“Fuck, Riley…” He stopped right then, even as I leaned in for more, his eyes raking over me like I was some sort of goddess or something. “I wasn’t going to say anything. I wanted to play it cool, but shit… You’re leaving?”
“Yeah, I’m going to the city. I got a scholarship.”
He smiled then, but it was a pained thing, an expression I knew well, I’d just never seen it on another person’s face, especially when it came to me.
“I’ve been crushing on you so fucking bad. Have since middle school. Look, I know this can’t go anywhere, but…” He swallowed, then shook his head, a complete change from the confident basketball player I’d seen in the hallways. “Would you go out on a few dates with me before you leave?”
This, I had hoped for, dreaming that this would start once school was over, once I got the hell out of town, but to have opportunity come knocking that much earlier than expected? I admit to feeling a selfish flush of satisfaction at that. I knew I was smart, I knew I was hard-working, but as a woman? Most of us were marinating in great soups of self-doubt, but it felt like I had even more to worry about. Few friends, no boyfriends, no dates, no offers, nothing. I was a modern woman. I wanted to kick arse at uniandbe validated sexually.
“We can’t have anything long-term…” he continued nervously in the face of my silence, but I leant forward to quiet him.
“Yes.”
“Yeah?” That smile was back, and how had I never seen how bright it was? It felt like it lit up the entire darkened interior of the car. “Yeah?” This was said much more teasingly as he pulled me closer, our mouths finding each other’s again.
“Yes, please…” I gasped as I felt his lips on my neck, nipping the sensitive skin, then soothing it with kisses.
“Fuck, Riley…” he groaned, hauling me up and onto his lap, forcing my arms to wrap around his shoulders or fall back. “Riley…”
He kept saying my name between kisses, then again as his mouth explored the column of my neck, making me squirm, then once more as he kissed all the skin revealed by my tank top. But at some point, we were either going to stay as we were, or things were going to take a step further.
If I hadn’t been drinking, we probably wouldn’t have. Clayton probably wouldn’t have tried. But we were invincible right now, walking away from school as survivors, moving on to a bright new future. So when his hand closed over my breast, a question in his eyes, I nodded. There was no point in taking it slow. I was going, he was staying, but right now, we had this, a kind of electrical charge that seemed to build and build inside me, and he seemed to sense that.
“Fuck…” he hissed as he slid one strap off my shoulder, then my bra strap, his lips covering every inch of ground he took. Another questioning look as he moved to pull the cup down and reveal my breast to his eyes, his mouth, his tongue.
I was overheated, burning from within, and that was all focussed on the aching nipple he was centimetres away from. Alcohol swam in my blood, making me aware of the way my pulse raced and my body responded, locking me down to the here and now. This Riley, Riley now, wanted to know what it would feel like for those full lips to close over my nipple, his thumb moving now to swipe across the cloth, giving me a hint.
Like Eve taking the apple from the snake in Eden, that was all it took to sign my downfall in my hometown. I nodded, just a tiny thing, but Clayton’s entire focus was on my responses, and that was heady. He peeled the cup of my bra down, my nipple pulling even tighter in the cool air, his eyes still on me right up until his lips brushed against the tight bead.
“Shit!” I hissed, my fingers digging into his hair, raking along his scalp as he flicked his tongue across it, then sucked it into his mouth.
I knew how to get myself off, having developed the ability to stealth orgasm in my bedroom and the shower without alerting Mum, but oh my god. Someone else’s touch added a whole other dimension to things, my pussy pulsing helplessly in time with his sucks. Then, just when a good rhythm started, he’d pull away, tracing the sensitive spot with his tongue, before sucking me in again. My hips rocked in response, his hand sliding down to press on my butt, forcing me to grind against his hard length.
Fuck, fuck, fuck…This was all happening way too fast, but drunk Riley didn’t give a shit, did she? She was chasing pleasure and fun and just being a normal fucking teenager, thinking she was going to end her school career with a truly explosive bang, when the door was wrenched open.
“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?”
The question was growled in an inhuman voice, because the owner wasn’t one hundred percent in human form right now. Clayton was torn away from me, dragged out onto the concrete, the five of them ringing him, dark monstrous shapes. Their eyes blazed moon bright in the darkness, but that wasn’t all. As their teeth were bared, I saw the flash of actual fangs.
“What the fuck do you thinkyou’redoing!”
My shout echoed throughout the carpark, would no doubt draw an audience, which considering my tits were out, wasn’t ideal, but I couldn’t seem to find the capacity to care. I stood over Clayton, a wolf protecting her mate, and that was exactly the wrong thing to do.
“Riley?” Colt’s voice shifted between growly and deep and his normal one, a world of questions there.
“Did he do this to you?” Ryan stepped forward, his body vibrating with restrained power, his eyes sliding down.
“Shit!” I said, scrambling to resituate my bra and top, when I was shoved back against the car, my hands knocked away.
“Oh no…” Haze said, cocking his head to one side, that same toothy smile there but ten times wilder. “Don’t do that on our account.”
“Fuck’s sake, Haze…” Blake went to step in, but as soon as he got close, his nostrils began to flare, his eyes joining his brothers. “Jesus…”
“So beautiful…” Haze’s hand rose, shaking, his claws forming, then receding as he reached out.
Which should not fucking happen.
We were all schooled on the way alphas and omegas shifted. They had wolves, we didn’t, and as a result, we had to be careful about pushing them. Not only could they shift into bloodthirsty animals at a moment’s notice, but their self-control was weakened when they were provoked, so we learned not to antagonise them.