Saving Ever After (Ever After #4) (22 page)

It was still a little
surreal seeing my little brother holding his baby girl. I was happy for him,
that he and Lissa had made this beautiful family, and I was proud of him for
the way he took care of them. I’ll admit that there were more than a few times
that I had doubted they would make it. But after Lissa got over her jealousy of
Jax, they were stronger than ever and now they’d given me a gorgeous niece who
I wanted to hold all night. Between Abel and Abby, I wasn’t sure who was more
adorable, and fuck if I didn’t love both of them like crazy. Being Uncle Chris
was just about the greatest thing in the world.

Of course Lissa wanted
to grill me all about Katrina, just like Bas had, but I told her the same thing
I told Bas, only when I was done, instead of questioning me more, Liss just
said, “About time,” earning surprised looks from both me and Bas.

“What? I never thought it
was a good relationship or that she was right for you. She always seemed so stiff
and detached. In all the time that you guys were together, she never tried to
get to know the rest of us. We’re all a family and she just didn’t seem to get
that, or even get you.”

As she said it I
realized it was true, and that it was one of the things that had always
bothered me even if I hadn’t acknowledged it before. There were so many little
things that I was able to see now, and I knew they were the reason I’d held
back with her. She’d been casual and fun and had never pressured me until now.
It was easy to coast through our relationship, but that wasn’t the case
anymore.

That didn’t make it easy
to read the text Katrina sent later that night.

I was back at Ace’s when
her message came, telling me how much she missed me and how much she wanted to
repair our relationship. I wasn’t unaffected by it. It was hard to know she was
so upset, and it wasn’t easy to just let go of something, someone, who had
meant something to me over the last eight, almost nine months. I didn’t know
what to say to her though. ‘
Sorry’
didn’t seem like enough, but I didn’t
have any other words for her, so I didn’t respond. I would talk to her again
face to face when she got back, but until then she needed to get used to the
idea that we weren’t going to be able to fix this. There was nothing to fix.

Mia

“Wooo!” I
yelled, wrapping one arm tighter across Kris’ chest to keep myself from falling
to the ground. I threw the other up in the air in celebration. It was Friday
night and we’d just returned to campus from the rink where BU had walked away
with a three to one victory over Maine. I hadn’t thought I was going to make it
to his game tonight since I’d gone with Sadie and Ace to his family’s in
Connecticut and had planned to stay the whole weekend with them. I’d left early
though, and driven myself back this afternoon. As much as I loved his family
and as welcome as they made me feel, being around such a close and warm family
had only made the chasm in my chest wider. I was insanely jealous of what they
had. Even in their quirkiness and oddities, they were everything I wished my
family could be. I wished I had a Grandma Helen who would show up to
Thanksgiving dinner in a spandex, leopard print dress with black sequined,
furry boots.

It didn’t
matter that she’d embraced me like she was my grandma and spent most of the
evening catching me up on the latest family gossip, I felt like an imposter,
like I was only borrowing their family because mine didn’t want me.

It didn’t
help any when I learned that Chris was celebrating Thanksgiving on a beach in
Mexico with Katrina. I guess I’d been wrong about things not being good between
them, and stupid to think that I ever had a shot. It hurt, but I was trying to
accept it. I just didn’t know how I was supposed to stop being in love with him
or how to not let this ugly jealousy eat me up?

It was all
too much. I was tired of being surrounded by and seeing people who had all of
the things I wanted. Which is why, I woke up this morning at Ace’s parents’
house and after breakfas told them all I’d promised Kris I would be at his
game. Then I drove myself back to Boston and actually surprised him by showing
up. The game had been exactly the distraction I needed. Now we were going to
celebrate his win together.

 “Kris is
king of the ice, bitches!” I hollered.

His whole
body shook with laughter. The sack of bottles in his hand clanked as they
smacked against his leg with each step he took as he carried me piggy back
across campus toward my dorm. “Keep it down, you’re going to get us in
trouble,” he said, amused.

“But you’re
king of the ice! No one would dare mess with you on a night like tonight. You
guys won! Thanks in large part to those two goals you scored.”

