10. Blake
Chapter 10
Blake
This is not my dorm.
The pillowcase is too soft, not to mention it smells heavenly like Alexis’s signature pomegranate shampoo. There is no stomping of inconsiderate feet on the stairs, but a sweet voice humming some Taylor Swift song, the sound nearly luring me back to sleep.
Instead, I force my eyes to open.
I’m in Alexis’s living room, sprawled out like a starfish on that horrendous pink couch. A broad beam of sunlight drifts through a crack in the curtains to fall onto the cracked kitchen floor, illuminating her hair like it was spun gold.
Her pajamas are old and saggy, the shirt barely grazing her hip bones, the pink-spotted pants sagging down to reveal the slightest hint of her underwear. I force myself to look away before this has a chance to turn things more awkward. I told her I would never force anything on her, and that she could trust me. If I’m lying here with a massive hard-on while staring straight at her, it would go against everything I’ve been trying to do.
I’m not afraid to admit that Alexis Moore is mind bogglingly attractive to me, nor am I afraid to tell her that. But there is a time and a place for everything, and when it comes to the physical stuff, she sets the pace. So I turn, making a show of stretching and yawning so I don’t startle her when she turns around and finds me awake.
She glances over her shoulder with a smile that wakes me in an instant. “On a scale of one through ten, how do you feel?”
“Gotta be at least a seven, now that I see you.” I shoot her a wink, and god does it feel good. Sure, my head is killing me and there’s a fifty-fifty chance I’ll throw up, but Alexis being the first thing I see when I wake adds at least six points. Maybe seven, if she smiles at me again.
“You’re so weird,” she says, and though her back is turned towards me I can hear the smile in her voice. “Do you remember anything from last night?”
A crease forms between my eyebrows as I sit up, my hand flying to my forehead as if it could take away the sharp pain. I have no proof, but I swear I hear her laugh at me.
I hope she does it again.
Last night was a haze of cheap beer and spinning rooms. I remember getting a little carried away in beer pong, a few puck bunnies fighting for my attention, and Alexis kissing my forehead after I spun her around.
But I also remember an angel sitting with me while I puked my guts out, showing me real, no-strings-attached affection for what may very well be the first time in my life. Between her calming touch and terrible yet endearing singing voice, last night still goes down as one of the best I’ve had in years.
Which is why I’m sure I did something stupid.
“Bits and pieces,” I wipe a hand across my face. Only now do I notice the glass of water and ibuprofen sitting on the coffee table. An angel.
“Hmm,” Alexis leans against the kitchen counter, her slender fingers curled around a mug. “What about the part where you said you wanted to eat me out?”
I almost choke on my water. “I did what?”
“Oh, yes. Then I said you were full of it, and you were like—” She drops her voice to mimic mine, bringing a smile to my face despite the horror. “— trust me, Sunshine, I think about you plenty . And then you tried to kiss me a bunch.”
Fuck . I did do that. In a spur of alcohol-induced stupidity, I shed all common sense and came on to her. The strange thing is that neither then nor now does she seem to mind. If she did, she wouldn’t be joking about it, right? My heart skips a beat at the thought. Maybe I have a shot with her after all.
I rise, approaching in long, slow strides, my heart pounding louder than my head until there’s only a single step between us. “Maybe if you show me where I kissed you, it’ll jog my memory?”
Alexis smiles, and by god does the sight of it tug at my heart. I watch breathless as she draws in closer, her hand reaching out to touch my chest, that golden hair tickling my nose. Pomegranate shampoo curls around my nostrils and I close my eyes as her breath tickles my ear, the laugh rolling from her lips filling me with air. “I told you you were full of shit.”
My hand moves to the small of her back, inching her against me. “No, I’m not. The things I want to do to you…”
It is pure torture, having her this close, and yet it’s all I have ever wanted. Her skin, warm beneath my fingertips, calls to the part of me that swore off relationships in my teens to declare him an idiot. Her ass is tantalizingly within reach, but not mine to touch. Yet . But it’s her eyes, big and almost blue in the morning light, that hold me hostage.
“What’s stopping you?” Her voice is barely louder than a whisper, but I hear every word she says—and doesn’t say. “Why not push me against the wall and take me?”
The mental image of me doing exactly that flashes before my eyes and I can’t help but grin. “Your brother would kill me if I did.”
Her fingers travel along the hard planes of my chest, her eyes following the movement with surprising interest. Selfishly, I hope she feels the hard muscle underneath. That she imagines what my chest would look like bare, how it would feel pressed up against hers. That it turns her on the way she turns me on.
“I thought you weren’t afraid of anyone?”
“I’m not. But I am afraid of fucking this up,” I tuck a strand of hair behind her ear, my hand lingering on her cheek, savoring the feeling of having her in my arms. Mine. “If I hurt you, I wouldn’t be able to live with myself.”
I hold her gaze. What I wouldn’t give to kiss her right now, hard and frenzied and wanting, and show her exactly how I feel about her. Better yet, hoist her up onto the counter to make her feel it, just like she’s asking of me now, and make her come again and again with my name on those pretty lips.
All air leaves my lungs as her eyes move to my lips. “Who says I’m going to get hurt? I know what this is. I know that it’s over as soon as we’ve won.”
And it is a stupid, stupid move, but I’m a stupid boy. I lean in even closer, our foreheads pressed together, my eyes on hers so she can see exactly how serious I am as I whisper, “Sunshine, when I get my way with you, neither of us will want this to stop.”