by Amie Knight
Being that I’m not a complete dummy, I finished up at the store and locked everything down before heading that way. If the SOS was in fact not an emergency or if they didn’t happen to be there, I could still have a drink, which I could really use right now. Winning.
I decided to walk because parking closer to the restaurants and bars was a nightmare. It was a cool night out and while I wished I were a little more dressed up for the bar, my hoodie and jeans would keep me warm. I had my hair up in my signature topknot and I was a little giddy about Scarlett’s first SOS message.
When I was about two minutes away my phone rang. I pulled it out of my hoodie and seeing Scarlett’s name I answered right away.
“What’s up?”
“Oh my God. Where are you? I sent SOS. That means hurry the hell up!”
I laughed. “Does it? Because we’ve been friends since kindergarten and not once have you ever sent me an SOS.” I checked for traffic and crossed a road. “How the hell am I supposed to know what it means?”
“Everyone knows what SOS means, Hazel.” I felt her eyes roll from blocks away. “Anyway, are you coming? I need backup.”
“I’m walking to The Mills now. What’s going on?”
“I’m having men problems!”
I laughed again. “Don’t we all, sister. But seriously, I’m going to need your crazy ass to elaborate.”
“Luk is here.”
Luk? It took a minute to catch on. Ahh. This made a lot more sense now. “Like, the Lukas?” I said in a sing-song voice.
“Now is not the time to be cute, Hazel. He is here. With my neighbor Mason. And it is unbearably awkward. Get your ass here immediately.”
“God, you know I love it when you use your teacher voice on me, Miss Knox.”
I heard a click and she was gone. I giggled and put the phone back in my pocket. It looked like my day was going to end on a fun note. Scarlett’s man problems might just cheer me up.
When I got to The Mills the first thing I noticed was that there was a table full of gorgeous muscled men, one being Oliver, and I was thinking that it really was my lucky night. He was here. We could be normal. Maybe get back to hanging out some. The second thing I noticed was that my drop dead gorgeous best friend was fidgeting at the bar.
I walked over to her quietly from behind and whispered into her ear, “Hey there, baby. Do you have a name or can I just call you mine?”
She turned around quickly, looking like she was about to knock me out, and I laughed loudly.
“You aren’t even funny, asshole. I told you, I’m having a man emergency. This is serious.”
I looked over at the table and then back at her. “Girl, there’s a lot of women out there who would love to have your kind of emergency.”
Rolling her eyes, she took off for the table, so I followed behind her.
“Hey there, Oliver.” I took the seat between Oliver and Scarlett and nudged Oliver with my shoulder. “Gonna introduce me to your friends?”
He cleared his throat and swallowed hard. A tiny bead of sweat popped out on his forehead and I was wondering what the hell his problem was. I was being silly with him like I always was and he was acting like I was some hooker out to steal his virtue.
Ollie motioned to Mason. “That’s Mason, our neighbor.” His head nodded toward the other hot dude at the table. “And that’s his friend, Luk. He plays ball with Mason.”
Well, well, well. Where the heck had Scarlett and Oliver been hiding Mason? He was a gorgeous, blond older man with piles of muscles. Hell, I bet he could bench press me. He was just my type. Older. Unattainable. Down for just one night of fun. My eyes landed on Luk next and no wonder Miss Scarlett was a mess. Lukas Callihan was drop dead gorgeous. He wasn’t as big as Mason, but he didn’t need to be. He had a clean, square jaw, full pouty lips, and deep-set brown eyes that were both inquisitive and kind.
“Well, hey there, Mister Quarterback,” I said to Luk in my usual flirtatious fashion.
He grinned so wide it covered almost his whole face. He pushed his hand out across the table and gave Scarlett a quick look that made her throw back more beer while his warm hand squeezed mine. Yes, I knew why Scarlett had called in reinforcements. Too many hot men. If only I had these type of problems. I couldn’t even get my hot best friend to call me.
I cut my eyes to Winnie before finally looking at Mason. I leaned over the table and reached to shake his hand. “How you doing there, Mason?”
