Page 28 of The Break Out (Denver Dragons #3)

28

A fter dinner is finished, I help with some of the dishes before being shooed away and into the waiting arms of my captor for the night.

Okay, I didn’t go into his arms and I’m technically going willingly, but still.

We head out to his motorcycle, putting our helmets on to leave. “You know, by my standards you were a bit of a dick, so I don’t think my condition was met.”

“How was I a dick, Princess?” he asks, leaning back against the bike, folding his arms across his broad chest. I won’t lie, he looks extremely hot like this, but I’ll never tell him that.

“You argued with my brother,” I say weakly because if I’m being honest, he really wasn’t that much of a dick to anyone. He kept quiet and tried to tease me, but that was about it.

“He started it, I was just talking to you,” he shrugs, turning and straddling the bike. “Hop on, we can argue at my house. You can get naked and try to distract me, so I’ll let you win.”

I roll my eyes, getting on behind him, barely having time to wrap myself tightly to him before taking off.

I’ll never admit it, and I’ll deny it if anyone ever asks, but I really like being on Colton’s bike. The way the wind feels as he speeds down the street. How warm I feel with my body pressed up against his.

The part I’ll really never admit, is how the vibration from the bike, combined with the way I’m hugging him, is turning me on more than it should. At one point I find myself shifting slightly, either to get more friction, or move away from Colton. But because my entire life is me being at war with myself, I’m not actually sure, which.

At one point we are at a stoplight, and he reaches back, wrapping his hands behind my knees, yanking me forward so I’m plastered to him completely. He lifts up the face shield on his helmet, turning back toward me, “If you don’t stop moving around back there, I’m going to bend you over this bike when we get back, and spank you until you’re screaming so loud my neighbors call the cops.”

His words only make me squirm more, again unsure if it’s in discomfort or because I can feel the wetness in my panties. Fuck this guy, seriously. I tighten my arms around him again as the light turns green. It’s taking everything in me to continue to hold onto all the reasons I don’t like this man. Other than how much of a dick he can be, he knows what he’s doing when it comes to my body. Including all the right words to make it react to him .

Though, I never promised him anything sexual tonight. That wasn’t a part of the deal, so as long as I can hang onto my self-control for dear life, I may be having some fun torturing him.

We get to his house, and I waste no time putting some distance between us as I get the helmet off and adjust my dress. Colton isn’t far behind, taking his own helmet off and shaking out his hair. The second his eyes lock on mine he’s closing the distance between us, gripping me by the back of my neck and moving to press our mouths together.

I stop him with a hand over his mouth, not breaking our eye contact. “I’m thirsty,” I say simply, doing everything in my power to hide the fact that my heart is pounding.

His grip on me loosens, so I slide my hand down off his face, tracing a teasing finger down his chest before taking it away completely.

The look he gives me isn’t mad or disappointed, but that same cocky smirk he always has, and I feel like he knows what I’m up to. “Then let’s get you something to drink, Princess.”

He leads me inside and I give myself a mental pep talk that I will get through the night without sleeping with him. No part of him will get to touch any part of me. Not tonight. I can control myself. I don’t need to fill the loneliness void I have with him. Even if it feels good at the time.

And kind of afterwards.

He’s never hurt me or anything.

Maybe he’s not that bad and I could just enjoy this .

No. Fuck, Brynn, stop it. This is how I’ve continued to get myself into these situations.

Tonight is going to be different.

Which is what I keep reminding myself as Colton leads me into his kitchen, gesturing for me to sit on one of the barstools as he starts to make some drinks.

“I just want water,” I say flatly after he’s already mixed the drinks.

He chuckles, gulping down one of the drinks in one swallow. “Water it is.”

He gets me a large glass full of ice water I ignore, standing up to look around his house. I hear his bark of laughter behind me as I walk into the living room taking in the décor that was clearly done by a professional because there’s not a single personal touch here.

I wonder if he has any pictures of his family anywhere, anything to remember his brother by. But I won’t ask. Especially because I don’t have anything to remember my brother by. Sometimes I wish I did, but there’s really nothing that I could have since we didn’t have very many personal memories together.

Making my way through the large space, I look at the artwork, one piece in particular catches my eye and try to decipher what the seemingly random color splotches could symbolize. This is why I could never be a part of the art world because it all just looks like random paint splatters to me. It’s not exactly colorful, the background a tannish brown color while splotches of black and white decorate a majority of it with random pink spots on it.

I feel the second he steps up behind me, the woodsy smell mixed with the whiskey he just drank hits my nose right before his fingers gently move my hair from my shoulder, and he grazes his lips against the sensitive skin of my neck.

“What do you think this painting is supposed to be of?” I ask, making an extreme effort to sound unaffected by him.

He huffs out a breath that I thought would be annoyed, but it’s more of another laugh. “Paint,” he answers simply, sliding a hand over my collarbone and starting to move down my arm.

“But like what does it symbolize?”

“Hm,” he stops his caress, stepping up behind me so I can feel the heat of him, but we aren’t touching. When I glance behind me, I see him looking at the picture and he actually seems to be thinking about it. I’m kind of curious what bullshit he’s going to spew. “I think it’s about pain.”

