Thirty-Six | Harlow
Ishould’ve known better than to taunt Colson. To use Brian to see how potent his jealousy could become if I put my hand on the throttle and gave it a little more gas.
Luckily, Dalton was okay with me stealing his man for a dance.
I should be worried about the rumors that are going to spread like wildfire after Colson grabbed my hand and led me out of the bar, but my care for keeping up this charade was lost somewhere from the bar to the car, where he further explored my body, and I memorized his.
The way he felt under me.
The scent of his spiced shampoo that wafted from his long strands that I held onto as I rocked my hips, driving him wild.
Now we can’t seem to keep our hands off each other as the casino elevator door slides closed, concealing our wandering hands. Colson’s palms glide under my shirt and up the sides of my waist, his calloused fingers digging into my rib cage.
His words pour over my skin. “Stay with me in my room tonight.”
I hum deep in my throat. “Not sure that’s such a good idea,” I say breathlessly.
“One of our competitors could see us. And we both need some sleep tonight before competing tomorrow.” We are in Reno, Nevada, and after this weekend, there is only one more event before the World Finals. I’m so close I can almost reach it.
His chuckle burns the curve of my neck as he sinks his teeth into me like he likes to do before he soothes the spot with his tongue.
“Won’t matter to me. If your pussy doesn’t keep me awake, my hand will.
” His muscular frame presses me against the elevator wall.
With his hands on either side of my neck, he brushes his lips over mine, giving me just enough tongue to light a sparkler of lust that fizzles to every nerve ending. “I’d rather it be you.”
I slightly pull away from him, letting my lazy groan of frustration fill the small space. “I might need more convincing.”
His lips tilt. “Yeah?”
Wait. Why isn’t the elevator moving?
I struggle to reach around him, pressing the buttons for floors five and seven.
“You’ve got less than thirty seconds before I reach my floor.
So, make your case, cowboy.”Those turquoise eyes shift to a midnight green that reminds me of a blanket of summer grass under the moon—a jolt of excitement bolts through my body.
He places an arm over my head to prop himself up while the other finds the band of my jeans.
His magical fingers disappear under the denim, slipping beneath my panties, and glide down to my core.
His middle finger floats over my clit before he pushes it inside me, catching both of our breaths simultaneously.
His head falls forward. “Fuuuck. After ignoring me all night at the bar, how does it feel to know you have the power to completely unravel me? Maybe I should’ve taken you back into the bar to let everyone see the beautiful mess I made of you.
Does that make you wet, knowing that you’re completely full of me, and I would’ve had no problem marching you around like my cumslut because you’re mine and I want them to know it?
” His filthy words have my body trembling beneath him.
Colson’s raspy chuckle is my undoing. “All you have to do is ask nicely, and I’ll give you more. ”
A choked whimper escapes my throat as the elevator shifts gently to a stop. He removes his hand from my jeans slowly, keeping his gaze on me the entire time as he slips that finger, soaked with our arousal, between his lips, tasting both of us.
The door slides open, and he gives me a condescending smile. “How’d I do?”
Well, the fact that I’m even more turned on than I was, I’d say he was more than successful. I’m about ready to pounce on him and add the elevator to the slim list of places I’ve had sex in public. The parking lot was my first.
I clear my throat. “Case closed.”
“What’s the verdict? We could stay here in the elevator and hit that emergency button.” He watches me curiously, anticipation radiating from him.
Placing my hands on his chest, I push him backward gently but hard enough to make him stumble and briefly lose his footing. “My room.” It’s closer, and I don’t have the patience to make it two more floors in the elevator with him.
Seconds can feel like a lifetime, and I’m not taking any of them for granted while I still have the chance.
While we still have a few more weeks before everything changes and we go our separate ways.
While I still have time to soften to the man who hardened me long ago, before he started breaking down my walls and I started to crumble his.
I know he’s still hanging on to a few fragments that he’s afraid to let me see, but I’m hoping we still have enough time.
