didn’t slide inside, but rolled around in a soothing circle. It was relaxing, tender. He asked, quietly, “Has it been a long time?”
I heard the soft question and rolled over. Wrapping my legs tightly around him until we were plush against each other again, I leaned back on the pillow, gazing up at him. “Since you.”
Relief swarmed over him. “Good.” Then he dipped back down and met my lips with his.
I curled a hand around his neck, holding him close until he settled all of his body weight onto mine. It was a welcomed weight and left me heady. When I grew heated again and moved against him, he chuckled as he pulled back. “Shit, Alex. Why didn’t we do this the first night?”
“Because Cord got arrested. Again.”
“Oh yeah.” The small smile was gone, and his eyes grew somber. He moved to lie on his side and looked down at my body. As he ran his hand up and down, touching every inch of me, he murmured, “And then we got into that fight.”
I remembered what he said before. He was right. Jesse had always been a dick, but when we got into bed, it didn’t matter. It was only the two of us. Towards the end, I was starting to feel maybe he was ready for more than that, but I wasn’t sure. And I had listened to Angie. Why had I listened to Angie?
I gazed up at him. “Are there others?”
His hand froze. His eyes went back to mine. He knew what I was asking.
“Jesse.”
“No.” The word was so soft, so quiet.
I strained to hear it. My heart was pounding against my chest. “Are you sure?”
His eyes narrowed to slits. “I wouldn’t lie to you.”
My throat was suddenly full, too full to speak, and I moved my head in a nod. I couldn’t tear my gaze away. A flash of irritation flared in his but was gone in a heartbeat. His hand moved to cup the back of my head and his thumb rubbed against the base. “Are you still in contact with Nathans?”
I shook my head. My heart kept pounding, harder and harder. Eric Nathans had been so long ago, a faint memory compared to Jesse.
“Good,” he whispered as he bent for my lips again.
His hand slid across my stomach and between my legs again as he turned me to my back. With his lips against mine, he positioned himself above me. When I began to writhe around, needing him against me, he held himself up. Only his lips touched me. I was a wanton mess in moments, reaching for him. “Jesse.”
He chuckled against my lips and then slowly moved to slide inside of me. After a few thrusts, taking his time, he gasped against my lips, “Are you protected?”
I nodded. “Are you clean?”
He groaned, “God yes.” Then he started pounding into me again.
Closing my eyes, all thought fled as the sensations took over.
BAM! BAM!
I jolted awake, sprawled out over Jesse’s naked chest. His hand was resting on my back and his head had been nestled to my neck, under my hair. His hand tightened in reflex and a curse spilled from him as he lifted his head. “Striker, if that’s you, you’re going to get hurt.”
“Whatever,” Jamie’s voice came through the door, muffled. “You ditched the picnic. Not cool.”
Jesse’s head fell back to the pillow with a groan. When I started to get up, his hand held me in place. He murmured in my ear, “The door’s locked. He can’t get in.”
I relaxed. Slightly.
“Come on, man,” Jamie whined now. “Listen, we’re doing an after-party. You coming out of your hole for that?”
“No.”
I lifted my head enough to get a good view of Jesse. There was no regret in his voice, but he was giving up time with his friends for me. He had never cared before, but this was college. These were his roommates and teammates. I needed to make sure. When his gaze caught mine, there was nothing there. No hesitation. No torn emotions. Nothing. He just looked back and asked, “What?”
I shook my head as something close to relief spread in me. Then I laid back down where I’d been in the first place. My head went to his chest and his hand cupped the side of me again to hold me in place. As his fingers started to rub behind my head, my eyes closed and I felt real relief go through me now. This was the type that went to the bone, it mingled closely with feeling content. I should’ve stirred as I realized that, but I didn’t. Jesse was weaving a spell for me, one that felt intoxicating. I was being pulled down to the abyss and I didn’t want to fight it. It felt good. It felt right.
Jamie wasn’t taking no for an answer. He banged on the door again. “Come on!” His frustration came across loud and clear.
“Jamie, what’s your deal?!” Jesse sat up again. He had a bit more bark this time. “Leave me alone.”
“What the hell! What are you even doing in there? Come to the after party.”
“No. Leave it alone. You’ve never given a damn before. Why today?”
“Because—” He stopped abruptly. Then mumbled, “Never mind. You’re right.” There was a moment of silence before he asked, “You got a girl in there?”
Jesse leaned over, picked up a shoe, and hurled it at the door. It smacked against the door with a resounding thud.
We heard a mutter from the other side, “Shit. Fine. Jeezus. Have it your way.”
