SWNOVELS The Red Zone: Chapter 26
MY EYES HAD BEEN ANCHORED on Mae since the moment I stepped foot into the party, but even more so now after seeing Bobby talking to her. I didn’t know the guy personally, but from what little I’d heard of him, none of it had been positive.
I made it halfway into the living room, scanning the crowd with each step before I found Mae dancing with some of her friends with a red solo cup in hand, nearly spilling it every time she rocked her hips side to side to the beat.
Her eyes caught mine from across the room for a brief second as she backed her ass up against her friend to grind on her. Mae maintained eye contact with me, letting out a loud laugh at something her friend whispered in her ear. What was that girl’s name, again? Claudia? Carissa? Didn’t know, didn’t care.
Mae had me right where she wanted me, and we both knew it.
“Hey,” Abel came up next to me. “Have you seen Fortune anywhere? He said he’d be here, but I haven’t seen him all night.”
“Not tonight, man. Sorry.”
According to Mae’s announcement earlier in the night Lea was missing from the party… now Fortune… that couldn’t be a coincidence, right?
Abel mumbled something about him and Scar taking off, but to call him if we needed anything.
We.
Mae and I.
He talked as if we were already a couple and it made me feel like I was on top of the world. Speaking of which, I flickered my gaze back to where Mae had been dancing with—Candace? Cynthia?—whatever her name was, but the two of them were gone.
A slight panic ignited in my chest as I surveyed the crowd. Moving deeper into the room, I was stopped right in my tracks at the sound of that wicked laugh that I knew well. Which only begged the question—who the hell was she talking to and why did she sound pissed off?
Perking up my ears, I heard Bobby’s voice coming from the corner behind me. “Why don’t you want to hang out with me?”
“Why do I get the sense that you feel entitled to an answer?” I made out Mae’s voice over the sound of the music blaring through the speakers. Turning around solidified my prior suspicions were correct.
There she was, being cornered by Bobby, while he gripped tightly at her waist. Mae ducked away from him, but he reached for her again.
He was… touching her. Again.
I tried to simmer the rage that was brewing beneath my skin, but with every second that I watched the two of them interact my jaw clenched harder and my nostrils flared.
“Because I am.”
Something between a scoff and a laugh broke free from Mae’s lips. Anger continued to unfurl in my stomach at the sight of another man’s hands on her body. This Bobby dude had no fucking idea what kind of beast he’d just unleashed.
Unfortunately for him, I had a whole team of football players here to back me up at a moment’s notice if needed. However, I had this innate feeling that I’d be able to handle this guy on my own just fine.
My pulse raced as I stalked up to the two of them, nudging my shoulder between their bodies, but the fucker decided to keep his hand planted on her hip anyway.
“Dude, she said no.” I made no attempt to restrain the anger dripping in my tone.
“What are you… her boyfriend or something?”
“N—’
I cut Mae off. “Something like that.” She looked at me with a puzzled expression, but quickly stifled it and turned to him nodding in agreement. “Now get your hands off of her before I break yours.”
He had five seconds to take his hand off her hip before any pretenses of composure I had were stripped away completely. I invaded his personal space, moving forward until we were chest to fucking chest.
Five… Four… Three…
Leveling his gaze with mine, he inched forward with squared shoulders.
“I suggest you back the fuck up.”
“Or what?”
Two… One…
“Can’t say I didn’t warn you.”
Reaching over, I grabbed the guy’s wrist and peeled it off of her. Poor Bobby made the grave mistake of wrapping his hand around mine, but instead of tucking his thumb, he left it sticking out.
He was making this too fucking easy.
With my other hand, I grabbed his thumb and forced it back until there was a snap, immediately followed by him dropping to his knees with his face scrunched together in pain. In his moment of weakness, he made another mistake—poking out his pinky finger.
Two for one special, anyone?
“Touch. Her. Again…” I pulled back his pinky until a wail escaped his throat. “And I’ll break your arm next time. Do you understand?”
The guy winced in pain, but it sounded like there were angels singing to my ears.
Turning to Mae my words came out through rugged breaths. “You okay?”
“Oh, my god. I’m so wet right now,” she blurted out in response.
Had I not been blinded by rage from this stupid fucker who was wailing on the ground, I probably would’ve buckled over into a fit of laughter.
