Chapter 7 #2
With my pulse pounding in my ears, I worked to slow my shallow breathing with every step. I jumped, hand flying to my chest to keep my heart from leaping out of it, when the bathroom door swung open, casting bright fluorescent light into the dimly lit hall.
Hand in the middle of the heavy wooden door, Stew stood as still as a statue.
“Did you follow me?” he accused.
I stumbled back, the wall catching me before I fell on my ass. “What? No.”
His thick brows furrowed. “Then what are you doing? Are you really that desperate for attention? First, you have to ask for someone to take you out, and now you follow me?”
My jaw fell open and my brain froze, unable to come up with a response to his cruel words and condescending tone. Tears gathered in my lower lids as humiliation simmered inside me.
A distortion of the light from movement down the hall had me peeking in that direction. Looking like an avenging villain, face and body cast in shadows from the light behind him, Langston stood with his muscular chest puffed out and his dark glare narrowed on Stew.
“Who the hell are you?” Stew questioned. “Wait, you’re that big guy who was hanging out around my apartment earlier today. What the fuck do you want?”
“For you to watch your fucking tone when you’re talking to a woman like Juno.”
I could’ve pissed my pants at the anger in Langston’s tone because of how Stew spoke to me. Am I in some kind of dream or twilight zone?
Stew hooked a thumb in my direction. “Her?”
Langston nodded. “Her.”
Stew scoffed. “Whatever, man.” Turning to me, he hitched his chin toward the dining room. “Be ready to order. I’m starving.” With that, he shuffled down the hall, avoiding Langston, who refused to move from blocking most of the path, and headed back to the table.
“I’ll make sure he doesn’t come looking for her.”
I cocked my head to the side, not understanding Langston’s words until a soft touch stroked along my hand, jerking my attention to the man now standing beside me. West’s shy smile had my shoulders dropping and the tension from seconds ago draining out of me.
Interlacing our fingers, he urged me to follow him deeper down the hall.
Which I did willingly. He shot a mischievous look over his shoulder when we paused outside a closed door before guiding me into the dark storage room.
Once we were both inside, he turned the lights on.
The fluorescent bulbs overhead flickered before buzzing to life, highlighting racks of shelves and the boxes stacked along them.
The purse strap slid in my sweaty palms as I adjusted my grip, gaze bouncing around the small room to avoid looking at West.
What the hell was I doing? Sneaking off with West O’Donnell while I was on a date with another guy? This wasn’t me. I wasn’t adventurous—or that rude.
“West, I—”
A pair of soft, full lips pressed to mine, cutting off my next words and erasing all thoughts and reservations.
He urged me back a step, then another until my spine pressed against a shelf beam, holding me up as I lost all sense of reality.
Before I could deepen the kiss, he pulled back just enough that when he spoke, our lips barely brushed.
“You do not know how long I’ve wanted to do that,” he rasped, dark eyes searching my face. “Please, Juno.”
“Please what?” I whispered.
“Please let me kiss you.” I sucked in a startled breath at the feel of him brushing a single finger along the inside of my bare thigh, inching the hem of my sweater dress higher with every stroke. “Let me touch you.”
“West.”
“Sweet cheeks.”
The corner of my lips curved upward only to slip, remembering all the sweet things Eric had said to me in the beginning. It was too risky for me to hope for more than this moment with West, to think this passion and sweetness from him would be something that would last.
What terrified me the most about the man staring at me like I was the air he needed to survive was that I could easily look at him the same way.
“This is just for tonight.” He blinked at me as if processing my words. “Tomorrow we go back to how things were, just friends.”
“Why?” he questioned.
“That’s just how it has to be. I can’t be anything more than that, West.”
His dark eyes bored into me as if trying to uncover all my secrets. “What if I say no?”
My heart sank. “Then I go back to my so-called date, and then tonight, when I go home, I take care of my needs alone.”
The fire that flared in his gaze rekindled the one burning in my lower belly.
“And who would you think about while you took care of your own needs?” West leaned in close, gliding his lips along my throat before nipping at the delicate skin.
My purse thumped to the floor. Grabbing his neck, I held him close as he sucked and licked down to my collarbone. Desire leaked from my core, no doubt soaking my panties, making me cringe. Eric had told me on more than one occasion that it was gross how wet I got when turned on.
