Of Boys And Men: An Enemies to Lovers, New Adult College Romance (Ridge Rogues Book 1)

by Renee Harless

  A white sedan pulled up to the curb and Ken greeted the driver while I climbed in the back seat. The ride to the apartment was short and the driver dropped me off just inside the parking lot. After murmuring my thanks and handing her a cash tip, I made my way toward the apartment reaching for the brownie in the front pouch of my duffle bag. My stomach had started growling when I slid from the car and it ferociously announced that it needed sustenance.

  I made sure to read the note from Ken’s fiancée before tearing into the plastic package.

  I love the way you fill out your scrubs.

  I couldn’t help the grin that inched its way across my face. My heart felt lighter at reading her cute banter and I secretly hoped that one day I’d find someone that I’d be able to toss quick loving jabs.

  Opening the door to the apartment stairwell, I almost dropped the sugary goodness as I tried to maneuver my duffle bag through the opening.

  “Walk of shame?” a voice called from behind me and I nearly slammed my fingers between the door and the jamb.

  I couldn’t formulate words as Ford grabbed the door handle and slipped inside. He stared me down in disgust, those eyes that I found mesmerizing looked as if I’d hurt him.

  Then his words registered and it was as if a red film curtained over my eyes. I was heated and not in a good way.

  Ford tried to walk passed me, but I reached out and gripped his arm, yanking him to face me. I could see that he was already done with this conversation, anxious to get back to his apartment, but I was nowhere near done.

  “Excuse me, what did you say?”

  “Was it the guy from the café? Did you go back and offer yourself up to him?”

  “Oh my gosh, what is your problem?”

  Jerking his arm away, Ford began to climb the stairs but I wasn’t letting him get away.

  “I’m just stating what I saw.”

  “You saw nothing, you arrogant jerk! And you’d know what a walk of shame is, wouldn’t you? Isn’t that what you were doing just now?”

  I stomped behind him until we reached the third floor. Ford tried to go to his apartment, but I wasn’t letting him get away speaking like that to me.

  “I was talking to you,” I screamed at him as he unlocked his door. I was so angry that I didn’t have the chance to feel uncomfortable being back in the apartment. Or the fact that I had followed him into the kitchen where the space was barely big enough for the two of us.

  “Are you going to answer me?”

  Turning to face me, Ford tossed his keys randomly on the counter and stared me down, his chest heaving with each breath.

  “You want to know if I spent the last few hours buried deep in some girl? Want to know how tight her pussy was as she milked my cock? How fast she ripped off the condom so she could suck me off when I came? Is that what you’re asking me?”

  I couldn’t breathe. The air lodged in my lungs, listening to him describe what he had done to some willing female. And I secretly ached that it was me.

  He stared at me, waiting for a response, waiting for something. Then I felt that rise growing in me, that he could speak so carelessly in my presence about a woman that had shared herself with him. So now I was furious with her and him.

  I took a step closer, bringing my nose just below his chin. The scent I could only describe as Ford’s wafted through my senses.

  “You’re disgusting,” I growled at him. “You don’t get to know what I do with my time and I certainly have no desire to know about your conquests. Whether or not I spend my night with a random guy will never be any of your business.” My voice had risen as I spoke, and somewhere in the back of my mind, I worried that I would wake his brothers, but my exasperation was overflowing and couldn’t be stopped.

  “It is my business,” Ford snarled.

  “Why?”

  In one quick move, Ford had stepped forward, caging me against the counter, my back pressing against the laminate.

  He bellowed, “Because you’re mine.”

  And then we exploded.

  Ford crashed his lips against mine before I could react. I was so stunned I stood stock-still as Ford’s tongue begged for entrance. My mind had gone numb as I eagerly welcomed him.

  He tasted like spearmint and a hint of whiskey. The flavors shouldn’t have worked together but I couldn’t get enough. Our tongues clashed as I reached my hands around his shoulders. Fistfuls of his cotton shirt crumpled as I clawed at him. I needed to get closer. I needed – more.

