The towel shifts dangerously low.
“Oh no,” I whisper, swaying slightly as I try to grab the towel and pull it back up my thigh.
“Why do you hold the towel?” Raiden’s voice is quiet, softer than I’ve ever heard it. “It’s normal to be naked in the locker room.”
“I swear I’ll transfer to another college so you’ll stop teasing me,” I say, my voice cracking slightly. “Of course, that’s probably what you’re trying to—”
His lips press against my skin, just below my collarbone.
I forget how to breathe.
He kisses me again. And again. Soft, deliberate presses of his mouth against my bare chest, trailing up toward my throat.
“You’re not transferring to another college, Patton. Understand?”
His voice is rough, almost broken.
“Does this feel like mockery too? Because if it does, there’s no point in me stopping. I don’t know if I’ll stop at all.”
“Stop what?” I manage to whisper.
“This.”
And then his mouth is on me in earnest—no longer soft kisses but desperate and consuming. He sucks hard at the skin of my throat, my shoulder, the hollow of my collarbone, marking me.
It’s like something inside him has broken free. Like he’s been holding himself back for so long and now he can’t anymore.
His hands tighten on my hips, pulling me closer, and I make a sound—half gasp, half moan—that I immediately wish I could take back.
“Raiden—”
“Don’t,” he says against my skin, his breath hot. “Don’t say my name like that unless you want me to lose what’s left of my control.”
I should demand to know what the hell he thinks he’s doing. Should remind him that he’s spent six months making my life miserable and he doesn’t get to just—
But his mouth finds mine, and every thought evaporates.
The kiss rips through me. His teeth graze mine, his tongue pushes insistently, and every motion is claiming, demanding. It’s not gentle—it’s fire and hunger that presses down on me, like he’s been starving for me forever.
My hands are still on his shoulders, and instead of pushing him away, I’m gripping the fabric of his shirt, holding on like he’s the only solid thing in a world that’s suddenly tilted sideways.
When he finally pulls back, we’re both breathing hard.
His pupils are blown wide, that irregular dark spot in his right eye more visible than ever.
He doesn’t give me time to recover. Before I can process the shock of his mouth on mine again, he dives back in, devouring me. One of his large hands slides up my back to the nape of my neck, holding me in place, while the other grips my waist with bruising force.
My brain has short-circuited. The man I’ve spent months terrified of is currently eating me alive, and God help me, my body is responding with a pathetic eagerness.
He breaks the kiss with a ragged gasp, but he doesn’t pull away. His face buries itself in the crook of my neck, his stubble scraping deliciously against my sensitive skin. Then he moves lower.
His hot, wet mouth trails down the center of my chest, over my sternum.
“Raiden,” I gasp, my hands tangling uselessly in his hair. “God—”
His head dips lower, and suddenly his lips close over my left nipple.
A jolt of electricity shoots straight to my cock.
