Chapter Twenty-Three

Chessly

A fter the most epic sex of my life—he hadn't promised that, but he'd certainly delivered—surprisingly, we fell back into the easy friendship we'd been forming over the past few months since the semester started. One might think from watching and listening to us that we were an established couple rather than whatever we were. I hadn't figured that out yet.

Sex like we'd experienced required recharging, so we'd enjoyed a little nap. Sleeping next to Finn gave me another surprise. Cuddled next to his big warm body felt natural and safe. I woke up first and had to use the bathroom, so I gathered up my clothes and quietly dressed. In the process, I found the bag of cookies, and when I checked inside, to my shock they were still intact. I set them on the desk and slipped from his room.

The house was blessedly quiet, and I wondered if his roommates had gone out or something while we'd spent the afternoon studying each other rather than physics. A giggle escaped me as I reassessed that thought. Studying with Finn gave physics a whole different aspect.

When I returned to his room, I discovered him seated at the desk in his boxers and jeans happily chowing down on a cookie. A whole cookie.

"Hey!" I lunged for the bag.

He grinned around a mouthful of sugary yumminess and snatched the bag from my reach. Swallowing, he smirked and said, "You weren't planning to keep these to yourself, were you, thief?"

"They were tangled up in the blankets and my sweatshirt. You're lucky I even found them." I held out my hand. "Give over." A thought struck me, and I gasped. "Unless you ate them both already. I was only gone for a minute!"

He nibbled a bite from the mostly intact one in his hand. "Pickle Barrel makes the best monsters." His eyes flashed with mischief. "They're my absolute favorite." Smirking, he nibbled another bite. "If you want some of this, it's going to cost you."

Planting my hands on my hips, I said, "What is it going to cost me?"

"A kiss." Pondering for a moment, he added, "Maybe two."

"Finn." I stretched his name into three syllables.

"Chess." He mimicked me, the expression in his eyes positively wicked.

Stepping into his space, I leaned down and aimed for his cheek, but at the last second, he turned his head and my lips landed on the corner of his mouth. The next thing I knew, I was seated across his lap, his skin warm beneath my hands where they landed one across his massive shoulders, the other on his impressive chest.

"Here you go." He offered me a bite of the cookie in his hand.

I chomped a big bite and had to use my thumb to catch the crumbs threatening to tumble out of the corner of my mouth. He laughed and bit into the soft and crunchy treat. When I swallowed and grabbed his wrist with the intention of taking another bite, he tightened his arm, denying me my goal.

"Nuh-uh-uh. You know the price."

"You're something, you know that?" I meant to call him out, but my words lacked heat.

"As much as I love these cookies, I've had a taste of you, Miss Clarke, and you're my new favorite treat." His gaze strayed to my mouth. "I have a feeling I'm never going to get enough of you."

His words shot straight to my center.

Trying to cover my response to him, I straightened my back and said, "I can't believe how demanding you are."

If anything, his focus on my mouth intensified, drawing me to him. This time I brushed my lips over his and nibbled at the corner before pulling away.

"Bite."

"I always say, ‘give the lady what she wants.'" He tugged my lower lip between his teeth before soothing the sting with his tongue.

I intended to call him out for mistaking my meaning on purpose, but when he pressed his lips to mine, I forgot. Wrapping my arms around his neck, I kissed him back, slow and easy, lips on lips, tiny nibbles.

"Mmm," I moaned.

"Better than cookies," he said against my mouth.

That word reminded me and I pulled back. "I still want my cookie."

Laughing, he reached behind him on the desk and handed me the bag. Greedily, I tore open the top to find the last cookie. I sunk my teeth into the treat and savored butterscotch, chocolate, brown sugar, and walnuts. A second bite added raisins, and I pulled a face.

"Let me guess. You found a raisin," he chuckled.

"These"—I turned my cookie from side to side, inspecting it—"would be perfect if not for the occasional raisin ambush." Seeing another of the offensive fruits sticking out from where I'd taken my previous bite, I tugged it free and dropped it on the desktop.

"What did raisins ever do to you?" He smirked.

"They have no business in cookies and everyone picks them out of trail mix."

His brow lifted.

