by M. K. Hale
“George, say something,” she prodded my father.
My dad stared at the ground. My father had never called me when I was abroad, or even after I had come back. Between the two of them, I had always been closer to him. It had broken me when he had allowed me to continue dating Logan after he found out about the first time he had hit me. I had wanted him to stand up for me the way Nate did.
There were bags under my father’s eyes. He looked much older now and thinner under his suit, causing my thoughts to turn to his health. As much as I wanted nothing to do with my parents, I still felt something for them. They had raised me. Yet, I did not know if I loved them anymore. Relationships with parents were complicated. They were supposed to stay your parents when you needed them, but once you were old enough and close enough to them, they were supposed to become your friends. I could not be friends with someone I could not trust. I also could not love someone who was not my friend.
“What do you want me to say?” my father questioned my mother in a sterner voice than he had ever directed at her.
“Tell her what she’s done,” she exclaimed. I hoped Nate was not home or he could have heard her through the wall. “Tell her we will have the boy arrested who did that to Logan.”
“No.”
My mother shrieked, “No?”
“Stop yelling.”
“I’m not yelling,” she yelled.
“Allie.” My father finally looked at me. He had been either staring at the ground, his watch, or glaring at my mother this whole time. But now he focused on me.
“Yes?” I waited for the critique, the scolding.
“I—” His lips curled into the most heartbroken smile I had ever seen. “I like your hair.”
My lungs wrung themselves inside my chest. I did not know what to say other than, “Thank you.”
“You’ve stopped wearing gray too.”
“Yes.”
“I’m glad.”
“Why are you talking about her looks?” My drama queen mother continued to announce, “We’re here because of Logan.”
“You’re here because of Logan.” My father’s smile dipped into a frown when he switched his gaze to his wife.
“Then why are you here?” I asked him.
“I wanted to see you.”
There was a moment of quiet before my mother broke it again with her shrill tone. “Tell me the boy’s name who hurt Logan. That’s why I’m here. We’re going to report him to the police.”
“No.”
“No?”
“He defended me. Something you never did. You don’t have the right to know his name.”
With the terrible timing Nate always had, he opened my door and stuck his head in my room.
“Hey, Allie, ready for tutoring?” Nate’s voice cut off when he saw I had visitors. “Oh, um.”
“Nate.” I motioned to them. My mother’s glare lessened, and my father stood up to greet him. “These are my parents.”
“This is a friend?” my father questioned.
Nate took it as an invitation to venture inside my room, regardless of the crackling tension awaiting him there. “Nate Reddington, sir.” Nate shook my father’s hand and nodded at my mother.
“R-Reddington?” My mother’s glare disappeared and replaced itself with a look of awe. “Of the Reddingtons?” I had not known their family but, my mother did. I could see her money-sense tingling.
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Wow.” She appeared proud of me for knowing someone of such status.
My parents asked him a couple of questions about how we had met and his major. My father seemed less interested in him and more interested in asking me questions, but my mother would not let the spotlight leave Nate. She seemed shocked to learn Nate had been the one to beat up Logan and very conflicted about how she should feel about it. She was probably torn because Nate also had much more money than Logan or his family.
“That was you?” Flustered, she fanned herself like a Southern Bell stuck deciding between marrying a soldier or a businessman. “Really?”
“Yes, ma’am. I just hope he stays away from her from now on.”
I laughed at my mother’s confused expression. Her thoughts must have been in a storm, figuring out who would be best to support. I assumed Nate won in the end because when she said her goodbye to him, she winked at me as if to say, “you can marry this one instead.”
When they left, I launched myself into Nate’s arms and he chuckled, hugging me to him.
I waited for him to push me away and say something like, “We can’t,” but instead he tightened his grip on me.
“You okay?” he asked the same question he seemed to ask me every day, but this time it seemed heavier. All the more complex. All the more meaningful.
“Yes.”
Nate’s tantalizing lips moved against mine, teasing me. Offering a morsel of what I wanted, but promising a feast. He rolled me over on the firm bed and aligned our seeking and bucking hips. He knew I wanted him, hard and heavy against me. He knew me.
As he loomed over my body, his fevered lips never left mine. Our heat did nothing but build. His wide hand slipped down my neck and settled on the side of my rib, just below my aching breast. A whimper escaped me, and he groaned against my mouth before surrendering. His warm palms cupped my breasts, kneading the flesh, and his thumbs swiped over where I burned.
I moaned again, and he swallowed the sound.
“Allie,” he whispered, pulling his lips away from mine to erotically nibble on my sensitive earlobe. “You’ve been a bad girl. Getting a C on your quiz.” He moved his head down and pushed me all the way back on my bed, pinning me there. “You want to be a good girl, right?”
“Yes, yes, please.”
“Then pay attention to your lesson.” He kept his blazing eyes on mine as he licked the skin between my breasts, his thumbs working my nipples. As he sucked one tight peak into his hot and wet mouth, I let out a loud yelp. He alternated with suction, nipping, and soft licks, knowing just when to up his game.
“Nate!” My throat was hoarse from lust.
