#Selfie (Hashtag Series Book 4) (27 page)

I started to yell again, but he clamped his meaty paw over my mouth as I was dragged into the concealment of trees.

Braeden

I managed to keep my head on straight during the game.

Even if I did play with more frustration and unnecessary roughness. There was no ref at this game, so I couldn’t get thrown out. It wouldn’t be the first time I used football to work through my personal demons, and it might not be the last.

I knew before I saw her that Ivy was there. Her presence was sort of like a double shot of caffeine straight into my veins.

Almighty, she looked hot.

She sat there on the sidelines, her shapely ass in a collapsible chair, jean-clad legs stretched to the ground with a pair of cowboy boots hugging her calves. Her blond hair was loose around her shoulders, and every time the wind blew, strands of it would float out around her head like a halo.

I couldn’t take it anymore.

I knew exactly how I felt. Denying it was futile. If loving Ivy were a battle, then I would lose the war. Talking to Mom earlier clicked something inside me. It was as if her permission that I was able to feel like this was the catalyst that finally gave me acceptance.

If she could move on and find love, then I had a chance, too. And she was right; giving up my future to the man in my past was stupid.

I was a lot of things, but stupid wasn’t one of them.

By the time the team arrived at the bonfire, it was raging. Music was thumping through the night so loud I was shocked the cops weren’t here. Beer and liquor was flowing, and the fire had to be at least ten feet tall. Cars were parked everywhere, bodies crowded the grass, and large groups of people danced—or what they liked to think of as dancing—and it made searching for a single girl very hard. It was like trying to find a needle in a haystack.

“You see her?” I yelled to Romeo.

He shook his head as he scanned the area. “There’s Rim,” he said and pointed around the fire. “Missy too. She’s probably there.”

We picked our way through the crowd, my patience wearing thin. But she wasn’t standing there with Rim. I didn’t even have to ask where she was. My sis knew I would want to know. She glanced across the field, toward the line of trees where two people stood close together talking.

I watched Ivy and Trent laugh and smile. Funny, I wasn’t as jealous anymore. I didn’t like what I was seeing, but I no longer felt the urge to kill Trent.

It was progress.

Trent walked away, leaving Ivy standing there alone. I leaned in to Romeo and said, “Don’t wait up.”

He held out his fist and we pounded it out. “You got her?” he asked.

“I got her.”

He turned back to the crowd as I separated from it. I rebuffed anyone who tried to lure me from my path, solely focused on getting to Ivy.

She started to head this way when four guys materialized out of the trees. I knew right away they were drunk as shit.

They were probably fucking on something, too.

My steps picked up when I watched him grab her, saw the fear in her eyes. I saw her call out, but no sound made it to my ears.

They laughed as they dragged her into the trees.

I started running.

Ivy

“We know who you are,” said the guy who dragged me away.

It was much darker here beneath the trees without the glow of the fire. Adrenaline and fear warred inside my body as I frantically searched for a means of escape.

There was only one reason a woman was dragged into the trees by a bunch of drunk strangers.

It wasn’t a good reason.

“You’re the slut of Alpha U.” One of the other guys snickered.

“You shouldn’t believe everything you read,” I snapped as I tried to get out of the arms holding me.

“Seeing is believing, and it was all right there in color,” he quipped. As his friends laughed, he threw me on the ground. I landed with a hard thud, and for a few precious seconds, my vision swam before my eyes.

“Hold her!” the leader ordered.

“No!” I yelled, trying to scramble up.

Two guys pinned me down, holding my arms into the hard, cold ground. “Your tits look as good in real life as they do in that picture?”

Oh. My. God.

I screamed bloody murder. I screamed so loud it hurt. A hand came over my mouth.

I bit it.

“Ow! She bit me!”

The leader watched me over the rim of his cup as he poured more alcohol down his throat. One second, his eyes were gleaming with vile thoughts, and the next, they were rolling back in his head as he slumped to the ground.