Narrowing my eyes at him, I said, "Admit it. You pick them out of trail mix."

He squeezed my hip and grinned. "Possibly."

"Absolutely," I affirmed. "The only way to eat raisins is in Bridge mix when they're smothered in chocolate," I said and savored another raisin-less bite of my cookie.

Finn's laughter rang through the room. "You're something else, Chess."

I shot him an incredulous look. "What?"

Shaking his head, he said, "Eat your cookie."

His eyes danced as I picked another raisin out of my treat and pulled another face when I missed one in the next bite. Meanwhile, he finished his cookie, raisins and all, like a barbarian.

He traced his fingers down the side of my face, tucking my hair behind my ear and lulling me into not paying attention. Then he pounced, pulling my hand away from my mouth at the last second and stealing my last bite.

"Hey!" I yelped.

A hard kiss shut me up before he leaned back and, grinning the whole time, finished chewing and swallowing my cookie.

"You are a menace."

His eyes sparkled. "You are fun to study with."

"Finn." Tilting my head, I stared at him from beneath my brows. "We have yet to study anything today."

"Not true, babe. We've learned lots of things about each other this afternoon. For example, I learned you don't like to share your cookies." He cut off my protest with, "But cookies taste delicious on your lips." Smiling, he added, "Other parts of you are delectable all on their own. Honestly, Chess, you're kind of a feast."

It was the weirdest—and quite possibly the sweetest—compliment I'd ever received.

Staring at his gorgeous, heavily muscled bare chest with its dusting of light brown hair, I said, "We should actually crack open a book, huh?" My voice might have cracked on my suggestion, drawing a chuckle from him.

Then he urged me to stand, and reluctantly, I slid off his lap to stand beside the desk. He retrieved his plain black T-shirt from where it had landed on the floor during our previous activities, and I mourned the loss of the view when he pulled it down over his torso. With a cursory tug, he mostly righted the blankets and the comforter, revealing his books, which had somehow ended up at the foot of the mattress. Gathering them up, he set them on the nightstand and turned back to me.

"I usually stretch out on my bed when I work, so feel free to use the desk."

When I sat down and pulled some books from my backpack, I truly didn't think I'd manage to do any studying with the hottest man in the world stretched out on the bed behind me. But though we'd been distracted earlier, this wasn't our first rodeo. Studying together in Hillman on multiple occasions had apparently prepared us to study quietly in Finn's room after having epic sex. Either that or epic sex had powered up my synapses.

The rest of the afternoon flew by as I finished nearly all of the last sets of problems for my quantum physics midterm. When Callahan banged on Finn's door, I squeaked, almost taking my chair with me as I leapt for the ceiling at his decibel-shattering interruption of the silence.

"Finn! Move your truck! I gotta take Jamaica back to the dorms."

Checking the time on my phone, I hissed a curse. "I need to head home too. We have our weekly RA meeting in thirty minutes."

"Finn! You awake?" Callahan shouted.

Finn swung off his bed and opened the door. "Dude. Calm your ass down. If you want, I can drop Jamaica off when I take Chessly home."

Callahan's mortified expression cracked me up. "I drive my girl, Finnegan. But if you want, I can take Chess with us." He poked his head into the room and shot me a confused look. Apparently, he thought we were busy doing other things.

At Callahan's suggestion, it was Finn's turn to express mortification. "Negative, Ghost Rider. I'll be driving Chess. Give us a minute to gather up her stuff." He let the door click shut in Callahan's face.

"That was kind of rude to do to your roommate." I smirked.

"Didn't want to waste more time arguing with him when I could be doing this with you." He tugged me up from the chair and pulled me in close before brushing a kiss over my lips. "Did you get much done?"

"Almost all of it. You?"

"Every last problem." His gaze dropped to my mouth again. "Wish you didn't have to leave. I could feed you supper and we could watch a movie or something."

I snorted. "Or something."

"Seriously, Chessly. Today was a best day ever." Palming my cheek, he slid his long fingers into my hair. "This weekend has been the best one I can remember in a real long time." He ghosted another kiss over my mouth. "When can I see you again?"

"Like. for a date?"

