Chapter 20 – Reese #2
I was hoping he wouldn’t say anything about the raging boner I was sporting, but it was painfully obvious at this point. And it was only getting harder as he walked, rubbing against him with every step.
“God, please stop talking,” I muttered.
But of course he didn’t. “I’m hard, too. That whole thing back there really turned me on. You’re like a vicious little tiger, darling.”
Fuck, he wasn’t helping at all.
“Shut up, you horny son of a bitch.”
Dakota’s laugh vibrated every molecule of my body, heating me up from the inside and soothing every inch of my soul.
When we got back to the room, Dakota put our violins at the end of my bed, then dropped me onto his.
Landing on my backpack didn’t feel great, and I quickly slipped out of it.
But before I could climb off his bed, he pushed me back and fell on top of me, covering me with his body and nuzzling his nose into my cheek.
“No one’s ever stood up for me like that before,” he murmured. “Do you have any idea how much that meant to me? How much it turned me on?”
Having his big body spread over mine, pressing me into the bed and weighing me down was making it hard to think. “I have some idea since you keep telling me,” I muttered.
Every inch of his body was pressed into mine, burning through me, and when he wrapped his arms over my head and speared his fingers through my hair, I arched into him. My heart was trying to pound its way out of my chest and I felt like my skin was melting off and I needed more.
“Tell me to get off you right now if you don’t want this because I don’t want to hold myself back anymore, Reese. I really fucking need you.”
All the breath whooshed out of my lungs.
No one had ever needed me before. And to hear those words, said with such desperation…they were the most important, ground-shaking, world-tilting words that had ever been spoken to me. And I needed to hear them again.
“I don’t think you understand how much that turned me on. You’re driving me insane and I just need you to touch me—”
“Shut up and kiss me, asshole.” I splayed my hands on either side of his face, and he started laughing. Low and husky, the sound of it heated my blood and I wanted to shut him up, smother his laughter, wanted to devour that joy so I raised myself up and pressed my lips to his.
His laughter turned into a strangled sound that ended in a long moan when I licked along the seam of his lips.
He opened for me, sliding his tongue along mine, then bit down on my bottom lip.
My cock was throbbing in my pants, every soft glide of his tongue on mine sending waves of pleasure straight to my groin.
The self-control I’d tried so hard to keep hold of slipped through my fingers, this desperate, frantic need swelling inside me until I couldn’t contain it any longer.
I wanted to be closer to him, skin to skin, wanted to suck every inch of him into my mouth, to taste everything of his, to hold him so tight he’d never be able to escape.
I arched my back even more, pulling his face down and tilting my head, wanting to go deeper, to get more, I needed more.
I wrapped my legs around his waist and locked my ankles, squeezing myself against him and rolling my hips so our cocks were rubbing together, but there were too many goddamn clothes in the way.
Suddenly our teeth knocked together, and Dakota pulled back. “Damn, that hurt. We suck at this,” he said with a laugh.
Fuck, was I really that bad?
He rubbed his nose against mine and murmured, “Was that your first kiss, darling? Because it was mine and I think it shows.”
My mouth fell open. “What?”
He smiled down at me as he grabbed onto my wrists and pinned them by my head.
His expression was light and amused, but his gaze was deep and intense. His thumbs brushed against the sensitive insides of my wrists, and I curled my toes. “Was it?” he asked again.
“Yes,” I whispered. A small flash of panic sliced through me. I hadn’t wanted to admit that, but it just burst out of me.
He stilled on top of me, and then something dark flashed through his eyes. The smile that stretched across his face was wicked and gorgeous and so self-satisfied I wanted to bite it.
“Good,” he said, still smiling, not a hint of embarrassment anywhere. “Then we can figure it out together.”
He’d never kissed anyone either? How was that possible…? He was so…
Pretty.
He laughed, then slid his gaze to my right hand.
He curled it forward until my knuckles were visible, those dark eyes cataloging the redness there.
He moved it up to his face and pressed my fingers into his cheek, his eyes closing, a blissful expression on his face.
He rubbed my hand over his cheek, like my hands on him were the only thing he needed, and the fact that someone wanted me to that degree—that he wanted me like that—was making my insides twist up into knots.
