Tempt Me

by Claire Raye

  “Charlie’s a girl,” I quip back. “And even if she were a guy, I’m pretty sure Adam wouldn’t care. We don’t really thrive on that whole jealousy thing.” I start to walk toward the exit to the office, looking back at Adam I add, “I’m gonna go grab my food. I’ll be right back.”

  When I return Liv is gone and Adam is back highlighting away on the paper in front of him. I set a coffee down next to him and kiss the top of his head.

  “Oh, you’re seriously the best,” he groans, pulling me into his lap and burying his face in my neck. “I’m dead arse tired and I’ve got to finish this up.” He tosses the highlighter onto the desk, both hands free now as he cups my face and kisses me.

  “No problem. I’m going to hang out with Charlie tonight, so no sleepovers, okay?” I tease, pinching his side.

  “Mila, you don’t play fair. You come in here, your ass against my hard dick and you tell me I can’t sneak into your bedroom tonight?” he growls into my ear, his hand slipping under my sweatshirt to grab my breast.

  “Okay, you can sneak into my bedroom, but you can’t have me before then,” I tell him, setting down some firm, but playful rules. He absolutely knows I would never turn down the opportunity to have his muscled body wrapped around me at night. I’ve never trusted a guy like I trust Adam. The safety and comfort I feel with him is something I know I will always want.

  “Fine. And can we talk about how you didn’t even fucking care that Liv was in here all desperate and shit?” His head falls back, groaning out loud. “So fucking hot.”

  “No reason to be jealous,” I reply, shrugging. “It’ll be my bed you’re in tonight, with my hand wrapped around your rock-hard cock, jerking you off, but stopping just long enough to make you oh so fucking desperate for me.”

  “Mila,” Adam hisses in reprimand. “Your filthy little mouth needs to stop or I’m going to be fucking you against this desk.”

  “My panties are wet just thinking about it.”

  Chapter Twenty

  Adam

  Mila’s alarm cuts into the silence of her room. She stirs beside me, mumbling something as she rolls over and buries her face against my chest. It’s still early and fuck knows it was late when I came home from work, stopping by my apartment only to shower before using the key Mila had given me to let myself into her apartment. She’d been dozing when I’d stripped off my clothes and slid into bed beside her and I’d been content to just pull her into my arms and fall asleep. But Mila had other ideas and I sure as hell wasn’t about to say no. I don’t know what time it was when we finally did fall asleep, but it was definitely late.

  “I feel like I’m a bad influence on you,” I murmur, pulling her closer.

  She kisses my chest. “No.”

  I chuckle, my eyes still closed, wishing we could both stay here all day. “Yeah, you have class and despite my best intentions, I kept you up all night.”

  “Definitely worth it,” she breathes out, making me smile.

  I’m not going to lie, it’s shit the way our schedules essentially run on opposite time zones, but for the past week, ever since we admitted to each other that we were all in on this, we’ve been trying to make the most of it. We’re still going to kickboxing a couple of mornings a week and we also try to catch up between her classes during the day. The nights that I don’t work, we hang out, mostly at her place, while the nights that I do, I come over when I get home, using my newly acquired key to her apartment just so we can spend the night together.

  All of it has been unexpected, but amazing, even if I know both of us wish we could have more time together.

  “I can make you some coffee,” I say, turning to press a kiss to the top of her head.

  Mila groans as she slowly pulls herself from my arms. “Stay and sleep. No reason for both of us to be up.”

  Despite her suggestion, I open my eyes just in time to see her stand from the bed and stretch, her naked body so fucking beautiful and a temptation that has me wanting to drag her back between the sheets and convince her to skip class. She glances over her shoulder, catching me looking and she smirks.

  “What?” I say with a laugh, tucking my hands behind my head. “Just enjoying the view.”

  Grinning, she grabs the duvet, pulling it down until it’s very low on my hips. “Me too,” she whispers, before slowly pulling it even lower to reveal my morning hard-on. Mila’s eyes widen, her gaze dropping lower as she licks her lips.

