Chapter 21
CHAPTER
TWENTY-ONE
DILLON
“ I hear you’re celebrating your twenty-first tonight?”
Fuck, how did he find out about that?! I scrubbed my hand down my face and cursed the day I was born. I didn’t even want to celebrate my birthday; I just wanted to have a night alone with Jamie. But oh no, the team posted flyers all around campus advertising the captain’s twenty-first, how it was going to be “the” party of the year, and if you missed it, you might as well pack up and go home. Fuck. My. Life. “Yeah, that’s right.”
Tristan leaned back in his chair, his gaze assessing me while he stroked his new goatee. “There going to be a big turn out?”
“So I’m led to believe.”
“Hmmm.” He leaned over and opened his drawer, pulling out the keys and a little baggie of white powder. “How about some birthday bumps?”
Fuck! I knew I should have made Stevens come and get the damn keys. “Ah, sorry. Can’t. Athlete.”
“I don’t remember giving you a choice, Dillon.” Tristan placed his hands on his desk and loomed over it, trying to intimidate me. Physically, I could take him in a fair fight, but this guy was fifty shades of fucked up, and I knew he was packing, along with the two guards on the other side of the door. “Don’t be rude, or your party house goes up in flames with everyone in it.” He poured the powder out on a silver tray and cut it into four little white lines.
“It’s not like that.” I tried to placate him. “It’s just they run random drug tests, and one positive means I’m off the team. I can’t?—”
“We couldn’t have that now, could we?” he mocked before inhaling a line. He sniffed and wiped his nose before licking the residue off his finger. “You’re the best quarterback Briar U has ever had. We couldn’t lose our golden boy that way.” He cocked his head to the side, his pupils blown so wide there’s not a hint of his dirty-brown left. “However, if you turn me down again…”
He didn’t need to give credence to his threat; violence rolled off him in waves. I swallowed down the nausea rolling through me and took the proffered metal straw as he slid the tray over to me. “I made you two small ones.”
I opened my mouth, a refusal on the tip of my tongue, when he flashed me a photo of Jamie sitting on the grass of the quad. A malicious chuckle oozed past his lips. “I can hurt you in more ways than one.”
“I don’t know why you’re showing me that,” I growled and bent over the tray, doing the one thing I’d promised myself I’d never do. I plugged my left nostril and inhaled. Fuck, it burned. The buzz was quick and a smirk flickered at the corners of my lips before I fell back into my seat. The sensation of the residue dripping down my throat and onto my tongue made me shudder, the chalky taste turning my stomach. Now I was back to square one—about to empty the contents of my gut all over his floor.
“Maybe you have got some balls after all, kid,” Tristan goaded. “Take these and don’t fuck it up too badly.” I went to hand him the cash, and he shook his head “Consider it a present.”
This was not good. Now I owed him, and one thing Tristan was known for was collecting his debts. “Thanks,” I growled between clenched teeth as the sickening feeling of dread settled beneath my skin.
All Tristan did was smirk and wave me off as he settled back in his chair, phone to his ear. The door opened before I could reach it, and fresh air from the open bay blew across my face. “Oh, Dillon?” I rolled my eyes at Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum as they stood sentry outside the door and glanced over my shoulder, keeping my face blank. “I’ll see you tonight.” I nodded and walked out without looking back.
Stevens had appointed himself the party planner. All I had to do was get the keys and pay the deposit for the house. Said money burned a hole in my pocket all the way back to campus. I was in two minds as to what to do with it. It felt dirty, like I’d taken a back hander, and I didn’t want to keep it because I knew the repercussions would be dire. Instead of making a decision myself, I put it to the guys to decide what to do; either keep it for our next deposit, or to use it for tonight. Stevens decided to book a DJ, and it was agreed by unanimous vote.
“This guy’s sick, right?” Stevens shouted in my ear as he looped his arm around my neck and dragged me into the kitchen for a drink. “What’s your poison tonight, Cap?”
It was my twenty-first, so legally, I could have anything. But I had plans for tonight, as long as a certain blue-eyed golden-haired boy came. “Just a beer.”
Arching his brow, Stevens looked at me like I’d grown two heads. “Are you sure? I went all out and got top shelf spirits.” He grabbed a bottle of gold label tequila and waved it in my face. “This stuff is the shit, Cap. You really?—”
“No.” I shut him down instantly. “I’m not planning on getting wasted. We have a game next week, and you know Coach doesn’t need any help finding reasons to bench us.”
