Chapter 25
NERO
Me
You asleep yet?
My eyes left my phone’s screen, immediately looking across my bedroom window to see Cosette’s phone light up. She had the tiny device positioned beside her pillow, screen up, and when she reached for it, I didn’t have to look at her reply.
I pressed on the call button, and it rang once before Cosette finally answered it.
“Stop staring at me. I can feel it, and that’s why I can’t sleep,” she said, making my shoulders shake with laughter.
“Is it really that or is it because you can’t stop playing tonight over and over in your head?” I asked, my eyes never leaving her figure as she finally rolled over to face me instead of her bedroom ceiling. “Because that’s the reason why I can’t sleep.”
“Do you have an off switch for your flirting, Combs?”
I barked out a laugh, my heart warming at the idea that even if things were changing between us, C was still the same person I knew. Maybe a little feistier, which I’m really fucking liking.
“Even if I did, I doubt you’d want it off.”
“If you’d say yes, I’d come over right now myself just to flip the frickin’ switch as soon as I possibly could.”
“I mean, if you wanted to come over, I wouldn’t stop you.”
Okay, that came out much needier than I wanted it to be.
That did shut Cosette up, though.
Because now that the can was open about how much sexual tension there was between us? It was hard to ignore. Hard not to feed it until we both exploded. At least, it was hard on my side because I loved teasing the fuck out of C.
“If your dad wasn’t home, I’d be sleeping over there beside you right about now, wouldn’t I?” I asked, my voice unintentionally turning into a deeper rumble.
“I— uh, yeah. Maybe. Probably.”
Oh, now she’s too flustered to talk straight?
“You know what I was wondering about, C?”
The line went silent aside from her breathing as I held her gaze through our windows.
“I was wondering why you left your curtains open tonight.”
Fuck. I can feel the heat traveling down my body just thinking about how she may have unconsciously wanted me to watch her sleep tonight.
“I’m also wondering if I’m just imagining things, or if you’re really breathing a bit faster now.”
I know it’s probably impossible to notice such things as her clenching her thighs together from this far, but I could dream, right? If it really was just in my imagination, that is.
“And now? Now I’m wondering if you’ve ever laid on your bed just like you are doing now, touching yourself to the thought of me, curtains closed while I’m here still clueless.”
A beat. Then another. I thought I’d be the one to continue this little challenge, but of course, I shouldn’t have expected anything less from Cosette Evangelista as she said,
“I have.”
Well, strip me of my name and just call me ‘Rock’ because I was fucking hard.
Multiple conjured-up images of Cosette on her mattress entered my mind, my cock throbbing under my basketball shorts with each one, as I decided to bite the bullet and try to finish this game I started.
“Show me.”
I heard C’s sharp inhale through the phone, and I almost caved, wanting to stop immediately at the thought that it was making her uncomfortable. Until I saw her get into position, back now returned to lie down on the mattress comfortably.
She folded her knees up before her hand moved down her body.
Oh, so slowly.
Traveling down her chest and her stomach before the limb completely disappears underneath the waistband of her lounge shorts.
All of this while she kept her head turned to me, still having her eyes locked on mine.
“Good girl,” I muttered in a gravelly tone, as my own hand moved to adjust myself, squeezing my length through the fabric just to feel something.
Her eyes went to follow my movement, and I watched her lips part in a soft moan at the sight, her back arching off the bed.
“Tell me what you want, baby.”
Every single word flew out of my mouth naturally, so effortlessly that she didn’t think to question it too. Or maybe her mind is just preoccupied at the moment.
“I want to watch you, too.” I heard C’s soft voice as my eyes followed the movement of her hand under her lounge shorts, probably rubbing her pretty little clit while knowing that I’m watching her.
“Yeah?” I asked, pulling down the top of my shorts to let my aching dick spring free.
A low moan escaped her as she hummed with pleasure, her eyes fixed on my exposed cock.
Fuck, how am I even going to last three minutes during the real thing when she sounds so damn responsive to everything. And we’re not even touching each other yet.
Right now, though? I’m only focused on putting on a performance for her.
“Need you to touch yourself with me, baby.”
She did. While I had my wet palm wrapped around myself, stroking, imagining it was her, my eyes feasted on the way her knees seemed to wobble in the air because of the ministrations of her own fingers.
The line was filled with her quiet moans, her barely controlled whimpers that’s sending goosebumps all over my body.
I felt so goddamn gone, moving my hand so fast that when I heard her back-to-back mewling? A telltale sign that she was reaching her peak? I followed not long behind, groaning and cursing into my phone’s microphone as ropes of cum shot up and then back down onto my fist.
“You’re going to be the death of me,” I mumbled, my eyelids threatening to close at the exhaustion that came with my most intense orgasm for the past month.
“Me? You’re the one who started dirty talking!” I watched C stand up from her bed, going to her bathroom, no doubt to clean herself up.
“Fine. Fair point,” I conceded, wiping away the evidence of my own mess.
I let the call stay on, my ears straining to hear the gentle sounds of her movements, perhaps her clothes rustling as she cleaned herself.
We both sank back into the soft comfort of our beds, pajamas on, as we tried to process what had just happened.
“Crap. There’s no going back for us now, is there?”
“No,” I replied instantly, matter-of-factly. “And I like it that way.”
Because I know for myself that after tonight? I could never go back to just being friends with Cosette.
Not when every fiber in my body was screaming to make her mine, the rest of the world be damned.
I could tell what was going through Cosette’s mind the moment her eyes fell on me the morning after, and my smug side showed itself as I smirked. “Ready to go?”
C nodded, but I was already pulling her closer by the waist and kissing her, not being able to stop myself. Thankfully, she returned my kisses one by one, her hand even coming up to the collar of my varsity jacket and yanking on it to deepen the kiss.
Only for her to squeak like a mouse and jump away when a honk sounded behind us.
“Dad!” She exclaimed, turning to her dad, who I didn’t even know was already in the driver’s seat of his own car.
“What? I have to get out of the driveway!” Hoyt said in defense, because of course, my truck was blocking an inch of a clean drive out from where he’s parked.
I nodded at Hoyt with a casual salute, hurriedly hoisting Cosette up to the passenger seat and rounding the car in a rush to move my truck.
C’s dad drove out of the spot, and I expected that to be the end of our interaction this morning until he stopped beside my truck, shouting, “Don’t get my daughter knocked up, Nero!”
“Dad, stop! God!”
“Good! You still know that name! Remember, He’s always watching!”
“Combs, just drive us out of here. Please.”
As much as I hated to leave—because trust me, I’m more amused than offended—I didn’t want to make C uncomfortable another second longer.
So, I did, politely saying goodbye to her dad before driving away and to our school.
I still wanted to be on Hoyt’s good side.
As much as I’m warming up to Dex and Siege, and while Cosette may refuse to play favorites between us, I know for sure that I’m the most likely to be Hoyt’s favorite.
As long as he doesn’t find out all the very dirty things I want to do to his daughter, that is.