Avoiding Temptation

by Rachel Van Dyken

  UnluckyinLove: I wait with bated breath.

  Slater8: I knew you would be pining all day, see? Just promise me no more tears today. I feel helpless when you cry.

  UnluckyinLove: I think you squeezed them all out of me last night when you held me with your strong arms.

  Swear on all that’s holy, my chest just magically puffed out.

  Slater8: My arms and body are both available later, lucky you.

  UnluckyinLove: I’ve always wanted a life-sized cuddle buddy.

  Slater8: Let’s not get too hasty on the whole buddy party, though, yeah?

  UnluckyinLove: Oh, so he regrets said friendship?

  Slater8: He regrets not kissing you again.

  UnluckyinLove: Well, I can pencil you in later if you’ve finally gotten your head out of your ass and want to do this.

  Slater8: Why does it feel like you’re blaming me?

  UnluckyinLove: Because I am! You’re the one that was mean and shoved me over into the friend zone and expected me to be so thankful I built a shrine.

  Slater8: Wait, so does that mean you don’t have a shrine?

  UnluckyinLove: No, but I have a doll I stick pins into. How’s that knee feeling?

  Slater8: Ha ha—seriously?

  Swear my knee started to feel a strain.

  UnluckyinLove: Guess you’ll never know!

  Slater8: Rude.

  UnluckyinLove: You can take it.

  I wanted to take her.

  Slater8: Maybe.

  UnluckyinLove: BTW is this allowed?

  Slater8: What?

  Was she talking about dating?

  I started to immediately sweat.

  UnluckyinLove: Technically, I’m a client.

  I smiled down at my phone.

  Slater8: Right, but I’m not technically in your pants so…

  UnluckyinLove: If you hurry over here, you could be.

  My heart hammered against my chest.

  Slater8: Is that a promise?

  It looked like she was typing.

  And then she sent a photo.

  In nothing but a hot pink bra with a knowing grin on her face.

  I wasn’t paying attention at all, so even though I was walking back toward the dorms, I tripped on the flat sidewalk at least a dozen times, my eyes glued to the screen.

  “You looking at porn or something?” Finn teased as he was exiting the building. “Let me see…”

  “NO!” I roared. “I was just… my mom… sent me a funny quote.”

  “Oh yeah?” He crossed his arms. “What was it?”

  Damn it!

  “Uh, it was ummm…”

  “Dude, you can just read it from your phone. What’s with you today?”

  A cold sweat broke out on my forehead. “Sorry, I didn’t sleep much last night, I was too busy hugging your sister and praying you wouldn’t break my body in half for attempting to keep her from crying.”

  His face softened. “Sorry.”

  Shit, that was a dick move on my part. “No, it’s fine, I was glad to help.”

  “I’m so pissed at my parents I can barely tolerate the fact that they’re my blood relation.”

  I winced. “Well, at least you don’t have to worry about money.”

  “It’s not that.” He crossed his arms. “Money you can acquire, but family? Family, you’re born with, and ours is a piece of work. Tatum’s always wanted to be close with Mom, and the fact that Mom only cares about Tatum’s untouchable trust fund hurts.”

  We both fell silent, our mood somber.

  “Thanks, though.” Finn put his hand on my shoulder. “For being a good friend to her. I appreciate it. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to run down to headquarters and see how the new recruits are doing. Ian said something about letting them start early, which means you and I get early retirement, which means no more girls hitting on us and asking if we can make them orgasm with the energy from their own bodies.”

  I barked out a laugh. “That was such a good day.”

  “I can’t believe you even tried.”

  “Hey, never leave them unsatisfied.”

  Finn rolled his eyes. “Right, I’ll keep you posted. Should be a while because of traffic.”

  “No worries.” We fist bumped, and I made my way up the four flights of stairs to my room.

  After that encounter with Finn, I realized that as much as I wanted to just devour Tatum whole, I would need a better plan of attack.

  And I would need to make sure it wouldn’t ruin Finn and me.

  An Amazon box was waiting at the door.

