My Ex’s Roommates: Chapter 28

I’m not opposed to sharing . Carter’s words banged around in my head all morning. Nothing stopped the ruckus he’d caused inside me with those five simple words. I’d sat through an anatomy class with my thighs clenched together because the more I thought about what he’d said, the more turned on I felt. Then came the shame. It burned through me, hot and violent, until I was shaking and wondering if everyone around me could sense how dirty I’d been. No matter the shame, though, the words crept back in and started the entire cycle over again.

I’d blown off the help desk at the library in favor of shelving old periodicals in the basement so I wouldn’t have to face anyone. Instead of getting anything done, though, I was staring at old copies of some obscure tech magazine while lost in thought about Carter. If it wasn’t Carter, it was Silas teasing my sanity. Or Dylan. I’d seen the way his eyes darkened that morning when he looked at me. The three of them weren’t hiding their interest and I felt like a clueless little bunny hopping between three wolves who were hungry for a snack.

I doubted the bunny ever wanted to be caught and eaten, though, whereas me… I wasn’t proving to be a very good prey animal. Not when I was so easily tempted to roll over and expose my throat to the wolves closing in.

I dropped the magazines to the floor and leaned back against one of the massive rolling shelves. It was silent in the basement, as it typically was. No one ever visited the archives. I was alone with my thoughts and my fears and even my desires. Especially my desires. I didn’t want to be. I wanted to find Carter and demand that he explain to me exactly what he meant that morning. How did he want to share me?

It probably wasn’t a good thing that I needed specifics to even begin to think of an answer. Shouldn’t I have immediately said no? I had lost my virginity and dated the same guy for two years. I’d never done anything else with another soul until Dylan. How quickly Silas had followed and it seemed Carter was an inevitability. At least that’s how it felt when he kissed me like he did.

“Hiding?”

I spun around and screamed, the sound of Carter’s voice such a shock that I nearly stumbled to the ground. “Oh, my god! Don’t sneak up on me like that! Do you know how creepy it is down here? You can’t sneak up on a woman. God, my heart is racing. What are you even doing here?”

He stood at the end of the aisle I’d created with the rolling shelves and gripped a higher shelf on each side. His signature smirk was back in place but there was something different about him. “I didn’t mean to sneak up. I don’t think I was very quiet. Which means you must’ve been lost in thought. Care to share?”

“You know exactly what I’m thinking about, Carter.” I crossed my arms and frowned at him, doing my best to come off as uptight so he’d decide to leave me alone. That way I wouldn’t have to make a choice when I was terrified of the choice I’d make.

His smirk stretched into a real smile as he stepped closer. “Mad at me?”

Dammit. I blew out a rough breath and looked away. “I should be.”

“But you’re not?”

“But I should be!” I turned back to face him and saw that he’d been steadily moving closer. He was only six feet away then. “I should be mad because you kissed me this morning! After you knew I’d slept with Silas. You should’ve been disgusted by me or told me off for creating drama in the house but instead, you kissed me!”

He stopped. “You think I should’ve been disgusted by you?”

The basement suddenly felt hot and stuffy. I wanted to leave but I’d have to go by him to get out and I didn’t trust myself. “I slept with your best friends, Carter. Both of them. Doesn’t that make me-”

“Don’t call yourself a slut again, Harper.” He’d lost the smile and had started inching closer again. “You’re not. I imagine if I’d been stuck in a sexually stunted relationship for two years that I’d go through a few houses, too.”

I gasped. “I’m not going through a few houses!”

He’d gotten close enough that I could see his nostrils flare at my words. “Yeah, I don’t like that idea, either. It still wouldn’t make you a slut, though.”

“Why are you okay with me sleeping with Dylan and Silas then?” I had to tilt my head back to hold his gaze as he closed the distance between us. “I saw your face just then, when you thought about me sleeping with a different house full of men. Why is it okay with you if it’s just Dylan and Silas?”

He didn’t just give me a throwaway answer. I watched as he stopped and thought about it before answering me. “They’re my best friends. I trust them.”

“And it’s that easy?”

He moved even closer, so close that his breath fanned over my lips. “I don’t know if easy is the right word. Especially when I’m the only one who hasn’t touched you. I just get it. Dylan and Silas are good guys. I understand you wanting them. I don’t hold any other man on this campus, or in my life, up to their standard. It makes sense to me that you’d be attracted to both of them.”

I rested my hands on his chest, letting his warmth seep into my palms. “I’m attracted to you, too. Even though I feel like I’m crossing every line possible by saying that and doing any of the things I’ve been doing.”

He slid his hands around my waist and our bodies met in the middle to press against each other. “Lines are so often drawn in chalk, Harper. Just…so…easy to erase.”

I swallowed a nervous ball of energy and slid my hands up his chest to wrap them around the back of his neck. “This is crazy, Carter.”

One of his hands trailed down to cup my ass. “Is it?”

I gasped even louder when he slid his other hand to my ass and then lifted me so I had to wrap my legs around his waist to hold on. He pinned me against the shelf behind me and I dropped my head back to rest on a neatly organized collection of Better Homes and Gardens. “It is crazy.”

He lowered his mouth to my throat and nibbled at it. “You want me to stop? Say the word and I’ll back away, Harper.”

I tugged at his hair. “No, goddamn you. Don’t stop.”

Carter growled against my throat as he kissed his way up to my mouth. He was finished with the talking, it seemed. He crushed my mouth with his and I forgot any of the objections I thought I should’ve made. Like magic, everything fell from my brain and all that was left was pleasure. I could feel him, thick and hard, against my sex through my tights, and I shamelessly rocked my hips against his. His grip on my ass tightened and then I realized he was gripping at my tights so he could rip them open.

I pulled back, in shock, and found him anything but apologetic. He looked even more mischievous than normal and he tore the hole wider and stroked his finger over my panties. I had a skirt on over the thin tight so I wasn’t all that worried about them but it was still shocking to feel him turn animalistic.

He didn’t stop there, though. He bit and sucked at my jaw and down my throat until I was shaking with need. I tugged at his hair nonstop, my hands the only part of me that felt like all the blood wasn’t being pumped away from them. Everything seemed to be rushing to my core, swelling my sex and drenching it.