1. Mae

1

MAE

" W e've graduated, bitches!"

A champagne cork popped somewhere, followed by a tinkle of glass and loud laughter amid the cheers that rose in response to those words.

We finally did it. Graduation. Months of slogging through classes on bookkeeping and melting my brain through countless hours of accounting classes. My diploma was safe in my hand, and in a few weeks, I would be moving to New York City to start my fantastic new life.

"Isn't this amazing?" A girl with pink hair and droopy eyes threw her arm around my shoulders and pulled me close as if we were the best of friends.

I laughed along with her, balancing my drink carefully as she swayed me with the music.

"Can you believe we're completely done with this? No more studying, no more eight a.m. lectures, no more having to give up all of our free time to make some stuffy old asshole professor happy!" Her smile was wide, and just as I opened my mouth to reply, she released me and headed deeper into the crowd.

Oh, well.

I had lost track of the girls I came with a few hours ago, but it was a blessing, really. Out of all the things I had done at college, there was still one thing that I hadn't had the guts to do.

I had a crush.

Rocco Adami was hands down the most gorgeous, sexiest man I had ever laid my eyes on. We'd taken the same business class, although I wasn't sure what his major was. It was the one place where our paths crossed each week since he was a few years older than me and on a different course, the one place where my schoolgirl crush had blown into a full heart-wrenching, aching determination to be acknowledged by him on a romantic level.

The problem with Rocco, however, was that he was nice to everyone. Which meant he was always surrounded by people who were vying to be his friend or get his number. In class, he always had a smile for me, and toward the end of the course, he'd saved me a seat in his section. That could have just been because we were all cramming together and I had a pretty decent handle on what we were learning, but my aching romantic heart filled in the gap with other desires.

Then I saw him.

Like fate, the crowd parted and Rocco stood at the other end of the room next to his best friend, Dino. Beers in hand, they looked to be in deep conversation, and it was the first time I had ever seen him without countless people surrounding him. Rocco was cut from a different cloth. He was drop-dead gorgeous, with a sexy smile and golden hazel eyes that glinted in the sunlight. Meanwhile, I was a little more bookish and had a close-knit friend group rather than the masses he entertained .

I sipped my drink and imagined several scenarios for approaching him. This would likely be the last time we saw each other, and I didn't want to go to New York without taking this last leap to let him know how I felt.

Suddenly, Dino laughed loudly and turned, then he walked away, leaving Rocco standing by himself at the wall.

He was alone. No one else was around him.

This was the perfect opportunity.

I drained the last of my cocktail and tossed the plastic cup into a nearby trash bag. Taking a deep breath, I smoothed my hands down the little black dress I'd chosen for tonight and strode toward him with my head held high.

Rocco remained alone, and by the time I reached him, I realized I'd been hoping someone else would interrupt so that I wouldn't have to face the hurt of rejection.

"Mary!" Rocco's gorgeous, warm eyes locked onto me, and a side-sloping smile crept over his handsome face. "Look at you!"

Nerves fluttered about my belly like butterflies, and warmth crept over my cheeks. "You like it?" I asked, fueled by the liquid courage I'd been drinking all night.

"I've never seen you in a dress," he said, his attention drifting slowly down my body. "Always the shirts with the flowers and jeans. You look good."

Something about how he noticed the tiny flower details on the shirts I wore sent excitement worming through my gut, and I couldn't keep the smile from my face.

"Well, if you'd asked me out, then you would have seen me in a dress," I said without thinking, though I quickly realized what I said. "I mean, out for drinks—I mean, outside of college, y'know. Outside of class. "

Rocco's eyes slid back to mine and his adorable side smile widened. "Well, isn't it just lucky you decided to come to…" He paused and glanced around. "Whose house is this, anyway?"

"I have no idea." I laugh, nervously tucking some of my long hair behind my ear. "My friend got the details. I just came along."

"Same." Rocco took a large mouthful of his beer, and the same drunken haziness I felt around the edge of my senses was visible in the glint of his eyes. "Dino organizes things. I just go where I'm told."

"Really?" I arched one brow and settled one hand on my cocked hip. "You always looked like the trouble maker. Rule maker… you know what I mean."

Fuck. I was so nervous that I couldn't control my thoughts or my words, and my body temperature was rising by the second. Maybe this was a bad idea. This was clearly a friendly conversation and nothing more, no matter how good I looked in my dress.

"You think I'm a trouble maker?" Rocco's eyes glinted with mischief, and then he leaned forward slowly. He was so close that I could smell the spice of his aftershave, along with the lingering malt from his beer. The slight dusting of stubble along his jaw grazed my cheek, and he placed his lips right against the shell of my ear. "Is that why you came over here? Do you want me to take trouble for you and ask you out?"

