Chapter Nine #2
I pressed the shutter button again and again, falling into a familiar rhythm of taking pictures, adjusting settings, and shooting again. Lowering the camera, I flipped open the screen to review my shots.
"Let me see,” Riley interrupted, leaning forward and reaching out a hand for my camera.
I stepped back, holding it out of reach, and flipped the screen shut, raising it to my eye and clicking the shutter button rapidly. Riley fell back against his pillows and shook his head at me.
"No pictures of me," he said, halfheartedly.
I didn't need any more pictures of Riley, that was certain. In the few months we’d been together, I must have taken a million. Just like this, goofing around before bed, I’d lift my camera and click the shutter button, and once I started, I'd keep going.
The camera loved Riley. The planes of his cheekbones, that shiny, thick hair. Taking a quick check of the last few shots, I groaned. And the glasses. The camera fucking loved the glasses.
If I were smart, I'd go put the camera away, climb into bed and pretend to sleep. That's what I’d do if I were smart. If I were stupid, I’d lift it to my eye and take another picture.
And another, capturing the quirk of his grin, the way his glasses almost exactly matched the warm brown of his hair.
The smooth satin of his skin where it met the faded green cotton of the T-shirt he wore to bed.
Riley was just as stupid as I was. He pretended to ignore me, but he was paying attention.
I knew by the way he lifted his chin and turned his face in my direction.
He might not even have realized he was doing it.
If I was flooded with memories of all the times we’d done this in the past, he must have been too.
I stood and moved to the end of the bed, going for a different angle, catching the way the light fell across his forearm. It was a nice forearm, lean but corded with muscle, his tattoos inky black against his tanned skin. College Riley had a few tattoos, but not this many.
I liked them. I liked everything about him, but then, I always had.
Some things didn't change.
"You done taking pictures yet?" Riley asked, his voice low and rough.
I shook my head and lifted the camera to my face, hiding behind it as I opened my mouth and heard myself say, “Take off your shirt."
Lust and embarrassment hit me in equal measures, sending a hot flush into my cheeks, leaving me almost dizzy. It got worse when, after sending me a long, level look, Riley put down his tablet, sat up, and peeled off his T-shirt.
It took everything I had to pretend to be unaffected. He settled back against the pillows, his eyes on mine. I didn't move except to press my finger to the shutter release button again and again.
Riley with a shirt on was temptation enough.
Bare-chested Riley, still in those fucking glasses, had me drooling.
Not literally, but I could feel the hot flush burning my cheeks, my heart pounding, my nipples beading tight beneath my thin tank top.
Heat gathered between my legs, and I resisted the urge to rub my thighs together.
There was a dare in his hazel eyes as he watched me.
His tattoos spread across his chest, a stylized, almost abstract Eagle, wings and a medallion.
I let the camera trail down his muscled chest, documenting the ridges of his abdomen, the tight skin by his hipbone leading to the V of muscle that pointed straight to his cock.
The thin cotton of his pajama bottoms did nothing to hide the long bar of his erection. My pussy pulsed in sympathy.
I had the crazy thought that our bodies were having a silent conversation, both wondering what the hell was wrong with our brains.
Why were we across the room from one another when we could be fucking right now?
Because doing anything with my slick pussy and his hard cock would be pretty much the dumbest move either of us could make.
My body didn't think much of that argument.
I wasn't sure my brain did either, but I was frozen.
Frozen with lust, half terrified by the strange familiarity of being like this—Riley half naked and aroused, me with the camera in my hands. We’d done this before, at his apartment, in my dorm room. Almost every time we'd ended up stripping off our clothes and jumping each other.
Not this time.
My breath strangled in my chest as I took a step back and pressed the shutter release button. Once, then twice. Over and over, still hiding behind the pretense that this was about taking pictures, that I wasn't drowning in desire.
Two flags of color bloomed in Riley's cheekbones. His eyes were molten gold and fixed to my hard nipples poking through the ribbed cotton of my tank top.
Abruptly, he rolled to his feet. I almost dropped my camera. He strode to the end of the bed and stopped in front of me, looking down into my eyes. Carefully, he pulled the camera from my hands and set it on the end of the bed.
His fingers held my jaw on both sides, tilting my face to his. When his lips touched me, I went still. A heartbeat later his mouth opened over mine, his tongue driving deep, the kiss liquid and hot.
His lips were hard. Demanding. His kiss a claiming I did nothing to stop. I swayed into him, my bones turning to jelly, my mouth hungry for his. I was reaching for him when he tore his mouth from mine and stepped back.
I was still rocking on my heels, trying to get my balance, as he moved around me and disappeared into the bathroom.
Knees shaking a little, I sank to the edge of the bed, picking up my camera out of reflex and pressing the power button to turn it off. The last thing I needed was more pictures of Riley.
The shower turned on, and I closed my eyes, squeezing them shut, trying not to think about exactly what Riley was doing in that shower. I would not imagine him fisting his hard cock while thinking of me.
I wouldn't.
For a fleeting moment, I considered sliding my hand between my legs and relieving some of the tension, but the thought of Riley walking out of the bathroom to see me touching myself was both deeply arousing and more embarrassing than I could stand.
Instead, I put my camera away and crawled into bed, turning off the lights as I did. I curled up on my side and stared at the wall and the bathroom door. The shower cut off, and I closed my eyes, trying to breathe evenly as if I were asleep.
Light flashed and cut off as Riley opened the door to the bathroom. He climbed into bed, hugging his side as I hugged mine, leaving as much space as possible between us.
Both of us pretended to sleep.
I have a feeling I wasn't the only one who stared into the darkness well past midnight.