by Claire Raye
Charlie handles everything.
Me: hey. you up yet?
Charlie: you get laid yet?
Me: LOL no, smartass. You ok? The house trashed?
Charlie: all good here and it’s not awful. Could use a mop and bucket though.
Me: I’ll be home soon and I’ll clean.
Charlie: Nah. Have fun with Adam. I kept a boy over to help. ;)
Me: Charlie!
Charlie: Dude, settle down. He slept on the couch. I wouldn’t even let him sleep in your bed. I told him you died, and I was mourning your loss.
Me: You’re horrible, you know that, right?
Charlie: And like they aren’t equally as horrible? Be lucky you have Adam who isn’t fucking groping you with his drunk hands. It’s the server from Stella’s. I have zero interest in him, but he doesn’t need to know that.
Me: You’re far too good at this game. I’ll be home after breakfast.
Charlie: <3
I’m still scrolling through my phone when Adam steps out of the bathroom, a towel wrapped around his waist, as he hits me with a cheeky grin from down the hall.
“You’re still here,” he says, almost sounding shocked that I didn’t cowardly run back home.
“There’s food. Who leaves when there’s an offer of food?”
Adam chuckles. “See that, I should’ve known it was about the food and not me.” He disappears into his bedroom, leaving me with images of his gorgeously muscular and tattooed body doing all sorts of dirty things to my body. I picture my tongue tracing every inch of his tattoos, making him moan out my name.
What the fuck is wrong with me?
“I ordered us breakfast because your fridge looks like you’re cool with starving to death,” I call to Adam, trying to get my mind out of the gutter as it once again pictures him naked.
“I eat at the bar a lot,” he defends, but I know that isn’t entirely true. If he were eating bar food on a regular basis, he wouldn’t look like a fucking Adonis with his shirt off.
“You rich, Adam?” I yell out. “Like you got a personal chef and a trainer, which would explain why you look like that with your shirt off.”
“Mila, your mind is something I’m never going to understand,” he calls back, rounding the corner as he comes out of his bedroom. “But no, not rich, no personal chef, no personal trainer. I just tend to buy what I want to eat and cook it that day.”
“So, what was your brekkie plan then?” I ask, tilting my head to the side and giving him a questioning look as he leans back against the counter, standing across from me.
“I didn’t really have a plan, because I had no idea I’d wake up next to you this morning.”
“A good surprise or a bad one?” I ask tentatively, wondering if this thing that’s been happening between us is just harmless flirting or if there’s really something here.
“Every day I see you is a good surprise. It would be nice if we made it a regular thing,” he now admits, and I’m knocked on my ass. I should respond with something equally sweet but of course I’m an idiot.
“You jerk off in the shower?” is what comes out of my mouth instead and I should seriously be ashamed of myself.
“You rub one out on my couch?” he hits back and fuck me, if I don’t love this guy.
“Maybe I did.” I step a little closer to him as he shifts against the counter, moving closer to me too.
“It’s either going to be really hard to fall asleep tonight or really easy,” he responds, smirking and hitting me with a wink.
“I hope it’s hard,” I whisper back, seduction in every word.
“It won’t be the only thing that’s hard,” he murmurs, and instinctively my eyes fall between his legs, wondering exactly what it would be like to wrap my hand around him.
“Why the hell are you single?” I now ask, needing to change the subject. I narrow my eyes, examining him as if I can read what is going on inside his head.
“Baggage. Why are you single?” he plays back, wetting his lips, the tip of his tongue slipping out and making my stomach flutter in a way that hasn’t happened in so long.
“Baggage,” I reply, echoing his word and it causes a sly smile to spread across his face.
“We may just be perfect for each other.”
The buzzer to his apartment sounds, cutting right through the electricity that is currently sparking between us. The room feels like it’s burning down around us, and I couldn’t give a shit.
“Brekkie?” I say and Adam nods, smirking at my use of his nickname for breakfast, which I’ve recently decided is now part of my vocabulary.
Monday morning comes too quickly, and I find myself back in the same place I’ve been for the last few Mondays…class. It’s funny to me that I’ve gotten my shit together to go on a regular basis, but something about it feels right. With Adam’s encouragement to declare my major and starting my first anatomy class, it would be like I’m letting him down if I don’t go. Plus, I think he needs this too. Studying with me and helping me out, feels like it keeps him connected to what I’m guessing he misses.
I’m walking back from class when I pass a sign outside a door in a strip mall just a few blocks down from my apartment. It’s advertising kickboxing and I have no idea why, but I stop in and sign myself up for three lessons.
“Will you have a partner?” the woman behind the desk asks and I’m silent for a few seconds. “It’s okay if you don’t. We always have someone here you can work with, but it is more fun with someone else.”
“I think I will,” I tell her, reminding myself about Adam’s comment the day before.
It would be nice if we made it a regular thing.
I have no idea if Adam will come with me to the class, but it’s something that doesn’t involve us being alone together and the more we’re alone, the more likely we’re going to cross that line. It’s also probably a good thing for me to get to know him outside the bedroom and what better way than with our clothed bodies all sweaty and possibly pressed up against each other.
