Chapter 25 What Rules?
What Rules?
My hands were under the water in the utility sink when I heard the door to the classroom open. Perhaps Richmond had returned for another word.
“I’m back here,” I called. “I’ll just be a few more minutes.”
The door to the equipment closet opened and closed behind me, and a deep voice said, “We need to talk.”
My breath caught in my chest. In my haste to spin around, I nearly dropped the beaker I had been rinsing. Jack stood mere feet behind me, taking up much more than his fair share of the space in the narrow room.
Now? We were going to do this now? I had to keep calm.
I pulled my face into what I hoped was a natural-looking smile. “Of course. Do you mind if I keep loading? I’m almost done.”
“Take your time.” He slid his hands into the front pockets of his slim cut khakis and watched while I carefully lined up the last of the beakers on the top rack and closed the dishwasher.
I tried to use the minute to compose myself and figure out what I was going to say. Why hadn’t I thought about that this morning? I had spent all of second period daydreaming like I was on Molly, and it hadn’t crossed my mind what I might actually say if given the opportunity.
I hadn’t planned on talking. I was going to give him space. He was the one seeking me out, not the other way around—for once.
Wiping my hands on a paper towel, I finally turned to face Jack. “Done. What did you want to talk about?” Playing dumb was a lazy move on my part, but I was happy to let him take the lead for a change.
“I… about yesterday…” he trailed off.
My heart jumped into my throat, and heat flared up my neck and face.
The silence hung fraught and dense between us, and after a few seconds I couldn’t stand it anymore.
“I’m sorry,” I blurted, taking a step forward. “We said after Homecoming that it would be a one-time thing, and then I just went and… did… what I did… and without talking to you first. And that was totally not okay. I shouldn’t have done that. You would never have. I’m sorry and—”
“Don’t.” His word was sharp, and I snapped my mouth closed mid-apology.
I crossed my arms over my chest and looked down at my shoes, camel-colored ankle boots that were as comfortable as they were beautiful. Somehow that relaxed me. “Don’t what?” I said to my shoes.
“Don’t assume,” he said, his tone softened. Husky, like his throat had gone dry. “You didn’t do anything wrong. If I had wanted to stop you yesterday, I could have—easily—before things escalated. But I didn’t.”
I looked up and found his dark eyes locked onto my face. A lock of hair had fallen loose of his usual tidy style and curled over his temple. The intensity of his gaze sent a zing of excitement through my body, but I didn’t dare move. I couldn’t understand what he was getting at.
“Okay, yeah,” I agreed. “You could have stopped things, but that doesn’t make it okay that I came onto you. We both agreed not to. You set very clear boundaries—”
“Stop,” he said. He took a step toward me and laid his hands on my upper arms in a gentle but firm grip. “Stop beating yourself up. Maybe we should have talked sooner, but we’re talking now.”
“I can still be sorry,” I insisted.
“Do you regret what happened?” His thumbs gently rubbed across my biceps sending waves of electricity down my arms.
I paused, then shrugged. I didn’t regret the act itself, but I did feel embarrassed about the circumstances. “Well, no, but the rules—”
“Me neither,” he said. My heart dropped like a stone from my throat to my gut. “Fuck the rules. I can’t stop thinking about you. Haven’t been able to think since the first time I saw you.”
Oh.
Oh.
Well, that wasn’t what I was expecting. Though, in hindsight, he had seemed to enjoy himself when we were together, even if he always bolted. I looked up into his warm brown eyes and tried to figure out what he was thinking. His pupils blew wider the longer I looked. My brain went blank.
“So… what are you saying?” I asked, my voice barely above a whisper.
He took a deep breath, preparing himself. He lowered his head until our foreheads were nearly touching. My chest tightened as I waited.
“I’m saying,” he said, “that I don’t think I want this to be a one-time thing after all. If you don’t, that is.”
A cheshire grin spread across my face. This wasn’t happening. This couldn’t be happening. I wasn’t this lucky. I didn’t deserve this.
I prayed he wouldn’t run away again.
I placed my palms on the flat of his chest and slid them up the planes of his pecs and shoulders until I could wind them around his neck. “I definitely don’t mind,” I said and leaned in, pressing up on my toes. “In fact, I was kind of thinking the same thing.”
His lips lifted into a grin. “That is great news.”
They were warm and soft as they pressed against mine. The kiss was slow and sensual. I sank into him, our chests molding together. My arms tightened around his neck, pulling him to me and deepening the embrace.
