Looking for Trouble (Nashville U Book 1) (28 page)

“Sooo …” Annabelle starts, “what happened after the date? How’d you get home?”

Looking between the two of them, I decide to keep Clay’s apology just for me, but I do tell them, “Clay gave me a ride.” They both squeal in delight, but my attention is taken by the vibration of my phone. I pull it out of my jacket pocket to see the object of our discussions name on the screen.

Clay: U in bed yet?

Yeah right
. I would be if my roommate weren’t in our room talking shit about me. Not that I’m going to tell him that.

Kat: No. Talking 2 Scar & Annabelle

Clay: Telling them how awesome I am 4 rescuing u from a dumbass?

I laugh, prompting my friends to turn their attention back to me. “Who’s that?” Scarlett asks, studying my face. “Is it Clay?” I nod as I send back a reply.

Kat: Ha! Not even close.

A few minutes go by without a response, and my eyes are glued to my phone as I watch the dreaded dots pop up and dance while he’s typing before disappearing again. By the time his message comes through, I’m ready to yell at the screen.

Clay: Meet me outside?

The message is only a few words, and Scarlett asks exactly what I’m thinking. “All that typing and that’s all he said?”

“You’re going to meet him right?” Annabelle has a goofy smile on her face, like she’s expecting Clay to do some big declaration of love.

I shrug. “Maybe?” I look between them, trying to figure out if I should.

Scarlett gets tired of waiting for me to make a decision, and while I’m distracted, she grabs my phone and sends a message back.

Kat: B right down.

“Scarlett!” I shriek, but she just grins at me, completely unrepentant.

Annabelle claps her hands, a huge smile on her face as Scarlett stands, pulling me off the bed and dragging me to the door. She keeps hold of my hand until we get to the main door. The three of us stop when we see Clay standing just outside. He’s turned away from us, holding the hoodie I dropped on the passenger seat of his car in one hand, the other shoved in the pocket of the jacket he’s wearing. Scarlett lets go of my hand to push open the door, then gestures for me to walk through.

Clay turns to face me when I walk outside, the cold air immediately making me shiver. He passes over the hoodie with a smile, waiting for me to pull it over my head. It’s even bigger on me now that I’m standing, covering almost as much as the dress I’m wearing. I walk beside him as he heads back to his car, stopping at what I now think of as
my
side. He opens the door and waits for me to get in before shutting it behind me. I watch as he walks around to the driver’s side, and when he gets in, I can’t wait any longer to ask, “Where are we going?”

“My apartment.” He doesn’t say anything else, and I don’t ask for further clarification. Normally, I’d think it’s way too late to be going to his place, but considering it’s only been about forty-five minutes since he dropped me off, and I don’t want to be anywhere near my room and Becca, I’m not complaining.

Clay

Kat is quiet on the drive to my apartment. I catch myself turning my head to look at her every few minutes, wanting to ask why she looks so pensive as she stares out the car window, her chin propped on the arm resting on the edge of the door. Instead of asking, I leave her be, enjoying looking at her more than I should.

When we reach the apartment, I push open the door, then step aside to let her walk in. She murmurs a quiet, “Thank you,” as she scoots by me, her arms wrapped around herself as she heads straight for the couch. Kat pulls off her shoes, then shimmies off her tights before she drops down on it with a heavy sigh, pulling her legs into her chest, her head dropping to rest on her knees as she wraps her arms around them, her eyes sliding closed. If it’s possible, she looks more miserable than she did when I dropped her off earlier.

I walk over, taking a seat beside her and lean back, sliding my arm along the couch behind where she’s sitting. “What’s wrong?” I brace myself for an answer that likely includes something I’ve said or done, but when her answer comes, I have to brace myself for another reason—to keep myself from going straight back to her dorm to do things to her roommate a man should never do to a woman.

“Becca’s the one behind all the rumors.”

Leaning closer, I ask, “Becca … as in your roommate Becca?”

Her eyes open, and she rolls them before glaring at me. “Of course, my roommate Becca, unless you know of another Becca who would have been talking about me to her friends in my room.” She shakes her head, irritated that I would even ask.

“Sorry,” I grin down at her, comfortable with the return of our normal back and forth. “I didn’t realize your roommate was such a cunt.”

I watch as Kat’s eyes widen, and before she can hide it, a grin spreads across her face. “You’re such a jerk.” Unlike when she used to say that, the words have zero heat. She doesn’t mean them.

“Ah, yeah, but I’m your favorite jerk,” I say with a wink. Kat snorts but doesn’t contradict me. I almost said I was just
her
jerk, but I don’t think she would have agreed with me. It’s putting myself, and my feelings, out there a little
too
much.

Kat looks away, but not before I see her bite her lip in an attempt to stop smiling. “Whatever,” she mutters.

Removing my arm from the back of the sofa, I lean forward to grab the remote. Once I have it in hand, I return to my previous position, moving just a little closer to her. “Any requests for what to watch?” Kat shrugs, studiously avoiding looking at me again. “C’mon, Kitty Kat. I’m letting you pick, and I’m down for anything. Tell you what; I’ll even watch some girly chick flick. It’ll be like Netflix and chill … without the chill.”

At my offer, Kat leans forward, grabbing the remote out of my hand and scrolling the choices. She stops on a series about a female superhero who is basically indestructible and has a freaky dude stalking her. “Have you ever watched this?” I ask Kat, certain the answer has to be no. There’s a lot of booty call action in this one, and there’s no way she’d choose to knowingly watch it with me. I’m not ashamed to admit that I have. It’s a chick superhero,
and
she’s badass.

