Before he could formulate an answer, there was another round of gunfire behind her.
“Shit.” She reached forward, grabbed a fistful of his T-shirt, and yanked him into her apartment.
Again, he ducked his head just in time. “Damn, woman. Need me to familiarize you with the words won’t you come in?”
But she was already gone, racing across the apartment and flinging herself into one of the two gaming chairs. The gaming chair.
He froze just inside the door and stared at the low-to-the ground, leather chair. Images from less than twenty-four hours ago flicked through his mind like a flip-book. He rubbed the fingers of one hand over his chin, his five o’clock shadow audibly rasping against his skin.
Cassidy was furiously pounding buttons on a game controller, her green eyes wide and locked to the screen. Her nose was, of course, wrinkled. She had seemingly no idea that he was remembering precisely what she’d looked like naked with her legs spread and his fingers on her clit.
There was a loud groan from the screen, and then the light flickering over Cassidy’s features went dark.
“Fuck.” She dropped the controller in her lap and flopped back into the chair, shoving a hand through her wild hair. She glared up at him. “I died.”
Well. This was a new level of awkward he’d never shared with a woman before. “I’m . . . sorry?”
“I’d forgive you if you had pizza, but—” She gestured at him and his notable lack of a greasy, square box with a dismissive flick of her fingers.
Time to leave. “I forgot my jacket.” He jerked his chin at the back of her chair, over which his jacket rested exactly as he’d placed it last night before taking off his clothes. Don’t think about that!
She turned and looked. “Oh.” She pushed to her feet, freed his jacket from the back of the chair, and began walking his way. “I hadn’t even seen it there.”
He tried valiantly not to notice how her breasts swayed beneath her thin tank top—he truly did—but it was a losing battle. She stopped right before him abruptly, giving her breasts a particularly jaunty bounce. “Here you go.” She thrust the jacket forward, and Gage just barely bit back a groan before it hit the open air. Was she trying to torture him?
He took his jacket from her without a word and took a step backward toward the still-open door. Two seconds until freedom. And then he could put this whole night behind him.
He took another step, and Cassidy snapped her fingers. “Wait! I need you!”
What?
She snatched his jacket from his hands.
“Hey,” he protested weakly.
“Come on.” Kicking the door closed, she tucked his jacket to her side and grabbed his hand with her free one.
He stared down at their joined hands stupidly as she tugged him across the living room. Her hand was so tiny in his, her pale skin and freckles looking good against his tan.
As though he hadn’t seen his skin against countless women’s.
Now, I’m truly losing it.
She stopped and gave his chest a small shove, and he toppled backward into the other gaming chair. At his height, it was a pretty treacherous surprise fall, and his heart was pounding by the time his butt met leather. She thrust a controller into his hands and dropped his jacket to the floor between the chairs. As she hustled over to her chair, he surreptitiously arranged his jacket so it wouldn’t crease.
“So, there was this bug in two-player mode on my list.” She flopped into her chair. “I think I fixed it today, but I need a wingman to help me test it.”
He stared down at the controller. Were any of those words supposed to make sense? “Okay,” he said slowly.
She pressed a couple of buttons and flicked him a glance before looking at the screen again. “You do game, right?”
At least that he’d understood. Gage shrugged. He’d been doing other things, like surviving, around the age he would have picked up an affinity for gaming.
Cassidy puffed out a breath. “Okay, I’ll keep you from dying. Just stick close.”
This was not part of the plan. “Well, actually—”
Gunfire erupted from the TV. He jumped in his seat, his gaze jerking to the screen. A man was jumping toward their characters. In reflex, Gage mashed every button his thumbs could find on his controller in quick succession. The gun the female character was holding erupted with its own spate of fire, and the attacker fell to the ground.
“Nice one.” Cassidy pressed a button, and her character, the male, ran forward and began rifling the dead guy’s body.
“Jesus,” Gage muttered. “You can steal stuff off dead people?”
