Chapter 3
3
“ H mm, that’s not right… Maybe try turning it the other way?” Wesley’s voice rumbles in my ear as he leans over my shoulder to look at the torn letter pieces we’ve found searching the room. Shivers skitter down my spine at the feel of his breath against my neck. I simultaneously want to turn around and shove him away and pull him closer so I can feel his mouth on my skin.
I settle for acting annoyed. “Stop hovering, I’ve got it! Go try to figure out what the marks on the portraits mean.”
Another puff of breath hits me as he lets out a small laugh and steps back. Goddammit, why does even his breath turn me on? It smells like apples and cinnamon, and I bet his mouth tastes like apple pie, my favorite dessert. What would kissing him in his minotaur form feel like? Would he lick inside my mouth with that wide tongue? Heat pulses between my legs. Better yet, what would that tongue feel like on my clit?
“So bossy, Ari. Who made you in charge of this escape room?” Wesley asks, his low, teasing tone doing nothing to stop my horny train of thought.
“I’m not bossy! I just can’t focus with you…breathing on me like that!”
“Fine, I’ll stop breathing on you,” he says, rolling his eyes like I’m being absurd. Even though he’s the one that’s been plastered to my side for the last ten minutes, not giving me room to think because he’s fogging my mind with his stupid, perfect beefy body that I want to climb like a tree.
I don’t know why he’s so clingy tonight. He keeps touching me, even before we got into the room. Nothing inappropriate, just brushes against my arm, or a steadying hand on my lower back. Maybe it’s some weird protective brother’s-best-friend BS because of the weird receptionist? I wish he’d stop. Or do a whole lot more.
Fuck, I need to get out of here so I can go home and furiously masturbate to the thought of his casual touches like the sex-starved hermit I am.
Now that he’s not standing directly next to me, my mind clears enough to figure out the puzzle I’d been struggling with. Reading through the message on the assembled paper, I find that it’s a hastily scribbled note about revealing hidden truths through diligent study.
“The bookcase!” I exclaim, a little too loudly judging by the way Wesley startles and knocks into the desk he’s rummaging through for the tenth time .
I scramble over to the bookcase covered in fake dust and scan through the tomes. Some of the words in the note were capitalized oddly, and put together they spell out “grimoire”. Ugh, I could’ve figured out that a book with the word “grimoire” on the spine would be important without the note if Wesley hadn’t been distracting me. I tug on the book and there’s a loud click.
“Hell yeah, great job!” Wesley says, startling me with how close he is again. I stumble backwards in surprise and right into his solid chest. He grabs my arms to steady me against him. “Careful, baby girl,” he rumbles, trailing off in a low chuckle.
Baby girl? Is he trying to torture me? I sputter and pull away, moving so he can push the hinged bookcase open to reveal a tunnel into another room.
“Oh wow!” I can’t help my excitement at the reveal. This escape room is a lot cooler than I’d anticipated.
“Shit, I don’t know if I’ll fit,” Wesley says with a groan.
My perverted mind immediately imagines him saying that as he tries to fit his undoubtedly enormous cock inside me. “Shut up, Wesley. You’re not that big. Y-you’ll fit,” I say, ducking my head so he doesn’t catch the way my face flames from my dirty thoughts.
“If you insist. Ladies first.” He gestures for me to go into the tunnel.
The passage is wide, but not tall enough for me to walk through, so I crouch down. As I do, I hear a ripping sound and realize in horror that the small hole in the thigh of my leggings is now a full tear going further up into the crotch. I let out a little squeak of alarm and stand back up.
Wesley gives me a perplexed frown. “What’s wrong?”
“Y-you should go first!” I say, backing away from the passage.
“You scared of the dark, princess?” Wesley asks in a teasing drawl .
“No, I, uh, I just don’t want you to get stuck behind me and then have no way to get out. If you go first and get stuck, then I’ll still be okay.”
