“Dammit,” he finally exploded before he rolled us across the mattress. As soon as I found myself on my stomach with him behind me, Colton came up onto his knees and started to pound, deep and fast.
I cried out, grateful to finally be getting what I needed. Gripping the sheets, I pressed my face into the bed and ground my ass back, forcing him to the hilt, and then I was finally able to come like I’d been aching to.
His fingers bit into my hips as he slammed forward. With a roar of release, he followed me into oblivion.
Once his passion sated, he collapsed on top of me, smooshing me into my mattress, though surprisingly, it was comfortable.
“Admit it,” he whispered pleadingly, pressing his face against the back of my shoulder.
“Okay, maybe I like you,” I whispered back.
I felt him smile in return.
“Are you staying the night?”
Colton glanced up from his textbook where he lay stretched out on the other side of my bed. “I don’t know. Am I?”
He’d stuck around after our two-timer, and somehow we’d ended up doing homework, of all things, on my bed together. For some reason, I hadn’t asked him to leave and he hadn’t suggested it. So for the longest time, we sat side by side, quietly studying with the occasional footsie game, until we both grew hungry. Then and only then did we leave the room—him to use the bathroom, me to make a plate full of cheese, crackers, and apple slices…oh, and Doritos along with a couple cans of pop. You know, survival food.
Both Tyla and Sasha were gone somewhere with their significant others, so I hurried back to my room where he was already once against stretched out on the bed and frowning at the worksheet he was supposed to fill out.
As I entered, he looked up and broke out grinning. “You rock. This looks perfect.”
We ate sitting with our legs crossed on the bed, facing each other and unable to stop swapping smiles as we polished off all the chips and a good portion of the goodies on the plate.
After that, we returned to studying until I grew tired. And since I wasn’t in any hurry for him to leave, I’d blurted out the question before I really thought through the implications. But when he gave me an out in case I changed my mind, it only made me want him to stay even more.
So I found myself saying, “Yeah. You’re staying.”
His smile was immediate. “Cool. I just need to check in with Aspen and Noel, let them know I won’t be home tonight.” He grabbed his cell phone and began to type out a text.
The name Noel made me remember the conversation I’d heard the night before at Forbidden, how his sister-in-law Aspen was suffering from postnatal depression and he’d had to help her and his brother end a fight.
Kind of wanting him to tell me about it, I blurted, “Who’s Aspen?” even though I’d discovered that answer already.
Colton looked up as he tossed his phone onto the nightstand next to mine. “What?”
“Aspen,” I said. “You mentioned her name the night of the wedding, but you were too drunk to really explain who she was.”
“Oh. She’s my sister-in-law, Noel’s wife, but kind of my mom too. She’s Beau and Lucy Olivia’s biological mom. They’re Noel’s kids. You remember Beau from our Chicken Dance, right?” When I nodded, he fell back against the pillows of my bed and tucked his arm under his head. “Aspen and Noel have been my legal guardians since I was eight. So most of the time, I think of them more as parents than siblings.”
His gaze swept down with a mournful kind of air, so I said, “You seem kind of sad about that.”
Eyes flashing up, he immediately answered, “No! Oh, shit, no. I love them. They were great. They are great. It’s just…”
“It’s just what?” I asked softly, easing down next to him.
He took my hand and interlaced our fingers before pressing his palm against mine and studying the different colors of our skin mixing. “Aspen got pregnant this last year, but she didn’t realize it until she was, like, four months along or something. The thing was, she was on birth control, so she immediately stopped, but she and Noel were freaked out for a while, worried there may be problems with the baby. Except every checkup came back normal, and Lucy Olivia was born right on time at the end of November, healthy as could be. The problem came when Aspen turned really unresponsive. They diagnosed her with postnatal depression. Most days she can’t even get out of bed. And when she does, she usually ends up crying or getting so upset she yells at people.” He shook his head and leaned against me. “It’s really traumatizing for all of us because Aspen is not like that. She’s sweet and kind and giving and selfless. This is just…it’s not her at all.”
I turned my face and kissed his shoulder. “Have you gotten her any help?”