  One of the bonuses about working for Wingmen was our mail actually got delivered to us since we had so much paperwork to turn in.

  I grabbed the box, let myself in the main suite, and nearly swallowed my tongue.

  Tatum was on her hands and knees cleaning something off the carpet, and I was staring like a man who’d never seen a perky ass before. She had on a pair of Adidas leggings and a cropped white sweatshirt.

  She was gorgeous.

  “Hey.” I was still staring.

  “This wasn’t for your benefit, perv,” Tatum said in a teasing voice as she looked over her shoulder. “I stole another Diet Coke and spilled part of it on the carpet when I was trying to drink and text at the same time.”

  “Hmm,” I leaned against the kitchen counter. “Karma, that’s what happens when you steal things that aren’t yours.”

  “Riiight.” She stood and faced me, her hands on her hips. “But I was fully planning on making dinner tonight, so technically, it wasn’t stealing because we’d be even.”

  I narrowed my eyes. “Dinner? What sort of dinner? Like dinner that comes in a box or dinner that you have to actually take time to prepare?”

  Her lips twisted into a snarky smile. “Careful, you’re drooling.”

  “Maybe I have reasons to drool that have nothing to do with dinner.” I snapped back. “Oh, also, looks like you missed a spot.”

  “Did I?” Her eyebrows shot up as she got back down on her hands and knees. “Over here?”

  “Farther.” I coughed.

  She moved the wet towel across the spot a few times. “I think it’s out.”

  “Scrub harder.” I grinned.

  The motion caused her ass to move back and forth, back and forth. I was hypnotizing myself. Perfect.

  “You know, the show isn’t free. Pay up.” She stood again and tossed the towel at me.

  “Wait, that was a show? I thought that was cleaning.”

  She rolled her eyes. “Finn just left.”

  “Yeah.” My voice cracked. “I saw him downstairs.”

  “He should be gone for at least two hours.” She closed the distance between us.

  I reached for her and then jerked back. “I need to talk to him first.”

  She sighed and hung her head. “Does that mean no sex?”

  I nearly choked. “Sex?”

  “Yeah, sex.” She licked her lips. “Did you need me to draw you a diagram?”

  I let out a snort. “Sweetheart, I can make you scream so many different ways that your voice will go hoarse.”

  Her pupils dilated. “OH?”

  “That wasn’t helpful, was it?” I grumbled and ran my hands through my hair in my typical nervous gesture.

  “Talking about screaming your name? No, not really helpful at all.” She smiled. “But, since we’re friends, I’ll let it go, we should still do something, though. You know, to occupy our hands and mouths.”

  My throat went dry. “I have so many responses to that in my head. All of them inappropriate.”

  “Figured.”

  I shrugged. “Let’s binge-watch a show, then when Finn gets back you can get your ass back into the kitchen where it belongs—”

  She flipped me off.

  “—and cook for the menfolk.”

  “Are you always this annoyingly condescending?”

  “Only when I’m trying not to pin you against the nearest sturdy su
rface and strip you naked with nothing but my teeth and bad intentions.”

  She gasped and then burst out laughing. “It’s gonna be a long two hours.”

  “You’re telling me.” I winked and then went over to the couch. “What show you wanna start?”

  “You pick.” She joined me just as I remembered the penguin.

  “I have a surprise for you.” I grabbed the box and handed it to her.

  Tatum’s blue eyes narrowed. “Is something going to jump out and scare the crap out of me?” She teased, and then her eyes filled with tears, she knew, I’d already told her, but it was cute that she wanted to play the guessing game.

  “No, but I’ll remember that for next time.”

  “Ah, there will be a next time? More gifts?”

  I smiled at that. “Always.”

  “Hmmmm.” She shook the box.

  I gave her a look of complete horror. “What if there’s a live animal in there, puppy killer?”

  She paled. “You got me a puppy?”

  “No, but if I did, you would have just killed it!”

  She ignored me and pulled open the box and then froze, her eyes locked onto the stuffed penguin. A slow smile spread across her face.

  “Slater.” Her voice was barely above a whisper. “It’s perfect.”

