W Y A T T

Unable to concentrate, I put down the pen and tossed it on top of the notebook. I stared at the girl in front of me. Her golden strands of hair were lit up by the light coming from the emerald green lamp post that stood on our table. She was deep in thought, looking between her laptop screen and the notes she was writing.

I didn't want to interrupt, the sight in front of me was too beautiful and I wouldn't want to do anything to stop it. But this issue has been brewing in my mind for far too long. I had to.

"Have you read the group text messages?"

I knew she had. It says right there: seen by Zoey, Noah, Harper, Chloé, Ben, Carter and Kyle. But given the fact that she hadn't mentioned the issue in question to me, and we'd been hanging out after classes almost every day, I couldn't help but wonder if she'd marked the texts as read and didn't actually read them, or if she had read them and then just left us all on read.

"Hm?" She asked once she looked up from the notebook. She looked confused.

"The group text messages... have you read them?"

"Yeah."

"So... what do you think?"

When Zoey searched for her birth parents, they all took a trip to Denver, and made a pit stop in Vegas on the way back. Noah was bummed he didn't make it on that trip because he was hospitalized at the time, and I didn't either because I had exams, which meant that I had to be in New York. So, we had decided we would take that trip again - all of us, this time - and stop in Vegas on the way back. And Zoey had just suggested we'd do that on Thanksgiving break. Everyone replied instantly saying they were in, myself included, but Harper had yet to respond. Or she could have said yes directly to her best friend and I wouldn't know. But I don't think that's the case.

"I think it's a good idea." She said with a smile.

"So you'll go?"

"Yes."

My face gave away my emotions, and a smile spread wide on my face. Harper would be coming with us on the trip. The group would be all together again. We will all have so much fun.

"Chloé and I will probably be by ourselves on Thanksgiving." I found myself saying without properly thinking about it. The last thing I wanted was to kill the mood right now.

But then I remembered that Harper knew how dysfunctional my family was and how Chloé and I only got each other, and what she said next didn't surprise me at all.

"You and Chloé are more than welcome to join us for Thanksgiving. You know, Zoey will be there 'cause she's family, and Noah will probably join us after dinner." I nodded, but let her go on. "Friends are the family we choose, so... we'll be setting up two extra plates."

* * *

We left California this morning, choosing to spend Thanksgiving day with family, and hit the road shortly after nine o'clock. We took the long way, making a pit stop at the Joshua Tree National Park halfway. It was three in the afternoon when we crossed the border, and by the time we stopped for some milkshakes, I had taken over the wheel and stopped at a viewpoint where we were looking into the wonderful desert that surrounded us. We arrived in Las Vegas right before dinner time and checked in at the hotel quickly enough to get dressed and ready for the night ahead of us.

We had dinner, had drinks, danced, sang, went on some pretty fun rides, and mostly had a blast making up backstories for the adults that walked by us and went into the casinos. But we saved the most fun activities for tomorrow and actually used our rooms to rest, since the road trip had worn us all out a bit.

Now, the only one bed situation seems to be a recurrent one between Harper and me. Not that I mind. I most definitely don't mind. I've been hung up on this girl for almost a year, so getting the chance to share four walls with her while neither of us is studying or doing research for a paper, seems like a dream come true.

But tonight, we had Zoey and only Zoey to blame. She was the one who made the bookings and she thought "it would be cool" with us and we'd save up on another hotel room since everyone else was paired up. So yeah, Harper and I are currently sharing a hotel room.

I opened the door to the closet, and tossed my bag inside it. When I straightened up and turned around, I bumped into Harper, who was hanging her dress.

She looked into my eyes and I looked into hers, mirroring every movement she made. She looked at my lips and I looked at hers. They were naturally flawless, still without any lipstick on them. They were practically begging for me to kiss them. I wondered if she thought the same about mine.

There it was. That magnetism. That cosmic force pulling me and Harper together. We were breathing each other in and out, how close we were. Her hands traveled from the sides of my face to the nape of my neck, running her fingers through my hair in the process. My hands instinctively traveled to the back of her waist.

