Page 7 of Ground Rules

Chapter Three

Cole

I almost pinched myself,wondering if I was in some lucid dream with Mazey at my front, rubbing her jean-clad ass over my dick. Not only was my heart sputtering in my chest as if it had never beat in the first place, but now heat was scorching my groin, and my fingers were twitching to touch her hot skin again.

Why was she here? Why Ryan? I wanted nothing more than to slam the door, flick on the lights, pin her to the farthest wall, and ask her every question that had burned at the back of my throat since the second she had stepped out of that bedroom two years ago.

Instead, I settled for the one question that I knew was the most important—at least at the given moment. “Maze,” I whispered again, trying to lean even further onto the tiled shower wall behind my back. “Why are you here?”

Skin against skin was like a goddamn orchestra, getting louder and sloppier with each second that passed. Mazey and I were stuck in the middle of a porno, and I was trying like hell to focus on the question I’d asked and nothing else.

Not the perfect curve of her cheek as she glanced back at me. Not the way her hair smelled of all things her, which I would recognize in the next life, no matter what. My heart was thumping, and my chest was getting tighter. I was in a frenzy. My thoughts were like bullets being fired from my brain. My blood was rushing. My nerve endings were fried. Everything was a tailspin.

My eyes had adjusted to the dark now, and the second her mouth parted to answer my question, she rushed at me in fear because the other door to the bathroom creaked open.

Her waist collided with my hands, and her middle pushed up against my front. I hoped like hell she couldn’t tell I was sporting a half-boner just from touching her a second ago, because I was. And I hated that I was, because that meant I wasn’t in control, and I had worked really fucking hard in the last two years to be in control, especially at parties.

The light flicked on, and my eyes widened as I realized I was so tall that my head was half peeking over the shower curtain. Fuck. My hands stayed glued to Mazey’s waist as I dropped down low, hiding from Kellan. I didn’t care if he saw me, but the stiffening of Mazey’s spine a few minutes ago when I suggested we just leave and let Ryan know we were in his bathroom told me she wasn’t all for that idea, which was interesting.

“Shut the fucking light off, Kellan!” Ryan’s strained voice boomed as the slaps against skin continued. Didn’t even stop fucking to yell at Kellan. Rock on, bro.

“How about you shut your fucking door? And did you take the last condom?!” Kellan was standing right outside of the shower curtain, and I peeked up and saw Mazey staring down at me with her baby blues, and my fingers clenched tighter on her waist. I didn’t even need to be holding onto her, but I couldn’t seem to peel myself away.

I dropped my head down briefly and realized something in an instant.

My mouth.

Her pussy.

I blinked once. Then twice. Then a third time, staring at the zipper on her jeans. Jesus Christ. There was shuffling in the bathroom, likely Kellan looking for a condom, but I couldn’t pay attention. I didn’t even fear the fact that he could rip open this curtain and see me and Mazey in here. All I could pay attention to was how one pad of my finger was dipped underneath her shirt, just barely, but enough to feel her soft, warm skin against mine. My tongue darted out to wet my bottom lip as I trailed my gaze up to the button of her jeans, and then to the hem of her shirt, and then to her round breasts that seemed fuller than they were as teenagers. And right when I landed on her face, my stomach tightened.

The pink of her bottom lip had disappeared inside her mouth as her bright-white teeth sunk into the fullness of it. There was no longer shock or fear inside her pretty blue eyes, or even a longing or sadness that I briefly saw with my cell phone light no more than ten minutes ago. I saw something I hadn’t seen in years.

My head tilted, my eyes slanted. She still feels it.

Two years ago, I didn’t realize what I’d had right in front of me. I should have fucking worshiped her.

My mouth opened, and chills coated me, but a second later, the chills turned to burns. Her chest rocked rapidly, and a shaky breath flew from her lips, traveling down to land on mine. She and I were used to playing the cat-and-mouse game back when we were teenagers, but I could sense something different about her.

Something strong and inviting…and downright fucking sexy.

The lights suddenly shut off, and a door was slammed. Sex was still in the air, and I had no idea how Ryan was still fucking that girl, but he was. Mazey shifted, just barely, but if I leaned forward, just an inch, my mouth would be on her jeans.

I forgot about the past.

I forgot about the threats.

And the crushing way she had looked at me in that bedroom.

Where was the guilt that I carried around on my back like a ton of bricks? Gone.

My fingers dug into her sides, and the softest, barely there noise left her mouth.

“You’re different,” I whispered, still aware that I was crouched down near her warmth for unnecessary reasons.

“So are you,” she whispered back.

I swallowed roughly. Fuck, I missed her voice.

My heart screamed with delicious agony as my fingers dipped even further underneath her shirt. “I’ve missed you, Maze.” I inhaled and dropped my head, pressing my forehead to the button on her jeans. I nearly snagged it with my teeth to pop it open. I gave absolutely zero fucks that we were in Kellan and Ryan’s shower. I didn’t care much about our past either. Didn’t care at all.

Mazey’s hand dug into my hair, and I froze. “Then prove it, Cole.”


Tags: S.J. Sylvis Romance