Page 77 of Disarm
“I’m sorry,” Miguel says first, rubbing a hand over his face. “I shouldn’t have?—”
“No,” I cut in, shaking my head. “Don’t. Don’t apologize for defending me.”
He exhales, eyes closing briefly. When he opens them again, they’re softer. Tired. “You okay?”
No.I feel like I’ve been flayed open.
“I don’t know,” I say honestly. “I don’t know how I feel anymore.”
He nods, stepping closer, close enough that the heat of him starts to thaw the cold under my skin. He can’t pull me in with the whole gym still half watching, but he hovers.
“Come home with me,” he says quietly. “We’ll grab your stuff from the dorm. You don’t need to sit in that room alone tonight.”
My body answers before my brain can. I nod. “Yeah. Okay.”
NINETEEN
MIGUEL
By the time we push through the gym doors, the night air hits us like a blessing, it’s cool, salty, and a little damp off the bay. The noise of the game fades behind us, replaced by the softer sounds of cars and people laughing.
Caleb’s quiet.
Too quiet.
We walk side by side across the lot, not touching, the overhead lights turning the asphalt that weird pale gray. My hands itch to reach for him, but I give him the space and let him set the pace. Passing a couple of his teammates, one lifts his chin in that bro-nod way. Another mutters a low, “Nice three, Burton,” before heading to his car. Nobody says shit about the scene in the lobby, but I can feel the looks.
Let them look.
When we finally get to the truck, I unlock it with a chirp. Caleb reaches for the passenger handle, then freezes. His shoulders tense, I can see the tremor run through him even in the shitty parking lot light.
“Caleb?” I ask softly. “You good, baby?”
He turns around so fast I barely have time to register it before he’s on me—fisting the front of my hoodie, dragging me down into a kiss that steals whatever air I had left.
It’s not soft. It’s not careful. It’s desperate, like he’s trying to climb into my skin.
I stumble back a step, my spine hitting the side of the truck next to us with a dull thunk.Fuck it.My hands go to his waist automatically, then up his back, under his hoodie, grabbing fistfuls of warmed cotton and the heat of him beneath.
He makes a low, broken sound against my mouth and presses closer.
“I love that you protect me,” he mumbles against my lips, the words half-breathed, half-bitten. “God, I need you so much, Miggy.”
Fuck me.
My chest squeezes so hard it borders on painful. I kiss him back, slowly trying to steady him instead of feeding into the frenzy. One hand comes up to cradle the back of his neck, thumb rubbing that soft spot just under his hairline.
“You know I got you,” I murmur between kisses. “I always fucking will.”
We stay like that for a long moment, until his body starts to soften instead of vibrate with anger and hurt.
A car door slams somewhere across the lot. Someone laughs, too loud.
Caleb flinches, just a little. Reality fades back in.
“Come on,” I say gently, brushing my nose against his. “Let’s get out of here before I end up bending you over the hood and fucking you and your coach will have a coronary.”
That earns me a shaky laugh, which is all I was really fishing for.