When I get back to my apartment, I head straight for Adam’s door, knocking and waiting with a nervous energy sparking. I chew a little on my bottom lip, picking off the loose skin as my fingers run through my hair, needing something to keep busy.
“Mila,” he croons, when he opens the door, his face practically lighting up when he realizes it’s me. “Guess you took my words to heart yesterday.”
“It’s not just you who wants to make it a regular thing,” I answer back, slipping past, and he lets his fingers trail across my hip as I walk through the door and into his apartment.
“How was class today?” he asks, and I can tell he’s trying to keep it casual.
“Fine. You ever take a kickboxing class?” I now ask, the subject changing quickly.
“I have. Have you?”
“No, but I just signed up for three classes. What do you think?”
He looks me over, his eyes trailing from my face, down my body and I swallow hard, wanting him to answer with yes, but realizing he may just say no. It’s pretty bold of me to sign us up and assume he’ll say yes. If he doesn’t, I can always convince Charlie to go with me and have her embarrass my ass with how effortlessly she’ll work through the classes.
“You going to be kicking my ass?” he questions, a bit of playful skepticism lingering in his voice.
“I’d much prefer it be you on top of me,” I say, clearly disregarding what I told myself about getting to know him outside the bedroom. I’m a disaster and he’s far too hot to not think about what it would be like to have his body on top of mine.
“Since you put it that way, I’m in.”
I’m playing a really dangerous game, one that I know I might not be able to come back from and at this moment, I don’t even care.
After falling asleep on the couch with Adam and knowing nothing happened between us, makes me feel far more comfortable than I expected. He’s different and his expe
ctations of me and of us are beyond anything I’ve experienced in the past year. He’s looking for a partner, a friend, someone to spend time with, and that’s what I should be looking for too. The flirting is an added bonus, and it definitely makes me want to take things further, makes me comfortable with going there. All I hope is I’m ready for what that all means.
Am I ready? I have no idea.
“We start tomorrow at six a.m. You got it in you to be up that early?” I ask, my mind wandering to waking up next to him the other morning. “I could always spend the night, so you don’t oversleep.” The offer comes out of my mouth before I can stop it. I seriously need someone to walk around slapping a hand over my mouth every time I find it necessary to flirt with this boy. Maybe that will teach me.
“I’m certain I don’t need you spending the night,” Adam states flatly. “You have no idea…” He shakes his head, but his wicked grin returns, and I step between his legs as he stands back against the counter.
With my lips nearly touching his, the lightest of brushes causing goosebumps to dot my skin, I whisper against his mouth, “I have a very good idea, especially after you kissed me.”
“I have no self-control when it comes to you,” he growls, his hand reaching out, slipping under my shirt. The second his skin touches mine it’s like nothing I’ve ever felt before and his touch seers my already sensitive flesh. He grips my hip, his fingers cutting into my skin in a way that screams at me to take things further. Be the one to kiss him this time.
“Your self-control seems just fine to me,” I respond, mimicking his movements, my hand slipping under his t-shirt, my fingers trailing along his flat, rock hard stomach.
Without warning, Adam’s hand tangles in my hair, his fingers tightening around the back of my neck as he pulls my head to the side. His mouth connects with my skin, my pulse beating hard and fast, thumping under where his lips are currently sucking and biting at me.
“Holy fucking shit,” I murmur, my knees weak and my panties suddenly very wet. I’ve got to put some distance between us, or this is going to go to hell.
I feel him grow hard, pressing against my hip and there’s something about it that turns me on far more than I already am. His body’s response to mine, perfect and sexy and so fucking hot. I grind against him and the groan that falls from his mouth encourages me.
My fingers slide into the front of his shorts, and the second my hand wraps around his hard length, I swear I’m going to come on the spot without him ever touching me.
“Mila,” he groans, sucking harder at my neck, marking me and I couldn’t give a single fuck. I want him all over my body, leaving marks and reminding me what it feels like to have someone want you so desperately.
I thought when this moment finally happened, I’d have second thoughts, that I’d be nervous or scared even, but with Adam it all feels so right. The response his body has to mine encourages me as my body screams out to take things further. I’m a jumbled mess of want and need and desperation and confusion.
But just when I think he’s about to take things further, there’s a knock at his door. We both stop, my hand still wrapped around his impressive length, his eyes now on me.
“That’s your sister and Caleb,” he whispers, his forehead falling against mine.
“You’re telling me that my sister is outside that door and we’re currently in here with my hand wrapped around your dick.”
He smirks against my mouth, making me giggle a little as he nips at my swollen bottom lip. “All it would take is a couple of tugs and I’ll be coming all over your hand. We have time. They can wait,” he halfheartedly jokes, a seriousness dancing between us.
“But what if I don’t want you to come all over my hand?” My tongue pokes out tracing his lips. “What if I want you to come in my mouth. Or even better, what if…” I trail off seductively, wondering what the hell is going on and why I am even doing this. I don’t want this, not like this, not in a way that makes me the subject of something I don’t know if I can even follow through on. But it’s easier this way. Flirting keeps me in control and puts me in charge of what happens next.
