Wildflower (Colors #4)

by Jessica Prince

  “I…” I couldn’t say it. The lie sat right there on the tip of my tongue, but I couldn’t force it out. Not when the evidence of his accusation was slick between my legs, dampening the lace of my panties.

  “That’s what I thought,” he laughed as he leaned back, taking a comfortable stance against the set of lockers opposite me. His eyes scanned the hallway as kids clogged the halls, their voices and the sound of shoes slapping against the tile floor reverberating all around us.

  I followed his gaze and pretended to watch the students and other teachers, all the while, my body thrummed with awareness at Noah’s proximity.

  “Have dinner with me,” he said in a low voice, eyes still on the passersby as he crossed his arms over his chest.

  “We talked about this—”

  He turned his head and I felt his eyes on me. I couldn’t have controlled the movement of my head if I’d wanted to. When I met his intense tawny gaze, I was pinned in place. “I know what we talked about. I want to cook for you. Can you get away one night to come over to my place for dinner?”

  I turned back to the hallway, considering his suggestion before finally nodding in agreement. “Okay. I’ll let you know what night works best.”

  He said something in acknowledgment, but at that very moment, a familiar head full of shiny blonde hair came walking down the hallway, surrounded by a group of giggling girls. My lids lowered into narrow slits and she must have felt my gaze trying to burn into her flawlessly smooth teenaged skin.

  Shannon.

  Her face visibly paled at the sight of my glare, and I couldn’t help myself, lifting my hand between us, I gave her that threatening double-finger-eye-point. The look screamed That’s right, you little tramp. I’m watching you.

  I opened my mouth to vocalize my warning, but before I knew what was happening, firm fingers wrapped around my wrist, my classroom door opened and I was being yanked into the empty room. I turned just in time to see Noah shut the door behind him, blocking the path between me and my nemesis.

  “Hey!”

  “Stop it, Harlow,” Noah warned, although I was pretty sure I could hear humor in his voice.

  “I will not,” I replied snootily, feeling I was more than justified for my actions, whether I was threatening a sixteen-year old kid or not.

  “You’re gonna make Ethan’s life a living hell if you don’t knock it off. She’s a good kid.”

  “She’s a little tramp,” I bit.

  Noah ignored my insult and kept going. “And even if she wasn’t, Ethan’s not an idiot. He’s smart. You need to let him make his own decisions. You can’t go around harassing any girl that shows interest in him.”

  “Wanna bet,” I mumbled under my breath, crossing my arms over my chest and looking away.

  I could hear Noah laugh, the sound of it sending chills up my spine as he moved closer. “Even though I’d love nothing more than to stand here and watch you go head to head with a poor, defenseless kid, I have to get to my class. Now give me a kiss so I can get on with my day.”

  “I don’t want to,” I pouted, not wanting to admit he was right and move on from my snit.

  “Harlow,” he warned.

  “Don’t you Harlow me.” I uncrossed my arms and jabbed my finger into his chest. “You’re taking her side!”

  Noah grinned. “You’re fuckin’ adorable. You know that?”

  “Compliments will get you nowhere,” I lied. He was totally getting anywhere he wanted to go.

  “Kiss me, baby. And make it a good one. I need something to get me through the day.”

  How could I have possibly denied him what he wanted when he worded it like that? Closing the distance between us, I stood on my tiptoes and pressed my lips against his. I didn’t plan on letting the kiss get too out of hand, but when I felt his tongue snake out and slide across my bottom lip, I lost all control.

  With a loud moan, I leaned into him and wrapped my arms around his neck, my fingers sliding across his short hair and pressing hard into his scalp. Noah’s answering growl worked up his chest and down my throat as he pulled me against him with one arm and wrapped my hair around his fist with his other hand. The kiss turned into something savage in just a matter of seconds and by the time we broke apart, both of us were panting heavily.

  “That should do it,” he said with a grin, taking a step back as he licked my taste from his lips. The sight of it made my knees tremble. “Pick a night and let me know.”

