Laughter rumbles up my chest from my stomach, leaving my lips in a desperate escape. I can't reign it back in. I can't stop. Tears run down my cheeks, and I double over.
Mateo doesn't laugh with me, but there's a soft smile playing at his lips. I watch as his chest rises and falls in slow measured breaths, and soon my laughter subsides.
"I needed that," I say.
"Is it gone now?" he asks. "The elephant?"
I want to say yes, that whatever awkwardness hanging over us from Thanksgiving has dissipated. But we both know that wasn't the elephant I meant.
I shake my head. There are more elephants standing between us than I can count. Big ones. Literal mountains.
"Maybe we should," I start, but Mateo cuts me off.
"This one," he says, not meeting my gaze. He holds up his phone, and it's one titled "CheckMate." An older couple sits ata chess table in the park, using one hand to move pieces, and the other to hold each other.
Perhaps those elephants can be pushed away a while longer. The excitement from the deleted photo of us seems to have died down a bit. But we also haven't been seen in public together since it was posted. Perhaps we should keep it that way for a bit.
Much to Mateo's dismay, I convince him it's for the best. So we start his Christmas shopping online. I try not to tell him how to spend his money, but this man is by far the worst gift giver I've ever seen. Not a single thought has gone into anything he's purchased. And when I tell him that, he looks like a sad puppy. Like I took his favorite chew toy.
"All of this is just stuff," I tell him. "I guarantee it ends up in a donation pile or a landfill by next Christmas. Find something that won't."
"So that's a no to the giant stuffed animal for the punk?"
I roll my eyes, which seems to be my default reaction to him.
"Kidding," he says. "I already bought him an electric scooter."
I hit him with the pillow between us, and then I'm on my back, hands over my head, his tight grip holding them in place as his body presses me into the couch.
"Can we take a break?" he asks against my lips.
I buck my hips beneath him, my body seeking the friction of his hard cock between my legs.
He sucks my lower lip into his mouth and pushes forward, his tongue tangling with mine. He rocks his body against me, and I mewl into his mouth. I tug my wrists free of his grip, threading my fingers into his short beard, dying to feel it between my thighs. We haven't explored nearly enough of each other, and I want more, but I'm also not above a little dry humping.
We're both caught up in the feeling of our bodies against each other. Only the fabric of his sweatpants and my leggings are between us, and it might as well be nothing, because my legs tense, and I buck my hips harder against his, letting his cock rub myclit harder and faster. I sink my teeth into his bicep to keep from crying out as my orgasm takes over my body in waves.
The sound of a garage door opening spurs Mateo into a frenzy, but he doesn't need long. His beautiful blue eyes roll back, and he bites his bottom lip as he comes in his pants.
Mateo and I untangle, both of us flying to opposite ends of the couch as footsteps filter down the hall. We stare at each other trying to discern whose footsteps are walking our way. I drop my eyes to his crotch, a dark wet spot staining his pants and toss him the pillow. He stares at it and then drops it on his lap in a hurry as Charlie rounds the corner.
Fucking elephants.
Chapter twenty-nine
Mateo
"Do your parents or Addie know you're looking to move back?" Jade asks from the passenger seat.
I shake my head and take the next right, pulling to a stop in front of a large two-story home with a for sale sign posted in the yard.
"Did you call that realtor yet?" she asks.
"Not yet." I roll down the window, getting a better view of the house. "I want to have an idea of what I'm looking for first. My condo was an impulse buy, and don't get me wrong, I love it, but it's not home. I'm searching for home."
"Well, this one is a four bedroom, five bath Tudor with updates throughout," she reads from the listing I texted her earlier. "Dude, what the fuck do you need a house this big for?"
The simplest answer is I don't, but I want to need it.
