26. Maggie

CHAPTER 26

MAGGIE

JT listened. Maybe that shouldn’t be a big deal, but it is. We sat on Viv’s couch for more than an hour, and he just listened. He held me, too, and brushed my hair from my face. He kissed me sweetly and held me while I drifted off to sleep.

I blame today’s exhaustion on Bella and Clay. Retelling last year’s drama took its toll on me, and I never even got to the worst parts, the things that happened after we got back from Spring Break. I’ll save that trauma dumping for another day.

Eventually, I had to peel myself off him so he could go to practice and so I could go to a test simulation for the exam I’m taking next month. I won’t get my results for a few days, and it’s just a practice test, and not the actual Financial Math exam, but I’m still anxious to see how I did.

And if I thought I was tired earlier today, the two-and-a-half-hour exam didn’t help.

JT and I don’t usually meet up in the evenings, but when he texted and asked if I wanted to hang out, I couldn’t say no.

Which is why I’m sneaking into the hockey house at nine o’clock at night .

“You don’t have to be quiet, Maggie,” he says, reaching for my hand as we approach the back of the house. “Nobody’s home, I promise. Van’s at tutoring, Mickey has a date, and all the other guys are the baseball house for some video game tournament of champions that Ollie put together. It’s just you and me, I swear,” he says, unlocking the back door.

“There’s really nothing to worry about?” I ask.

“Well, some of the floorboards are loose and I definitely wouldn’t use any of the outlets in the living room…and there’s no lid at all on the toilet down the hall from my room. But yeah, other than that…oh, and the guys painted a big-ass glittery dick in the floor in the kitchen. Don’t ask. Oh, and my house is hot as balls right now. But other than that…you’ve got nothing to worry about.”

At first, I think he’s joking. Like he’s trying to make me laugh to get my mind off my fear of being discovered. But after I’m in the hockey house for about five seconds, I realize he was being totally honest.

My shock must show on my face, because JT nods as he leads me inside. “It’s a shithole, I know,” he says. “My room isn’t as?—”

“Finally!” a voice booms from the next room, and I flatten myself against the wall like I’m in a spy movie. JT releases my hand as the voice comes closer. My heart is beating so loud it must sound like a drum.

“Dude! I’ve been fucking waiting for you. We gotta go to the Quik Stop. The one on the east end of campus. They have the good nugget ice and I need nugget ice.”

“What the hell are you doing here, Mick?” I can hear the shock and confusion in JT’s voice, but it doesn’t register with Mickey.

“I’m watching a movie. For my film class. And I’m making a snack. Do you want popcorn?”

“No!” JT practically shouts, and I know it’s for my benefit. I know he is purposely blocking the doorway so Mickey doesn’t see me.

I know I could pop out now and introduce myself. I know JT is done hiding. And though I haven’t officially met Brannon Mikalski yet, I feel like I know him from the stories JT has told me.

They’re best friends. Mickey wouldn’t judge us. And though he loves to talk, he would stay quiet about us if JT asked him to.

But I can’t do it. It’s like I’m stuck in place. And really, I guess I could be. Who knows what’s on this floor?

“Don’t we have some Halloween candy?” JT asks. “I swear Ollie said he has a bunch up in his room.”

I’m pretty sure the last thing Mickey needs is a sugar rush, but I’m not complaining because he darts up the staircase like he’s on a treasure hunt.

“Coast is clear,” he whispers, and reaches for my hand. I feel like the shittiest almost-girlfriend ever, but today was overwhelming. From seeing JT with a beautiful woman to accusing him of cheating to unloading about my past, it’s been a lot. Add in the practice test and my brain is fried. I just can’t take one more thing tonight. We can figure it all out tomorrow. Tonight, I just want to be with JT.

He guides me up the stairs and I follow him, skipping the steps he skips so I don’t go tumbling through the staircase and into the basement below. This house is wild.

His bedroom is directly in front of the stairs, so we make it inside before we hear Mickey bounding back down to the living room.

Without any discussion, we peel our clothes off. He reaches into his nightstand drawer and tosses a few condoms on the bed. Maybe it’s efficiency because we’re so used to sneaking around that we have to take advantage of every second we steal. Or maybe JT is as emotionally spent as I am, and some skin-to-skin contact is what we both need .