  Ford seemed to understand my yearning as his strong hands traveled around to the backs of my thighs and lifted me onto the counter. A grunt escaped my lips as my back collided with their coffee maker. Moments later a crash sounded as Ford swiped away the appliance onto the floor before claiming my mouth once again.

  We were feverish in our longing to lose ourselves. Our fight for control became a push and pull of our bodies. Those jabs we had tossed back and forth for the last few weeks all led up to this detonation of our desires.

  My hands fisted in his hair, those dark locks wedging between my fingers. I gripped at the strands as I lifted my thighs around his waist, using my heels to pull his hips closer to where I needed him most.

  I was burning for him, my skin blistered beneath his touch as his fingertips skimmed across my lower back. One moment I was in charge, tilting his head how I wanted, jerking his hips how I needed. Then I felt his hands greedily climb up my back, gathering my shirt as he went. He pulled back from our kiss and I instantly missed the connection, missed his taste. I watched as the corner of his swollen lips tilted upward and I was mesmerized by the motion. On one forceful tug, Ford yanked my shirt over my head and tossed the material blindly to his left.

  His stare lasted only a beat until he launched himself toward me. Our teeth clanged as he possessed my mouth, our tongues sliding across each other like a flirtatious dance.

  His rough hand slid up the side of my exposed stomach, his calloused fingers leaving a trail of heat as they glided up each individual rib until he reached my jawline. Possessively he cupped my chin, with just enough pressure to maintain control but not enough to hurt me. He titled my head and trailed his kisses from my lips to the top of my throat.

  “Ford,” I whispered as I leaned back slightly, my head knocking against one of the cupboards.

  “Did he kiss you like this?”

  What?

  It took me a minute to realize what Ford had asked, but he left me no chance to answer as he used his other hand to reach between my legs, the denim doing little to mask the heat I knew he would feel.

  “I bet if I slipped my hand beneath your panties, I’d find you soaking wet, wouldn’t I, Jolee?” he murmured, his teeth skimming across my soft skin. Despite my anger at his insinuation, I was too far gone to stop. “Did he make you wet like this?”

  Ford’s palm rubbed up and down my denim-covered center and it took everything in me to keep from leaning back and letting him ravage me.

  I may not have had much experience, but I knew what would drive Ford over the edge. I knew what would make him lose control. Even with his lips against my neck and his hand rubbing the place that severely craved his attention, I gathered as much of my wits about me as I could. I barely had enough sense to formulate words as I reached for the back of his head, gripped his hair, and as much as I hated to pull his lips away from my skin, I wanted them back on my mouth.

  My other hand reached for his chest, trailing down the hills and valleys of his abdominal muscles, and though they hid behind his long-sleeved Henley, he jolted at my touch. There was no fighting against my smile.

  With deft fingers, I flicked at the button of his pants and slithered my hand beneath the elastic waist of his boxer briefs. I didn’t have to search hard for his erection, the hardness strained against the confines of his pants. Ford hissed as I softly brushed my finger across the tip of his cock before I spread my fingers and gripped him fully.

  “Tell me. Did she touch you like this?” I
asked as I nipped at his lower lip. His eyes were closed as he focused on the feel of my stroke. “Did she have her hand wrapped around your cock like this?”

  He only allowed himself to get lost in the feeling for a moment. Ford’s breath was shallow and shaky as I continued my slow, measured movements while gently nipping his lip, brushing my tongue against it after every bite.

  It didn’t take long for his control to snap. Ford’s eyes popped open and the flicker of a flame shown in those icy blue irises of his.

  “You’re playing with fire, princess,” he bellowed. He probably expected me to stop and cower away, but he should have known better by now. I knew how to act out this scene with him, we’d been rehearsing it for weeks.

  “If you can’t handle it, I’m sure I can find someone who can finish the job.”

  And that was the truth. Not that I needed a real person, but my trusty vibrator would get the job done. But I’m sure Ford assumed I meant the fictional person he created in his own mind.

