The Absence of Olivia(9)

“I want to take you to my room,” he rasped, his mouth against my neck again. I arched my back, pressing my breasts into his chest, aching for some sort of contact.

“Um, all right…” I responded.

“We don’t have to have sex.”

“Um, all right.” He pulled away at my response.

“If you don’t want to go upstairs, just tell me. Honestly, I just want to be alone with you, kiss you in an empty room, instead of being surrounded by a bunch of other people.”

“Um, all right,” I said, that time smiling. Luckily, he smiled in return. He grabbed my hand and led me further up the stairs to the second floor, then up to the third. We walked down a corridor of closed doors and I wondered how many of those doors had people behind them, and what state of undress they were in.

We stopped at a door and I watched as he pulled keys out of his pocket and unlocked it. He swung the door open and then motioned for me to enter first. I was pleasantly surprised that the room wasn’t a disaster and it didn’t smell. I’d been on the boy’s floor of my dorm before and was appalled at how smelly boys could be when their mothers were no longer cleaning up after them. Elliot’s room was neat, organized, and odor-free.

All thoughts of his room were pushed from my brain when his arms wrapped around me from behind and his luscious lips made contact with the skin just below my ear.

“I can’t believe I’ve finally got you in my room,” he said, his words breathed against my overheated skin. My hand gripped the overly long hair at the nape of his neck, my back arched pushing my backside right against the erection I felt there. “Every time I see you here, you’re attached to Devon and Liv by the hip, and I always got the feeling I wasn’t supposed to try to get with you.”

All the heat disappeared at his words, and I was left cold. The sheen of sweat I’d built from the kissing was now a layer of cold wetness that blanketed me, causing me to shiver.

“What?” I asked, my hands paused in his hair, my back straightening, and hair on my arms prickling and standing up. He must have noticed the change in me, must have felt the shift in my arousal, and his hands stopped moving over me. “What do you mean?”

“Nothing, really. It just kind of always seemed like you were off limits.”

I pulled away and turned to look at him, trying to find the real answer in his face. “Off limits? Why would I be off limits?”

“Evie, I’m not trying to upset you. It just always seemed like if I tried to talk to you or anything, Devon would have been upset about it.”

“He’s with Liv.”

“I know. That’s kind of why I always thought it was weird.” His eyes never left mine, but they were filled with question and honesty. “Did you guys date before or something?”

I shook my head. “We’ve never dated. He’s just my roommate’s boyfriend.” It was the truth, but for some reason, it felt like a lie.

“I don’t want to step on anyone’s toes, but I really like you, and I’ve wanted to kiss you ever since I first saw you.” His hands came up to frame my face and my eyelids fluttered at his touch. “I don’t like to share, Evie. So if you’re with someone, let me know.”

I shook my head slightly, my gaze darting back and forth between his lips and his big brown eyes. “I’m not with anyone. I want to be here with you.”

“I’m going to kiss you now, but that’s all tonight, okay? I just want to kiss you.”

A big part of me was irritated that he was vowing only to kiss me, but a bigger part of me remembered his kisses and wanted them badly. “Okay.”

He walked me backward slowly until my calves hit his mattress, and I landed on my butt with a bounce and a small laugh. He stood over me, his legs straddling my knees, which I was forcefully pressing together in an effort to relieve the pressure building between my legs. His hands came back to my face as he bent down and pressed his lips to mine.

He kissed me and I slowly fell backward on the bed, loving the delicious pressure of the mattress at my back and his body on my front. The noise from the party downstairs faded away and all I could hear were his breaths and low groans, which slipped out of him every once in a while. He kept to his word of just kissing, although his hands roamed over my clothed body.

He made me feel special. Wanted. Like he really had been wanting to kiss me forever and was so grateful finally to have me under him, to be able to kiss me however he wanted.

When a loud knock came at the door, he paused, almost as if he was waiting to see if the person knocking would go away. They didn’t. The knocking came again along with a loud groan from Elliot.

“What do you want?” he yelled at the door.

“Elliot, is Evie in there with you?” Devon’s voice sounded concerned from the other side of the door, and we both sat up, surprised to hear him.

“Shit,” Elliot muttered as he stood and walked to the door. I sat up and watched him, using my fingers to straighten out my hair. When he opened the door, it was obvious he was irritated. I watched as he flung the door back and nearly barked, “What do you want?”

Devon looked surprised by Elliot’s anger, but blinked it away, his eyes moving past Elliot to find me sitting on the bed. He looked me up and down, which embarrassed me as he was obviously looking for some evidence as to what we were doing on the bed. “I need Evie.”