by Nana Malone
“You're wrong, Dad. He's extremely smart. Besides, the guy you picked for me is also a jock.”
“But he's a good kid. And has a hell of a lot more going for him that some stupid sport.”
No. Don't do it. She doesn't want you to. Gage's hands clenched into fists, and he kept walking into the foyer. And then he heard her. “No. He is not.”
Her father sighed. “Becker, again with that nonsense? You two had a misunderstanding.”
Fuck it. That was it. Gage turned on his heel and strode back into the living room. “With all due respect sir, you're an idiot.” He put his arm around Becker's shoulders, and she immediately sank into his side. He looked down at her. “I’m sorry. I don’t want to fight your battles for you. But you don’t deserve this. Please say something, or let me?”
After a second that felt like an eternity, she nodded. “Go ahead.”
“What happened with your daughter and that asshole is not a misunderstanding. He took something that wasn't his to take. He hurt her. Do you know that she has nightmares about what happened?”
Cain's eyes went wide. His gaze pinged between Becker and Gage. “Becker, what the hell is he talking about?”
Gage shook his head. “No, you don't get to ask her what she's talking about. She told you. She came to you, because she needed her father. You brushed her off. You told her it must've been a misunderstanding, because you are too blind to look. Too blind to see. Your daughter was hurting. I may have screwed things up. Forever maybe. But I believed her. I believe in her. I see what that guy's capable of. She's not the only one he's hurt.”
Suddenly Cain's mask of bravado fell, and he staggered back. “What?”
Under Gage's arm, Becker whispered, “He hurt me, Dad. I told you. He hurt me.”
Cain shook his head. “No. Y-you said things went too far. That you didn't want it to happen. Trying to cover up the fact that you slept with him.”
“You're my father. You're supposed to take my side. I told you he hurt me. And I didn’t sleep with him. He drugged my drink with ecstasy, and it made me sick. He raped me.”
She was shaking, now. Gage held her close. “Becker, do you want to stay? Or do you want me to get you out of here?”
Becker tilted her head up and met his gaze. She shot a sad glance at her father. “I want to come with you.”
He nodded. “You have no idea how happy I am to hear that.”
Her father trembled, his face reddening. “Becker? You can't just leave me here!”
She squared her shoulders. “Yes, I can. You'll be working, anyway. I'm tired of trying to please someone who's never going to be pleased. I'm sorry that I look like her. I'm sorry it hurts you. But even sorrier that you refuse to see your daughter. Refuse to believe me. I needed you, and you couldn't be my father. So, I’m leaving. And by the way, you can keep my trust fund. I don't want it anymore.”
Gage kissed the top of her forehead. “Go on, grab your bag. We're getting out of here.”
During the drive back to campus, Gage was silent. Becker couldn't read him. He'd come for her. After everything, he'd come for her. He could have just walked away. Assumed they were done. Like people did. She'd been so shell-shocked by everything. Knowing that she was exposed. Knowing that everybody knew what happened her. She didn't know what to do, or say, or how to act, so she'd done what she knew—retreat.
But Gage hadn't stood for that. He hadn't stood by and let her retreat. And then, he'd stood up to her father. She never seen anyone do that before.
Her heart squeezed with the pain she'd caused him, all the pain and loneliness she'd caused herself. She loved him so damn much, and had no idea what to do with any of those feelings.
When they reached her dorm, Gage didn't hesitate. Just parked his car and walked around her side to open the door for her. He helped her out, and they walked her to her room. She unlocked the door, and tossed her things on the floor at the entrance. “When did you figure out I wasn't in the dorm?”
“A few days ago. I figured it might be easier to study at home for finals.”
“Yeah, I knew it. Come on.” He took her hand, leading her to the bed.
“Gage, I don't think—”
He sighed. “Becker, stop arguing. I'm not going to try to have sex with you. Right now, all I want to do, after three weeks of trying to track you down, is hold you, and get some rest. We can talk later.”
Her heart hurt. There was so much she wanted to say to him. So much they had to talk about. “Gage—”
He shook his head. “Just get in the bed, Becker. Let me hold you. We'll look at our problems tomorrow, okay? I haven't been able to sleep for weeks.”
With a sigh, she nodded. She'd missed him holding her, she'd missed his laugh. She'd missed watching him play. She missed that frowning, concentration face he made when he was studying. She missed the way he laughed. The way he challenged her on movie quotes. She missed all of him. Taking his hand, she climbed into bed next to him, and for the first time in two weeks, she felt like she was home.
Gage woke slowly. Jesus, he'd slept like the dead. He wasn't an idiot, though. He knew he had things to make up for. They had things to talk about. But they couldn't do that now. Because they both had class, and he had a game tonight. And there was an after-party he had to go to. “Becker?”
She turned in his arms, and smiled sleepily at him. “Morning.”
God, he loved sleepy Becker. She was all soft and smiley in the morning. This was always her expression, before she realized exactly how much she had to do that day. And then she went into serious mode. He would always love these moments. “You sleep okay?”
She smiled at him again, and his heart squeezed. “Yeah, really good.”
