Not that they’d needed to worry. Everything had been fun in a very appropriate way . . . the first night.
Then Adrianna’s parents had made sure we were stocked with anything we might need, including alcohol, and told us to behave before heading to Oklahoma for a couple days to gamble with the aunts and uncles.
My parents might’ve had a valid reason for not wanting me to go . . . not that I was complaining about how it had turned out.
“Keep making those sounds, and our night’s gonna end real fast,” Hunter said as his lips found mine.
The corners of my mouth lifted before I was kissing him again, my body instantly reacting to the way he controlled the kiss.
Slow and lazy.
Intimate.
Like there was no one around us but the trees and the hazy night sky.
Teasing my tongue and gently nipping at my lips until my breaths were coming sharper and shallower, and I was aching for him to touch me.
There.
Surrounded by our friends.
Without a care in the world.
I somehow forced my mouth from his and buried my head in his neck, letting my breathing even out a little. “Would you be mad if it did?”
He turned his head closer so his cheek pressed to mine, his questioning hum vibrating against every part of me.
“If our night out here ended early?”
“Mads, they don’t exist right now. Say the word, and we’re headed to the room.”
My body trembled against his, forcing a needy groan to rumble in his chest. “In that case, I think I’m gonna go wash the lake and smoke off of me . . .”
“Want some help?” There was a teasing lilt to his words, but from the way he’d paused just before he asked, I knew he meant it.
Heat and need and nervousness licked up my body even though I’d been loved and worshipped by this boy countless times. This was new territory—a new level of intimacy—one I desperately wanted to step into with him.
“Never mind.” The words fell from Hunter on a regretful rush when I didn’t respond fast enough.
“No, I do.”
“Madison—”
“I do,” I argued, head bobbing all sorts of awkwardly. “Really.”
He gave me a look that shouted he didn’t believe me, even through his glassy-eyed gaze. “Not gonna push you into this.”
“Hunter—”
He captured my mouth, effectively cutting off my argument and assertions, and let the kiss escalate.
All fiery need and mind-numbing promises. His fingers gripping and claiming me for those moments before he released me.
“Go,” he said, his harsh breaths fanning across my lips. “Go so we can continue that.”
“Just come with me.”
“I plan to.”
My mouth fell open at the blatant innuendo. “Hunter Lee Dixon.”
I glanced around, but no one was paying attention to us. No one could hear us.
“You’re so bad,” I said as he pulled me in for another quick kiss before gently pushing me to standing. A giggle tumbled free when I staggered a few feet before righting myself.
Holy God, the world spun so much faster when I was standing.
“I’m fine,” I tried to whisper as I took a few steps back, though I wasn’t sure I knew how to whisper anymore.
Not when my head felt so light and my body felt so warm. Not when I couldn’t stop smiling or laughing. Not when I was about to have a night with Hunter.
“Where are you going?” Savannah asked loudly as she wrapped her arms around my waist, her words drawing together drunkishily.
Drunkishily? Drunkily? She was drunk.
There was a most definite possibility that I was too.
“Gonna shower and go to bed,” I announced all kinds of secretive-like.
“What? No,” she drew out the word forever, staggering with me back to Hunter. “Y’all can’t go to sleep yet. We’re just getting the Beer Olympics set up.”
My eyes stayed locked on Hunter’s as he looked at me with pure lust. One of his eyebrows lifting as he took a long pull from his beer.
“I choose that one,” I whispered all too loudly, pointing at where my heart was sitting just feet away from me. “Mmhm. I choose him.”
“Ugh,” Savannah groaned. “Choose him after. Stay out here with us.”
My head shook as I stepped toward Hunter, his wicked smirk flashing his dimples as he reached a hand toward me.
“Mine!” Savannah called out, laughing wild and free as she grabbed my hand and tugged me the other way.
“Sexy bedtime,” I whined as she succeeded in pulling me away.
She rolled her eyes, her entire head moving with the action. “One, gross. Two, have sexy bedtime later. C,—” She looked at where she was holding four fingers up, her brows furrowing in confusion. “I forgot how to count.” Her entire face lighting up as she gasped loudly. “Pyramid!”
I whirled around to look at where our friends were making a pyramid. Each girl chugging an entire beer before getting into position.
Savannah and I glanced at each other, a smirk tugging at my lips as a challenge lit in her eyes.
I snorted. “We’ve so got this.”
“Let the games begin,” she called out as she whisked me away.
“Oh God, why?” I groaned as I rolled over the next morning. Clutching at my fiercely pounding head as my stomach twisted uneasily. “Babe.” I reached across the sheets, one of my eyelids cracking open when I didn’t hit a body.
Another groan tumbled from my lips as I flopped to my back.
Alcohol was the devil.
I was swearing it off right then. Forever, forever.
I struggled into a sitting position and curled over on myself, cradling my head as someone took a jackhammer to it. Dull bits and pieces from the night before finding their way into my memory.
Falling off the pyramid.
Playing quarters.
Hunter, Hunter, Hunter.
He’d had me over his shoulder at one point, but I couldn’t remember when.
Kissing. Laughing. Drinking. I remembered that.
I couldn’t remember the last part of the Beer Olympics or coming to bed. I didn’t smell like the bonfire, so I knew I had to have showered. But I couldn’t imagine how, or how I’d even made it into the right room.
My head snapped up, and I sucked in a quick breath through my teeth when my pounding head rejected the action. Blinking against the light filtering in from the windows, I looked around to confirm I’d actually made it into the correct room. The room Savannah and I had occupied the first night before Hunter and I had taken it once the chaperones had left.
I stilled from lowering my head into my hands again, staring vacantly at the items that had been uncovered when I’d sat up.
A torn foil wrapper and a condom. But the condom looked like it hadn’t been used. Like maybe Hunter had started putting it on and stopped.
And I was suddenly, disturbingly aware that I wasn’t wearing anything other than a shirt.
“Shit,” I whispered as I slowly lowered my head, praying that we’d been smart enough to still use one. That maybe the one sitting next to me was a backup.
Or maybe we hadn’t ended up having sex at all.
That sounded like the more likely of possibilities considering how wasted we’d been even before the night turned into a blur and faded to black.