Page 119 of Rules of Association

She panted again. “Connor… You’re being crazy.”

Me?

“And what the hell did you think this would do to me, Ceci?” I

grunted, hardly able to think of words let alone comprehend the crazy ones she was saying.

“What?”

I gripped her ass hard again, this time pushing her down onto me as I rolled myself against her letting her feel exactly what she did to me. If I saw stars before, I saw the universe now. I’m pretty sure I was hard enough to burst just by a few more of these touches alone. I’d never had anything more perfect wrapped around me. And the reality of it made me crazed.

I did it again and again, racking up a chorus of tight strangled sounds from her that were addicting as I spoke through each thrust. “This goddamn ass in your tiny fucking underwear?”

“They’re not—”

I bit her lip, shutting her up. It was soft between my teeth, and I had to pull the plump thing into my mouth to suck the pinch away as she gasped out yet another hiss of surprise. I pulled back, sliding my hands up the sides of her waist just under her rib cage. Cupping her with one hand and pinching a peak hard. She was soft, the weight of her perfect in my hand. I pinched again, rolling her between my fingers until she cried a needy little sound.

Igrowledas I leaned down to her, my mouth near her ear. “Your fucking nipples on display? Cee, really? What the hell are you trying to do to me?”

She groaned an impossibly guttural noise that had me wanting to make her mine in truth right there against this bathroom wall. “Connor please.”

“Please what?” I murmured against her jaw.

Her breaths panted as I dragged my lips there. “Please—”

“Don’t ask me to stop, Ceci. Don’t you dare fucking do that. Not when you’ve been over here driving me wildallday,everyday,” I said, nipping her all the while I did.

“That’s not what I was trying to do,” she whimpered, trembling.

“What then?” I asked, my voice sounding like a mixture of deranged lust and a gruff demand.

“I don’t know I—”

“Are you misunderstanding me again?” I asked against her skin. “Are you already forgetting I just told you how damn sexy you are? Are you fucking testing me, Celestia?”

“I—fuck,” she shuddered hard around me and her eyes closed for just a second as her mouth parted and her limbs went molten around me. Then her whole body paused. Everything going still, her breathing halting as she played opossum. She held that for maybe three seconds, and when she opened her eyes again she looked at me with a determined,closedoffface. She spoke in a whisper, like she didn’t want to startle me. “Connor, I don’t know what’s happening. But listen to me, youhavetostop.”

Stop.

The word echoed through my mind like a lost call.Stop. She wanted me to stop.

Through all her begging and whimpering and surprise, she hadn’t asked me to stop, until now.

I removed my hands from her, using her waist to keep my grip until I set her safely on the ground. We were both panting. Both staring. Both wide eyed and confused and holding onto each other even as we pushed each other away. I could see walls coming down around her.Feelthem coming down around me.

They made me want to punch something. But they also made my throat close up. Feeling tight and restricted and too, too dry. Had I fucked this all up? Had I fucked up everything because of a fucking wet t-shirt?

Reaching out, I dared to place my hands on her skin again. Cupping her face and rubbing my thumbs along the flushed red splotches of her cheeks. These cheeks gave her away most days. The color that rose in them when she was hot, or angry, or embarrassed letting me know how she was feeling. But usually I had the context of knowing her in every situation to determine her emotions. I didn’t know Ceci like this. Like it or not, I didn’t know her this intimately. So I had no idea whatthisred face meant.

With rocks in my throat, I made myself ask, “Did I scare you?”

“No.”

“Did I hurt you?”

“No.”

“Do you hate me?”

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