He rolls his eyes at me. “You’re such a brat, you know that? You tell me that I can fit, but now you’re making me go through first in case I get stuck. Which is it?”
The image of him bending me over his knee and punishing me for being bratty comes to mind unbidden, and I clench my thighs together with a groan that I disguise as frustration. “Ugh, you’ll fit! I’m trying to save you from getting a face full of my ass while I’m crawling in front of you.”
Wesley snorts. “You say that like it’s a bad thing.”
Isn’t it? I’ve been told by plenty of guys that I’d be much more attractive if I’d “take better care of my body,” aka lose weight. I told them to go fuck themselves, but you can’t fully undo the mental damage that kind of shit leaves on you. The idea of a gym fanatic like Wesley watching my wobbly ass as I crawl makes me want to die. As if him getting weirded out that the attendant thought I was his girlfriend wasn’t bad enough.
“Please, just go. We’re wasting time!”
“Fine, fine.” Wesley drops to his knees and pokes his head into the passage, testing to make sure he’ll fit. He pulls back out and looks at me over his shoulder. “If I get stuck, promise you won’t leave me here to die?”
“I might if you don’t stop talking!” I snap.
He laughs and starts to crawl. His bulk fits through, but just barely.
Before I join him, I feel around on my inner thigh to assess the damage. The hole has spread enough that it’s precariously close to my crotch. Dammit.
“You coming?” Wesley calls back to me and him saying that while my fingertips are so close to my pussy sends an absurd pulse of excitement to my clit.
“Y-yeah!”
The hole in my leggings expands even more as I crouch again and I curse, but crawl after him. As soon as I’m inside, I have to suppress a sharp inhale at the sight of Wesley’s round, tight ass in front of my face, his tail only drawing my attention to his backside more. It’s just so juicy .
I’m so distracted thinking about biting one of his firm cheeks that I almost collide headfirst into said ass when he stops abruptly.
“Damn, you gotta see this,” Wesley says with a low whistle.
His tufted tail smacks my face and I shove it away with a disgruntled huff. “If you’d get your ass out of the way, I will,” I mutter under my breath.
He chuckles and keeps crawling. I forgot how good his hearing is. “You’re going through first next time, if you hate looking at my fine butt so much. Fair is fair.”
He pulls himself up to standing and reaches into the tunnel to help me up. I take his hand, marveling at how much bigger it is than mine. Is everything about Wesley so big?
“Whoa,” I say softly, when I stop thinking about how huge Wesley is and take in our surroundings.
The walls are made of a stone-like material, covered with fake spider webs and dust. There’s a large fake stone pillar carved with runic symbols in the center of the small room. Three passages lead from the chamber into narrow corridors. I peek my head down one of the passages to find that it takes a sharp turn and then forks in two directions.
“It’s a maze!” I exclaim. Scanning over the pillar, my brain starts to go into analytical mode. “I wonder if the symbols on the pillar correspond with things we’ll find in there. Or maybe they’re guides to what direction to go… This is so cool!”
I look up and grin at Wesley, expecting to see amusement at my nerdy excitement, but he’s got a strange, intense look in his eyes.
His wide tongue darts out to licks his snout as he stares down at me. A moment later, he shakes his head, the weird expression dissipating into his usual cocky smile as he rubs the base of one of his horns. “Think you can find your way through it, puzzle master?” he asks.
I scoff at him, secretly thrilling in the challenge. “Uh, yeah. Do you even have to ask?”
“Dammit, why isn’t this working?” I resist the urge to kick the stupid faux stone pillar after I press the symbols in what should be the right order. After wandering through the small maze for the last ten minutes, collecting clues, I thought I’d figured out the puzzle. With no help from Wesley, who seems to think his job is to crowd me in the small passageways and keep giving me these weird, intense stares whenever I stop to think.
Feeling overheated from frustration and his ceaseless closeness, I tug my sweatshirt off over my head. Wesley lets out a low huff as I do, no doubt trying to stifle a laugh as I get it momentarily stuck on my bun. I glare at him as I rip it off and tie it around my waist, but he stares back with that odd gleam in his eyes.
