I look over to find my best friend raising a brow at me.

“Can you not dry hump in front of my mom?” she jokes, her voice for only us.

Brady shakes with silent laughter, and I give a little hip roll just to be a brat, loving the hiss that fills my ear. “Don’t be jelly that your man is too much of a gentleman to pull you on his lap in front of your daddy.”

Noah leans across her lap, having heard, his own dark brow raised in challenge. “I can be a gentleman and still do dirty, dirty things in private.”

I open my mouth in shocked glee. “Noah Riley, I am so proud of you right now.”

He chuckles, and it only deepens when Ari’s neck flushes red, but she gives me a little side smirk.

Go, bestie.

Over the next few hours, good food and great conversation flow, my dad on the barbecue tonight. The only person we’re missing is Chase’s mom, but when Mason asked about her, no one said a word, so we haven’t mentioned it again.

Night falls and all of our parents, with Mason and his little fam in tow, head back to the city while the rest of us pile into the house, rearranging the room assignments to fit our agendas.

After a movie and a couple games of cards, Brady wraps his arms around me, lowering his chin to my shoulder. “Walk with me, baby.”

I turn instantly, following him out the back of the house and down the little path that leads to the barn. The doors are already pushed open, the place mostly cleared out while it waits to be filled with this year’s harvest anytime now.

Brady heads over to the ladder and motions for me to hop on. I slip between his body and the wood to start to climb, but he halts me when my hands wrap around the old wood.

“Not so fast, baby,” he rasps, his voice thick and husky, letting me know playtime is coming.

My baby is needy, and I’m eager to please. “Tell me what you want, man of mine.”

His hands come around the front of me, an AU beanie with his number on it in his hands. “Close your eyes.”

I do so instantly, and he slips the knit cap over my head, pulling it down over my eyes.

He gives my ass a little smack. “Now, climb.”

I start up, the heat of his body enveloping mine as he scales with me, a safety shadow at my back .