As if screwing away my feelings for Vi could ever happen. It hadn’t happened in three damn years.
The thought crossed my mind that I’d messed up in New York and gone too far. Maybe she was upset. But why would she come to the house, knowing I’d be there?
My hero complex kicked in. Either she wanted me to save her, or she knew she’d be safe around me. Whether or not it was the right thing to do, I sprang into action and banged on each door of the residential rooms on the second floor looking for Mac.
Finally, one flew open.
Mac glared. “What’s up, King?”
I looked past him, thankful that the room was empty. Ryan had to have been mistaken. “I heard you were with Violet.”
“Oh, yeah. She’s a lot of fun.” He smirked and let out a chuckle.
It wasn’t the words but the chuckle that made me shove him, hard in the chest. “What the fuck does that mean?”
He shoved me back. “You know how she is.”
There was nothing I wanted more than to smack the grin off his face. “If you touched her, I’ll kill you. What happened?”
He laughed as he stood up straighter and stepped into the hallway. “She’s a big girl. Why don’t you ask her?”
My body stiffened, my breath deepened, ready to take this guy if I had to. “Because I’m asking you.”
“I don’t kiss and tell,” he sang, like it was no big deal.
The tone of his statement put me into a rage. My pulse raced as I pulled him across the hallway, pushing him against the wall and holding him in place with a forearm to his chest. “Where. The fuck. Is Violet?”
The blank look on his face made my stomach sick. What if he’d done something to her? What if she was passed out somewhere and couldn’t get help? I was an idiot for thinking I should let her fend for herself. Guys were jerks, and she was a damn gem, way too good to be with scumbags like Mac.
When I pinned him to the wall a little harder, he held up his hands. “Relax. Nothing happened. She’s in the bathroom.”
With an extra shove, I released him and darted down the hall for the bathroom.
Violet
Josh held my hand a little too tightly and walked a little too quickly to his truck, which he’d parked in back of the frat house. I tried to yank my arm away, but he wouldn’t let it go. “What is your problem? Where are we going?”
“Your apartment.” He spoke through gritted teeth. “It’s all ready.”
When we made it to the truck, he let go of my arm. “Mill Street’s ready? Since when?”
“Since weeks ago.” He opened the passenger side door of the truck.
I didn’t budge. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I forgot.” He pointed into the truck. “Get in.”
Planting myself, I crossed my arms. “You made me think I had nowhere else to go.”
He leaned down, scowling. “You had a key, and you didn’t seem to be in a hurry to leave.”
I couldn’t argue with that. “Why are you so mad?”
In a swift move, he lifted me into the seat, like I weighed nothing, and stood there, looming like a giant jerk. “I’m mad because you talk a big game about moving on from Oliver, but then I find you here with an asshole like Mac.”
“That’s what this is about? You’re mad I was hanging out with Mac?” I had zero interest in Mac and spent most of my time at the party explaining to him why he was a jerk. But after I’d seen Josh and Kaitlyn getting close outside, I needed to get away from the crowd. Away from Josh.
He leaned closer. “I’m mad because I thought you were over this behavior. I’m mad because you didn’t return my messages and I’ve been waiting for you all damn day. I was worried about you.” The fire in his eyes only pissed me off more.
Turning away from him, I tried to erase the vision of Kaitlyn kissing him outside of the frat house barely an hour ago. “You didn’t seem worried when you were practically making out with Kaitlyn. She was all over you and wearing your hoodie. You smell like smoke now too, by the way.”
“You’re jealous?”
Snapping my head around, I lied. “No.”
He ran a hand through his hair and scowled back. “For the record, nothing happened with me and Kaitlyn, or with me and anyone this entire year. Now, I’m taking you home.”
I sat back in the passenger seat, and he slammed the door, making me jump. While he walked around to the driver’s side, I contemplated hopping out, but I took a deep breath instead. What did he mean he hadn’t been with anyone?