A soft moan slipped out of me as he licked along the seam of my lips, and I opened for him like a flower in the morning sunshine.
I lost myself in the feeling of him, of his soft mouth and firm body moving against mine, breathing my breath and kindling my inner heat to a veritable inferno.
He tasted even better than I remembered—fresh and earthy—and I couldn’t get enough.
While my hands slid up to card through his hair, his hands slid down to trace the curves of my back, hips, and ass with a reverence that felt indecent.
“You’re incredible,” he breathed, his mouth breaking from mine and moving to the sensitive spot on my neck, just below my ear. “… wanted you for so long…”
Another flash of heat shot to my core as his teeth grazed, and I gasped. I couldn’t think. This was going too far. Too fast. I still didn’t know what we were. I only knew that I wanted him and he wanted me. Was that enough? It might be enough. But that didn’t mean we needed a repeat of yesterday.
“We should probably stop if you don’t want this to get out of hand.”
“Right,” he said, peppering a trail of kisses down my neck and pulling open the neck of my top so he could continue along my clavicle. He turned us so my back was pressed against the closed closet door. “Just another minute first.”
I chuckled at his use of my words from our first kiss. “Alright,” I said.
I probably agreed to that a little too quickly, but the combination of his mouth and his hands was driving me wild. I wasn’t ready to stop. Not just yet.
I gasped again when he bit my chest just above my breast, my grip on his neck tightening, encouraging. This felt so right—too right to be wrong. My body was taking over, leaving my brain in standby mode.
His hands slid down my thighs, bunching up the fabric of my pencil skirt. “Can I?” he asked as the hem reached the tops of my thighs.
My body was screaming yes so loudly that it was easy to ignore the infinitesimal voice crying no.
“Please,” I keened.
He hitched one of my legs up over his hip and slid his other hand down the front of my panties, immediately finding the fabric wet at my entrance. He pushed it aside and dipped a finger inside me.
“Fuck,” he breathed into my neck, drawing out the word like growl.
I made a noise halfway between a moan and a whimper as he curved his finger, finding my G-spot. He swallowed the sound with another kiss.
“You need to keep quiet, Princess. We can’t have the whole building hearing you.”
“It’s your fault,” I countered with a weak laugh.
“Do you want me to stop?” He started to withdraw his finger.
I bucked my hips forward. “Don’t you dare stop.”
He chuckled darkly. “As you wish.”
“Did you just quote The Princess Bride?” I was smiling so hard that my cheeks were beginning to ache. This man was just full of delightful surprises.
He paused his ministrations. “Is that a problem?”
“Definitely not. I love that movie.” I pressed a kiss to his jaw.
“Hmm,” he purred. He added another finger, stretching me in the most delicious way, and twisted his wrist to press the heel of his palm against my clit.
The combined stimulation had me barreling toward my release.
Colors danced before my eyes. I stifled another cry and dug my nails into his scalp as I ground myself against his hand, taking what he was offering.
“Fuck, Princess. I need to be inside you,” he growled.
“Right now?” My voice was thin and breathy.
“I can be quick,” he assured me.
“Wow, you know what a girl wants,” I teased as I dropped my hands and tore open his belt.
He made a noise against my neck that was somewhere between a laugh and a growl. “We’ll see if you still have that smart mouth when you’re coming all over my cock.”
Ooh, where did this dirty mouth come from? I grinned in anticipation as I worked at his pants and underwear.
Moments later, his erection was free and pressing into my slick center in one smooth, hard drive.
“Fuck, you’re incredible,” he groaned, face pressed into my neck.
He pulled my second leg up, and I locked it around his hips with the first so that he was holding me against the door and fucking me in long, punishing strokes.
Every thrust snapped his hips into mine, grinding his pelvis into my clit and cock hitting my G-spot exactly how I liked it. I held on for dear life, soaking up all of the sensations and biting my lip to keep from crying out again like I so badly wanted to.
My pussy was squeezing his cock even tighter than my arms were pulling around his shoulders. “I’m close,” I panted. A little bit more, and I would be seeing stars.
“That’s it,” he coaxed, tightening his supportive grip under my thighs. “I’ve got you. Come for me.”
His words weren’t permission. They were a command. I cried out when the pleasure tore through me, and Jack quickly silenced me with his mouth on mine. A few more thrusts, so hard that I bounced against the door, and he was coming too. He had been holding back until I came first.