My head snaps back to look forward at the painting again, trying to see what he is because maybe he’s actually taking this seriously. Especially when he continues.

“The black I think is the pain, and the white is happiness because it looks like they’re battling. Then the pink is coming in and that’s healing.” He sounds so serious as he speaks, I’m unsure what to say.

I go with humor, turning back toward him, smacking his chest lightly. “You’re drunk.”

He looks down to me, and I catch the flash in his eyes, what I think is the pain he sees. The pain that mirrors mine. But it’s gone in a second as he slips easily back into the obnoxious man I know. “Not drunk. I am hungry, though. But not for food.”

I roll my eyes, stepping away from him, brushing off the seemingly one good moment we had just then. “I want to go to bed.”

“Damn right, Baby Collee.” He steps up to me, but I stop him with a hand on his chest.

“To sleep. I said I would stay the night and not sneak out. I never said I would have sex with you.”

“Yeah, okay, let’s go to bed.” His tone makes it sound like he doesn’t believe me.

I don’t really believe me either.

Of course, I was so sure I wouldn’t end up coming over here that I didn’t bring a change of clothes. Colton must notice my dilemma because as soon as we step into his room, he’s grabbing clothes from his closet and tossing them onto the bed.

“Those are for you, Princess. Unless you’d rather sleep naked, which I would not be against.”

I snatch the clothes and lock myself into the bathroom to change. His t-shirt falling to my mid-thigh, which feels nice considering I’m pretty tall for a woman, it’s rare for me. I forgo putting on the boxers he offered since the shirt is long enough to cover my underwear.

Colton is already on his bed, reclined with an arm stretched behind his head showing off his muscular bicep. He’s shirtless so I see all the toned muscles on him along with all the tattoos. I clench my thighs together at the sight but will my traitorous vagina to calm herself because she’s not getting touched by this man tonight.

“I don’t want these,” I say, throwing his boxers at his face.

He pulls them off revealing his smile. “Oh, my dick can be inside you, but wearing my underwear is too much for you?”

I grumble, climbing into his bed, remembering that the stupid thing is softer than a magical cloud. Making sure to stay as close to the edge as possible so there’s no way I could accidentally touch him.

Or accidentally find myself falling on his dick in my sleep.

Basically, I don’t trust myself. And I know he won’t tell me no or push me away. Colton may be a jerk, but he would never actually force me to do something I don’t want to. He may be pushy, but at the end of the day I’ve wanted everything we’ve done. However, he will jump at the chance any time I give him the green light.

“Night,” I mumble, pulling the blankets up to my neck and face away from him.

He just laughs at me. “I’m not tired.”

“I am. Night.”

“Want to watch a movie?”

I’m slightly taken aback from his offer. I was sure he was going to offer something involving our clothes coming all the way off, not that. Looking over my shoulder at him skeptically.

“What kind of movie?” I ask because I’m particular when it comes to what I watch, listen to, and read. I’m easily bored, and it needs to catch and hold my attention.

He presses a button on a remote that has a piece of the wall opening to reveal a large TV. I roll my eyes at how fancy it is but decide against getting into a verbal sparring match with him for now. Instead, I sit up, letting the blanket fall onto my lap as Colton starts scrolling through movie options.

I pointed out a new romantic comedy that came out that I was actually interested in. “That one,” I tell him.

“Good choice.” He clicks on it, and I look over to see if he’s joking, but it doesn’t seem like it. “Want any popcorn or anything?”

I shake my head as I lean back against the headboard and pat my stomach. “No way, I’m still stuffed from all the Thanksgiving food.”

He does the same, running his hand along his stupidly sculpted abs. “Yeah, me too, I’ll have to go extra hard in the gym tomorrow to make up for it.”

“Oh whatever,” I mumble, sinking down slightly, folding my arms across my chest and focusing on the screen where the movie is starting to play.

“Come over here, Princess.” Colton gestures in his direction .

I shake my head. “No way, this isn’t going to turn into Netflix and chill. I’m going to stay comfortably on my side.”

“This isn’t Netflix, so I didn’t think that at all. I just wanted to lay with you.” He almost sounds sincere.

I try to read his expression, but he always looks like he’s up to something and yet I give in anyway. Because I’m a pathetic excuse for a woman.

Okay, that’s not true, but part of me is touch deprived, which has been the case my whole life, and sometimes it’s nice to be pressed against a large warm body. That’s it, it doesn’t matter who that body is attached to in this case.

Which is why I scoot over an inch, but it’s not enough for him, he wraps his arms around my waist and pulls me so I’m flush against him. His giant arm wraps around my shoulders as he sinks us down slightly. Eventually, I feel myself relaxing against him and it feels…good.

Too good because I don’t even notice as my eyelids start to get heavy, and I end up drifting off before the movie is even over.

I rouse slightly when Colton pulls the blankets up, but the last thing I remember is being pulled tighter against a wall of muscle, lips touching my hair and I think I hear him say, “Sweet dreams, Princess.” But I’m already asleep.