“Oh, I know I don’t.” Stevens sneered at me and grabbed a cold bottle from the fridge. “Here. So are you planning on hooking up with Elise tonight?” Just her name made my skin crawl and my balls retreated into my body. Instead of answering, I took the bottle from him and downed it.
“Cap, can I have a word?”
“Sure.” I breathed a sigh of relief as I followed Buchanan out the bifold doors and onto the back deck. “What’s up?”
“Not much. You just looked like you needed a rescue.” I scoffed and walked over to the fire pit. The night was warmer than I’d expected, but the temperatures would drop as the evening wore on. Watching the flames helped calm the calamity exploding in my head. I knew shit was about to go down, and I just prayed I wasn’t dragged down with it.
“Thanks.” I clapped him on the back and took a seat on one of the loungers.
“This brings back memories.” B smirked at a group of girls walking past before turning to look at me. Thankfully, it was still quiet in the yard. The party was just starting to kick off inside, so we had some time for him to say whatever was on his mind.
“I suppose.”
Sighing, Buchanan passed me another beer. “What’s going on, Dillon?” I blanched and looked up at him, grinding my teeth. “Nothin’.”
“Try again, man. You forget I know you. More than those asshats in there.” A loud cheer erupted as Vieck was hauled up by his feet to do a keg stand.
I snorted. “You’re not wrong there.”
“Is it just what happened with Tristan? Or does it have something to do with Jami—” I slapped my hand over his mouth.
“Shut the fuck up,” I growled, leaning into his space. “There’s nothing to talk about.”
“I bug ta difa,” he garbled against my palm before licking it.
“What the hell!”
“Stop being a child, Dillon. There’s too much at stake for you to be a dick. You like him. You?—”
“I don’t.”
B threw his hands up in exasperation. “Seriously?!” He looked at me with narrowed eyes. “You think I’m blind? I have eyes!” He carded his hands through his hair and rolled his neck. “I’ve seen how you look at him, Dil. If the others pulled their heads out of their asses, they’d see it too. But they’re too blinded by the seed of hate you planted in them.”
“Fuck off, B. This doesn’t concern you.”
He pushed up from his seat and got right in my face, teeth bared. “It does when it’s fucking you over.” He snatched the front of my hoodie and pulled me in closer. “I don’t know what happened between you, but I’m here if you need to talk. You never know, I might be able to help.”
“Is that a fucking joke?” I pushed him back and started pacing, everything playing over and over in my mind. I had hated Jamie when I first saw him. Five years worth of pain and devastation crashed into me like a tsunami, pulling me down into the dark abyss. It set my volatile anger free, and it consumed me. I wanted to ruin him—make him suffer like I had—so he’d leave, but my stupid heart took flight when I saw his steel-ringed pale-blue eyes. They’ve haunted me every moment since.
He was intoxicating, but obsession was toxic. I couldn’t allow us to crash and burn.
I needed him more than my next breath, but I stood to lose everything I’d been focused on for the last five years if I followed my heart. But could I live with myself if I didn’t? If I gave up the chance to have a life with the only person I’d ever loved? Would I live my dreams or die slowly day by day as I became bitter and rotten to the core?
The question wasn’t was he worth the sacrifice, but was he worth the truth?
My heart knew the answer. I just had to convince my head.
“No, joke. I get it, you’re confused?—”
“I’m not,” I snapped. I was fucking terrified. I was drowning, and I couldn’t find the surface. There was a wall of water in every direction, penning me in.
“Well, well, well,” Buchanan mused and slapped me on the shoulder. “Looks like fate has decided for you.”
“What the?” I turned the way he was facing, and my heart beat its way up my throat as butterflies swarmed in my stomach. “Wow,” I breathed as my eyes roamed over Jamie. Buchanan’s guttural laugh made me want to punch him.
“He’s something else.” B pinned me with a knowing look. “If you don’t want him, they will be lining up around the block for him.”
I grunted and flipped him off before I stalked across the grass to where Jamie stood with his sidekicks. They were like shadows, never leaving his side. And believe me, I knew that, because I stalked his fine ass all over the campus grounds. He might not have seen me, but if I wasn’t in class, on the field, or in the gym, I was watching him. Cory had come through with everything he could find on Jamie “Bowen,” but it only went back five years. It wasn’t the whole truth, not by a long shot. My boy had skeletons in his dark closet, and I was determined to find them.
“Uh oh,” the annoying rainbow pixie muttered under her breath as I drew closer.