“I know.” Nate gave a dark and sexy chuckle. His right hand trailed down my body until it stopped to make circles on my quivering inner thigh. “I know what you want.” His hungry kisses moved to my neck as my heart decided to work in triple time. “Because I want it too.”
“Nate,” I cried out again and moaned. If his stroking got any faster, I would—I would… I was so damn close. Close to—to— “Oh, God!”
“That’s it. Be a good girl for me.” He licked the side of my throat as he thrust two fingers inside of me. The pressure, the speed, the pure fervor of it all ate away at me.
I felt ready to explode.
Any more and I would…
“Let go, Allie.”
“Ahugh!” I woke up from the best sex dream of my life. Sweat soaked my sheets. I caught up with my breathing, and my muscles started to cool down after I calmed from my release.
I could not believe I’d had an orgasm from a sex dream about Nate.
But more than that, I could not believe the tortured moan cutting through my thoughts and sounding from Nate’s side of the wall.
Chapter 18
Nate:
* * *
My hand wrapped around my throbbing cock before I could stop it. Her yells had woken me up first, but the moaning told me it was not another nightmare.
“Nate,” she cried through our shared wall as if she was right on the edge. On the brink.
Shit. What was I supposed to do? Wake her up? It was obviously not a nightmare, and she sounded like she was enjoying herself. The tight pressure of my erection was painful enough to tell me another cold shower would not solve my problem. Damn. This girl drove me insane. All I ever wanted to do anymore was either talk to her or touch her, and I was not allowed to fucking touch her. She was still going out with Ryan. She was still kissing Ryan. Damn it, why did I want to kill Ryan?
“Nate,”
she moaned again.
I couldn’t take it anymore. I squeezed the reddened head of my cock, trying to get back any sense of control, but only pleasure seeped into me. She was dreaming about me. Not Ryan. She felt like this because of me.
“Oh God,” she yelped, and any resistance I had left dissipated.
My grip tightened, and I jerked my hand up and down my aching length while I listened to her through the wall. I knew it was wrong, but hearing her moan and whimper my name was just too much. I felt close to coming already, and I just started touching myself. It had been longer for me than usual. I used to bring girls to my room, but after meeting Allie, no one set my body on fire like she did.
Her sexy sounds became louder, and as a result, my stroking became faster. I could barely breathe, but I had to keep going. My chin fell as I squeezed shut my eyes and focused on the sounds of her moans and the slick sound of my stroking.
Pre-cum rose to the tip of my shaft and dampened my hand, making the sensation feel even better. Stronger. Mind-melting. My knees inched up as my stomach muscles rippled.
I could not stop pumping as I imagined Allie’s soft hand giving me such ecstasy. How did this feel so fucking good? Was it being able to hear her? Was it because it was my name she yelled? Or was it because I had hit my maximum of cold showers, and now I could do nothing but work out my lust for Allie this way?
My heart thundered hard in my chest as her gasping and whimpering increased. Was she about to… Was I about to…
So. Close. Tingles tickled my balls and the base of my cock. I jacked myself harder, faster. Allie. Allie. My hips bucked forward, off the mattress, into my fist.
Allie’s lips on mine.
Allie’s hand on me.
Allie.
Allie.
Colors appeared in my eyelids, and I threw my head back, whacking it against our shared wall. She screamed her climax and, a mere moment later, I released a loud, strangled moan as I came too.
Shit.
I pressed my lips together as my cock twitched in my hand, shooting my release.
Staying quiet was impossible, and the moan slipped out of me before I could do anything to muffle it. Had she heard me? Was she still asleep? The only sound I made out from her side of the wall was heavy breathing. Maybe she was still dreaming and had not heard me.
It would be easier to stay away from her if she did not know I felt the same fiery attraction. If she knew my blood flowed south from just seeing her, she might make a mistake. I might make a mistake. We had already kissed, and I knew she felt guilty about it. She wanted to continue dating Ryan and, hell; I had told her to do so.
Friends. Friends, friends, friends. It was all we could be, and I would take friends over nothing. But damn, hearing her moan my name just now as I stroked my hard, throbbing cock—No.
Friends.
“How do you not understand it?” I sighed impatiently. Getting angry with her was easier than trying not to kiss her.
Tutoring Allie proved harder than I thought it would be. Not because she was not smart; she was very smart. It was more because both of us were having trouble focusing. At least, I had trouble thinking about anything other than the sounds she made when she came. Damn it.
Had she heard my moan through our shared wall? Did she know I had come harder than ever before, just from my hand and her sounds? Had I ruined our chance at friendship?
Did. She. Know?
She blushed when she met me in the library study room, but it could have been from embarrassment since she was a proud person and did not like how she needed my help to do well in the class she had been most confident about. She stressed over her grade, and I wanted to help her. But, damn, I also wanted to grab her, and kiss her, and hear every sensual sound I could squeeze from her as I devoured every inch of her body.
Focus.