He laughed
again. “They might arrest us for disturbing the peace.”

“Pfft,” I
scoffed. “Arrest you, I don’t think so.” Another group of students was walking
toward us, looking like they were on their way to a party or one of the bars
around campus. “Go Terriers!” I shouted and they all hollered and cheered,
congratulating Kris on tonight’s victory once they were close enough to
recognize him.

We made it
inside my dorm without incident and Kris dumped me on my bed, shaking his head,
but he didn’t bother hiding his smile. “You’re ridiculous.”

“Whatever,
are we celebrating or not?” I held out my hand for the sack he was still
holding. After tonight’s game we’d received several invites to parties, but
Kris opted out, in favor of coming back here and having our own celebration,
just the two of us. He swatted my hand away and took the bag over to my
makeshift kitchen area, which consisted of my mini fridge, a blender and a
toaster oven with some shelves and one set of cupboards.

He rummaged
around until he found two cups and then started mixing the different kinds of
alcohol along with some juice he’d grabbed out of my fridge. I had no idea what
he was making, but he swore I would like it.

“So why
didn’t you want to go to any parties tonight? And why don’t we ever go to your
place?” I asked him while he poured.

“Because,”
he turned, handing me a cup. I took my first drink, and I had to give it to him.
It was really good. “If you’re going to be drinking tonight, I’d rather have
you in your room so I don’t have to figure out how to get you back here once
you’re piss drunk, and we don’t go to my place because I live with a bunch of
the dudes from the team. You don’t need to be around that shit.”

“Whatever,”
I mumbled, downing more of the alcoholic concoction in my cup. “You just don’t
want me to witness your slutty-man-whoreish tendencies.” He laughed, but
otherwise ignored me, making himself a drink.

After we’d tossed
back a few, we decided it would be a great idea to turn on the Wii. “Do you
have Super Mario Bros? That game was the shit when I was a kid.”

“Yeah, but
I’d rather play Mario Kart,” I told him.

“Fine.
You’re on.” He dug through my stack of games until he found it and then he got
the controllers ready and handed me one.

The drinking
and driving rule should definitely be applied to video games. It wasn’t pretty.
It was really bad. Neither one of us won a single race. We were lucky to stay
on the track. Whatever he put in those drinks was really strong, and we were
both laughing so hard every time one of us would crash that the other would
follow.

“That fucking
Bowser threw another banana peel at me!” Kris cursed and I giggled.

Eventually
we moved on to Wii sports, but that wasn’t much better. Without the wrist
strap, I would have thrown my remote through the TV at least half a dozen times
during tennis and bowling.

“Seriously,
you have Just Dance?” he said when he was looking for the next game while I
made us another drink. I’m not even sure what I put in them, and at that point
neither one of us cared. I think they were mostly vodka.

“Shut up,
don’t make fun of me,” I told him. “Put it in, we’ll have a dance battle.”

“I will kick
your ass,” he retorted, opening the case and taking out the game. I took a long
drink from my cup, handing his to him once he had the game in and ready to go.
He drank a third of the cup in one gulp before setting it back down.

I felt like
Usher once the music started and I was up. I was nailing every move, or at
least I thought I was. My score said otherwise. Kris acted like he was Channing
Tatum or something when he started dancing, but Magic Mike he was not. We both
failed miserably at the game, and were drunker than we thought. Our dance moves
were all over the place, and I don’t even know how many times I fell on my ass,
a couple of times taking him down with me.

“I can’t
take this anymore,” he laughed when we were both lying flat on our backs.

“I jussss
wanna dance,” I whined.

“No more,”
he protested, but I dragged him back to his feet. I shut off the game and
instead grabbed my phone, plugging it into my speakers and cranking the volume
up on my favorite dance playlist. I grabbed his hands. “Come on, dance!”

He laughed,
but indulged me, putting his hands on my hips and moving along with me. Our
moves were clumsy and sloppy, but that didn’t stop us from getting completely
into it. At one point he tried to spin me out. I ended up tripping and fell
backwards onto my bed, but I didn’t let go of his hand and pulled him down on
top of me. I grunted when he landed on me and then we both started laughing. He
rolled off and then we were both lying on our backs, half on the bed, our legs
hanging off. I turned my head to look at him and he did the same.

