strength.
Rider was tall as a freshman, but he’s put on at least twenty pounds of pure muscle since then and grown a few inches. The boy I kissed when I was eighteen is nowhere in sight. The person in front of me is one hundred percent man.
His eyes darken with every shift of my hips to this sultry beat.
This close, I can smell his sexy cologne and the clean scent of his skin.
At first, there’s a little space between us, but when someone bumps into me from behind and pushes me into Rider, he keeps me there, his hands tightening on my back.
My breath catches. We’re hip to hip, chest to chest, with my breasts pushed up against him. Like this I can feel his length, proud and thick and long, up against my stomach. I almost choke on air at the size of him.
Every slide of his body against mine is electric.
I rest my face against him and breathe him in and try to calm the frenzied beat of my heart.
But then I hear it. His heart. Pounding almost in time with mine.
We go on like this. One song. Then another. Until that pulse has snaked down between my thighs where it taps out a staccato beat.
A few minutes later, Tank’s voice calls out over the sound system, “Hey, Bronco-Nators! How ’bout that win today?”
Everyone starts cheering.
“Where’s the man? You know who I’m talking about! The man, the king, the legend! Rider Kingston, get yo’ ass over here!”
People start chanting, “All hail the king!”
It’s a little ridiculous, this crazy adulation, but I’m so happy he’s getting the recognition he deserves for busting his tail.
Rider laughs as he pulls me to the other side of the room where his roommates have set up a DJ area. I don’t see my brother, but this place is packed.
When the guys spot Rider, they hoot and holler, and people start screaming. He wraps one arm around my shoulders and pumps up the other one, and the crowd goes crazy.
Tank has obviously had a few drinks, and when he spots me, he yells into the mic, “G-Force!” He waves me forward. “People, our house never woulda survived the last few weeks without the one and only Gabby Duran! Gab-by! Gab-by!”
It’s so unexpected, I laugh, but then Olly, Knox, Trevor, and Bree join in, and suddenly the whole room is screaming my name.
Next thing I know, Rider’s lifted me into the air, and I’m hanging halfway over his shoulder as he spins me around. His roommates keep cheering, and I’ve officially entered a parallel universe where I party at the Stallion Station.
Knox hands me a drink, and I hold up my red Solo cup in the air and yell, “Go, Broncos!”
The guys pick up the chant until the whole house is vibrating with this rally cry. After I chug the beer, I’m high-fiving Rider’s roommates as I cling to him with my other arm. Bree pulls out her phone, and I mug for her pic.
For a minute, it’s almost like I’m at their game, celebrating their incredible win with them. I’ve never felt anything like this before.
Laughing, I slide down Rider. I’m still pressed to his hard body when I look up.
He thrusts a possessive hand into my hair, and three years of pent-up lust and longing rush over me as his mouth crashes into mine.
34
GABBY
A few minutes later, we stumble into his bedroom. He kicks the door shut behind us and shoves me up against it. With a hand fisted in my hair and another on my rear, he kisses me like we’re on the eve of the apocalypse.
Keeping time with the pounding of my heart, the floor vibrates with the beat from the music downstairs.
I strain against him, trying to get closer. Needing to be closer. Wanting to feel him move through me.`
This is what was missing in my other relationship. This unquenchable fire that feels like Rider and I could burn down the whole house with the electricity sparking between us.
And tonight, I want to burn.
Our tongues twist and stroke like this is a duel. Like we might die if we stopped.
Except that’s exactly what he does.
Suddenly, he pulls his body back, but he rests his head against my shoulder as he pants, “Do we need to talk first?”
It takes a second for my mind to make sense of what he’s saying.
I frown. God, no. “No talking.”
Do I need him to spell out what this means? How this is likely a one-and-done