Prob hanging out around the house.

“Good. So he doesn’t intend on going anywhere.”

“Why? Am I planning on drugging and kidnapping him?”

Jade paused, as if to legitimately consider the idea. “We'll use that as a last resort.” She grabbed her phone and replied to his text. K. I’ll drop by later.

“And the stage has been set.”

“For what?”

“You'll see,” Jade alluded vaguely.

After the cabbie dropped Jade back at campus, Tess instructed him to drive her to the restaurant. If she needed any more reassurance about her new look, her coworkers' stunned expressions did away with the rest of her doubts.

Her bulldog of a supervisor was the first to overcome shock. “Hot date tonight?”

“Hopefully.”

“Hopefully my ass. You're a good girl, Tess, and any man worth his salt will know.”

Tess palmed her chest. “Diane, I'm touched. It’s almost as if you care.”

She grunted. “Clock in and get your bony ass back out here. We've got work to do.”

Tess didn't know if it was her new look or if fate decided to grant her a reprieve, but her shift passed without incident. Even stranger, her customers were not completely intolerable and for once tipped her more than the obligatory percentage.

After punching out and trudging back to campus, she discovered Jade had artfully arranged an outfit and lingerie on her bed.

“Please tell me that’s new.”

She smirked. “Haven’t even tried it on. First, order something he likes from that Italian place up the street from his house. Then go shower. And for the love of all that’s holy, do not get your hair wet.”

“Yes ma’am.” Tess saluted and carried out her orders. Within less than an hour, she was geared and slipped into battle dress. Beneath an inconspicuous blouse and skirt ensemble, she wore a sheer, black halter babydoll and matching v-string. Both were possibly the most uncomfortable articles of not quite-there clothing she ever had the misfortune of donning.

“My vagina feels cold.”

“Stop whining.” Jade pushed her toward the door. “I put a bottle of merlot in your bag. And remember what I told you.”

“Pick up the food. Get him drunk. Wait until his guard is lowered, complain about it being too hot, and begin stripping.” Tess paused by the door. “Is this corny shit really going to fly? Because I feel like you’re setting me up for failure.”

“No more than you’ve done to yourself for the past three years.” Jade hustled her out. “You’re not allowed back into this room until you have sex.”

“You’re such a good friend,” she said, and then lost the sarcasm. “But seriously, J. Thanks. I owe you big time.”

“Psh, what're friends for? Now go make mama proud.” The door closed in her face with a jarring thud.

Bracing herself amid the rough swells of trepidation, Tess set off for the Italian restaurant. She tried not to wince at the total. The meal for two would have probably lasted her a week. Tess sucked it up and paid.

This was it. This would be the defining point in their relationship, if not the most embarrassing scheme ever hatched. Thank God it was too chilly out for her to start sweating.

Opening the front door they never locked, she frowned at the loud music and raucous laughter coming from upstairs.

“It’s the other roommate.” She started as Riley swiped his jacket from the living room couch. He whistled low. “I’m guessin’ you’ve decided to take matters into your own hands?”

Her face flamed at the double entendre. “You guess right. Where’s Cam?”

“He met up with his lab partner about an hour ago. He should be back soon.” He kissed her cheek. “You look beautiful, lass.”

“Thanks Ri.”

“Be safe,” he said with fatherly severity. “And remember condoms prevent lives.” He ducked out the front door before she could hit him.

After depositing her purse in his room, she set up camp in the kitchen. Tess raided their cabinets for silverware and plates. In true bachelor fashion, she found nothing but Styrofoam and plastic. They’d have to do. Tess removed the food from the containers onto plates and checked the time again.

Fifteen minutes had elapsed.

Needing something to take the edge off, she uncorked the wine and poured herself a glass. One glass became two. Then two became three. Eventually three became the entire bottle of merlot.

Tess blearily checked her phone for the hundredth time.

What the hell was taking him so long?

She received her answer in the form of the Audi’s kittenish purr outside. Nerves sent her pulse flying into overdrive. It was now or never. The world slid sideways as she hopped up.

She waited for her vision’s reorientation before striding to the den’s bay window. Kneeling on the sofa, she peeked out of the gauzy drapes.

If not for the couch supporting her weight, Tess’s legs would’ve given out. An unfamiliar girl flitted out of the passenger side and attached herself to his arm. He laughed, his smooth baritone muffled by glass. Giggling at his words, she tried to pull him toward his house. With a laugh, he shook his head and nudged her down the sidewalk.

With a huffy exclamation, she allowed him to escort her away.

Tess lurched to her feet, her sight blurred by tears. Wine-fogged, she teetered to the kitchen and switched on the cold tap. She splashed her face until she couldn’t distinguish if the liquid streaming down her face was water or tears.

