Chapter 29
SCOTTIE
Cold water dripped down my skin. The stillness settling around me weighed heavy on me. I hated this confusion. This loneliness knowing that Mikey was a mere stall away. At least I hoped he still was. I hadn’t heard any sign that he’d left, but I also hadn’t heard his shower turn on the way I had mine.
My heart hammered. A strange prickling of nerves darted through my veins, ending in a tingling at the tips of my fingers. I wanted to call to him. Every part of my body ached for him, and there was a dull thrum of longing for him to be with me. An ache for him to fulfill the hunger that had long ago settled deep within my bones, begged for me to simply call out.
Every inhale I drew rattled my lungs, shakily providing me with no reassurance. But somehow, I found strength elsewhere. “Mikey?” I hesitantly said, my voice cracking on the last syllable.
Closing my eyes, I remained facing the back of the shower, shivering slightly beneath the drying moisture on my skin. Yet I heard nothing. There was no response. Not a whisper of him speaking. Not a tiny thread tugging between us twinged at my word.
I tipped my head down, inhaling deeply, accepting my fate. He wasn’t here anymore. I’d scared him away. He had asked for alone time, and I’d interrupted it. He’d told me, too, that I had, and once again, I hadn’t listened.
Of course he was right. He was always right. I was stubborn. I listened to nobody, including him, and this time, it ruined me. I should’ve denied it when he mentioned that I didn’t want anything to happen.
Even if that was the right thing. Even though I knew if something did happen between us, it would be wrong and could ruin my career, possibly change the course of his. Still, knowing all of that, I should’ve denied it.
Something warm danced like a breeze across the back of my neck. A chill darted down my spine, heightening every sense.
“Tell me to go,” Mikey whispered slowly. His voice directly next to my ear. Blood pounded in my ears, a faint pulse sparking between my legs. My lungs expanded, every cell drawing in with the reality that he was standing right behind me.
The heat from his body wrapped me warm in an embrace that soothed the chill from the cold water on my naked figure. Once again, that faint sweet smell of his cocooned me, seeping into every pore of my skin.
“I won’t,” I finally said. My heart fluttered and I cautiously pried my eyes open. I stared at the back of the shower, every inch of my veins prickling. “I can’t.”
“Tell me this is wrong.” Calloused fingers brushed against my hip, and my breath hitched in my throat. The pulse quickened, heightening as Mikey’s hand crept around to the front of my body, flattening against my stomach.
“We shouldn’t do this,” I cautioned. But oh, how I wanted this.
No. That was a lie.
How I wanted him.
“Then tell me to leave,” he said again, and his body stepped into my back. I gasped, unable to choke down enough oxygen. I could feel him, in a way I never had before. His skin. His touch.
Him.
“Don’t leave,” I whispered. His hand against my stomach pressed tighter, pinning me between his hips and his palm. I knew what he wanted. It was exactly what I wanted. And the pulse between my legs overwhelmed all thought. All warning that screamed at me to move away, to send him out of this stall disappeared beneath one single desire.
His velvet kiss pressed against my neck, and I let out a soft moan. His free hand brushed against my collarbone and wrapped around the front of my throat. With his index finger, he tipped my chin back and his teeth clamped around my skin.
“Mikey,” I gasped as his hand against my stomach dipped a little lower. He pulled away, tightening his hold around my throat. Stars popped in my vision, the euphoria of what was going to happen drowning out anything else.
“Say no,” he growled, desire dripping from his lips as he flicked his tongue out and trailed it up my neck ending beneath my ear.
“Don’t tell me what to do,” I gushed, my skin running hot as he pressed himself harder against me. Anticipation for what it would feel like to have him bury himself inside me fanned the flames between my legs.
And his fingers slid even lower, pausing right before giving me the relief that I craved. Teasing me. Taunting me with the idea of his touch right where my body begged for him to press against.
“If you want this, then you’re going to fucking be quiet and listen. Understand?” he demanded, and I nearly collapsed to my knees. What the hell? I liked being in charge, being the one to control things, but that… Him… The…
I nodded, unable to complete a single thought or voice anything.
“Now, what do you want?” He tipped my head back against his shoulder with his fingers still tight around my throat.
“Please,” I begged. The only word I managed to let escape my tongue.
“Good girl,” he groaned and finally slid his hand between my legs.
Ripples of pleasure roared hot behind my vision of stars. Black swirled around me, mixing in with the hazy vision as nothing but his touch and naked body against mine wrapped me in his soul.
A soul that was dark. Depraved. Every twisted piece of him came out as he told me exactly what he wanted to do and I let him. I invited it. Begged him for it. Rode every wave of release that he offered me.
I had no control, and I was lapping it up.
His hands, oh fuck, his hands…
Dripping wet, slick from his sweat and my own arousal, he spun me around and his lips eventually found mine. A tongue I remembered dove back between my teeth. He tasted like an addiction that I saw no problem in. His skin in my teeth. His fingers dug into my hips as he bucked against me, letting me feel just how excited he was.