  Instantly Ford’s mouth was on mine again, savoring every inch of my mouth, and I was lost to him. I had never felt so out of sync with myself – wanting him one minute, hating him the next. There was nothing I could do to control it. There was a hunger for him that wouldn’t subside.

  For a second, I grew weightless as he lifted me off the counter, my legs wrapped around him as if they had done it a thousand times.

  Our kisses grew fiery as he carried me out of the kitchen, the subtle rocking of my body with each step ground his erection against my center. My panties were a lost cause at this point.

  We’d only made it about ten steps before Ford turned and pushed my back against the wall. “Fuck, I need to see you,” he growled as he released my legs from around his waist, holding me as I placed each leg on the floor.

  Blindly he unbuttoned my jeans and my stomach clenched as the backs of his fingers caressed the soft skin just above my panties. My senses swirled as he twisted my body around, my chest and hands pressed against the wall. I watched as a few posters in their frames rattled against the drywall until my eyes sealed with the first press of Ford’s lips to the top of my spine. I had never been so glad to shower and change before leaving the animal shelter until this moment, but as he followed every vertebra down my back, every conscious thought left my mind. I could only feel Ford, not just his lips, but the connection. How could we have both ignored it for so long? Is this what Link, Sarah, and Keeley were trying to point out?

  With a vigorous tug, Ford wrenched my jeans down to my knees, leaving me both exposed and confined to my clothes. If it were anyone else, I would have squirmed under his stare, but the way Ford’s hands stroked against my lace-covered bottom so reverently left me in a state of bliss. His touch was a mixture of gentle and forceful, squeezing with his entire hand, then rubbing his thumb over the same area. I had always been a bit larger than other women in the backside area, for no other reason that I enjoyed carbs and deadlifts at the gym, and it seemed Ford appreciated the effort.

  I yelped when he bit the exposed skin of one globe, his teeth pinching at the soft and sensitive skin. Electric sparks flew across my nerve endings. He nibbled again, but my focus turned to his other hand trailing across my upper thigh to my panty covered center. I was so turned on my body shook in need, and if I didn’t have some sort of relief soon, I was afraid of what I’d be willing to do.

  “Tell me, princess,” he began as he slipped one digit beneath my cotton panties. My moan echoed around us as he trailed back and forth against my soaking wet folds. My body was turning into a quivering mess just from the slightest touch from him. “Did he make you wet like this?”

  I jerked against his hand, but not in pleasure, except Ford kept a firm grip on my hip to keep me in place as he continued to explore my most sensitive area.

  “I think you’ve only ever been this wet for me. That no man has ever been able to get your body this worked up before.”

  I wanted to tell him to get off. I wanted to tell him to stop touching me. But I couldn’t do either of those things because he wasn’t wrong. He had been the only one to work my body into this frenzied state with just a single touch and I worried that I’d never feel anything like this again.

  When I didn’t respond, he pulled his hand free and a small whimper escaped my lips. “Ford, I. . .” I started to say until he twisted me back around.

  His hands rested on the waistband of my jeans which were still dangling at my knees. “Step out,” he commanded and I obeyed like one of his many lemmings. By the heat in his eyes as he stared up at me, I knew that there was no point in arguing.

  I stood before him clad in only my lace bra and panties I grabbed from a cheap site online, but Ford looked at me as if I was wearing the most exquisite lingerie from France or Spain and he wanted nothing more than to tear it to shreds. Kneeling in front of me, he slid his hands on either side of my hips, the tips of his fingers slipping just beyond the elastic to feel the skin beneath. He was a wolf deciding which delicate piece of flesh to devour first.

  And I knew without a doubt that there was absolutely no turning back now, for either of us.

  Chapter Eight – Ford

  I didn’t know where to start as this goddess stood before me in her pale pink underwear and bra. There was so much for me to look at, so much for me to take in. I wanted to put my mouth on every inch of skin, touch every smooth surface, but I was restless.

