“Yeah, why not? Wilder and Lincoln are in New York for this dumb business thing, and I’ll be bored alone. Plus I think we need to cut loose. And, since little prude you won’t come stay with me while the guys are home, seeing as they’re not, maybe I can convince you to come sleep over afterwards. Give you a break from that bevy of hot men of yours.”
“You’re impossible.”
“And you’re totally not giving me the whole story, so I’m going bribe it out of you with booze.”
I laughed. “Okay, okay, fine. Let’s go to this dumb party.”
After all, with everything that was going through my head surrounding Nolan, and Max, and now even Garret, I could use the break.
…Or maybe it was just the start of everything.
9
Cora
It took all of ten minutes for Kenzie and I to realize how wrong we’d been. Or maybe how right we’d been in hating on the college party scene. Because the party we were at was awful.
Loud, thudding music hammered through the house, with people all over the place elbowing into each other and spilling beer everywhere. Some wasted looking guy leered in close to Kenzie, who only wrinkled her nose and shoved him away before grabbing my arm and hauling us both through the crowd. We stumbled into a slightly less crammed room, both of us gasping for air like we’d just clawed our way out of quicksand.
“So, yeah, this sucks,” she muttered before giving me a sympathetic look. “Fuck, sorry I dragged you here.”
“Oh, did you not want to get groped by frat douchebags and lose hearing in both ears tonight?” I smiled sarcastically.
“WHAT?”
I laughed as Kenzie grinned at me, cupping her ears like she was deaf already.
“Want to just get a cab back to my place?”
I smirked. “Your castle, you mean?”
“Oh, we could go back to the naughty professor’s house if you like.” She winked at me.
“Har har. Yeah, your place sounds better than this.” I frowned as I glanced around the room, my eyes landing on a keg sitting in a big tub of ice across the room.
“Okay, what if we get one drink and then take off?”
“Ugh, really?” Kenzie pouted.
“I mean, I know we’re both the queens of hating on college life norms, but maybe just to dip our toes in a little bit?”
“Fine, fine fine,” she sighed. “Sure, let’s have a beer.”
“A” beer turned into two, actually. We ended up finding some girls from one of the survey classes we were both in, and they turned out to be pretty cool. We were each grinning and talking excitedly to each other about God knows what, going for our third drink, when the two big guys stepped in front of us, blocking the way.
“Sup, ladies?”
Kenzie glanced at me and then turned to glare at the guy wearing the too-big button up and a backwards baseball hat with the scraggly looking chin-strap beard.
“Can we help you?”
He elbowed his buddy, some guy in a hoodie with slicked back hair and a goofy looking goatee. “Maybe we can help you?”
I rolled my eyes. “We’re good, thanks.”
We both went to move around them, when the two of them quickly got back in our way.
“You ladies come here alone? Need someone to get you some drinks?”
“Pretty sure we can handle that ourselves, thanks,” Kenzie said dryly, stink-eying them.
“You know, there’s a private party going on upstairs,” chin-strap said with what I’m sure he thought was a sly grin. “Just the four of us and some good times. How ‘bout it?”
Kenzie’s eyes narrowed at him. “I have two boyfriends, dumbass.”
The guy with slicked back hair hooted. “Well shit, guess you like to party, huh?”
“Let’s go,” I hissed, grabbing Kenzie’s wrist and pulling her away. I yanked her after me, ducking into another room looking for an exit, when suddenly, a hand snagged my wrist and pulled me around hard.
“Listen, babe.”
It was chin-strap again.
“Me and Brett here are pledged brothers here, and this is our fuckin’ party. How about a little gratitude?”
“We’re leaving,” I said icily.
“Nah,” Brett moved around in front of us, blocking the doorway. “Nah, I think you girls are gonna stick around so we can all party.”
“Please get out of our way.”
Chin-strap chuckled, moving closer to me as Brett moved towards Kenzie.
