Chapter 206 - Bruises and Scratches (R)
She kissed him.
Zac froze for barely a second before his mouth came down hard over hers.
There was no slow beginning. One of his hands still held her wrist against the wall while the other gripped her hip and dragged her against him. Roxie twisted her fingers into the front of his hoodie, refusing to let him step away again.
The anger from the grill had followed them inside. It stayed in the way he held her and the force of his mouth against hers. Roxie could still feel the college papers in her hands even though they were back with Ethan. She could still see Zac’s face when he read the first school name. She could still hear him asking why she had sat down.
Kissing him was easier than answering.
Roxie bit his lower lip.
Zac jerked back. The cut that had nearly healed split open again, and a thin line of blood appeared across his mouth.
His eyes locked on hers.
Roxie knew she had hurt him.
She should have apologized. Instead, she caught his hoodie again before he could move away.
"I’m still here."
"For how long?"
The question hit harder than the anger in his face.
Roxie shoved him closer. "Stop asking me that."
Zac kissed her again.
His fingers tightened around her hip as his body pressed into hers. Every muscle beneath his clothes remained tense. He had kept his anger trapped inside the truck, his hands locked around the steering wheel while Roxie tried to explain Ethan and the schools.
Now it came out through his body.
The hard length beneath his jeans pressed between her thighs through her thin shorts.
Roxie’s breath caught.
Zac moved his hips against her, short and hard, grinding directly where she already ached.
Heat rushed through her.
His hand still held her wrist above her head. His other fingers dug into her hip hard enough to hurt.
Roxie pulled against his grip until he pressed her wrist harder against the wall.
Pain burned over the marks he had left at the grill.
She hated how quickly her body reacted.
She hated that the same hand that had hurt her in front of Ethan now made heat spread through her while she was trapped beneath it. The two moments should have felt completely different.
They did.
They also felt close enough that Roxie could pretend one explained the other.
Zac’s breath came hot and uneven against her mouth.
"This what you wanted?"
"Harder."
His eyes darkened.
He forced one leg between hers and drove his hips against her again. The thick pressure beneath his jeans dragged across her clit through her shorts and underwear.
Roxie moaned into his mouth.
She bit his bleeding lip again.
Zac made a rough sound and pinned her wrist harder against the wall. Pain shot through her arm, but her body pressed closer instead of pulling away.
His free hand slid from her hip to her ass. He squeezed hard and pulled her into each grind.
There was no space left between them.
Roxie wrapped one leg around his waist. The new angle forced her thighs farther apart and brought him directly against her.
His jeans were rough against the thin fabric covering her. Her underwear had already become damp, and each movement dragged the hard ridge of his cock over her swollen clit.
Zac moved in short, angry strokes.
"Still want those papers?" he asked against her mouth.
"Yes."
He drove against her harder.
"Still want Ethan helping you?"
"He’s my friend."
Zac’s grip tightened.
"He wants you."
"I don’t want him."
He stopped for half a second.
Roxie used the leg around his waist to pull him closer.
"I want you," she said. "That doesn’t mean I don’t need the papers."
His mouth covered hers again.
The kiss tasted like blood.
Roxie moved her hips with him, meeting every hard grind. The argument had not disappeared. It stayed in the way Zac held her and the way she kept answering him even while she kissed him.
She could want him and still look at other schools.
She could stay with him without letting Tennessee become the only future she had.
She could have Ethan as a friend without wanting anything else from him.
None of those answers satisfied Zac.
Her body did.
His hips drove against her again, and the pressure between her legs sharpened.
Roxie’s underwear clung to her skin. Each stroke pushed him directly over her clit, hard enough that her thoughts began falling apart.
Zac released her wrist and caught the backs of her thighs.
He lifted her.
Roxie wrapped both legs around his waist and hooked her arms around his neck. Her back pressed harder against the wall while Zac drove between her thighs.
His hips moved in short, powerful strokes.
Their clothes were the only thing keeping him from being inside her.
The thought should have frightened her.
Instead, Roxie pulled him closer.
She scratched the back of his neck.
Zac groaned and buried his face against her shoulder.
She could feel him through every layer. He was hard, thick, and moving against her like he wanted to erase the entire night. The college papers. Ethan. Tennessee. Every choice Roxie might make without him.
The pressure inside her began building quickly.
Roxie knew the feeling.
She had touched herself alone in bed before. She knew how the tightness started low in her stomach and spread through her thighs. She knew when to move faster and when to slow down so the feeling would last.
