Chapter 8
It had been a while since we’d done an oyster roast, and it had been even longer since we had Blake’s version.
We ate the shit out of his oysters and the rest of the side dishes he’d managed to whip up—lemon pasta and jalapeno cornbread.
The man was a jack-of-all-trades; he could cook one hell of a meal and save your life at the same time.
Now, we were sitting around the fire in Adirondack chairs, drinking and chatting.
All but a couple of Gabe’s friends had left.
When the last remaining ones stood from their seats and announced they were taking off, we bid our farewells before Blake and Gabe stood to walk them around the front and up the street to their cars.
Lucas, Callie, Morgan, and I remained around the fire, and when the others disappeared around the corner of the house, Morgan sat forward in her chair. “I’m going to go grab a water. Anyone need anything while I’m up?”
Callie shook her head in response. Lucas was too busy staring at her like a lost puppy across the fire to respond.
I held up my bottle, taking note of the maybe sip-and-a-half I had left. “I’ll take another beer.”
Morgan glanced between Lucas and Callie. “No one? Okay.”
My jaw ticked when she stood and walked toward the house, ignoring me entirely. “Are you fucking kidding me? Why is she like this?”
It was a rhetorical question. I didn’t expect anyone on goddamn planet Earth to know the answer if I was actually looking for it, so I didn’t wait for a response before flying up from my chair and stalking toward the house.
When I stepped inside, I spotted Morgan hunched over, looking in the fridge. She popped up at the sound of me shutting the door with a little more force than necessary and rolled her eyes before continuing her perusal.
“You’re a real pain in the fucking ass, you know that?” She snorted inside the refrigerator. “You can’t even do one thing and just get someone a damn drink, even after you asked if they wanted one.”
She stood straight, uncapping her bottle of water as she nudged the fridge door shut with her hip. “I wasn’t asking you. I was asking Lucas and Callie. You just happened to be sitting there,” she said with a shrug before taking a sip.
Usually, I could take her petty bullshit behavior and roll with it. Tonight, for some reason, it was pissing me off.
I shook my head as I went to the cooler Gabe had moved inside earlier, which she was standing right next to. “I seriously don’t fucking get you.”
“Good thing no one asked you to. And boo-hoo, you had to get up and get your own drink. Cry about it.”
My beer was momentarily forgotten as I snapped straight, standing to my full six-foot-three height, and glared down at her. “Honestly, what the hell is your problem?”
“You may see me not liking you and giving you a hard time as a problem. I, however, do not.”
“You can not like me and not act fucking childish all the damn time.”
“I don’t act childish.”
“You do.”
“I don’t,” she snapped back.
“Yes”—I inched closer, emphasizing my point through a hiss—“you do.” I was so close I could see the gold flecks in her amber eyes flare with vexation.
I wasn’t sure what the hell happened next or who moved first, but one moment, we were staring each other down like we normally do—all fire and fierce disdain—and the next…I was kissing Morgan Hayes.
It was teeth and tongues. Raw, rough, and angry. Passionately hate-filled.
And in an even more twisted fucking turn of events, neither of us tried to stop it.
A few magnets clattered to the ground when I shoved her against the refrigerator.
Her hands curled around the back of my neck as I hooked mine beneath her thighs and forcefully jerked her up to my waist. And that’s when it hit me.
Roses. In the three years I’d known Morgan, I never took notice of the scent that clung to her, but at that moment, the aroma flooded my senses; notes of rose and jasmine with spicy, earthy undertones.
And—fuck—it smelled good.
Never in a million years did I envision this happening, but my dick seemed to be emitting signals to my brain faster than I could keep up with.
I had no control. It was like my entire body was consumed in a haze of pure need and had a mind of its own because, in the next moment, I was carrying her down the hall to where I knew the spare room was.
And still, neither of us was stopping it.
