“Mr. Right? Are you listening to yourself? I love you, brother, but right now, you're a major pain in my ass. Do you know Barrett dragged me from that club? I couldn’t even say goodbye to Pepper and Grace. I’m being treated like a child,” I yelled.
“I know it seems tough, sis, but know it’s for your own good. Please. You can still have a good time this summer. I have to run. My phone’s running hot. I think something’s just come in.”
“Wait—” But he’d already hung up. I threw the phone onto the bed.
I heard Barrett come up the stairs, and quickly I moved, swinging the door open. “You’re just like my brother. Both assholes.”
He stalked toward me like a predator watching its prey, and my heart thudded louder and louder. His eyes darkened. I couldn’t tell if he wanted to wrap his hands around my neck or do inappropriate dirty things to me. I swear, right now, I’d take both options if it meant his hands were on my body. He walked up to me, too close I had to take a step back into my room.
“Now, is that any way to treat the man putting a roof over your head?” His voice was deadly calm, sending goosebumps all over my skin.
I blinked. Barrett regarded me, his prickly stare slowly lowering from my lips, holding on my exposed cleavage, then back up to my eyes.
I swear my heart beat louder than the roar of the ocean. Turning around, I walked inside my room. I couldn’t bear for him to see me this vulnerable, this utterly attracted to him. After all, I was so mad at him. So damn mad and frustrated.
His footsteps sounded behind me, and when I turned around, he was in my room. “This isn’t fair, Barrett. You know it, and I know it.”
He leaned against the wall, his leg crossed over, casually upright and devilishly wicked. I sat down on the bed, peeling my stilettos off.
“Life’s not fair, dollface.” Dollface? Why did I want him to call me that again?
“Why do you have different rules? You, my brother? Why can’t I have fun?”
“I think you're forgetting how lucky you are.”
I shot up and walked right up to him. He lowered his gaze to my exposed chest, then back up to me.
“Lucky? I’m a caged animal.”
“What is it you want, Lourde?”
“I want…” I drank in his darkened eyes. His gaze made me slightly unbalanced. “I want to be free and single. Have sex with whoever I want, whenever I want.”
He laughed, his tone devilish.
“If you're aroused, we can fix that.”
“We?” My voice came out husky and dry. Holy shit, was he thinking what I was thinking?
He turned me around, so my back was against the wall. It’s cold wallpaper sending a shiver up my spine. I swallowed down the lump in my throat. His hand found mine, and I closed my eyes.
Kiss me, fuck me, nail me to the goddamn wall.
With his hand on mine, he controlled my movement, gliding my hand up the inside of my thigh, higher, so he was now underneath the hem of my dress.
I opened my eyes. “What are you doing?” I asked breathlessly.
“Touch yourself, Lourde.”
My hand stilled in his. “What?” I half laughed with the thickness in my throat. It was difficult to let out a full laugh. But as his eyes hooded and his breath on my face, I knew he wasn’t joking.
“I’ll help you, just this once,” he choked out. Maybe it wasn’t just me feeling something lodged in my throat.
He pushed my hand further, so it touched me there. I gasped. Fuck, this was hot. Dangerous too. I pushed the piece of lace with the force of his hand and slid my index finger to my clit. My breath shortened. I was so wet, so ready, but not for this.
“Rub yourself, dollface.”
He shifted his hand, moving it away. I clawed at him with my fingers, keeping his hand firmly on mine. He stilled momentarily. Then, in a circular motion, I started rubbing myself slowly. I tilted my neck, imagining his rough mouth tracing kisses on it. The only thing separating his touch from me was my hand.
He opened his mouth, his breathing labored. I closed my eyes, feeling his thickness swell against my thigh. Greedily, he gripped my hand and took control, careful still not to touch me as he guided me faster and faster. I groaned under him. His bruising pressure on my swelling nub was too delicious to savor any longer. I moaned louder, and he pressed his chest into me, pressing my back into the wall. My skin hummed with warmth.
My breath was ragged, and every nerve ending was like fire and ice, bundled to a coil.
“Barrett!” I breathed as my body found its explosion, and I saw stars.
“That’s it,” he said hoarsely. He removed his hand and pulled down my dress. “Now that’s all you have to do for the summer, and you’ll be fine.”
He paused, then walked toward the door.
Sucking in a breath, I slid down the wall. My legs were barely able to hold me upright. “You’re still an asshole,” I yelled.
He turned, and a wicked grin spread onto his delicious lips. “I know, dollface.”