This was different.
Zac controlled the rhythm.
His body kept her pinned between him and the wall. His hands held her beneath the thighs while his hips kept hitting the same place. Roxie could move with him and pull him closer, but she could not control every stroke.
She could not hide what his body was doing to hers.
Her breathing broke apart.
Roxie pressed her face near his neck, but Zac lifted his head and looked at her.
Blood still covered his lower lip. His face was flushed, and his breathing sounded almost as rough as hers, yet his eyes remained fixed on her.
That made the pressure build faster.
He could see everything.
Roxie had always been alone when she came before. Nobody had heard the sounds she made or watched her body tense. Nobody had felt her thighs shake.
Zac would know.
He would know exactly what she looked like when she lost control.
Embarrassment burned through her, but the pleasure beneath it kept growing.
Her fingers dug into his shoulders.
"Zac."
He drove harder between her thighs.
Roxie’s head fell back against the wall. The impact barely registered. Her body had narrowed down to the pressure between her legs, Zac’s weight holding her up, and the rough sound of his breathing beside her ear.
She tried to hold it back.
She had no idea why. Maybe because once it happened, Zac would know he had been the first person to do this to her. Maybe because it would give him something else that belonged only to him.
His hips moved against her again.
The last of her control disappeared.
The orgasm hit harder than anything Roxie had ever given herself.
Her entire body locked around him. A cry tore from her before she could lower her voice, and her thighs clamped around Zac’s waist while pleasure rushed through her in strong, heavy pulses.
She could not stop moving.
Her hips jerked against him, chasing every stroke as the feeling spread through her stomach and down her legs. Her fingers slipped against the back of his neck because she could barely hold on.
Zac stared at her.
Roxie saw the moment he understood.
His eyes darkened, and his hands tightened beneath her thighs.
He kept grinding.
The pressure dragged over her again while she was still coming, forcing another broken sound from her. Roxie turned her face into his neck, but there was nowhere to hide.
Zac could feel every tremor moving through her.
He had done this.
The thought settled inside the pleasure and made it feel stronger.
Zac had made her come while holding her against the wall, still angry, with his blood smeared across her mouth and the marks from his hands already forming on her skin.
It should have bothered her.
Instead, Roxie clung tighter.
She had spent the entire drive worrying that Zac would leave. She had watched him turn toward the truck outside the bungalow and felt panic rise before he had taken more than a few steps.
Now his whole body pressed against hers.
He still wanted her.
He wanted her enough to hold her like this. He wanted her enough to keep moving while her body shook around him.
For several seconds, the argument disappeared.
There was only Zac.
His mouth against her shoulder. His hands holding her up when her legs had started shaking too badly to stay tight around him. His hips moving between her thighs while the pleasure slowly began to fade.
Roxie moaned into his neck and held on through the last pulses.
Her body felt weak afterward.
Zac stopped moving but remained pressed against her. His chest rose and fell against hers, and his hands stayed beneath her thighs while she tried to breathe normally.
Roxie kept her face hidden near his shoulder.
He had seen everything.
He had heard her cry out and felt her body moving against him. He knew he was the first person who had ever made her lose control like that.
The embarrassment returned.
Satisfaction came with it.
Nobody else had done that to her.
Only him.
Zac lifted his face enough to look at her.
Roxie expected him to laugh or say something stupid.
He only stared.
The way his eyes moved over her face made her feel more exposed than teasing would have.
"Don’t," she whispered.
"I didn’t say anything."
"You’re looking."
"I know."
Heat moved back into her face.
Zac kissed her.
The kiss was slower, though the anger remained in the way his hands held her. He kissed her like he knew something about her now that nobody else did.
Roxie kissed him back.
She should have felt embarrassed.
Instead, she felt more wanted than she had all night.
Her legs loosened slowly from around his waist. Zac lowered her until her feet touched the floor, but Roxie had to keep one hand on his shoulder when her knees nearly gave beneath her.
The corner of his mouth moved.
"Say nothing," she warned.
"I was thinking you almost fell."
Roxie pushed his shoulder, though there was little strength behind it.
Zac barely moved.
He remained close. His breathing was still rough, and he was still hard beneath his jeans.
Roxie looked down between them.
He had made her come while getting nothing except the friction through their clothes.
She wanted to return the feeling.
She wanted to see whether she could make him lose control as completely as she had.
Roxie slid her hand between their bodies.
Her palm pressed over the thick shape beneath his jeans.
Zac went still.