“Ava.” The look of surprise that flashed across her face made me smug. “Malachi.” I nodded at the guy standing on Jamie’s other side. “So nice of you guys to come and celebrate my birthday.” Being polite to them was like pulling teeth. Why couldn’t they just fuck off? I wanted Jamie. All of him. Alone.
“Next time, say it like you mean it,” Ava clapped back like a snappy puppy with small dog syndrome.
“How about we go and get a drink, Aves? And let these two…” Malachi’s words fizzled out as he rolled his hand in our direction before dragging a prickly Ava toward the house. I felt her heated gaze on me until I focused on my little crow, and the entire world melted away.
I stepped into the cover of the shadows behind Jamie, hooked my fingers through his belt loops, and pulled him into me. He was wrapped in a cocoon of his delicious caramel scent, and just a hint of it had my blood rushing south and my mouth watering. My heart was hammering, and nervous energy poured off me in waves as I feared someone might see us. But when Jamie’s back was flush with my chest, he released a little sigh and melted into me.
I dragged my nose along the column of his neck, inhaling his sweet scent. He arched his neck, giving me full access to his soft skin, and I peppered kisses up to his ear. I breathed a sigh of relief that he was back in my arms. “I’ve missed you.” My lips brushed the shell of his ear, and he shuddered.
Jamie looked up at me from under his dark lashes and chewed on his bottom lip. It felt like I was balanced on a tightrope while I waited for him to speak. He finally put me out of my misery. “I’ve missed you too, Dil.” He turned in my arms until we were chest to chest, and his closeness short-wired my brain. My world began and ended with him.
Jamie’s hand snaked up my chest, sending bolts of electricity across my skin and cupped the nape of my neck. He pushed in closer to me as if he was trying to fuse us together. I had to bite back the groan rumbling in my chest when his hard length brushed against mine. His nimble fingers carded through my hair and he pulled me down so our lips were a hair’s breadth apart.
“Happy birthday, babe,” he breathed before slamming his mouth against mine. I gasped into his dominating kiss as his tongue licked across my bottom lip, eliciting a needy moan from me. I hungered for his taste. My lips parted as a fever stole over me, and I spun us around and crushed Jamie into the fence.
“It is now,” I growled against his slick lips and pushed my thigh between his legs, encouraging him to roll his hips. I luxuriated in the feel of his hardness moving against mine as his body heat burned me through the layers separating us. I gripped his jaw and maneuvered his head until I could take control of our frantic kiss and devour him.
Jamie mewled as he rocked against me, the tempo of his thrusts increasing as I tasted every corner of his mouth and wrapped my tongue around his. We dueled and fought back and forth, and no matter how aggressive and demanding I was, he never faltered. Jamie was a lit match, and I was a vat of kerosene. It was only a matter of time until we detonated.
My tattooed hand pawed at his clothes until my fingers touched burning skin. I needed to feel all of it against me. I needed to sink inside him and never leave. I’d never craved anyone with the ferocity I did for him. He was my savior and my undoing. I didn’t care how far we fell as long as we did it together.
I feasted on his full lips and sucked them into my mouth, gladly swallowing down every whimpered cry and wanton moan. I’d forgotten how to breathe as I surrendered to Jamie. Who needed to breathe anyway? I kissed him until my lungs screamed, and my legs were on the verge of buckling. I pulled back from him and sucked in drugging lungfuls of air. I had to brace my hand on the fence beside his head as my chest heaved, and stars danced across my vision.
“T-that…was…” Jamie panted and rested his forehead against my chest. My whole body pulsed with need, and I could barely think. His hands slipped down and anchored on my hips. He held on to me like he was afraid I was going to vanish.
A rambunctious laugh pierced the lust-filled bubble we’d lost ourselves in, and we jumped apart as the rest of the party filtered back into focus around us. What we had done was not only dangerous but stupid. There was still a target on Jamie’s back, and I was on the precipice of losing everything. Being out in the open like this was just asking for trouble to find us.
In the muted light, I could just make out Jamie’s swollen glistening lips and glazed eyes. He looked seconds away from blowing his load as he smirked up at me and stroked his hand over the obvious bulge in his skin-tight pants. My eyes tracked his tongue as it ran across his puffy lip, but it was his moan that snapped my control. I grabbed his arm and yanked him until he fell into step beside me. We used the shadows for cover to cross the yard, avoiding the other partygoers and slipped inside the house without anyone seeing us together.
