Chapter 18 #3
Because of this, I don’t get attached to people who aren’t family. But I’m attached to West, and nothing about what I feel for him is familial or platonic. This is completely different from anything I’ve ever experienced, and I have no idea what it means.
Instead of answering him and giving away just how much his question affected me, I finish pulling his restraints off, then grip the bottom of my mask.
He closes his eyes as I pull it up, and his kiss is soft and sweet and so tender it melts away the jealousy and unease from before.
We stay like that for a long time, just exchanging long, lazy kisses. Eventually, I break contact, and I know the dopey little smile on West’s kiss-swollen lips matches the one on mine.
He keeps his eyes closed, and I press a few soft kisses against his jaw and throat, prolonging the intimacy as I slowly work my way down to the neckline of his shirt.
I drop a kiss in the hollow of his throat, then reluctantly climb off him, pulling my mask back into place as I do.
He sits up, and I scoop his sweats and underwear up from where I tossed them earlier.
His eyes are still closed when I press the bundle of clothes into his hands, and I turn my back so I can get rid of the condom. When it’s in the trash and my clothes are back in place, I turn back to West.
He’s sitting on his bed with his hands folded demurely in his lap, but the tight set of his shoulders and the quick tap of his foot against the floor give away that he’s not as chill and calm as he’s pretending to be.
“I have no idea what to say.” He looks completely befuddled, then lets out a shrill giggle that sounds more like a release of nervous energy than an actual laugh. “Like, what’s the appropriate thing to say after something like that?”
“You could thank me for giving you the best orgasm of your life,” I tell him as I retrieve my phone and the restraints from where I tossed them on the bed. “Again,” I add as I tuck the items away.
He rolls his eyes and stands. “I don’t like when you loom over me like that.”
I shove him back onto the bed and climb on top of him, his wrists in my hands as I pin him down. “Are you so sure about that?” I ask as he gapes up at me. “I thought you were a fan of having me over you.”
“You’re an ass,” he says, but his breathy voice and wide, shining eyes take the sting out of his words.
“You like it.” I press my dick against his. We’re both soft, but the friction of my underwear moving against my oversensitive skin feels nice.
He makes a grumpy face, but doesn’t correct me.
Just for the fun of it, I press a kiss against his lips. The mask is between us, and it’s not really a kiss, more like bumping our mouths together, and the happy little snicker he lets out when I pull away warms something deep in my chest.
Just then, his phone pings with a notification of some sort, and just like that, the spell is broken, and the little haze around us dissipates.
“Aren’t you going to say thank you?” I ask innocently.
He glares at me. “Not happening.”
“Really? Not even after I made you come hands-free?”
“Ass.” He slaps my shoulder playfully.
“You like it,” I repeat and climb off him.
“No clue why,” he says as we both stand.
“Because I give you the best orgasms you’ve ever had.”
“So arrogant,” he grumbles, but I don’t miss the way the corners of his lips tick up in a grin.
“Is it arrogance if it’s the truth?” I step right into his space so we’re toe-to-toe and our faces are only inches apart.
It looks like he wants to say something, but he just swallows and keeps quiet.
“See you around,” I murmur.
“Bye,” he says softly.
I take in his sex-messy appearance one final time, then without another word, I stride toward his door. I pause when I get to it so I can pull off my mask and tuck it away in my hoodie pocket. There’s a smear of cum on the front of my sweater, but that shouldn’t be a problem.
West’s room is at the end of the hall and right next to the door to the side stairs.
As long as I can get out of his room and into the stairwell without anyone noticing the mess on my shirt or seeing my face and realizing which room I’m coming out of, I can take my sweater off and hide the evidence of what just went down, then go back into the hall and to my room like nothing happened.
It would be easier to use the hidden corridor and retrace my steps, or use another of the many passage routes the app could find for me, but I know using the door will mess with West more, and that’s half the fun of this arrangement.
It’s not the only fun part, obviously, but until tonight, messing with him was my main motivation for doing any of this. Now I’m doing it because I want to, and I’m not giving it up anytime soon.
West has me in a chokehold, but instead of fighting my instincts and reminding myself of all the reasons this was never supposed to be anything, I feel weirdly at peace.
I didn’t expect this, and I didn’t predict it, but there’s no denying that West feels like mine.
And just like everything else in my life, once I consider something or someone mine, then they stay mine until I decide they aren’t anymore.
Hopefully West knows what he’s started, because I sure as hell am going to finish it.