I GLANCED AT the time on my cell phone’s screen. It was only five minutes since the last time I checked. I tossed it on my mattress and got to my feet to pace my room.
I needed to chill out. West would be here. He’d only texted ten or so minutes ago, and he had to get across the city and somehow—if he was able to—sneak up into my dorm. The guy was good, but even he couldn’t bypass the peak-hour traffic that came with a weeknight in the city.
I stopped at the window that overlooked the entrance to the building and bit at my thumbnail, my stomach a jumble of nerves and excitement.
It’d been a little over a week since I’d had any kind of alone time with West—not counting the helping hand he’d given me in class last week—and I was secretly hoping he’d work out a way to get past security and get up to my room, because damn if I didn’t miss the guy.
I’d seen him around campus, of course. West took every opportunity he could to remind me that my brain and body were feeling things they’d never felt before—stealing kisses between coffee and classes, and finding private nooks in the library to take those kisses further. I was long past believing my attraction to him had anything to do with drinks and a party atmosphere, and was well aware it had everything to do with West himself. He was intoxicating in a way that was much more dangerous than any kind of alcohol, which was why I’d made the decision I had. I’d told West that I needed to refocus on my school work for a little bit.
I wasn’t used to crazy nights out like him and his friends, and I knew if I wasn’t careful I’d get swept up in not only him but the insane world he seemed to inhabit. Where it was easy to forget everything but where you were going out that night and how you’d feel by the end of it—and so far, I’d felt pretty damn good.
West’s world was new and exciting.
West was new and exciting, and this need to be near or around him was stronger than anything I’d ever felt before. It would’ve been embarrassing if he wasn’t always seeking me out too. But it seemed the feeling was mutual, so at least I didn’t feel like some kind of clingy, obsessive boyfriend.
Boyfriend? Really?
Where the hell had that thought come from? I ran a hand through my hair as I continued to stare out the window, the word boyfriend now on an annoying loop in my head. That sure as hell wasn’t how I saw myself in relation to West—was it?
No. We were friends. Friends with benefits, which was totally unexpected. But we weren’t boyfriends. We hadn’t even gone on a real date.
Knock. Knock. Knock.
I spun around so fast the room began to spin, but a quick look at the digital clock on my desk told me it’d been fifteen minutes since West’s text.
Okay, maybe I was bordering on obsessive. But what West didn’t know couldn’t be used against me, right?
My heart pounded as I somehow made it across my room to the door, and as I reached for the handle I sent up a quick prayer it wasn’t some kid on my floor needing to borrow something, or worse…my mom.
Please be West. Please be West.
I cracked open the door, and when West’s lopsided grin came into view, my heart wasn’t the only thing pounding.
He was here. At my bedroom door. How had I missed him sneaking into the building?
“Hey there, Golden Boy. Gonna let me in?”
Sweet Jesus. West’s voice acted like a live current through my body, making it spark to life, and I was pretty sure I would’ve let him do anything right then.
I stepped aside and opened the door a little further, and as West slipped inside my room, I poked my head out to make sure no one was outside in the hall to see.
“You can relax,” he said as I closed the door. “George let me up the fire stairs. No one saw me.”
I turned and leaned back against the door. “George?”
“Yeah, he’s a pal, and one of the security guards at this building.”
“Ah, so that’s how you did it.”
West slipped his hands into his pockets, and for the first time I allowed myself to check him out. As always, he was put together in a way that I never could—or would—be.
He was in a stylish light blue suit jacket, and his designer jeans fit him in a way that drew attention to his long legs and muscled thighs. His immaculate white shirt was tucked in to show off his trim waist, and the few buttons he’d left open at the collar made sure the ensemble was sophisticated but not stuffy.
He looked sexy as hell, and not even the white handkerchief in the jacket’s pocket could take that from him.
“Did what?”
“Huh?” I brought my eyes up to West’s, which were sparkling with mischief, and that did nothing to restore my brain cells, because damn, the guy was hot.
“You said, that’s how I did it. I was asking, did what?”
Oh, that’s right. Think with your head, JT. The one on your shoulders.
“Snuck into the building. I was watching for you—”
“Were you now?” His lips kicked up into that crooked grin of his.
“I was. But you must’ve gone a different way.”
West nodded. “George let me in the side entrance. I wasn’t sure if it was just security you wanted me to avoid when sneaking in, or your dormmates too.”
I knew what he was saying, what he was wondering: whether I cared if anyone knew what we were doing. Truth be told, I wouldn’t have given a flying fuck if this had been any place other than Astor.
The problem was, this was Astor, and my mom was the dean—and for that reason alone, I was glad for his discretion.