  “O-okay,” I exhaled as he wrapped his fist around the doorknob and opened the door. The sounds of the busy hallway flooded the once silent classroom.

  I watched as he moved to leave, only to pause and look back over his shoulder. “Oh, and baby? Be sure to pick a night you can be gone for a while. ‘Cause once I get you in my bed, I plan on keeping you there as long as possible.”

  Oh my.

  Christ. Walking away from her when her face was all soft, her eyes glazed over with lust, was one of the hardest fucking things I’d ever had to do. If I could have, I’d have barricaded that door and laid her out on the closest available surface, doing things that would have made it hard for her to walk for days.

  I wanted nothing more than fuck her so hard she’d feel me every time she moved. But more than that, I wanted to possess her in every way possible. I wanted to own every part of her just as she owned every part of me. I meant it when I told her I’d take her any way I could get her, and I had no problem with going slow.

  But there was a lingering doubt in the back of my mind that refused to go away. It wasn’t anything in particular; nothing I could pinpoint or put my finger on. It was just something deep inside, telling me she was still holding herself back.

  I knew she wanted me. I could see that written all over her face. But I wanted more that, more than just the physical pull of attraction. More than just lust. I needed her. All of her. And I needed to know she needed me too.

  As I made my way toward my class, I pushed those doubts as far down as I could, trying to shake off the negativity I was feeling.

  We were still new.

  It was still early.

  There was still time to tie her to me as tightly as I was tied to her.

  This could work.

  This would work.

  There was no other option. I’d lived without her before and I refused to do it again. I had my second chance and I was going to make damn sure things worked out differently this time around.

  After my internal pep talk, I should have felt better by the time I say behind my desk. I should have felt more confident. I should have felt good about the recent changes in my life.

  So the question remained, why was that little seed of dread still sprouting in my gut?

  It was bizarre how a person could go nearly six years without having sex, and then they get one little taste of what they’d been missing, and they turn into a horny sex fiend.

  I flipped to my back, staring up at the slowly rotating ceiling fan above my bed. The wildly-detailed dream I’d just had starring Noah and his fabulous body had left me all kinds of hot and bothered. Now I was wide awake, my body was throbbing incessantly, and my nipples were hard.

  And it was all Noah’s fault.

  The rat bastard.

  If he hadn’t said such dirty words to me earlier that morning, I wouldn’t have walked around all day long with nothing but sex on the brain. I couldn’t decide if I wanted to kill him or cuff him to the bed and have my way with him. The digital numbers on the bedside clock showed it was close to midnight, and while my body was exhausted, my brain just wouldn’t shut off.

  As I lay there, the silence throughout the house was disrupted by a faint, pinging sound coming from somewhere down the hall.

  “What the hell?” I whispered into the darkness, putting my palms to the mattress and pushing up to sitting. I heard the sound again, three quick pings in a row. Just as I was about to climb from the bed to go investigate, I heard the sound of footsteps on the wooden floor outside
my room.

  “Low-Low?” Ethan called, and I sighed in relief that it was just my little brother and not some psycho serial killer sneaking through our house in the dead of night.

  “Yeah, shrimp?”

  His tall frame stepped into the open doorway of my room, casting a long shadow over the floor. Even though Ethan had officially passed me in height since I moved back to Pembrooke, he still looked adorably rumpled. His t-shirt and pants wrinkled from sleep, the hair on one side of his head standing straight up as he rubbed his right fist into his tired eye. He might have been bigger than me, but it was in times like this one that he still looked so young, where I was reminded that he was still my little shrimp.

  “Why’s Coach Murphy throwing rocks at my window?” he asked as he fell onto my bed and curled into a ball.

  “What?”

  “Woke me up,” he mumbled.

  “Are you serious?”

  “Uh huh.”

  I climbed out of the bed and scurried down the hall into Ethan’s room. Sure enough, the moment I crossed the threshold, I heard the ping again. I walked to the closed window and looked down. “What the hell?” I said again for the second time in as many minutes. Noah was standing below, underneath the tall oak tree that had grown outside the bedroom window, like he had so many time years ago when we’d been together. It was like déjà vu. Back when we were together, he’d sneak out of his parents’ house late at night and come to Grammy’s, throwing rocks at my window until I woke up and went downstairs to meet him. We’d never been able to get enough of each other.

