Page 32 of Watch Your Back (Devil’s Backbone #2)

Everything was quiet this week. Almost too quiet?

No one sleepwalked, no one tried to kill Ashley…

and to my relief, no police came knocking on our door.

I casually asked around campus about why Dr. Fox missed his classes but was told he’d taken early retirement.

Weird, no question about it. It seemed like someone was covering up his death…

but why? And who? If anything, it only made me more sure we were all still in danger.

That, more than anything else, was why I supported Carter’s idea to move Layne in with us.

For safety.

S everal little bottles of tequila later, we realized the landline phone in our room didn’t work, so the boys did fifteen rounds of rock, paper, scissors to decide who’d venture out to use the office phone to call Carter and Nate.

Heath lost, and I sweetly suggested he pick us up some food while he was gone, so we didn’t survive on baby liquor bottles alone.

Something about being in a motel room immediately made me need snacks. Even if I wasn’t remotely hungry, I needed to have snacks just in case.

“How are we going to make this sleeping arrangement work out tonight?” Royce pondered, eyeing the heart-shaped monstrosity that I sat on the tip of. “I don’t know how well a double pillow wall will hold up on that shape.”

I giggled, already feeling the alcohol going to my head. “Can I tell you a secret?”

Royce’s head whipped around from where he’d just started browsing the minibar again. “I love secrets. Tell me.”

I pursed my lips, debating if this was going to totally fuck up our arrangement…and I really didn’t want to fuck it up, but on the other hand, I no longer lived in the dorms and Royce no longer had any reason to sleep over with me, so really, it was a moot point…right?

“You can’t tease me about it,” I warned, already feeling my cheeks heating with preemptive embarrassment. “Promise?”

“I would never,” he replied with a wide, toothy grin. Now I had his full attention, and panic started to set in. If I were sober, maybe I could rapidly change gear and make up a lie to tell instead, but nope, my brain wasn’t braining that hard.

“Sometimes the pillow wall disappears in the night, and I wake up snuggling you like you’re my favorite teddy bear,” I blurted out, then clapped both hands over my mouth.

Royce’s mouth widened in shock, and his eyes sparkled like he was desperately holding back his laughter for my sake. Fuck, he was kind. And sexy. Why was my best friend so damn sexy?

“Whaaaaaat?” he asked in a scandalized voice. “How often is sometimes, sneaky Squirrel?”

I winced, shifting my hands to cover my eyes and block out that intense green gaze that seemed to be stripping back my layers like I was an overripe onion. “Okay, all the time. Like every night. I usually wake up before you and put the pillows back in place so things don’t get weird.”

My eyes were still covered by my hands, but I sensed him shifting closer. “Why would it get weird?” He peeled my hands away from my face, and I scowled at his grin.

“Because we’re friends, Royce, and you gave me so much grief when you caught me checking you out after the shower, so I thought?—”

“Ah, see, I knew you were checking me out!” He sat back on his heels, smirking like a fat cat. “But what if I don’t want to be friends anymore?”

Panic whipped through me, and I gave a startled noise of protest before my brain caught up and reminded me that statement could go two ways. “Wait. What?”

He shrugged, seeming a little nervous, which didn’t add up. Royce didn’t do nervous. “I don’t like the friend zone, Squirrel. I kept thinking maybe if I flirted with you enough…but I’m starting to think I really need to take a hint and move on.”

My mouth flapped open and shut a couple of times, and I blinked like a fucking owl. “Excuse me?”

He sighed heavily, then got to his feet. I watched, confused, as he grabbed the notepad and pen off the little writing desk and scribbled on it.

Then he returned to where I sat in a puzzled, frozen state and handed me the paper. “Here, I’ll put it in writing so there’s no miscommunication.”

Squinting, I looked down at the note.

I like you.

I think about you naked all the time.

I wanna be more than friends.

I might already love you.

My heart raced as I read it about a dozen times, then looked to Royce who was back on his knees again, waiting for my reaction.

“Are you fucking with me right now?” I asked, dumbstruck.

His brow dipped, and he shook his head. “No…but I’d quite like to fuck you right now if that was on offer. Just figured since you’re being honest about the pillow wall, I’d get this off my chest as well.”

He was being casual and lighthearted about it, but the intensity of his stare said otherwise. As did the bead of sweat on his temple. My breathing quickened as I thought through the implications of what he was saying.

“If this is just about sex?—”

“It’s not!” he quickly interjected. “I mean this in the nicest possible way, babe, but if I just wanted sex, then there are plenty of less complicated options on campus. You’re…a whole hell of a lot more than just sex.”

I wet my lips, my heart racing so hard, it physically hurt. “I mean, you’re not wrong…” Considering I already had two boyfriends and now lived in their apartment. Oh, and we’d covered up a murder together. Things didn’t get much more complicated than that.

“What if I told you I was the one destroying the pillow wall every night?” He dipped his head but glanced at me through his long lashes. “Because every time I did, you would snuggle into me almost immediately, and I liked to pretend for a couple of hours that you were mine.”

What the fuck?

“You sneaky shit!” I exclaimed in a shocked whisper. “Were you awake every morning when I panic-pillowed?” His smirk said it all, and I clapped my hands over my flaming face all over again with a groan. “Oh my god, I hate you.”

“Do you, though?” he asked with genuine curiosity. “If I kissed you…would you kiss me back? Or slap me for stepping out of the friend zone?”

My breath caught in my chest, and butterflies on crack erupted in my belly.

