I cover my mouth so I don’t laugh, and Mateo smothers a curse against my breast.

“I’m not coming in, so don’t worry.”

“Thank God,” he growls.

Stella continues: “Sorry for this weirdness. I just wanted to tell Nell that I’m leaving, and I’m officially passing off the last item on the list into your apparently very capable hands, Torres.”

“Bye, Stella,” I call out, my voice breathier than I would like. “Thank you for today!”

When we don’t hear anything for several long seconds, we assume she’s gone, and Mateo climbs off the bed to lock the door. I blush when he walks back toward me, and I can see all of his naked form on display.

He vaults up onto the bed, practically leaping on top of me. He hovers over me on all fours, before leaning down to brush his lips against mine.

“What is this about my very capable hands?”

Oh God, so much blushing.

“You’re the one who made me add ‘best orgasm of my life’ to the list. It’s your fault really.”

“You told her about that?”

“Not specifics, no. She just asked if it was true.”

“And you said yes?”

I lift my arms around him, laying my forearms along his shoulders. I inch up to press a kiss to the middle of his chest. “Best of my life.”

“And the last item on the list?”

I grin. “Pull an all-nighter. It’s all I’ve got left. Think you could help me with that?”

He lowers his hard body down on mine, and with excruciating slowness begins to push inside me. “Will that be a first for you? This all-nighter.”

I bite my lips against a moan, still entirely too conscious of the people just outside the door. “It is.”

He leans down and kisses me, his lips soft as he seats himself all the way inside me. I rock up into him, and swallow his groan.

“I want it. That first. All of them. As many all-nighters as you’ll give me.”

Then he kisses me, and I love him.

I love him.

I love him.

Epilogue

Mateo

The semester ends quicker than either of us wants it to. Classes end first, then exams, then it’s graduation day.

Watching Nell graduate is a strange sensation. I’m happy for her. Fucking impressed with how much she’s accomplished already. Terrified of what comes next. But we’re making plans.

Nell likes to do that, and I’m just glad that I get to be a part of hers.

I’ve got her for one more semester for sure. She’ll be busy with her job as a research assistant, but not quite as busy as she’d been with all her classes and assignments. And since it’ll be the off-season for football, there will be less pressure for me, too.

We’re both doing Christmas with our families, but I’ve got the bowl game (the first for Rusk in over a decade) a few days after that. Then we’re holing up together somewhere and not coming out until New Year’s.

It’s not perfect. Nell still sometimes stresses about the future, but she’s excited about her research job. She hasn’t mentioned any doubts lately, and I think she’s finally settling into the idea of her future.

I like to think I had something to do with that. Because I know she helps calm me. There are things we don’t know, things we can’t know, about my career and hers, but I believe we can make it work.

She and I, we were made to work.