35. Too Much to Drink
TOO MUCH TO DRINK
Axel
The cold shower did nothing to extinguish the craving burning inside me for a certain sexy and surprisingly sweet blond. It didn’t help matters that she was on the other side of this door in my bed.
Why did Gigi and Grandpa decide now of all times to loosen their rigid stance on premarital sex? Were they hoping I’d knock up my girlfriend so we’d get married? Honestly, I wouldn’t put it past Gigi. She could be sneaky.
I grabbed the towel off the rack to dry off and then cursed when my gaze fell on the empty gray and white marble countertop. Like an idiot, I forgot to bring clothes to the bathroom. Now, I’d have to walk out there in a towel while Lorelei relaxed on my bed.
The last time this happened, it had led to some hot hand action and both of us coming hard.
Fuck, I wanted to feel her shattered from my touch again.
Baseball, sweaty locker room, hairy men in Speedos…
I willed my dick to soften and pulled the door open, finding Lorelei sitting on my bed above the sky-blue covers. Her hair was in one of those messy buns, a few tendrils framing her face, while she wore a pink tank top and pair of matching shorts that showed her long, creamy legs.
That satin material looked soft, but it had nothing on Lorelei’s skin. She felt like freshly bloomed rose petals. She smelled even better.
This was not helping my dick in the least.
Her brown eyes lifted from her phone, her mouth parting when she saw me looming in front of the bathroom door nearly naked.
I gave a dry laugh and pointed to my suitcase in the corner. “I forgot to get clothes. It’ll just take a second.”
“Oh. Sure. Go ahead.” She swung her legs to the plush rug beneath the bed and stood. “I’ll just keep my back turned so you can get dressed.” Her shy smile squeezed my heart in a vise grip.
A few weeks ago, I never would have thought Lorelei Battenberg had a shy bone in her hot body, but there were so many sides to this woman no one ever saw.
Not a damn soul knew how kind or vulnerable she could be, and my possessive streak loved the fact that she only let me past her high walls.
I didn’t want to share her with anyone else.
She was mine.
I shook the dangerous thoughts off and snatched a pair of boxer briefs and sweatpants from my suitcase while Lorelei meandered around my room. My fingers trembled while I shoved my clothes on, fighting the urge to storm toward the sexy blond and devour her.
“OMG, Ax, is this you?” She pointed to one of the pictures on a built-in bookshelf on the left. “You’re so tiny.”
Instead of putting a shirt on, I dropped it and moved across the room as if drawn in by the affection infusing her voice.
In the picture, my four older brothers, Jackson, Jeremy, Aaron, and Jenson, surrounded me while we stood in front of our campsite in Yosemite.
Even though Jeremy and I were barely more than a year apart, I’d remained significantly smaller than all of them for a long time.
“I was the runt of the litter.”
Lorelei angled her head toward me. “You’re definitely not anymore. You could take all your brothers now.”
My lips curved up. “You think so?”
“Absolutely.” She pointed out another picture of Jenson and me when I was a skinny little thing in middle school. “Is that a black eye?”
“Yep.” I moved closer and reached an arm out to pluck the silver frame from the shelf as unpleasant memories bubbled forward. “Some guys were bullying me at school. When Jenson saw my black eye, he found the culprit and scared him so bad he pissed himself.”
Watching Randall Dearborn wet his pants had been a gratifying moment.
Her smile fell, and those beautiful brown eyes softened. “I didn’t know you were bullied growing up. Did it happen a lot?”
My jaw clenched as the rage bubbled deep inside, the ugly darkness that had turned me into the thing I hated most for a while. It took Peter’s death to force me to shed that poisonous anger.
“Up until around sophomore year of high school, I was smaller than everyone. Quiet and shy too. I was an easy target.” I set the frame back in its place next to a sculpture of a dog I made at camp. “It would have been worse without my brothers.”
Lorelei fully turned toward me, leaning her back against the shelf. “Is that why you’re always taking care of your friends, making sure they’re all okay? And why you always watch out for the smaller frat brothers in Sigma Delta?”
My eyebrow arched as I studied her. “How do you know that?”
She shrugged. “I pay attention.”
My chest tightened with something dangerously close to happiness. Once again, Lorelei had surprised me. Apparently, she’d been paying attention for a long time because she couldn’t have just noticed that during our fake relationship this summer.
“Have you been watching me, blondie?”
When she had to tilt her head back to meet my gaze, I realized how close we were. There was barely more than an inch between us. “You’re kind of hard to miss, Vanderhart. You stick out.”
Something’s definitely sticking out now.
Lorelei’s gaze lowered to the erection tenting my pants, her cheeks flushing. “Oh.”
When the hell had my dick gotten rock hard?
“I’m kind of drunk,” I lied, giving a crooked smirk. “My dick sometimes has a mind of its own when I’ve been drinking.”
This had nothing to do with alcohol. It was all her.
Lorelei’s presence consumed me and threatened to steal all my control.