When he opened the door and slid in next to me, I studied his profile, hating him but feeling grateful at the same time. Sometimes, it felt like nobody knew I existed, except Josh. I reached for his arm to try and make amends. He flinched away and turned on the radio, full volume.
The ride from the frat house to Mill Street wasn’t far. He gripped the steering wheel like he wanted to break it in half. When he pulled into the alley and stopped the truck, the radio shut off and I could talk again. “You’re allowed to hook up with Kaitlyn, you know. Just like I could hook up with Mac, or anyone else I want.” The thought made me want to vomit, but I tried my best to play it off like I didn’t care. “Don’t let your brotherly feelings for me stop you from getting some.”
Without looking at me, he pushed the gearshift into park and started laughing. Maniacally. Like my statement was the most absurd thing he’d ever heard. “You have no idea what you’re talking about.” He exited the truck and left me sitting there.
Slamming the heavy passenger door behind me, I trudged through the snow after him as he flipped through his keychain, heading for the stairs to the apartment. “So you don’t want me, but nobody else can have me either?” When he didn’t answer, I blurted, “This is getting tiresome and confusing. Maybe we shouldn’t hang out anymore.”
He stomped up the stairs toward my apartment, yelling over his shoulder at me. “Fine. You want to go slut around town with my frat brothers, go right ahead. I’m done saving you.”
Even though the temperature was in the single digits, heat soared through me as I followed him. I focused on the back of his head as I marched up the stairs behind him. “I never asked to be saved.”
He spun around with a force I wasn’t expecting and stomped toward me. I almost backed down a few steps, but I held my ground, my freezing hands grasping the railing to hold myself steady. When he suddenly stopped on the stair above mine, his closeness made my heart speed up.
“You are something else. Every damn day you ask to be saved. Josh, I’m hungover. Josh, a mattress is stuck in my hall. Josh, Josh, Josh. Do you ever once stop to think about me and what I need?”
I didn’t answer. He looked to the sky, then met my gaze again, his blue eyes storming with rage. “No, Vi, you don’t. All week you were gone without more than an occasional text, not caring that maybe I was concerned about you, or missed you.” He waved his arms around. “You’re so wrapped up in yourself that…just…you…” He groaned and gritted his teeth.
“Say it,” I yelled. “This is your chance. Tell me what’s wrong with me. Nobody wants me, but nobody will tell me why. So you do it. Tell me.”
He clenched his jaw. His cheeks were red, from either the cold or our conversation. When he crossed his arms, they rubbed against my coat. We were too close for anger, too close for this conversation.
For a second, I saw his face soften. I took the moment to pass him on the stairs so that I was on a higher step. Our noses inches apart, I studied his perfect, annoying face. My bottom lip quivered, but I stopped short of crying. Now wasn’t the time to cry. Now I needed to vent. “I don’t get you, Josh. We’re supposed to be friends, but you won’t let me move on from Oliver. Whenever I try to connect with someone, you drag me away like a caveman.”
His face relaxed, and he frowned. “I’m trying to protect you—”
“Bullshit.” I never swore, and the word sounded awkward coming out of my mouth. “It’s more than that.”
Clearing my throat, I stood tall, refusing to be intimidated by his tone. “You don’t want to protect me. You want to control me. Like you control everything else in your life.”
He let out a long breath, and his body sagged. “You’re not getting this at all, Violet.”
I squinted, unsure how to handle what he was throwing at me. His anger was easy. But this? This was a weird, defeated, Josh. One that I had no idea what to do with. “Then tell me.”
He didn’t answer at first. I turned to walk away, but he held my hand to the rail. “I can’t.”
Frustrated, I slid my hand out from under his and climbed the stairs, needing to get inside where it was man-free.
But while I fumbled with the door, his words, his breath on my ear as he leaned over my shoulder from behind, melted me to my core. “I can’t tell you, but maybe I can show you.”
My heartbeat thumped as he spun me around. With an arm tight around my waist, he pulled my body to his, gazing directly, unapologetically, into my eyes. I gulped. The heat from his body, his stare, made me woozy.