He nodded. “Good. Listen, I need to go, I have class. And you didn't work so hard with me for me to start missing English classes now. And I've got a game tonight. I was hoping maybe you'd come? There's a party after I need to show my face at, but I thought maybe afterwards we could talk?”
She licked her lips. “Yeah, talking would be good. Thank you for what you did yesterday with my dad.”
Gage brushed his thumb over her cheek. “You deserve to have someone fight for you. I'm sorry that he refused to do it.”
She nodded, and wiped away the tears. “Thank you for what you've been trying to do with Daniel. I've just been so scared for so long. I don't—”
Gage shook his head again. “Becker, the first thing you need to understand is, you did nothing wrong. Daniel is the lowest form of humanity. And if you'd let me, I would happily break every bone in his body. Secondly, I screwed up. Me. Not you. I messed up and couldn't keep my mouth shut, and I exposed you in a way I never meant to. I want you to trust me. I broke that trust, I need to work to get it back. And finally, I know you seem surprised that I've been trying to find you. Trying to call you. Moving heaven and earth to get to you. What you need to understand is, I love you. So, you can withdraw all you like, but no matter what, I'm coming for you.”
“I don’t know what I did to deserve you.”
“I’m the one wondering that. There is one more thing.” He inhaled deep. “Daniel—you weren’t the only one he hurt. There were…others. I’m not going to tell you what to do. I’ll respect whatever you want. At the end of the day, all I care about is your heart. Whatever makes it happy, I’m good with. But I think you need to know. You might feel alone, but you’re not.” He squeezed her hand. “Now, I need to get to English class.”
He leaned over and kissed her softly on the lips, and then grabbed his backpack. He told himself he was in a hurry to get English class. But there was a part of him that was terrified she wouldn't say the words back.
Thirty
His life was getting back on track. The game had gone great. Daniel had been nowhere to be seen. And Gage had Becker back. And the best part of the whole Sanchez situation—t hree more cheerleaders had come forward. He was off the team, and the student disciplinary committee was reviewing his con
duct. Word was, he was going to be expelled within the week.
As usual, the party was crowded. He just wanted to make an appearance, as it was the last hoorah before finals. They'd already been there an hour, and he was getting restless. But he didn't want to take her home yet. If he did, he'd forget that they needed to talk, because he'd been several weeks without her, and he felt like he had legitimate withdrawal symptoms.
Rather than press through to the guy running the keg to get his and Becker's plastic cups refilled, he dropped the cups into the trash and kept moving.
He turned into the first open door he saw and pressed his back against the wall. She nearly walked by, as she followed him into the room.
“Can I ask you something?”
She nodded, her dark eyes on his. “Of course.”
“Why didn't you just tell me?”
She frowned. “Tell you what? I have nothing to tell.”
“So you're not keeping it from me that you got the Blake Fellowship?”
Her eyes went wide. “How did you find out? And it wasn't that I was keeping it from you,” she explained. “I just hadn't told you yet. I found out just before I left to see you at the hospital with your dad. It's not the kind of news you just blurt out to someone going through what you were going through. And…I was scared,” she confessed.
“Scared? You've been so excited about this program. Why are you so suddenly scared about it? What's changed?”
“You,” she said quickly. “And me. Us. Things are just…they're different now. And we're still sort of new. I didn't think you'd want to do long distance.”
He threw his hands up in the air. “So you just didn't tell me? After everything that's happened between us…?” He shook his head, uncertain what to make of everything. Relief, there was definitely some of that lifting his shoulders, disbelief was there too, and a little twinge of hurt, that she hadn't trusted him. “Was that part of why you didn't call me back?”
She licked her lips and nodded. “I thought maybe it would be better to just let it fizzle out. With everything, and then this Fellowship, I figured you'd want someone else.”
“You are so smart, but I swear you're oblivious. I fucking love you. I spent weeks wondering if you had been trying to break up with me, and just didn't know how.”
“You thought I wanted to break up with you?” Becker asked, horrified. “No. I…I was afraid that you would want to, well, that if I went through with the program, that things would just…that you'd resent my going, with everything that's happened with your dad, and…”
“But you wouldn't be going until the fall.” Gage said, confused.
“No. I have to go at the end of March. I'll be doing extra coursework, and correspondence classes to finish out the semester, and I know how long-distance stuff turns out.”
“Becks. Becks, calm down,” he said, reaching out and taking hold of her reassuringly by her upper arms. “I told you when you were applying that I thought it was a great opportunity for you, and that I knew you'd get it. Why didn't you trust me enough to tell me?”
“I told you, it wasn't that I didn't trust you.”
“But it was.” he snapped, louder than he meant. Modulating his voice, he continued. “You let me think you knew that I supported you, and yet…you still couldn't bring yourself to tell me. You think I couldn't have used a little good news amongst everything that was going on?”
“How was I supposed to know you would take it that way? Your father was in the hospital and I know what that can do to a person, okay?” She closed her eyes and shook her head slowly before opening them again. “I'm sorry, all right? I haven't told anyone except the program anything about it. And the only reason Daniel knew was because he works in the academic office. I was planning to tell you when we headed back after the party.”