There were no thoughts. Nothing in my mind but absolute, sheer bliss. I was lost in a world that was his. As if I was floating down rapids in a river, rushing toward a release of sheer ecstasy. A thrilling whirlwind of rushes brought on by a man who I’d denied for far too long.
Mikey hoisted me from the ground, not missing a beat in his hungry kiss. My legs shook as he bit down on my lip, carrying me with one arm hooked beneath my thighs while the other intertwined between the strands of tousled, loose hair, messy from him.
He sat down on the bench, guiding my legs around his hips. I hovered. Waiting for his permission, waiting for what I’d been craving since that damn cave.
Breaking the kiss, a smirk rose on his lips, recognizing the look on my face. There was no filter left, and I didn’t care. Not right now.
He cocked a brow and let me sit, finally taking me.
A whimper escaped his lips as they dove back against my mouth.
I knew I’d want this again. Need it again. At that moment, every hesitation swept away, there was nothing but him and me. Nothing but what I’d been denying us for so long. For too long.
As I panted, my body was both spent and lapping up everything from Mikey. The world became nothing but a blur of colors, stars, and popping euphoria that brought me to the edge of a cliff.
And I jumped. Wholeheartedly with another buck of my hips against him. His finger against my lip reminding me to be quiet. That’s all it took to be torn apart. Again.
No longer was there a cacophony of color and stars. There was no feeling left in my legs. Nothing but the faint static of black and white swirled in my eyes and head.
The right here and right now meant more, fulfilled more, than I’d ever experienced before. Wrapped in his spell, filled with him, everything else dimmed in comparison to Mikey. He consumed me. My mind was lost to him.
Another high reached, the loss of control sending a fever of relief through my entire body as he met me at that cliff—and he jumped. There was no escape.
Drained, we both sat still, panting, his fingers clutching tightly to my hips, the exhaustion slowly crept into my bones. My legs quivered, unable to support any of my weight, as the bench I’d been destroyed on somehow miraculously hadn’t tipped over.
His chin plunked against my shoulder, his heart trilling so quickly in his chest I felt it against my forehead that leaned against him. The shift from aggressive passion to tender cradling was exactly what I needed. Mikey’s fingers gently danced across my sides, and he cupped my cheeks, prying me away from his body.
And a soft kiss pressed against my forehead.
I exhaled slowly, falling even deeper into him. “Don’t you dare tell anyone what just happened,” I muttered quietly as he pulled away and tucked me back against him.
“Why would I tell someone who isn’t involved?” he replied casually, his breathing slowing.
“Because… I don’t know… The boys talk or whatever,” I grumbled.
His chuckle vibrated against my cheek. “I don’t talk about this shit with ‘the boys,’ that’s disrespectful to you.”
“Well…” I paused and leaned away, finally looking at him. His eyes swirled, drunk off of the high we were coming down from. “You can’t act differently toward me now that you’ve seen me naked.”
“Ah, I see how it is.” He smirked. “Does this mean you’re not going to let me teach you some extra fighting skills, then, since we never had a chance to before we fucked?”
I rolled my eyes and pursed my lips, playful annoyance visible on my face. He leaned his head back and laughed. “By the way, Bernie owes you money.”
“What?” I slowly raised myself up off his lap. With help from his strong hands, he slid himself out.
“He bet you money to kiss someone on the team, remember?”
“Shit that’s right,” I exclaimed, ignoring the gush of everything I was going to have to clean up sliding down the sides of my legs.
He wiggled his brows, ignoring the mess left on his lap as well. “And it was my dirty mouth you kissed. More than once, I’ll have you know.”
“I was there, asshole,” I replied, narrowing my gaze.
He grinned even wider and slowly rose from the bench. “Don’t forget to pee,” he casually said, strolling toward the shower curtain.
“You don’t get to tell me what to do anymore,” I retorted.
He paused at the curtain and glanced over his shoulder with an arched brow. “We’ll see about that.”
And he was gone before I had a chance to sass something in response.
I bit down on my lip, staring at the curtain as it settled back into place. At some point the shower next to me turned on, and somehow I found the strength to finish my shower as well. I was only mildly disappointed because that meant losing the smell of Mikey from my skin.
Disbelief coursed through me, along with an odd sense of excitement knowing I shared something like that with him. I hated to admit to myself that the idea of sneaking around with him suddenly seemed much more thrilling than the apprehension of what would happen if we were caught.
But I wasn’t about to voice that out loud to Mikey. For now, the understanding that I would let remain between us was that this was a one and done thing. No matter how addicted I already was. It didn’t matter that I immediately craved even the simple brush of his hand against my skin again. That couldn’t happen again.
Some flirting when it was just the two of us would be okay, though. That much I would allow. But this couldn’t happen again. If someone found out, we’d be in enough trouble from just this one time. Dread filled in the small holes between the excitement.
The implosion that would happen if someone found out… But Mikey had promised to not tell anyone, and I wasn’t about to share this fact with others.
No one would find out.
Inhaling deeply for reassurance, I nodded to myself. No one would find out as long as this never happened again.
And I ignored the disappointment that ripped through my soul.