6. Jeremy
Ifucked up.
This thing inside of me that was on overdrive forced me to do things that made it hard to recognize myself.
And I had no idea how to control it. Nor did I think I wanted to.
I didn’t regret my actions. It was better the Omegas see Teresa was off limits and claimed by me, one of their own now, than for them to think she was up for grabs.
The moment Garrison bumped into my girl, red filled my vision.
I’d never had a short temper. I’d always been a patient man, but that flew out the window when it came to Teresa.
My chest heaved heavily as it rose and fell, and I glared at Garrison and his friends before they scuttled out of the dance area.
The DJ started to play something more upbeat, the bachata I’d requested long forgotten as the tempo turned into something more pop.
I turned, ready to see fear or anger in her dark eyes, but the moment out gazes connected, something inside me, that nocturnal beast Teresa had unlocked, the one who didn’t give a fuck, snapped his way into control at the same time relief pounded through my veins.
She wasn’t afraid of me or angry. Teresa was clearly turned on.
The thing inside me, the predatory animal I saved for the field, took her hand and pulled her through the crowd of people, my footsteps illogically calm while my heart raced and blood flowed south.
Claim.
Take.
Conquer.
Own.
The words repeated in a chant in my head as I forced myself to take the stairs one at a time while everything inside of me was yelling at me to toss her over my shoulder and take them three at a time.
But I couldn’t. Couldn’t risk her fighting me.
The thought of her fearing me twisted my stomach like it had that night in the library less than a week ago.
I might not stay at the Omega house, but that didn’t mean I didn’t have a room there. My father had made sure it would be available for me if I ever decided to change my mind. And thanks to dear old Dad, now we didn’t have to walk across campus to get some quiet time with her.
I turned right at the hall, ignoring some of the people hanging outside one of the rooms, then made a left and didn’t stop until I reached the far end of the hall.
On autopilot, I pulled out my key ring and unlocked the door.
My eyes shut as the soft heat of her body brushed against me as she stepped into the room.
Her soft scent enveloped me, and my teeth gritted together, trying to keep some hold of my control.
I stepped into the almost bare room to find her standing in the middle of it, behind the bed.
Our bed, if I had anything to say about it.
I hadn’t hooked up with anyone since coming to U of D. I wasn’t the kind to play the field even if my teammates and brothers tried to get me to. That meant the bed here and back at the athletics building would be for her and only to share with her.
Teresa, my stubborn and seriously sassy girl, surprised me.
Her eyes were on everything but me—the walls, the small trinkets my grandmother and mom had left on the dresser, the pictures on my nightstand.
Hell, even her shoes seemed to be more interesting than the man who stood in front of her waiting to feel her eyes on him.
That’s when it hit me like a damn ton of bricks!
My strong, full-of-grit-and-sass-and-attitude girl, the same one who set me a blaze from the inside out just by being irrevocably herself, was nervous.
“Look at me, Teresa.” I hardly recognized my voice with the dark scratchy note in it. Her eyes rose from the ground and slowly made their way up my body, lingering a little too long on my chest. “There’s my girl.”
She didn’t smile.
She didn’t smart off with some sarcastic remark.
No, my woman, my everything, simply bit down on that plump bottom lip of hers. “Come here,” I ordered, crooking my finger at her. My lungs stalled as I waited for her to give in and do as she’d been told.
And to my fucking shock, maybe both of ours, she did.
Teresa’s footsteps were small and slow, almost like a lamb knowing it was going up to slaughter.
My hands clenched at my sides, aching to reach for her.
To touch her. When her gaze fluttered up, I saw the mischievous gleam in them.
Like she knew drawing out the moment was a sexy form of torture for the two of us.
When she was within my reach, she stopped.
I didn’t reach for her like everything in my body was yelling at me to.
“You upset with me?” I asked, my voice now almost hoarse.
Her lips parted then closed before she shook her head no.
“Turned on?” I brazenly asked, done with trying to play the good guy or the bad guy and ready to lay it all out for her.
It was time she met the man she was getting when it came to me.
The tip of her pretty, pink tongue poked out and swiped at her bottom lip, making sure to glide over the spot she’d bitten down on.
“Yes.” Her confession was soft and so low I almost wondered if I had imagined it, but then she spoke.
