SNAPPED (The Slate Brothers 1)

“Hey, now, you’re with Sebastian Slate to get dirt,” Sarah says playfully, nudging me.

“No, I—“ Ugh, I do not want to have to explain this in the middle of a party. “You don’t have to do this.”

“I want to,” she says.

“I know, but kissing him for information—“

“I just like kissing him,” Sarah says, blushing harder. “I just— I just want to kiss him. Does this mean I’m falling for the football team thing, though? I don’t…” She chews her lip, caught between desire and reason. The same cranny I’m caught between.

I sigh and smile at her. “I get it. Really,” I say, hoping she understands just how much. “But if you want to stop, you’re still capable of saying it, right? Don’t do anything—“

“I haven’t had anything to drink. Just sparkling water. I’m fine,” Sarah says. “But don’t…don’t tell Farrow about this, okay?”

“My lips are sealed,” I say, and Sarah grins, then bounds back to Conor, who sweeps his arm around her. Sebastian looked at me, one eyebrow lifted. “She’s fine,” I say, shrugging.

“Conor’s a decent person.”

“He hates me.”

“He’s jealous,” Sebastian argues. I’m about to protest, but he goes on. “Look, Conor and I have been a team since freshman year. We’ve had plenty of girlfriends and—“

“Is this supposed to be helping?” I ask, frowning.

Sebastian continues. “He’s a little jealous that I found someone worth keeping first. So I’m not surprised when he saw someone that reminds him of you, he went for her. He’s a decent person, even if he comes off cold, at first.”

“Alright,” I say, nodding. I trust Sebastian— obviously. If he says Conor’s decent, Conor must be decent. I’m about to say as much when three high school students trip into me, gleeful and drunk and beyond annoying.

“The future of Berkfield,” Sebastian says, shaking his head. “Really, Ashlynn: Get rid of New Recruits Week. It’s probably for the best.”

I smile and stand on my toes to kiss him— I still can’t reach his face, but he sees what I’m doing and ducks his head down to mine, kissing me gently. “Come on,” I say,” lowering myself back onto my heels and tugging on his sleeve.

“Where are we going?” he asks.

“Somewhere private,” I answer. “If I’m going to actually get a feel for what New Recruits Week is all about, I’ve got to do the thing right, you know. I’ve got to sleep with a football star.”

21

I expected us to go to his room— that’s where I was trying to pull him. Instead, Sebastian gives me a sly look, then guides me toward one of the exterior doors in the kitchen. I’ve never been in their backyard before, and I’m surprised to find that it’s lovely. I must be professionally landscaped, of course— the beer pong tables are set up around perfectly tended camellias, and there’s a guys versus girls game of corn hole happening by some lovely dogwood trees. Sebastian waves to a few friends as we walk toward the back of the yard, where there are benches tucked away underneath sweeping holly trees.

“Come here,” he says, sitting down, then guiding me onto his lap, my legs swung out across the vacant spot on the bench. I’m about to laugh at the positioning when I feel it— his erection, hard and eager, pressing through the thin fabric of the jersey and my panties.

“Here?” I ask in disbelief, looking at the not-insignificant crowd of people milling around the backyard. We’re a bit away from them, but still…

“Here,” Sebastian says firmly, like this isn’t to be questioned. I bite my lip nervously and try to glance back at the partygoers again, but Sebastian puts a finger to my chin and guides my face back toward his. “You said you trust me.”

“I do, but I’ve never done anything like this before,” I say shakily.

“Then you’re in good hands,” he answers, and as if to prove his point, he slides one up my thigh. I spread my legs a tiny bit, allowing him access to rub the side of his hand against my pussy, massaging me gently. I moan softly as I can, and tilt my head against him. It isn’t long till I can feel my panties have soaked through. “There you go,” Sebastian says gently, dragging his tongue up the side of my neck before kissing my lightly by my ear. “You get wet for me so quickly, even when you’re nervous.” He shifts his weight slightly, and his erection becomes even stiffer, pressing across my ass cheeks like I’m being lashed with it. “And you make me so hard,” he adds, exhaling as if this still alarms him.

I smile and begin to rock my hips back and forward, coaxing him, moaning when I feel his cock throb in response beneath me. Sebastian meets my eyes, then lowers his mouth to my neck and bites me there, hard enough that I suspect it’ll leave a mark— and I like that. I like the idea of having his sign on me, of being his. He tilts me back in his arms a bit, almost cradling me, then glances up at the crowd. He must be confident no one is looking, because he slips his fingers through the bottom of my panties and pulls them down to my ankles, then off entirely. When he tucks them into his pocket like a keepsake, I practically hear myself purr for him.