Rimmel

I felt stupid standing out here.

I hadn’t wanted to leave Romeo.

But it seemed my presence only made things worse.

So I took the keys and walked out. I hoped it would put an end to the fight. Clearly, there was a lot of tension there, and I really wanted to know the whole story.

And what was with that Zach guy? What a douche.

Up until that point, the party had been pretty fun. It was kind of cool to see how the other side lived. It was a lot more interesting over here.

I glanced at the house and wondered about Romeo. Where was he? What if he got hurt? Should I go back in and find him?

I pulled out my cell. I’d text Ivy.

Just then I heard gravel crunching under foot and a couple male voices floated my way. One of them was very familiar.

“Romeo?” I called out.

The footsteps increased and he came around one of the SUVs parked nearby. His eyes were wide and he let out a string of cuss words. Braeden was close behind and gave me a smile.

“Rimmel?” Romeo said. “I told you to leave.”

I looked him over, trying to see if he was hurt. He didn’t look to be, and some of the tension left my shoulders.

I shrugged and held up the keys to the Hellcat. “I can’t drive a stick.”

Braeden laughed. “Damn, girl. You gotta learn.” He glanced at Romeo. “You better teach your girl.”

Romeo scrubbed a hand down his face. “We’re out of here.”

Braeden nodded. “I’ll take Missy and Ivy home.”

“You promise?” I said.

He made a big X over his heart and nodded. I texted Ivy quickly to let her know Braeden was their new ride. “Thanks.”

Romeo plucked the keys out of my hand, guiding me around to the passenger side and opening the door. He leaned in and fastened the seat belt around me, and I couldn’t help but study his strong profile in the dark. I felt bad he’d gotten in a fight tonight because of me.

“You didn’t correct him,” I said when he pulled out onto the road.

He glanced at me quickly before turning back to the road. “Correct him for what?”

“He called me your girl.”

He paused. “Maybe I want you to be.”

Something inside me ached. “Surely after tonight you know we won’t ever work.”

He nodded slowly and the ache intensified. “Yeah. I know.” He turned the Hellcat onto the main road that led away from campus.

“Where are we going?” I asked.

“My place.”

“But you just said…” My voice faded away as confusion took over. Confusion and ache did not mix well.

“I know what I said,” Romeo replied, keeping his eyes trained on the road. “I don’t care.”

A little bit of that ache went away, but I didn’t allow myself to hope. “Tonight was just the beginning. The past few days were just a glimpse at what’s to come if you don’t take me home.”

The car swerved abruptly as Romeo pulled to the side of the road. It was barely in park when he surged across the seat and took my face in his hands.

“I can’t take you home right now.” His voice was thick and husky. “Please don’t ask me to do that.”

“Romeo,” I whispered.

I can’t even explain the kind of emotion that erupted in the air and encircled us at that moment. He kissed me like I was the breath in his body, like I was the blood in his veins. I kissed him back just as fiercely, as if his lips were the cure to the ache in my chest.

I grabbed onto his wrists and squeezed, holding him close as our lips melded together. My heart thudded in my chest and everything between my thighs throbbed with need. Romeo’s fingers bit into the back of my neck, but it didn’t hurt, and I urged him closer.

When we broke apart, he rested his forehead against mine as we both pulled in heavy gasps of air. “Baby,” he murmured, his voice breaking on the word. “You’re making me crazy.”

“What happened back there?” I asked.

“Don’t bring him into this moment,” he whispered. “This moment belongs to me and you.”

I reached up to cup his face and he tilted his cheek into my palm.

“Stay with me tonight.”

I didn’t really have to think about it. I already knew. My body wanted him so badly I almost hurt. The need, the want, the feelings swimming around inside me all eclipsed that little bit of fear I felt at giving myself to him.

I brushed the backs of my fingers across his cheek. “Yes,” I whispered.

His eyes lifted to mine, staring at me through the dark, looking for confirmation of what I just said.

He saw it.

He kissed me again.

And then he put the car in drive.

By the time he parked near his house, my knees were shaking. It wasn’t because I was having second thoughts, but I was nervous. I was about to have sex with Romeo. I was going to do something that would make him a part of me forever.

