Chapter 12 – Dakota
RUN AWAY, DARLING. IT’S WHAT YOU DO BEST
DAKOTA
Reese trailed behind me as I led him to the basement of our building.
I was trying to act totally unbothered by what had happened earlier, but holy fucking shit, I was bothered to the extreme.
Hot and bothered.
I was so turned on back in that room as he dry humped me to completion that I almost came when he did.
This ever-growing attraction to him was getting out of hand.
All Reese had to do was walk into the room and I started getting hard. Just him looking at me turned me on.
The fantasies I kept having of him touching me—slowly peeling off my clothes, teasing me with fingers and tongue, kissing his way down my stomach only to pause above my cock—they were getting dirtier and darker and wouldn’t stop cluttering up my mind.
I didn’t care.
I loved every fucking second of what my depraved brain was coming up with.
I was discovering so many new parts of myself because of Reese, and I loved that.
I craved his attention; having his eyes on me, having his words, having him close. The way he’d touched me in that closet…
He wasn’t as cold-hearted as he wanted me to think.
And the way he’d just lost all control on top of me? I needed him to do that again—when he was awake this time.
I’d never felt like this about another person and it was intoxicating. Thrilling.
I wasn’t sure he felt the same, though.
When he never responded to my text asking him to come sit with me by the willow tree, I went back to the dorm because I desperately wanted to know what he thought about my flower.
Except I couldn’t ask him because he was asleep. When he started moaning and shifting restlessly, I’d honestly thought he was just having another nightmare, had tried to comfort him through it like I usually did, but…
That wasn’t a nightmare. He’d been dreaming about something—or someone—and before I could move away, he grabbed me and pulled me down to the bed and climbed on top of me, whispering nonsensical words in my ear that probably made sense in his dream.
My entire body shivered as his lips grazed over my neck and he rolled his rock-hard cock into my growing erection.
I was so stunned I couldn’t move, and listening to his heavy breaths, feeling him move against me, his fingers clenched in my hair as he pinned me down, one hand sliding under my shirt, fingers teasing over my stomach…
I hadn’t wanted to move at all, but I knew he was sleeping, he wasn’t in his right mind and he was going to be horrified and pissed off when he woke up. I tried to stop him, but then he bit my neck and I was submerged in a paralyzing shockwave of euphoria.
I couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think as Reese moaned against my skin and pressed his cock as hard as he could against mine.
I’d never done anything with anyone before, and now I knew just how addicting it could be with the right person.
Except he’d been so embarrassed that I hadn’t wanted him to feel any worse. I only wanted to make him feel better.
“Are you sure it’s down here? Why would it be so far away from all the rooms,” Reese grumbled.
“Are you worried I’m luring you into a trap?”
“Are you?” The look he threw my way was half reproachful and half playful. My heart thumped hard in my chest.
Holy shit. Was he teasing me?
“Do you want me to?” I nudged his shoulder with my elbow, hoping he’d keep playing around.
He blushed and mumbled something under his breath, and I tamped down my disappointment.
We finally made it to the laundry room, and I held the door open for him. Reese eyed me warily as he moved past me into the room.
He was like a skittish baby deer right now.
I watched him as he took in the long space filled with a dozen washers and dryers.
So all it had taken to get him to open up a bit was to hand over pieces of my past?
I wanted to shove them all into his arms and see what he’d do.
“Jesus. It smells even worse in here.” Reese walked to the far wall and opened the door of the last washer in the room. He pulled a detergent pod out of his pocket, dropped it in, stuffed his blanket inside, hit a few buttons, and the machine rattled to life.
“Worse than what?” I asked, leaning against the washer next to the one he’d chosen.
“Than our floor,” he said. “It smells like mold up there.” He took in the dank space around us, eyeing the ceiling cautiously. He looked flushed and his breathing was a little heavy. I wondered if it was from earlier or if he wasn’t feeling well.
“Huh. I thought that was just the weed.”
He snorted. “It’s probably that too. Has this building never been renovated or something?”
As long as I’d been coming here, I didn’t actually know much about the history of Ashbrook. “I dunno. Maybe at some point.”
“How long has your dad been the dean?”
I shrugged as his eyes drifted back to mine. “Ten years? He was the chair for the music department for a long time before that.”