We took the back stairs that were out of bounds to everyone bar me and the guys. I opened the first door on the left and dragged Jamie into the primary suite. My hands shook as they slid down his body and cupped the full globes of his ass. As if he could read my mind, Jamie jumped up and wrapped his legs around my waist. He was as close as he could physically get, but it still felt like there were oceans between us. I wouldn’t be satisfied until I was buried deep inside him.
His lips parted as he gasped, and in the blink of an eye, I had his back pinned against the door, and my mouth slammed against his. There was nothing gentle about the savage way I kissed him. I was like a starved man, and he was my only sustenance. My tongue fucked into his mouth, owning him, forcing his body to surrender to me. My skin burned with need as every roll of his tongue against mine threatened to incinerate me.
“I need you naked.” I nipped and sucked a path down his neck, painting his skin with a watercolor of bruises.
“Yesss,” Jamie breathed and rolled his head back, baring his throat to me. My teeth scraped over his Adam’s apple, and his throat convulsed against my lips. Images of my cock buried deep in the tight wet heat of his mouth played through my mind.
“Off,” I grunted, reduced to single syllable words as my desire, my all consuming need, obliterated my brain cells. Pinning Jamie to the door with my hips, my hands grappled the bottom of his sleek button down and ripped it up his body. Buttons pinged against the door as I wrenched it over his arms and let it fall to the floor. “You’re utter perfection, baby.” I tongued his hard nub, drawing it between my teeth, then sucking into my mouth to ease the burning ache.
Jamie mewled, the back of his head thumping against the door as I switched to the other nipple and flicked it with the tip of my tongue. “Fuck, Dill. Please.” He panted, his hot breath teasing my skin and sending shivers of desire through me that had my heart in a chokehold.
“Bed,” I ground out and sunk my teeth into the flesh of his peck. I tightened my hold on his firm ass as Jamie’s arms wrapped around my neck and blindly walked over to the bed, tossing Jamie down onto the covers. He bounced once before I was on him, kissing, licking, and sucking every inch of him, driven wild by his supple body and consumed by the salty taste of his skin. I reached back and ripped my hoodie off, letting it fall from my fingers as my hands went to the button of his pants. His chest rose and fell with shuddering breaths, his pale-blue eyes flickering between mine as he traced his index finger over my chest. I followed the movement of his finger as it reverently mapped out the tattoo covering my heart. I saw the unasked question in their depths and the moment he realized the bird he’d been mesmerized by was a crow. My body was a tapestry of my memories of him, and one day I would tell him, so he would know it’s always been him.
“No.” Jamie’s hand landed on my chest, stopping me in my tracks. Ice sheeted my skin, and my heart turned to dust.
“Fuck! Little crow, I’m sorry.” Emotion clogged my throat as I struggled to breathe. My heart hammered as fear and shame pulsed through me. Tears pricked my eyes, and I buried my face in the crook of his neck, his sweet caramel scent taunting me.
“Hey, babe? Dil? Look at me.” Soft hands cupped my face and pulled me back to him. Jamie brought my forehead down onto his as his breath stuttered out of him.
I licked my lips as the first tear dripped from my eye. “I’m so, so, sorry, little crow.” I sucked in a gasping breath.
“I’m not.” Wide eyes stared up at me. The strength and determination in them was impossible to ignore. “I don’t want to stop, stop.” I cocked my head in confusion as I pulled back so I could see all of him. Jamie smiled and my heart thawed at those beautiful eyes. “I want to taste you. I want… no, need to give you a taste of the pleasure you’ve given me.” A scarlet flush worked its way up his chest to the tips of his ears.
“Whatever you want, baby,” I whispered, terrified I was about to shatter from the intensity of his words and the lust churning in his eyes.
“On your back, Dil.”
I’d never moved so fast as I dropped on my back and worked my way up the bed until my back rested against the headboard. I didn’t want to miss a second of this. Jamie smirked at me as he pulled himself up onto his knees, flicked his button open and pulled the zipper down, revealing a tiny black fishnet jock. His hard length was clearly visible between the open diamonds, but it was the glistening bead of precum that had my mouth watering.
Somehow, he managed to shuck his jeans and shoes off without getting off the bed before slowly crawling toward me. Jamie arched his back and my eyes devoured the sway of his ass until he settled on his knees between my spread legs. “Fuck.” The growl tore from my chest with an intensity that left me breathless.
