Page 28 of In the Net (Sin Bin Stories #5)
HARPER
I t’s Friday night, and we’re all out at Starlite. Me, my roommates, and Sebastian, along with pretty much the whole hockey team.
It’s a special occasion, because Lane Larsen and Rhys Callahan decided to surprise everyone by driving down to Cedar Shade together from the game their two NHL teams just played in Montreal.
Lane and Rhys both graduated last year and went pro. Lane is dating Scarlett, and Rhys is dating Maddie, who’s also Lane’s younger sister. Our house was the first place they stopped, and it was the excited squeals of Scarlett and Maddie blaring from the front door that announced their arrival.
The Black Bears players wanted to see them, too, so their arrival has led to a full-scale night on the town in the packed club.
It’s funny to see Lane and Rhys together. They’re lifelong best friends, but you’d never guess it. Lane is blond, clean-cut, and looks like he belongs in an ad campaign for a preppy, upscale fashion brand. Rhys is tattooed, with dark hair and an edgy air about him.
Everyone’s in a celebratory mood, and I’ve had more drinks than I have since those nights out in Paris.
A pleasant buzz hums through me, and I find my hips moving with the upbeat music as I’m standing at a table talking with Jasmine. Scarlett and Maddie are predictably occupied with their boyfriends.
“So, is pretending to date Sebastian as bad as you expected?” Jasmine asks. She’s keeping her voice low, but even if she weren’t, no one could hear us in the noisy club.
I take another sip of my drink. “Well, I haven’t flung myself off a tall building yet, so I guess not quite as bad as I expected.”
My roommates know that our arrangement is totally fake. I assume his roommates do, too. Neither of our social circles overlap with Mackenzie’s, so I’m not really worried about word getting out.
I notice Jasmine’s eyes focusing on something past my shoulder. “What are you looking at?” I ask her.
“Hm, just some guy from one of my classes I’ve been chatting with lately.”
I perk up. “Go talk to him.”
She hums, a shade of hesitancy crossing her face. “Should I?”
Her eyes are bright, like she’s looking for that last push to do what she wants to.
“Definitely.”
Jasmine heads in his direction, and I’m left alone for a moment. I throw back the last of my cocktail, the liquor burning a trail down my throat. A wave of lightheadedness hits me, and I let my eyes scan around the busy and bustling space.
I find Sebastian. A tingle skitters over my lips when my gaze settles on him.
He’s at the edge of the dancefloor, talking to his new teammate, Veikko, the towering Finn with the perpetually straight face.
Sebastian has on a button-up shirt with a pair of jeans, both of them more fitted than he usually wears, accentuating his broad shoulders and muscular form. A muscle tugs low in my center.
Looking away, I find Lane and Scarlett deeper into the crowded and kinetic dance area. Lane is just dipping down to plant his lips onto Scarlett’s, and something that feels far too much like envy digs into my chest.
Sensation sears on my lips. The memory of Sebastian’s kiss is so vivid, so immediate.
I don’t know how a memory can feel so intense. It’s like Sebastian’s just pulled his mouth away from mine, and my lips are still puffy and tender from a kiss that ended not even a second ago.
I look back at Sebastian, and my eyes immediately land on his lips.
My own lips burn hotter as I drink his in through my eyes. So full and soft. I remember how those lips slanted over mine, leading our kiss with firm and controlling strokes.
When my gaze ticks up to his eyes, they lock with his. He’s looking back at me, his cool blues holding my own like they’re tethered. A tremor rolls through my chest.
Whenever we’ve gotten physical, he’s always initiated it. He’s always approached me. He’s always touched me.
If we’re going to sell this at the wedding, I need to get comfortable initiating physicality, too. I need to get comfortable touching him.
Plus, at the wedding, we’ll have to dance. We need to get comfortable with that, too.
The warm glow from the cocktails I’ve drunk tonight has my nerves loose. I feel emboldened to approach Sebastian. I don’t drop his gaze as I walk up to him.
“In the mood for a dance, Harper?” Sebastian’s grin is a cocky slash across his angular face. A new song comes on, and suddenly we’re much deeper into the dance floor as more people crowd onto it. Bodies move unrestrained all around us as the music pounds.
Even though we’re right in the middle of a crowd, it feels like we’re in our own bubble together, as the raunchy song has everyone focused on nothing but the body closest to their own.
“We’ll have to get used to this, too. There’s a lot of dancing at a DeCicco wedding,” I say, referring to my mom’s side of the family, the side that has large and frequent gatherings.
Amusement splashes on Sebastian’s face. “They play music like this at your family weddings?”
“Our weddings always have open bars. Things have been known to get a little wild.”
I pull in a sharp breath when Sebastian’s hands fall to my hips. The feeling of his strong fingertips pressing against my soft skin through the fabric of my dress has my stomach gyrating as much as the bodies around us.