  Taking the stairs two at a time, I grabbed my heavy coat off the hook by the door and threw it over my sleep shorts and tank and slid my feet into the fur-lined boots on the floor, not caring that I wasn’t properly dressed for the freezing temps outside.

  “What are you doing?” I asked as I climbed down the steps of the porch.

  “Reliving the past,” he answered with a breathtaking smile as he met me on the porch, stepping in front of me and wrapping me in a tight hug. I looked up at him, the air freezing in my lungs having nothing to do with the bitter wind. “I couldn’t wait until tomorrow to see you again.”

  “So you decided to wake up my little brother to get my attention?” I teased.

  “Wait… what? That’s your—”

  My head fell back in laughter. “I moved to the master, Noah. Ethan’s in my old room since it was bigger.”

  “Son of a bitch! So much for being smooth.”

  Before I could say another word, the screen door opened and closed with a bang, drawing my and Noah’s attention to the porch where Ethan stood. “So… are you two, like back together or something?”

  So much for trying to find the best way to break the news to Ethan.

  “Uh…” I stuttered at the same time Noah groaned, “Shit.”

  “Yes,” I answered honestly. There was no point in lying since we were already busted.

  “Seriously?” Ethan asked, his arms crossing over his chest, one eyebrow raising skeptically.

  “Yes,” I repeated. “But we’re taking it slow. We were going to tell you.”

  He stood there and stared at the two of us for several seconds before finally saying, “It’s freezing. I’m going back to bed.”

  “Well that went…” my voice faded.

  “Weird,” Noah finished for me.

  “I can honestly say I have no idea how he just took that.”

  I felt Noah’s attention come back to me and turned my head to look at him. “But he is right about one thing,” he said.

  “And what’s that?”

  “I’m freezing my nuts off out here.”

  “I’d invite you in, but—”

  “I was thinking something else,” he interrupted. “Seeing as Ethan’s awake… at least at the moment, and I’m not goin’ anywhere until I get to feel you up for a few minutes, what do you say we—”

  “Fool around in your back seat?” I finished with an excited smile, knowing exactly where his head was. Back in the day, I’d lost count of how many times I would sneak out of Grammy’s house in the middle of the night to neck with Noah in the back of his truck. I suddenly felt like a teenager again as I eagerly skipped to the back door of his large SUV. I pulled the door open and got a peek at the roomy back seat. Fooling around in there would be so much better than his old truck.

  The SUV was still running so the cab was nice and toasty as Noah climbed in behind me and shut the door. It was like being locked away in our own little bubble, temporarily safe from the outside world.

  “Come here,” Noah growled, grabbing hold of my wrist and yanking me across the bench seat until I was straddling his lap. “Fuck, baby.” His voice rumbled up from his chest, the vibrations flowing through my entire body as I brought my mouth down on his.

  The kiss started out hungry. There was no slow buildup or sweet pecking. It was all hot and wet, teeth biting, tongues possessing. The kiss itself was enough to drive me wild.

  Noah’s hands pushed into my coat, skimming up my sides until he reached my breasts, squeezing with the perfect amount of pressure over my thin tank. “Best tits I’ve ever seen,” he groaned against my neck, making my already hard nipples even more painfully tight. “Jacket off, wildflower. I want these in my mouth.”

  “Oh, God,” I moaned as I pushed my coat off my shoulders so he had better access. The sleeves barely cleared my hands before Noah had my tank pulled up over my bare breasts. There was no hesitation as he cupped one and brought it up, sucking the nipple between his greedy lips. My head fell back on a whimper and my hips moved of their own accord, grinding against the steel hard-on behind his jeans.

  Noah’s mouth switched from one nipple to the other, showing both equally torturous attention. “Honey,” I moaned again, moving harder and faster against his hard cock. I needed more. I felt my orgasm building deep in my belly. But I needed more.