When we finally heard him leave, I bit my lip from laughing as I saw Jesse’s stormy expression. My hand splayed out over his chest where I could feel his heart beating fast and I frowned. “Are you okay?”
“Hmmm?” His eyes jerked to mine. “Yeah, I’m good. You?”
“I’m fine.” Why was he asking me? It was obvious he wasn’t good. “What was that about?”
“Nothing. You sleepy?” He didn’t wait for my response as he slid out of bed and grabbed some clothes. “Want to get some food or something?”
“Uh...” I was confused. Something had occurred that I wasn’t privy towards. He hadn’t cared about Jamie waking us up, but then it changed. It was swift and sudden and now he wanted to get out of there. But I swallowed my words. His movements were precise and quick. I knew this Jesse. This was the one that didn’t want to talk about whatever was bothering him. He’d get snappy, even a little bit rude with me, but he’d be fine later. It had taken me two years to understand that he still wanted me around him, even though he didn’t like to voice whatever was bothering him.
There was nothing left for me to do except shower and change. Jesse had hopped in first and was out within record time. I had only grabbed half of my clothes by the time he strolled back out. Toweling his hair dry, his chest glistened with water and his jeans were pulled haphazardly over his lean hips. They weren’t zipped so they hung open, exposing his black boxer briefs underneath.
“Are we racing someone?”
The corner of his lips curved up. “Sorry. If Jamie’s here, that means the rest are too. I just want to get away.”
“Okay.” Trailing into the bathroom, I couldn’t tear my gaze away as he turned and grabbed his phone. His back was bare to me. It was curved and muscular. A droplet of water slid down the middle of his back, all the way until it disappeared under his boxer briefs. We’d spent the entire afternoon in bed and lust was stirring in me again as I couldn’t look away from where that water had vanished.
Then his back stiffened. “What is it?”
He glanced over his shoulder. “That feast is going on tonight. You want to go to that?”
“Feast?” My stomach rumbled, but food was the furthest thing from my mind. “I’m not that hungry.”
Not for that.
He caught my meaning and his eyes darkened from response. A slow grin came over him, curving until it promised me so many sensual things. The lust kicked up a notch. The guy was going to be the death of me.
“Remember that band?”
Braille. How could I not? I cleared my throat and nodded.
“Remember they invited us to the Feast? It’s a small private event with a bunch of local bands. They’re playing, but it’s a quiet thing. They only told some of th
eir biggest fans. And there’s going to be a ton of food. You want to go?”
“Sure.” Food. Bands. Jesse. I’d be stupid to pass that up. Hurrying into the shower, I couldn’t break Jesse’s record of cleanliness so it took me longer. He had made the bed and tidied his room by the time I emerged from the bathroom. His head came up from where he sat on his bed and he put his book aside. He licked his lips as his eyes trailed all the way down to my toes and back up again. He lingered on my lips as he stood and drew near. In a husky voice, he murmured, “You’re going to kill me, Alex. I want you already.”
The lust from before had diminished to a simmer. It flamed again at his words and his hand touched the side of my hip to draw me against him. It was like he had read my mind. I closed my eyes as his head bent. His cool lips touched against my neck, then his hand clamped tighter on me, and I was pulled tight against him.
As his lips moved up to my mouth, his free hand slid down and rested on my jeans. His fingers slipped inside, but he didn’t make any other move. He kept kissing me and I wrapped my arms around him to return his caresses. My mouth opened for him and an explosion of pleasure went through me.
No matter the nosedive into hell my life had taken, I still needed this man.
I pulled away. My heart was beating like crazy and I gazed at him in horror.
The need I had for him wasn’t superficial. It wasn’t an itch to scratch that never went away. It wasn’t on the surface, like a crush. This went deep, way deeper than I wanted to think about at that moment.
“What’s wrong?” He was frowning at my lips as his hand touched my throat. “Your pulse is going crazy. What’s going on?”
“Nothing.” My senses screamed at me to tear away from him, but I stopped myself. I pulled away in a gentle fashion, one that wouldn’t alarm him of the chaos going on inside of me. “Let’s go. Right? That’s what you wanted.”
“That was until you came out here all wet. My dick’s never sprung up for someone like it does for you.”
I shook my head. Those were the most romantic words I could ever want to hear.
I tugged on his hand. “Let’s go.”
“All right.” His hand went to my butt and he squeezed. Crowding close behind me, he wrapped an arm around my waist so he could find the best fit. “But we’re not staying long.” He rose against me. As he started to grind against me, I closed my eyes and almost missed his next promise, “I’m going to lay you bare all night long, Alex.”
We slipped from the house unnoticed.