He gave me a smile almost as devastating as Luk’s. “I’m doing pretty well. I was just getting ready to ask Miss Scarlett here on a date sometime,” he said.
Well, holy shit. This was turning out to be very, very interesting. And while I really wanted to help Scarlett out with her overdramatic love life, I couldn’t help but be focused on Oliver. He was sitting there, sipping his beer and trying his hardest not to look at me.
I nudged him again with my shoulder and he finally looked my way. “What’s going on?” I mouthed where only he could see. I gave him my best what the fuck face, but he just turned away from me and stared at his beer. What the hell? He promised me normal. This was the opposite of normal.
“I think she likes younger men, dude,” Luk said to Mason and I looked back and forth between the two big guys like they were in a ping-pong match. I couldn’t believe this was happening. They weren’t playing ping-pong, but they were definitely playing to win something.
Looking at Mason, I noticed the small smirk on his lips when he said, “I imagine the next thing you’ll tell me is that she has a thing for quarterbacks instead of linebackers.”
I looked over at Scarlett, who was guzzling a beer like we were seventeen and at a frat party. I hadn’t seen her drink this much in years.
“Damn straight,” Luk said to Mason, while looking at Scarlett, and I felt my eyes get huge.
“I’ll be back. I’m gonna hit the head,” Ollie interrupted. Where the hell was he going? He couldn’t leave me with these crazy people.
“Do you need me to go with you?” I asked, batting my lashes, trying to be silly and fun. Trying to get back to us. But also trying to get the hell out of here before these two giant football players had a fight in the middle of one of my favorite downtown spots. I loved Scarlett, but I also loved The Mills and she was about to get us blacklisted.
Winnie looked at me like I’d lost my damn mind and said, “No, I’ve been peeing all by myself for quite a few years now. I think I can handle it.”
He started walking off and Scarlett eyed me before calling out to him, “Are you sure?” Looked like even Scarlett was trying to get the hell out of here.
Ollie shook his head and kept on walking, so a panicked Scarlett just kept right on drinking. This was crazy pants.
I was busy watching Oliver walk toward the bathroom when Mason spoke. “So, Hazel, what do you do for a living?”
I smiled his way, trying to take a little attention off poor Scarlett. I didn’t want her to get alcohol poisoning, after all. “I manage the video game store a couple of blocks from here.”
“Cool. Are you a gamer?” Mason asked me.
“Sure am.” I really was listening to Mason, but I was definitely distracted. Why hadn’t Oliver come back yet?
“Sweet. Maybe me, you, and Scarlett could get together and do a little gaming.” I noticed he gave Luk a cocky grin and it made me wonder if maybe he was giving him a hard time on purpose when it came to Scarlett.
In my peripheral vision I caught what looked like Oliver coming out of the men’s bathroom and heading toward the back exit. Damn it. He was sneaking out on me.
“Would y’all excuse me? I think I left something in my car.” I was a terrible liar. I hadn’t even brought my damn car. But I still zipped from the table and out the front door, determined to find Oliver before he dipped on me again, feeling only a bit guilty for bailing on Scarlett. I mean, her man problems weren’t bad at all.
I walked quickly around the back of the building just in time to
see Oliver unlocking the door to his car. “Winnie!” I yelled, trying to get his attention. It was dark out and he looked around in the night for a minute before his eyes landed on mine.
He backed away from his car and slipped his keys into his leather jacket before dropping his head and staring at the ground. I kept walking toward him, determined for us to get this shit over with now. It looked like we were going to hash it out in the back of a bar, but I was okay with that. I just needed us to be good again.
“What’s going on, Winnie? Why are you avoiding me? Why’d you sneak out tonight?” I said, coming to stand in front of him. I wanted to put my hand under his chin, force him to look at me. Instead, I placed them safely in the front pockets of my hoodie.
I thought he was never going to answer me. The few seconds it took felt like minutes. Worry took over. His silence spoke volumes. He had been avoiding me. It hadn’t been in my head.