  “You wet for me, baby?” he asked against my skin, his teeth biting down just hard enough to send a shock from my breast straight to my clit. “Answer me,” he demanded when all I replied with was a low, deep groan.

  “Yes, baby.”

  Noah moved his lips to my neck, nipping, licking, and kissing. “You wanna come?”

  “God, yes,” I rumbled, moving rocking against him over and over. I dug my fingertips into his scalp, trying to hold his mouth in place against my flesh. I couldn’t decide where I wanted his lips and tongue more, my mouth, my neck, or my breasts. I wanted to feel him everywhere at once. “You’re driving me crazy, Noah,” I breathed.

  One of his hands tangled in my hair, forcing my head down so he could devour my mouth while his other hand slid into the waistband of my shorts, his fingers continuing their quest until they hit gold.

  A growl worked its way up his throat and down mine as he pressed against my clit. I jerked as he spoke. “So fucking wet for me.”

  “Need more, honey,” I panted.

  At my request, two of his fingers pushed inside me, pumping as his thumb swirled in a tight circle over my clit. “I’m close. Oh, shit. So close.” I thrust against his hand until I exploded, coming on a long whimper as he swallowed all my sounds.

  “Up,” he bit out, breaking through the fog of an incredible climax.

  Before I had a chance to move, his strong hands were on my waist, lifting me up, shifting me off his lap to the side. Seconds later, my shorts and panties were whipped off my legs and I was back in my original position without so much as moving on my own.

  “Need inside you. Now.” Noah’s hand went between us, popping the button on his jeans and pulling the zipper down until he was able to free his cock. He positioned the thick head and grabbed hold of my waist, slamming me down as his hips drove up, filling me in one swift, rough thrust. “Fuck!” he cursed as he began moving under me quicker and harder, lifting me up and pulling me down, fucking me on his cock in a way that had a second, more intense orgasm building only seconds after the first one had ended.<
br />
  “Oh shit. Noah!” I cried. “I’m gonna come.”

  “Give it to me, wildflower. I wanna hear you.”

  “Noah!” I shouted as it spiraled through me like a tornado. I felt my release in every cell, every nerve ending, until I was sure I’d pass out from pleasure.

  “Fuck, fuck, fuck!” Noah grunted. As he planted himself to the root, his dick twitching as he came inside me. “Unh,” he groaned as he filled me up. Once he emptied all of himself, he held me in place, his forehead resting against my shoulder as we worked to regulate our breathing. Things had gotten so out of hand, every one of the windows of the SUV were fogged.

  “Jesus, wildflower. I’ll never get enough of you.”

  “Mmm,” I hummed as I rubbed my fingers over his scalp, appreciating the way his short hair scraped over my skin. I’d always loved his buzz cut.

  “You pick a night for our date?” he asked, lifting his head just enough to kiss my neck again.

  “It’s been one day!” I laughed.

  “I’ll take that as a no.”

  I shifted his head so I could reach his lips. “I’ll pick a night.” I pecked his lips. “I promise.”

  He kissed me back. “Okay, baby.”

  Noah’s helped me back into my clothes, tucked himself back into his jeans, and walked me up the porch steps to the front door, kissing me one more time.

  “Sleep good, sweetheart.”

  “You too, honey.”

  At the sound of my honey, his face split into a brilliant smile. He headed back to his SUV and waited for me to get inside and close the door before pulling away. It was crazy, but the moment he was out of sight, I found myself missing him.

  I was just about to start my freak out when Ethan’s voice sounded from the kitchen. “Low-Low.”

  I jumped, my hand to my chest as I spun around, finding him sitting in the dark at the kitchen island.

  “What are you still doing up? I thought you were going back to bed.”

  Ignoring my question, he asked, “You’re back together with Coach Murphy?”

  The tone of his voice had my back going straight. It wasn’t hostility, wasn’t anger, but whatever I heard twisted my stomach with worry. “What’s the matter, shrimp? Are you worried about us dating while you’re on the team?”