Jamie spread his legs wide so his knees were under my thighs and planted a hand behind himself for support. “Do you like what you see, babe?” His soft tone taunted me as much as his actions had my rock hard cock pulsing against my zipper. “Watch me?” he questioned, but the way he looked at me said I didn’t have a choice—it was do or die. A smirk kicked up the side of his flushed lips as Jamie licked the underside of his index finger before sucking it into his mouth. Watching his lips wrap around it almost had me coming on the spot.
“Fuck, little crow. You’re gonna make me come.”
“That’s the plan, Dil,” he crooned. In the most seductive move I’d ever seen, Jamie pulled his spit-slicked finger from his mouth and trailed it down his chest, teasing the peaked nub of his right nipple before trailing it down his stomach to where his flushed dick was trying to break free. He teased the glistening tip, covering the digit in his arousal.
“That’s so damn hot.” I panted, desperate for a taste of him.
Jamie winked and pushed up so he was looming over me. Sweat glistened on his skin as he trailed his finger over my lips. His hot breath fanned my skin as he said, “I want you to taste me as I taste you for the first time.”
“Oh fuck!” I banged my head against the headboard and a devilish chuckle seeped from him. I squeezed my eyes shut and started to count down from a thousand to stop my impending orgasm as it barreled towards me.
I didn’t need to have my eyes open to feel his every movement. My skin was electrified; his every touch zapped right to my cock. The pop of the button of my jeans sounded loud in the quiet room. The teeth on the zipper being pulled apart as Jamie slowly undressed me was like a countdown timer that set my soul on fire. My body pulsed with need. It was heady being at his sweet torturous mercy.
“Up,” he breathed over my aching length as he pulled my jeans and boxers down just enough for my cock to spring free. It smacked down on my abs with a wet slap as precum poured from my slit and slicked up my skin. “Fuck, yes.” Jamie licked my shaft from the root to the tip, making my dick jerk from the wet heat of his tongue. I wasn’t going to survive being in his mouth and down his throat if this is how I reacted to one swipe of his tongue.
“Fuck, me. I’m not gonna last, baby.”
He chuckled and nuzzled against my length before lapping up the liquid on my stomach. “Mmmm.” He groaned, licked his lips, and stared into my eyes. “You taste so good.” Before I could suck in a breath, Jamie lifted my heavy cock and flicked his tongue over the tip dipping it in the slit.
“Ahh. YES,” I shouted, on a hair trigger and ready to come. I was acting like a horny teen, having his first blowjob.
With his tongue circling my crown, Jamie peeked at me from under his lashes. “I’ve never done this before, so tell me if it’s not good.” My brain stuttered and misfired when his words eventually registered.
“J-Jamie?” I couldn’t compute his words.
He shook his head. “The only person I’ve ever kissed is you.”
I sucked in a breath, ready to question him further, but he wrapped his lips around me and swallowed me straight down to the root. “FUUCCKK,” I bellowed and wrapped my fingers around his curls, wrenching his head back. “Never?” He shook his head, an indecent smirk on his face before he sucked me right back down. “Oh god. Oh god. Oh god.” I sunk my teeth into my lip, trying to fight my body as I flushed hot. Waves of euphoria crashed over me, and my balls drew up tight, hugging the base of my dick.
Jamie pulled back and sucked in a rasping breath, tears shimmering in his eyes. “Come. I need your cum now.” He took me back in his mouth, using the perfect amount of suction that made electricity shoot down my spine when a wet finger trailed up my taint and rolled my balls. I was fucking done for. I was dead.
My orgasm slammed into me so hard, my vision went black as my soul flowed through my dick. Ropes of cum shot into the tight heat of Jamie’s throat. His guttural groan was loud enough to rival mine. The vibrations rolled through my pulsing cock, prolonging my orgasm as euphoria drugged me.
“What the fuck is this?” My eyes flew open to see Chad standing in the doorway, shoulders rising and falling with the ferocity of the ragged breaths tearing out of him. He stormed toward me, fists clenched, knuckles white as he swung at my face. If I wasn’t still lost in the euphoric waves of the most intense orgasm of my life, I might have been able to react in time. ”You’re a fucking faggot?” he spat in my face as his knuckles crashed into my cheek with the force of a Mack truck.
“Fuck off, Chad,” I bellowed at him as Jamie whimpered and clutched my leg like it was a shield. “Shhhh, baby, I’ll get rid of him.” I was just about to push off the bed when footsteps thundered down the hallway in our direction. I breathed a sigh of relief, but it was premature as Chad started to rain down blows on my face.