  “Fuck,” I murmur as I reach for her, my fingers gripping her hip. “I take it back, you’re the bad influence.”

  Mila laughs, grabbing my boxers and t-shirt from the floor as her hand now slips over my hip, her fingers curling around my dick. “Maybe,” she whispers, pressing a quick kiss to my lips. “But you can also be a bad boy.” Then she pulls back, slipping on my clothes and walking out of her room.

  Groaning, I scrub my hands down my face, wondering if I can possibly convince her she has time for a morning quickie. I grab my sweats from the floor, pulling them up as I try to readjust my stiffy. It’s no use, it’s fucking obvious I have one, so I slip out of her room and head down to the kitchen.

  Mila is standing with her back to me, making coffee as I walk up and slip my arms around her waist, pressing my body flush against hers so she can feel exactly what she’s just done to me. “And you are a very, very naughty girl,” I whisper as I trail my tongue up the side of her neck.

  Mila laughs, all breathy and sexy as fuck as she pushes her arse against me. Groaning, I slip a hand over her hip and under my t-shirt, before sneaking my fingers inside the waistband of my boxers she’s wearing and move lower.

  “Oh jesus, I mean it’s bad enough I have to listen to you two all night, but now this! And before coffee, for fuck’s sake!” Charlie half shouts as she stands in the kitchen doorway, glaring at us, even as she fights a smile.

  I burst out laughing, one hand between Mila’s legs, the other pressing on her stomach as I hold her against me. “Morning, Charlie,” I say, grinning at her.

  She smirks at me. “Morning, Adam,” she says in a singsong way, her eyes widening as she makes a point of looking at Mila’s crotch.

  “Charlie!” Mila shouts and I burst out laughing, removing my hand and turning us so I am leaning against the bench, Mila in front of me and hiding the evidence of just what she does to me.

  “So last day today, right?” I ask, attempting to make regular early morning conversation despite the fact that I’m hard and I now know Mila is wet.

  Charlie laughs, walking into the kitchen and grabbing the coffee pot. “Yep, and then a week of no classes, thank fuck,” she says dramatically.

  “Any plans tonight then?” I ask, wrapping my arms around Mila’s shoulders. She leans her head against my bare chest, rubbing her arse against my dick in what I’m sure is a deliberate move to fuck with me.

  “Yeah, there’s a big party actually, heard about it from someone in my class,” Charlie says, looking at Mila. “Are we going or are we not going?”

  Mila shrugs, her hands holding onto my forearms. “I don’t know, what do you think?”

  “We should go,” I blurt out.

  “Wait, what?” Mila says, looking up at me. “Aren’t you working?”

  “Nope,” I say, shaking my head. “Took the night off.”

  She smiles up at me, a look of surprise on her face that’s quickly replaced with something else, happiness maybe. “And you’d want to go to this party?”

  “Sure, if you want to go, I’ll come.”

  Mila smirks now. “Even if you showing up means all these underage college kids think they won’t get carded at The Last Drop,” she says, repeating my previous excuse for not coming to her party.

  I unwrap one arm, slipping it down to pinch her on the arse. “Ha ha, smart arse,” I tease. “But if you don’t want me to come, that’s cool.”

  “I didn’t say that,” she says quickly, looking back at Charlie. “What do you
think? Should we go?”

  Charlie grins at both of us, rocking on her heels a little as she sips her coffee. “Are you fucking kidding me. Us, showing up with the bartender from The Last Drop, hell yes we’re going!”

  I burst out laughing. “Glad I can give you some street cred, Charlie,” I say with a wink.

  She winks back at me. “As long as you two don’t mind me being your third wheel?” she asks, and despite her playful tone, I can hear the genuine worry.

  “Are you kidding me,” I quickly mimic back. “Me rocking up with you two gorgeous girls? Hell yes!”

  Charlie laughs, as Mila leans back and kisses my jaw, murmuring, “Thank you.”

  “Easy done,” I say, turning my face into Mila’s neck. I press a wet kiss to her skin before trailing my tongue up to her ear where I whisper. “So, I’m going back to bed. You can come join me if you wanna finish what you started earlier cheeky girl.”

