Page 36 of Game Changer
“Yes.” Maya responds for her. “She’s had three shots tonight.”
For Maddie, that’s more like six.
Cameron nods in understanding. “Got it. Thanks. See you tomorrow, Ethan.”
Maya turns to me with pleading eyes as he carries Maddie out of the bar. “Dance with me.”
I don’t have a chance to refuse before I’m pulled onto the dance floor during a Bad Bunny song, which happens to be her favorite artist. The beat is sensual.Sexy. And I’m completely unprepared when she spins around and presses her ass up against me. I have no idea where to put my hands. No idea if she wants me to touch her. I mean, she’s dancing on me, but that doesn’t mean . . .
Cameron, Mark, and Leo’s remarks a few minutes ago make me cringe.
Okay, so maybe shedoeswant this.
The question is, what am I going to do about it?
Maya puts her hands on her knees, and her hips take control. I’m hard as a fucking rock as I stare at one of my biggest weaknesses bouncing in circles on the crotch of my jeans. I know she can feel it, yet she doesn’t pull away. The music takes over, and with the crowded dance floor, the heat is getting to be too much. My control is slipping, and the sanity I’ve tried so desperately to hang on to crumbles when she stands upright again and presses the full length of her back against my chest.
I groan when she reaches behind me to grab the cowboy hat off my head and places it on hers instead. Then she interlocks our fingers and drags our hands to her thigh. I’m panting heavily as she grinds against me and moves our hands a little higher every few seconds. If we get any higher, I’ll touch the thong that’s been teasing the fuck out of me all night.
“Are you drunk?” I pant into her ear.
Please say no.
She twists her head to the side, that devious smile returning to her pink lips. “No. I stayed sober in case I needed to ride the hat off a certain cowboy tonight.”
The rope has already snapped.
My sanity is gone.
And before I let myself overthink it, my lips meet hers in a ferocious hunger that consumes every ounce of my being.
I don’t care that we’re in a bar with our friends. I don’t care that it’s ninety degrees in here when I spin her around so I can push her against the wall and slide my hands down her waist. All I can think about is her lips on mine. I can’t get enough of her. My lips can’t kiss her fast enough.
I want todevourher.
Who cares if I don’t know the reason that she ghosted me? It doesn’t matter when she wants this. She wantsme, and we’ll figure out the rest as we go.
She gasps when my tongue runs up the column of her neck, and when I bite her earlobe, she slumps against the wall and tilts her head to the side.
Just like the first time, lust seems to be a blanket for my anxiety. It overpowers my nerves, and adrenaline takes its place, making me the most confident version of myself. I suddenly know exactly where I want my mouth. I know exactly what I want to do with her.
And I can’t do those things in a crowd full of people.
“We need to leave,” I growl. “Right now.”
She nods while attempting to catch her breath.
“Your room or mine?”
“I—” She closes her eyes as my hands skate down her sides. “What if I told you I had a place closer than the dorm? A place we could go right now?”
My eyes darken at the thought. “I’d say what are we waiting for, then? I’d tell you to take me there so I can give you yourrealbirthday present.”
I don’t have to tell her twice. Maya laces our fingers again, and drags me through the bar to a hallway in the back, and the entire time, I can’t fight the smile on my face.
Happy Endings might live up to its name after all.
Eighteen
