Rough Love (Tannen Boys 1)

She nods. “Yeah. I’m going to miss you, miss this.”

Her voice is quiet and sad, and I don’t want her to leave like that. She deserves to step into this new phase with all the excitement in the world. She’s earned it. She deserves it. So I lighten the mood intentionally for her sake, even as it pains me to do it. I thrust up into her, pulling her down tight and grinding her hips against mine. “You gonna miss this dick, baby? He’s definitely gonna miss you too.”

I soften the crudeness with a low laugh and a sexy wag of my eyebrows.

She giggles, and I can feel her inner muscles squeezing me. I groan at how good she feels and wonder if we have time for another round before curfew. It’s not as if her parents can ground her, anyway. She’ll be gone.

She’ll be gone.

Her palm smacks against my bare chest, teasing, “You’re awful, you know that? I’m trying to have a moment here and you’re making light of it.” She’s smiling, or trying to, but I can see the worry beneath.

I can always read her like a book, have been since before we even talked in Speech class my sophomore year. She’d been a junior and stunning. The quintessential blonde, blue-eyed cheerleader, but instead of being a mean girl, she was kind and good-hearted. She gave a speech about baby ducks once and I’d been done for.

Okay, it wasn’t actually about ducks but about pollution and its effects on the environment, but all I’d seen were the fluffy little yellow ducks she’d been flashing slides of. Her impassioned plea for us to do something had stirred something in me beyond just my dick, which she’d already been starring in fantasies for since day one of the school year.

“I’m not, Al,” I tell her soberly, stroking her cheek. “I swear. Tomorrow, I’m gonna be bawling like a fucking baby that you’re gone. But I want you to go start our life together. I’ll be there soon, and we’ll make good on all those plans we have. I promise. I love you, baby.”

She wiggles, my flaccid cock sliding out of her, and I almost mourn the loss, but she turns, sitting sideways on my lap. I can feel the warm mess of our combined juices leaking out of her onto the denim covering my thigh, and I like the way she’s marking me. I wrap my arms around her, cradling her as she lays her head on my shoulder.

“You promise-promise?” she asks.

I nod, touching my chin to the top of her head. The words pour out of her in one big run. “I’m just scared, you know? School’s this big, new thing, and I’m not going to know anyone. I’m probably going to get lost and never find my way to classes or back to the dorm. I’ll end up sleeping in the quad under a tree and flunking out. And you’re going to be back here, the literal big man on campus. Rock of the defense, and so fucking sexy that every girl is going to try to hop on your dick. And I won’t be here to fight them off. Don’t forget about me, okay?”

I lift her chin with my thick finger and then cup her cheeks in my big, meaty paws. I’m not known for my grace and gentleness on or off the field, but for this girl, I could brush a butterfly’s wings and not hurt it. That’s how gentle I am with her. I meet her eyes, blue on near-black.

“Listen to me, Al. You’re going to take that campus by storm and make it your bitch.” So I’m not exactly a romantic poet or a good pep-talker, but I’m trying. “As for us, it’s you and me forever, baby. There ain’t a girl here who can touch what you give me.” I see the flare in her eyes and clarify. “Not my dick . . . my heart. And there ain’t a single guy at that school who’s gonna love you like I do.”

She presses her lips to mine, and it feels like a promise, a vow, sealing my words between us as truth. She tastes like love, like the future, like the sweet dreams only two stupid kids can have.

When she lays her head back on my shoulder, I just hold her, running my thumb up and down her arm and memorizing the moment. It’s a turning point for us. Tomorrow, Allyson’s going to school, and it’ll be the beginning of a whole new phase for us. The first step in the rest of our lives. I can’t wait.

I walk the fields at home for acres, watching the afternoon sun make its trek across the sky as I check on the crops. Some more peaches are looking good on the trees, probably ready for Bobby and me to pick this week. I need to check in with Shayanne to see if she wants them for one of her fancy recipes or if I should give them to Brody for the farmers’ market.