  Then I smack her on the butt and turn and walk out of the room, laughing when I hear Charlie yell, “Adam, seriously, do you have like a hot brother I can have?”

  The party is in full swing when we rock up to a house that I recognize as being a couple of doors down from where Caleb used to live. I’m guessing right now, he’s pretty fucking grateful he doesn’t live here anymore given the hordes of drunken uni students that are all in full-blown celebration mode.

  I imagine the bar is pumping too, but I’d asked Caleb ages ago if I could have tonight off, not mentioning it was because I was hoping to spend it with Mila. We still haven’t actually told him or Ruby that we’re together. Not because we’re trying to hide it, it’s just never come up nor has there been a time when they’ve seen us together.

  I’m guessing he’ll find out eventually and I’m hoping he’s cool with it. Ruby too.

  “It’s ten dollars each,” some jacked up football player says as we reach the front door.

  I laugh, shaking my head because parties are not like this back home as I slip my wallet from my back pocket and hand him three tens. He gives me a weird look and I can’t tell if it’s because he recognizes me from the bar or he’s wondering why I’m covering two girls and what I’m getting in return for it.

  Ignoring him, I grab hold of both Mila and Charlie’s hands and the three of us head inside. There are people everywhere, some of them familiar from the bar, others, faces I’ve never seen before. We get a look of looks as we make our way toward the back of the house, where someone yelled the keg was, and I’m pretty sure most people here recognize me.

  “Give us three,” I say to the guy standing beside the keg.

  He looks up, his eyes widening. “Holy shit, you work at The Last Drop,” he says. “Fuck, can you get us some—”

  I shake my head, cutting him off as I say, “Not tonight I don’t and no I can’t.”

  We take the beers he hands us and make our way out to the back yard. Someone has strung up a shit load of fairy lights and dragged some speakers out here and there are people milling about everywhere, couples making out in dark corners.

  “So, this is a US college party, huh?” I say, leaning against the deck railing. I pull Mila so she’s in front of me, wrapping an arm around her shoulders as Charlie stands beside us.

  “You don’t have parties like this?” Mila asks, glancing up at me.

  I take a sip of the shitty warm beer, forcing it down even though it tastes like shit. “Yeah, we do. I mean we don’t usually have kegs and pretty much everyone’s old enough to drink, so I guess it’s a little different. But yeah, still the same in that it’s filled with drunk people hooking up or doing dumb shit.”

  “What sort of dumb shit did you do?” Charlie asks, sipping on her beer.

  I laugh, shaking my head. “Oh, too much to tell you two, that’s for sure.”

  “Hey,” Mila says, elbowing me in the stomach. “Come on, tell us,”

  Chuckling, I lean down and kiss the side of her neck as I squeeze her closer. “I mean we used to have shopping trolley races down the street, that was pretty fucking dumb.”

  “Shopping what?” Charlie asks, turning to face us.

  I laugh, forcing another sip of beer down. “Shopping cart you guys call it,” I say. “We’d steal a couple from the local supermarket, and I had this one friend who lived on a hill. We’d usually pile two guys into the trolley, while a third pushed and then jumped on as we coasted down the hill, trying to beat the others. Fucking dangerous, that’s for sure.”

  “Did anyone ever get hurt?”

  “Oh my god, all the fucking time,” I laugh. “I’m pretty sure I remember at least three broken arms and many, many missing teeth.”

  “Did you ever get hurt?” Mila asks.

  I smile. “No, I was smart and was always doing the pushing. At least then you could jump out of the way when shit got real,” I say, stealing a kiss.

  “Well, well, well, look who’s here.”

  I look up to see Reid and Sienna standing in front of us, both of them with huge smiles on their faces as they take in the three of us standing together, me and Mila obviously in a way that screams we’re a couple.

  “Hey,” I say, nodding to both of them, even as I pull Mila tighter against me. “How’s it going?”