He pulls back the covers before crawling into bed and gesturing for me to join him. His body is warm and familiar and for a moment, I just breathe him in. But then my fingers start exploring. I’m so fascinated by the tattoos on his chest. There are numbers and names, but none of them make sense to me. Still, I trace the lines as I move on top of him. His hands cup my breasts as I drag my center over the long line of his cock. The sensation is overwhelming. My boobs ache, but when his lips seal over the nipple of my right breast, heat rushes to my core like there’s a direct line between two of the most sensitive parts of my body, and he just lit it up with his tongue. He nips and licks me, alternating his attention between my breasts, I could stay here all day and let him worship me, but the soft flesh on the underside of my nipples is oversensitive, and the way he’s working me over with his lips and tongue is beginning to border on painful. Pulling back, I gasp as he releases his hold me.

“Too much?” he asks, his tone laced with worry. “Oh, shit,” he mutters. “I’m giving you beard burn all over these perfect tits.” He presses gentle kisses across my sensitive flesh as he lifts me up and scoots me closer so I’m sitting on his chest.

“Goddamn, you’re fucking beautiful,” he says as his hands glide over my back and his eyes devour everything from the top of my forehead right down to the apex of my thighs. His hands slide around to my front, his thumbs poised to open me. JT loves getting his tongue between my legs, and I love letting him do it. I don’t know what magic tricks he does, but they take me to a place that’s otherworldly. I sort of lose my mind and have a tendency to get a little noisy, which is less than convenient in the places we’ve been sneaking into and having sex.

Oh, shit. The thought occurs to me as his fingers begin to play .

“What if someone can hear us?” I ask, hating the panic in my voice.

“No one knows you’re here, baby. I guarantee it. The guys are at the baseball house. Mickey’s the only one home and he just put his headphones on. He didn’t see you when he came in because you hid behind the fucking door and tried to melt into the wallpaper.” JT’s got more patience than anyone I know, but it’s wearing thin. Our arrangement is my doing, and though I have good reasons, I know he’d rather come clean.

He's right. I know he’s right, but something feels off to me. “Do you hear that?” I ask, trying to place the faint rustle-and-squeak sound that I swear is coming through the walls.

“Nope,” he says, dragging the pads of his first two fingers through my folds before licking them clean. “If you hear something, it’s gotta be Mickey’s cat.”

“Mickey has a cat?” I ask. This is the first I’ve heard of it, though, to be fair, JT and I don’t spend a lot of our time sitting around discussing his roommates.

“If you work for campus housing, hell no he doesn’t. Otherwise, yep. He thinks we don’t know about Mr. Tittles, but he’s wrong. And no, I don’t want to tell you why the fuck the cat’s name is Mr. Tittles. I’m done talking about pussy. It’s time to eat yours.”

His mouth hovers right over my center and god, the visual makes me even hotter than I was five seconds ago. Just as he tilts his head forward, I hear that noise again, but it’s louder this time.

“What about Van?” I blurt, leaning forward. He seems like a nice enough guy, though I’ve never actually met him. I’ve seen him at the library, and I know he eats lunch with JT on the days our schedules don’t line up.

JT pouts, looking like a kid who just dropped his freshly scooped ice cream cone on the sidewalk. “Van’s at the library for the next hour. He studies with his ex-girlfriend, then comes home and jacks off. So, the place is ours for about an hour and ten minutes. I have some really good ideas for how we can use that time,” he says, his lips less than an inch from my core. “Or we can sit here while you panic that my roommates are going to discover us and then, when we finally get to the really good stuff, my teammate will get home and start moaning his ex’s name into his pillow. Up to you, babe.”

He knows I hate that nickname, but I know he hates my fixation with keeping our arrangement under wraps.

The noise sounds for a third time and I know he must hear it, too. “JT, seriously,” I say, scooching back a bit. “What was that?”

Pressing his mouth to my center, he kisses the swollen flesh there and lets his tongue glide over my folds before pulling back. “It’s the cat. I’m telling you. Now get back up here, baby. I’m not done with you yet.”

Eagerly, I inch forward, loving the way he’s so hungry for me, even though the endearments he’s using are pissing me off. “You’re about to be done with me forever if you keep using those stupid nicknames.”

His chuckle vibrates against my thighs. “Yeah? You want to leave right now?” he asks just before he buries his head deeper between my legs.

