Chapter 40: : Chapter 40

We got to Cruz’s house so late. Or hella early in the morning.

After he parked, I got out, my bag in hand and circled the truck, but he took it from me. We gave each other a long look, but no words were shared. He carried both our bags inside.

Atwater, Barclay, and a couple other guys were up, all sitting on the couch and doing nothing.

Cruz had opened the door for me. I went in first, but he came around me, his hand touching the small of my back. “What are you guys doing?”

Atwater had bags under his eyes. His hair looked as if he’d been running his hand through it. “Waiting on Labrowski. He was supposed to let us know if everything was okay.”

Barclay was on his phone. “And we’re supposed to let him know when you got here.”

Atwater asked, “What’s going on? I’ve never seen Labrowski act like he did this morning. He let out a yell or something, woke half of us up. Tore out of here and yelled that we needed to let him know when you got back. That’s it. Radio silence until you just walked in. You’ve been at the beach until ?”

Cruz’s mouth tightened, and he started to shake his head. His hand rested more firmly on my back, urging me forward a little bit. “Give him some time. If he comes back, he’s not going to want to talk to anyone, but guys, he might not come back till later today. Best thing, go to bed.”

“What the fuck!” Barclay shot up to his feet, staring at his phone before he showed his screen. “Carrington was arrested by Outpost. It’s–”

One of the other guys shoved up too. “It’s all over my social media. It’s saying sexual assault.”

The other guy stood with him, looking at his phone too. “Does it say against who?”

Atwater and Barclay both looked at us, gazes pondering before slowly moving to me.

I held up my hands. “It wasn’t me.”

“Labrowski…” Barclay was putting the pieces together. “That’s where you guys were. Only one person I know who’d Labrowski would light out of here for. Say it wasn’t Angela, man. Say it!”

Cruz didn’t say it. “Let it go.”

“Fuck! Fuck, Cruz! Where’s he at? Fucking Alpha Mu–”

“Stop!” I held a hand up and everyone went silent. All eyes went to me. This was getting out so fast. Who would’ve released that already? I doubted it was Carrington or his friends. Angela, no way. Labrowski? I doubted that. The only others who knew–except her roommate. It wasn’t Cruz or I, but her roommate would’ve known or might’ve known, depending on what Angela told her.

I said, “It’s so late. Trust me, everything that needed to happen, happened. If it’s not out who it was, leave it alone for now. Okay? Just, trust me. You want to help? The best thing to do is wait and let Labrowski know you’re there for him when he gets back.” I reached for Cruz’s hand, locking our fingers. “I’m tired, and I have a quiz in a few hours. I to get some sleep.”

We both went up, silent, and by unspoken agreement, we put our bags away, went to the bathroom. He turned the shower on while I started stripping. He came back, helping me with my clothes and I helped him with his. For a moment, he rested his forehead to my shoulder, and I reached up, my hand cupping the back of his head.

A wave of warmth and tenderness rose within me. The small things.

Him waiting for me to get inside his truck before locking it. Him carrying my bags. Him coming to help with my mom, putting my apartment back in order because had violated it, how he held his little sister, how he cared, how he didn’t hesitate for a second with Flynn, how he stared at me, needing me to keep him from doing worse to Flynn… All that rose inside me.

How he looked at me right before everything.

I threaded my fingers through his hair but turned to him. My lips grazed his ear, his cheek as he lifted his head to look at me.

I said, my voice breaking, “I want to be your woman. That’s what I’d like to be too.”

His eyes starting shining, a fierce expression looking back at me, and then his mouth was on mine, and I sagged into his arms. A wall exploded inside me. I was done. This moment, him and me, I was changed because he was in. He was so inside me that I hadn’t realized how inside he was, but now I was seeing him and feeling him, and he was mine.

He was my man.

He dipped, lifting me up.

I wound my legs around his waist, and he carried me into the shower.

It was an easy adjustment once he pushed me against the wall, and he slid inside. Up into me.

We both paused at the connection before he began moving, going slow. So achingly, fuckingly slow. A tornado of new emotions swirled in me, feelings that I’d never experienced before.

I’d never made love before. I’d never had someone make love to me, but the gentleness, the tenderness, how he savored touching me, kissing, tasting, this was what that was like.

He was my first.

The softness. How he stared deep into my eyes and I felt it all the way to my heart, my chest overflowing. How I gasped, my fingers holding onto him tightly back as he moved inside me.

God.

We were moving together, but I felt him in every inch of my body, and my feelings, my emotions. It was like he’d always been there, always would be there. I broke, my entire body jerking at my climax, and I gasped, because this was so much. Almost too much. Like I’d been given a window to another world, and I could only stare in befuddlement.

It was magic.

I was seeing, sensing, feeling, breathing magic in physical touch.

I’d never be the same again.

I didn’t want to look at what time it was when we were about to fall asleep, but I set my phone alarm. Cruz curled around me, his arm over my waist, our hands linked. I lifted a leg, and he slid one of his between mine.

We went to sleep like that.

Just. Like. That.

The calls started after that.