Zach scoffs. “It’s payback for all the times I sprouted a hard-on at the kitchen table back in college.”
As he pretends to shudder, my shoulders shake with chuckles. “You should have seen your face back then. You looked like you wanted to murder me on the spot.”
My boyfriend, soon to be fiancé if he accepts my proposal tonight, shrugs. “Turned you on, didn’t it?”
I make no secret of checking him out, running my gaze over him in a slow sweep, which makes his cheeks heat.
“Eyes forward,” he whispers, lips twitching with amusement.
“I’d rather look at you while imaginingother things.”
This time, when the guy in front of us turns around, his cheeks could be mistaken for stoplights. Zach blows him a kiss because he’s a wanker who likes to rile people up.
Nudging him with my elbow, I give him a look that says,“Behave!”
“What?” he speaks near my ear, his voice low, breathy. “I bet he’d like to join in.”
I narrow my eyes. We shared a girl once, but that was then, many fucking years ago. I’m done sharing my ocean. He’s mine and only mine.
Some days, I’m convinced he teases me on purpose because he enjoys my possessive nature.
In truth, Zach is territorial, too, and would sooner put this guy in hospital than let him anywhere near me.
However, two can play this game. “I think I’d let him top me.”
Zach’s left eye twitches. Oh, how it twitches. Amused, I flash my best smile, the one that gets me anything I want.
He leans in close, his voice a low, erotic threat as he whispers, “Think we can make it through graduation without me beating someone up? Trust me, if you utter another fucking word like that, I’ll spill blood.”
“What’s the matter?” My gaze lingers on his tempting, skilled mouth—a mouth that’s brought me to climax more times than I can count. “Feeling threatened, baby?”
Those lips curve in a side smirk. “Try aroused, Ark.”
As he rakes his teeth over his bottom lip in a teasing move that he knows is my Achilles heel, blood floods south between my legs, filling my rapidly swelling cock.
As we eye fuck each other, I consider the downright filthy ways to destroy him later. I’ll let him fuck me first, though, because I crave his power inside me when he looks at me like he is now.
Fifteen minutes later, our names are finally called, and we step forward to accept our certificates. The applause is a loud roar in my ears as I scan the crowd for my siblings, Archie and Lily-Rose, who are in attendance today.
They’re at the back, standing with Zach’s family and his sister, Neriah.
My eyes mist and I smile at them before shaking the chancellor’s outstretched hand. He gives me my certificate, and the feeling of it settles something inside me.
Years of late nights and nightmares, nights where I couldn’t sleep, wondering if I would ever overcome my past despite countless hours of therapy, led me to this moment.
Idid this.
Igraduated from university.
Ibuilt a better future for myself, even as I thought they’d broken me beyond repair and taken everything I had to offer the world. No one can take this from me, though. No one!
Walking back to the seats, Zach leans in. “I know I tell you this all the time, but I’m so fucking proud of you, baby. You’re the most badass man I’ve ever met.”
His words hit home—more than he’ll ever know. Ducking my chin to hide the fact that I’m close to sobbing like a baby, my lips quiver as I try to rein in my emotions.
The road here has been long and dark, with more setbacks than not, yet throughout every downfall, Zach has been there to hold me up.
My ocean.
