Consolation Prize (Forbidden Men #9)

He kissed his way along my jaw and down my neck, then ran his palm from the base of my throat to between my breasts as if needing to stroke and touch every inch. “Best team ever,” he announced, lifting his gaze to look into my eyes. His jaw tensed and a trail of sweat slipped down his temple. Eyes clouded and teeth clenched, he was close.

I wanted him closer than close. I wanted him there, all the way over the edge. So I reached down and cupped his tight balls before running an index finger along his sensitive taint. Muttering his surprise, he surged tighter inside me, tipping his head down toward my shoulder and groaning as he tumbled into oblivion. The power of knowing I could bring him to this place was my own aphrodisiac. My pussy clenched around his cock, and I tumbled off into my own climax.

When we finished, Colton tried to climb off me but only got about halfway there before collapsing partly on top of me and face-first into my pillow.

“Mmph,” he muffled into the pillow while his heat and sweat clung to mine.

Feeling overly affectionate toward him, I stroked his back with my long nails, which only made him purr out another groan.

Minutes passed, and we lay there against each other, soaking in the quiet aftermath of our peace treaty party. Finally, Colton turned his face to the side, until he was facing my neck and his cheek was propped onto my shoulder.

“I’ve been thinking,” he announced, his voice clogged with sleep, “and I don’t believe your dad will freak out about me.”

Surprised he’d been thinking about that at all, I kissed his forehead and gave his arm a supportive stroke. “Why’s that?”

“Because…” He set his elbow on the mattress and lifted his face so he could prop his chin in his hand and study me. “You’re not like that, and he raised you, right? So he can’t be too bad. I think you’re worrying about nothing.”

He made a point. My father had raised me to be fair and tolerant. It would make sense that he shouldn’t have a huge problem with Colton. But I’d also heard him make some comments that still made me wonder, not entirely certain.

I paused my hand on his arm, studying the two shades of our skin against each other. I thought it looked beautiful, and when it came down to it, it wouldn’t matter what Dad thought. I’d deal with whatever reaction he had because I wasn’t going to stop seeing Colton no matter what.

“I have something for you,” I announced, suddenly remembering the present I’d made for him and not really wanting to think about all that other junk.

Colton lifted his eyebrows, curious. “What’s that?”

“Here.” I squirmed out from under him. “It’s on my dresser.” When he scooted back enough to let me crawl over him and reach for it, I flushed, suddenly wishing I’d wrapped it or something. It felt lame to give him a present without any kind of garnish.

“It’s just…” Strangely shy, I thrust it at him. “Sorry, it’s not much. Just…silly.”

He took the small silver dream catcher keychain along with a new bottle of breath spray and held it up to watch the tiny feathers dangle from the loom with what looked like awe on his face.

“And look.” I twisted the bottle so he could read the new label I’d printed out and stuck to it.

“Colton’s monster repellent,” he read before throwing back his head and laughing. “Holy shit.” Curling his fingers around the tiny bottle, he held it to his chest. “I love this. Thank you.”

He found his keys and made a production of removing his old, empty bottle of breath spray so he could attach the new one along with the dream catcher so they dangled with his rabbit’s foot. “Perfect,” he announced.

When he looked at me, I flushed, feeling strange. “I got me one too,” I blurted, even more embarrassed.

Cocking his head, he asked, “A dream catcher keychain?”

I nodded. “And breath spray and a rabbit’s foot.” I crawled off my bed. “Wait right here.” I raced naked from my room and hurried to the front door to snatch my keys from the key rack. When I hurried back in, Colton chuckled at me and reached out to help me back onto the bed, calling me a streaker.

Ignoring his tease, I held up my keys to show him the matching dream catcher and bottle of breath spray along with my very own rabbit’s foot. “See.”

“Holy shit,” he murmured, slowly reaching out so he could examine everything better. Then he lifted his gaze and announced, “We’re a matching set.”





COLTON’S CHAPTER | 28





The ringing of a cell phone on the nightstand about a foot from my head woke me from a pleasant dream. Needing to shut it up as soon as possible, I blindly swiped out my hand and captured the bleating device. Somehow I was able to slide my thumb across the front and answer it without cracking open a single eye.

“’‘Lo,” I croaked.

A beat of silence followed before a hesitant voice asked, “Colton?”

Brandt.

“Yeah. What d’you want?” I mumbled, yawning as I tried to get my brain to function.