Page 92 of Take My Hand

Hayden takes a drink of water and swishes it in his mouth before swallowing. I shouldn’t find it as hot as I do, but the way his throat works to swallow the drink makes the veins in his neck stand out and I want to run my tongue up the column of his throat. Sensing my eyes on him, he turns his head in my direction with a frown until he sees the fire in my stare.

He lays a hand on my bare thigh and runs it gently up and down my leg, fingers creeping higher and higher with each pass.

Hayden continues his teasing but addresses the entire table. “We were at one of our friends' Halloween parties and like we used to do a lot when we were younger, we got drunk off cheap beer that we stole from our parents and whatever liquor anyone could get ahold of.”

“Remember Nikolai’s cocktail of tequila and root beer?” Walker says, and the five of them cringe at the memory.

“Not my finest moment,” Nikolai says to me and Scar.

“Anyway, we didn’t have a lot to do around where we lived, so we would ding dong ditch a lot. And our friend lived in this huge neighborhood with houses spread far apart. So there were a lot of trees and bushes and things to hide behind. Perfect for ding dong ditching,” he continues, voice not betraying anything as his pinky grazes the hem of my panties.

I try not to squirm in my chair, but my chest rises and falls with labored breaths that I’m sure aren’t very inconspicuous.

“So you just rang people’s doorbells and ran away?” Scar asks.

“Pretty much,” Walker replies.

Scar frowns. “What’s the point?”

The guys all exchange looks.

“I don’t know. It was just fun.” Nikolai shrugs.

“It was pretty common for everyone to do when the parties got boring or the alcohol ran out,” Hayden says.

Jane cuts a small cube of chicken. “And that night we ran out faster than usual because it was Halloween and more people showed up to the party than expected. So around midnight or so, the five of us decided to ditch the party and go do a few houses before returning to see if anyone else was able to track down more booze.”

“The house was pitch black and had a large field across the street from it with some good cover, so I volunteered to be the first one to ring the bell,” Hayden says, and I turn to him in surprise.

“You?”

He grins. “I was more adventurous back then.”

Before he had a reason to fear everyone around him. The unspoken words hit me in the chest.

“Plus, you were the fastest,” Walker points out and no one contradicts him.

“If you were so fast, then how come you got caught?” Scar asks with a raised brow.

“I didn’t,” Hayden says before shooting a look to his other side at Nikolai.

Jane peers around her brother to tell Scar, “You would do it a few times, giving a little break in between so the people thought you were gone.”

“And Nikolai insisted on going next,” Walker says. “But his costume gave him some…limited movement. So he was slow getting away once he rang the bell the second time and dropped his box on the way off their porch.”

Nikolai dips his head in shame, and Jane smirks at him.

“The guy who owned the house was already on alert after the first one and he came barreling out the front door just as Nikolai dived over the top of some bushes in their yard. You should’ve seen him.” Walker laughs, tapping his fingers against the table. “He leaped over them headfirst like he was diving into a pool.”

Even Reid shakes his head with a smile at the memory.

“Safe to say, he wasn’t too happy about us waking him and his wife up and he called the cops on us,” Walker says.

Hayden sits back in his chair with a content sigh, but he keeps his hand firmly planted under my dress, just barely grazing my core. I slam my hand over his, keeping him still from doing anything further.

He winks at me.

“Did they seriously arrest a bunch of teenagers for ringing doorbells?” Scar asks.

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