I couldn’t stop staring at his face, at the rapturous way he was nuzzling into my hand, and my heart rate jumped when he opened his eyes and pinned me with a fierce look.
“Aren’t you tired of your temper?” he murmured, slowly stroking the back of my fingers.
“You act so tough, but I think you just want someone to notice you. And you pretend you’re fine staying on the fringes, never being seen.
” He brought my hand to his lips, his eyes on mine, and placed the softest kiss on my knuckles. “But I see you, Reese.”
At that moment, my mind went completely blank. The sudden urge to cry rose swift and sharp, everything he was making me feel shooting to the surface all at once, and I choked back a sob as my eyes watered uncontrollably.
Damn it, how the fuck did we go from kissing to crying?
Dakota leaned down and licked my cheek. “Don’t cry, you know that only makes me hornier.”
A loud laugh exploded from my throat, and the most intense affection surged in my chest, spreading the warmest, softest, feelings through every inch of me.
He’d snuck so quickly past every line of defense I’d put in place, and the way he seemed to know exactly what to say to get a specific reaction from me was unsettling in the most thrilling way—because that meant he was watching me closely from the very beginning, that his attention was on me long enough to have learned things most people never bothered or cared to learn.
And he wanted to learn these things. He was invested in some kind of way, and…
It made me feel like I wasn’t alone. When I was with him, that empty ache, that gaping hole in my chest seemed to disappear, and in its place was a lightness I hadn’t felt in a long, long time.
I’d forgotten how it felt to mean something to someone, and I wondered how I’d ever let myself forget that.
Dakota’s eyes dropped to my mouth. “Sharp little teeth,” he murmured, leaning closer as he stared at my mouth. “I want them on me again. Your lips, your teeth, your tongue, your hands—I want it all, darling. Will you give it to me? I feel like I’ve been begging you for forever.”
He dragged a finger across my bottom lip, then lowered his head until he touched his lips to mine.
It was the softest kiss, could barely even call it a kiss, and it wasn’t nearly enough.
I wrapped my arms around his neck and leaned up to deepen it while dragging him closer, moaning when he slid his tongue into my mouth and sucking on it greedily.
I was so fucking hard, and he felt so good, tasted so good—
I gasped when he pulled back, grabbed my arms and pinned me to the bed, and then anticipation zipped through me, the playful, heated look in his eyes ramping up my excitement.
He put my wrists together and held them with one hand, but when he reached down between us, fingers on the button of my pants, a horrible dread slammed into me at the thought of taking my clothes off. Of him seeing my legs again.
Dakota was watching my face so carefully that his fingers stopped moving before I even said, “No.”
He set his hand on my stomach, those dark eyes searching mine, and oh god, I’d ruined the moment, hadn’t I? I’d reminded him how messed up I was and now he was going to realize that getting involved with someone like me was not worth it.
Except…he didn’t say anything at all. He smiled and pushed off the bed, leaving me lying there with my arms above my head, and panic and confusion began to take over.
I sat up, wondering if he’d actually decided he didn’t want this anymore—didn’t want me anymore—and was about to ask him when he reached over his shoulder and grabbed his shirt right below the nape of his neck, then dragged it off, tossing it to the floor.
And all that skin, all those lean muscles, all of Dakota was right there.
“What are you—”
“When we were down in the laundry room, you asked me if I wanted you to kiss me here,” he said, sliding his hand over the bulge of his erection.
Oh, fuck me.
“I couldn’t really hold a conversation very well because…well, because I couldn’t think let alone speak. But my answer to any question about you touching me—anywhere, with any part of your body—will always be yes.”
He undid the button, then dragged the zipper down while my mouth dried up and I stared, mesmerized, at his groin.
Those pretty hands slid down his shaft, then back up, and my heart was pumping every drop of blood in my body right down to my cock.
I was throbbing as I watched him slide his pants down, his black jockstrap clinging to his lean body and leaving absolutely fucking nothing to the imagination.
“No one’s ever kissed me here.” His voice was like slow-moving smoke, curling around my limbs. The look in his eyes was raw. Intense. A little desperate and fuck did I love that.