Finally, he looked up at me and I noticed that the brightness, the playfulness from his eyes was missing and my heart sank. Something was terribly wrong with my Winnie and I knew it had everything to do with me.
“Did you walk here?”
I stared at him like he had two heads. I just asked him some very important fucking questions and instead he asked me if I’d walked there. Was he kidding me?
Still, I nodded, confused as hell.
“Get in. I’ll drive you back to the store. I don’t want you walking back there at night by yourself.”
“Winnie, I’m fine. I walk all the time ar—”
“Jesus fucking Christ, Hazel. Stop arguing with me for five minutes and get in the damn car.”
I didn’t think Oliver had been this aggravated with me in a long time. I believe the last time was when Scarlett and I had gotten drunk at a party and he’d had to come get us.
I didn’t argue with pissed off Oliver. So, I followed him to his car and got in the passenger side. He climbed in and cranked her up and we started the short drive back to Level Up.
I expected him to say something. Anything. To explain why the hell he had been avoiding me, but instead we sat there in silence until we pulled up in front of the store building.
The last thing I wanted was for things to be awkward and I didn’t know how to fix us. “I have to go in and get my purse from the office.” I’d only carried my keys, my phone, and wallet in the front of my hoodie to The Mills. I hadn’t wanted to drag my big purse with me and I hadn’t wanted to leave it in my car to get stolen.
I waited a beat more for him to say anything and when I realized he wasn’t going to, I opened the car door.
“I’ll go in with you. Make sure you’re safely in your car before I go.” His words surprised me, but he still said nothing as he followed me while I unlocked the front door to Level Up.
I locked the door behind us, just in case, and Oliver followed me all the way to the office where I got my purse. We were on our way back to the front door when I couldn’t take it another minute. He was so silent that it put me completely on edge.
“Why won’t you talk to me? I said it was no big deal. The whole Gray Wolfe thing. Why are you being so weird?”
It was so dark in the gaming store, I could barely see his face, but the green of his eyes stood out at me like a beacon in the night, so I stepped forward, drawn in by eyes I’d adored my entire life.
We were almost toe to toe and I could smell the fresh scent of Winnie. His minty body soap and fruity smelling hair washed over me as I breathed deeply, scared he was going to tell me things would never be the same. Terrified that he was going to end one of the most important relationships in my life. Because Oliver Knox knew everything about me. Things I hadn’t told Scarlett, truths I hadn’t breathed to my pops for fear he couldn’t handle them. But Oliver could, because he was strong. He’d been my rock for so long that I’d forgotten how much I depended on him. Until now.
While he held me captive with those cat eyes, he lifted his hand and tucked a loose strand of my hair behind my ear and I grabbed his hand, holding it to the side of my face.
A sadness I’d never seen before covered Oliver’s face and my stomach dropped. “What’s wrong, Winnie?”
“You want to forget what happened between Gray and Hazeyeyes.” His voice was so quiet, so rough with emotion, that I almost wouldn’t have heard it if I wasn’t so close to him. The hand I pressed to my cheek curved around until he was cradling my jaw. “And I want to relive it every day for the rest of my life.”
My breath caught somewhere in my chest and pinched my eyes closed. I couldn’t look at him. Not like this. He was shredding my heart. I hadn’t expected that. Don’t get me wrong. I’d known Oliver had a thing for me. But he was a complete stud. Total catch. He was a good-looking college football player with a plethora of girls to choose from.
“Do you understand what I’m saying, Hazel? I don’t want to forget what happened. I want Winnie and Hazel to live it. I want to call you in the middle of the night as me and you tell me all your secrets because I’m Oliver and you’re Hazel and you fucking trust me. I don’t want any goddamn pretenses.”
Shaking my head slowly, I tried to back away, but his hand caught me at the back of my neck and pulled me closer to him, my nose almost brushing the tip of his.
With my eyes still pressed closed, I pleaded, “But you could have any girl in the world.”
