23. Haley
23
HALEY
P reston was wrong.
I didn’t “put out” for Eli.
I put my entire heart on the line where this troubled man was concerned.
I couldn’t stand the idea of this brave soul going after Preston. I wouldn’t let him.
Eli was already in such a tricky spot because of the West family. His future was threatened. If he were to go after Preston and beat him, maybe try to kill him, he would only be in more and more trouble.
He grunted against my lips, kissing me back immediately. Even though he didn’t seem done talking, he responded like always—with brutal brushes of his mouth over mine, his demanding tongue slipping into my mouth, and tight clutches of his hands on my sides.
I couldn’t let him get carried away with a goal of seeking revenge or avenging me. He had enough trouble in his life. He always had. His parents, the dyslexia, and feeling so unloved and unwanted that he’d tried to be popular and bully me. It was no excuse, and I still had a way to go with forgiving him.
I cared too much about him to want him to risk more trouble in his life. Not when he could look at me and see me, knowing I was all right now that he was here with me. Now that he was standing with me, the anchor I needed to lean on, I would move on from the panic and fright of Preston cornering me like he had.
“Haley,” he whispered against my lips after he broke the kiss. Keeping one hand wrapped around my back and clutching the back of my neck to keep me close, he sighed before kissing me again. “I know you’re trying to distract me.”
“Is it working?” I teased, reaching down for the hem of his shirt.
“In other circumstances, yeah. But I can’t just let him get away with touching you and?—”
“Then erase it,” I implored him with a needy look. “Erase every trace of what he did or tried to do. Make me forget. Distract me , Eli.”
He growled, dipping in to press his mouth over mine as he reached for the hem of my shirt.
“Touch me, Eli,” I begged.
In reply, he tugged my shirt off. As he worked on removing my bra, I held him in to make out some more, sliding my tongue alongside his until I could suck on it and get him to grunt in pleasure.
I wasn’t the only one who liked it a little rough.
He bared me, spreading his fingers wide as he rubbed his hands up my back, crushing me to his chest.
Despite the horror from earlier, I was drowning in desire now. Before, Preston was the one who'd dared to try to corner me. Now, Eli was the only one I could focus on. The only one whose attention and touch I was consumed with.
My pussy was wet already, throbbing as blood flowed there. With every rub of Eli’s shirt over my naked chest, my nipples beaded that much more, so sensitive to the abrasive caress against his rock-hard wall of a chest. The hit of lust from my breasts connected directly with where I needed him to fill me with his thick cock.
“Distract me ,” I begged.
He nodded, lifting his wet lips from mine as he backed me up to his bed. I’d never spent much time in his dorm room before, and now wasn’t the moment to scope it out, either. All that mattered was letting all of my senses be completely attuned to him.
The rough scrape of his callused hands as he caressed my back. Every stroke up of his hands had me arching into him, and every stroke down ended with his fingers brushing the waistband of my jeans and panties.
As we kissed and he backed me toward his bed, he reached around me to unzip my jeans. I tugged at his shirt, and he yanked that off. He shoved the rest of my clothes down, my jeans and arousal-soaked panties dropping toward the floor. It was a frantic, clumsy dance of getting naked, but it got us to his bed together. Not once did we stay apart for long. Kissing and groping, we tumbled together.
“Fuck me,” I told him, daring to be this much more demanding.
“You think you’re ready for me?” he asked, lying over me but slightly to the side as he lowered his hand between my legs. “You think you’re wet enough to take me?”
I nodded, staring at him and wishing he’d hurry.
He didn’t.
After roughly stroking his fingers up and down my slippery entrance, he smacked my pussy. Bringing his fingers down on my entrance, he spanked my mound.
I cried out, so sensitive there for him already. The slaps stung, but the following pleasure pushed me closer to coming. “Oh, fuck,” I moaned, arching into his touch.
“You think you can take it?” he said, almost taunting me wickedly as he pushed me close to my limit of pain.
“I want to. I want you, Eli.”
And I wanted the pain.
I didn’t need anything delicate or sweet.
Nothing about my life had been rosy or gentle. I hardened my heart to the cruelties of the world a long time ago. But it took Eli’s firm and rough touch to make me crack and splinter with pleasure now.
He knew.
He got me.
We’d both suffered so much. He’d been unloved and I’d been bullied.
The second he slammed his long cock into me in one long, steady thrust, we were together not in suffering or pain, but in pleasure.
“You take it,” he said, heaving hard breaths as he started an unforgiving rhythm, deep into me, rearing back, and stuffing me fully over and over again.
I nodded weakly, too lost to desire to think or speak. I was almost there, almost falling off the edge of the pinnacle.
“You take it all for me, Haley,” he growled. “And I will be here for you?—”
I cried out again, louder, as he lowered his fingers to my clit and rubbed hard until I came harder than ever before.
“You and me,” he vowed, thrusting into me twice more until he roared his climax. Deep inside me, he jerked and twitched, flooding my womb with his hot cum.
Waves of pleasure rocked through me, making me shiver and tremble within his arms. Beneath the steady weight of his hard body over me, I closed my eyes and relished the relief of coming with him so profoundly.
I’d done it.
I distracted him, all right.
He’d distracted me too.
And as his breath slowed and he eventually fell asleep next to me, I smiled and gave in to the need to leave this all for another day.
I’d need to convince him to not go after Preston. We’d figure out a gameplan for him about his chances of graduating. And I would take another day as another lesson of how to lower my guard completely and let him all the way in.
He’d called it.
You and me.
I wanted that to happen. I wanted to see his almost far-fetched idea about our graduating and moving out of Marsten together become reality.
Because there was a damned strong possibility that I’d lowered my guard around him far enough for him to get into my heart.
No matter how relaxed I was, though, I struggled to get tired enough to fall asleep.
After I slipped out of bed, making sure I didn’t wake him, I showered. He’d cleaned me up, like he usually did, but standing in his shower gave me a chance to steam myself and think.
I got back into bed and checked my phone. My sister had texted, but I felt the need to reply to Davina instead.
Davina: Finn and I are gonna stay at my dorm tonight.
I smiled, still finding it funny that my friend had decided to hook up with Eli’s friend today. Finn had never outright bullied me, and I never minded him. Then again, Eli had bullied me and I was on the path to forgive him.
Haley: Sorry I kicked him out of his room.
Davina: There is nothing to be sorry about. I’m glad we were both there to help.
Davina: How are you feeling now?
Haley: Better.
I smiled at Eli sleeping away.
Davina: I never thought I’d say this, but your bully is good for you.
Haley: Former bully.
Davina: That’s true.
Davina: Do you think you’ll want to report P to the college security?
I furrowed my brow, deciding on an honest answer.
Haley: I need to think about it some more first.
As I lay there, I doubted I would. No one would ever believe that Preston West did something like that. Or maybe everyone would believe it, but nothing would be done.
I sighed, nestling against Eli and closing my eyes, wondering again what the next day with him would bring.