Chapter 16
COLTON
I’m well and truly fucked.
I’ll spend the rest of my life thinking about Quinn’s mouth.
Nothing else will compare. Not now that I know she tastes like summer—fresh and light with a touch of lemon, even through the bite of the alcohol.
It’s like the citrusy smell that’s haunted me since we met is so much a part of her that I could taste it on her tongue.
Not when I’ve heard the sounds that leave her lips—the little whimpers that give way to low moans when she loses herself to pleasure. When I make her lose herself.
I fist my dick before the shower door’s fully closed, my other palm slamming against the tile wall of our tiny shower as the hot water pours over my body.
My mind has conjured all sorts of images of Quinn over the years, but this is different.
The sounds in my head aren’t manufactured.
The image behind my eyes of Quinn’s face—her brows pulled together and her mouth dropped open—isn’t a guess of what she looks like. Her sweet taste is still on my tongue.
And I’ve never been so hard in my life.
I grip the base of my cock, trying to slow down the release that’s headed my way with the speed of a train. This should be drawn out. Savored. The memory of us together will never be as fresh as it is right now, and I want to soak in every second possible.
I slowly stroke up, letting my hand drift over the sensitive head as I remember the way her hands slipped under my shirt and her nails dragged over my abs. In my head, it’s Quinn touching me, letting her exploration go lower. It’s her hand wrapped around me.
“Fuck,” I groan. “Quinn.”
The wooden bathroom door creaks, like someone’s leaning against the other side, and I pause.
As much as I teased Quinn about joining me, I didn’t think she would.
She was so freaked, and I figured she’d pretend like it never happened.
But she’s there, too curious to walk away, and I can’t help the way my lips curve up.
“Chaos?” I call out.
I hear a little squeak, then nothing for a few seconds. But I’m patient. She’s worth the wait.
“Yes?” she finally answers, and her voice is higher than usual.
I sigh in relief. “Get your ass in here.”
There’s another pause, and then the door slowly opens, her body slipping through the crack before she leans against it. I turn to face her, the warm water running over my shoulders and down my chest.
The glass walls of the shower leave all of me exposed to her eyes, and my balls tighten when her gaze slides down my body, pausing for a long moment on my cock before they fly back up to my eyes.
Pink stains her cheeks, and she’s so beautiful like this that I can’t hold in my groan as I give myself a rough tug.
“Are you coming in?” I ask. “It’ll be a tight fit, but we can make it work.”
Quinn shivers at the innuendo, her eyes flicking back to my cock. I love my usual talkative Quinn, but there’s something so sexy about her being shocked into silence by my body.
“Quinn?” I prompt when she doesn’t answer me.
Her eyes fly back to mine, and she shakes her head. “Can I… I want to watch.”
I give myself another rough tug. If it were my choice, I’d have her in here with me. I want another chance to feel her, to have her wet, thick curves pushed against the hard lines of my body, but fuck, there’s something so hot about her wanting to watch me.
“Whatever you want, Chaos, but talk to me. I want to hear your voice while I make myself come.”
She whimpers, and my eyes drop to where her thighs squeeze together, seeking some relief. I want to ask her to drop her dress again, to let me watch her while I touch myself, but I don’t want to push her too far.
“What were you thinking about?” she asks.
“You,” I say, my eyes roving over her body. “About how if you hadn’t stopped me, I’d have gone down to my knees and gotten a taste straight from the source.”
She whines, and the sound is like a caress. Her soft noises and the warm water and my tight grip almost send me over the edge, but I slow down, pulling myself back from the edge at the last second.
“The sounds you make,” I say, my breath coming faster. “They’re gonna be the fucking death of me.”
“Colt.” My name is a moan on her lips, and I groan in response.
“Keep. Talking,” I say through gritted teeth, my hand speeding up. “And keep those eyes on me.”
She bites her lip. “I wish I was in there with you. I wish I could touch you.”
Holy fucking shit. Her saying she wants to touch me is the hottest thing that’s ever happened in my thirty-two years of life. “Fuck, I’m gonna come, Chaos.”
“Please,” she says, more whimper than word. “Let me see it.”
That’s all I need, every muscle going taut as my body jerks, my release painting the glass that separates us as I chant her name.
