Chapter 43

CHAPTER 43

JESS

L ying in bed in my summer sleep set, I was still too hot in the light cotton shorts and tank top. The heat was making it impossible to convince my eyes to stay shut. Every time I closed them, it seemed to press down on me and they flew wide open again.

On the other hand, it wasn't just the heat of the night keeping me up. In fact, it was mostly the heat I was generating myself. I was beyond embarrassed that Slate had seen me totally lose it on Oden today.

If I'd known Sophie had called him, I'd have put an end to that whole scene much faster—and I might not have busted his damn headlight.

He'd deserved it, for sure, but I was mortified that Slate had seen me acting like the hot-headed teenager I used to be. I hadn't blown a fuse like that in a while. Despite what Oden had said and done, I wasn't proud of the fact that I'd completely lost control.

I stared out my window at the clouds drifting in the sky, muting the moonlight before they'd pass and the room would light up again, and I mulled over my options. I hadn't had the chance to talk to Slate alone about what had happened yet.

I desperately wanted to hear what he would have to say when it was only him and me. Once we'd gotten home, my parents had been here too and we'd all sat down together while Mom had cooked, and I'd told them the story.

After dinner, I'd gone out to finish the last of my chores for the day by myself and I'd been hoping Slate would come out to talk to me, but when I'd gotten back, he'd been working on his laptop in the study and he'd seemed pretty wrapped up in it.

I also wanted to hear his opinion about what Oden had said to me, though. If he agreed that it meant I'd found the culprit.

More importantly for the sake of me being able to get any sleep tonight, I wanted to know what he'd thought about seeing my wild side for himself.

I'd thought that girl was long gone, but it turned out she'd just been waiting deep down inside for someone to sabotage the most important project my family had ever worked on. I sighed into the dark, heavy heat of the room and finally kicked off the sheet I'd been under.

It was almost midnight and I knew Slate should be asleep. Frankly, I should've been asleep too, but I took the chance anyway and crept across my bedroom to the door. Quietly shutting it behind me, I tiptoed down the hall to the guestroom and knocked quietly on his door.

A second later, I heard a telltale creak, and the next thing I knew, the door opened. Relief and embarrassment combined to leave me feeling a little lightheaded, but I smiled as I slipped past him, waiting until he'd shut the door again before I just blurted it out.

"I'm sorry for acting like such a lunatic today," I murmured, aware that my brother was sleeping right next door. "I don't usually behave that way anymore, but Oden got under my skin. I know I shouldn't have let him, but I couldn't help it."

Slate turned away from the door, facing me with his hair all mussed from trying to sleep, but his eyes were too intensely focused for me to believe he'd managed it any better than I had. He was shirtless, wearing only a pair of light boxers that barely seemed to be clinging to his narrow hips.

My mouth dried up and I swallowed hard. How am I only realizing this now?

It looked like my embarrassment had temporarily blinded me, but my eyes were wide open now. That dark gaze was completely intent on mine, his shoulders half-hunched as he quietly stalked across the bedroom and took my hips in his hands.

"That was the sexiest thing I've ever seen, Jess," he whispered, but his expression was strangely fierce. "It drove me crazy, but I'm not sure if it was with worry or lust." He lowered his head to lay a hard kiss on me, groaning softly into my mouth. His arms slid around my hips. "Thank God, you're okay. I nearly had a heart attack when Sophie called."

"Yeah?" I smiled against his lips and looped my arms around his neck. "Why is that?"

"Because you decided to go toe-to-toe with someone who could be dangerous and I didn't know at the time that you were kicking his ass."

"You're really not put off by how I acted?"

He rocked his hips forward to let me feel the evidence for myself. "I'm not put off, Jess. Everything you do seems to turn me on, but promise me you won't do that again."

"I don't make promises I can't keep."

He pressed another kiss to my lips before he rested his forehead on mine. "Why is even that hot? You're going to kill me."

"Nah. You'll get used to it." I tipped my head back and interlocked my fingers behind his neck, pulling him down to kiss me again.

Slate obliged easily, sealing those ridiculously soft lips over mine and parting them with his tongue. It swept into my mouth hungrily. His fingers flexed on my back as he took control of the kiss and made me melt into him in response.

I'd never been the type to melt into a guy, but with him, it was impossible to resist. It always had been, but the longer we were at this, the harder I was finding it to be anything but putty in his big, strong hands.