  Leaning forward, I brushed my nose across the soft material, inhaling her feminine scent. She didn’t smell like another man’s sex, but I was still furious at the thought that someone had had his hands on her.

  My hands again reached for the globes of her ass, the perfect mounds filling my palms as I pushed her hips closer to my face. As much as I wanted to keep my sole focus on her, I couldn’t rid my mind of the thoughts that she had been with another man. Every kiss and nip I etched on her stomach marked her as mine.

  She was writhing in my arms and I itched to command her every whim. I had never been an alpha in bed, wanting to share the give and take with my partner, but something about Jolee possessed me. I wanted to erase every man she had been with before.

  Standing, I pressed my hips against her, the head of my cock rubbing against the skin of her stomach. I didn’t correct her when she assumed where I had been. My walk of shame was on the brotherly side, though I had left a willing woman’s bed when Tracy had called. The fighting between me and Jolee was like a complicated dance and only we knew the steps to take. The crescendo of the music was building and we weren’t immune to its powerful waves.

  Reaching up my hand drew down the cup of her bra, exposing a flawless breast and puckered pink nipple. My eyes honed in on that tight peak as I leaned down to taste the sweet perfection. I laved the skin around the areola with my tongue, her hand now lodged in my hair, urging me on. With my other hand, I blindly pulled her other breast free from its confines, gently squeezing the supple skin and rubbing her nipple with my thumb.

  “Ungh,” she grunted as I pulled my mouth away from the one breast to give my attention to the other.

  Her hips swiveled back and forth as she rubbed her thighs together. I was falling into the abyss of pleasuring her, but I knew that I needed to get my head on straight, or I’d lose myself to her completely.

  Removing my lips from her breasts, I sealed our mouths together, the kiss wild and untamed. She tangled her hand in my hair, gripping the strands between her delicate fingers. Her slickened breasts pressed against my chest as I gripped the back of her thighs and wrapped them around my hips. My cock jumped as it came in contact with her hot sex as I swallowed her responsive moan.

  Using the new leverage and my solid grip I rocked my hips against her, my fingers tightening their grasp as she pried her lips from mine.

  Against her neck, I groaned. “I bet I could slide my cock into that tight pussy of yours and you wouldn’t stop me, would you?”

  She had been so lost in her body’s blissful state
that I didn’t expect to feel her nails grip at my scalp. She tugged my head back and tilted it to the side, licking up the side of my neck to my ear.

  “Then you better put on a condom because I don’t want to be anywhere near the filth that you’ve been with,” she lamented before sinking her teeth into my ear lobe.

  Fuck, that nibble did me in. I released one of my holds on her ass and slammed my hand against the wall as my knees almost buckled. I’d never felt shockwaves like that from a simple bite. Thank goodness she had her legs securely wrapped around my waist or she was at a real risk of falling.

  “Back pocket,” I groaned, hoping like hell she could figure out a way to reach it.

  “Stop talking,” Jolee demanded before she crashed her mouth against mine once more. My fingers tried to clutch at the wall, then I remembered it was covered in a textured plaster that was probably tearing up her back from rubbing against it.

  Even though my cock was nicely settled between the warmth of her thighs, I made the agonizing journey toward my bedroom. Jolee protested by scraping her teeth against my lower lip but soothed the ache with her tongue. My shins hit the edge of my bed and I reluctantly dropped Jolee from my arms.

  I’d expected her to giggle or scowl when she fell onto the mattress, but in typical Jolee fashion, she hinged forward and gripped the top of my pants. I reached into my back pocket and pulled out my wallet and the condom, tossing both onto the middle of the bed, then gripped the cotton of my shirt from between my shoulder blades and pulled it over my head.

  My gaze collided with Jolee’s as she stared at me reverently. It was a look I had never seen on her before.

  “Dang, you’re freaking hot,” she growled with a subtle lick of her lips. I lifted my hand to trace her tongue’s path against her plump mouth, noticing how her eyes dilated at my touch. “Now, take off your pants.”