It cut deeper than anything she’d felt in a long time. This was what happened when she opened herself to this possibility. Did he plan this? Did he want her standing by so she could witness that she would never be anything more than a friend?

Faintly, she heard people stumbling down the rickety staircase, doors slamming, and then silence. Tess turned off the water and fumbled for a napkin dangling from the dispenser. Mechanically, she wiped her face and tossed the crumpled napkin in the nearby trashcan.

She didn’t think she could take too much more.

Was being his friend really worth it?

Tess glanced at the cold, Italian spread laid out with meticulous care. Anger swallowed pain, sucking it into the black hole left by his un-betrayal since they meant nothing to each other. Sequestering the trashcan, she swept wilting salad, hardened bruschetta, and congealed lasagna off the table.

“So you’ve finally caught on.”

Tess whirled around to the lone silhouette backlit by the hallway’s anemic fixtures.

“I’m not in the mood, Adonis.” Ignoring him, she shoved the trash back into its designated corner and set her empty wine glass in the sink.

With a deep-throated chuckle, he strode to the fridge. “Not in the mood, eh?” He retrieved a bottle of water. “I suppose I wouldn’t be either after getting shot down for, what is it now, the umpteenth time?”

Her fingertips bit into the countertop as rage bolstered by alcohol rode hard through her. “Better than being locked up in a hospital and having my stomach pumped. Tell me, did pissing out of a tube hurt much?”

Oxygen fled her lungs as his arms swung up on either side of her. The cabinets rattled behind her head. Despite the darkness shrouding the kitchen, there was no mistaking the fury outlining his features.

And for a second, Tess feared she’d pushed him too far. But the dulcet tone of his voice undercutthe act of aggression. “I live life with no regrets. Everything I want, I get. But you wouldn’t know anything about that.”

“No, but then I’m not an attention-seeking asshole. Don’t make excuses for being a junkie.”

“We are all addicts, just with different brands of poison. And we both know what yours happens to be.” Her nipples pebbled to furious points as his gaze scorched down her body. “Acceptance. You desperately cling to someone who will never want you. You’re a masochist, Tess. You enjoy playing the part of the helpless victim, waiting for your knight-in-shining armor to come to your rescue.”

Emotion sealed off her air supply. “Shut up. You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Oh, I know more than you think, Tessandra. ” His lips peeled into a fiendish grin. “Why don’t you leave and save yourself what’s left of your dignity before he returns?”

He sickened her. His voice, his noxious presence, the fact that he was right…

She’d spent years barricading her weaknesses, but he always blew past them. Everything was a joke to him. His grades, his future, his life…

Seething, Tess watched as he unscrewed the cap to his water bottle and pulled mouthfuls of water with deliberate languor. His Adam’s apple bobbed up and down behind the thin partition of skin. He even made drinking water seem dirty.

She hated his cruel perfection. No matter how badly he sullied himself and his name, he always seemed untouchable. An indomitable force of nature. Nothing ever got to him. He was too far removed from the plights of ordinary people.

She vacantly wondered what it would be like to see his beauty blemished and hauteur broken.

Tess caught herself too late and when her gaze returned to his face, she knew he hadn’t missed her scrutiny. Only this time, there was no disdain, no blatant repulsion, not even a trace of that arrogant smirk.

A darker emotion lurked behind liquid gold eyes.

Tess tried to close herself off, but her body responded anyway. It hummed, feeding off of his ever-present sexual energy. Heartache evolved, unhitching from the roomy loft behind her ribcage and dipped its toes beneath her navel.

She needed to leave. She needed to leave now.

“You’re a dick.” Tess tried to bypass him.

Adonis shifted, penning her in.

Anticipation sizzled like a live wire and showered sparks across her sensitized skin. Although he wasn’t touching her, she felt his inexplicable pull. When was the last time she’d gotten laid? Too long. And why? For a guy who’d made it abundantly clear time and time again that he didn’t want her?

Allowing intoxication to dilute her mind’s objections, she pressed herself against him and reveled in his granite hardness.

His pupils lost their glaze and dilated with a new awareness.

So he wasn’t immune or completely repulsed by her.

Tess resisted the urge to smirk. He could feign invulnerability all he wanted, but a man’s body was incapable of lying. And judging by the hardened appendage actively seeking her attention, he was well aware of that fact.

Long, tapered fingers spidered slowly around her nape, as if giving her time to reconsider. But Tess allowed the scene to play out.

He dragged her into a bruising kiss meant to degrade rather than cherish. She steeled herself against the silken press of his mouth, stroking, taunting, despoiling. Tess wanted to give him the illusion of power and dominance. And maybe when she finished toying with him, she’d leave him to suffer.