Was this that afterlife shit Royce joked about?

We’d actually died in the crash, and now this was all an alternate reality within which Royce was actually attracted to me?

If so…I was okay with it. This was a happy place to be.

I removed my hands to stare at him in stunned disbelief. “I still don’t know if you’re messing with me,” I admitted, “but why don’t you try it and find out?”

His green eyes widened for a moment, like he was shocked to hear my answer.

Maybe he’d fully convinced himself—much like I had—that our attraction was purely one-sided.

But then he closed the gap between us, his long fingers sliding into the back of my hair as his forehead rested on mine… but he stopped short of kissing me.

“I’m scared,” he confessed in a whisper, “that I won’t be able to go back to being friends after I kiss you.”

“Good,” I replied, bringing my hands up to cup his face. “I don’t wanna be your friend anymore, either.” Then I closed the gap between us, our lips brushing in the softest caress imaginable.

Royce froze, and I almost second-guessed myself before remembering he’d started this. So rather than pull away in embarrassment, I leaned in to kiss him more purposefully and was rewarded by a small—but very manly—moan as he kissed me back.

His fingers flexed against the nape of my neck as his tongue coaxed my lips apart, and my whole damn body flushed with the heat of desire.

I’d quietly fantasized about kissing Royce dozens of times, but the fiction paled in comparison to reality.

He kissed like a fucking incubus, making my nipples instantly harden and my pussy clench with anticipation.

It was almost shocking how thoroughly my body responded, but at the same time… I wasn’t surprised.

Royce wasn’t some hot-guy hookup. He wasn’t a stranger. He was…Royce, and I was just as attracted to his personality as I was his body, which added so many extra layers to the sizzling chemistry between us.

“Holy shit,” he gasped sometime later as he broke away for air, his fingers still firm against my skull like he was scared to let me go. “Squirrel…Ashley…I really, really don’t want to stop at just a kiss, but?—”

“But fucking nothing,” I growled, then bit his lower lip and reveled in his slightly helpless moan. “You kicked this door down, Royce. There’s no putting it back on its hinges now.”

His chuckle did unspeakable things to me, and I squirmed a little as he kissed my throat. “Did you just call me unhinged, Squirrel?”

“I guess I did,” I laughed in response, leaning back and raising my arms as he stripped my sweater over my head. “Is this going to cause issues with Heath and Carter?” Because crap, as if I didn’t have enough on my roster—but he did know them a lot better than I did.

Royce’s smirk was pure mischief as he trailed his fingers down my bare rib cage and I arched into his touch. “I think it’ll cause more issues with Nate, but that’s an acceptable risk in my opinion.”

I hadn’t even thought about that, but it was a good point. I could imagine he’d be pretty annoyed that all three of his best friends were now fucking his barely tolerable stepsister. Oh well. Too bad, so sad.

“Nate’s a big boy. He can get over it,” I muttered, tugging on Royce’s T-shirt. “Take this off.” He did as I ordered, giving me a full view of all those smooth, tanned muscles, and I grinned with a shake of my head.

“What?” he asked, squinting suspiciously.

I chuckled, pulling him in to kiss again. “You were totally flexing the other day,” I whispered between kisses, and his lips curved into a smile against mine.

“And you were checking me out again,” he accused, “so we’re both guilty.”

He had me there. Rather than deny it, I just reached for the waistband of his jeans and pulled him onto the ridiculous heart-shaped bed with me.

“You sure you wanna do this?” I asked in a breathy voice as I worked the tight button of his jeans open and dragged down the zipper.

“We really can’t go back to the friend zone once you’ve had your dick inside me. ”

Royce sucked in a sharp breath as I teased his hard length through his thin boxer briefs.

“Squirrel, baby, I can safely say…I never want to be your friend again.” Then his mouth was back on mine in a friendship-destroying kiss that sent my head spinning, and in a matter of seconds, all our remaining clothes disappeared.

“Holy fuck,” I gasped as my hand wrapped around his impressive cock and encountered metal. “You pierced your dick? Of fucking course you did, Royce.”

He chuckled, a deeply sexy sound as he rocked into my hand and tugged my earlobe with his teeth. “Sure did. You’ll love it too.”

The arrogance should have been a massive turnoff, but it really wasn’t.

Instead it just made my insides tighten up with anticipation and my fingers tighten to stroke him harder.

It wasn’t just one piercing, either, but I’d have to wait until later to get a better look.

Right now I was too damn desperate to get him inside me.

“Show me,” I urged, spreading my legs wider and guiding his tip right where I wanted it.

He pushed up on his elbows just enough to glance down, watching the moment of entry with a low groan as I gasped at the unfamiliar sensation of his piercings.

He took it slow, pushing in at a controlled pace while my inner walls spasmed and rejoiced to welcome him inside, an orgasm already starting to swirl and build deep within my core.

“Oh my god,” I whimpered when he finally thrust the last inch inside with a soft grunt, then claimed my mouth in another one of those all-consuming kisses that made me feel hot and tingly all over.

Then…then…he started to move with those piercings all too noticeable, and I instantly came.

Not a small orgasm, either—it was a screaming, panting, thrashing sort of climax.

Shocked and a little embarrassed, I moaned a little what the fuck , to which he just laughed and kissed me again.

“Told you,” he murmured against my lips with a hint of a growl. “But you’re mine now, and I’m only just getting started.”

Holy possessive crap. This was a side of Royce I was unprepared for, and a panicked voice in my head started screaming that maybe…maybe…I already loved him too.