“What?” I ask, looking down to check the shirt I have on. It’s nothing weird, just a plain camisole, but it clings to my body and shows off a good portion of my cleavage. “God, stop looking at me like that. I’m sorry if my boobs offend you, but it’s fucking hot in here and someone keeps standing right next to me and breathing their cow breath on me and I can’t think!”
He blinks slowly at me, then runs a hand over his face with a groan. “Ari, you have no clue what you’re talking about.”
What kind of answer is that? Ugh, he’s impossible. I turn back to the puzzle and try pressing the runes yet again, hoping somehow the tenth time's a charm. He steps up behind me, and I can practically feel the heat radiating off of his bulky body. Warm, spicy breath hits me again as he leans over my shoulder.
That’s it. I turn back to face Wesley and level my most withering glare at him. It’s not as effective as I’d like because I have to tilt my head up a lot to meet his eyes and he’s making my head fuzzy as he looms over me. “Please stop,” I say sharply.
He frowns down at me. “Stop what?”
“Stop being so close! I can’t think.”
“In case you hadn’t noticed, this space is fucking tiny and I’m big. I’m just trying to help. I get that you don’t like me being close to you, but I can’t do anything about that.” He looks hurt that I’m not delighted by the idea of his body close to mine.
It’s ridiculous. Of course I like him being close. It’s all I’ve wanted for almost a year.
I scoff. “Don’t get butthurt. I didn’t say that I don’t want you close to me. It just makes it hard to think!”
“Because of my ‘cow breath’?” Wesley asks, making my frustrated rant sound a lot more insulting than I meant it.
“No! Because I—” I cut myself off before I do something horrible like confess how wet I am and how every time I feel his breath on my skin it makes me want to tear open the hole in my leggings and finger myself until I get some relief from how much I want him .
“Because what, Ari?” he asks, his voice coming out in a low rumble that makes my breath hitch.
“It doesn’t matter. I’m sorry for being a jerk. I’ll move so you can look at the puzzle.”
I sigh and wait for him to let me pass, but he stays where he is. I reach up to shove against his chest to prompt him to move out of the way, but he grabs my wrist.
“Because what?” His voice is even deeper now, and it makes my nipples harden.
“Because I want you!” I blurt. I don’t mean to say it, but I’m so frustrated and turned on. I can’t take it anymore.
Wesley’s eyes go wide with shock.
Fuck, I’m such a moron.
“There. Are you happy? I want you and I know that there’s no universe in which you’d want me back, so can we please move on and finish this damn escape room so I can go home and hide in shame until you forget how pathetic I am?”
I try to pull my hand away, but his grip on my wrist tightens. “You’re so damn wrong, baby girl.”
“Quit making fun of me and let me go. And s-stop calling me ‘baby girl’. It’s weird!” I know my face is beet red and all I want to do is go crawl in a hole and die.
“ No ,” Wesley says, enunciating the word in a rough growl.
“What do you mean, ‘no’?” I scowl at him, and the bastard is cruel enough to laugh in reply.
“I said ‘no’ because I need you to know how wrong you are. Because every time you glare at me, it makes me want to bend you over and spank your bratty ass. Because every time I’ve called you ‘baby girl’ you flushed so prettily, and it’s made my dick hard as steel.”
My mouth falls open and my whole body suffuses with heat. This isn’t happening. There’s no way. “Y-you can’t be serious.”
“You really want me to stop, finish this escape room, and pretend this never happened, I’ll do that. But say the word and I’ll show you just how serious I am.” Wesley’s thumb strokes the inside of my wrist as he waits for me to reply.
It still seems like some kind of prank, but fuck, I want him so badly. Even that little touch feels incredible, and he’s so close, and big, and smells so good.
I meet his eyes in a challenge. “Okay, fine. If you’re not being a cruel ass, then show me.”