Tutoring her did not help my lusty thoughts. She looked up at me with big, green eyes, and I imagined her as an innocent school girl ready to be corrupted. Which did not fit us at all. If anything, she was the one corrupting me. A lot of our hanging out was her saying, “let’s do something crazy,” to forget about Logan, her parents, her grades, or whatever else was going on. She liked living in the moment so she did not have to deal with and live in her normal life.
I worried about that.
It was not healthy to deal with things by running away, but I ran too. She went rock wall climbing and out drinking at parties, and I shut out everything if it did not fit within my schedule or my rules. We were opposites, no wonder we were so attracted to each other.
“What do you mean how do I not understand it? If I understood it, I would not need your help,” she replied. We were both a little snappy. A mixture of strong sexual tension and a lack of sleep caused our agitation. “Sorry, I don’t mean to sound ungrateful. I’m just a little tired.”
I sighed again. “Me too.”
“Didn’t sleep well?” she asked.
Was she hinting she knew I had stroked myself to thoughts of her and her soft moans? It was hard to find equal footing when I was not sure where the ground was.
“You seem…frustrated,” she added.
I tried to push every thought of naked, moaning Allie out of my mind. “I am.”
“Something keep you up at night?”
Did she remember the erotic dream she had about me or not, damn it? “Yes,” I answered, wondering if she expected more from my response.
She shifted her chair closer to mine; she preferred sitting next to me instead of across from me when we studied. God, she smelled like roses. Roses and honey. It would have been so much easier if thorns covered her too. The fluorescent light of the study room illuminated her hair, making the red tint fiery. Strange how she could look like a devil and an angel at the same time. Beautiful. Dangerous.
She wore another dress today. This one was green like her eyes, and the sides were pushed down, leaving her shoulders bare. The lack of visible bra straps made my mouth drier than my father’s sense of humor. Was she not wearing one? All I would have to do to see the body I’d been dreaming about was pull the material down and—
“Did you ever think about becoming a teacher?” she asked, oblivious to my naughty thoughts. “Since you tutor people a lot.”
“I’ve always wanted to be a lawyer,” I said.
She raised her eyebrows at me as her beautiful green eyes sparkled with amusement. “Always?”
“Yes.”
“Straight out of the womb you were like, ‘I’m going to be an attorney.’”
I cracked a smile. “I guess the first couple of years I wanted to be Superman.”
“You still could,” she joked, but the amount of caring in her voice was clear. She believed in me, which was more than most people. God, I wanted to kiss her.
“Let’s get back to you.” I flipped the page in her textbook and resumed quizzing her. “Name three internal mental processes.”
“Memory, perception, and learning.”
I ignored the flutter of pride in my chest at her being correct. “Good girl.” I patted her head in hopes to calm down my need to touch her. It was either patting her like a dog or tangling my fingers in her hair and pulling her to me to crash my lips against hers.
“Jesus,” she said, breathless.
Did I do something wrong? “What?”
“Just—Just hearing you say ‘good girl’ was a little weird for me.” Her face was now completely red.
“Um, why?”
“Uh.” She bit her lip. “You know.”
“I know what?”
“Because you’re a…you’re into…you know.” She made a face as if I would be able to translate it.
“What?”
“Dominant.” She spoke faster than an auctioneer, “Which is why hearing ‘good girl’ from you just kind of made me think… But anyway, being dominant is cool, you know, for you. It fits you since you love control and all. No judgment here. Hell, everyone fantasizes about handcuffs at one
point in their life, right?”
She had brought that up before when she tried setting me up with a woman from the campus erotica club.
“It’s not like I’m into whips and chains.” I hated talking about my sex life and it was awkward discussing it with the girl I fantasized about who also had a boyfriend.
“I never said you were.”
An awkward silence settled between us when she leaned closer and asked, “What are you into?”
My fingers tensed around my pen. To tell her or not to tell her, that was the question.
She has a boyfriend.
She’s with Ryan.
Fuck Ryan.
I looked into those lily-pad eyes and saw her pupils dilating, no doubt as she fantasized what I would tell her. “I’m into you.”
She scrunched her nose, thinking I was trying to be cute. “Seriously.”
“I’m so fucking into you, it’s insane,” I said, letting my hand fall under the table to squeeze her knee. Her leg jolted under me. “You want to know why I haven’t been sleeping well?” Fuck it. My breath played with soft tendrils of her hair. “Because I can’t stop thinking about you—in the biblical sense, if that wasn’t clear.” My lips trailed over her smooth jaw as my lungs fought to take in another deep breath of her roses and honey scent. “You want to know what I’m thinking about right now?”
It was the first time I had seen Allie so breathless. Hard to believe she could be breathless when she always took the air from my lungs. “Mmhhm.”
“I’m thinking about how you’re not wearing a bra under that dress and how easy it would be to pull the fabric down and suck those pretty pink nipples until they turn red and then suck some more.”
She gasped at my words, which made me want to say even more.
I lowered my head, whispering in her ear. “I think about kissing you up against a wall, on a table, on a bed, on the floor. Whenever I look at my fingers now, I think about ramming them inside you until you squeeze them so tight, they go numb.” I stopped talking just long enough to give her an example.