  “Please don’t cry.” I grabbed the box from her and set it down, then pulled her into my arms, the penguin squished between us. He had an orange and red scarf, and little pretend glasses on his nose. It was the only one Amazon had that hadn’t looked like it was plotting someone’s death.

  She pulled back and squeezed the penguin. “Thank you for making me feel better.”

  I brushed back some hair that had fallen across her right eye as a buzz of awareness snapped tight between us.

  “I like you,” I said it like the idiot I was, but I wanted her to know—needed her to know. “And I promise you I’m not going to treat you like Jackass Jack.”

  Tears filled her eyes. “He was a jackass.”

  “He basically forced you away from your own University after spreading rumors of your nonexistent sexcapades around social media,” I pointed out. “He deserves to get run over with his own car.”

  “Why his own car?”

  I offered a nonchalant shrug. “More demeaning.”

  She nodded. “You know almost everything there is to know about me since I’ve been confiding in you for the last year… but I feel like I don’t know anything about you.”

  My body stiffened. “Yeah, well…”

  “Good story.” She teased as she went over to the couch and sat, then patted the spot next to her.

  “You do realize that guys don’t just blurt out all their feelings, right? And I’m a man of few words.”

  She rolled her eyes. “You talk more than Finn, and he never shuts up.”

  “Is this our first fight?”

  She tossed her penguin at me. “Tell me something… about you.”

  “Well…” I took a deep breath. “I was a huge nerd in high school.”

  She gaped. “I don’t believe you, you’re like a sexual fly trap that buzzes too hot and catches way too many insects.”

  I tilted my head. “Thank you?”

  “It’s a compliment.” She burst out laughing.

  “Yes, that’s what I often think when people compare me to a fly trap,” I teased. “And I’m serious. I had no clue how to dress, had no confidence, and slouched, I was a sloucher.”

  She winced. “Which usually indicates a need to fit in.”

  “Exactly. Which only made me get picked on more.”

  “So, what happened? Did you hit a growth spurt or something?”

  I smiled back at the memory. “My sister told me to stop feeling sorry for myself and said if I wanted to change, that I was the only one who could do it. I hit the weights the next day, discovered Proactiv, God bless them, went to therapy, and invested in myself. I’ll admit it wasn’t all positive, like oh good job, wayta focus on you, screw the others. I wanted revenge. Which my sister warned me about.”

  Tatum pulled her knees to her stomach. “Did you get even?”

  “I kissed my crush in front of her boyfriend and walked away with her in my arms, the entire senior class saw, and the entire school had a new leader by the time the last bell rang.”

  She slow clapped. “That took balls!”

  “It did, but then it became all I cared about that year and all I cared about when I came to UW.” My gut clenched.

  She put her hand across mine. “I’m sensing this story doesn’t have a happy ending?”

  “She was my best friend.” I glanced up at Tatum. “My sister.”

  “Was? So, your sister who—”

  “Died,” I confirmed as my heart threatened to explode in my chest. God, I never talked about this, even last year when I was asked to re-join Wingmen Inc and I finally got over Knox dating her and, in my mind, sending her down a dark spiral even I couldn’t pull her out of.

  “She died of an accidental overdose. She’d been dating one of my best friends, and when they broke up, she just got worse. He was trying to get her help, and things were looking better, she’d been clean, but a psycho that went to school here was jealous of her, of the attention all of us gave her—Finn included—and she snapped, made it look like my sister did it on purpose. She was arrested last year, and we later found out there had been other victims. The woman was crazy.”

  Tatum gasped and covered her mouth with her hands. “I can’t believe it!”

  “Yeah.” I sighed. “That was three years ago, and last year I joined Wingmen again after a short hiatus. One of my friends—who’s now married to Knox by the way—helped me see the light and all that. She was almost hurt too.”

  “That just goes to show, you don’t really know what goes on behind closed doors or in people’s heads.”

  “Yeah.” I suddenly didn’t want to talk anymore.

  Tatum must have sensed that, though, because in a flash, she was crawling into my lap and throwing her arms around my neck. And then her mouth was on mine in a possessive kiss that was over way too soon. “Thank you for telling me.”