“Jesus, fuck, Mila,” Adam growls, making me laugh again. I love that a few simple words can make him squirm, wanting me even more than he already does.
“Adam, man, you ready?” Caleb yells now, pounding on the door.
“Should I hide in the closet?” I ask, a cheeky smile on my face as I reach around and grab his ass.
“I’d rather you just make your way to my bedroom, but I made plans with Ruby and Caleb and as much as it’s going to fucking kill me to do this, I gotta go.”
I push my bottom lip out, pouting dramatically as I slide my hand off his dick and out of his shorts. His head falls back, his chest rising and falling rapidly, and I know he’s doing his best to walk away from me right now.
“Fix yourself up and answer the door,” I say, pushing up so my lips are next to his ear. “You look like you’ve been caught jerking off.”
I start to walk away, heading toward the door when Adam grabs my wrist, yanking me back to him.
“Don’t you fucking walk away from me,” he hisses, taking my face in his hands and kissing me hard. All the air leaves my lungs, and I’m gasping to breathe. He exhales into my mouth, his tongue tangling with mine, and right now I know there’s no one else in the world I’d rather be with than Adam Cooper.
“Seriously, dude. You in there?” Caleb calls out, Adam’s phone chiming away in his pocket.
“Yeah, sorry, coming!” he yells back.
“You would’ve been coming if—” I start, suddenly silenced by Adam’s hand gliding up the inside of my thigh, stopping when he reaches exactly where I need him to touch me.
“Be here when I get home,” he orders and all I can do is nod in response, everything I ever had control over is long fucking gone.
Chapter Fourteen
Adam
“Dude, what took you so long?” Caleb asks when I finally open the front door.
“Sorry,” I reply, shoving a rough hand through my hair, “was in the bathroom.”
Caleb gives me a weird look, like he can tell my answer is bullshit.
“Should we see if Mila wants to come?” Ruby asks, turning to her apartment door.
Fuck me, that is the last thing I need after what just went down in my kitchen. I wasn’t kidding when I said I have no self-control when it comes to this girl. It has officially fucked off and left the building.
And I know that the one thing I’ve been denying myself for the past year, the one thing I’ve stupidly thought I could actually stop from happening is all about to come crashing down the second I get home tonight.
“I think she’s in class,” I blurt out, before Ruby has a chance to knock.
Ruby turns to me. “Really, you know her schedule?”
I shrug. “Vaguely,” I lie, knowing her class schedule is currently stuck on the front of my fridge after she slipped in under my front door a couple of weeks ago.
Ruby smiles. “I’m so glad she’s going.”
I start walking toward the lift, desperate to get away from the temptation of what’s in my apartment. “Yeah, she seems to be really enjoying it,” I say, pushing the lift button several times in a bid to hurry it up.
Ruby puts a hand on my arm. “Thank you.”
“For what?” I ask, as the doors finally open and we all step in.
“All the help you’re giving her.”
I lean back against the wall, crossing my arms over my chest. Glancing at Caleb, I shake my head at the smirk he gives me before turning to smile at Ruby. “It’s no problem, seriously.”
“Well, I appreciate it and I know Mila does too,” she continues. “She seemed so lost when she got here and I just…I don’t know…”
“She just needed to find her way, that’s all. I get it,” I say as Ruby smiles at me again. In a bid to change the subject, I say, “So do we need
to get anything from the shops or we good to go on with the painting?”
“Nah, we’ve got everything,” Caleb says as we walk out to their car which is parked in front of the building. “Thanks again for helping us out with this.”
“No problem,” I reply, even though this is now the last thing I want to be doing. When I agreed to help Caleb repaint the new house they’ve just bought, I hadn’t expected to have Mila walk into my apartment and practically beg me to take her to bed. I hadn’t expected to want to take her there either. But the truth is, I do.
Really fucking badly.
When we get to the house, which is only a short drive away, but in the suburbs as opposed to close to campus, Reid and Sienna are already inside, painting the walls of the living room, music playing and a couple of beers sitting on boxes in the middle of the otherwise empty room.
“Hey, dude,” Reid calls, waving a paint brush in hello. “Thanks for this.”
“No probs,” I reply, throwing a wave in his and Sienna’s direction.
It’s amazing they’ve managed to buy this house after they just bought the bar together and once again I have to wonder how the hell they managed to do it. I have this vague recollection of Caleb mentioning family money, but I never really asked too many questions about it.
Caleb hands me a roller and paint tray, pointing me in the direction of the dining room. “You good in here?” he asks.
“Yep,” I reply, glancing around at the large room.
Caleb nods. “Help yourself to beers, there’s a cooler in the living room.”
“All good, thanks,” I reply, as I turn and start painting the walls, wondering how long this is going to take and whether Mila really will still be waiting in my apartment when I get home like I told her to.
“Fuck,” Caleb mutters as he walks into the dining room, just as I’m finishing up the last wall.
“What’s up?”
“Ugh, something at the bar, I gotta go down,” he says, glancing at his phone.
I look at the time, surprised to see I’ve been here for several hours. “You want me to go?” I ask, knowing it’s on my way home and there’s still more to be done here.
