Dani

“Can you just open the door?” Trevon asked through the phone. “I left my key to your place back at home.” I gnawed on the inside of my cheek and walked to my bedroom door, hand on the handle, heart thrashing against my ribcage. “Hello?” he said, a hint of annoyance in his voice.

“Hi… I… uh…” I pressed my ear to my cold door, listening to the light hum of the refrigerator in the kitchen. No talking. No shuffling. Maybe they weren’t here. “Give me a second.”

After peeking my head out and gazing down the empty hallway, I tiptoed to the kitchen. Shadows from the cabinets loomed over me in the darkness, but at least it wasn’t Eros’s shadow.

I stood on my toes and checked through the peephole. In the brightly lit hallway, Trevon had his hands stuffed in his pockets and his eyes shielded by the navy baseball cap I had given him for his birthday last year. But still I waited. I didn’t need this to be some sort of prank and have Eros appearing out of nowhere.

When Trevon looked straight at the peephole with the most heavenly brown eyes I had ever seen, I pulled open the door, wrapped my hand around his wrist, and yanked him inside.

“What the fu-” He stumbled forward.

I slammed the door. “Sorry,” I said, standing on my toes and kissing him.

“Is everything okay, babe?” He tilted his head to the side slightly, like he did when he was thinking, and eyed me. The bitter scent of beer sickened me. I licked my lips nervously, nodded my head, and pulled him into my room.

Another door Eros would have to get through to get to me.

Trevon tossed his hat onto my dresser. “You haven’t returned any of my calls or texts since yesterday morning.”

“I’ve just been busy with my psych internship and… um, stuff…” Like trying to hide from Eros. Maria had brought him over all day yesterday and even for breakfast this morning, and I couldn’t handle it anymore. If I saw him one more time, I was going to—

Trevon threw his shirt onto the end of my bed and crawled under the comforter, the light from the candle flickered against his brown and brawny abdomen. “I know when you’re lying.”

The wind whistled, blowing the curtains away from the window and brushing against the side of my bed. Outside, the city night was unusually quiet.

I parted my lips to speak, then closed them. What was I going to say? That an undeniably sexy man moved in next-door and he just so happened to have the hots for me. No. No way I’d do that to Trevon. He had known me since I was five, helped me through Mom’s death, was one of the only constant people in my life that I cherished. “I… I just haven’t been getting much sleep lately.”

It wasn’t a lie. For the past few nights, I’d been tossing and turning. Last night was the worst; my mind kept replaying the interaction I had with Eros. Over and over. The thought—his promise—wouldn’t leave me alone. And, it was getting too damn frustrating.

Light from my candle glimmered off of my black headboard. Trevon leaned against it, crossing one leg over the other. He grabbed my hand, pulling it away from my necklace. “If you keep doing that, you’re going to break it again.” He pulled me down next to him.

Like I had done nearly every night for the past five years, I curled into him, resting my head on his bare chest. He laced his fingers into my hair and scratched lightly. I sighed and drew my finger across the only tattoo he had on his body—a tabono symbol—that he got on his chest after winning his first college wrestling match. 

“So, when were you going to tell me you got new neighbors?”

“I, uh…” Don’t stutter, Dani. It’ll make you seem like you’re hiding something. “… didn’t think you’d care. They seem annoying.”

“You met them?”

“Just once. Maria brought them over,” I said, brushing my finger across my hand where Eros had kissed, the skin burning lightly. “How’d you know about them?”

“I met one of them out in the hall,” he said. God, if he met Eros… “Ian? Or Evan? Nah, that’s not it. It was Eros. Seems pretty chill.”

Oh, my Lord. I licked my lips and sat up, intertwining my fingers with his. “What did he say?”

“Nothing. I told him that you were my girlfriend though.” He trailed his hand alongside my forearm, sending goosebumps up it, and smiled. “Just so he won’t get the urge to hit on you.”

If he only knew that Eros had already made it perfectly clear that he wanted me.

Trevon brushed his lips against my cheek, toying with the ends of my shirt. “I wouldn’t be surprised if he still tried though, you’re hot as hell.”

I pushed him away playfully and blew out the candle. Okay, good, he didn’t know anything, and it would stay that way because nothing would happen between us. Nothing.

When Trevon wrapped an arm around my waist and his breath evened out, I listened to the soft sound of his snoring. I tried to fall asleep, but light was now blaring under my door. And, even with Trevon’s arms wrapped tightly around me and his breath fanning my neck, I felt unbelievably cold.

~~~

Lips brushed against my collarbone, setting it ablaze. “Oh, Dani,” Eros murmured against my skin. The room smelled of cinnamon and vanilla—a striking scent. His fingers grazed down the center of my chest and over my breast. “Your skin is so soft… tender….”

A breathy moan escaped my lips, and I sunk into my plush sheets. He dipped his fingers between my legs and gently rubbed my red lacy underwear. “… imagine what I could do to it…”

Moonlight filed through the sheer curtains, illuminating his sharp features. He slipped his fingers inside of me and smirked against my neck. I gripped his shoulders, digging my nails into him. “Eros,” I breathed, throwing my head back.

His lips—quickly, hungrily, brutally—traveled down my chest and stomach, up the insides of my thighs, hovered between my panties and teased me with their heat. In one swoop, he clenched my panties in his hand and ripped them off of me, leaving me bare.

He gazed up at me, eyes completely black. So big and bold, so absolutely terrifying yet so damn sexy.

“Is this what you want, Dani?” he mumbled against my aching core. Slowly, he drew his fingers down the insides of my thighs.

Images of him pressing his lips onto me, holding my legs apart until I was trembling around him, of pleasure pumping through my body flooded my mind.

He wrapped his hands around my thighs, pulling me closer to him, and pushed his lips against my clit. He slid his fingers into me and moved them in small torturous circles. I gripped his wrists, trying to pull him away. It already was too damn much to handle. He gripped my wrist with his other hand and pinned it to the side of my body, holding me in place. I clenched myself around him, my core tightening, and moaned. He slowed down his pace.

He gazed back up at me with those big black eyes. “Beg for it.”

My lips parted, but no words came out. The pressure. Oh, God, the pressure.

“Beg,” he demanded.

“Please.”

“More.”

“Please, Eros… please.”

His tongue moved faster, his fingers thrusting quickly. I dug my nails into the blanket underneath me and moaned out.

My mind was foggy. My body numb. Wave after wave of pleasure rolled through me. Eros sat back up, resting my legs on his shoulders. “I could do this all night,” he said. I widened my eyes, staring down my body at him, my senses finally returning. He smirked. “I told you that I would enact your fantasies, Dani. You just had to tell me that you wanted it.”