Out of Line (Out of Line #1)(11)
Author: Jen McLaughlin

I rolled my eyes. “But—”

I turned around and Marie was gone, already chatting up a guy I vaguely recognized. Great. Just freaking great. Now what? Everywhere I looked, people were already engrossed in conversations. I wasn’t the type of girl who just barged in and invaded other people’s conversations. Giving up on finding someone who wasn’t already busy, I scanned the room, looking for somewhere to sit. As I searched, I tilted my drink to my lips. It tasted sweet and a little bit like pink lemonade.

Whoever came up with this type of alcohol was brilliant.

Spying an empty spot by the door, I carefully made my way across the room in my heels and sat down on the step leading outside. I hadn’t left, but it gave me room to breathe. It was a win-win. No sooner had I sat down than a man was next to me, a beer in his hand and a sloppy grin on his face.

“Hey, there,” he said, his voice slurred. “Haven’t seen you around here before.”

How many drinks had he had? I got nervous around drunk people. They were too unpredictable. Dad had thrown a dinner party once and a man had gotten drunk and punched another guy for looking at his wife too long. He’d been perfectly fine, and even polite, before the drinking.

Though my urge to run was strong, I forced myself to take a sip of my drink. I’d been running away enough. It was time to stand still. “Yeah, I’m new here.”

“Freshman?”

“Yep.” I took another sip. The drink was delicious. “You?”

He scooted closer to me, pressing his body against mine. I could smell the alcohol on his breath, overwhelming and sickening. “I’m a junior.”

I stiffened. Though Finn had done the same thing earlier, his body pressed to mine hadn’t made me want to gag. It hadn’t made me feel like a thousand worms squiggled under my skin. I scooted away from him. “Nice.”

He reached out and played with my hair, leaning so close that his beer breath washed over me. “I like this color. Is it real?”

“Uh, yeah.” I pulled my hair free and slid into the corner of the banister. “What’s your major?”

“You are,” he said, following me.

That had to be the corniest line I had ever heard or read. And I’d read a heck of a lot of books. I couldn’t help it. I laughed. “Okay, that was funny.”

“It’s only the beginning.”

Without warning, his lips closed over mine. Instead of the electric whir I had felt when Finn kissed me, the itchy need to get closer to him…I couldn’t breathe. I tore free of this man’s smothering mouth, but he moved on to my neck without a second’s hesitation.

“Get off me.” Shoving at his shoulders, I stood up and took a calming breath. After setting my half empty bottle on the step, I said, “I have a boyfriend.”

“Oh. Why didn’t you tell me before you kissed me?” Beer Breath asked. He stumbled to his feet and adjusted his junk.

So freaking attractive.

“I didn’t—”

“Get lost,” a hard voice that I recognized said from the shadows. “You’ll go back to your stupid little party and find another drunk girl to hit on.”

“Says who?” Beer Breath asked, a cocky grin on his face.

“Says me,” Finn said, stepping out of the shadows. He flexed his fists and stepped closer to me. “Go ahead. Give me a reason to punch your f**king face in, and I’ll gladly oblige.”

Beer Breath paled and shuffled backward. “Dude. She kissed me.”

“No, I didn’t.”

“We wouldn’t expect you to know the difference, now would we?” Finn asked, his voice mocking. He was practically begging for a fight. And all because of what? Because some dude kissed me? Why did he even care? “You have five seconds to be gone.”

Beer Breath turned red. “You know what? Run off with your little boyfriend and don’t ever come back to this frat again.”

Beer Breath stormed off, leaving Finn and me alone on the porch. I pivoted and gave him what I hoped was an annoyed look. “You do realize I can handle a grabby-hands boy by myself, right? I dealt with you, after all.”

He stepped closer, towering over me. “Ginger, you have no idea how to deal with me.”

I stiffened. “I know that if I kissed you now, you wouldn’t push me away.”

“Of course I wouldn’t. Look at you.” His gaze dipped over my body, and when he met my eyes again his own were blazing and hot. “Any man would kiss you back.”

“You’d push me away after.”

He lifted a shoulder but said nothing.

He was so darn condescending and cocky. “Why are you at another frat party that I just happen to be at? Who are you? Why are you following me?”

Finn leaned against a palm tree and looked far too casual, but he reminded me of one of those lions on the Discovery Channel. He looked perfectly calm on the surface, but in a second he could be all deadly and lethal. “I’m here because I was taking a walk down the beach, and I saw you and that loser kissing. Then I saw you push him away. I wanted to make sure you were okay, but now I’m wishing I had bashed his head into the f**king wall before I let him go.”

My heart rose to my throat. “Why?”

“Because you should be kissing me,” he practically whispered. “Not some college boy who doesn’t know what he’s doing.”

He closed the distance between us. And as soon as his hands were on my hips, his mouth was on mine. The familiar sensations he’d awoken in me came to life, and I clung to him. His tongue entwined with mine, and he grabbed my waist, yanking me against him.

I lifted up on tiptoe, trying to get closer, and moaned softly. He needed to do that again. And more. This is how a kiss was supposed to feel. This is what it was supposed to do to me. I might be inexperienced, but even I knew what a good kiss felt like.

And. This. Was. It.

Chapter 6

As soon as my lips touched hers, I knew I was making one of the biggest f**king mistakes of my life. I shouldn’t have done that. I really shouldn’t have done that. Seeing her in that bastard’s arms had triggered something deep within me. Something had made me go crazy and come down on her like a barbarian or some shit like that. I’d needed to show her who she should really be kissing. That same primal urge had apparently taken away the common sense God had given me. This was strictly off limits. Forbidden.

Yet I couldn’t stop.

When she whimpered into my mouth and pressed even closer to me, pressing her soft stomach against my hard cock, I wanted so badly to forget all the reasons why I couldn’t kiss her. Forget all the reasons I couldn’t bring her back to my place and spend all night making her scream my name.