His tongue is fucking me while his fingers tease me. He’s relentless in pursuit of my orgasm and he knows exactly how to get it. I’m rocking forward, pressing my body into his face while my hands drift upward of their own volition to cup my breasts. They’re sensitive and achy, so I squeeze them gently until a moan escapes my mouth. JT’s eyes flutter open and the view he has right now…well, he must really like it. He’s moved his right hand to my hip to steady me while the fingers on his left hand thrust inside me as his tongue sucks my clit.

“Fuck,” he curses. “Come on, Cinderella. Come all over my fucking face. Ride me. Soak me. I want to taste you for days.”

My body obeys his words and I go right over the edge, bucking onto his lips and chin and tongue and not caring who hears me call out his name. Those assholes out in California could hear me now. It doesn’t matter. Right here, right now, nothing matters but the way his body ignites mine.

His head flops on the pillow and he sends me a lazy, satisfied smile. He’s basking in the fact that he set me off so easily, that I shouted his name mere minutes after my mini freakout. I don’t let him gloat, though. The clock’s ticking, right?

I lift up just enough to see the mess I’ve made all over his chest. I have a moment of internal debate. Should I trace my fingers over the lines of his tattoos and then wrap those same wet fingers around his cock while I suck the head into my mouth? That could definitely be fun. When I spot one of the condoms on the comforter, I get another idea.

Pressing my hand to his chest for balance, I left my left leg up and spin so I’m facing the opposite direction.

“Where are you?—”

JT never finishes his question.

He mutters a curse as I roll the condom down his length before lifting up and straddling him. I stay there a minute, rocking just enough to brush the tip of his cock against my pussy.

“Yes, fuck, yes,” he says, lifting his hips upward as I line us up and sink down onto his cock. My body is pliant and insatiable as I take each thick inch of him. Bracing my hands on his thighs, I work my way down, sure that my ass is shaking in his face with each movement. His hands cup my ass cheeks, squeezing the soft flesh there as he guides me up and down. He’s swirling his hips now, the motion creating the most delicious sensation. And when he rocks up into me just as he pulls my body down, I can feel him everywhere. The tip of his cock hits that sensitive spot deep inside me over and over.

In a move that proves his ab muscles are way more toned than mine will ever be, JT sits up and leans forward, cradling my back with his front. He’s still deep inside me. If anything, this angle brings even more sensation.

My inner walls squeeze tightly around him. It’s like my body doesn’t want to let him go any more than my heart does.

“Keep going, Maggie,” he says, his lips at my ear. “Keep riding my dick. Keep taking me so fucking good. Keep…fucking…damn .”

He’s pistoning up into me now, the hard planes of his pelvis smacking my ass. His fingers find my clit and rub quick tight circles over the bundle of nerves. It should be too sensitive, but I crave his touch everywhere.

“You gonna come for me Maggie? One more time? Spill all over my cock? Soak these damn sheets?”

“Yes,” I pant, feeling the familiar flutters of my orgasm.

Pressing a kiss to the soft skin just below my ear, he whispers words that break my heart just as much as thy turn me on. “Say my name when you come, Maggie. Say my fucking name when I send you over. Because you’re fucking mine,” he says, his voice thin and strained. “I don’t care who knows it, Maggie, no one in the world but us, or every fucking soul on earth, because none of that changes the fact that you are mine .”

I’m spinning again, tilting into ecstasy, his name on my lips as I surrender to the waves that consume my body. JT moans as he pulls my quivering body close to his and spills into the condom.

I swear I nearly black out from the pleasure. My head gets dizzy, and my body feels far away.

“Hey, hey. Maggie. You with me?” Worry is threaded through JT’s words as he lays me down on the bed before wrapping his arms around me.

Smiling, I look up at him. “I feel like I’m drunk,” I say, because it’s true. My head is fuzzy, but I’m not mad about it.

“Yeah? Well, come here and let me hold you. I thought you were gonna faint for a second there.”

I did, too, but I keep that to myself as I lay my head on his chest. He rests his chin on the top of my head and I’m guessing he feels the same sense of contentment that I do right now.

“Want to sleep for a bit?” he asks, pulling the covers up. “I probably won’t drift off, but I’ll set my watch just in case.”

I should say no and go to Viv’s. Jules is home for the week and I’m making a point of letting my uncle and his wife have some time together. I know the distance has been hard on both of them. But this bed is soft and warm, and my eyes are so heavy. “Yeah, maybe just for an hour,” I agree, drowsiness taking over.