I turned, closing the door with her back when I slammed her against it, and my hand reached down to lock it. But that voice of reason wedged its way to the front of my brain for a split second, and the brutal kiss was finally broken when I managed to grumble against her lips, “What are we—”
“Don’t talk,” she breathed before kissing me again.
“What?”
“Shut up! I can’t hear your voice while this is happening.”
“Why the hell not?”
“Because it’s you, and I’ll come to my senses, and right now, I don’t want to because I just need a goddamn release.”
“Shit.” I chuckled against her lips at the relatable desperation in her voice. “Same.”
I kissed her again, pushing out the fact that this was Morgan and locking it away. That’s how fucking desperate I’d become.
She pulled back only to strip off her shirt before crashing her lips against mine again as my fingers fumbled against the button of her jeans.
I spun her away from the door and tossed her onto the bed, reached down to grab her baggy jeans by their hem, and yanked them off before quickly stripping from my clothes while she removed the rest of hers.
I found her lips in another rough kiss as my body settled over hers, and her warm, soft skin beneath mine pulled a quiet groan from me. “Are you sure about this?” I panted against her lips.
“Ye–wait…no,” she whispered through a breath. I went rigid as my jaw tensed. That was also a rhetorical question. I knew Morgan was fucking evil, but this was nefarious, even for her. “We don’t have a condom…”
Oh. Right.
I scrambled off her and turned on the dim light on the nightstand, reaching for my jeans. My hand dipped into the back pocket, planning to rectify that small problem immediately.
I grabbed my wallet, and when I pulled out the foil package from inside, a derisive snort escaped her. “Are you a teenage boy?”
“Are you really gonna throw digs right now over where it came from?” When she leveled me with a glare but remained silent, I smiled condescendingly. “Thought so.”
I bit the corner of the wrapper and ripped it open, and as I rolled the condom on, Morgan pushed herself up on her elbows, taking me in now that she had the light to do so.
Her eyes unabashedly roamed over my bare physique, stopping with a slight arch of her brow when they landed on my rock-hard dick.
“Damn. I was really hoping you were small so I could use it against you later.”
I grinned smugly as I came back over top of her and settled between her legs, pushing them apart with my thighs until the tip of my cock pressed against her entrance. “Don’t worry, sweetheart. We’ll make it fit.”
“I am not your sweetheart,” she hissed, her eyes flaring with annoyance.
Leave it to her to find something to be irritated about at a time like this.
But I never noticed until that moment how hot she looked pissed off.
I blamed the thought on the sheer need pulsing through my veins and the fact that she was naked beneath me—I may dislike her, but she did look damn good, and I was only a man.
“Well, you’re sure as hell about to be my something.” I met her gaze, bracing myself above her. “Last chance to back out.”
She held my stare, and I could practically feel her body thrumming with the same aching hunger as mine. “Do it.”
I clamped my hand over her mouth just before I drove into her hard and deep, muffling the moan of pleasure I ripped from her throat. But a guttural sound reverberated in my chest and rumbled out of me at how fucking tight and good she felt.
Holy. Shit.
“Jesus fucking Christ,” I groaned.
She yanked my hand away from her mouth. “A little notice before you tried to rearrange my insides would’ve been appreciated,” she bit out between a whimper and growl.
I laughed. A true laugh…pulled out of me from Morgan Hayes nonetheless. Was there a full moon tonight? Had to be. There was no other explanation for any of this. “What’s the matter? Too much for you to handle?”
“Don’t flatter your—” Her words trailed off into a breath, and she closed her eyes when I eased out, and another moan left her when I slammed back in. “F-Fuck.”
“That’s it, sweetheart.” I smirked. “Just enjoy it.”
My pace was steady, and she writhed beneath me, rolling her hips against mine, desperate for more. Morgan was my nemesis, and I was hers…but I couldn’t ignore how fucking good she felt wrapped around my dick.
Some conditioned part of me wanted to slow down and enjoy it, but this wasn’t a usual hookup. There was no real buildup. No foreplay. I wasn’t going to sweet talk her. I wasn’t looking to show her an amazing time in hopes she’d want to come back for more at some point.
