16. Aurora
AURORA
The second the words leave my mouth, I regret them.
Sleeping with the enemy is never a good idea—especially when that enemy happens to be my ex’s rival.
Honestly, that might’ve been the whole reason I said yes the first time. Some petty part of me liked the idea that Chase might hear about it one day and choke on his ego. It made me feel… vindicated. Like I’d taken one tiny piece of power back after years of letting him make me feel small.
But that was all it was supposed to be. A one-time screw to snap whatever tension had been brewing between Cole and me since the club, and also a way to get back at my ex.
This, though… this has nothing to do with Chase.
This is about the fact that Cole knows exactly what he’s doing, and I know exactly what I’m getting with him. There are no fake promises, sweet talk, or pretending it means more than it does.
This is just sex.
All men are liars. You just have to find one who can fuck you right and make sure you don’t hand him a single inch of your heart.
Which is how I end up letting Cole shove me back against a tree instead of turning around and walking inside.
He drags me behind the row of hedges, far enough from the backyard that I can still hear the laughter and the music, but not close enough to see anyone—and, more importantly, not close enough for anyone to see us.
Bark presses into my shoulder blades as he crowds me against the tree, his fingers flexing on my hips as if he’s fighting himself. When I look up, his eyes are dark under the orange string lights, fixed on me in a way that makes heat curl low in my stomach.
“I shouldn’t want you,” he mutters, the words rough enough to sound dragged out of him. “Shouldn’t even be touching you.”
I lift my chin, refusing to be the only one coming apart here. “Then don’t,” I tell him. “I can go find someone who will.”
His tattooed hand comes up and curls around my chin, tilting my face up until I have no choice but to look at him.
“Drop the fucking attitude,” he rumbles, close enough that the words vibrate against my lips. “Before I make it drip out of you.”
His words knock the breath out of me so hard I have to curl my fingers into the bark behind me for stability.
His hand drops from my chin and slides down my side, over my hip, then lower, dragging the hem of my dress up inch by inch until the cold night air hits my thighs.
I feel a shiver crawl up my spine and, of course, he notices.
One brow lifts as his hand tightens on my thigh. “You’re shaking,” he murmurs.
“It’s cold,” I lie, but the words snag on my breath the second his grip tightens.
A low scoff leaves him. “Prescott, if you’re gonna lie to me, at least make it believable.”
I glare up at him and hold his stare, refusing to look away even with my heart slamming against my ribs.
“You nervous?” he asks, his hand sliding higher up my thigh.
“No,” I reply even as my legs shake.
He hums as his fingers find the edge of my panties and slips beneath them. My breath catches when he drags his knuckle through my slit, making my knees buckle.
“Fuck,” he mutters, sounding irritated as his eyes flick back to mine. “You’re soaked.”
He grabs the back of my thigh and hikes it higher, opening me up to him, and a gasp slips out before I can stop it.
“You hear that?” he murmurs, dragging two fingers through my slick pussy again and again.
Heat spreads under my skin, my stomach pulling tight in a way I’d deny with my dying breath. God, I hate that he knows exactly how much I want this.
“Fucking dripping,” he mutters with a groan. His finger presses inside me, and my head falls back against the tree. “For me.”
I want to slap him.
I want him to shut the hell up.
I want him to keep talking.
I want him inside me again.
And I hate him for every single one of those things.
He drops to his knees before I can get another word out. He lifts my dress over my ass and grips my thighs, holding me exactly where he wants me.
“Cole—” I choke out, but the words die in my throat the second he pulls my panties aside and puts his mouth on me.
My head knocks back against the tree when his tongue drags through me, and the second he finds the spot that makes my body light up, a desperate moan tears out of my throat that I pray no one hears.
I can’t believe I’m letting him do this to me again.
His fingers dig harder into my thighs, flicking my clit with the tip of his tongue. “For someone who claims to hate me,” he murmurs against my skin, “you moan awfully loud for me.”
“Fuck—you—I do hate you,” I gasp, but the words fall apart when he sucks my clit into his mouth and another wave of pleasure hits me, settling deep into my bones.
He groans against me when my legs buckle, forcing my thighs apart, eating me with a hunger I’ve never experienced.
Goddamn it. He shouldn’t be this good. He shouldn’t know exactly what to do with his mouth to make me come apart.
His hands lock around my thighs, his thumbs digging into my skin as he eats me out, and—oh fuck—I’m close.