"Date, study session, hanging out." He rubbed his thumb over my cheek then stared hard into my eyes. "I want to spend more time with you."

"I have some free time tomorrow afternoon before my six o'clock lab. We could meet at the Union." Somehow my hands had found their way to his back where I mapped the muscles beneath his T-shirt. Damn , but the man was built. Standing this close to him and breathing in faint notes of clean sweat from our earlier activities, and something woodsy and citrusy on his T-shirt, had me tightening my center and wishing I could take him up on his offer of dinner and a movie—or something.

For the first time in my life, I was seriously contemplating skipping work. Of course, Jamaica heading back to the dorm took that option right off the table.

A naughty thought tipped up the corner of his mouth. "I think I can find us a quiet corner somewhere in the Union."

"Finn..." I warned.

"Our trainers ride our asses about eating sugar, but I've tasted your kisses, Chess, and now I'm a sugar addict. No doubt I'm going to need a fix when I see you tomorrow."

When he dropped his killer smile on me, all I could do was give him a dopey one back. The man was utterly lethal to my common sense. From his expression, no doubt R-rated plans were developing in his sexy mind. The scary part was, I was pretty sure I'd be going along with them.

"You finally gave in, huh?" Jamaica shoulder-bumped me as we walked down the hallway from our dorm supervisor's apartment after our weekly meeting.

"Excuse me?"

She laughed and linked her arm with mine. "When Callahan and I came downstairs from his room, Danny was slumped on the couch, whining about all the noise coming through the wall of his bedroom."

I was surprised the hot flames licking my cheeks didn't set my hair on fire.

Giving my arm a squeeze, she said, "No one's judging you." She squeezed me again. "It was past time you put Finn out of his misery."

I wrinkled my brow. "What are you talking about?"

As she explained, we took our time climbing the stairs to lobby of the dorm. "The poor guy's been mooning after you for months, even with all your sarcasm and snark." She slid me a side-eye. "Maybe especially because of your sarcasm and snark. I've heard him go on and on about how smart you are. It's obvious you impress the hell out of him." Smiling at me, she added, "Callahan is always complaining about Finn's lack of finesse and discernment when it comes to women, but I don't think that was ever the problem."

When we reached the lobby, I faced my friend as my brows took a trip up to my hairline.

"Finn's problem is he's such a nice guy that he gives everyone the benefit of the doubt." For a second a dark look clouded her features before she smiled again. "But he actively worked for your attention. He's had a thing for you ever since I let him take you home on Homecoming."

"You let him?" I snorted.

Her nose went up in the air. "If you recall, I grilled him on his intentions and demanded he take the best care of you."

Memories of my afternoon with Finn swamped my mind and the words slipped out without my permission. "He definitely did that."

A naughty grin spread over her features. "You will notice I'm not grilling you about your ‘study session' this afternoon." Her one-handed air quotes were ridiculous.

Shaking away thoughts of Finn's body and how he'd used it to light up my world, I asked, "I did notice. Why is that?"

"Because I expect the same courtesy from you from now on since both of us are seeing Wildcats players."

I couldn't mistake the meaning in her tone. With the way Piper, Saylor, and I had razzed Jamaica about her relationship with Callahan, I deserved the hard time she was so obviously holding back from giving me.

"I wouldn't say Finn and I are involved ..." I stretched out that last word like a rubber band.

My friend's "Huh" snapped it back at me. That sparkle in her eyes told me I should have kept my mouth shut. "You sure you want to deny that? According to Danny, you and Finn spent most of the afternoon involved with each other."

"I thought you said we were going to show each other some courtesy." I pouted.

"But also honesty."

We wandered over to the front desk. Jamaica checked the on-call schedule while I slipped inside the office to check my mailbox for this week's silly postcard from my dad—a running gag he'd started on my first day at Mountain State.

"No mail deliveries on Sundays, Chessly," the desk clerk reminded me.

"Oh, yeah. Sorry. I forgot what day it was."

"Finn made you forget everything but your own name, huh? Impressive," Jamaica teased when I rejoined her at the front of the main desk.

My eyes spun in their sockets. "You're hilarious."

Her smile softened into something genuine. "It's okay, Chess. I know how it is."