Skyler drifted to one of the stools around the cedar work island and flopped down next to Lacey. She was kind of surprised that all three of them were even in the same room. She’d shared the old Victorian house with Lacey and May for four years, but their hectic schedules didn’t usually align to allow them to spend much time together. Still, no matter how busy they all were, the two women were Skyler’s closest friends.
And they always gave her damn good advice.
“I made out with a total stranger at the club,” she confessed.
Two jaws hit the kitchen floor.
“You’re shitting me.” Lacey started to laugh. “You had an anonymous hookup? That’s so not your style.”
“I know.” She wrapped her fingers around her mug. “It just sort of…happened. Somehow.”
“Uh-huh. You just opened your mouth and somehow a dude’s tongue slipped inside it,” May teased.
She offered a sheepish grin. “Fine, there was more to it than that. I went outside for some air—Mick was acting like a total ass, by the way. I was dying to get away from him.”
“I told you not to go out with him,” Lacey grumbled. “Didn’t you learn anything from my experience in freshman year? The asshole forgot he asked me out on the same night he asked someone else, and when the other chick and I showed up at the restaurant at the same time, he tried to convince us to have a threesome!”
“Seriously, why did you even agree to go on a date with that jerk?” May sighed.
Because he asked.
Skyler bit back the words, not wanting to admit just how dismal her love life had become. School and work kept her so busy she didn’t have time to meet many men, and all the ones who did hit on her? No thank you. The guys in her psychology classes just tried to “analyze” her, and the male customers who flirted with her at the restaurant were usually creeps.
Sad as it was, Mick the Dick was the first viable candidate she’d come across in months. When they’d bumped into each other at the university library and he’d asked her out, the thought of actually leaving the house had eclipsed her memories of Mick’s douche bag college days. She’d wanted so badly to crawl out of the work-and-school rut and have some fun.
No, it was more than that, she realized. She’d wanted a change. She’d wanted new and exciting instead of old and boring. Mick might have been a jerk in college, but he’d also been impulsive and larger than life. A part of her had hoped that maybe those traits would rub off on her.
And boy, had they. She’d all but thrown herself at a complete stranger—it didn’t get more impulsive than that.
“I was hoping Mick might have grown up since then,” she answered. “But you were right. He’s still the same cocky, self-absorbed jerk.”
“And your mystery man?” May prompted, her blue eyes twinkling. “Was he, um, cocky?”
Skyler’s thighs clenched as the memory of last night floated through her head. God. She’d almost melted into a puddle of mindless need when Gage had started grinding his rock-hard erection into her.
“He was…intense,” she admitted. “One minute we were talking in the alley—I don’t even remember what about—and the next we were up against the wall pawing at each other.”
Her roommates exchanged wide grins. “About time,” Lacey declared. “I keep telling you, celibacy isn’t healthy.”
“I’m not celibate. It’s just been a while since I met anyone I wanted to sleep with.”
May frowned. “Why didn’t you sleep with Mystery Man?”
Annoyance rose in her throat. “Because he said no! He stopped it before things got too hot.”
After a long pause, both women were laughing again.
“So he was perfectly cool with playing tonsil hockey in an alley but then refused to take it further?” May said.
“Pretty much.”
May looked even more bewildered. “But you, you, Skyler Thompson, wanted it to go further?”
Her friends were right. Casual hookups weren’t her style—hell, she didn’t even put out on the first date—and yet she couldn’t muster up a single regret about last night.
Gage Holt… Oh boy, everything about him turned her on. His smoldering gray eyes. That ruggedly handsome face. The dark stubble dotting his strong jaw. And his body…holy moly. He’d towered over her, every inch of him deliciously hard and rippled. Broad shoulders, muscular chest, long legs.
But she’d been attracted to more than his looks. It was also his…presence. When he’d trapped her against the wall with his massive body, the most incredible thrill had shot through her. She’d never been dominated like that before, and it embarrassed her to admit just how badly she’d liked it.
“I know, it’s totally unlike me,” she confessed.
Lacey snickered. “Big time.”
“But it was so…exciting.” She sighed. “These past couple months I started noticing how boring my life has become, and I just wanted to try something different, step out of my comfort zone, you know? And then my stranger came along and he was so…God, he was…” She couldn’t even come up with any more adjectives to describe how incredible the man was. “Honestly, in that moment? I would have gotten naked in a heartbeat. I would have done anything that man wanted.” The confession heated her cheeks, and she had to avert her eyes.