“C’mon, baby. One drink upstairs with us, and I promise you, you’ll have a great time.”
My pulse roared in my ears — the mix of adrenaline and alcohol and fear making my body tremble and my head spin.
“Let go of me,” I hissed.
“C’mon, baby.”
“Let go!” Kenzie yelled, trying to yank her arm out of Brett’s grip.
The two assholes chuckled as they glanced at each other and nodded, before they turned and started to drag us towards a flight of stairs.
“Get the fuck off of me!” I screeched. But the music was so loud, and it was so dark, no one even turned.
“Let go of—”
Chin-strap went crashing into the wall, his grip on me releasing as he crumpled to the ground. Brett whirled, just in time for the huge shape to barrel right into him, a fist crashing across his jaw and dropping him like a rock.
“Get your fucking hands off of them!”
The huge, booming voice thundered through the hallway. The two guys on the floor flinched, and even Kenzie and I jumped a step back. That is, until the two big shapes stepped into the light, and my heart jumped into my throat.
It was Nolan, and Max.
“Let’s go,” Nolan growled icily, grabbing me, his hand tender but firm on my arm. He turned to Kenzie and narrowed his eyes at her. “You too, Miss Gates.”
Her jaw dropped. “Professor Jameson?”
“I'm not asking again,” he growled lowly, anger flashing on his face. “And don’t make me ask you for your ID, because we both know you shouldn’t have that drink in your hand.”
Max, silent with his arms folded over his muscled chest, just nodded, his eyes burning right into me and making me shiver.
“Let’s go.”
“I’m fine right here, actually,” I snapped.
Nolan and Max’s brows arched sternly.
“I’m not telling you again, Cora,” Nolan muttered.
“So don’t. We’re staying.”
Kenzie gave me a look like “are you fucking crazy,” but I ignored her, staring at the two guys instead. They both met my fierce defiant gaze unblinking, until finally, Nolan’s lip curled in a snarl.
“Fuck this, let’s go.”
He started to pull me towards the door, but I yanked on his arm, whirling him into me. His shoulder obscured my face from the other two, and I leaned in close, my lips right by his ear.
“You think just because you fucked me, you get to tell me what to do?”
He froze, his grip tightening on me, before slowly, he pulled back, just enough so that his lips just barely missed brushing my ear.
“Yeah,” he purred into my ear. “I do.”
I gasped as he whirled, took my hand in his, and pulled me right out the side door to the house, with Kenzi and Max trailing behind.
10
Cora
“What the fuck were you thinking?”
The front door to Nolan’s house slammed shut behind him. I whirled on him and Max, anger roaring through me as I narrowed my eyes at them. What I was feeling was…well, I wasn’t quite sure what it was. A mix of embarrassment, and adrenaline, and maybe a little anger that they’d barged in on my life like that. Or maybe it was excitement that they had.
Kenzie and I had been quiet in the backseat of Max’s Land Rover as they drove her home first.
“Call me,” she’d mouthed as she got out of the car.
And now we were back at the house, just the three of us. I didn??
?t know where he was, but Garret’s car was gone from the driveway.
“The fuck were you thinking, Cora?” Nolan growled, his face livid and his muscles bunched and straining as he stepped towards me.
“You’re not the boss of me,” I spat back.
Sass. I guess that was my go-to response, to sass him back. I wasn’t even that angry, it was just the swirling mess of emotions and feelings roaring through my head came out like that I guess.
“The fuck I’m not,” he shot back, his eyes narrowing as he stepped right into me, looking down into my eyes. “You’re in my house, Cora. Do you know how much shit I’m risking with that?”
“Yeah?” I hissed. “Well no one asked you to!”
He glanced back at a stern-faced Max before he turned back and narrowed his eyes at me. “Are you drunk?”
“Fuck you.”
Nolan bristled, this crackling energy almost radiating out of him.
“Do not push me, Cora,” he grated out.
