Consolation Prize (Forbidden Men #9)(74)

Yes, it did.

“Hmm, it’s not awful,” I allowed as I clutched his arm and held him right where he was. “I may even allow cuddling into our arrangement if you don’t f*ck anything up in the next few minutes. But I still fully plan to pay you back for making me laugh in class at the worst moment ever.” Except even as I warned that, I closed my eyes and tipped my head back to rest it against his shoulder, totally unable to be mad at him for anything.

“And I’m still looking forward to it,” he answered, his fingers trailing up from my waist until he was cupping my breasts. Then he was rolling the ends of my nipple under his thumb. Arousal pierced me. I pressed my butt more firmly against his lap and shifted my legs restlessly alongside his. His other hand snuck down and found my clit.

“Damn you,” I said with a gasp, unable to keep from arching my hips into his hand. “How do you always make me like whatever you do?”

“I think it’s because you like me.”

I shook my head, totally denying that notion. “Impossible.”

He chuckled. “I am so going to make you admit it,” he warned, rolling us until he was on his back and I was on my back too, but on top of him. We both faced the ceiling as he toyed with my breasts and * simultaneously. “But until then, I’m going to f*ck you, just like this.”

I blinked, not sure how he was going to accomplish that. But he showed me by grabbing another condom and then tilting my hips after he was suited up and pushing into me from behind. I arched up my back, surprised by the entrance. He couldn’t go very deep from this angle, but with his fingers on my clit and nipples, it only felt like that much more of a tease.

The tension in me built quickly, needing more and not quite getting it. I arched on top of him, trying to contort my body so that he could go deeper, but it wasn’t enough.

“Dammit,” he finally exploded before he rolled us across the mattress. As soon as I found myself on my stomach with him behind me, Colton came up onto his knees and started to pound, deep and fast.

I cried out, grateful to finally be getting what I needed. Gripping the sheets, I pressed my face into the bed and ground my ass back, forcing him to the hilt, and then I was finally able to come like I’d been aching to.

His fingers bit into my hips as he slammed forward. With a roar of release, he followed me into oblivion.

Once his passion sated, he collapsed on top of me, smooshing me into my mattress, though surprisingly, it was comfortable.

“Admit it,” he whispered pleadingly, pressing his face against the back of my shoulder.

“Okay, maybe I like you,” I whispered back.

I felt him smile in return.





“Are you staying the night?”

Colton glanced up from his textbook where he lay stretched out on the other side of my bed. “I don’t know. Am I?”

He’d stuck around after our two-timer, and somehow we’d ended up doing homework, of all things, on my bed together. For some reason, I hadn’t asked him to leave and he hadn’t suggested it. So for the longest time, we sat side by side, quietly studying with the occasional footsie game, until we both grew hungry. Then and only then did we leave the room—him to use the bathroom, me to make a plate full of cheese, crackers, and apple slices…oh, and Doritos along with a couple cans of pop. You know, survival food.

Both Tyla and Sasha were gone somewhere with their significant others, so I hurried back to my room where he was already once against stretched out on the bed and frowning at the worksheet he was supposed to fill out.

As I entered, he looked up and broke out grinning. “You rock. This looks perfect.”

We ate sitting with our legs crossed on the bed, facing each other and unable to stop swapping smiles as we polished off all the chips and a good portion of the goodies on the plate.

After that, we returned to studying until I grew tired. And since I wasn’t in any hurry for him to leave, I’d blurted out the question before I really thought through the implications. But when he gave me an out in case I changed my mind, it only made me want him to stay even more.

So I found myself saying, “Yeah. You’re staying.”

His smile was immediate. “Cool. I just need to check in with Aspen and Noel, let them know I won’t be home tonight.” He grabbed his cell phone and began to type out a text.

The name Noel made me remember the conversation I’d heard the night before at Forbidden, how his sister-in-law Aspen was suffering from postnatal depression and he’d had to help her and his brother end a fight.

Kind of wanting him to tell me about it, I blurted, “Who’s Aspen?” even though I’d discovered that answer already.

Colton looked up as he tossed his phone onto the nightstand next to mine. “What?”

“Aspen,” I said. “You mentioned her name the night of the wedding, but you were too drunk to really explain who she was.”

“Oh. She’s my sister-in-law, Noel’s wife, but kind of my mom too. She’s Beau and Lucy Olivia’s biological mom. They’re Noel’s kids. You remember Beau from our Chicken Dance, right?” When I nodded, he fell back against the pillows of my bed and tucked his arm under his head. “Aspen and Noel have been my legal guardians since I was eight. So most of the time, I think of them more as parents than siblings.”