My thought is confirmed when she shakes her head. “Uh-uh. Scarlett thinks Jessica is awesome though, and she’s been trying to get me to watch it.” She looks up at me from under her lashes, and it’s all I can do not to kiss her. Watching a sex-heavy show with her is
not
a good idea. “You’re okay with it, right?”

“Yeah,” I manage to croak, “I said you could pick.”

Satisfied, she hits the button to start the show, stiffening when she sees the action that starts at the very beginning of the episode. Two people are clearly having sex, while the main character takes photos of them. I don’t pay much attention to what’s on the television, though. I much prefer watching Kat’s reaction to what she’s seeing. The first episode is heavy on the screwing, and the longer we watch, the more her cheeks flush and her breathing speeds up. One of the sex scenes is very detailed, and Kat’s eyes go round as she watches the characters having sex that’s probably a lot rougher than she’s ever had. When her mouth drops open a little, and a soft moan leaves her mouth, memories of the night she spent in my bed flip through my head and I’m done.

Using the hand that’s not laying across the back of the couch, I cup her cheek and turn her to face me. Her eyes are glassy, and I know watching the show has turned her on. Even though I know it’s a bad idea, especially after the shitty thing she’s found out tonight, there’s no way I can stop this now. As I lean closer, her eyes focus on my lips, and I wait for her to tell me to stop. When she doesn’t, I slowly move closer, my arm leaving the couch and wrapping around her waist instead, pulling her closer to me.

Kat’s hands travel timidly up my chest to wrap around my neck just as my lips meet hers. Another breathy sound leaves her, and I take advantage of her mouth opening, thrusting my tongue inside to taste her. When she cautiously curls her tongue around mine, my hand at her waist tightens, pulling her further into me. Instead of just pressing against me, she moves, our mouths still fused together, so she’s straddling my lap instead. The position makes the softest parts of her body line up with the hardest parts of mine, and we both moan. My other hand moves down along her throat, down her arm and along with the other hand, grips the sides of her small waist.

I’ve been thinking about kissing her like this for more than a month. Now that she’s here, the heat of her pussy pressing against my hard as a rock dick, I don’t want to do anything to spook her. The couple on TV are still getting down and dirty, their sounds providing the perfect soundtrack for what we’re doing. The need to have her in every way possible consumes me, and I want more than this, more than a kiss, but I’m afraid if I try to move things forward she’ll stop me.

The choice is taken out of my hands when her mouth leaves mine, and she buries her face in my neck. I can feel her trembling. In an attempt to calm her, I release one side of her waist to rub my hand up and down her back softly, wishing I was touching her skin instead of my sweatshirt. My hand stills when I feel her lips pucker against my throat, so quickly I think I imagined it. A second later the sensation happens again, her mouth pressing against my skin a little harder before her tongue touches my heated flesh.

Kat’s breath is choppy as her tiny kisses move up my throat to my jaw. I take advantage of her movement, using my hand to keep her pressed to my chest, and take the delicate lobe of her ear between my teeth. Her body jolts when I bite down, a soft, “oh,” in my own ear, and her hands tightening in the hair at the back of my neck. Using my tongue, I trace the shell of her ear before laving kisses down her throat. I feel her body start to rock against me, and mentally fist pump. This is actually going to fucking happen. Maybe it won’t all the way happen, but just feeling her move against me has me ready to come in my jeans.

Her pulse races against my lips when I press a kiss at the base of her throat, and I marvel at the fact she’s just as into this as I am. Looking up, I search her eyes for permission. As much as I want to touch her, as much as I want to go there with her, I have no interest in taking advantage of her. Kat uses her hands to move my face down to hers, touching our mouths together and tracing my lips with her tongue.
Thank Christ
. Then, she sucks my bottom lip into her mouth and bites down, driving me a little more crazy.

Hard as it is, I manage to break away from her mouth, moving her back on my lap just enough to put some space between us. We both catch our breath at the feel of her sliding against me deliberately. Half-lidded eyes watch as I grip the neck of my shirt at the back of my neck, pulling it over my head and dropping it behind the couch. I could care less right now where it lands. Kat’s eyes are locked on my bare chest, and it’s all I can do not to flex my muscles to make them look bigger. I’m blown away by how much I want her to like what she sees, and based on the way she bites down on her lip, her cheeks turning pink, she does. Without giving her a chance to protest, I grip the bottom of my hoodie and pull it up over her head. I half expect her to stop me, but instead, she raises her arms to help.

She’s still wearing the dress from her date, and even though I hated it earlier, now I’m thanking God, Scarlett, and anyone else I can think of for the fact I’m the one who gets to take it off of her. I’m refusing to even think about Aaron being the one to do this with her. Just his name has me wanting to brand her as mine, to make sure everyone knows not to touch her.

Taking a deep breath, I run my hands down her arms, not wanting to go straight for getting her naked. Well, that’s not exactly true. I want her naked more than I want my next breath, but I know she’ll balk if I move too fast. The damn dress drove me crazy when I saw her earlier, so crazy I acted like even more of a jerk because of it. It has short sleeves and an even shorter skirt, something I’m happy about now since it means there’s less fabric between her pussy and my dick. Keeping my eyes on her, I study her as I move my hands down to rest on her bare thighs. When she doesn’t protest, I lean forward, pressing moist kisses along her collarbone, stopping briefly to dip my tongue in the indent at the base of her throat. I can’t get enough of the taste of her skin.

Kat sighs, slowly dragging her hands down my chest to the button on my jeans before tentatively touching the skin just above my waistband. Her fingers dip just under, but she goes no further, even though I’m silently pleading for her to touch me. Wanting to move her along, I inch my hands up under the short skirt until I reach the apex of her thighs. She freezes, and as hard as it is, I look away from where my tan skin contrasts with the soft, pale skin of her legs to meet hers.