“Oh yeah?”
“Mhmm.” Panther trailed a hand down my spine to my waist, then pivoted, taking the lead from me. “I love it. It’s very…romantic.”
“I can be romantic.”
Panther kissed his way along my jaw to my ear. Goosebumps covered my arms as he whispered, “Apparently so. Who knew?”
I looked him in the eye and grinned. “No fucking one.”
Panther tugged me in closer. “You saying I make you feel romantic, Mateo?”
Fuck.Panther saying my name always made my body respond. But add in the night, the mood, and the way he was eyeing me like he never wanted to stop looking at me, and I was a goner.
I licked along my lower lip. “Among other things…”
Panther flattened his palm and smoothed it over the round curve of my ass, much like I had to him, then pulled me in so he could rub his hard cock up against mine. I looped my arms around his neck, more than happy to let him do with me what he wanted.
“Probably smart we didn’t do this at the ball, then, huh?”
“Probably,” I said as I tipped my head back. Not a second later, he was kissing his way up and over my Adam’s apple.
“Pretty sure we shocked everyone enough without me doing something like this to you out there on the dance floor.”
“Fuck everyone else.”
Panther scraped his teeth along my jaw, brought his other hand down to join the one on my ass, and began to walk me back toward his bed. “I’d rather fuck you…”
When the back of my legs hit the mattress, he ran a thumb across my swollen lips. My pulse raced at the hunger in his eyes. He reached for the brass buttons on my dress jacket and began to unbutton them.
“You’re beautiful, you know that?”
I scoffed, but before I could respond, Panther shook his head and said, “Before you even ask, that’s alsometalking.”
As he got to the final button and my jacket hung open, he touched my cheek and his eyes roamed over my face.
“Beautiful. Sexy. And mine…”
In the past, the idea of belonging to someone had always filled me with a sense of panic. A need to run, to get away from any kind of commitment that made me give my heart over to a situation or someone who could hurt me. But as I stood there in front of Panther, I thought,Please don’t break my heart.Because no matter how hard I’d tried to keep this fun, to keep this thing between us casual, there was no mistaking that tonight, everything had changed.
“Yours,” I said before I could stop myself, and then Panther slipped his hand under my jacket and drew me to him. “Now prove it.”
As we fell onto his bed and the rest of the world disappeared from view, I thought what a perfect song and ending this was to our night, because in that moment, I only had eyes for Grant Hughes.
5Panther
IT WAS ALL I could do not to grab Solo’s hand as we entered NAFTA the Monday morning after the Navy Ball, but since PDA of any kind between any pairing wasn’t permitted, I held myself back.
But just barely.
“Care to take bets on who’s gonna give us the most shit?” Solo asked after we’d made it through the security check. He looked at me, eyes gleaming with mischief as he slid his phone back into his pocket.
“Everyone?”
“Maybe. Gooch has already been blowing up my phone, but I’ll go with Utah. He was staring fucking daggers our way at the party.”
“What else is new,” I said as we headed toward the locker room. “The guy’s a dick and hates everyone.”
“Probably because he’s at the bottom of the pile. How’d he even get in?”