“Let’s go, you’re coming with me.”
“Wait, where are we—’ I grasped her hand, urging her to trail behind me as I fiddled through the crowd, leading us down a long hallway before making a sharp left into the small powder room that, according to Lea, never got used. It was tucked away from the rest of the house, so the likelihood of someone barging in on us was slim.
I shuffled Mae through the doorway, following behind her with my hands wrapped around her waist. The moment the door slammed behind me one of my tattooed hands wrapped around her neck as I turned her to face me, trading places so she was walking backward.
“I’m done fucking around and I’m done picking stupid fights with you.” My tone was gravelly, but her eyes lit up as her back flushed against the door, and I reached over with my right hand to lock it. “You’re mine. Do you understand that?”
I leaned in, sealing my words with a kiss.
“I can’t stop thinking about you. I never stop thinking about you. Even when we lived a thousand miles apart and I hadn’t seen you in seven years, you consumed my thoughts more than I’d like to admit. Don’t you get that?”
Mae gulped.
“For a long time, I hated that I wanted you. I hated that you drove me fucking crazy, taking up space in my head at all hours of the day. I hated that when you joked about not sleeping in my bed tonight, the first thought I had was how awful my day would be tomorrow because I wouldn’t get to wake up next to you.”
“Why are you telling me this?”
“Because as much as I wanted to hate you, I’m not sure I ever really did… and I certainly don’t now,” she kissed me this time, hot and demanding. “I’m done playing games with you.”
“Really? Tic-tac-toe… hangman. You don’t want to play those together anymore?”
I rolled my eyes, crashing my lips to hers before she had the chance to add on another foolish comment.
Breaking our kiss, I pulled back to see the blazing fire ignited in Mae’s eyes. “We’re going to have arguments. They’re normal, healthy even.” I pressed my lips against her once again, firmer this time. “But if I’m going to argue with anyone. it’s going to be you. So, when I say you’re mine, I mean it. Mine and no one else’s.”
“Okay,” she said breathlessly.
“Looks like that temporary truce wasn’t all that temporary after all, was it?”
She shifted her hips forward against my hard on that was beginning to ache more with each passing second.
“And if another guy bothers you like that, tell me. I can’t guarantee it’ll be just his hand next time.”
“Did you really break his hand for me?”
“I’d do anything for you. Now get on your knees for me.”
Mae rustled with my zipper as she gracefully dropped to her knees. Her eager eyes flickered up to mine as she pulled my jeans and boxers down in one move, low enough for my cock to spring free in front of her face.
With a pleased smile, she wrapped both hands around the base of my shaft, spitting on it so it was easier to glide them up and down. I lifted her chin with my index finger and bent down to give her a long, closed mouth kiss before she returned her attention back to her hands, breaking apart her lips as she wrapped them around my length.
Starting slow, she sucked on the tip as she ran her tongue on the underside of my dick, but as she grew more confident, she began to take more of me into her mouth. Meanwhile, both of her hands still worked together in alternating twisting motions.
She was doing such a good job trying to take as much of me as she could, but I knew she could handle more. As she started to slow down, I began moving my hips forward, thrusting into her mouth.
Mae’s eyes lit up as she opened her mouth wider, giving into the moment with total surrender. She moved her hands, gripping firming on the side of my thighs to hold herself in place as my movements became more hurried.
“Get up. I want to fuck you in front of the mirror, baby.”
Hopping up to her feet, she lifted her short blue dress up and dropped her panties to the floor, meanwhile I pulled out a condom from my pocket and rolled it on. Mae placed one hand against the counter to hold herself up while the other circled her clit as I entered her tight, wet heat. That first thrust into her pussy was fucking divine, both of us closing our eyes as we moaned together.
I worked my cock in and out of her fast and hard, the thrill of the party bustling on the opposite side of the door only made it hotter. Knowing that at any second someone could wander down the hall and hear the sounds of her wet little pussy clenching around my dick.
“You’re mine,” I rasped against the shell of her ear, picking up the pace.
Mae whimpered, nodding her head up and down.
“I want to hear you say it.”
Our eyes locked in the mirror as I thrust into her one final time before we both came together and she drained every last ounce of cum out of me.
“I’m yours.”