Most college girls probably didn’t think about it like that, but I did. I knew I was the kind of person that couldn’t do something like this without it altering me at least in some way forever.

When the car was off, he turned and looked at me through the dark. “If you changed your mind, I’ll take you home right now.”

“I didn’t.”

He came around to my side of the car when I was climbing out. His body was a good shield against the cold air as he wrapped his arm around my waist and walked us inside. The only light he turned on was in the hall leading back to his bedroom.

It filtered into the large space, giving the room a soft glow. In the center was a gigantic bed. It made my bed at the dorm seem like it belonged in a dollhouse. The comforter was white and flung up like it was a last-minute effort to make the bed. Up near the dark wooden headboard, there were pillows lining the mattress, making the top of the blankets look lumpy.

There was a set of windows off to my right, but they were covered with curtains. There were a few more traditional pieces of furniture, like dressers and nightstands. Hanging on the wall directly across from the bed was a large flat-screen TV and below it was a fireplace. I smiled when I saw it because I could imagine Romeo watching football games in bed.

But it didn’t really matter what was in the room.

What mattered was who was in here with me.

His hand lightly pressed to the small of my back, and I turned. His arm slid around me and I was brought up against him. “You’re shaking,” he said, a frown lacing his tone.

“I know.”

“We don’t have to,” he said. “I’m a patient man.”

“Are you really?” I asked, my tone slightly rueful.

His white teeth flashed. “For you I would be.” The sincerity in his voice was my undoing.

“No more talking,” I whispered.

He groaned and lifted me off my feet. My legs wound around his waist, and I sighed when my center came into contact with his muscled body. He didn’t take me to the bed as I suspected he would.

Instead, he carried me across the room and sat in a leather chair I hadn’t even noticed. My feet were pinned between his back and the cushion, and I rocked a little in his lap to get closer.

A low growl filled the room and he reached up to strip the blazer off my body and peel it down my arms. When it was gone, he leaned up and kissed me, splaying his hands out over my ribs.

He kissed like he wasn’t in a hurry, even though I felt the persistent need between his legs. I couldn’t help but rock against it every few minutes and then gasp at the sensations the movement sent through me.

His hands were all over me. Across my stomach, down my back, and he filled his hands with my breasts more than once.

Eventually he stripped off my T-shirt and reached for the necklace. “That’s important,” I whispered and he nodded. He placed the necklace gently on the small table beside the chair and then reached around me for the clasp on my bra. It gave way easily, and the fabric sprang open in the back.

Before he pulled it away he looked up at me, just to make sure it was okay.

I held his gaze as I reached up and pulled each strap down one by one and then tossed the entire thing off into the darkness.

His lips fastened on one of my nipples immediately. I arched into him and cried out. It felt so damn good. My fingers dug into his back, and I realized he was still wearing his shirt.

I pulled at it, wanting it gone, wanting to feel his skin beneath my fingers.

He left my breast to pull it off and toss it aside and then came back, lavishing even more attention on my needy flesh.

I let my head fall back, and he reached behind me to tangle his fingers in the long strands of my hair. I closed my eyes and gave myself up to the sensations rocking my body, and he sucked and pulled at each breast.

When I started moving restlessly against him, he pulled back and I crashed my lips to his. I dragged my nails down the sides of his spine and kissed him with every ounce of passion I had inside me.

Without breaking the kiss, he got up with me still in his arms and carried me across the room to the bed. Instead of laying me across it, he let me slide down his body until my feet touched the floor.

I kicked out of my boots and he did the same. My eyes were presented with the wide expanse of his chest. He was so sculpted and smooth. The ridges of each muscle in his body were incredibly defined. Without thought, I traced those lines with my tongue.

His hand found its way into my hair and held me to him as I kissed his chest and abs. When I leaned up to kiss across his shoulders, my fingers found the waistband of his jeans and dipped inside.

He muttered my name, which sounded more like a prayer, and I reveled in the power I seemed to hold over him. In that moment, he seemed as vulnerable as I was, and it made us totally equal.

I was no longer the #nerd with no friends. He was no longer the popular jock with a million conquests under his belt.

