Read Online Fair Play by Tracy A. Ward - Free Book Online Page A

mine.
    And it hit me. She wasn’t channeling her inner Caroline. “Are you telling me no, Ashlyn?”
    “Caroline,” she whispered.
    We moved at the same time. Our lips collided in a hard kiss. This wasn’t supposed to be part of the scene, but hell if I could stop myself. Her legs wrapped around my waist and stayed that way as I pressed her into a corner not visible from the alley door. My fingers sank into her sweat-dampened hair, fisted around those fiery tresses while our tongues melded in a way much different than the day before. And not just tasting, but feasting like this might be the last kiss we’d ever share. The very thought filled my chest with an ache that stole my wind. When I could no longer breathe, I pressed my forehead to hers.
    She moaned my name. “Noah.”
    …
    Ashlyn
    My signals were getting all crossed again. This was Andy, not Noah. Andy. But the way he kissed me, like he couldn’t get enough, drained my will to stop this, even though I knew I should. I needed to re-summon my inner Caroline.
    Because Caroline’s struggle was to overcome her sheltered existence, facing her fears of the outside world—the unknown—I put my heart into kissing Andy again, the way only she would. And I didn’t stop Noah when his fingers moved, unfastening the buttons of my shirt, nor did I stop him when his mouth covered my hardened nipples, sucked them, one at a time, into his mouth, giving me pleasure so intense it danced on the threshold of pain. I wanted his hands on me. All of me, everywhere. I wanted him to lose himself inside me, to put out that dark fire of need that had been rising in my belly since that day twelve years ago when we’d almost kissed.
    Alarm bells went off inside my head as his hands fought against the layers of fabric of my skirt, trying to get at what lay hidden beneath. I’d done it again. Confused Andy with Noah, Caroline with me.
    “Noah,” I said between kisses. “Stop, please.”
    At that, I would’ve sworn his heart ceased beating. I could no longer feel the pulse-point beneath my hand on his neck.
    He cleared his throat and stepped back, too far away for us to touch. “I’m no theater buff, Wheels, but there has to be another way to get the material you need without acting out improvisational scenes for your play.”
    I finished righting my clothes. “Totally agree.”
    “I mean, Jesus, what the hell?”
    “Look.” My eyes locked on Noah’s. The last of my control snapped. “You made your point, okay? I’m really sorry you find it all such a hardship.” My eyes dropped to his obvious erection.
    “You’re quite the wordsmith aren’t you, Wheels?”
    “Isn’t that why you had Lucas bring me to Phair?”
    “You’re really pissed about that, aren’t you?”
    Ignoring his remark, I walked past him and up the stairs. I couldn’t believe I’d done it to myself again—that I’d allowed the lines between Noah and Andy to blur. That I’d actually felt happiness in the moment at finally getting to experience what Noah had backed away from all those years ago. Sure, we’d kissed yesterday, but that had been different from this. Way different.
    By the time I reached the third floor landing, I heard Noah behind me, taking two steps at a time. Just as I reached for the doorknob, he grabbed my arm from behind.
    “Hey,” he said, angry, “don’t walk away from me. We will talk about this.”
    When Noah spun me around, my shoulder glanced hard off the side of the door jamb. I let out a curse more from surprise than pain. I looked down at where he held me in a steel-knuckled grip. His gaze followed mine, and when I looked back up at him, the color had drained from his face.
    Noah released my arm and turned away, fast. “That’s it,” he said. “We’re done for today.”
    …
    Noah
    Shit, shit, shit.
    What was I thinking, getting rough and grabbing her like that? The look on Ashlyn’s face, how she grimaced in pain when her shoulder slammed against the door