“Oh please,” I sneered right back, all the confusing emotions, and the adrenaline from what had happened earlier, and the blazing thoughts of how the man in front of me had rocked my world the other night rushing out at once. “You’re not my dad, you know.”
“Yeah? Well maybe you fuckin’ need a daddy!” he roared back.
“Oh like you?” I smiled sweetly at him, my whole body trembling with energy and my skin prickling as I looked him right in the eye. “You wanna be my daddy, is that it?”
God, I didn’t know where all the piss and vinegar was coming from, but I couldn’t stop it.
“You need to settle the fuck down, Cora,” Max growled, cutting in.
“And you need to stay out of my social life!”
Max’s brow furrowed and his jaw tightened. “Fucking social life? That what you call those two fuck-heads trying to drag you upstairs?”
“I’m a big girl, I can take care of myself,” I spat at him.
“No, you’re temptation on a fucking stick is what you are,” he muttered. My skin tingled at his words, my pulse skipping a beat as our eyes locked.
“How did you even know where I was?”
“You weren’t here, and Nolan heard about that party. We took a drive by and got lucky.”
“Lucky? Messing with my life is lucky?”
“Oh, real nice,” Max spat back. “So stopping you from getting assaulted is messing with you, huh?”
“What were you, jealous, Max?” I hissed, the full brat-mode coming out before I could even begin to rein it in.
Max’s jaw tightened, but he kept it shut.
“That it? You jealous of some frat boy getting to put his hands on me?”
“That’s enough, Cora,” Nolan growled.
Max narrowed his eyes at me. “I don’t need to explain myself to you, you ungrateful—”
“Just because you put your hands on me, doesn’t mean you can—”
My lips snapped shut, my brows going high as I clamped a hand over my mouth. Too late, though. The words were out there.
Oh shit.
Nolan whirled on Max, his eyes blazing as his jaw trembled.
“You fucking did what to her?!” he roared, his teeth flashing. But Max didn’t flinch, and didn’t back down at all.
“It was an accident.”
Nolan barked out a brittle laugh. “Did you trip?”
“Fuck you,” Max growled. “How’s the view from that ivory tower, asshole?”
I watched the two gorgeous, big, dominant men face off — in a sense fighting over me — and felt a shiver of heat tease through my body. I’d never felt this before, and I’d definitely never had two men arguing about me like that.
…And it was way hot, if we’re being honest.
“The fuck do you care what happened? She’s an adult, Nolan, and she’s not my student.”
Nolan’s jaw clenched tight, his eyes blazing.
“Oh, right, that’s right, you already slept with her.”
Nolan’s eyes darted to me, and I shrunk away.
“So, you want to pretend I’m the bad guy here? At least I’m not fucking my students, dick!”
Nolan snapped, grabbing Max by the collar and shoving him back. Max growled, yanking Nolan’s hands off of him and jabbing a finger at his chest.
“You better watch yourself, you self-righteous—”
“I’m out of here.”
The whole “two guys fighting over me” thing was turning quickly from sexy to full out fight, and I knew that was my cue to leave. Two guys pushing egos around when it came to me was one thing. Two best friends actually fighting over me was another. I turned to head upstairs, when Nolan’s firm voice stopped me in my tracks.
“Oh, I’m not done with you.”
I shivered, heat pulsing through me and teasing between my legs. I took a shaky breath before turning around and facing them.
“You think this is going unpunished?”
“What, going to a party and having a drink, or kissing Max?”
“Both,” he growled fiercely, making me gasp.
I curled my lip. “So what are you going to do, dad. Ground me? Take away my phone privileges? Spank me?”
“Don’t think I won’t,” he grumbled lowly, his eyes fiercely burning into me, making me shiver. Slowly, Kenzie’s words about being with two men, and having both of them want her like they did came teasing back through my mind. I blushed fiercely as the filthy but toe-curlingly sexy thoughts of two men taking me, and fighting over me, and dominating me together melted through my head.