Enough of the season left that he will let me into the places he never lets anyone else touch.
When I go to pull my hands back from shoving him, he snatches one of my wrists and hauls me toward him.
My chest collides with his, his lips sealing over mine like he’s starving and I’m the meal he’s been waiting for.
I should be nervous about being caught, since I know some of our competitors share this hotel with us, but it’s too late, and unlike us, they are probably asleep by now.
Colson lowers his body and picks me up, my legs instinctively wrapping around his hips and locking around his lower back.
I pepper kisses under his jaw. “Room 507.”
He cups my ass, making long strides across the chaotic pattern hotel carpet toward the end of the hall. I roll my hips, grinding against his erection below me. I crave another taste of him, loving the way his shaft felt against my tongue and at the back of my throat.
He groans when I move again, slamming me back against a wall, which I assume is my door. If it’s not my room, I try to find an ounce of sympathy for whoever is in there, only to fail miserably because we’re surely going to wake them up with the noise we’re making.
I’m correct that it is my room when he orders, “Key card.”
I open my mouth to speak, but he wastes no time taking it as an invitation to shove his tongue between my lips, as he thrusts his hips up into me against the door. All our clothes are on, and the blistering heat between us alone is enough to nearly make me combust.
When I have a brief chance to gulp in some air, I quickly respond with, “Back pocket.”
“While I’m opening this door, I want to feel your talented tongue against my neck before it’s gliding against my dick.”
“Yes, Coach,” I exhale, doing exactly what he asked as my lips attach to his neck.
“Whether it’s riding a bull or my cock, you always listen to me so well.
” His hands roam my ass until he finds what he’s looking for and pulls it out.
He leans his head to the side to focus on unlocking the door while I drift my mouth up the soft slope of his neck and over the dusting of facial hair on his jaw.
When the door opens, he instantly finds my lips again. I’ve never loved making out more, but somehow, with him, it is just as erotic as any of the other things we have done. His mouth makes love to mine, and it’s euphoric.
A throat clearing filters through the space, making Colson’s muscles tense and solidify beneath my hands. His grip is tense, his flexed fingers digging into my ass. He pulls his mouth away from mine, but I can’t seem to stop. Not until his stern tone snaps me out of the heated moment.
“Harlow.” His fingers pulse into my flesh.
“Hmmm?”
“Uh … you have a visitor.”
His words have the butterflies in my belly turning to stone. Turning my head to follow his line of sight, my eyes nearly bulge out of my skull. We aren’t alone in this room.
My room.
Oh, shit.
I scramble off him, dropping to my feet as he stands as solid as one of those museum statues you can’t help but gawk at. The only difference is that he isn’t naked.
Thank God for that.
Melanie is frozen on the couch with her focus zeroed in on the two of us. She peers over her book through her reading glasses, looking like our mother when I used to come home past curfew in high school. I almost want to laugh, but the questions in her narrowed eyes keep me stationary.
I want to brave a look at Colson to check on him, but I don’t.
She lowers the book to her lap. “I hope I’m not interrupting anything.” Mel folds her arms, crossing one leg over the other with enough sass to suffocate my small hotel room. It’s just then that I realize I’m holding my breath.
Colson and I stand next to each other, completely still.
The worst part is that I am entirely aware of his cum that is slick between my thighs and soaking my underwear. Melanie can’t possibly know, but somehow it feels like she’s using the power of her gaze to pick apart my brain with those painted fingertips.
I peek at Colson out of the corner of my eye.
He clears his throat, looking cute and flushed with the red color of embarrassment that has flooded his face. “It’s Melanie, right?”
The wicked grin on Mel’s face has me watching her with cautious eyes. “Yes, sir—”
I point at her. “Knock it off.” But I can’t keep my lips from twitching and the smile from infiltrating my tone.