My heart skipped a painful beat as if his words had slid right into my body and slapped it right out of my chest. Despite looking past him into the crowd of people surging and dancing around the kitchen, my attention was fully on the soft press of his lips to the outer shell of my ear.

"Is that why you came over here wearing a dress like that? Maybe I should ask you to dance, see how you handle that?"

Did I drink too much and pass out? There was no way Rocco Adami was asking me to dance, or talking like he knew of the crush stoking the furnace beneath my heart.

Rocco leaned away, and I saw the truth in the soft look in his eyes. He did know. And the way he offered me his hand told me that he either didn't mind or didn't care.

Fuck it, this was my last chance to do something entirely out of character and I was doing it.

"I'd love to dance," I replied, and my voice shook, betraying the speed of my heart. I took his hand, and my heart lurched into my throat when he pulled me out onto the dance floor and wound his other strong arm around my narrow waist.

I couldn't dance. I couldn't focus on anything but Rocco. His hand was warm and his grip was firm. The arm around my waist was solid, and he pulled me firmly against his broad chest, where there was nothing but hard muscle to greet me under the thin green T-shirt he wore.

He slid his fingers between mine and tightened his grip. Then we began to dance, and everything else around us melted away. Rocco held my gaze, and our dancing mostly consisted of swaying together since the crowd was so jam-packed we were like sardines. I couldn't meet his gaze at first, but his attention never swayed. Eventually, after several nervous glances around the room, I looked up into his eyes.

And never looked away.

"I waited all year for you to tell me you were interested," Rocco said softly.

"What?" My eyes widened. "You're not serious."

"Deadly." There wasn't a single note of his usual humor in his tone. "I always thought you were too good for me. Beautiful and smart, always one step ahead of that asshole teacher. "

"Wait." I was definitely dreaming. Rocco had a crush on me? This entire time? For a year ? "How… but you're so…" I couldn't find the words to explain how so utterly out of my league Rocco was, or how it was a blessing that we'd even managed to become friends.

"I'm so what?" His pink tongue darted out and slowly swiped over his lower lip.

"Popular? I mean, you always have people around you. So many hot girls and guys, and I…" I trailed off, trying to control my drunken thoughts and their lack of tact.

"There's always people around me, but you never noticed the people I chose to be around me?" He laughed softly. "Like Dino and you?"

"I thought you just needed study help," I admitted, losing myself in the caramel depths of his shining eyes. "Is this real? Did I have too much to drink and I'm hallucinating this entire thing? Because you're like fucking Adonis, and I'm just some mouse?—"

Rocco's plush, soft lips landed gently over my own, silencing my nervous rambling. His entire mouth fit just slightly over mine, and despite his soft lips, the kiss was firm. He kissed me fully, then moved up and kissed my upper lip and then my lower. His arm around my waist tightened so much that my heart exploded into off-rhythm, excited patters that thrummed through my entire body.

If he weren't holding me, I would have lost my balance.

"Does that feel real?" Rocco asked in a low voice, writing the words against my mouth with his lips.

We crashed through the door into one of the bedrooms, unable to take our hands off one another. That one kiss had broken down all walls, dissolved all nervous thoughts, and unlocked the pure, desperate desire in me that had burned for this man all year. I barely had time to understand that he felt the same, and we had simply been dancing around one another, like two ships passing silently in the night .

The door slammed closed behind Rocco, and he guided me toward the bed in the corner. We didn't stop kissing, couldn't stop kissing. I didn't want to stop tasting him, even for a moment, and he appeared to have the same desire. We stumbled toward the bed, and I managed to kick off my shoes. Rocco's large, warm hands gripped the hem of my dress and pulled it upward in one smooth movement.

We broke apart long enough for him to sweep the fabric over my head, then he discarded his T-shirt, and we clashed back together in a series of frantic, desperate kisses. I raked my nails over his muscular, golden torso, and he hissed into my mouth.

"Do that again," Rocco groaned, biting sharply at my lower lip as we toppled down onto the bed with mixed laughter and giggles.

I did just that, grazing my nails over his strong, broad shoulders while he slotted in between my parted thighs like he belonged there. Both his hands caressed my sides and abdomen, trailing a path up to my ribs, and then he cupped my breasts and squeezed.

"I want to fuck you, Mary," Rocco panted, pressing eager kisses along my jaw and down to the hollow of my neck. "I want to fuck you and never stop."

"Do it, please," I gasped, pressing my head back into the pillow and arching upward into his body. "Please!"

"I like it when you beg." He leaned back up, kissed me deeply on the lips, and then vanished from view.