Cassidy turned her head slowly, her green eyes finding his. “Wow, you really don’t game, do you?”
He cocked an eyebrow. “My reluctance to rob the deceased gave it away?”
Her nose wrinkled. “Yeah, you pussy.”
A laugh burst from his chest. “Oh yes. I’m such a pussy.”
She smiled, and he was horrified to find his heart rate speed in response. “Come on, newb,” she said. “The bug is just around the corner. Help me make sure it’s fixed, and you can go.”
He shifted his gaze to the screen again. Cassidy’s character was done going through the bad guy’s pockets, and both he and Gage’s lady avatar were standing around looking bored. “I guess I could do that.”
No sooner had the last word left his mouth than Cassidy was moving her character forward. “Great.”
And he had no idea what happened next, but suddenly it was several hours later. The sunrise was streaming through the cracks in Cassidy’s blinds, and their avatars were standing before the final bad guy of the game.
Gage couldn’t remember a time he’d had more fun with a woman.
Well, maybe last night.
The sudden wave of tension from Cassidy’s general direction distracted him from his thoughts. He didn’t look at her, however. He didn’t want to miss whatever happened next in the game.
As he watched, the guy they were to kill raised a gun and pointed it at Cassidy’s character. Gage’s controller buzzed in his hands, nearly making him drop it. It wouldn’t have mattered if he did, though, because when he pressed buttons, nothing happened. He frowned at the screen as his female avatar screamed, “No!” and threw herself in the path of the oncoming bullet.
“What the fuck!” Gage uselessly pounded buttons. It didn’t help. His character, the one he’d grown to like a lot over the past few hours, bled out at the hero’s feet.
It was a quick matter of two seconds before Cassidy directed her character to leap on the bastard who’d killed Gage and knife him in the neck. The screen flicked to black, and the words Road of Trials appeared in epic, golden font.
“No, seriously.” Gage thumped his controller against his thigh. “What was that?”
Cassidy blew a wisp of hair out of her eyes. “Sucks, doesn’t it?”
“I didn’t even get a choice? I just have to sacrifice my life?”
“Well, you were playing the girl.”
“And she could have knifed that asshole in the neck just as easily as the dude could have.”
An odd expression crossed her face, but he couldn’t take the time to process it. He was too heated. “That is some bullshit. Are they all like that? Because that isn’t right—”
All of Gage’s air oofed out of him as a tiny, skinny, redheaded Gamer Girl landed in his lap. Before he could process that, her lips were shoved against his, and her tongue was in his mouth.
He blinked at the credits rolling down the screen behind Cassidy’s shoulder for several moments.
Just go with it.
No problem there. Gage’s controller slid from his fingers to land with a soft thud on the floor, freeing up both of his hands to wind themselves in her riotous hair.
She bit into his bottom lip and pulled back slightly. “Yes, they’re all like that,” she breathed, nipping at his lips with little kisses between each word.
He groaned a
s her tongue skimmed his upper lip. “Wait, are we kissing or talking?”
She shifted her hips so she was straddling him fully, and his eyes nearly rolled back in his head when the warmth of her pussy, barely shielded by the thin sweat pants she was wearing, landing directly over his raging erection.
“Can’t we do both?” she asked, her lips still brushing his.
He shook his head, his body’s needs clouding his thoughts. She wanted to talk while doing this? “I can’t.” When she suddenly started grinding against his cock, he disentangled his hands from her hair. They shot down to her hips to hold her still and give him precious seconds to gather his thoughts. “Not with you.”
What the fuck did I just say? Had he seriously confessed that? Did he truly feel that way? Because it was scary as hell.
She bucked against his hold, his grip lacking the conviction to keep her truly still. “Then,” she said with a gasp, “we’re kissing.” She wrapped her arms around his neck, her small breasts flattening against his chest. “Just kissing.” She ground against him again and moaned. “Maybe fucking.”
