“Harder, Rome, harder…” she begged.
I gave her what she needed and pounded her against the wall, the rhythmic thuds of her back against the drywall sounding with each thrust.
“Ugh… Rome… I’m… I’m—” Her sentence cut off as she screamed against my neck, her tight channel milking my cock.
“Mol… Mol!” I croaked as I came, gripping my girl’s legs and holding her off the floor with my torso.
Pulling back, Molly beamed her smile at me. “We should get back to the party now. People will be wondering where we are.”
Grinning back, I said, “Fine,” and leaned in to whisper in her ear, “but keep the panties off. There are more walls I’m wanting to try out…”
Staring at the ceiling, breathing fast with cum on my stomach, I felt a friggin’ tear slip out of the corner of my eye. I couldn’t get that feeling of contentment back, jerking off like a desperate fool in the middle of the night just to get a feeling even close to what we shared.
What Mol and I shared was never just a fuck; it was never just making love. It was fucking life-changing, life-affirming, and fear seized my chest at the thought of never having that back.
Yeah, the way we fucked was rough, intense, but it didn’t make the connection any less real. In fact, it made it the total opposite. In those moments we were exactly who we were meant to be, and we’d been unashamed to expose that side of ourselves to one another. We fit like a friggin’ puzzle.
Feeling like I’d taken a blow to the chest instead of reliving a happy memory, I sat up straight, swinging my legs off the bed, my head falling to my hands. My promise to my girl tormented my mind. I’ll make sure we get our happily ever after… Like hell I did. She got a fucking nightmare, and she—no, we were still stuck in that damn hell.
Walking to the bathroom, I turned on the shower, letting the hot water pound on my head. Grabbing the soap, I ran it over my skin, staring at the tattoo on my hip. “One Day.” I thought back to the day I got it—the day I told my daddy I’d gotten the UA football scholarship and was leaving home at the end of the school year. I was going to play for the Tide. It was the happiest day of my life, or had been until I met Mol. That tattoo was a symbol of my freedom, of my intention to get the hell away.
Switching off the shower, I toweled off and sat on the bed. The clock now read four a.m. Only a bastard hour had passed.
Reaching for my cell, I found the only number worth knowing.
Lying back on the bed, I listened to the voicemail greeting that kept me company most nights, then spoke:
“Hey, baby, just thought I’d call. It’s four in the morning and I can’t sleep… again. I dreamt about you tonight… God, I miss you. Being away from you is killing me. Come back, Shakespeare. I need you. I feel like I’m going insane. It’s Christmas tomorrow, for fuck’s sake. You should be here like we’d planned, just being with me, not in friggin’ England on your own. If you can’t talk yet, fine, but just let me know you’re okay, text, email, just something—”
The long tone cut me off, telling me I’d run out of time, and, throwing my cell to the floor, I lay back, closed my eyes, and let more memories rip me into shreds.
32
I was right to come back to Tuscaloosa. It may’ve only been the day after Christmas but I’d pretty much spoiled most of the holidays for my aunt, uncle, and Ally. Getting the news on Christmas day that my momma was being released without charge for her assault on Molly at the hospital—a restraining order and a court issued rehab program, her only punishment—was a complete head fuck. The news got me so damn mad that I couldn’t sit at the dinner table, celebrating the joys of Christmas, when my momma had gotten away with her crimes, and just to top it all off, I still hadn’t heard from my girl.
Uncle Gabe had tried to help, asking the police about the fact that my momma was the cause of Molly’s miscarriage and why wasn’t she being held accountable? But the fact was my mother never knew Molly was even pregnant when they’d had their argument, and the placental abruption occurred when Molly fell against the edge of the table after my mother’s slap. Molly hadn’t pressed charges for that assault, too busy grieving to even care.
So here I was, pounding down the highway back to Tuscaloosa, reeling from my mother’s lack of comeuppance and dreading the Tide’s training for the BCS Championship that started tomorrow and the fact that I’d have to face all my teammates.
After an hour, I pulled into a familiar parking lot, and Luke was already waiting just inside the main door—inked from his completely shaven head to his toes.
Standing as I entered his shop, he shook my hand, stating, “Rome, I’m so sorry, man… I saw it on the news. I don’t know what the hell to say.”
Slapping him on the back and swallowing hard, I replied, “I know, man. Thanks.”