She rubbed him slowly through the denim.
His head lowered until his forehead touched hers.
"Roxie."
She curled her fingers around him as much as the fabric allowed and stroked harder.
His hips pushed into her hand.
Roxie watched his face while she touched him through the rough denim. She could feel the shape of him clearly, hard and heavy beneath her palm.
She had felt him against her before. She had known how much he wanted her.
Holding him this way made it more real.
Zac’s hands closed around her waist.
His fingers pressed into the same places he had already gripped.
Roxie tightened her hold and moved faster.
A rough groan left him.
She liked watching the control leave his face.
His eyes closed, and his breathing became uneven. His hips kept moving into her hand, helping her stroke him through his jeans.
Roxie squeezed him through the denim.
Zac’s head fell against her shoulder.
"Don’t stop."
She kept rubbing him.
The damp fabric between her own legs still clung to her skin. Her body remained sensitive after coming, and each movement of Zac’s hips brushed him against her hand and her stomach.
His fingers dug harder into her waist.
Roxie knew those marks would remain too.
She moved her palm faster.
Zac’s body tightened against hers.
His hips jerked once, then again.
He came inside his jeans with a broken groan.
Roxie continued moving her hand over him through the last pulses. The denim beneath her palm grew warm and damp.
His hands stayed locked around her waist until his body slowly relaxed.
For several seconds, neither of them spoke.
Their breathing filled the quiet bungalow.
Blood from Zac’s lip had smeared across Roxie’s mouth. His forehead remained against her shoulder while Roxie kept her hand between them.
When he finally lifted his head, his eyes moved toward her wrist.
The red pressure from the wall covered part of the darker marks from the grill.
"Those weren’t all from now."
"No."
His mouth tightened.
Roxie placed her hand against his chest before he could step away.
"I wanted what happened here."
Zac looked at the marks again.
"I’m sorry about before."
Roxie lowered her sleeve.
"I know."
Neither of them said anything else about the marks from the grill.
Zac wiped his thumb beneath Roxie’s lower lip. Blood covered the pad.
"You opened it again."
"You kept kissing me."
"You bit me."
"You grabbed me."
The words referred to the grill and everything that had happened since.
Neither of them separated the two.
Zac caught her hand and kissed her knuckles.
"Are you still getting the papers?"
"Yes."
His body became tense again.
Roxie held his eyes.
"You can look at them with me."
"I already looked with you."
"At Tennessee. I need to look at everything."
"And Ethan?"
"He gives me the papers."
"You’re sitting with him again?"
"I don’t know. Maybe." Roxie stayed close to him. "He’s my friend, Zac."
His jaw tightened.
"You being jealous doesn’t change what he is to me."
"Fine."
"You don’t mean that."
"No."
Roxie almost smiled.
Zac looked away before adding, "But I’m trying."
"That’s better."
"Tennessee stays on the list."
"It stays."
The argument had no real ending.
Roxie still planned to look at other colleges. Zac still wanted Tennessee to become the only choice. Ethan remained part of the fight because Zac refused to believe he was only Roxie’s friend.
Roxie saw no reason to treat Ethan like anything else. He joked with her, bothered her during work, and printed college pages because she had done nothing for herself. That was all.
For tonight, she stopped trying to convince Zac.
Roxie pulled him toward her bedroom.
He changed out of his ruined jeans in the bathroom while she washed the blood from her mouth. When he returned wearing only his boxers, his ears were red again.
Roxie looked toward the jeans he had dropped near the door.
Zac followed her gaze.
"Say nothing."
"I didn’t say anything."
"You were about to."
Roxie smiled and climbed into bed.
Zac lay beside her and pulled her against his chest. His hand rested at her waist, close to the marks beneath her shorts.
Within minutes, his breathing deepened.
Roxie remained awake.
Her body still felt different. Heavy and sensitive, with a faint pulse remaining between her legs whenever she moved.
She had made herself come before.
It had never felt like that.
Maybe it was because Zac had controlled the rhythm. Maybe it was because she had been unable to hide anything from him. Maybe it was the way he had stared at her when he realized what was happening.
He had watched her lose control and held her through it.
The thought made warmth move through her again.
Roxie looked at the red shape around her wrist, then lifted the waistband of her shorts enough to see the lighter marks forming along her hip.
The marks from his hands looked similar.
Some had come while she wanted him to release her.
Others had come while she pulled him closer.
Roxie knew which ones she had asked for.
By morning, she would tell herself the difference was enough.