My fingers went numb, squeezing his hands so hard, desperate to have him … all of him. As if he read my mind, he guided my arms around his neck and planted his hands on my ass before peeling my back from the door.
Our kiss broke and we paused—him holding me with my arms and legs wrapped around his body. A whisper of fear slithered up my spine. Would he overthink it and release me to the floor with a hard “go home?” I didn’t want that to happen. My heart wouldn’t survive the rejection at that point, so I ducked my head and kissed his neck, working my way up to suck and bite along his earlobe.
He gripped my ass harder and carried me upstairs, but just barely. When we reached the top, he laid me down, kneeling on the stairs while sliding my onesie and panties completely off.
“Wylder …” I clenched his hair when he kissed his way up my naked body. Arching my back, I writhed beneath him while clawing and yanking at the hem of his tee. He lifted his mouth from my breast long enough to shrug it off with one arm before sucking my nipple into his mouth and trapping it with his teeth until I hissed.
Who needed alcohol? Months without sex … months with Slade Wylder crawling under my skin … had me out of my mind.
Need.
Want.
Need.
Want.
I yanked his head from my chest to my mouth. The feast wasn’t over for me. As he hummed into the kiss, I wrapped my legs around his waist. He rested his body weight on a forearm while his other hand grabbed my ass and worked me over the bulge in his jeans.
My brain begged for his bed, but I couldn’t say it.
My other thoughts involved begging him to remove his pants and find a condom, but I couldn’t articulate those thoughts either.
With his tongue in my mouth, his chest brushing my nipples, and his erection stroking between my legs, all I could do was take what I wanted.
What I needed.
“Wylder …” My back bowed again as his mouth traveled along my jaw and down my neck. “I … I can’t wait,” I stammered through labored breaths.
His tongue retreated back up to my ear, flicking it before biting it. “Then don’t,” he whispered, gripping my ass tighter while stilling his pelvis as mine rocked slower but harder, my need spiraling past the point of no return.
As my eyes drifted shut, my jaw fell open, and the pleasure he gave claimed every inch of my body. Had it not felt so damn good, I might have been a bit embarrassed. With little effort, he hugged my body to his and carried me to the bedroom.
I relished the hunger in his mouth on my neck, my cheeks, my lips, as I clung to him—the man that not only gave me pleasure, but the man who protected me. No one’s arms would ever feel the way Wylder’s felt.
He sat on the bed. I stayed wrapped around him.
We kissed without urgency.
We kissed like it was our language.
We kissed like our mouths were made to meld together forever.
His hands feathered up my back to my neck and my jaw, framing my face to angle my head to kiss me deeper. Such a simple gesture … but it felt different with him. My fingers curled into his back like they needed a constant reminder that it wasn’t a dream that might vanish if I tried to grasp it.
Our kiss ended as sirens screeched nearby. I knew they had to be on our street. As people did with sirens, we waited for the sound to fade … to go beyond us. But they didn’t fade, they intensified and multiplied. He remained expressionless, like a dog listening for something.
I couldn’t wait, so I jumped off his lap and ran to the window in his room that faced the street. “Oh my god! Our house!”
Flames engulfed Aubrey’s house and panic ripped straight to my heart. So many people were still in the house when I left. The second I turned, Slade was there, shoving one of his tees over my head like a child.
“Pants …” he held up a pair of his sweatpants.
I didn’t need pants. I needed to know if my friends were okay. In only his tee, I ran down the stairs, out the door, and up the street—bare feet slapping against the sidewalk, the cool breeze engulfing my skin as the burn of smoke crept up my nostrils.
“Miss, please stay back.” A policeman stopped me as firefighters scrambled to put out the fire and help people out of the house.
More sirens in the distance sounded as dogs barked and rescue workers barked instructions.
“It’s my house! Those are my friends!” I wriggled as his grip tightened to keep me from running closer to the house. Endless tears spilled down my cheeks.
Missy … Aubrey … Kara …
When I stopped fighting the officer, I surveyed the area and I found Missy at the back of an ambulance with paramedics checking her over.
“Missy!” I ran straight to her.
The paramedic stepped aside to let me hug her, so I assumed she must not have been seriously injured.
“Oh my god! Livy! We thought you were still in there. She’s here!” Missy coughed several times as she yelled to one of the firemen.
“Where’s Aubrey and Kara?”
She nodded to another ambulance. “Kara’s over there. Aubrey had some minor burns. Another ambulance just left with her.”
“I’m going to check on her.”
“Go.” Missy nodded.
“Where were you?” Kara batted the paramedic’s hand away as I approached her.
I grunted as her hug knocked the wind from me. “I was out front. Then I went to Slade’s house. What happened?”
She shook her head. “We don’t know. I was asleep and so was Missy. I think Aubrey was cleaning the kitchen when smoke detectors went off. Everything escalated, going from zero to the …” She choked on a sob as she watched the firemen work to put out the fire with little luck. It was gone. “The wh-whole house was up in flames and … and e-everyone was trying to get out.”
I hugged her again. “Are you okay? Have they gotten everyone out?”
“I’m … f-fine.” She shrugged as I released her. “But we don’t know for sure who was in the house. You …” She wiped her eyes. “We thought you were in there.”
I winced. “I’m sorry. I should have told someone where I was going but …”
Of course, I didn’t think the house would go up in flames, causing a big search for me.
“We need to call Aubrey’s parents. I …” Reality sank in one drop at a time. I didn’t have my phone. It was in the house. “Do you have your phone?”
Kara shook her head. “Neither does Missy.”
I blinked at the flames. Shocked. Mesmerized. Barely coherent at the moment. “We should get to the hospital.”
“Yes. But unless you have your Jeep key on you, we don’t have wheels.”
Tearing my gaze from the house in ruins, I scanned the area. Partygoers in costumes, some half-clothed, some wrapped in a sheet or a blanket. I’m pretty sure I recognized the blanket from my bed wrapped around a couple heading across the street to their car. Did they have their key on them? When they stopped at the door that was locked, their heads dropped.
Nope. No key.
My gaze continued to sort through the crowd and chaos until it landed on Slade and Jericho hanging out on the sidewalk about a yard up from their house. Most of the area was blocked off. “Let’s go. I found our ride.”