But her agenda fragmented as he besieged her—the thoroughly masculine body caging hers, the sticky scent of cannabis and crackling firewood.

Self-preservation kept her from fully submitting. She snatched the reins and drove him back. Her hands grabbed fistfuls of too-long, too-messy hair and yanked his head back. Tess speared her tongue into his mouth. The dark flavor of smoke and sweetness and bourbon and sin invaded her senses and ransomed her wits. She needed to get a grip and focus.

As if hearing her thoughts, Adonis growled, the vibration rippling through her. Fingers jabbing into her sides, he swung her around and rammed her into the refrigerator. The brief flash of pain coupled with the erotic shock of his hot body at her front and the fridge’s cool door at her back produced a moan Tess couldn’t smother. Her legs automatically clinched his waist. She rotated her hips, grinding her core into his swollen heat.

The action extracted a pained expletive from him. He slid a hand under her blouse. For an instant, she could’ve sworn he stopped breathing as he caught the sheer material of the babydoll. He broke the kiss. “You really went all out, didn’t you?” His derision scalded her nerves.

She bared her teeth in a virulent smile. “Jealous it wasn’t meant for you?”

Ignoring the question, Adonis pinned her harder into the fridge. The insistent bulge of his arousal robbed her of breath. “Not that I care about what you’re wearing, but I appreciate the thought.” His eyes burned with an intensity that nearly unhinged her as thoroughly as the finger tracing the underside of her ass. “You want this.”

She rolled her head to the side to give him a considering look in spite of her throbbing body. “And if I don’t?”

Tess jumped as he cupped between her legs. His fingers knew exactly where to rub along her cleft. Her flesh quivered, the thong’s flimsy material providing little protection against his assault. “Then say no.”

Pleasure rocked through her, splitting her senses open. And for the first time in years, she could see, feel, hear… breathe. She pressed harder into him, his name a broken plea as he removed his hand. “What’s it going to be, wildcat?”

Two could play this game. “What do you think?” She swiveled her hips, grinding small circles slowly into his erection and rousing a sweet, devastating friction.

He sealed her fate with the vicious slam of his mouth. His hand came up and tore her blouse. Not to be one upped, she ripped his shirt. Buttons flew and clattered across cold tile. Tess couldn’t bring herself to care. She was drowning in him; in the sparse chest hairs scraping against her sensitive nipples, in the large hands manipulating her body.

His mouth was unyielding. Crazed. But she matched him stroke for stroke, unconcerned that their combined efforts were quickly devolving into a maniacal clash of teeth and tongue.

She hated her body’s reaction to him, hated how his touch could reduce her to some wanton hussy, justifying years’ worth of misogynistic insults.

Had history taught her nothing?

The memory hurled a greased bolt of repulsion so fierce Tess bit down hard on his bottom lip, drawing blood.

Instead of taking offense, he caught the pearl of liquid with the tip of his tongue. “So you’re into blood play? Is that what keeps the johns coming back?”

“Fuck you.”

“Working on it.” His gaze ingested her nude chest. She stilled the automatic response to shy away. She wouldn’t give him the satisfaction.

He circled her like a jungle cat, patient, watchful, hungry.

Desire and detestation warred within her. She felt like an extra bloody scrap of filet mignon. As much as she wanted to deny it, she could understand why his harem fought to maintain their hierarchy. Everything about him bespoke of raw, masculine carnality.

Without warning, he dove for her. Their teeth brutally cut into one another. Adonis spun her into the wall. One hand leveled against his shoulder, she lashed out with the other in a vicious swipe of nails across his chest.

Adonis hissed and pushed her onto the table. Her back collided against wood. He didn’t give her time to consider the pain and leaned over her. The angle levered him directly between her legs. A breathy gasp wrested from her lungs at the sensation. She squirmed as the grainy, broad expanse of his tongue swirled around her areola before latching onto her nipple. Tess fisted her hands in his hair as he sucked harder, a startled cry tearing from her lungs as electricity wired straight to her groin.

He switched to the other breast and alternated between nips and tugs and warm, hungry suction. The combination overloaded her senses. He was trying to undo her in one go round, displaying the extent of his dexterous, talented mouth.

Egotistic even during sex, why wasn’t she surprised?

Not to be outdone, Tess slipped a hand down his sculpted chest, lightly skirting his navel before diving into his sweats.

Adonis froze, every cabled and corded muscle in his body tightening. She nuzzled his earlobe. “Not so mouthy now, are you?”

“I’ll show you mouthy.” Adonis clamped his teeth around her nipple.

Gasping, she gripped his arousal harder, milking a breathy groan from him.

Heady pleasure flooded her with this control, this power she held over him. Apparently this was the only place he showed vulnerability.

Breathing hard, he abandoned her breast and locked her into his narrowed sights.

