Ollie stood tall beside me as I dropped my hand from his wrist. “Never again,” Ollie warned him before chugging the rest of his drink.
Liam nervously laughed as he turned and joined Bria, Maddie, and Isaac in the game of strip or dare.
“Ollie, you playing?” Maddie interjected as I took a sip from my cup.
Ollie pulled out a chair from under Jake’s desk and took a seat. “No way in hell.”
Alicia and Jake were in some deep, drunken conversation on the bed, and I stood alone. How was I going to turn this whole night around? My eyes strayed until they landed on Ollie’s phone in his hand. Low tunes became background noise. “Wanna leave?” Ollie asked, staring up at me with his drink in the other hand.
“No, I think we should dance.” I took a step toward him.
He dropped his chin to his chest, but when his eyes returned, so did his smile. “Mia, you know we can’t dance together.” His tone was hushed and raw.
I pulled his almost empty cup from his hand and set it over Jake’s desk. “Just because we dance together, doesn’t mean we are together.”
Ollie leaned back in his chair and stretched out his legs. His green eyes roamed over my body as his dimple flashed beside his gorgeous grin. “You come any closer, and I won’t be able to keep my hands off you.”
I wedged myself between his knees and Ollie ran his hands up the back of my thighs. “I’m warning you. I’m intoxicated.”
Leaning over him, I whispered, “Me too,” and grabbed the phone off his lap. “Magic phone, should Ollie dance with me?” I asked then pressed shuffle. Ollie’s smile stretched as his face flushed.
“Take You Higher - Club Mix” by Goodwill and Hook N Sling came on and I dropped the phone over his lap. “Well?”
Ollie ran his hands from my thighs to up my sides as he gradually stood to his feet and kicked the chair out of the way. I dropped my head back as a laugh eluded me. His smile became permanent as he twirled me around then dipped me backward. His eyes scanned the room before he lowered his head to kiss my neck. As I giggled, he pulled me up, and we danced to the beat of the song. Jake and Alicia joined us, jumping up and down together, but my focus stayed on Ollie. His breath in my hair, in my neck. His warm hands under my shirt, at my sides and back. He took me higher—away. Ollie always had that ability. With him, I wasn’t a broken girl suffering a past. With him, I wasn’t lost.
I was found.
“You’re amazing. You know that?” he whispered into my neck and wrapped his arms around my waist as he persuaded my hips back and forth. “You make me so incredibly happy, Mia.” Then he turned me around, so his back was to everyone else. His fingers pulled the hem of my neckline while his fragile lips sent kisses over the surface of my shoulder and up my neck. Staying away was a constant struggle.
“Oh, fuck it,” Ollie pronounced raw, caving, taking my face in his anchored hold. Alcohol influenced his lack of judgment as he melted his lips over mine. His tongue, eager and impatient for the taste of me, slipped through our cracks and damn near brought me to my knees.
“I can’t hide us,” Ollie panted, pain absorbing his eyes and voice. He backed me against a wall and took my face in his hands. “I can’t do it anymore.”
He wasn’t hiding us now, but when liquor was involved, we had something to blame.
“You’re not thinking straight right now.” I brought my palms over the backs of his hands. “Do it for me. For us, okay?”
Ollie licked his lips and nodded. “Alright.” He kissed me again. “You’re right.”
“You okay?”
When he didn’t respond, I slipped my hand beneath his shirt and flattened it across his chest. The drumming of his heartbeat came through his tight skin. His erratic behavior was becoming more frequent, and anytime this happened, I had to talk him down. Remind him. Calm him. Bring my hand to his chest to show him I was with him, I understood, but also to feel his fear slip away from him. To indulge myself in the process of the weight lifting off his shoulders.
The truth was, Ollie did feel too much. The majority of the time, it was beautiful. Other times, when he got so far into his head, his heart was his own worst enemy. Maybe it was Maddie’s return, or Liam’s crude comment, or the façade we regularly played messing with his head. Either way, we had to get through it.
Ollie pinned my hand against his chest and closed his eyes to let out an extended shaky breath. “Yeah, I’m okay.” He opened his eyes and shook his head. “I’m sorry, Mia.”
I lifted my shoulders in a half-shrug. “We’re both screwed up, but you’re my perfect rock bottom.” I leaned closer to him. “And you want to know what’s so great about being at rock bottom together?”
Ollie beamed. “What?”
“We can only go up from here,” I said with my finger in the air.
“Oh yeah?” He wrapped his hands around my hips and lifted me high in the air. “Are you going to forget me or take me with you?”
“Ollie!” I laughed as everyone’s eyes were on us. Half the room was laughing with me, and half the room was rolling their eyes, and as I was in the air, I noticed Maddie was down to only her panties, her boobs on display for everyone to see.
He lifted me higher. “I’m not putting you down until you answer me.”
“Taking you,” I squealed, hitting his shoulders. “I’m taking you!”
Satisfied, Ollie lowered me, sliding me down across his long torso until my feet were safely back on earth. “And I’ll never let you fall,” he said and pressed his forehead to mine.
“Oh, my god, you guys are too cute,” Jake gushed out loud from behind Ollie. “If you won’t ship each other, I will.”
“Shit,” Ollie whispered to me. “I forgot we weren’t alone.”
After sidestepping away from Ollie, I walked outside our bubble, bursting it, and returned to our frontage. “Ollie’s only mad because I rejected his advances.”
“Ouch.” Ollie held his hand over his chest, as he took a seat on the desk chair. “Low blow.” Ollie leaned back in the chair, and his eyes went wide when they fell on Maddie. “No one wants to see that, Maddie. Cover up.”
I took a seat on the floor between Bria and Jake’s legs that hung over the mattress. Maddie leaned back on her hands, her perfect breasts sticking out in front of her like a news headline. “Nothing you haven’t seen before.”
“It was part of strip or dare,” Isaac explained after taking a sip of his cup. “Want to know what else she has to do?” His lips turned up in the corners. “Go on, Maddie. You have to strip off your knickers or complete your dare.”