Total pages in book: 62
Estimated words: 61953 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 310(@200wpm)___ 248(@250wpm)___ 207(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 61953 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 310(@200wpm)___ 248(@250wpm)___ 207(@300wpm)
“I never thought you would.”
He nodded. “Remember when you thought I was with Elsie that time at the Cosmere concert? The jealousy in your eyes?”
“Yes.”
“You never had any reason to be jealous.”
“Well, I mean…it’s been three years. I figure you were with other people.”
“I wasn’t.”
I froze at those words. “What?”
“I haven’t been with anyone else. It’s you. It’s always been you.”
Tears came to my eyes at the words that I’d longed to hear all this time. The ones that I’d held back out of fear that it wasn’t reciprocated. At the terror that it wasn’t going to work out. And now, he was saying everything I’d ever wanted to hear.
25
Harley
The world disappeared at those words.
There was just no other way to describe it.
My soul felt as if it had separated from my body. We were spiraling upward in a floating euphoria. A heavenly anthem to our long-awaited union.
My panties fell away, his slacks dropped, and then he was inside of me. A gasp left my mouth. We’d had so much sex over the years, and nothing compared to this moment. The one where I was his and he was mine.
Him holding me up against the wall of my house on the day of graduation. Sliding wet and hard deep into me. My hands holding on to his shoulders for dear life. My climax hit me like a freight train. I clawed his back to try to get closer to him as it rocketed through me.
He just carried me back to my bedroom. We fell backward onto the queen mattress. My hands moved to his face, bringing his lips back to meet mine. Then, there was nothing but rhythmic thrusts, panting need, and the deep desire we’d felt for so many years.
Then, his fingers tangled in my hair, tugging it backward. It was the perfect amount of friction to get me there all over again. And this time, we came undone together. He bucked into me as he held me tight. Then, we both collapsed. His weight lying heavy on me.
Finally, he slid out of me and rolled over.
He panted. “Fuck, you’re perfect.”
I tucked myself into his side. “We’re perfect together.”
He pressed a kiss to my forehead. “That’s right.”
We were silent until our heartbeats went back to normal. Only then did I slide out of his arms and head to the bathroom. I cleaned up, and then Chase followed. A few minutes later, we were back in the bed, under the covers and wrapped up in each other. I was certain we were going to be doing the same thing on repeat all night.
His fingers threaded through my hair. So much longer than when I’d chopped it all off at Christmas. Now it was nearing mid-back.
“Do you like it long?”
“Doesn’t matter to me. Long, short, bangs, no bangs, blonde, dark.”
I laughed. “I’ve never been dark.”
“Which surprises me.”
“Can’t be Harley Quinn if I’m a brunette.”
“God, don’t remind me. I never wanted to have you so bad as when you were in that outfit.”
“I can wear it for you if you’d like.” I trailed sweet nothings into his chest with my fingers. “You can be my Joker.”
His grip tightened on my hip. “Don’t tempt me.”
“Oh, but that’s all I want to do.”
His hand came to my chin and drew me down to his lips again. We kissed like that, long and languid, as if we had all the time in the world. Because we did.
“You needed to talk to me,” he reminded me after a time.
“Yeah,” I said with a shrug. “I don’t want to anymore.”
“Because you chose Harvard?” he guessed.
“I did,” I admitted slowly. “Though…that isn’t all of it.”
“I had a feeling you would. Cambridge is nice. I used to go to Yale-Harvard games up there.” His eyes went distant. “I could probably come up once a month. I’m sure I could get away that often. My dad will hate it because the company comes first and blah, blah, blah, but we’ll make it work. I still want to do long-distance.”
“Chase…”
“I wouldn’t expect you to come back, except Christmases and summers. And maybe not summers if you’re clerking,” he said softly, as if he was considering it.
“Chase…”
“I could be with you in the summer though. Maybe we could get a place in Cambridge, and then I’d work remote for the summer.”
“Chase,” I repeated more forcefully.
His eyes snapped to mine. “Does that not work for you? Do you…not want to try long-distance?”
“I don’t,” I told him.
His face fell, and it broke my heart to see it. “Oh.”
“Because I’m not going to Harvard.”
“Come again?”
“I withdrew my acceptance.”
“You did what?” He came to a sitting position. His brow furrowed, and his expression was grim. “Harley, why would you do that?”
“Because I don’t want to be a lawyer.”
He opened and closed his mouth. “You don’t?”
“I’ve been saying it to you for years. I don’t know why it took me accepting Harvard and getting all the material and shit to really figure it out. But I spent the time that you gave me to think about it. I made my decision, and then…I realized it was the wrong one.”