Campus King | 18+

Chapter Thirty-Three

"Rise and shine, Captain! Your sheeple need you to lead them!" Alex slapped the sides of our tent, yelling at the top of his lungs.

My head jerked up at the rude awakening, immediately alert and scanning the tent for any potential threat before I recognized the familiar surroundings and the person's voice. Groaning, my head dropped back down onto the pillow, and I reached a hand up to rub my face of the sleep still plaguing me. Only the arm wouldn't budge as it was currently curled under Hannah's naked form, holding her close to me. Peering down at her peaceful face, I couldn't help but notice the small details that always made me ache for her.

Her cheek was nestled against my chest, her pink lips slightly parted, a small trail of drool dripping from the corner of her mouth and onto my pec. Strands of her blonde hair, a tangled mess, cascaded over both of us, and I knew she'd be pissed off once she saw the state of it. A grin tugged at my lips as I looked forward to her angry mutterings while she tried to tame it.

Smirking softly, I wiped the drool away with my other hand and brushed some of the hair out of her face, my thumb tracing the curve of her full lips. My first instinct was to lean down and kiss her awake, but I held back, my eyes trailing down her sleeping face.

The things this woman made me feel...

Fuck.

Why couldn't we have met later on in life? Maybe five years down the road, when I would have had my life figured out, or even two years from now, when I could be prepared to give her everything she deserved. When I could treat her like I was gonna marry her. Things would be so much easier than this fucked up situation.

Maybe one day when I was finally ready, I'd search for her again. I'd make every effort to reach out to her, to try and reconcile, and hopefully, she'd let me back into her life. Maybe we'd pick up where we left off and things would go back to how they were... but what if she'd moved on with someone she actually loved?

The thought made me uneasy and I dropped my hand from her face. Looking back up at the tent's ceiling, I let out a long, heavy sigh.

This whole thing between us had blown way out of proportion, our connection growing far beyond what I'd initially anticipated. And I'd let it get like this because it had been so fucking easy. It felt nearly impossible to keep her at arm's length when she'd look at me with those piercing blue eyes, brimming with a trust that took fucking ages to build. Just the thought of causing her any kind of pain turned my stomach.

But I also knew that our current relationship wasn't sustainable. Already, we were both way too emotionally invested in each other, having ignored the rules and warnings. I'd made it clear that we wouldn't have much time together, yet somehow, I ended up devoting every spare second to her. No matter how exhausted I was by day's end, I still put in the effort to go to her, to be with her — even if it meant all we did was go to sleep with my arms wrapped around her. I knew it was because she made me happy and because being close to her felt like an unspoken necessity. She had changed me in a lot of ways; opened my eyes to the fun parts of having a person — your person. To laugh with and have long, weird debates about the best kind of grapes. To tease her in one minute, and fuck her in the next. Falling asleep with her in my arms and waking up to her had become an integral part of my routine.