“You got two seconds to get your hands off her!” Braeden roared and leapt forward.

The men holding me let go instantly, but one got tackled to the ground. I scrambled up and stood against a nearby tree as Braeden took on three guys at once.

They were drunk and sloppy.

He was sober and athletic.

He was also clearly infuriated.

He could have grabbed me and gone, but he didn’t. I knew he wouldn’t.

Instead, he left all four would-be rapists in a heap on the ground. None of them were moving. Or conscious.

“Just can’t stay out of trouble, can ya?” he said and stepped up close.

I wanted so badly to fire back something smart and sassy, but all my lower lip would do is tremble.

“It’s all right now,” he murmured and stepped a little closer. “I got you. You’re safe.”

I collapsed against him, but I didn’t cry. I’d done so much crying the past week I didn’t have any tears left. Instead, I shook and wobbled.

Thank God he was there.

Braeden swept me up against his chest, cradled me in his arms. I listened to the rapid beat of his heart as he carried me around the edge of the party—staying in the trees—and to his truck. I slumped in the seat as he drove.

The ride was short, and soon he parked in front of my dorm.

“Key,” he demanded, holding out his hand. I pulled it out of my pocket and handed it over. Instead of coming around to the passenger side, he slid me across the driver’s seat and helped me down to the ground.

Quietly, we went inside, thankfully passing no one (everyone was at the party), and straight up to my room.

I didn’t bother with the overhead lights. I went right to my bed and collapsed. What almost happened was so frightening I couldn’t think. I just lay there, replaying over and over the things I should have done or if there was anything I could have done to keep them away.

I should have walked away with Trent.

I shouldn’t have stood there alone to think.

I should have stayed home.

I shouldn’t have slept with Zach.

“Ivy,” Braeden whispered from nearby.

Suddenly, all I could think about was being pinned down. Their rough hands and appraising eyes. The sheer terror I felt when I realized I was outnumbered and it probably wouldn’t matter how hard I fought.

I jolted off the bed, onto my feet, and started tearing at my clothes. “Get off me,” I sobbed. “Off!”

My hands were rough and insistent as I tugged at the clothes those men touched. I couldn’t bear to have them on me anymore.

“Hey,” Braeden spoke; his voice was gentle but held a note of alarm. He moved forward and I moved back.

“I’m not gonna hurt you, baby.”

“You already have.” I slumped. “Everybody has.”

“Shit,” he swore and stepped up close. “Tell me what you want right now,” he whispered.

“I want these clothes off. They touched them. They…” My voice broke.

Slowly, Braeden took my hands and pulled them away from myself. “I’ll help you. Is that okay?”

I nodded, numb. It was scary how numb I felt. My mind was freaked out, but my body was entirely disoriented and unfeeling.

His fingers latched onto the hem of the flutter-sleeve tee. I’d probably never wear this shirt again. It was such a shame. The lace detail was so beautiful.

It was tugged away and tossed somewhere out of sight. “These too?” he murmured, grazing his finger across the buttons on my jeans.

I nodded.

My body started shaking when he peeled them down my legs. He paused in motion and looked up at me from his crouched position on the floor. “Are you scared? Want me to back up?”

Oh no, I wasn’t scared.

I shook my head slowly, and he finished pulling off my boots and jeans. When he was done, he stepped back, putting some distance between us.

“Is that better?”

No. It wasn’t. I sort of felt like I’d been out in the cold for too long. You know when your entire body goes numb from the low temperatures? But once you step back in the heat and your skin begins to thaw, everything starts to shake and tingle as awareness seeps back in.

That’s how I felt.

My body was finally beginning to catch up with my mind.

I couldn’t stop the tremors from rocking my limbs. I felt like someone flipped a switch inside me to vibrate.

Braeden went to my dresser, pulling open drawers and rifling through the clothes. He seemed to be searching for one thing, but I didn’t ask. My teeth were chattering too hard.