I’d been a little worried. I didn’t want to run into any of the girlfriends, Tiffany, Chandra, or my RA, but as Jesse led the way, I realized he had his own entrance and exit. Even though he lived in the basement, the house was built into a hill. A separate driveway and patio was connected to his level. I wasn’t sure how that was possible, but when we stepped past the patio doors and into his garage, I saw the deck had rock walls all around it.
Backing the black Ferrari, Jesse turned onto a small gravel path that wound around the hill and connected to the road. He drove past the driveway leading to his house and we saw that a bunch of cars had arrived. People were climbing out and heading inside, but I saw Cord pause when he caught sight of us. He lifted his hand in a wave as we shot past.
Jesse let out a deep breath once we were out of their sight.
Taking a deep shuddering breath, I ignored the knots in my stomach. I couldn’t get even more involved with him that I was and even that level was alarming to me. Pressing a hand over my stomach, I tried to will all the tension away. My time with Jesse was just that, time with Jesse. I didn’t care about any after party or if that would stop my time with him.
A nagging voice whispered in my head, “Liar.”
“Where’s this Feast?” My voice hitched on a note as I needed to distract myself.
Jesse glanced over with a small frown. “You okay?”
“Yeah.” I just needed to clear my throat again. That was it. “So where is this at?” My chest lifted in a deep silent breath and prayed it would calm my stomach down.
“At Grace Park.”
“Oh.” Never heard of it. “That’s nice.”
Jesse grinned at me. “Yeah, it is. It was a smart move on their part. The back part is surrounded by trees and it’s on the river. I used to go there for basketball. Some local guys get together for a friendly game every Sunday.”
“You don’t go there anymore?” I frowned, hearing a twinge of regret from him.
He shrugged. “The friendly stuff is just that, friendly. Coach put a stop to it when he found out, said we could get hurt.”
“We?”
“Cord played with me.”
Now I was experiencing a twinge of regret, for him. “You and Cord are close now?”He shrugged again. “Close as two guy friends can get.”
I kept frowning to myself.
“He’s not Ethan, Alex.”
I jerked my head in a nod. I knew that. No one could take Ethan’s spot, but it felt good hearing that from him.
“Okay. Here we are.” Jesse pulled onto a small road. Trees were lined on both sides and it went up a hill to a clearing with playground equipment and basketball courts. He paused the car by them. “I’m going to park on the other side of the hill. The bands should be set up in the back section so wait for me. Luke said it was a small thing, but with these guys you never know. Their drummer sometimes goes on a tweeting spree. They had three hundred show up for a private gig one time.”
I nodded and got out. As I did, I could hear music in the distance, but found a bench to wait for Jesse. It wasn’t long until I heard giggling.
I knew those giggles.
Sick dread speared me and I turned around.
Marissa and Sarah Shastaine were walking towards me. When they saw me, both faltered with mixed expressions. Marissa’s eyes rounded while Sarah’s narrowed to slits. A sneer came over her and her hands shot to her hips. She lifted her chin as if to look down her nose at me, which is exactly what she was always the best at doing. “What are you doing here?”
Marissa sent her a quick glare before she moved towards me. “Hi. I left a note for brunch. You didn’t get it?”
Sarah followed her until both stood closer to me. She snorted, “Yeah, right. Why do you even care, Marissa? This one’s a freak now. She became a freak last summer and she’s always going to stay a freak.”
Jesse’s ex-girlfriend had never been my fan, but I wasn’t used to the venom that she sent my way now. “You’re drunk.”
Her hands flew up and flattened together in a praying motion. She lifted her arms to the sky before she nearly fell over, but she blasted out, “Hallelujah. The girl is not dumb. Besides,” an extra sheen of hostility came to her, “like you can sit there and judge me. You were wasted last night. You couldn’t even stand. And great friends, by the way. Real class act, running off after a fight and leaving you there all alone.”
I grinned at her. “I almost wish they were here because Hannah would rip into you for that.” I glanced at Marissa, who seemed annoyed at her friend. “They came back for me but couldn’t find me at the party.”
She jerked her gaze to me and put on an expressionless mask. The annoyance was gone. She even tried to smile nicely at me. “I know. I mean, I don’t know. But—” Sarah gasped beside her and she sent her another scathing look from the corner of her eye.
Sarah grabbed onto her arm. “That’s Jesse over there. I’m going to go say hi.”
Before Marissa could comment, she scampered down the hill and after his disappearing figure.
I glared at him. Bastard. I knew he came up, saw Sarah, and decided to avoid the entire scene.
“Uh.” Marissa chuckled to herself. “Imagine that. You show up and minutes later Jesse Hunt’s in the background.”