His mind finally decided to latch on a word and understand it completely. Fucking. “Okay.” He was on board for that.
“Oh, good.” Cassidy leaned back, grabbed the bottom of her tank top, and pulled it over her head. Her tight little nipples thrust themselves into his face, and his fingers flexed into her hips a little too roughly.
This was going to be fast. “Condoms?” he asked, his voice cracking at the end.
“Still around here someplace.” She shimmied from his lap, and he relinquished his hold on her reluctantly. “Clothes off, mister,” she tossed over her shoulder as she shoved her sweatpants down her hips and thighs. She kicked them away and bent over to look under the other gaming chair.
He choked on his tongue.
“Ah, found them.” She snapped upright, the box of condoms in her hand. She glanced his way and frowned. “You’re still dressed.”
He nodded. “Fixing that.” He lifted his ass from the seat, unbuckling his belt. Her gaze grew heated as she watched him, and she shifted her weight from one foot to the other. He should have been too distracted by her pert breasts and that breathtaking view of her ass to pick up on the subtle signs of her arousal, but old habits died hard.
He kicked his own pants off, and they landed by the boots he’d taken off several hours ago. She was already walking his direction as he pulled his T-shirt over his head.
“Much better,” she murmured, stepping between his spread thighs.
He palmed the sides of her ass, smoothing his hands down and then back up again. Her pale, freckled skin was smooth and cool as water to the touch. “I agree,” he whispered.
“So.” She hooked first her left leg and then her right over his, solidly straddling his lap and wedging the box of condoms next to his ass. He watched raptly as the lips of her pussy spread for him, revealing glistening, pink skin and enticing shadows. “You took a bullet for me,” she said, brushing her palms across his pecs. “I think that deserves some gratitude.”
Chapter Nine
Cassidy was going to fuck him until his eyes rolled back. She didn’t know why she was so desperate for him, but she was practically dripping down her thighs.
His pecs rose and fell beneath her hands, and her gaze darted down to his lap just in time to watch his erection jerk, the tip brushing against his flexed abs.
Maybe I’m not the only one a little desperate.
“This is how you say thank you? Works for me,” he rasped, his voice much deeper than it had been minutes ago.
He grabbed her hips and pulled her down until her ass landed in his lap, her knees hugging his waist in the cramped chair. The skin from his thighs branded hers with heat.
God, he was gorgeous. His large frame folded into the chair had to be uncomfortable with her on top of him, yet he looked like a sketch of sensuality. His eyes were heavy-lidded; his lips were already bruised from her attack kisses and wet, large, and red. His dusky skin seemed to catch every shard of dim light in the room, and her fingers itched to touch all of it.
A lock of his hair fell into his eyes, and she brushed it away. Their gazes connected and held as though they’d been forged together. “Hey,” she whispered.
The corners of his lips tipped up. “Hey.” He used his hold on her hips to slide her forward, and then he leaned up and pressed his lips to hers.
The kiss was soft and very much unlike the ones she’d given him earlier. She melted into him, and he wrapped his arms around her back as he deepened the kiss, thrusting his tongue against hers.
Her breasts pressed against the smooth expanse of his chest, and her nipples tightened so much they had to be digging into him. She squirmed a bit as his tongue flicked hers, pressing her breasts as tightly as she could to him, longing for a deeper touch.
“Need this?” he whispered against her mouth. One of his arms left its embrace of her back, and his hand eased between her thighs, fingertips skimming over her clit.
She moaned again, this time louder, chasing his touch with fretful undulations of her hips.
“Shit, Freckles.” He sucked her lower lip into his mouth and worried it between his teeth while his fingers explored her sex. “How’d you get this wet so fast?”
Now he was going to talk? She pulled from the kiss, tightened her arms around his neck, and buried her face in his shoulder. “Inside me.” She undulated her hips again. “Now.”