Were we having an actual conversation right now? What if I could get him to smile at me?
What could I say that would make him smile? Or laugh?
Before I could try and think of anything, Reese inhaled sharply, his face scrunching in a pained expression, and he reached up to rub his forehead.
“What’s wrong?” I raised my hand to feel his forehead, but he brushed it aside.
“I’m fine, I just have a headache.” He let out a long breath, then turned fully toward me and said, “Look, Dakota, I—”
I moved closer.
He was about to shut me down, tell me off, push me away again and I didn’t want that. I couldn’t let that happen.
He looked up at me and raised a brow, but didn’t move away. There was a challenge in his eyes, something almost playful that sucked me right in. A light warmth spread through my limbs as I held his gaze, drinking in those mischievous eyes.
“Can I say something first?” I asked, stepping toward him. He moved back, his heel hitting the washer.
“What?” His teeth scraped against his bottom lip, digging in so hard the pink turned white.
I set one hand beside him on the washing machine and leaned closer.
He didn’t push me away, didn’t do anything but stare up at me with eyes that were a deep, burnished green ringed with gold.
He still didn’t push me away when I lowered my head and brought my lips to his ear, brushing against his hair as I spoke. “Were you dreaming about me?”
Reese’s entire body shuddered against the machine, his exhale shaky near my ear. I closed my eyes and inhaled his sweet scent, then brushed the tip of my nose down his neck. His hands flew to the front of my shirt, fisting the material.
“Dakota,” he said breathily, voice shaking.
“Mm,” I hummed against his skin. I wanted to taste him, so I slid my tongue out and licked a small line up his throat. He moaned so loudly it echoed through the entire room, then dropped his forehead to my chest, the fingers that were clutching my shirt trembling.
The sound of his moan filled my entire body with heat, and the need to get him to do that a thousand more times rose swiftly and urgently.
“Can I tell you a secret?” I murmured.
“Dakota,” he said again, this time a whisper. I wasn’t sure if he was asking for something, begging for things I had no idea how to give him, but the desperation dripping from that one word—my name—almost sent me into a frenzy.
I wanted him to say my name over and over again. To hear all the different ways he could say it.
I took one hand off the washer and slid it up the back of his neck, into his hair, then through the silky strands and tugged gently until his head was tilted back enough that I could look into his eyes.
My cock throbbed at the look on his face; his hooded eyes and parted lips, cheeks flushed a dark red.
He looked so damn beautiful it twisted my stomach into knots. He let me hold him, fingers flexing in my shirt as he stared into my eyes.
“I dream about you, too, Reese. Every single night,” I told him.
Reese’s expression turned fierce, and he shoved me back into the wall behind me, pressing himself against me to hold me there. “Liar,” he growled. His eyes flashed down to my lips, then quickly back to mine as he gripped my shirt. “Stop making fun of me.”
A spark of annoyance flashed through me, and I framed his face with my hands. “This is the last time I’m gonna say this, so listen closely,” I said, holding his gaze. “I’m not fucking with you or making fun of you. I’m very, very serious.”
His eyes shone brightly under the fluorescents as he stared into mine, and he didn’t say a word. I brushed my thumb across his cheekbone and kept going. “Do you want me to tell you what I dream about? Do you want me to show you?”
“No,” he whispered roughly. And yet, his eyes locked onto my lips and stayed there, a hungry, dazed expression transforming his face into something raw, primal, and provocative.
Every one of my nerve endings was on fire, my balls tightening as the most destructive heat snaked through me. I was trembling just as much as he was, and I wasn’t sure which one of us was falling apart faster.
I’d never had sex before, had never met anyone I’d gotten close to enough to want it, but I wanted it right here, right now with Reese. I wanted him to throw me to the ground and straddle me, to take everything he wanted.
Because he was staring at my lips, I licked them and asked, “Can I kiss you?” I was hoping with every desperate fiber of my being that he would say yes. That he would close the distance between us and press that mean little lying mouth to mine.
Reese said nothing at all, just kept his eyes on my lips and ignored my words.
I brushed my thumbs near the corners of his eyes and leaned down.
He didn’t pull away, so I moved closer until I could feel his short, sharp pants against my lips.
His ragged breaths were all I could hear, the washing machine just a distant hum.
“Reese,” I whispered. “Can I kiss you? Please?”