Right before I melted into a puddle on the stairway, Josh kissed me.
Holding me close to him, wrapping his free hand around the back of my neck, Joshua King kissed the crap out of me. His lips melded into mine like they belonged there, tasting me, devouring me. When my brain caught up to what was happening—and I realized that it was good, so good—I put my hands in his hair and kissed him back.
I may have moaned as my tongue teased his, my body begging me to get him closer. It had been so long since I’d been kissed, and I couldn’t ever remember being kissed like that. Like Josh needed me, and my purpose in life was to keep us connected.
I almost cried when he pulled away.
He held my cheeks as he looked down at me, panting. “I don’t want you hooking up with my frat brothers, and it’s not because I want to control you.”
Then, he let go of me and ran down the stairs into the alley, leaving me confused and wanting at my apartment door. I ran my thumb over my lips as he started the truck.
“What was that?” I whispered to myself, as I watched him pull away.
Chapter Eight
Josh
Back at my apartment, I threw my keys on the counter and headed right for the shower. Kissing Violet was probably stupid, and I may have ruined our entire friendship. But damn if I didn’t want her mouth on me again, on every inch of me.
I pulled off my clothes and was about to step into the shower when I heard the apartment door click open. The only one with a key was…
Quickly, I wrapped a towel around my waist and stepped out of the bathroom.
Violet stood next to the counter. She dropped her wallet thing and then wiggled out of her coat. She scanned me, her eyes lingering somewhere on my chest, which did nothing to tame my hard-on.
Frustrated and feeling out of control, I adjusted the towel and responded with annoyance. “What are you doing here?”
She met my gaze again, a confused pout greeting me. “You kissed me.”
Raising my eyebrows, I played dumb. “Yeah, so?”
She took a step closer. “What was that about?”
“It was about shutting you up.” I tried to act tough, but I swallowed down a gulp as Violet drew nearer, close enough that I could smell her shampoo.
She shook her head. “No, no. I don’t think that’s it.”
Of course it wasn’t. She wasn’t stupid. But I wasn’t about to reveal my feelings to her then, in a towel, so I deflected. “Why are you here?”
Part of me wanted her to tell me that she was there because she loved me. But when she said, “Because I want to kiss you again,” I was fine with that too.
Still, I took a step back. “No.”
“No?” she asked. “Why not?”
“Because I can’t kiss you here, naked. I’m not sure I could control myself, and it wouldn’t be enough.”
She took a step toward me, and the tension in the room thickened. “What do you mean enough? What more would you want?”
“Everything,” I answered, without hesitation, as I held her gaze.
Raising her eyebrows, she took another step closer. “Everything?”
I thought for sure she’d run the other way. Tell me she hated me so that tomorrow we could forget all this had ever happened and go back to how it was before I’d kissed her.
For a few seconds, neither of us said anything. Finally, she clicked her tongue. “You know, that makes perfect sense.”
Fear and desire made the blood rush through my body. “It does?”
“You don’t trust anyone else with me. I trust you.” She looked down my body again. “Maybe we could hook up. Just once.”
My heartbeat sped up, but I held my ground. I smiled at the deep red blush spreading over her cheeks. She was bluffing. She had to be. “Seriously? Because I’m right here. Literally naked and willing.”
On the outside I was being cocky, but inside, my chest ached as I processed her words. They weren’t exactly what I’d fantasized about. If she was serious, could I do it? Could I have sex with Violet and leave it at that? Although I’d had every opportunity to do so, I couldn’t tell her that I’d been secretly in love with her for three years. But if I could get her in my bed, under me, with me inside of her, just once? That would be a goddamn dream.
She flinched, and her eyes turned serious. “Are you bluffing?”
I lifted an eyebrow and held the knot of my towel in place. “Does it look like I’m bluffing?”
Her eyes stayed glued to mine for a long second and then they traveled down over my body. “Do you have a condom?”
