I held him tighter, wondering if I could just keep holding him like this for the rest of my life. I didn’t want to let him go, not foranything. I wanted to keep him here in my arms, where I could protect him, make sure he was safe.
He was whispering something into my neck, words I couldn’t hear clearly, those soft lips brushing over my skin again and again. Maybe they weren’t even words at all, just drunken garble that didn’t mean anything. His fingers were tugging gently at the hair at the base of my neck, absently playing with the strands.
And then he bit down, and all my thoughts flew out of my head.
The first bite made me stumble, those sharp little teeth sinking into my skin and clamping down hard.
The muscles in my abdomen clenched as heat spread through my lower body. He scraped his teeth against my flesh and made a sexy little sound of delight in the back of his throat.
He slid his tongue over the bite, then started kissing and sucking his way up the column of my throat. When he made it to my lips, I pulled my head back with a pained groan.
“No,” I said. “You can’t—stop it, Reese, you’re drunk.”
He made a frustrated noise and dove forward, capturing my lips again. He hummed in contentment, then bit down hard on my bottom lip, sucking it into his mouth.
My entire body jerked under him, and I grabbed his head to pull him back. “No?—”
“No,” Reese growled, latching onto my neck and sucking so hard I thought I would come.
I ripped him away from me again and held his head still, then laughed at his pissed off expression.
Vicious little tiger cub.
“No,” I said emphatically. “You’re drunk. I’m not doing anything with you when you’re like this.”
Reese sighed, and then his eyes rolled back as he tried to keep them open. “To’lly not drunk,” he murmured as his head became too heavy and fell against my shoulder.
I tipped my head back and closed my eyes.Fuck.
He slumped in my arms after a few moments, and I held him tighter. I tried to just focus on the walk back, on Reese in my arms, tried to concentrate on the fact that I had him now and he’d be okay. But I couldn’t let go of the fury simmering beneath my skin, and the awful thoughts about what I wanted to do to Everett wouldn’t stop.
Reese woke up right as we got back to the dorm, inhaling deeply and squeezing his limbs around me even tighter.
“Dakota?”
His voice was rough and deep, scratchy and afraid.
“Yeah. I’m right here. I got you.”
“’Kay,” he whispered.
I carried him up the stairs as he toyed with my hair, and when we were back in the safety of our room, only then was I able to lose some of the tension in my muscles. I brought him into the bathroom, then set him down.
Or tried to.
He wouldn’t let go of me, kept his arms around my neck and his legs around my waist, squeezing tighter when I let go of him.
“Reese. Let’s get you washed up.”
“No,” he mumbled into my neck.
“We need to go to bed.”
“Together?”
“Yeah, together, if that’s what you want.”
“Okay.”