“Sure thing, Sleeping Beauty.”

“That must be your other girlfriend,” I sass. “I’m Cinderella.” I look up at JT, expecting him to laugh, but his face is stoic, his brow furrowed.

“You have to know there’s no one else. There never has been, Maggie. I’m pretty sure there never fucking will be.”

His words are weighted, and I don’t know if I’m strong enough to carry them. This is the conversation we’ve been dancing around for weeks. The giant pink elephant he keeps pointing to and I keep ignoring.

I’m exhausted and sex-drunk. Now is not the time for this conversation.

But I don’t see a way out of it.

JT shifts me onto my back and rolls toward me, resting his weight on his right arm. “Maggie,” he starts, his voice full of kindness and worry and exhaustion and hope and fear .

Before he can say another word, though, a shrill noise pierces the air. We both lie still as it sounds again.

JT shakes his head as he rolls off the bed. “What the hell is he doing down there?”

The noise sounds again.

“That’s a smoke detector,” I say, just as water begins to rain down on us. I look up to see tiny sprinklers dotting the ceilings. Good Lord. The stairs are falling apart, but at least the fire safety is this place is top notch, I guess.

“Fuck! Fuck. Norris!” Mickey’s panicked voice carries upstairs. “You up there? We gotta get out of here. There’s a fire in the living room!”

In a matter of seconds, I’m whisked off the bed and into my clothes. JT’s only wearing his sweats and slides, but he grabs my bag and slings it over his shoulder as he reaches for my hand. “Let’s go,” he says, panicked.

I’m as rattled as he is as we fly down the steps. The front door is open, so we dash through it. JT’s calling for Mickey and I turn back in time to see smoke sputtering out of the house as two more people rush outside.

This is bad. Really bad. This is not like the time Viv left ramen on the stove and her house smelled for two days. There’s an actual fire in the house we were just occupying. JT’s got his phone to his ear as he frantically looks around for Mickey. It takes me a second to spot the tall, lanky hockey player. He’s slumped against the mailbox, his head in his hands.

“Yeah, 624 Thurston Street. Right. Two minutes. Yeah. Thank you.” JT’s pacing, so I still his arm as he slides the phone back into his pocket. Pointing to his best friend, I nudge, “Go to him. He’s freaking out. He needs you.”

“Are you okay? I mean, you didn’t inhale any smoke or?—”

I shake my head. I had no idea there was a real fire until I saw the smoke billowing out as we left. We’re all lucky as hell, in my opinion. That wreck of a house is probably not so lucky. “I’m fine,” I assure him. “I’m going to head to Viv’s. She’s probably heard about the fire and is worried out of her mind.”

JT blinks. “I literally called it in a minute ago.

As if on cue, my watch starts buzzing. “My best friend knows things,” I tell him. “And your best friend needs you. Go.”

JT leans down and steals a quick kiss. “Text me, ok?”

I nod. There are words on the tip of my tongue. Three of them. Scary words. Words I can’t say right now, but ones I’m finding harder and harder to ignore.

I watch as he jogs over to Mickey, then I begin my walk to Viv’s as sirens wail in the distance.

There’s a loud pop as flames erupt from a first-floor window. JT’s eyes find mine, despite the growing distance between us. I flash him a thumbs up, hoping to convey that I’m just fine. My watch buzzes again, but this time I answer.

“I’m fine. We’re all fine. But the house is not fine. And I’m on my way over,” I say.

“Holy shitballs. It’s true that the hockey house is on fire?”

I watch as a firetruck pulls up. Words is spreading and people are lining the street, but the fire looks contained, at least to my untrained eye.

“What the hell happened?” she asks.

“Honestly, no clue. Are you at your place?”

“Not yet. I’m at Drip. Theo’s done, though, so he’s gonna drive me back. Want to meet us here?”

I’m so tired that a ride back to Viv’s sounds heavenly. And so does?—”

“He already did the prep for tomorrow morning and snagged you a chocolate muffin. It’ll be warm and waiting when you get here.”

“Well, now I’m going to run,” I joke. Ending the call, I hang a left toward campus, looking back once more to see the smoke and activity behind me.

For a crazy moment, I want to turn and walk back into the chaos. Back into JT’s arms.

I don’t, of course, but I want to.