He didn’t make her ask again, God bless him, just filled her with one thick finger. She shuddered in his lap, her nails digging into the nape of his neck. He stroked inside her, thrusting that finger deep and then touching a place on the withdraw that made stars shoot behind her tightly closed eyes.
She made a harsh noise and buried her face deeper against his body, hoping to muffle any other errant noises that tried to escape.
“God, you’re wet.” He thrust that finger again, and the arm he had around her back shifted, his palm finding the back of her head and cradling her to him. “Driving me crazy.”
His words made her blood feel like it was boiling. Her sex clenched around his finger, and she felt molten to her core. This is moving too slowly. “Need you to fuck me.” She groped beside his ass until she found the box of condoms, not even the firm flex of his muscles against her fingertips enough to distract her from her goal.
She fumbled with the lid one-handed until she got it open with a jerk and a rip. Condoms went flying everywhere. She groaned.
His finger stilled inside her. “Need some help there?” he asked in a perfectly calm and collected voice.
He didn’t sound like he was losing his mind at all. “No.” She nipped his shoulder. “Yes.”
With a deep, rumbling chuckle, he pulled his finger from her body.
“No!” She straightened and looked down into his eyes.
He squeezed her thigh. “I’ve got you.” He plucked a condom from its precarious perch on the armrest of the chair, put it between his teeth, and tore the foil packet.
“Yes,” she sighed. Stop it, Cassidy. Stop that yes-no shit right now.
He placed the condom on the crown of his erection and rolled it down. As soon as he was done, she was scooting forward. He was right there to help her, gripping her hips and lifting her until his dick was notched against her entrance.
He looked up at her, his pupils so large there was almost no hint of the warm brown he usually sported. He raised his eyebrows.
She gripped his shoulders and nodded.
“Kiss me, then,” he said in a rumble.
She hesitated only a moment before leaning down and doing what he’d asked. As soon as their lips touched, he lowered her, filling her inch by slow, torturous inch.
When he seated himself as far as he could go, they both groaned against each other’s lips. Gage coasted his palms from her hips up her back, licking at her mouth while doing so. She shivered in his arms, goose bumps trailing behind his light touch.
She rocked forward, sending him a precious inch deeper. His breath hitched, and she didn’t think she’d ever heard a more erotic sound. So she did it again.
“Mmm,” he hummed against her lips.
She had the advantage here. She was on top, and he was crammed in a tiny chair. Oh, she was going to enjoy this.
She put a testing weight on her knees where they were wedged and found she could lift up without sending them toppling over. As her sex clenched his dick every long, dragging inch of the withdrawal, she hissed in a breath. When he was barely still inside her, she sank down in a quick, rough thrust.
He bit her lip. Hard. And it had to have been an accident, because he promptly apologized in a harried whisper over and over again.
She cut off his I’m sorry litany with another rise and fall. It worked. He groaned and pulled away from kissing her, burying his face in her breasts instead.
The scrape of his day-old beard against her nipples made her mindless. The next bucking of her hips was frantic, and her thighs quickly began to burn as she rode him as hard as she could.
He started to help her, thrusting up into her on her down stroke as much as the cramped chair would allow. Pleasure lit like a torch all through her body. But when he captured one of her bouncing nipples in his hot, wet mouth, she unexpectedly exploded into orgasm.
Tossing her head back, her massive amounts of hair brushing against her lower back, she cried out to the ceiling as every muscle in her body clenched as though they wanted to squeeze his cock instead of her sex.
The blunt tips of his fingers bit into her shoulder blades as he pulled her close, shoving his mouth against her breasts. His groan was louder than anything she’d heard from him yet, reverberating through her chest as every one of his muscles stiffened.
His erection kicked inside her, and with one final thrust, he froze, only to relax into a puddle beneath her a few seconds later.
“Shit,” he muttered, his lips brushing her still sensitive nipple. “That was way too fast.” He looked up at her from beneath his freakishly lush lashes. “That was you coming, right?”
Stiff Competition Page 7