“Is that so?” His voice is a low rasp, intensity sharpening in his eyes as they bore into me.
Feeling tipsy and impulsive, I step forward, into his space. His scent and sheer presence flood my senses. His grip on me tightens, and he devours the last of the space between us by pulling me flush against him.
I nod, giving in to the urge of my body to sway with the music.
My eyes track down Sebastian’s neck. It’s hot, ensconced in this knot of dancing bodies, and a sheen of perspiration covers his skin. His Adam’s apple bulges as I sway my hips to the beat of the song.
Sebastian starts to dance, too, his body moving with mine in a lithe, loose rhythm. I sway my hips at just the right time as he tilts his so that the front of my pelvis brushes against him.
Pleasure bursts through my body, filling my center with a liquid heat and sending a heavy dose of adrenaline through my bloodstream. My whole body lights up, heat prickling over my skin as my nipples firm into sharp nubs beneath my dress.
A sharp ache pulses between my legs. The muscles at the peak of my thighs and low in my core are tight and twisting with want. I find myself craving more of the pleasure I just felt, more friction with Sebastian’s body.
We press closer together, the swell of my breasts plastered to the hard plane of his chest. When he moves, friction scrapes against my nipples. I clench my throat to suppress a moan as another wave of pleasure washes through me.
Arousal gathers, a slick, hot feeling between my legs.
My clit is humming with want, and I have to pull my lower lip between my teeth to suppress the desire to wantonly grind against Sebastian.
We’re already toeing a line we should be staying far away from.
The last thing I need to do is jump over it.
Sebastian’s lips are against my ear. “Is there someone looking at us that you’re trying to fool?”
His question is a tease, but there’s an undertone to it, like he wants the answer to be no. Like he wants me to be doing this just because I want to.
His hips tilt, slanting against my front again.
Sharp pleasure pulses between my hips, pressure swelling.
I can feel wetness coating the apex of my thighs.
It occurs to me I should be embarrassed, mortified even, by the physical reaction the guy I can’t stand is able to coax out of me in a brief dance, but I’m too untethered to feel it.
I can feel from the rumble in his broad chest that Sebastian is saying something else, but I can’t hear it. Not over the music that seems to be getting louder, not over the chaos of bodies gyrating around us, not over the rush of blood pounding in my ears.
A hot quiver runs through my body when I feel Sebastian’s lips scraping against the side of my neck. His glasses press against my cheek. It’s a strangely intimate feeling. I wonder if he ever wears those glasses to bed.
Right as that thought occurs to me, we grind together, and I feel the hard bar of his erection pressing against his jeans. A knot pulls tight in my chest. How can it be so big, so hard?
The thought of that hardness pushing into the tight, slick heat between my legs flashes through me. An unbearable pang of want clenches between my thighs. I open them, hoping to relieve the ache, but Sebastian nudges his leg between them immediately.
The hem of my dress rides up, and there’s nothing but Sebastian’s denim and the thin scrap of my panties keeping my pussy from feeling his skin.
Sebastian’s muscles tense and ripple. I can feel the vibrations of a strangled groan from his chest. My forehead presses to his shoulder. My eyes flutter closed. He spears his fingers through my hair. My cheeks burn.
I feel dizzy. Out of control. The pleasure centers of my brain are firing and overwhelming my better judgment. All I can do is melt into Sebastian’s touch and tilt my hips, the friction of my center against his leg filling my body with sheer bliss.
Sebastian’s hands rake over my body. I feel his erection against me. His hips are tilting and grinding, searching the same friction I am.
The music sounds louder now, the heavy rhythm of it spurring us on. The packed throng of bodies around us doing the same thing we are makes it impossible for us to give a second thought to blindly following our baser instincts.
The pressure swelling in my core expands, an intensity of sensation curling through me that announces the first signs of a building climax.
I shouldn’t have gone this far, but I really shouldn’t go any further. Coming on Sebastian’s leg in the middle of a nightclub? It would be a disaster. I’d never be able to look him in the eye again.
But my body isn’t listening to reason right now. Trying to get my hips to stop swiveling against Sebastian’s leg is as hopeless as trying to stop a runaway freight train.
The pleasure snaking through my body sharpens. The muscles between my thighs are twitching, my stomach clenching and rolling. I feel just moments away from the point of no return—when the music screeches to a sudden halt, and the bodies stop moving around us.
The bubble we’re in pops, reality flooding back.
A cold rush of realization washes over me, and I jump away from Sebastian. His eyes are wide, flashing with the same disbelief and self-reproach as mine.
The other people on the dancefloor start to boo and complain as the DJ gets on the microphone to announce that they’re working on fixing the malfunction with the music system.
Sebastian and I stand a pace apart, looking at each other wordlessly.
I don’t know what he’s thinking, and I really don’t know what I should think about the fact that I almost had an orgasm with the guy I can’t stand.