His protectiveness is infuriatingly hot. "It's not like I wrote them down before blocking them. God, you're frustrating." I try to duck under his arm, but he's too quick, blocking my escape.
He crowds even closer, the curve of his mouth brushing my ear. "Let me take care of it," he growls, a promise in his voice. "Just say yes."
I feel his lips graze the lobe, his stubble scraping my cheek.
"Stop," I manage, because if I don't, I'll melt into a puddle. I'm already struggling to remember that I absolutely cannot under any circumstances agree to date him.
"I will," he says, dipping his head, "when you say you'll go out with me."
"I—" That's as far as I get before his mouth slants down over mine, hot and hungry.
I gasp, my hands planted against his chest. His tongue teases the seam of my lips, and I open for him without thinking. His hands settle on my hips, anchoring me to him.
My brain short-circuits as his hands slide lower, kneading the curve of my ass like it's a goddamn stress ball. I intend to push him away, really I do, but instead, my fingers curl in his hair, pulling him closer. He's all force and need, kissing me like he wants to devour me right here in the hallway.
The worst part? I kiss him back.Hard.I don't even mean to, but my tongue tangles with his, and suddenly, I'm in his arms, my legs around his waist.
I don't even know how it happens! But he's pressed so tight against me that all I feel is him. His mouth is so hot and insistent, my thoughts are running in circles.
I should fight this. I should. IknowI should. But the friction of his hard body grinding into me is so perfect that I can't even breathe, let alone remember why I was mad in the first place.
He kisses the hell out of me, then drags his mouth down my jaw and nips at my neck, murmuring my name like a prayer. "Serena." The way he says it—just a little desperate, like he needs this as much as I do—turns my bones to mush.
He's not even trying to be subtle about what he wants. His hands are everywhere at once—palming, squeezing, kneading. His mouth is so hot on my skin, it's almost unfair. When he bites down, just below my ear, I actually whimper.
My dignity is officially missing, presumed dead.
"Say yes," he breathes, pulling back just enough to catch my gaze. His eyes are so green it's insane, his lips swollen. "Go out with me, Serena."
I try to glower at him, but it's difficult when my entire body is humming, my chest rising and falling like I've run a marathon. "No."
He grins like the devil, slipping his hand between my legs.
My head hits the wall with an audible thunk. All I know is the dizzying heat between my thighs and the way his rough, possessive hands make me feel like I might actually combust.
"Say yes," he growls, stroking me through my panties.
I don't mean to. The word just slips out, traitorous and weak. "Yes."
He grins like he just won the championship. "That wasn't so hard, was it?"
I glower at him, panting and dazed. "You're diabolical."
He laughs, the sound vibrating all the way to my core. He flicks his tongue against the seam of my lips, like he's tasting victory. "I know," he breathes. "But if that's what it takes to get you to give me a chance, then a motherfucker's gotta do what a motherfucker's gotta do, baby."
I groan. It's not a dignified sound, but I can't help it. My body is a molten mess, my mind a total haze.
He presses a kiss to my cheek, then to my jaw, then to my lips again, this one soft and almost reverent.
I push at his chest, trying to reclaim whatever is left of my self-respect. "I hate you."
"No, you don't," he says, cocky as hell, but his eyes are soft, sending my heart into overdrive.
"Don't be so cocky. I'll cancel before we even get to dinner." But it's an empty threat, and I suspect he knows it.
He leans in, brushing his lips against mine once more. "Try it," he murmurs, and then he's gone, striding back into the weight room like he didn't just turn my entire life upside down in under five minutes.
I stand there, pressed to the cinderblock, trying to remember how to breathe, how to think, how to exist in a world where Austin Hawkes is taking me on a date.