My body was burning up. My heart was racing so fast that I couldn't hear any of my thoughts. There was only desperation and the sweet, slightly tickly sensation of Rocco kissing a path down my body toward where my core throbbed painfully with need. He kissed over my breasts, pulled the cups of my bra down and swirled his tongue around my stiff pink nipples. Rocco sucked a mouthful of my breast into his mouth, then he bit down firmly until I yelped as the dull pain sent an unexpected stab of arousal down south. He released me and dragged his tongue over the bite, then kissed down my abdomen. Past my navel to my pelvis, he licked the long line of where the lace of my panties met the soft skin of my lower belly, then he pulled them free.

Rocco buried between my legs like a man possessed, and I arched upward with a scream that I quickly muffled by throwing both my hands over my mouth.

He'd formed his tongue into a stiff point and was weaving patterns of magic over my clit, around my folds, and through my core. Between flat, hungry licks of his tongue and sucking kisses over every inch of my pussy, I was in heaven. I couldn't keep up with the influx of pleasure, and within the space of three breaths, I came hard with a muted cry.

Rocco buried his face deep against my pussy and thrust his tongue inside me as I came. I could feel him licking inside me, tasting my juices as my orgasm poured through me, and it was insanely erotic. Then he was gone, and for half a second, I was alone and cold on the bed while my mind struggled to catch up with the rush of pleasure.

Then Rocco was back over me, kissing me fiercely, and I wound my arms around his neck, scratching once more at his shoulders.

"Holy fuck," I gasped between our desperate kisses. "That was… holy fuck."

Rocco smirked. "Ready for round two?"

I nodded. Then his tongue slid past my lips, and his cock slid deep into my pussy with one stroke. I lifted my legs around his waist and locked my ankles at the small of his back, moaning as his length filled me to the brim. The stretch to accommodate his thickness pulled a groan from my throat, and my pussy ached, throbbing in time to my rapid heartbeat.

Then Rocco started to fuck me, and nothing else mattered. The strength in his hips was unlike anything I'd experienced before. He was strong and powerful, with deep thrusts that sent his cock so deep I was sure I could feel it just beneath my ribs. Skin slapped against skin, his heavy balls slapped against my ass, and his grip around my waist became a tight anchor. While he started slow, his thrusts quickly grew in speed and force. Each slam shoved air from my lungs and moans from my lips. It became a challenge to keep kisses as he pounded into me like a man possessed, and I never wanted him to stop.

I wanted to stay like this, forever connected with Rocco deep inside me, where he belonged.

Suddenly, I was upright as he changed our positions and held me in his lap. Just as I tried to work out how to ride him, I noticed he was on his knees and he still held me, still fucked into me with tantalizing power.

"Fuck," I whimpered as desire swept through my body like an electric charge. My pussy, already sensitive from my orgasm, was clenching hard around his cock, and Rocco's moans were rough and deep.

"It's like you're sucking me in," he groaned, biting sharply at my lower lip. One of his hands slid into my carefully styled hair—all the curls and clips had been fucked loose by now—and he grabbed a handful, then dragged my head back so he could kiss and bite at my throat. Biting, open-mouthed kisses dotted my throat as he continued to pound into my, drawing us closer and closer to climax.

Then I was back on the bed, flat on my back, and he thrust a hand between our sweat-slicked bodies. His deft fingers found my clit. He stroked and rubbed, teasing me as he fucked into me, and I dug my nails as hard as I could into his shoulders. Rocco hissed out a groan of desire and bit hard into my shoulder, which made me claw harder at his shoulders.

Then, in an explosion of moans and dancing colors before my screwed-up eyes, we came together in the same moment. My orgasm rocked through me like an explosion with no warning, and I screamed out loud, only for it to be swallowed by Rocco kissing me hungrily as his thrusts slowed. Heat rushed through my core as he flooded me with his cum, and he held me close as if we were one.

We fucked three more times that night, unable to keep our hands off one another, and then we fell asleep, in a stranger's bed, in a mess of tangled-up limbs.

Never had I had a more blissful sleep.

"Come on, wake the fuck up!" A snapping voice drew me from my slumber the next morning, and I groaned, throwing one arm over my eyes.

"Huh?"

"Wake up!" Someone prodded my shoulder, and I lowered my arm. Then I peered blearily up at a face I didn't recognize.

Immediately, my hand shot to the covers to ensure my body was covered, and as the familiar ache of a hangover stabbed through my temples, the strange man above me shook my shoulder once more.

"Come on, my parents will be back in an hour. Everyone needs to leave!"

"Alright!" I shoved his hand away. "Alright, sorry."

He rolled his eyes at me and stomped out of the room. Laughing to myself as last night slowly came back to me, I puffed out my cheeks.

"I guess we know whose house it is now." I chuckled, rolling over to Rocco.

Only Rocco wasn't there.

The side of the bed where he had been curled, where his warmth had soothed me into the best sleep of my life, was empty. Rocco was gone.