A week and a half later, we carried the National Championship Trophy back to Boston.
In another grueling game against the Arizona Panthers, we clinched the win by a narrow three points. Riley had kicked a field goal with two-and-a-half minutes left to go, and our defense had held strong, keeping our opponents from getting into field goal position themselves. They tried, anyway, and failed the almost sixty-yard attempt. Possession had come back to us with less than a minute left to go, and Holden took a knee each time until the clock ran out.
Just like that, we were national champions.
The next two weeks were a chaotic, joyful blur. We flew back home and celebrated with our university in a parade that spanned the city. Two days later, we were on a flight down to Florida to spend three days celebrating our win at Disney World. The team couldn’t wait to get their rings, but until then, they took the trophy out to as many parties and bars as they could before my dad put it under lock and key in a trophy case outside his office at the stadium.
It was the first one put there since the 90s.
All the while, there was a bittersweet scent in the air. As much as we celebrated, almost a quarter of the team was graduating — and that meant this was their last season as a Rebel.
Holden was on a rollercoaster of emotions, high off the win one second, devastated that his college career was over the next, and — most frequently — nervous about the draft.
But the night before classes started on our final spring semester of college, we laid on the couch at my house, both of us cozy in our hoodies and sweatpants with two blankets piled over us. We made out beneath them until we were both sweating and tossing them off, but even then, we stayed tangled together.
And for one blissful moment, neither of us worried about anything at all.
“You know, I feel a little cheated,” he said, running his fingers through my hair. “In all this time we spent sneaking around, you never teased me with another dance.”
“Dance?” I asked, confused. When his eyes landed on the pole set up in the middle of the living room behind me, I rolled my eyes and smacked him playfully. “Oh, my God, Holden.”
“What?! That was hot, and you know it was or you wouldn’t have left the windows open for me to see.”
“I didn’t realize they were open until I saw you creeping.”
“Mm-hmm, sure. You wanted me to watch, and you know it.”
I rolled my eyes, trying to stand, but he hugged me tight to him, wrapping his legs around me as I squirmed.
“I don’t dance for anyone but myself,” I told him.
“You also swore you’d never get on your knees for me, but we all see how that turned out…”
I tried to knee him in the stomach, but he had me tangled up so much that I couldn’t do much but wiggle while he laughed and held on tight.
I sighed, relenting. “Fine. You want me to dance for you?”
“Really?”
“If you let me go, you boa.”
“Boa, huh? Because my dick is so big.”
“Because you’re strangling me, you cocky jerk,” I said, finally wriggling free. When I did, I stood up and pulled him by the hand until he was sitting upright.
“You love when I’m cocky.”
“Shut up before I change my mind.”
He zipped his lips closed, sitting with his hands in his lap like a little kid waiting for his Christmas gift. I rolled my eyes again, but then grabbed my phone and turned on my playlist.
“Wicked Games” by The Weeknd started playing, and I closed my eyes, slipping into my body.
I faced the pole then, pulling my hair back and over my shoulders. Inhaling a breath, I slowly slinked toward it, reaching up to grab it with my right hand. I walked around, dragging my sock-covered feet behind me with each step before I did a dip and a goddess spin down to the floor just as the beat kicked in.
I landed on my knees, arching my back before I dove down onto the ground. I kept my back arched and my booty up, letting it fall to one side and bump against the floor before I took it the opposite way.
My eyes met Holden’s as I braced my hands on either side of my chest and pushed back, chest dragging along the floor with my ass in the air. I flicked my hair back when my chest met my thighs, coming to sit on my heels as I rolled my neck and let my hair fan out over me.
He was gaping.
I couldn’t help the smile that spread on my lips at his dumbfounded expression as I reached for the pole, doing a fireman spin up to standing again. I threaded through my arms until my back was to the pole, and then I slowly rolled my hips as I stripped my hoodie overhead.
I let it fall to the ground, launching into a V spin before I landed on the ground behind the pole. I brought my legs up in the air, waving them as if I was swimming under water. Then, I propped my hips up in a candlestick pose, grabbing my sweatpants and slowly peeling them off my legs until I flung them across the room, too.
I was in my sports bra and thong now, and the socks on my feet, but with more skin exposed, I was able to launch myself into an invert. I hung by one leg and then the other, tracing my body the entire time as my hair flew around me and I moved slowly and sensually to the beat.
When my feet hit the floor again, I found Holden’s eyes and held them as I did body waves, tilting my chest toward the pole and extending my back leg in a standing split that put my pussy right in his face.
That did it.
He groaned, reaching for me and pulling me into his lap so haphazardly I nearly fell. I laughed as I crashed into him, pressing my hands to his chest even as he fought against me and kissed me, anyway.
“I’m not finished,” I murmured against his lips.
“You’re about to make me finish.”
I laughed as he lifted his hip with me in his lap, using one hand and then the other to slide his sweatpants and briefs down his thighs, over his knees, and down to his ankles. He kicked them off, groaning when I wrapped my hands around his shaft and slowly pumped him as he struggled with the clothes.
He’d no sooner had them kicked to the side when his hand slid down between my legs, friction catching my sensitive bud and making me shake before he roughly shoved my thong to the side. His fingers toyed with my entrance, his other hand coming to the back of my neck and pulling me to his mouth so hard our teeth clashed.