I'm such a girl with him. And I love it.

For once in my freaking life, I felt safe enough with a man to let myself just be a girl, and the fact that he'd also seen me break someone's headlight earlier and still didn't see me as just a chick with a screw loose or one of the boys made it all the more enticing to give into him.

Pressing my chest to his, I wrapped my arms firmly around his neck and gave over every inch of control. After the fear, the adrenaline, and the embarrassment of the day, it felt good to just be able to let go.

Slate saw me for who I was. He accepted every side of me. That was all I needed to know right now. I knew I could trust him to chase away all the monsters who had been keeping me up tonight and I wanted to let him do it.

Moaning quietly, he dragged his lips away from mine to press hot kisses to my throat. He pulled away the straps of my tank to give my shoulders the same treatment. As he kissed me, I let my head drop back and I closed my eyes, breathing hard but trying to keep any other sounds contained.

The walls in our house weren't thin, but if I started moaning loudly, Austin would almost certainly wake up eventually. It had already been a day. The last thing I felt like dealing with was an argument with my protective big brother about who I chose to kiss.

Slate's hands pushed my hips and he guided me back until my butt touched the windowsill. He slid down to his knees on the floor. Teeth sinking into my lip, I watched him gaze up at me with adoration in his eyes.

He hooked his thumbs into my waistband of my shorts, pulled them and my panties down, and then glanced up at me. Bringing a hand to his lips, he showed me to keep quiet before he spread my legs and ran his nose up and down the insides of my thighs.

I whimpered and I bit my lip again, focusing on the sensations he was eliciting rather than the fact that I had to keep quiet. His hot breath ghosted over my skin. Only the very tip of his nose was on me, making me want so much more.

Wrapping his hands around my thighs, he gripped me tight and opened me up to him, lightly blowing air onto the most sensitive parts of me. I shivered, but it wasn't because I was cold. The anticipation was killing me, tightening my muscles and making me brace myself for when he would finally touch me.

Slate lifted his gaze to mine. So much emotion glittered in those dark eyes as he looked into my own that I couldn't even begin to fathom what he was thinking. He wanted me, definitely, but there was more there. So much more.

As he dragged his fingertips through my folds, he watched me intently and I nodded, needing him to know that I was okay with this if permission was what he had been waiting for. But he didn't speed up.

He just kept watching me. His fingers drove me wild with slow yet deliberate movements. I was about to climb onto his damn hand by the time he pressed at my opening. He brought his head forward to suck my clit into his mouth as he pushed into me.

I clamped a hand over my mouth to keep from making a sound, screwing my eyes shut. My hips started rocking into him. This wasn't what I'd come here for tonight, but I was so relieved that I hadn't lost him because of that temper tantrum earlier, and everything he was doing felt better than ever.

Slate's free hand ran up my side to my ribs, cradling the underside of my breast. I thrust my chest out. He pinched my nipple and I moaned softly. Throwing caution to the wind, I mimicked his movements with my own hand on my other breast. My fingers dug into his shoulder as I silently begged him not to stop.

Vaguely wondering whether he'd locked the door when he shut it, I half-sat on the windowsill, glad that there was something there to hold me up when my legs started shaking. His lips were wrapped around my clit, his tongue circled it, and his fingers found that magic spot inside me.

There was no way I was going to last long like this. If I fell down, my parents and my brother would hear the crash. With that thought in mind, I released his shoulder and gripped the windowsill instead, trying to give myself an anchor so I wouldn't rock right off of it, but it was becoming difficult to think.

My breaths were becoming heavier and faster, my body tightening as the first bursts of pleasure sparked through me. I squeezed my nipple harder, my teeth grinding as I fought to keep from making a sound.

Slate groaned into my core, and the vibration of the sound sent me flying over the edge. I came hard, letting go completely without even trying to hold back. White lights exploded behind my eyes, and for a moment, my body was reduced to nothing but euphoria. My entire being was taken apart at the seams and slowly put back together with so much less tension in my muscles than I'd been holding on to before.

My ears rang and my skin sang, and when I finally managed to open my eyes again to find Slate once again watching me closely, I smiled. My gaze met his. He cursed softly, shaking his head. He got to his feet and placed another searing kiss on my lips.

"I can't get enough of you, Jess," he whispered between hard kisses that had an almost desperate edge to them. "I'm never going to get enough of you."