I was just a girl.

He was just a guy.

And there were just a million different emotions spiraling around the room with us.

I reached for the button on his jeans and let it free. Then I kissed along that V-shaped muscle that always drew my eye. He groaned and pulled me up to crash his mouth over mine and delved his tongue deep into my mouth.

The way my silky hair brushed against my bare back only heightened my senses, and I pushed against him farther, loving the feel of our bare chests meeting.

Romeo scooped me up into his arms and kissed me again, then laid me across the bed. He left me long enough to shuck his jeans, and then he reached for the waistband of my leggings. They joined his jeans in seconds flat.

“Fuck,” he cursed as he dragged his fingers up the insides of my legs. I was shaking so much now that I couldn’t make it stop. When he got to my center, he curved his hands out to slide up over my hip and then up to my breasts once more.

He kneeled on the bed between my legs to stare down at me before pressing me into the mattress with his body. He was so warm and delicious feeling that I licked my lips.

We kissed some more, our hands roaming over one another, learning everything we could. His hips rocked into me steadily, and eventually my body joined in the rhythm. Soon we were swaying together, the movements growing more desperate with every thrust.

“Romeo,” I whimpered when I felt like I couldn’t take any more.

“I got you,” he whispered and slid down my body, trailing kisses as he went. He hooked two thumbs in the waistband of my panties and tugged the fabric free. He smoothed his hands over my shaven area and sucked in a breath.

Two fingers dipped down to my center and met with silky juices. “Shit, Rimmel,” he groaned. “You’re so fucking wet.”

I was beyond talking. In fact, I barely heard what he said. I was so far gone on the cusp of passion that nothing else mattered.

One of his fingers slipped into my opening and slid in and out. My moan filled the darkness. Another finger joined it, and for long, blissful moments, he pumped his fingers in and out, stretching my walls and making me pant.

“I can’t take it anymore,” he finally groaned and pulled out.

I gasped at the loss of his hands, and he chuckled. I heard a drawer being opened and the distinct rip of a foil packet. Romeo was back on the bed between my legs in a matter of moments.

Using his hands, he spread my thighs wide and settled between them.

I tensed slightly, ready for him to push inside me, but he didn’t.

Instead, he rested his arms on either side of my head and cupped my face. “You’re so beautiful,” he whispered. “You’re fucking perfect.”

He kissed me the exact moment he plunged into my body. I cried out, and he swallowed the sound. I was tight and he felt large. My body burned a little as it stretched around his girth, and he held himself still, trying not to hurt me.

It didn’t take long for my body to adjust to his size, and I stirred against him. He kissed me again and started moving.

I couldn’t keep my eyes open; they rolled into the back of my head. Every single thrust felt like pure bliss, like my body might break apart from sheer joy.

His body filled my sight when I opened my eyes, the strong lines of his shoulders, and the solid width of his chest. He was in me, around me, over me.

His thrusts became faster and harder, until I was gripping his hips and matching him speed for speed. I was right there on the cusp of orgasm, and I knew from the tension in his body that he was too.

He looked down at me as we moved, and our eyes locked. With one great, hard thrust, he buried himself all the way inside me. My eyes flew open and I cried out yet made no sound. Light burst behind my eyes as the most intense feeling I’d ever known ripped through me. Wave after wave of ecstasy rolled over me.

Vaguely I heard his shout and I felt his cock pumping inside me. I knew he was going as well, but I couldn’t think beyond my own insane pleasure.

When it was done, he collapsed on the bed beside me and pulled me into his chest.

Every so often, my body would jerk with the aftershocks of his expert lovemaking. My entire body was boneless and satisfied. I prayed he felt the same.

Neither of us said a word; we couldn’t speak. Instead, we lay there in the dark and he drew lazy circles over my lower back as my cheek pillowed on his chest.

Eventually, he got up and went into the adjoining bathroom. I still couldn’t move. When he came back, the mattress dipped under his weight as he tucked the soft comforter up around me and pulled me back into his arms. He kissed my forehead and my cheek, then my lips.

If I could’ve stayed wrapped up like this with him forever, I absolutely would.