Tess maintained the connection as she used one hand to pump him, the other to caress the sensitive skin just behind his balls. She cleared moisture from his weeping head with the pad of her thumb. The noise he emitted was a cross between a jagged snarl and a plaintive whimper.

Growling, he batted her hand away. Tess inhaled raggedly as he crushed his body against hers. The barrier of cloth couldn’t conceal the scorching, steel-encased rod digging into her juncture. She groaned as he ground into her, her heels digging into his backside, craving more. It didn’t matter that they were in plain view of both the back door and the front; that at any second Cameron or Riley could step foot into the house and see them.

A part of her wanted Cameron to see. To watch as everything he strove so hard to ignore blew back in his face.

As if sensing her distraction, Adonis pinched the string to her thong and peeled it down her legs. Tess shivered, her skin puckering under his perusal. His nostrils flared when smooth, hairless skin revealed itself. “Ah, you shouldn't have,” he crooned, petting her bare mound.

Absorbed in the sensation, Tess could only manage a halfhearted sneer. “That wasn’t for you either.”

His face closed, the lust cooling in his eyes. “To the victor go the spoils.” He leaned down as if to kiss her and instead twisted her nipple punishingly.

Tess cried out, her back arcing off the table. Fixing her with his gaze, Adonis backed away to the counter and extracted a foiled package from the top drawer. So they kept condoms in the kitchen. Why wasn’t she surprised?

Her breath made itself scarce as he kicked off his pants.

Although she’d felt him up, there was something visceral about seeing him up close and personal. Long and impossibly thick, his arousal jutted proudly, curving upward toward his belly.

Tension wound her body.

Adonis didn’t break eye contact as he gloved himself. When finished, he dipped his fingers in her wetness, as if treating himself to a sample he hadn’t yet committed to.

A venomous retort locked and loaded, but was lost as his thumb discovered her clit. He rolled torturous circles, changing direction and pace with an unpredictability that kept her off balance. Tess bit her lip, fastening his name under her tongue. She winced as his fingers entered her, forcing unused muscles to adjust to the intrusion.

He tensed minutely, surprised by the resistance. “Mm, been a while, has it?”

“Why? Disappointed you were wrong all along?” she spat.

His eyes flashed maliciously. “On the contrary, I’ll donate the proceeds to Cam.”

Terror and fury fled as he plunged into her. They hissed as he filled a part no one had occupied in years. He swiveled his hips, pulling out before sinking deeper into her wet heat.

She welcomed the uncomfortable burning, the forcible intrusion. It was nothing less than what she deserved. It pushed away everything else. All of her insecurity and doubts and fear. She never intended to derive pleasure from the act. Not with him.

But it happened gradually. Rather than draw out her discomfort, he sought to allay it. He kept his thrusts shallow, teasing, accommodating her to his length and girth.

He wanted her to enjoy it—to stoke and compound her guilt.

Flipping her brain a solid, middle finger, her body disengaged from her mind. A ragged whimper tore from her before she could silence it.

Taking the cue, Adonis rocked faster, harder, igniting a fire that corroded her spine.

Angered that her most hated nemesis could bring her to such heights, Tess lunged upward and mashed her lips to his. The new angle allowed him to reach a new depth that nearly blinded her.

Adonis growled into the cavern of her mouth. Spooling her locks around one hand, he used the other to press down on her lower stomach, intensifying his presence within her.

Like a wild woman, she writhed, the pleasure-agony so intense she arched away from it.

But Adonis was unrelenting. His thrusts became harder, mercilessly filling her to the brink, over and over. She felt him everywhere at once. Under her skin. In her blood. His scent thick in her lungs.

Her legs clung tighter to him as she clutched his shoulders, wanting it to end. Wishing it never would.

Their pelvises met and ripped apart. Distantly she heard the table scoot and scrape against the floor, banging the wall in time with his rhythm. But she didn’t care if the entire neighborhood heard.

Tears leaked from her eyes as an orgasm built low, culminating to new heights every time he hit the sweetest of spots. It became too much. “Adonis,” she sobbed, begging him to end this torment.

Instead of taking pity, he reduced speed, dragging himself out with near-painful slowness before sinking inch-by-inch back into her.

Tess screamed his name as he suddenly hammered into her cervix, the exquisite torture ricocheting through sensitive tissue. She held out, refusing to submit.

“I know what you're trying to do. It won't work,” he said with an animalistic snarl and reached for her clit.

A scream ripped from her chest as ecstasy spilled in thick, convulsing waves. Cam’s name vaguely surfaced in her mind, but faded as the aftershocks carried her into oblivion.

A hoarse cry, his swollen mouth slashing into hers one last time, seeking, possessing….destroying, and then everything went black.

Дата добавления: 2015-10-16