A sound ripped from his throat when he found what he was after. He came back with his shirt gripped in his hand. I looked between him and the fabric.

“It doesn’t smell like you.”

He tossed it away, and it landed on Rimmel’s bed. In one swift motion, he pulled the shirt he was wearing over his head and then down over mine. His unique scent swirled around me as the warmth from his body heat seeped into my skin. I pulled my arms in the oversized sleeves to unhook my bra and let it fall down at my feet.

Only then did I sigh and start to relax.

The hard contour of his bare chest wasn’t to be denied. His smooth, olive-toned skin stretched wide across the strong set of his shoulders, and his waist came down into a V. The definition in his abdominals was so sharp he looked carved in stone.

And his arms.

His arms were strong and thick. They looked like the perfect place for shelter.

I stepped toward him and those arms came out, inviting me in. I fit against him easily, and the safety he always made me feel was so welcome.

My fingers dug into the muscles of his back, but he didn’t seem to care. I felt his lips in my hair, and a sensation of cleanliness washed over me.

“Make love to me, Braeden. Right now.” I stared up at him.

His arms flexed around me. Desire pooled in his eyes, but his mouth turned down in a frown. “I’m not sure now is a good time.”

“It’s the perfect time,” I whispered. “I still feel their intent on my skin. My body still hums with what they wanted to do. Take it away. Take them away.”

A low groan rumbled in his chest as his hands slid under my arms and lifted. I wrapped my legs around his waist and settled against him.

Usually, his kiss was eager, hot, and insistent. This time was different, but it was no less devastating. He kissed with painstaking deliberation, like he thought about every single movement, every single stroke of his tongue just before he made it.

He touched me like he’d found the manual for my body’s ultimate pleasure and was following it to a T.

Everything else fell away.

The woods, the drunk guys became obsolete.

The rumors, the picture, the shame…

None of it mattered anymore.

Maybe I’d feel different when he wasn’t so close, but I didn’t care. Even if Braeden never touched me again, the effects of how he was making me feel right then would never fade away.

He carried me to the bed, moving like he was going to keep me on top. I knew it was so I would feel safe, but it’s not what I wanted.

“No,” I murmured, breathless. “I want you over me.”

He pulled back and looked in my eyes. “Are you sure?”

I nodded. I’d never wanted anything more.

I wanted to be boxed in by him. I wanted to feel caged in by his arms and see nothing but his body when I looked up.

He laid me out across the mattress and came over me. His hand glided up the inside of my shirt and he kneaded my aching breast. I purred and pushed myself farther into his hand.

The buttons of his jeans proved a worthy opponent for my trembling fingers, but eventually I made a sound of defeat and pulled them away. B chuckled and pulled back. I watched him through half-closed lids as he removed all his clothes.

His cock stood out proudly from his center, and my core clenched with desire. He laid a condom on the mattress beside me and reached under my shirt to pull my panties away. I started to pull at the shirt, but he shook his head.

“Leave it. You have a beautiful body, Ivy, but seeing you in my clothes is even more so,” Braeden told me as he ripped open the foil packet.

He entered my body inch by delicious inch, and my eyes rolled back in my head. Being with Braeden was almost an out-of-body experience; nothing or no one could ever compare to this.

The buildup was heavy because of his unhurried pace. By the time an orgasm crashed over me, I moaned in relief. Braeden wrapped himself around me, holding me so tight. He kept moving, kept thrusting inside me until I gasped, on the brink of another climax.

“Come for me, baby,” he whispered in my ear, nipping at my earlobe.

This time we both plummeted together. It almost felt like we merged as one.

When at last I could think again, Braeden rolled to the side but pulled me with him, keeping me close. I laid my cheek on his chest and fitted one of my legs between his.

Neither one of us spoke a word.

There wasn’t anything I could say, not a single word in existence that could match how he made me feel.

I just hoped he felt the same.