Desire sparked low and warm in my belly at how much he needed me in that moment.
He bit my bottom lip, holding it as he slid one finger inside me. I gasped both at the sensation of his digit and the realization that I was already soaked, aching, ready.
Holden felt it, too, and he moaned his satisfaction before removing his finger and wrapping his fist around his thick shaft. I pressed up onto my knees so he could fit himself at my entrance, and then I sank down, taking him as deep as I could as I sat fully back down in his lap.
“Holy fuck,” he groaned, hands gripping my hips so hard I winced — but I loved that little dig of pain, that little flash of hurt that rode on the tails of my pleasure. He used that impressive grip to lift me all the way up until he almost slipped out of me before he yanked me back down.
I hissed, digging my nails into his shoulder and savoring every last inch of him pressing inside me. That was the last sound I made before he crushed my mouth to him again, and he swallowed every moan I offered him like it was sweet dessert.
My hips rolled against him as he flexed and filled me over and over again, and each time, his pelvis rubbed against my clit and gave me the friction I needed to drive me closer to release. The more that flame tried to catch, the faster I rode, wilder and wilder until I was all but bouncing on his lap as I chased that flickering flame.
“Yes, yes, right there,” I told him, eyes squeezing shut as my orgasm began to catch. My legs went numb, toes curling.
And then, he ripped me off him.
I cried out at the loss, at how fast my climax skittered away from me like a scared animal. But I didn’t have time to process anything before I was flipped over and sitting against the cushion where Holden had just been.
“I was so close,” I whimpered.
He ignored me, dropping to his knees at the edge of the couch. Then, he gripped the tops of my thighs and roughly dragged me toward him until my ass hung off the edge of the couch, my ankles on his shoulders.
And he began to feast.
My vision went black, eyes rolling as his hot tongue lashed my already-sensitive bud. He sucked on it violently, tearing my orgasm back to the surface like he’d physically reached a hand inside my soul and grabbed it by the neck.
My legs quaked hard around him. I couldn’t control them, not even as I gripped the edge of the couch and tried to hold on for dear life as his tongue swirled and licked until I started to come again.
It was twice as intense this time after edging, and I cried out his name as my release rocked through me, taking all sense of reality with it. Through the mind-numbing, body-rocking haze of it, I heard Holden moaning, his grip tightening where he held me. I knew he was just making those noises for me, but fuck they were hot, and I savored them as I rode out the last of my orgasm before falling completely lax against the couch.
As soon as I had, Holden collapsed onto his back on the hardwood floor.
He was panting, chest heaving as he splayed his arms and legs out. “Holy fucking hell.”
“I’ll say,” I chuckled, and then I winced as I closed my legs, hips on fire with the motion.
My gaze turned concern when I saw Holden clutching his heart.
“Oh God, are you having a heart attack?!” I dropped to the floor and crawled over to him.
“Maybe.”
“Are you serious?!” Panic started to rise in my throat before he laughed and grabbed my hand, pulling it to his mouth for a tender kiss.
“I’m fine. I just… I’ve never done that before.”
I frowned. “Make me cum with your mouth? Uh, I’m pretty sure that’s incorrect.”
“No,” he said, sitting up with a sheepish grin. “Made me cum like that.”
I blinked, and then I followed his gaze to the couch behind us.
To the semen dripping down the edge of it and onto the floor.
I gaped at it, then back at him. “Oh, my God, you… you… without even touching yourself?”
“I’m as surprised as you are.”
He laughed, and I straddled him before kissing him hard enough to knock him back down to the floor.
“That’s fucking hot.”
“I blame the dancing.”
“Looks like I need to buy a pole I can set up anywhere we go.”
Holden laughed again, pulling me down to meet his lips as he said, “No arguments here.”
After we cleaned up our mess, we showered and crawled into bed together, snuggling to keep each other warm as it began to snow outside my window. I wrapped my arms around him, and he thread his leg between mine, kissing my forehead.
“Sometimes when I hold you like this, I’m still not sure if it’s a dream or not,” I admitted.
“I feel that way sometimes, too.”
“Really?”
He nodded. “I was a fucking mess without you. I never want to feel that way again.”
“Me either,” I confessed. “There were so many times I wanted to call you, to share something with you. Like when I had Christmas with my mom.”
“I’m really glad you two are talking again.”
I snuggled into him. “Me, too. It’s kind of scary but… in a good way. I understand her more now. And I think she understands me, too.”
“I think she just loves me, and therefore you by proxy.”
I rolled my eyes. “She’s met you one time.”
“And she adored me. She hasn’t stopped talking about me to you since.”
“Jeez, am I going to have to watch my back for my mom stealing you away?”
“Your dad would really hate me then.”
I pinched his side, and he laughed, wiggling away from me before he rolled over and pinned me in the sheets.
“You’re the only one for me and you know it.”
“Doesn’t mean I don’t like to hear it.”
“I’ll tell you as many times as you want,” he promised. “Again and again until you’re sick of it. Until you’re sick of me.”
I just smiled and kissed him and laughed to myself.
Because I knew in my heart that day would never come.