And in less than a second, our lips met in a hurried kiss. A kiss that's every bit as fervent as it's romantic.

I was in heaven again. But I knew she had drank, so I knew I shouldn't keep it up without at least checking with her first after trying to sober her up.

"Harper..." Her name sounded like a plea coming from my lips. "Are you sure about this?"

"Yes, I'm sure." She said before latching her lips onto mine.

"Wait, wait... you had drinks."

"I'm not drunk." She stated, now sounding a bit more upset than I'd expected, as if she was taking my words as an insult she didn't see coming.

"I know you're not. But I just want to make sure you know what you're doing and that you're okay with it."

A pause.

"Because if you keep it up, I'll give into my body's desire and won't be able to stop. I physically won't be able to let go of your touch, your body." I breathed into her ear. "And I don't want to take advantage of you."

She moaned, softly and gently against my own earlobe and my knees couldn't help but shake.

"Do whatever you want to me and I'll do whatever I want to you." She was breathless and I was only grabbing her waist.

"Sounds fair."

The shirts came off first. Our hands were in a frenzy all over the other as we explored foreign territory. Both meanings.

We were silenced, the only sound auditable was the sound of our heavy breaths against each other's mouth. Our lips were touching but not really. Only rasping against each other.

Harper's fingertips rasped against the skin of my chest, painful slowly, teasingly, until they reached the waistline and my breath got caught in my throat, in anticipation of what she'd do next.

That was the rule tonight: no rules. No boundaries. We'd do whatever we wanted to each other, limits weren't considered.

Being fairly shorter than me, and especially being barefoot right now, she stopped her actions and looked up to me, through her eyelashes. It was as if she was questioning if that would be too far, and giving me the time to answer her. Giving or denying her permission to do what we'd agreed to.

"We had a deal, remember?" I said, my voice husky. "Do whatever you want to do. I'll scream Vegas if I want you to stop."

"So, Vegas is our safe word?"

"Not that I think we'll need to use it, but..." A crooked grin spread onto my face. "Sure."

And that was the last we spoke until tomorrow morning.

Harper and I let our bodies do the talking, we were both so responsive to the other's touch.

I ran my fingertips along her jawline, until I pulled her hair back so I'd have better access to her neck and I kissed it all over, sucked on the warm skin that smelled so much like her, I found myself sniffing on her scent. She whimpered under my touch.

Our lips met again and we kissed while walking towards the bed, Harper guiding me while I walked backwards. As soon as I felt the back of my knees hit the mattress, our lips parted and she pushed back onto the mattress. This was a side of Harper and I didn't know, and wouldn't even guess existed, but I wasn't complaining either. Hovering over me, her eyes were so powerful I felt my body acting on its own. I crawled backwards, using my elbows to support my weight until my head hit the pillow.

Harper got on top of the bed and joined me. She crawled on top of me and kissed my lips one more time before letting them go, and then so painfully slowly tracing kisses down my chest until she reached my waistline and her hands took over. She unbuttoned the jeans I had on and pulled them down my legs, leaving them by the ankles, when I discarded my shoes and the pants altogether.

She crawled back up again until she reached my waist and sat herself on top of my boxers, one leg on either side of my body. Straddling me. That view alone was enough to send me into overdrive. I let my hands travel up either sides of her thighs, as the need to feel her grew inside me. She moaned softly in response.

And then she moved herself on top of me. Sure, she did it so slowly you couldn't almost tell, but that only enticed me more. Aroused me to the point where I could feel myself growing under the fabric of the boxers, and in between her thighs.

Harper must have felt it too, because her movements became more rhythmic, more precise and sharp, more intense. Fuck, she was fully humping me, and moaning more loudly as she did, and all I couldn't stop thinking about was losing the clothes between us - me losing my boxers, she losing the sweats and the underwear - and have her ride me, taking me in with this much passion and intensity, or even more.

I lost all my cool and sat up, my lips attacking hers while my hands traveled all over her torso. While never opening our eyes or letting go of each other's lips, I slid my hand inside her pants, and then slid it down her underwear. My index finger was quick to run down her slit, and feel how hot and wet she was.