I nodded, playing cool, even though I thought I might pass out.
“One night?”
Her words made my heart strangle my throat. One night of sex with Violet wasn’t right. I knew it wasn’t what I really wanted, and it would ruin our friendship. It had to. But my body didn’t care. Nothing in the world felt better to me than the touch of her lips on mine, the feel of her flush against me. Now that I’d kissed her, I’d crave that for the rest of my life.
Yet, if my body won this battle and I took the step to her, if I wrapped her legs around me, ripped off her clothes, and buried myself inside of her like I’d been fantasizing about for years, I’d ruin both of us. Slow wasn’t an option. I’d take her ten different ways before I let her go in the morning.
She’d be mine until I was satisfied and spent and had enough—as if that could ever happen—and then I’d have to either say goodbye or admit my deeper feelings. I wasn’t sure which scared me more.
“Well?” She took the few steps to me, her big brown eyes pleading with mine. “Want to share a night?”
I wanted to share every night. To hold her until she forgot about her past life with my best friend and could only see me in her future. Instead of telling her that, I wrapped my hands around her neck and tilted her chin up with my thumbs. “I want that more than anything.”
Slowly, she moved her hand to my chest. Since her only experience was with Oliver, I didn’t want to push, so I let her lead. Her fingers were like feathers, tickling me over my pec, my ribcage, my waist. My heart pounded so loud that I thought she could hear it as she dropped her head, following the path of her fingers lower. When she reached for the knot on my towel, she lifted her chin to meet my gaze, the corner of her lip lifting as she looked for my reaction.
Her hand felt like heaven, and I needed her lips on me more than I needed air. “Fuck it,” I muttered, taking her mouth with mine as I lifted her by the ass, letting any semblance of control I thought I had fly out the window.
With a force that came from somewhere deep inside, I kissed Violet like it was the first and last time, as the towel dropped to the floor. She responded, wrapping her legs around my waist as she returned my kiss, her hair tangling between us. With
a thud, I pushed her back against the wall and leaned my body into hers.
Then she moaned my name.
My name.
That was my breaking point. Later, I’d go slow and appreciate every inch of her. For the moment though, I desperately needed to be inside her.
I grinded against her as our lips tangled. Her jeans caused way too much friction over my sensitive dick. “Can we get your clothes off?” I panted the words out. “Want you so badly.”
With her back against the wall and my hands firmly holding her up, she managed to pull off her sweater and yank her shirt over her head. I glanced at her black lace bra, her tits spilling out of the top, tits too big for her little body but perfect in every fucking way.
Lifting her higher up the wall, I put my mouth over the material, searching for her nipple, needing it in my mouth. She groaned, laughed, and squealed again. I couldn’t wait to lay her down on my bed, feel her under me, hear her say my name again…
Then the fucking apartment door opened and slammed closed.
With Violet pinned against the wall, we both looked at the door to the guy standing there with a suitcase. Tall and thin, with green hair. Eyes wide, eyebrows raised, clearly he was amused. I tried to block his view of Violet. I pressed against her so we were body-to-body, my cheek to her chest as I caught my breath.
“Who the fuck are you?” I panted.
“Sampson Seaborne, your new roommate. Nice to meet you.” His voice had a trace of an accent, British maybe. He dropped the suitcase and smirked. His eyes lingered a little too long on Violet, who had buried her head in my neck. “I’ll give you a moment.”
Violet wiggled out of my arms to stand, but I kept my eyes on Sampson. He looked familiar, and I knew I’d heard his voice before. He turned away, and as soon as Vi’s feet hit the floor, she retrieved her shirt and yanked it over her head.
Then she handed me my towel. “Here.” She turned to my new roommate. “I’m Violet, I’m covered up now, and I’m leaving.”
“Wait,” I said, wrapping my towel around my waist and following her. Sampson lifted his hands and backed out of our way as we passed him to get to the doorway. “Let me get dressed.”
Making the Move: Mill Street Series #2 Page 8
