All The Wild Ones | Wildfire Series

Playing Games - Bonus

G R A Y S O N

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S O P H O M O R E Y E A R

a grayson pov of chapter thirty in
we fall like ashes

Julian wasn't drinking.

I couldn't remember another time in the last year and a half when there had been a party and Julian had passed on alcohol. This was the guy who won every drinking game that had ever been invented, who could shoot tequila like water, who had the tolerance of a goddamn ox. And tonight, he hadn't even touched his beer. Which was otherwise known as piss water if you talked to Beau.

Not that anyone was really talking to Beau tonight. He was understandably distracted with Collins, making himself busy by glaring at any guy within a five-foot radius of her, Bren and myself excluded. Had no idea Beau could glare until recently, but here we were.

Honestly, I was proud of the dude. Took him long enough, but he made it happen. After that night in the hot tub, I knew it was only a matter of time. Any passerby would have thought they were dating, and the silence on the way home the next morning when Collins insisted to the rest of us that she and Beau were just friends was....palpable.

Friends? Literally no one believed you, Collins.

But the denial period was over, and now everything was right in the world. Everything, including the gorgeous girl standing in my arms as I surveyed the crowd. Nessa leaned into me, dragging her body down my front in a little dance move that stirred parts of me that I'd been trying desperately to tame tonight.

"Adler," I groaned. "You can't do that right now."

"Why not?" she said, a coy smile spreading on her lips as she looked up at me. Whiskey fire was in her eyes, and it was a dangerous thing. Tonight felt like an important party to be at, with Julian on the verge of some kind of weird breakdown and with Beau's ongoing relationship declaration. Still, I wanted nothing more than to drag Nessa to my bedroom.

She was wearing a skirt. A really fucking short skirt, and I wanted to get beneath it.

It wasn't just the skirt, though.

She'd been nervous about tonight—her first time at a party since Jasper fucking Monroe released that video of them from high school. It took confidence to show up like she had earlier, standing tall and looking stunning to the core. She radiated all that beautiful Nessa energy, and I selfishly wanted to keep all of it.

"You know why," I muttered in her ear, scraping my teeth along the back of it.

"I'm just dancing," she protested before deliberately grinding her ass into my crotch. Next to us, Madie giggled, which honestly only served to urge Nessa on instead of convincing her to stop. Since there was clearly an audience.

But the audience in consideration was tipsy as fuck. Bren glanced over at us, raising his brow while tipping his beer bottle toward me. A smirk graced his lips before he whispered something in Madie's ear. And the way she bit down on her lip told me I should be thankful the music was too loud to catch whatever Bren said.

The two of them were so gone. Nessa had taken no more than a sip or two of her drink, but she buzzed regardless. It was her spirit more than anything. And Julian was still stone cold sober, sulking next to me.

Leaning toward him, I hissed in his ear. "By the time I get back, I hope the stick is out of your ass."

All Julian did was grunt in reply, his eyes tracking the movements of his sister and his sister's best friend, both here visiting this weekend. Gemma and Juniper were across the room as they chatted with our other roommates.