We’re in a ring of fire, and I see no way out.
Alarms are going off, literally, and Ford has a hold on me much tighter than he realizes. I could spend forever in this bathroom, with him looking at me like he can’t control what he feels, and fall right for it. His hard chest presses against mine, and his hand on my face tightens with a fear that we both feel.
His heart beats against me like he just climbed off the ice at the end of a game, and I say his name. “Ford,” I warn.
There’s no need to say it out loud. We both know that what we’re doing is going to backfire.
His mouth comes closer, and I want to beg him to kiss me. His breath mingles with mine when he breaks the silence and says, “Call me Walker.”
I grip his shirt, and he makes a throaty noise. My stomach dips when his mouth moves to mine, and I finally feel like I can breathe again. The kiss isn’t urgent or rushed. Instead, it’s calculated and steady.
And hot.
He pinches my waist, and I press against him. His hard length rubs me, and I shake in his grasp. My leg lifts, and I wrap it around him while he slowly moves his tongue over mine like he’s trying to tell me something without using words.
“Fucking addicting,” he mumbles, pulling back for a split second. He looks at me long and hard, his brow furrowed with confusion and maybe a little guilt, but he goes back for more, and I willingly give it to him.
His hand slides from my waist, and he cups me from behind at the same time he bites my lip. I whimper, and Ford pulls back to shush me. I don’t realize the fire alarm has stopped blaring until he runs the back of his knuckles across my cheek bone while staring into my eyes. “Stay quiet.”
I nod.
“But don’t worry.” He stares at my mouth. “I’ll finish what he couldn’t.”
My head slumps against the door when Ford descends to the sensitive spot along my collarbone. His tongue is hot and wet with each slash against my skin, and a cry of pleasure threatens to escape.
The popping of the button on my jeans sends a spark in between my legs. I spread them, and with the way Ford kisses me deeper, I think he approves. Tendrils of pleasure rush to my skin when his hand dips beneath my panties, and he rubs against the evidence of how turned on I am.
“You’re so fucking wet. Tell me it’s all for me,” he whispers against my mouth. His thumb rubs against my clit, and the movement is so slow that I have to shut my eyes to keep myself present.
“What if I said it wasn’t?” I ask.
He glides a finger inside me. “Then I’d remind you that I know when you’re lying.”
My hips move, but he stops me with his hand on my hip. My eyes fly open, and to my surprise, he isn’t wearing that dirty smirk I’ve grown to love. “I’m done helping you, Taytum.”
Pleasure surges when he slips another finger in and plays with me. His fingers are teasingly distracting. “Wha…what do you mean?”
Ford’s skin is becoming as flushed as I feel. His tongue slips out to wet his lower lip each time he pushes his fingers back inside me.
Kiss me.
His Adam’s apple bobs. “The dates. The one-night stands. I’m done helping you.” He bounces his eyes between mine. “I’m too selfish. I want you all to myself.”
I tilt my hips, and he hits the spot that makes me break. He shuts his eyes, and I feel myself tighten, wanting more. I’m selfish, too, because I know he’s going to beat himself up for this later, and he’s going to have a hard time looking my brother in the face come tomorrow, but it feels too right to stop him.
Ford confided in me once that his one fear in life is being abandoned, because of his mother’s death, so I know, in the end, he isn’t going to continue to risk ruining his friendship with Emory and destroy his own integrity.
He’s had a place in my life, and my family’s, since we were kids. How could things ever go back to the same if we started something and it didn’t work?
It wouldn’t.
Once we openly cross the line, there is no going back.
Which is all the more reason I should stop this. But instead, I look him dead in the face and say, “I’m selfish too.”
He tilts his head, but he isn’t stopping. His thumb brushes against my clit, and my knees buckle. “How so?”
“Because all I want to do is tell you to keep me to yourself.”
Ford’s pupils dilate, and I prepare myself for the fall. He catches my soft whimper with his mouth, and we’re both out of control. He touches me everywhere, and I do the same. My hands roam over his tight shoulders before I drop them and creep under his shirt. I love the way his warm skin feels against my palms and the way his palms feel against my body.
“There’s nothing that compares,” he says in between each kiss. “I’ve tried to find something, and I come up empty-handed every fucking time.”
His teeth sink into my lower lip, and my body winds up with his quick movements in between my legs. I curve against him, and he encourages me by whispering in my ear, “You at my mercy is all I ever think about.”
“Ah,” I moan.
Ford’s mouth covers mine, and his hot growl vibrates down my throat. It pushes me over the edge, and I come around his fingers fast and hard. He presses his forehead to my collarbone while pushing farther into me, and I’m dazed with pleasure. I finally open my eyes when I feel him staring at me. “I’m never going to be able to let another man see you come.”
My eyes are heavy when he finally pulls his hand out of my pants. I reach forward and grab him by the collar and drag him closer, because I know the second we walk out of this bathroom, things are going to get complicated, and I want to play the game for a little while longer.
“Not yet,” I beg. “Stay and give me more.”
His nose brushes against mine, and I’m drunk from his warm breath. Knowing that Ford can’t stand to watch me with anyone else because he wants me is an insatiable yearning on my end.
I feel alive.
My heart races when Ford moves his mouth to my ear. “I would, but I can’t.”
I slink backward just in time to see flashing lights outside the window. Ford’s steady hands stay trapped to my waist, but he turns slightly toward the tiny bathroom window, and I swear he looks proud of himself.
“Oh my god.” My hand covers my swollen lips. He turns back to me, and an air of arrogance follows him. “Look what your little stunt caused!”
I rush past Ford and peer out the window.
His breath is hot and seedy against my neck when he appears behind me. I glance backward, and he’s grinning. “Whoops.”
A beat of silence passes before I find myself smiling. I start to laugh at his insane tactic to get me away from Knox, but I stop as soon as I hear a familiar voice say my name.
“Shit.” Ford immediately backs away. His eyes dart to the door before he looks at me with shame. It’s a slap right to my face, and it hurts me even though it shouldn’t.
The realization flickers over his face, because if anyone can read me, it’s him. “Tay.” He moves toward me, and his blue eyes, the same ones that were full of fire seconds ago, dull with desperation.
“It’s fine.” I shrug and pretend I’m unbothered. “We…we just got caught up in the moment.”
Except, it isn’t just one moment.
But with my brother shouting my name through the football house, we’re going to pretend it is.