  Reid smirks as he pulls Sienna into his side. “We’re good. How are you?” he asks, his eyes flicking from me to Mila in an exaggerated way.

  I laugh, even as Mila rolls her eyes at him and says, “Yes, we are together. Is my sister here too?”

  Sienna laughs. “No, she’s not. Caleb’s working, so I think she took a shift at the center,” she says. “So, don’t worry, your secret’s safe with us.”

  “It’s not a secret,” I say with a shrug.

  Charlie bursts out laughing. “Bullshit it’s not,” she says. “Do you forget how you asked me not to come to family dinner night,” she adds, looking pointedly at Mila.

  “What?!” Sienna shouts. “You told her not to come?”

  Mila groans, putting a hand over her eyes as she says, “She has a big mouth, and I didn’t…we didn’t know what…or…”

  I laugh, leaning down to kiss her jaw as I say, “It was kinda new and we were just, I don’t know, trying to work things out. So yeah, we weren’t hiding it, but we weren’t advertising it either.”

  Reid nods, giving me a look as he says, “You know Caleb and Ruby totally hid it from us when they hooked up. Fuckers acted like they weren’t together long after they were. You should totally fuck with them too.”

  “Yes!” Sienna shouts, clapping her hands together. “Do it!”

  Charlie laughs, even as Mila shakes her head. “I don’t wanna hide this,” she says, glancing up at me.

  I meet her gaze, her beautiful brown eyes dark in the low light of the backyard. I don’t miss the truth in them though or the way she looks at me, the way she tells me without words that she’s all in on this thing between us just like I am.

  Smiling, I lean down to press a soft kiss to her lips. “I don’t want to either,” I whisper, so only she can hear. “I want the world to know you’re mine, Mila.”

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Mila

  “I think I’m going to go home for the week,” Charlie says, yawning, stretching her arms over her head as she stops in front of the kitchen table where I’m currently sitting. “I’m kinda homesick.” She pushes out her bottom lip and flops down in the chair across from me.

  “Charlie, I’m sorry,” I say, feeling horribly guilty because I’ve seriously neglected our friendship since this whole thing went down with Adam. Charlie and I have always spent a ton of time together, barely being apart since we met in high school. “Is this because of Adam?”

  “Fuck no,” she barks out. “You know how I am.” She shakes her head as if trying to dismiss her feelings. “After everything, sometimes I just want to be at home.”

  Charlie was the reason I decided to stay close to home when we went away to sch
ool. It was her first choice to go to school in Tahoe and I really didn’t care either way. We made the decision together, reminding each other that we made this silly pact back when we were freshman. But when the time came, nothing about our pact seemed silly and we followed through.

  When shit got real for me and I decided I was going to transfer to Hawthorn at the last minute, Charlie jumped in to join me, no questions asked.

  “Yeah, I get that,” I say, knowing she’s been through some hard ass shit in her life. Sometimes I think it’s why we’ve stood by each other all this time. “But if you ever feel like I’m spending too much time with Adam, just say it. I’ll hang out with you whenever you want.”

  “I know you will and I’m holding you to it to find me someone who owns a pizza place,” she jokes, smiling now. “My dad booked me a flight for today, so I don’t have to make the drive on my own.”

  “It’s going to be lonely here all week without you,” I admit, because even though I have Adam, I have a different relationship with Charlie. There’s a comfort there that comes with knowing each other for as long as we have.

  “I know. I’ll miss you terribly. I can’t remember the last time we spent an entire week apart,” she whines, and I nod, feeling a wave of sadness ripple through me. I need to find her a boyfriend and not just to ease her loneliness, but so we can force our boyfriends to be best friends too.

  “Any plans for when you get home?” I ask, making conversation now.

  “I think I’ll probably ski. I haven’t been since we left Tahoe and my season pass is still good. Other than that, nothing much. Lay around, eat too much, consume a bunch of TV and sleep in my childhood bedroom. It’ll probs be weird and I’ll want to come back here in a day or two.”

  I shrug, totally understanding. It’s weird when you go away to school. You miss home so much but once you’re back there, it’s a fucking nightmare.