Page 22 of Tumbling Over the Tight End (Beaumont Legacy #3)

Chapter twenty-two

Landon

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Landon rinsed his and Ikaika’s dishes, adding them to the dishwasher when Ikaika’s apartment door opened.

“Hey, Keeks,” Ikaika said from the couch.

“Hi!” Keala called. Landon turned off the tap, shaking the excess water off a plate. She was back earlier than usual for a Friday. She typically practiced at one of her teammates’ places for at least another hour.

“How was your date?”

Landon frowned. He knew she’d likely been avoiding him the last few days, as seemed to be her move when things got too intense between them, but he’d had no idea she’d gone out with someone else.

The only thing that made him feel better was that she was already back, which he hoped meant it hadn’t gone well. They’d been out for a couple of hours, max.

“You went on a date?” Landon asked as he walked through the doorway of the kitchen, plate still in hand.

“Uh, yeah.” She refused to meet his eyes. Landon turned around and walked back into the kitchen.

That pang in his chest was far more than jealousy. It was knowing he had feelings for her that were different than anything he’d ever allowed himself to feel for anyone else. It was coming to the realization she didn’t feel the same way.

Landon wanted more than whatever they were. He wished she would stop avoiding him at every turn and just be honest with him. Maybe he could have made sense of his feelings before she’d gone out with whoever this chump was.

But that wasn’t fair. She didn’t owe him anything.

Was this because of what had happened on Halloween? Landon knew she’d wanted to kiss him. After all, she had been the one to lean in.

“So? Was it good?” Ikaika asked. Landon placed the plate into the dishwasher. It rang louder than he’d meant for it to.

“It was…not great. The guy had a serious superiority complex and was clearly upset when I decided to come home instead of going back with him.”

What an asshole. Good riddance. Landon hoped she’d told him where to shove it. He wasn’t necessarily proud of it, but he was glad the date had gone poorly. He wanted her to see what was in front of her.

“Sounds like an ass,” Ikaika said dismissively. Landon stayed in the kitchen, turning on the tap to pretend he wasn’t listening.

Keala sighed. “Very much so.”

“Not that I want to know details, but were you hoping it would lead to something more in the future?”

“Not really…” She laughed uncomfortably. “I don’t have all that much time for dating. Was supposed to be a one-time fix.”

Which likely meant she’d gotten riled up at the club and hadn’t known what to do with herself. Landon grinned. That was great news.

“Hear you loud and clear.” Landon listened as Ikaika stood up and walked past her. “I’m going to run to the restroom, but if you want to join me and Landon, we’re playing Smash.”

Landon stepped out of the kitchen and into the hallway, watching Keala walk to her room. “Keeks…”

She turned, trepidation stamped in the crease of her brow and the curve of her bottom lip. Had he been obvious earlier? Slamming the plate into the dishwasher had probably given away the fact that he was bothered.

He checked down the stairs to make sure Ikaika was gone, then took a step closer to her. When she took a step back, he stepped toward her again until her back was against the wall. Landon leaned forward, his familiar armor—his charming smile—hiding how he felt. He needed to parse it himself first, and she’d just said she wasn’t looking for anything more than sex.

Twirling a few strands of her hair around his finger, he spoke in a hushed tone. “If you need to use someone for that pent-up sexual energy, or you’re looking for stress relief, use me. You don’t need to go out with assholes from clubs or wherever else you found this guy.”

“That is…” She laughed, but it sounded strange, higher pitched than usual. “That’s insane. I wanted to try out the dating scene in a new place.”

Landon gently pushed her head to the side so he could whisper beside her cheek. “Really? So when you leaned in and kissed me at the club, that was, what? The alcohol? You had no interest in seeing where it would go?”

His lips ghosted over her jaw. Her response was shaky. “Landon, I could—I could get in—in trouble just for talking to you. The last thing I need is to—Jesus,” she breathed. Her head tilted more. Landon pressed his lips where her neck met her shoulder. “The last thing I need is to complicate— oh —everything more by going down that path.”

Landon smiled, pulling back so he could look into her eyes. They were half lidded and hazy. “Good deflecting.”

“I’m not—”

“You are, but that’s fine. We spend all our free time together anyway. We both know you’re attracted to me, and I think I’ve made it pretty clear what I think about you.” Actually, he hoped not , banking on his attitude to keep his feelings under wraps. “The more we see each other, the worse this tension is going to get. Why not try it out and see what happens?”

She sighed softly. “I don’t want to jeopardize what I love for an orgasm.”

“Give me some credit. It’ll be two at a bare minimum, and that’s assuming we only do this one time.” She was so flustered, she couldn’t fight the smile, hard as she seemed to try. “Have you gotten in trouble for hanging out with me these last couple of months?”

Keala shook her head once.

“Then they won’t find out now. It won’t leave these two apartments. Nobody will know. And with how hard you work? Damn, do you deserve to cut loose a little.” Landon leaned back more, dropping the cocky act. “So use me. It doesn’t have to be anything more than sex.”

He just wanted her to realize what she needed was him .

A throat cleared from a few feet away, and Keala pushed Landon. He moved out of the way, back to his cheeky self. “Sorry ’bout that. Needed to clear something up with Keeks here.” He turned to Ikaika, who approached the top of the stairs. “Ready to play?”

Landon thought he caught the hint of a suppressed smile on his friend’s face. He would have felt more uncomfortable about the compromising position they’d been in if he hadn’t been getting the feeling Ikaika was purposely leaving rooms to give them time alone. Landon had a hunch his friend wanted them to get together.

“You in?” Ikaika asked Keala, who was wringing her hands, her cheeks rosy.

Keala cleared her throat. “Not tonight. Early morning.”

She disappeared for the rest of the evening. After Landon and Ikaika played a few rounds, Landon checked their fridge and headed home to make her lunch for the next day.

Cooking, as usual, gave him time to think and de-stress.

He focused on how he’d felt when Keala had gotten home. He didn’t understand the feelings yet, but he recognized that he felt good when he was with her, and he didn’t when he wasn’t. And he felt worse when he thought of her with someone else. While he was struggling to deconstruct everything after spending so long shoving his emotions down, he understood that what he felt now meant that, in some capacity, he wanted her in more than a sexual way.

Dr. Esposito would be so proud of him.

He had no regrets about telling her to use him. Landon knew he was in uncharted territory with this relationship, but he also knew the one thing he was good for was sex. If she took him up on his offer, at least he would have her, even if not to the full extent of what he’d hoped for. He didn’t know if he wanted to give her any more of himself anyway, terrified of disappointing her further than he already had. So, by all accounts, this seemed like the best option.

Running with that logic, he added the meal to a glass container, then grabbed the sticky notes he’d purchased for this purpose. On the top one, he wrote:

My door’s always open for you. I’d love to be your dirty little secret – Your Favorite Tight End on his Best Behavior

He stuck it to the underside of the container in the hopes that Ikaika wouldn’t see it, put it into her fridge, and fell into a deep sleep, dreaming of the pretty cheerleader across the hall.