“What are you doing here?” I quickly change the subject, hoping the heat licking my face will cease before I melt through the carpet and join the other stains that look like they’ve been scrubbed over the years but haven’t completely disappeared.
She sets the book on the couch beside her. “Thought I would surprise you.”
Well, consider me surprised. “I mean, how did you know what hotel I was in, let alone what room number? You don’t even have a key card.”
Mel’s eyes roll. “Give me more credit than that. I have your phone location, remember?” Yeah, for emergencies.
“And access to your email for social media purposes, so I could see the reservation. As for getting in here, all I had to do was tell them that I was Harlow Hartt and needed a new key card for my room.”
My brows draw together. “They didn’t ask you any more questions?”
Her finger twirls in a circle around her face. “Does this look like an untrustworthy face to you?”
Colson shifts beside me. “I’m … Uh—I’m gonna get going. Need to get some sleep before the first round tomorrow.”
Mel nods, locking eyes with him. “Ahh, I see. Is that what you were going to do in here?” she teases, pointing between us.
He rolls his lips, giving her a nod. “Great to meet you, Melanie.” Colson hikes his thumb over his shoulder toward the door. “I will see myself out.”
Turning toward him, I give him a sympathetic grin. “I’m sorry about her.”
Mel tosses her hands up. “Why am I the issue?” Her pointed look finds Colson. “There’s only one ride she should be focusing on nailing this weekend, and it’s not you, cowboy.”
Oh. My. God. Someone kill me now.
It’s like having a boyfriend meet my parents, but in this case it’s my wildly protective sister and my … coach? Friend? Situationship?
I’m an adult. It’s hardly fair.
At first, I think he might be upset, but then a smug grin graces that handsome face. It’s like a baseball bat to the back of my knees.
He leans toward me, his lips finding my ear. “I bet you’re wishing that I pressed that emergency button in the elevator now, hmm?” His comment isn’t quiet enough because my eyes bulge out of my head at the same time Mel’s jaw drops to the floor. “Good night, dust bunny. Kick ass tomorrow.”
Colson leaves, but the tension tautens into something that makes it hard for me to look Mel in the eye now that he’s gone.
When I do, she’s pointing a finger at me. “I knew it. I knew this was going to happen between you two!”
I rock back and forth on my heels, trying to come up with an explanation.
Telling her that I fell out of a canoe into a frigid lake and warmed myself up on his cock doesn’t seem like a believable excuse when she just saw me clinging to him like a sloth on a tree branch.
Not when she can see through all my bullshit as easily as wiping away the fog on a window where she can peer straight through to the truth.
I’ve spent enough time with Colson to realize that there’s more to him than the cocky exterior.
That he’s kind and knows how to handle my stubbornness as well as I know how to handle his.
That he’s a great coach and working with him has felt freeing and less pressuring with our rivalry in the rearview mirror, even though my goals are still within reach.
That Colson is starting to make me feel more alive than this sport does.
I don’t realize I’m smiling until Mel waves a hand, bringing me back to the present. “Earth to Harlow. Are you with me?” When I glance up, my eyes must give away everything because she slaps a hand over her mouth with a gasp. “Oh my God, you like him!”
My brows draw together, but I’m not even convincing myself when I say, “No!”
Her hands are covering her face now, a fit of giggles shaking her chest. I grit my teeth.
“No?” she parrots, laughing. “Well, what is it then?”
“I—” I swallow. “I don’t know.”
It’s not entirely a lie, because I can’t ignore my attraction to him—the way my heart craves to be in his presence.
I used to seek him out at events because of anxiety and annoyance, but now it’s more than that.
It’s because I want him to be there. I want to be there supporting him as much as he’s started to support me.
I’m not sure it can be defined as like anymore—not when the thought of leaving Tennessee, leaving him, after this is all over, is starting to carve a hole in my chest.
I’m starting to fall for Colson Payne, and I don’t think there will be anything to catch me the moment I finally accept it.