Chapter 14
Izzy
I ’ m shivering, but I’ve never felt so warm.
Nik’s words hang in the air, winding through the memories crowding my mind. Days on the beach. Nights in the city. Slow mornings
wrapped in daisy-patterned bedsheets and afternoons in deep blue. Frozen lemonade and outdoor markets and matching white linen.
A fire in my belly, laughter in his eyes. Love bites and chocolate kisses and echoey museum exhibits. Tequila in my mouth
and salt on his lips. Midnight dim sum and noontime beers and New Girl on mute in the middle of a thunderstorm.
This warmth is different from the sparks that erupted the first time he kissed me, and much more dangerous.
He didn’t want to say goodbye.
I drag my hands down his strong back. “I woke up alone.”
“I know.” He sounds serious, thoughtful. “I thought... it would be better, I guess. Cleaner, for both of us. I knew if
I tried—”
“There was nothing clean about it.” I shake my head, replaying the moment I realized he wasn’t in my borrowed summer apartment.
I waited too long to see if he would come back, and felt like such an idiot once morning turned to afternoon, and eventually
evening. Just like Chance on my seventeenth birthday. “It hurt, Nik. It made me feel like... like everything you told me
over the summer was fake. Like whatever we shared—”
“It wasn’t fake.”
I press my lips together tightly. My heart does cartwheel after cartwheel.
“It wasn’t fake, Isabelle,” he says quietly. “It was real, all of it. Real enough that I knew if I tried to say goodbye, I’d
just beg for more instead.”
My breath stutters. “Then you should have said something.”
“I know,” he says quietly.
Even if it was real, there’s a reason why we didn’t make plans past August. He has his life and I have mine, and they don’t
fit together. He might think he wants me, but if this keeps going, eventually he’ll realize just how much better he can do.
Yet he’s here, looking at me with hunger in his eyes. He’s especially handsome like this, his broad chest on display, dark
hair slicked back, water droplets dotting his still-tanned skin. I almost trace my fingers down his rib cage—but then I remember
the library. Did he push me out to try and control himself? Is he as much of a live wire around me as I am around him?
“I’m supposed to be focusing this semester,” I say, nails digging into his skin. “No distractions.”
“Calling me a distraction, sunshine?”
I manage what I hope is a casual enough shrug. “If the shoe fits.”
“Your brother warned me away from you, you know. I may have said something about you to him last fall.”
I sigh. “Oh, Nik.”
“It was the first time I saw you.” He presses a soft kiss to my cheek. “I was unfairly distracted. I couldn’t say nothing about the prettiest girl in the stands.”
I can’t stop my smile. Just a tiny one, though. No wonder Cooper talked to me about him the other day. “Stop it, you’re going
to make me blush.”
“Good.” He leans in, his warm breath making me shiver anew. “You know, I think I like you soaking wet best.”
My pussy actually throbs at that. I gasp in surprise. He just grins.
“What?” he says with fake innocence. “The beach, the pool...”
I hit his shoulder lightly. “I can’t even with you.”
The amusement fades as seriousness takes over his face again. “It can be our secret. What we do together is no one’s business
but ours, anyway.”
I shouldn’t say yes. He might be able to handle it, but I know I won’t. My romanticism has bitten me one too many times, and
I can already see how this will end. Eventually, I’ll feel too much. Eventually, he’ll move on, and my heart will be the one
in pieces.
But he’s holding me close right now. He’s looking at me with warmth in his eyes.
The last time my heart felt this fragile, and I trusted a boy anyway, the road led to nothing but pain. It flutters all the
same, begging me to give in.
I run my fingertip down his scar. “Just until we work it out of our systems.”
“Everyone needs a little stress relief now and then. Especially athletes.”
I nod seriously. “It should be on training plans.”
He laughs—his best laugh, deep in his chest and absolutely infectious—and scoops me into his arms, carrying me out of the
pool.
“I want you inside me,” I say, breathless with laughter. I dig my nails into his skin for emphasis as I cross my legs over
his lower back. “Since you didn’t let me help you come last time.”
“One of my stupider moments,” he says as he throws open the door to the men’s locker room.
I press a wet kiss to his ear. “At least you know it.”
“This fucking pink bathing suit,” he growls.
“Pretty, right?”
He practically slams me against the nearest bank of lockers as he kisses me, hands grabbing wherever they can reach.
“Pretty?” He laughs shortly as he massages my ass. “You look good enough to eat.”
I tug him even closer, core clenching at his words. “What’s stopping you?”
He drags the straps of the bathing suit down far enough to free my tits. He groans, licking his lips before pressing his face
to them. I’ve always been self-conscious about them—they aren’t much to look at, and even less noticeable when I’m wearing
a sports bra—but I learned over the summer that he likes them like that. His hand fumbles into the locker for his bag, pulling
out a condom. I shiver as the cold metal of the locker seeps into my skin.
He lifts me again, so easily my belly swoops. “Don’t want you to freeze on me.”
He strides to the nearest shower stall and runs the water, drenching both of us all over again. The heat makes me moan. I’m
already on edge, anticipating the stretch of him inside me. He sucks my necklace into his mouth as he pulls my suit off the
rest of the way. His hands dig into my hips as he maneuvers me against the wall.