“Normally I wouldn’t,” I said, wanting to be honest. But when the tips of his polished shoes bumped my bare toes, I lost my train of thought.
“But your mom might find out?” he finished for me, and I nodded. “I understand.”
He was close now, close enough that the lapel of his jacket was brushing against my arm and his warm breath teased my lips.
“Then you better lock this door, don’t you think?”
Think? I couldn’t think about anything with him standing so close to me again.
What was that saying? Absence makes the heart grow fonder? According to my body, it also made my dick harder and desire stronger.
But when West was near, it was like my brain would shut down. Everything about him called to me. His clothes, his smile, his sexy-as-sin voice, and don’t even get me started on the way he smelled.
I swallowed and flicked the lock on the door, and the second I did, his mouth was on mine.
Our lips met in a fierce kiss that bordered on brutal, and he cradled my face to angle me for better access. He had no need to worry about that, though—I was more than willing to grant him entry.
West slipped inside, teasing and tasting every inch of my mouth like I was his favorite meal, and maybe it was that that made him so potent, so difficult to resist. That he had the ability to make a kiss all-consuming. That he could make something I’d done with several other people feel like a whole new experience, all because it was his mouth on mine and his tongue tasting me.
I moaned and pulled him closer, wanting more of him. West nipped at my lower lip and rested his forehead against mine, and I couldn’t stop myself from flicking my tongue along his lips.
West chuckled then released my face and took a step back, running his eyes down over my white t-shirt and grey sweats that did nothing to hide my hard-on.
“I was going to ask if you missed me this week, but clearly…”
I eyed the very clear outline in his jeans. “Clearly, I’m not the only one.”
I moved around him, and as I did I realized for the first time that the only real furniture in my room was my desk and bed.
Fuck.
“You’re definitely not,” West said as I perched on the edge of the desk, deciding that was the safer of the two options, even with some of my clothes piled on top of it. “I just wasn’t sure when I texted you if you’d tell me no, since you’ve been blowing off all my invites lately.”
“I haven’t been blowing you off.”
West’s eyes immediately lowered to my kiss-swollen mouth. “Would you like to?”
Yes. The thought hit me from out of nowhere. But now that he’d said it, my mind spun with the possibility, and like he could read it, West groaned.
“Fuckin’ hell, JT.”
“What?” I said, eyeing the way he reached down to adjust himself. “You don’t want that?”
West let out a loud boom of laughter. “Have you met me?”
“Hmm, let me think. Cocky charmer who does whatever and whoever he wants, right? That’s you?”
West narrowed his eyes and shrugged out of his jacket, tossing it over the end of the bed. I sucked in a breath, taking in the visual in front of me, and if I thought he’d looked sexy before, that was nothing compared to the way that white shirt fit his broad shoulders and built chest like it was tailor made for him.
Hell, it probably was.
West unbuttoned the cuffs of his sleeve and began to roll them up his arms as he walked over to the desk, and then he moved right between my spread thighs. He placed a hand on the desk on either side of my hips and looked down at me, a smirk curving his irresistible lips.
“Yeah, that’s me. But who are you? Because the JT I know sure as hell wouldn’t have just boldly eyed my dick and offered to suck it last week.”
He was right. There was no way I would’ve done that last week, maybe not even an hour ago. But as soon as he’d stepped inside my room and that door was locked, it was as if all of the pent-up sexual tension I’d kept in check during our make-out sessions finally had permission to be free—and I was done holding back. I was ready to explore.
I wrapped my legs around his ass and tugged him in closer, then reached up to wind my arms around his neck. I craned up like I was going to kiss him, and at the last second dodged his mouth to put my lips by his ear.
“You don’t like this JT?”
West grunted as I flicked my tongue over his lobe, and when he trembled, my cock jerked. Damn, I did that. I made Weston LaRue shiver.
“You didn’t answer me,” I said, taking a page from his book. “You don’t like this version of me?”
West turned his head, and the teasing mischief from earlier had been replaced with a much more intense expression. His blue eyes had been engulfed by the black of his pupils, and the strained look on his face made my thighs tighten around him.
I knew that look. I’d seen it that night in the limo when his mouth had been full of my cock, and it seemed the idea of my returning the favor was just as appealing to him.
“If I like you any more right now, you’re going to end up naked and bent over this desk.”
Holy. Fuck.
I wasn’t sure I was ready for all of that just yet, but maybe some of it? One thing I knew for certain: I didn’t want to stop. I didn’t want just another kiss and then to say goodnight. My body was aching for West’s hands, his mouth, and the body between my thighs—and judging by the look on his face and erection pressing up against mine, he was aching for me too.
It was time to be brave. Time to take what I wanted, and in this very moment, I wanted West.
“How about this?” I said. “I’ll get naked if you do too.”
