Consolation Prize (Forbidden Men 9)

He seemed to realize telling me that little detail was something he never should’ve done when his face froze as if he’d just been caught with his hand in the cookie jar. “I…”

“So, what…?” I demanded, feeling just…really, really shitty. “He tossed me a pity bone? Like I don’t want you, but here’s my little brother. Enjoy? You really were my consolation prize? Are you fucking kidding me right now?”

“No, it wasn’t like that at all.” He grasped my shoulders gently and looked into my eyes beseechingly. “Jesus, baby doll. That is not what happened. He actually told me not to touch you. No, actually, that wasn’t how he put it. What did he say?” He winced, trying to recall the exact wording before he refocused on me to relay, “He said I didn’t stand a chance with you.”

“Oh.” I shoved his hands off me so I could back up enough to glare at all of him. “So you decided to prove him wrong, huh?”

“No.” He didn’t sound so insistent this time. He was almost defeated as he explained, “I didn’t think I stood a chance either. But you looked so miserable, I wanted to help you. I thought I could annoy you away with my flirting like I usually did, and it would chase you off so you’d stop torturing yourself. But then…then I learned what your fucking earrings meant, and…Jesus, Juli. You were there. You know what happened just happened. I didn’t plan that.”

I believed him. I don’t think I would’ve believed anyone else who’d fed me an excuse in that moment, but I believed Colton. Because I had been there. There’d been nothing planned or diabolical behind our encounter in that room.

But still, everything felt…wrong again.

“Maybe we shouldn’t do this,” I whispered, shaking my head and almost about to cry because that wasn’t what I really wanted to say. “This is getting complicated.”

He shook his head. “It’s not complicated at all, baby doll. Do you want me or not?”

Everything inside me screamed yes, but I gulped. “But what about…he who shall not be named?”

“That’s why I made that condition because this right here is between you and me, not him. He doesn’t belong here, and I don’t want him involved. And if he knew about it, he’d make himself involved.”

I nodded. “Okay, but just for the record, I don’t still have a thing for him.”

“Whatever.” He stepped in closer to me and ran a single fingertip up the side of my throat. It felt...wow, really good, but I think he was trying to distract me because he didn’t believe me and he didn’t want to hear what he thought was a lie.

I grabbed his wrist, making him look into my eyes.

“I’m serious, Colton. I was over him that night. I just didn’t realize it yet. You were right. One taste of you and I forgot all about big brother.”

He cupped my cheek and whispered, “Okay.” This time, I think the words actually sank in. He believed.

Releasing a breath of relief, I smiled. Then he smiled. And we leaned toward each other to kiss. At first, it was just lips pressing against lips. I had to close my eyes against the utter sweetness of it. But soon enough his mouth opened and tongue came out, so my tongue came out.

Before I knew it, we were stepping closer, then right up against each other. I gripped his shirt with two fistfuls as he slid the straps of my book bag off my shoulders. So I did the same for him. Once both packs dropped to the floor at our feet, he smoothed his palms along my back until he gripped my ass and picked me up. I hooked his waist with my legs, and he spun to press my spine against the wall.

When the hard ridge of his erection slammed against my clit, I sucked in a breath and clutched him, gripping and releasing, almost like a cat kneading a lap before sitting on it. I think I even purred when his lips found the base of my throat.

“Yes.”

He angled my hips using his grip on my ass and hit another sensitive spot. “Dammit, Colton. You’re going to make me come before we even get to the good stuff. Please tell me you have something.”

When he froze against me, his face still buried against my neck, I almost wept. “Oh my God, you’ve got to be kidding me.”

He finally looked up and met my gaze, his eyes wide. “I forgot to refill my wallet after the wedding.”

The wedding…where he’d heaved his unused condom across the room.

Shit.

I guess that meant he hadn’t been getting frisky with any other woman since then, which was good to know, but fuuuuck…a condom sounded like air right about now, I needed one to keep breathing.

“We, uh…we can just go back to my place then. My roommates have tons of condoms in our bathroom for their boyfriends. You can follow my car, and—”

“Sounds good,” he said, cutting me off as he set my feet back on the floor. “Except we’re not leaving this room until one of us comes. And I choose you.”

He slipped his fingers into the waistband of my yoga pants and whipped them along with my panties down my legs, making me screech in surprise, then slap my hands over my mouth, hoping no one had heard me through the walls. An instant later, Colton was kneeling in front of me and cupping the outsides of my thighs with warm fingers.

“Holy shit,” I gulped as my frantic gaze veered toward the doorway, hoping no one with a key tried to enter.