“Spread those legs for me,” he murmurs.
He drops to his knees.
I steady myself with a hand in his hair. He grins up at me, lopsided as always, and runs his hands down my thighs. He guides
my foot to his shoulder, putting me on display for him, his other hand grounding me so I don’t slip. I drag my teeth over
my bottom lip as I look at him.
“Beautiful,” he says.
He’s beautiful like this too, and I open my mouth to tell him so, but then he presses his face against my pussy, and my mind short-circuits. I hold on to his hair tightly enough it must hurt, but he just moans against my slick skin. Desire pools in my core like lava. He finds my clit easily, teasing it with his tongue, making me jerk against the shower wall.
Hopefully if someone comes in, my moans are muffled enough that we’re not interrupted. I can’t help but get loud when it comes
to him.
He licks lower, rubbing my clit with a finger instead. I arch my back as best I can, given the wall. He pinches the aching
nub, making me whimper.
“Next time we do this,” I say with a pant, “we need to be horizontal.”
He pulls away, mouth shining. “I like the sound of that.”
I dig my foot into his shoulder. “Don’t stop.”
He rubs his fingers through my soaked folds before sliding one into my core—and pressing the other against my asshole. I yelp,
feeling my blush all the way to my ears. He never fucked me there, but he did finger me plenty.
His smile widens. “Such a princess.”
“More,” I say, voice breathy. “Nik, come on—”
He works the finger in all the way, moving it in tandem with the one in my cunt, and licks my clit again. I feel like I’m
on fire, burning up from my ears all the way to the tips of my toes, as he keeps teasing, giving me just enough to hover on
the edge. Right when I think I’m about to come, he backs off, dragging it out until I’m begging.
Finally, he nibbles my clit, and I explode at the pleasure. I cry out, slapping my hand over my mouth belatedly. His laughter
vibrates against my sensitive skin as he gives me another lick before withdrawing his fingers. He helps me plant my feet on
the floor of the shower.
“Should have opened this before,” he says, cursing as he tries to tear the condom packet.
I pull his cock out of his bathing suit, running my hand down the long, thick length. Seeing the evidence of his arousal—that eating me out got him rock-hard—makes me moan again. It’s one thing to hope that you’re being sexy enough to affect someone else, and another to see it in action. I swipe my thumb over the reddened tip. He groans, jerking his hips.
“Wait, wait. I need to get inside you.”
“I can’t believe you didn’t want me to do this,” I say, twisting my hand just the way he likes as I give him a pump.
He sucks in a breath. “Wasn’t about not wanting, sweetheart.”
I shake my head as I help him roll on the condom, but I’m smiling. He cradles my face in his hands, kissing me deeply enough,
I can taste myself. He turns me around, planting his hands on my hips to guide them against his. His cock presses against
my ass, thick and achingly hard, as he hooks his chin over my shoulder. He brings an arm around my middle, hand flat against
my belly, and nudges my legs apart.
“So goddamn sexy,” he says, voice low and rough, as he sinks into my cunt, inch by tantalizing inch.
He’s careful, but not gentle, pounding into me exactly the way I’ve been missing. He must be as desperate as me, because he
moans into my ear with each thrust. Even though I just came, my body ramps up again, clenching around him. He smacks my ass,
making me gasp sharply.
“Harder,” I whine, even though my legs are shaking with the effort to keep standing. “You can do it harder.”
“Good fucking girl,” he says, punctuating that with a particularly deep thrust. “You need it like this, don’t you? Rough like
me.”
He spanks me again, hard enough I feel the sting. I whimper against the tile. He teases my clit, sparking an even deeper level of pleasure. His thrusts get short, erratic, as he drags us both to the edge. When he spanks me a third time, the tips of his fingers catch on my cunt, and the burst of delicious pain shoves me right over the peak. I cry out, voice echoing in the shower stall. He grunts, blunt nails digging into my skin, as he tenses and spills into the condom.
My body trembles with aftershocks as he kisses my shoulder. He massages my bottom, murmuring praise. My toes curl against
the tile floor; I missed his commanding touch so much. He unlocks something in me that no one else has been able to reach.
“Isabelle,” he says finally, his voice breaking on the word. “You feeling good?”
I smile to myself. My name always sounds wonderful coming from him, but it’s never better than when he’s wrung out with pleasure.
I squeeze his hand. “So good.”
We can do this a few more times. Maybe a few dozen more times. We became friends this summer, friends who slept together, and there’s no reason we can’t keep it going. Like
he said, it’s no one’s business but ours. It’s hardly a secret if there isn’t much of a secret to keep.
He pulls out, reaching to shut off the shower. We’re quiet for a moment, but no one comes barging in, so I reach up and run
my fingers through his hair, giving him one more kiss for good measure. We make out for a long minute, just enjoying the quiet.
“God,” he says eventually. His chest, glistening with water, heaves; he hasn’t caught his breath yet. “That was so fucking
perfect.”
“Stress relief,” I say, trying and failing to keep my smile in check.
He holds out his hand to help me out of the shower. “Coffee before class? We can go to the Starbucks off campus.”