I’m tempted to close my eyes as the sensations flood my body, but I don’t want to miss a second of Quinn, so I keep my gaze pinned to her through it all as I continue to rock my hips, wringing out every ounce of pleasure possible.
Once I finish, Quinn lets her body collapse against the door, her eyes falling closed.
I’m breathing heavily, and my head finally drops forward, breaking my view of Quinn. “Fuck, Chaos. That was hot.”
Hot doesn’t begin to cover it. That was an out-of-body experience. The most erotic sexual interaction of my life, and she never even touched me.
“Yeah. But we can’t do it again,” she says, and my head pops back up. “We’re even now.”
I catch her eye through the glass, holding her gaze for a long second—one where I consider yanking the glass door open and tugging her in here with me, kissing her until she forgets about the lines she’s drawn.
But in the end, I nod, and she slips out the door, leaving me with nothing but her scent hanging in the air.
I slump against the side of the shower as the adrenaline leaves my body. The contrast between the cold tile and hot water helps clear my head.
She’s right to call it off.
If she thinks sleeping together would ruin our relationship, I don’t want to take the risk. Her friendship’s the only thing I want more than a night with her.
So I’ll leave it be and let the memory of her taste on my lips sustain me for the next fifty to sixty years.
Fuck.
The next morning, I pace the living room, glancing at the clock every ten seconds. The minutes are ticking down, and Quinn’s door still hasn’t opened.
She doesn’t have to come with us this morning. None of the other faculty members chose to, but I thought she would. I’m hosting a tour of the Colosseum and Roman Forum for the students, open to the whole program, but elective for anyone who isn’t in my class.
Quinn sleeping in shouldn’t surprise me. She’s done this tour a dozen times between her dad and our study abroad. Why would she choose to stand out in the blistering heat for a couple of hours just because I’m the one leading it?
Inez pops her head around the corner. “We need to leave if we want to beat the students there.”
I send one last pathetic, longing glance at Quinn’s closed door before following Inez out.
The line for the Colosseum is already a mile long by the time we get there. Thank fuck for educational passes that let us hop the line. I try not to smirk at the glaring tourists as I lead about seventy-five students past them.
The words flow from me without a thought. I’ve done this tour enough that it’s a mindless task. My mouth talks about tunnels and pulley systems and gladiators fighting lions, but my mind’s on Quinn.
Is she hiding? Did she avoid coming this morning because she regrets last night? Did we already ruin our friendship?
By the time we finish the Colosseum, the students are already dragging. We still have the whole forum to tour, and it’ll be even hotter without any shade to give us a break from the brutal summer sun.
I let Inez take the lead, gathering, counting, and leading the students across the Piazza del Colosseo to the center of Roman life.
The piazza’s packed, as usual. Massive tour groups, pop-up stalls selling kitschy souvenirs, Italian men in plastic gladiator armor charging ten euros for a picture, and I take up the rear to make sure we don’t lose anyone on the walk.
The Italian stone pines shoot up on either side of the path once we escape the main piazza, their high, wide canopies casting shade over the sidewalk.
I close my eyes for a moment, enjoying the way this bit of cover keeps the cement from heating like an oven.
When I open my eyes again, the group’s a dozen feet away, and I heave out a sigh.
We have another hour of this before I can escape into the air conditioning.
“I’m here. I’m here!” Quinn calls out, and I turn to find her rushing toward me. “Sorry! I fell back asleep after my alarm went off.”
I glance over at the students, who keep following Inez like good baby ducks. “If you were one of my students, I’d tell you to get lost if you can’t make it on time.”
She drops her voice, even though the students are far away. “If I were one of your students, you’d be fired for last night.”
I pull in a deep breath, fighting the urge to reach for her. “So we aren’t pretending it never happened, then?”
I watch her out of the corner of my eye as her teeth worry her bottom lip. “Is that what you want?”
“I don’t fucking know. What do you want?”
She takes a deep breath, her hands clenched in resolve. “I’m not good at filtering myself, and I don’t want to start now. We’ve always been able to talk about everything. It happened. It was weird. One day, it’ll be a funny joke between us.”
I can’t swallow around the lump in my throat. “Weird?”
“I don’t mean weird like bad! I mean it was weird because we’re us, you know? But it was great. Like, really great. But weird. Right?”
A pessimistic scoff tears from my throat. “Don’t hurt yourself, Chaos. It’s fine.”
She sighs. “I’m just worried.”