Way too close.
Humiliatingly close.
A frustrated sound catches in my throat because… what the fuck? It normally takes me forever to come unless I use my bullet vibrator, and that thing gets me there faster than any guy ever has.
But Cole might actually beat it.
My thighs clamp around his head, and the low sound that comes out of him only makes it worse before he closes his mouth over my clit and sucks. Heat tears through me so fast I have to slide my fingers into his hair to keep myself upright.
“Oh God,” I breathe, tipping my head back against the tree, and he answers by sucking harder and sliding two fingers inside me.
It feels like he’s trying to break me apart piece by piece, like we’re fighting for control, and God help me… he’s winning.
He flicks his tongue exactly where I need him, and the tension inside me snaps. Heat tears through my whole body as I come on his tongue and fingers, hard enough to make me see white, pulling a helpless whimper out of me.
Cole doesn’t stop. He groans against me and keeps going, licking me through every shudder and aftershock, dragging it out until it feels like he’s determined to lick every single drop.
I’m shaking so hard I have to squeeze my eyes shut. When I finally open them, he’s breathing hard, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand as he stands. His eyes drag over me, and goosebumps break out across my skin.
“You come way too easily for being such a brat,” he says, licking his lips.
God, he looks smug.
I hate that almost as much as I hate how good that orgasm felt.
I let out a breath and fix the strap of my dress, making myself look bored. “I was picturing your teammate,” I say with a shrug, and the smirk that I give him makes his eyes narrow as he shoots me a sharp glare.
I barely register him moving before his hands are on my hips and I’m being turned so fast the whole yard blurs.
One second I’m facing him, the next he bends me forward, my palms hitting the trunk while bark scrapes over my skin.
My dress is shoved up to my hips, and a sharp gasp leaves my lips when he spanks my ass before he hooks his fingers into the waistband of my panties and yanks them down my thighs.
Fuck, this is dangerous. Anyone could walk out here and catch us. But there’s something so hot about it that I can’t stop the small moan that slips out.
He grabs the wings strapped to my back and rips them off my shoulders, tossing them to the ground. I part my lips to say something, but he’s already freeing himself, the sound of his zipper coming down and his jeans shoving lower making me clench around nothing.
I feel the tip of his cock rubbing against me in a way that makes my breath catch. The piercings brush against me, and my body melts, remembering exactly how it feels, and wanting it again.
He slides the head of his cock between my pussy, dragging it between my slit before he runs it up, running the slick tip over the tight ring of my ass.
My spine shoots straight. “What are you—”
“Deciding which hole to use,” he grunts, dragging his cock down to my pussy, then back up again.
“You wouldn’t dare.”
A quiet laugh brushes the side of my neck, his teeth grazing my skin as he sweeps my hair over one shoulder. “I’ll take that as a no, then.”
Before I can even catch a breath, he pushes his cock into me with one fast, hard thrust that tears a gasp out of me, my hands flying to the tree to keep myself upright.
“Fuck,” he groans against my neck. “I forgot how tight you are.”
I grit my teeth, even as pleasure coils in my belly. “Forgot how much you talk.”
His hand fists in my hair, pulling my head back so my spine arches and my body is flush against his chest. “Let’s see how long that attitude lasts.”
He pulls almost all the way out, then drives back in, his hips slamming against mine.
“Oh God,” I moan, squeezing my eyes closed when his piercing hits a spot inside me that makes me see stars.
“You gonna come already?” he teases when I clench around him.
I swallow the sound trying to climb up my throat when he hits that spot inside me again. “Dying of boredom, actually,” I spit out.
His breathing turns rough as he thrusts into me, each snap of his hips jolting the tree. “Such a liar,” he grits out against my throat, his teeth scraping my skin. “You want this, Viper. Don’t pretend you don’t. You’ve thought about me just as much as I’ve thought about you.”
He tightens his grip in my hair, forcing my head to the side until his mouth is at my jaw.
“Tell me,” he whispers, his cock hitting so deep I choke on a moan. “Did you touch your pretty little clit thinking about me?”
“Fuck you,” I spit back, breathless and humiliated at how good he feels inside me.
He laughs against my skin and thrusts harder. “I’ll take that as a yes.”
My eyes flutter closed because the truth is so embarrassingly loud inside my head. Yes. Yes, god yes, I did, more than once. But I’d rather die than admit that to him.