“Oh,” Gage said slowly, recalling her earlier innuendos. “And…I'm sorry. I…I overreacted, I guess. I've been stewing and worrying for a couple of weeks.”
Becker didn't say anything, but nodded a bit before closing her eyes and sighing again.
“I'm sorry, too. I…I should have just told you when I found out. And I shouldn't have been so hurt about the Daniel thing. I just couldn't function, so I went into shut-down mode.” With another deep breath, she added. “I’ve also been thinking. I want to come forward. A-about Daniel.”
Gage nodded. “You know you don’t have to.”
She licked her lips. “I know. But I talked to one of the girls. She called me. And I want to. I want to put it behind me and stop hiding.”
“I’m proud of you.”
“Thanks. I just wish I hadn’t been so scared. Not just of Daniel but of everything. With us too.”
“What was it that had you so scared? You knew I said we could just do the long-distance thing for a while.” He pulled her close and inhaled her honeysuckle shampoo.
“I’m afraid…of losing this,” she nodded to the distance he was closing between them. “I love you so much, and I don't want to lose you or what we have, and…I've seen it happen before with my parents. Getting the acceptance…it made it all real in a way it wasn’t before. You can say all you want about the distance thing not mattering, but…it's going to be hard and there are going to be things like if your dad has another health crisis that will be even harder to work through together, when we're on opposite sides of the country.”
He grinned. “You love me, huh?”
She rolled her eyes. “You know I do.”
“Yeah, I do know. I knew when you came to San Diego for me. Look, we'll find a way to make it work,” Gage assured her again, “because I don't want to lose what we have any more than you do.” He leaned down and kissed her forehead, bringing his arms up and around her. “It scares me, too, the thought of losing you, but I know we can figure this out. You've seen it fail, but I've seen it succeed so many times over. Pretty much all the Coulters go through something like this at some point, dealing with bouts of long distance. It hasn't brought any of us down yet, and I don't mean to let it start with us. We just have to get creative.”
“Ah, yes. I believe you mentioned this before,” Becker said, her hands dropping from the small of his back to grasp his buttocks. “And if my memory serves me right, we did get rather creative when it came to the rules of that ridiculous hazing thing you had to do for the team.”
The memory of Becker lying naked lying on top of him, her wet heat sliding over his cock, had him rock hard in seconds. She must have felt it, too, because she was pulling him tightly against herself, his cock pressing into her belly.
“Can you reach the door?” she whispered, her hands trailing from his buttocks around to the front of his pants, her thumbs running along the length of his prominent member before she began work on his fly.
Reaching to push the door closed, Gage surveyed the room they were in for the first time. It wasn't a bedroom, but the laundry room. They were across from a side-by-side washer and dryer. The air smelled of fabric softener and detergent, not the most romantic of odors, but it could have been worse.
He was going to need to focus on those details, and not the way Becker rolled her tongue around the tip of his cock, before taking a tight hold of him at the root and bringing him into her mouth. Sweat broke out on his brow, and his fingers gripped at the wall behind him, as Becker continued to tease him, massaging his balls as her head bobbed rhythmically up and down. He took hold of her hair, and tried not to grip it too tight. He just needed something to hold on to, as he began to move his hips towards her. Desperate to take firm hold and thrust harder and faster, he groaned with the effort to hold back, to let her bring him where she would.
“I'm…I'm…” he gasped, leaning against the wall, as his legs began to tremble. She braced her hands on his thighs and rode it out with him. His fists clenched in her hair with each wave of his climax, until he dropped his hands from her hair entirely and uttered a quiet, “Fuck.”
Becker grinned, as she rose from her knees.
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“Not something we'll be able to do from across the country,” she teased. “But if we're going to have only limited time together when we live so far apart, might as well start practicing how to make the most of the time we'll have together when we do cross paths. And I doubt we'll always be somewhere with a bed.”
“You know,” Gage said, as he took a few steps towards her, “I was paying very close attention to that creative exercise you mentioned earlier and there were some aspects of your technique that I think could do with some improving. I'd be happy to help illustrate them for you.” At that point, he'd backed her up until her ass came up against the edge of the dryer.
In a flash, Gage had Becker turned around and her skirt up, her panties pulled aside. He used his hand to guide hers between her legs, parting the tender flesh and sliding along the slick folds. He spread her wetness over her fingers, twining them with his and making them both slick as they began massaging her mound and moving down, as her pelvis tilted in pursuit of their stimulation. With his knee, Gage eased her legs farther apart, and she rocked her ass back against him. As she squirmed against him and curled around herself, his cock twitched again, pressing against her buttocks, throbbing.
“Yes,” she panted, pulling their joined hands away, and reaching to brace herself against the dryer. “Please. I need you.”
Moving his cock just an inch over and down, he pinned her against the cool metal of the dryer, making her cry out as her fingers slipped on the surface. He thrust into her deep, lifting her feet from the ground once or twice, and causing the large front panel of the dryer to reverberate. It took no time at all, and Becker was moaning, her slick walls squeezing him tight.
With both of his hands on the edge of the dryer, Gage reached his second climax, trembling against Becker, as he pressed his chest to her back and kissed her shoulder. “I love you Becker Johnson. And my heart will always be yours.”