A sharp bite just beneath my ear snapped my attention back to West.
“Answer me, Juno. Who would you be thinking about while you played with yourself?”
I wouldn’t lie to him. Couldn’t even if I wanted to, with the need thrumming through my veins making my thoughts fuzzy.
“You,” I breathed.
“What about my friend? Would you think of Langston too?”
A soft brush of air and a faint creak of hinges had my lashes fluttering open. Langston’s green eyes were locked on me as he closed the door behind him and leaned back against the solid wood. My chest rose and fell in shallow, rapid breaths.
“Yes,” I whispered, not looking away from Langston. “I’d think of him too.”
“Good girl,” West murmured in my ear. “I can’t wait to feel you.” The tip of his finger brushed along the edge of my lace panties before dipping beneath. His guttural groan vibrated along my skin as he stroked my soaked seam. “Fucking hell, you’re drenched.”
My spine went ramrod straight and I squirmed, trying to move away from his touch. “I’m sorry. I know it’s gross and—”
“The fuck did you say?” Langston demanded.
West pulled his hand free, holding the single glistening digit between our faces. Embarrassed, I turned away, cheeks heating.
“This is not gross,” West rasped, gaze locked on his fingers. Slowly, I turned back to him, cautiously studying the two men for any sign of deception. “It’s fucking sexy as hell. It makes me want to drop to my knees and lick it all from the source. I bet you taste as good as you smell.”
“West, you don’t have to—”
“Why don’t you believe him?” Langston asked.
I rolled my lips inward to keep from blurting out the truth.
“Show her how much you like it, West.”
“Yes, sir,” he chuckled.
Before I could protest, he slid those fingers into his mouth and sealed his lips around them. Dark eyelashes fluttered as his lids closed and a deep, lust-filled moan rattled in his chest.
“I need more. Please, Juno.”
All I could do was nod, too shocked and confused to do anything else.
Reaching his hand beneath my dress, he pushed my panties aside to drag three fingers through my soaked slit, gathering up more of my desire, then licked it from his fingers.
“Holy shit,” I breathed.
Hand between my thighs once more, West leaned forward. “I’ll show you how good you taste.” Pressing our lips together, he pushed his tongue between my lips to stroke my own. A sweet flavor that was all me filled my mouth. My nails dug into the back of his neck as I sucked my desire off his tongue.
Our desperate kiss broke apart when he slid two fingers into my core. Gazes locked, he pulled them free only to thrust back in, grinding the heel of his hand against my swollen clit. Shifting to put my thigh between his, West ground his hard dick against me.
“West,” I begged, dropping a hand to grip the top of his jeans. “Please.”
Before he could respond, Langston did it for him.
“She doesn’t get rewarded with your dick after calling her drenched pussy gross.”
A pitiful whimper escaped me at the same time a desperate grunt came from West.
“But….” Langston pushed off the door and came to stand behind West. “How about I take care of my friend while he takes care of you with his thick fingers deep in your cunt?”
“What?” I said at the same time West said, “Yes.”
“Your call, Juno,” Langston said. I followed his hand as it slid down West’s taut stomach and dipped inside his jeans.
A sharp hiss whistled through West’s teeth while Langston just smirked.
“His other hand is out of commission, or he’d be doing this himself right now. I’m just being a good friend.”
That was a lie.
He knew it.
I knew it.
West knew it.
The blasts of sexual tension thrumming off him, his hooded gaze as he watched West’s hand moving beneath my dress, and how his own hand had gripped the front of his jeans were confirmation. But for tonight, I wouldn’t call him out on it.
For tonight, we would all ignore the truth of us three.
Including me.
With bated breath, I followed Langston’s fingers as they worked to pop the top button of West’s low-slung jeans.
“I need an answer, Juno.”
Peering up through my dark lashes, I found his eyes already locked on me. “Yes.”
“Yes, what?” he demanded as the grind of the zipper teeth releasing filled the small storage room.
“Yes, sir.”
“Good girl.”
Holy fuck, there was no chance in hell I would ever be the same after this.
But ask me if I cared.