He laid his forehead to my right temple, his hands still held to the sides of my face delicately, and whispered right into the shell of my ear, “But I don’t want just any girl, Hazel.” He leaned in even closer until his lips were a breath away from mine. “I want you.”
I was stupid and wanton and reckless. All the things I prided myself on never being, but Oliver made me this way. He always had. But with him this close, his smell and muscles and skin all around me, it made me crazy. And the memory of our kiss years ago invaded my mind like bees swarmed a hive and I thought of the softness of his lips, the comfort of his embrace, and the feeling of home when I was in his arms. And I wanted that safe feeling. I needed it so much right now when everything felt so damn chaotic in my life.
And I leaned forward and up just an inch until my lips met his. That small lean would prove to be the biggest move of my entire life. It would change the landscape of our entire relationship, and in that moment, I had no idea.
A guttural groan sounded against my lips and those hands that were on the side of my face moved back down until they gripped my jaw and neck, holding me there, demanding more than just a simple press of the lips.
Angling his head, Oliver nipped at my top lip and then my bottom slowly, his lips methodically and seductively pleading with me to part my own.
What could I do but use my hands to hold on to his forearms and let him in? And so I did. His mouth crashed down on mine. It was a teeth-clacking, desperate mess of a kiss that I could tell was meant to make up for a lifetime of waiting. I held on for dear life as his tongue met mine and his hands were in my hair, on my back, at my waist as he pushed me into a wall of video game rentals that fell to the floor all around us.
“Fuck,” Oliver groaned. “I’ve been dreaming of this my whole fucking life,” he said into my neck before kissing me right where it met my shoulder.
I quivered under him, my breasts swollen, my nipples hard pin points of pleasure and pain. I could feel him everywhere and that’s because there wasn’t a single part of the front of my body that wasn’t pressed to his.
“God, I want you.” He used his arms to hoist my legs up and around his waist where I wrapped them. And that was almost just too much, his thick hard cock pressed right there at the apex of my thighs.
It must have been good for him, too, because he bit my top lip hard and muttered a “Christ” against it. I could have come right then and there.
His hips pushed mine back into the shelf behind me while his mouth found the lobe of my ear, sucking it hard before saying, “Do you remember that night on the phone? How you told me you wanted to s
ee me? How you made me come all over my sheets?”
“Oh, God,” I panted, thinking of that night, wrapping my arms around his neck, pulling him closer so he could devour me, so I could consume him. I thought of him groaning for me and then coming everywhere just so I could watch.
Grinding his hips against my core, he slid his tongue back into my mouth and then whispered against my lips, “It’s all I’ve been able to think about. Having you. Putting my mouth here.” He licked along my bottom lip and I mewed. “And here.” He bit the curve of my neck before running his tongue along my collarbone. And in a flash, he jerked my hoodie up and over my head and threw it God knew where. And then his eyes were on my breasts as his hands encircled my waist before moving up and cradling the weight of them over my black tank top.
“And these. I want to taste these.” All of a sudden, his mouth was there, nibbling and sucking and licking and biting at the tops of them. I threw my head back into the shelf and a few more video games fell around us, but who the hell cared.
I was lost. So lost in this fog of Oliver. He was all around me. His mouth, his lips, his hands, his teeth. I didn’t know where he ended and I began and I tightened my thighs around his hips and ran my fingers through his gorgeous thick hair, giving it a pull.
He’d made it where all I could think of was that night, too, now. How he’d let me watch him stroke the length of his delicious cock. And how I watched him come all in his hand until it had overflowed onto the sheets. And now I felt it long, and hot, and hard between my legs right where I needed it.
I pushed down on it again and groaned.
“Yes, baby. It feels good, doesn’t it? I bet you’re soaking wet for me.”
Hell yes, it did. And oh, I most definitely was. I couldn’t believe his filthy mouth. Where had he been hiding it all these years? It was no wonder that Oliver always had a flock of girls following him around. He had moves I’d never experienced. And I’d experienced plenty.