  I gripped her ass, my arousal was fast and evident, rubbing against her. “Thanks for listening.”

  Her eyes darted to my mouth. “I’ll get off.”

  “If I do it right, damn straight, you’ll get off. Screaming my name.”

  That bit of sleaziness earned me a light punch to my shoulder. “I meant I’ll get up.”

  “I’m already up.” I pushed against her again. “I really wish you wouldn’t leave.”

  She laughed and wiggled her ass.

  I bit back a groan and squeezed my eyes shut. “Damn, you feel good right there.”

  “You feel so hard.” Yeah, I was going to get so hard I’d have to go to the ER if she didn’t stop. “And big…”

  “Are you trying to kill me?” My voice cracked.

  “No.” She moved again. “You just feel… like everything.” She moved again.

  “Holy shit.” I could barely squeeze the words out. “Are you going to dry hump me then leave me with blue balls?”

  “Well, I wasn’t planning on it.” She smirked. “But, since you brought it up.”

  “Don’t you dare.” But even as I said it, I was pumping my hips up to meet her core. “This is a horrible idea.”

  “For you, maybe.” She moaned, the sound low and guttural in her throat, and closed her eyes as her head lolled back and to the side.

  That moan went straight to my aching dick, and I watched in rapt fascination as she moved against me like she was riding me. I was powerless to stop, and I was one hundred percent loving the view as I slid my hands under her sweatshirt and cupped her breasts over her sports bra.

  “You really think…” I tugged her bra up and nearly died when I touched skin. “…that you can get off like that?”

  “Oh, I know I can,” she said in a breathy voice. She smiled, even thou
gh her eyes were still closed.

  “Hmm, I’ll do you one better.” I gripped her by the ass and flipped her onto her back and hovered over her straddling her body as I slowly unzipped my jeans and pulled them low enough for her to see exactly what she needed to finish her little experiment. “Lay back and close your eyes.”

  “Are you seducing me now?”

  “No, I’m going to get you off without touching you.”

  “That’s physically impossible.”

  “My hands won’t be touching you, but other parts that hate me right now are going to be avid participants.” I bent over and kissed her hard on the mouth and pulled down my jeans more, then pulled myself free from my briefs.

  She let out a little gasp, and then I was between her legs. All of me, sliding against her roughly, I would hate myself later, but right now? Worth it.

  “You see?” I whispered in her ear as I lightly kissed her neck. “Your leggings are just thin enough that you can feel my heat, can feel how hard I am for you, and with each thrust, your anticipation will build until you can’t take it anymore.”

  Already she was moving against me, gripping my shirt and pulling me closer.

  “That’s it, take what you need, Tatum,” I encouraged, sealing that promise with a kiss as I rocked hard against her.

  I went faster.

  She gasped into my mouth and bit down on my lip. Her entire body went rigid, and then she whispered my name against my tongue.

  And all I could think was… worth it.

  Totally worth it to be miserable and needing release.

  With a shudder, she opened her eyes, locked them onto mine. “That was intense.”

  “Mmm…” I kissed her nose. “Imagine what it would be like with no clothes.”

  “Explosive,” she said quickly and then pressed her mouth to mine in a thankful kiss. “You make me feel both sexy and comfortable in my own skin.”

  I kissed her back. “Good.”

  Tatum reached for me, and as much as I wanted her to grip me hard with her delicate fingers, I knew, I was already taking things too far—already had several times, and my self-control was so far past slipping. “If you touch me, I won’t be able to stop, Tatum, and we need to, I need to. He’s my family; he’s—like a brother.”

  “I know.” She cupped my face with her hands. “I know.”

  I pulled away from her, tugged my jeans back up, and tried to think about something that would cool my arousal. War, disease, wildfires, famine, endangered animals, penguins in glasses, kitties… cute, soft, furry kitties, warm purring cuddly—damn it! For any right-angled triangle, the square of the length of the hypotenuse… ah, thank you, Pythagoras, for your theory on triangles.