This was a one-time thing and strictly for release and release only. For both of us.
I was going to take it for exactly what it was and what it was doing for me. And at that moment, what it was doing was bringing me closer and closer to a release my body desperately craved that didn’t come from my fucking hand.
But I couldn’t help the odd wave of satisfaction I felt every time I saw her face twist with pleasure or each time I heard her struggle to keep her moans and whimpers quiet, knowing that at the end of this, she’d never be able to deny I’d made her come undone.
And that was going to be so much fun to throw back in her face whenever I wanted later on.
I sat back and gripped her hips, pulling her in to meet each thrust as I chased both of our releases, causing her moans to grow louder. “You better tone it down,” I grunted. “Unless you want our friends outside to know how good the guy you hate is fucking you.”
“Stop talking,” she panted. “Your voice is ruining it.”
I couldn’t help but let out a breathless laugh as I continued driving into her.
I felt her legs begin to tremble, and her walls started to clench around me; she was so close.
“You gonna say my name when I make you come?” I smirked when I saw her jaw tense.
“Come on, humor me and say my name when you come on my cock.”
“No,” she stubbornly protested just before her orgasm crashed over her.
I watched her body arch and her eyes squeeze shut as her hands fisted the sheets and her lips parted with a soundless scream.
And I followed her right over the edge with one last hard thrust, my body tensing with a groan as I came.
I kept one hand on her hip, bracing myself above her with the other as I dropped my head with a grunt and held myself there, riding out the waves of it.
We were both panting as we slowly came down, and the fog of need we’d been clouded in began to lift. When our eyes met, we said nothing. We just stared at each other, and I knew we were both thinking the same thing: What the fuck just happened?
Despite wanting to collapse onto the bed and catch my breath for a minute, I pulled out of her and stood. I grabbed a few tissues from the box on the nightstand, wadding the discarded condom into them before dropping it into the small trash bin next to the bed and cleaning myself up.
“You can’t leave that there. No one has even used this room yet.”
I smirked. “We just did.” She huffed as she sat up and quickly grabbed her discarded clothes, throwing them on faster than I realized was possible for someone to get dressed. “Where’s the fire?” I quipped as I grabbed my boxers.
“Shut up.”
“I just did you a hell of a favor for you to be telling me to shut up,” I teased.
Morgan tugged her shirt down over her head and ran her fingers through her hair as she turned toward the bed again with a huff.
“A favor is pushing it.” She quickly made the bed, clearly agonizing over the details and trying to make it look exactly as it had before.
Once satisfied, she bent down, and with a grimace, she pinched the wad of tissues from the trash between her thumb and forefinger and walked to the door.
“And I still hate you.” She opened the door, carefully peering out to make sure the coast was clear before stepping out and shutting it behind her.
I heard the bathroom door next door shut a moment later.
“The feeling’s mutual,” I called out.
I reached for my shirt on the floor as my mind started to clear some more, but I didn’t even have time to process what just happened because I heard yelling coming from outside.
I slipped my shoes back on and threw on my shirt, not even bothering to fix it entirely into place, before I rushed out of the room.
I flew out onto the porch, probably looking slightly disheveled. “Was someone yelling?” My eyes fell on Lucas, noting his disquieted expression and Blake’s hand gripping his arm as if trying to keep him in place. “What the hell happened?”
Lucas yanked his arm free from Blake’s grasp and rubbed a hand over his eyes as he let out a frustrated breath. A moment later, Morgan casually appeared behind me, looking a hell of a lot more put together than I did. “What’s going on?”
“Uh…” Gabe rubbed the back of his neck as he looked at her. “There was a little confrontation. Callie left. She said she’d call you tomorrow.”
I looked at Lucas again. To say the man looked stressed was an understatement.
And with everyone preoccupied with whatever the hell had gone down out here, they were none the wiser to what just happened between me and Morgan inside.