She let go of my lips to bite her own, controlling the loud gasp she had lodged in her throat.

I removed my hand from inside her pants and took the wet finger to my mouth, and sucked on it, slowly, while looking at Harper, who, from the looks of it, seemed to be enjoying the show.

She then did something I didn't see coming. Harper was box full of surprises, who never ceased to amaze me.

She got up from where she was sitting - me - and removed her sweats and underwear rather quickly. She climbed back on the bed and tossed one leg on each side of my body but didn't sit just yet. Instead she remained on knees, almost as if she was restraining me with her own body, and, all while looking at me and driving me crazy, grabbed my hand with hers. She took it to her breasts and massaged them, and I let my fingertips run across her nipples. She ran my hand down her body until she took it to where she wanted my touch the most. She guided my fingers exactly where she felt like she wanted them, tracing down her wet slit, and then back up to meet the bundle of nerves that was begging to be touched.

Her body, her voice, she twitched and moved underneath my touch while moaning loudly against my ear.

Eventually she had let go of my hand because I felt both her hands around my neck, gently grabbing it and holding onto it for support while she allowed herself to come undone on my fingers.

I took the finger again to my mouth and sucked on it, licking it clean while she looked at me.

I felt like I was on a very painful edge, when I felt Harper's hands around me. She had pulled the boxers down, resting them just above my knees and, standing right on top of my designed area, she ran her fingers down my shaft a couple of times before wrapping them around it and running them up and down, up and down. Slowly at first and then faster.

I wanted to lose myself in her touch and let myself go right there. But no one had said Vegas just yet, and I didn't want to be done with her for tonight.

While trying very hard to manage my breathing, I reached for my wallet that lay on top of the bedside table and pulled out a condom and handed it to her. Harper stopped her movements and tore open the silver package. She rolled down the condom alongside my length and we stood very still for the following two minutes. In the dim lights of the hotel bedroom, we looked at each other's eyes, dark with lust. It was as if we were discussing if this was a good idea, if we were sure we wanted to cross this line. I did what I'd done before and I kissed her. She wrapped her arms around my neck as she kissed me back and once our lips parted, she aligned herself with my length and slid down me. Once inside her, I let out a loud grunt that seemed to spur her on, and she started riding me.

Harper Moore was sitting on top of me, riding me while breathlessly moaning and gasping, as she moved up and down my shaft. I couldn't believe my eyes. This felt like a fever dream.

I, too, felt like screaming. I could feel it building up inside me and I wanted to scream while coming inside her but I wasn't done.

Midway through one of her loudest moans, I grabbed her waist and rolled us over on the mattress, so that now I was on top of her. The movement caused us both to grunt, but once settled into the new position, we were back to where we were.

She opened her legs a bit wider, allowing my body to sink into hers while I pushed myself inside her. Again, I started slow. But then slow was becoming too painful and we were both becoming too impatient and slow became fast. The way our bodies responded to the change of rhythm was phenomenal.

I kept pushing in and pulling out quickly, until we were both restlessly screaming and close. We were so close. I could feel it by the way her walls tightened around me every time I tried to pull back. I grabbed her hands and, palm against palm, I intertwined our fingers and extended them, above her head, while I pushed inside her harder than I'd done before, and my lips crashed onto hers just as hard. We came. We came undone and let out a mixture of a moan and a scream into each other's mouth, mid kiss.

The attraction was always there, since the very beginning of our story. That is an undeniable fact. We just had never acted on it, we were never bold enough to do so. But tonight... Tonight was different. We acted on it and were left to see where it takes us.

Where that is, I'm not sure, but one thing that I'm certain of is that things between us will never be the same. No matter how hard we tried to or how many times we told ourselves that.

What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas - that's the saying. But after tonight, I don't think we can do that. I don't think either of us can leave what just happened between us behind, and move on with our lives.

* * *

author's note

ahhh it just got hot in here! 🔥 i had this chapter written since i started this book! 

question: have you ever been to vegas?

you know the drill - vote, comment and follow for more <3

xoxo, mars