“You’re so
hot,” I sighed, and then giggled. “Oops, did I say that out loud?”

“You think
I’m hot?” He grinned.

“Like you
don’t know you’re gorrrgeousss,” I gave his shoulder a shove and he captured my
wrist in his hand before I could pull it away. He tugged me into his body,
slipping his other arm under my back and rolling me on top of him.

Woah.

I had no
idea what was going on, but my body was all for it. My heart rate shot up and
my breathing became hard and shallow. His hands glided over my arms and then
down my sides to my waist. Everywhere that he touched, my nerve endings were
lit on fire and a heady buzz overcame me. I sighed, dropping my head to his
chest and inhaling his scent. I could smell whatever soap he’d used in the
shower after the game. I wanted to lick him all over.

“Mmm you
smell good,” I mumbled with my lips pressed to his neck.

Holy shit,
how did my lips get there?

It was like
they had a mind of their own and pretty soon they were kissing up and down his
neck. His chest heaved below me and he expelled a deep groan. His hands slipped
beneath his jersey that I still wore and gripped the flesh just above my
backside. Then my slutty lips decided to invite my tongue and teeth to the
party and then I was nipping and sucking and licking at his skin while his
hands roamed up and down my back, and even over my ass, caressing and
massaging.

Not wanting
to be left out of the fun, my naughty hands decided to get in on the action and
I slid them up under his hoodie and t-shirt, running my fingers over the hard
planes of his stomach. He might not be able to dance like Magic Mike, but he
sure as hell had abs like Magic Mike. Every inch of him was like marble
sculpted to perfection.

I bet
they aren’t as hot as Chris’.

I should
call him over here so I can compare.

I giggled at
the thought. Too many Chris’, it would be a Chris sandwich, or a Mia sandwich
with Chris bread. How did that work? I didn’t know, but in the name of research
I wanted to find out. I giggled again.

Chris would
never let me touch him though. He would never touch me like this Kris was.

Ooh.

Hands were
pulling the jersey up over my head, and then those hands were all over my bare
flesh. That felt nice. Very nice. Probably not as nice as Chris’ hands. Chris
probably had his hands all over Katrina right now.

Oh shit.
Stop thinking of Chris. Think about Kris.

In my head
that sounded so silly.

I lifted my
head and my eyes met Kris’ hungry gaze. There was nothing silly about that. It
was so hot I thought I might combust right there. One of his hands tangled in
my hair and pulled my mouth down to his. I could taste the alcohol on his
breath and tongue. I kind of liked it.

He rolled us
over so that he had me pinned to the bed and I liked that a lot. There was an
intensity and desperation in his touch and kisses that made them almost rough,
but it felt so good to be wanted so passionately and fervently. The way his
hands moved over my body bringing incredible pleasure, and the way he looked at
me made me feel special and desired. I’d never felt so on fire, so needy and
consumed all at once.

Almost in a
frenzy, we helped each other out of the rest of our clothes. His body was
spectacular. I leaned up on one elbow, wrapping my other hand around his neck
and bringing his body lower so that I could place kisses all over his chest and
up his neck until our mouths met and tangled again.

“You’re so
beautiful,” he whispered, staring down at my exposed body before dropping his
mouth to cover one breast. From there everything was just a blur of intense
feelings and sensations. I felt like I never wanted it to end and at the same
time like I couldn’t take anymore without bursting.

When I
finally did, I thought that I might have died for a minute. It felt like my
heart stopped momentarily and all the oxygen was expelled from my lungs, before
my heart picked right back up. I sucked in deep breaths and waited for my heart
to slow. I felt Kris’ weight leave my body, and part of me was sad at the loss
of connection. The rest of my body was so relaxed that I wasn’t sure I could
move. I told myself that I would move in just a minute. I just needed one
minute to recover, and then I would get up. That didn’t happen. I felt warmth
surround me and slowly I drifted off.