been mopey and distracted since the draft picks were announced.
Huck touched his forehead to mine as I rested my hands on either side of his narrow waist.
“I know it isn’t like you’re moving halfway across the country, but I’ll still miss you.” I sighed and closed my eyes as his warmth slowly seeped into me. “And I’ll come to you, too. You don’t always have to come to me. You’ll be busy with school and work.”
He tried to convince me I needed a car now that he would be so far away. He didn’t want me stuck without transportation in case of an emergency. I resisted because I knew how much grad school was going to cost him and how expensive moving to a big city was going to be. He insisted he had enough to cover all the things, but I was stubborn. As always, Huck was tricky and just figured a work-around. He bought a used little economy car for Vernon, with explicit instructions to share it with me whenever I asked. Vernon played along to make Huck happy, but we both knew the car was mine, even if my name was nowhere on the paperwork.
He chuckled softly, and his breath drifted across my lips, forcing them to part slightly. “So will you.”
I made a face and tightened my hold on his shirt. “Yeah, but you care more about your grades than I do. I’ll tolerate being apart the best I can, but don’t be surprised when I show up on your doorstep out of the blue. Just in case, you better tell Fisher you’re giving me a key.”
He laughed again and tilted his head so his lips could skim over the tip of my nose. The soft gesture made me sigh and shift my hold from fabric to skin. He was supposed to be on the road over an hour ago, but our goodbye was dragging on much longer than anticipated.
I dragged my hands up along his sides, letting my fingers drift over his ribcage.
What was I going to do now that I couldn’t jump him anytime I wanted?
I was going to miss having him crawl into bed all hot and hungry in the wee hours of the morning. I was going to miss his impatient hands and ravenous mouth. I was going to miss his hard body and unrelenting passion.
But most of all, I was going to miss his heart.
The steady thump when I laid on his chest to fall asleep made me feel safe and secure.
It acted like a beacon, a bright light in the darkness that had always surrounded me. I could find him no matter where he was in the world because of its glow.
I knew the upcoming distance wouldn’t do anything to dim its radiance, but I was really going to long for the days where I could put my palm on his chest and feel that the most beautiful and important part of him was right at my fingertips.
Huck let me tug his Balenciaga t-shirt off over his head. He shifted his hold on my face so that one of his hands curled around the back of my skull and the other rested across my throat so his thumb could tip my chin upward. His mouth landed on mine as he let his weight fall forward, toppling us back onto the mattress.
I reveled in the hard press of his naked chest against mine. Almost instantaneously, my nipples perked up, and my heart started to pound with excitement.
It wasn’t like we hadn’t been making the most of our dwindling time together the last few weeks, but there was something about the way we touched each other right now that was a little more reverent. We’d been spoiled by having unlimited access to one another. Now, we were going to have to make every kiss, every sigh, every brush of naked skin last.
Huck braced his weight above me on one of his elbows, arching away just enough that I could get a hand between us to wrestle with his belt and the fastenings on his jeans. I could feel that he was already hard, and the way his stomach muscles tightened when my knuckles skated over his defined abs.
The hand he had resting at the base of my throat tightened slightly, making my eyes widen. Huck lifted his mouth from mine and dropped a kiss on the smooth surface of the scar on my cheek. I told him time and time again that