My eyes darted between the two gorgeous, big, powerful men, and I could feel heat blooming between my legs.
“Keep pushing me, Cora,” Nolan said tersely. “And watch me.”
“This isn’t class, professor,” I shot back. “You can’t punish me.”
“No, Cora, this isn’t class,” he purred quietly. “But this is my house, and you’re under my roof, and you’re goddamn right I'll punish you.”
“You wouldn’t.”
“I would, that’s for damn sure,” Max growled.
I gasped, shivering as they both moved towards me, eyes blazing and hands clenched at their sides, looking like they wanted to devour me.
I swallowed thickly, that damn sass of mine coming right back out.
“A couple of old guys like you? I doubt it.”
The two of them froze, but suddenly, Nolan snapped.
“That’s it.”
I gasped as his hands grabbed me tight around the waist, but when he effortlessly lifted me up and tossed me over his shoulder, I shrieked.
“Let go of me! Are you kidding me!”
I writhed against his muscled, hard shoulder, kicking and batting at his firm body. But it was useless, of course.
Nolan strode into the living room, marching right over to the couch and sitting down. He pulled me from his shoulder, but before I could even open my mouth, he pulled me right across his knees.
My pulse sizzled.
“In this house, young lady,” he growled, his big hands keeping me pinned across his knees. “You’re going to learn to respect my fucking rules.”
One of his hands grabbed me by both wrists in one hand, the other rested on the small of my back. I squirmed against him, feeling my pulse race and my skin tingle.
…Feeling the heat pool between my legs, soaking my panties.
My face burned.
“You want to test me in my own house, huh?” Nolan growled lowly. His hand slid down from my back, and when I felt it move over my ass, I gasped quietly, shivering against him.
“You want to see what happens when I go out on a fucking limb and you decide to throw it back in my face?”
His hand slid right over the curve of my ass, making me tremble and making my breath catch. He slid down the back of one thigh, until suddenly, his fingers found the hem of the skirt I’d worn out that night.
No way. No fucking way is he going to—
He grabbed the
skirt, and before I could even blink, he’d yanked it right up over my ass. I gasped, squirming against him harder and feeling my face burn hot as hell as he pulled the skirt up to my waist, exposing my ass and my panties. Of course, I’d worn a thong that night — this black lacy thing that pulled tight between the cheeks of my ass.
“Going out to parties dressed like this, Cora? Trying to act grown up around boys like that?”
“I— I wasn’t—”
Nolan’s hand came down with a smack, the heat of it stinging across my ass and sending a jolt through my body. My eyes went wide and my jaw dropped.
“Did you just fucking spank me?!”
“You’re getting ten,” Nolan growled fiercely, his hands holding me tight with the one on my ass just laying across where he’d just spanked. “And I want to hear you count them.”
“You can’t just—”
SMACK.
I moaned this time. Moaned. The feel of his hand against my skin like that sent heat blazing through me, making my whole body tingle and ache for more.
“Count them,” he purred.
“Two!” I gasped.
Nolan made a tsking sound with his teeth. “No, we’re starting at one. And every time you interrupted like a bad girl, or don’t count, we start over. Understood?”
I nodded, panting and feeling the raw, forbidden heat shiver through me. I glanced down at the floor to see Max’s feet moving closer, and my face burned even hotter knowing it was both of them looking at me across Nolan’s knee like that with my skirt pulled up and my ass in the air.
“Start from one.”
Nolan’s hand came down across my tingling ass, and I whimpered.
“One!””
He groaned, and when I felt the thick, throb against my tummy as I pressed against his lap, I moaned.
SMACK!
“Two!”
Three and four came across both cheeks, making me cry out in shock and pleasure as the filthiness of it all burned through me.
“Max,” Nolan growled, stopping with one hand teasing over my bare skin. “Now you.”
There was a silence in the room, and I could hear a low growl coming from Max’s throat.