She let out a nervous laugh and then bit her bottom lip. “I guess I’m a little drunk, too.”
“Oh yeah?” I closed that tiny gap between us, pressing my body into her as a hot tingle raced down my spine.
She nodded, her breaths quickening. “We can’t be held responsible for the crazy things we do while inebriated, right?”
“Exactly.” My knee forced her legs to part, and I rocked my hips into hers, watching her lids lower. “It’s the alcohol.”
Deep down—hell, not even that deep—I knew we were spinning a bunch of bullshit. We just needed a reason, an excuse, and this was it.
The rational part of my brain screamed that this was stupid and would totally screw things up, but the hunger coursing through my veins didn’t care. And that hunger wasn’t only for her body.
An ache had settled in my heart, one solely focused on Lorelei Battenberg.
I could deny it all I wanted, but it didn’t make the feeling go away.
This would only intensify things.
Fuck it.
Shoving all common sense aside, I pressed my lips to hers, and she instantly opened like a flower blooming under the sun. I groaned as I slid my tongue into her mouth, reveling in her addictive flavor.
She tasted sweeter and richer than the most expensive and decadent chocolate I’d ever had the pleasure of trying.
I’d give up chocolate if I could taste her all damn day.
I slid my hands beneath her ass and lifted, drawing a gasp from her lips as her legs locked around my waist.
“Ax, what are we doing?” Her nails dug into my back just like I imagined they would.
I carried her to my bed and dropped her on the mattress before covering her body with mine. “Just being stupid and drunk, remember?”
“Yeah. Drunk. Right.” Her legs opened, welcoming me between them, and I rubbed my length against her pussy, wishing the few layers of clothing between us didn’t exist. That little moan she released had my balls tightening.
My fingers twisted in the hem of her tank top, and I drew the delicate material over her head, unveiling her breasts. “So fucking perfect, Lore.” I licked one of her pink nipples and then swirled my tongue around it before sucking it into my mouth.
She arched her back and whimpered. “Axel, please… feels so good.”
I was just getting started.
“I love those little noises you make, baby.” I tweaked and twisted her other nipple while I let my tongue lavish this one until she was wriggling beneath me. “Tell me how much you like this.”
Her fingers tangled in my hair, pulling on the roots so hard my scalp burned. “Have you been possessed by a sex demon or something, Vanderhart? You’ve barely touched me, and I’m already having trouble keeping myself together.”
A satisfied grin tugged at my mouth as I peered up from her chest. “Sex demon? You haven’t seen anything yet.” I trailed kisses down her stomach and then her thigh. “Wait until you see what my tongue can do between your legs.”
The shudder that ran through her delivered another dose of lust into my bloodstream. “Axel, maybe you shouldn’t do that. I don’t know if I can keep quiet, and I don’t want to wake everyone up.”
Just the thought of her losing control because of me sent fire through my bloodstream. “Dinner was hours ago, blondie, and I’m starved. I need something to eat, and it might as well be you.”
As I pressed my face into the apex of her legs and nibbled her pussy through the thin layers of clothes, she jerked against me. “Axel!”
And then my phone buzzed with a text message.
Son of a bitch!
I emerged from between Lorelei’s legs and grabbed my phone off the bedside table, intending to chuck it across the room until I read the message.
Vaughn: If you took something from the archives, I will find out. Expect severe punishment.
The blood drained from my face. I’d palmed that jump drive, and the cameras couldn’t have picked up on that. I was careful.
Still, if Vaughn managed to locate the inventory list and comb through every item in that drawer, he could figure it out.
“Ax, what’s wrong?” Lorelei’s breathy voice yanked me from the dark thoughts, and I found her shoving her tank top over her head.
Clearly, the moment had passed.
What in the fuck were we doing?
I could see the same panic mirrored in her eyes. “Everything’s fine. I just…”
“We should go to bed.” She swallowed hard and sat up, gripping a pillow to her chest like a barrier between us. “It’s late, and I’m certainly not losing tomorrow, so I need lots of rest.”
She gave a nervous laugh.
Damn, she was a master at pretending everything was perfectly normal when it was far from it. I was supposed to use Lorelei to get Cordi back, but lately, instead of dreaming about the girl who was afraid to commit, I found myself consumed with thoughts of the stunning woman right in front of me.
I dragged my hand through my hair—the same hair her fingers had tugged on while my face was between her legs—and forced a smile.
“You’re right.” My knees wobbled as I climbed off the bed, my raging hard on still tenting my pants. “I’ll sleep on the floor.”
She fiddled with the blond strands that had fallen out of the bun. “Are you sure? This is your bed and—”
“Lore, trust me when I say I need to sleep on the floor.”
She nodded and hurried under the covers, probably sensing how thin my control was.
Not even that cryptic message from Vaughn could completely extinguish the fires blazing inside me. I had no idea how we’d get through the rest of the weekend.
Part of me was pretty fucking certain we wouldn’t.