“Seeing you down there…” Her skin broke out into undeniable goose bumps as she shifted, the skirt of her dress dancing, and I wondered if she pressed those lusciously thick thighs together to find some relief.
“I mean, it was a little much.” Her lips twitched. “He bumped into me by accident.”
“He touched what’s mine.”
“Yours,” she repeated, not in question but as a fact because that’s what it was.
She was mine. Completely.
“Mine. You are mine, Teresa. I told you I’m used to going after what I want and not stopping until I get it.”
“And what about after?” There was my girl and all the sass and attitude I loved so much. “After tonight.” She didn’t shy away from pointing behind her, where the queen-size bed waited.
We both knew that’s where this was going. We were inevitable.
“What happens after you get what you want from me, big guy?” I let her question hang between us for a moment before I felt my lips quirk upward in a wolfish like grin. “I’m serious,” she said, her perfectly shaped brows bunching adorably.
“I know. That’s what’s fucking cute.” It sounded arrogant, but it was genuine. She was freaking adorable.
“What do you—“ She gasped when I couldn’t stand it any longer.
Being that close without touching her, without having my hands on her, was too much for me to handle.
My arm quickly shot out and tagged her waist, pulling her up against me before dropping my forehead to press against hers.
I breathed in, and just like that, some of the tension inside of me that had started to feel like a storm faded away.
“If you think one night with you would be enough for me, you haven’t been paying attention, baby.”
“Jer—“
“One night. One week. One month. One year. Fuck, a lifetime isn’t enough for me, Teresa,” I laid out.
“That’s crazy,” she gasped, and my lips quirked up higher.
“Doesn’t make it any less true,” I clipped, my lips hovering a breath away from hers.
“And while we’re at it, you should know I’m a greedy bastard, cielo.
I’ll take every fucking second I possibly can.
” Something that looked a lot like hope flashed in her eyes, but she masked it, almost s if she worried about raising her hopes too high.
“You can’t mean that,” she said wearily.
“I do.”
“But—“
“Baby, I’m fucking blackmailing your pretty ass into hanging out with me.” I’d done all sorts of things to be around her.
At the beginning, I’d tried to avoid going there.
I’d had a plan for my life with multiple steps and Plan Bs through Zs in case they didn’t work, all leading me in one sole direction with that one purpose in mind: to play professional baseball.
But I had never planned on her.
One look at my woman had changed me. I’d fallen head over ass in love in the most obsessive and possessive way possible.
“You’re kind of a bully,” she muttered, no real argument in her voice. I tipped her head back.
“I’m okay with that if it means I’m your bully,” I said with conviction. “I will do anything to keep you safe and right here with me.” My hands gently cupped her delicate face.
There was a lot in her expressive dark eyes but mostly love. A love I knew that shone in my own. It was too quick and early for her to say it or go there, but I could see it. I knew it was possible for her to love me.
“I have to be messed up in the head,” she huffed. Tension took hold in my shoulders . “That shouldn’t be as endearing as it feels,” she whispered, and I swallowed.
“Take your clothes off, baby.”
“Just like that, huh?” she tested me. I breathed in deep. I could smell every damn note on her, from her shampoo to her perfume to the way I could almost make out the sun that had kissed her skin earlier in the day down to her sweet juicy arousal.
“You think I’m going to bend to your every command?” she pushed again. I shook my head slowly, not daring to blink, too afraid I’d miss something on her face.
“Not at all, Teresa,” I drawled, dipping my head down, and the moment I was right at her lips, I changed direction to run my nose down the line of her jaw.
“But where would be the fun in that?” I whispered hoarsely against the shell of her ear.
She trembled and her hand clenched around the material of my shirt.
“I want you, Teresa. In my bed, in yours… anywhere I can have you. But I won’t do anything unless you give that to me.”
“Yet you’re asking me to take my clothes off.”
“I won’t touch, if that’s what you’re worried about,” I rasped and swallowed. I had no idea why the fuck I was pushing this way, but something in me, that beast she’d unleashed, was snapping through the control that was collapsing all around me. “I want to look at what’s mine,” I stated roughly.
My lips skimmed over the erratic pulse point on her neck. Wet, drawing my tongue for a better taste. A deep almost animal sound escaped from me. She was sweet and salty.