Page 120 of Hate Me

We were bound together now. In the best way.

I looked up from my laptop at her over on the opposite couch of the den as she was typing away.

She was in work-mode, her loose curls pulled into one of her sexy messy ponytails. My cock jerked at the sight of her breasts pushed up in a delicious offering in her blue wrap top with the edgy black lace sleeves. Jeez. It was why I hadn’t looked up for a while, because the sight of her was beyond distracting whenever I did. Now that she’d gone there again with us physically, it was all back on the table, and it had lit a fire in me, and the need to be all over her and fuck her into that couch was right at the surface. The only things holding me back were that she was trying so hard to get back into her video game creation, working on that sequel now, and the fact that I needed to finish up the last parts of my final year project.

She shifted her weight a little in her black bootcut pants, her silver butterfly belt jangling with her movements.

“Can I help you?” she asked coyly without looking up from her screen, the corner of her mouth turning up, though.

“I have no doubt that you can. In a shit-ton of ways, baby.”

That had her eyes snapping right to mine, and I saw them spark with need.

She sucked in a stilted breath. “I’m under strict instructions from Caspian not to let you get distracted from your schoolwork.”

I chuckled. “I’d expect nothing less. He knows me well.”

“And he knows how you are with me.”

“That too.” My lip curled up. “It’s not my fault you’re irresistible.”

She wagged her finger at me. “Uh uh. None of that.”

“None of what? Giving you well-earned compliments?”

“Flirting.”

“Harmless flirting, you mean?”

She rolled her eyes. “Please, it’s never harmless with you and you know it.”

“Maybe that’s something I’m working on.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. I mean, as much as feeding you my cock or having you ride me in that incredible feral way of yours is right up there as my favorite way to spend my time, I also like this… us working side-by-side and bantering. Flirting and all that doesn’t always need to lead to some rough and wild fucking.” I smiled out at her. “And after the other night, everything you said, a lot of the weight of the anxiety I’ve been feeling when it comes to us has eased off.”

“You feel like you don’t need to keep actively marking your territory and staking a claim on me?”

She’d posed it as a question, but her tone was closer to a statement.

She’d obviously seen it in me then, the calm that had come over me after that major turning point the other night.

“Pretty much.” I winked at her. “Not that I don’t want to. I mean, I’ll always want to jump your bones, baby. But that need isn’t tangled up in a load of other shit now.”

“I’m glad. I don’t want you to worry. I am here with you now. I promise, sweets.”

A thrill rolled through me. She hadn’t called me that in so long.

And as cutesy as it was, I fucking loved it.

I loved anything that she did to express affection for me, for us.

We stared at one another for a moment, basking in the sweet moment.

And then she blinked and snapped her fingers. “Back to work.”

“Wait. How’s it going with developing those new characters for your sequel?”

---