We’re sharing life stories. His is considerably longer than mine.
I squint at him. “What happened?”
“I left the navy to join my father’s company.”
I frown, because that sounds…not fun. He gives me a bland look which just makes me wanna be sarcastic. Not my finest personality trait. I roll my eyes. “And now you’re a bodyguard. That’s a logical chain of events.”
“It didn’t work out. Although neither did being a bodyguard, so the common denominator there is me.”
“But you liked the navy. And it sounds like the navy liked you.”
“Yeah.”
I don’t ask for more than that. It’s none of my business. But maybe we’re not so different, Scott and me. I decide to share a little secret with him. Tequila makes me brave. “I’ve got one more semester left. Then I’m running away. I know Cole could find me anywhere, so like, not literally running away, but I’m done with my family. I want to go live somewhere they don’t have a presence.”
He gives me a long, perusing look. Like he’s trying to figure out if I’m serious or if this is the fantasy of a college co-ed. “Where?”
I haven’t figured that part out yet. “I don’t know. Maybe London. Paris. Sydney, Australia sounds great.”
He laughs. “You know other countries have rules about who can just move there, right?”
“You don’t think the Queen of England wants me in her backyard? I’m not my sister. I’m not likely to blow a prince and leak the video.”
“You better not.” His jealousy is cute. Always nice to be wanted. But in this hypothetical-but-very-real fantasy of mine, I’m running away from Scott, too. I shift uncomfortably. “Ali,” he growls, and I wave him off.
“Let’s not talk about who I’m going to give future blow jobs to, okay?”
“Not okay.” He tips me onto my back and crawls over me, tangling his hands in my hair as he crushes his mouth to mine. We make out like kids on his very nice rug for a few minutes, then I push him off me.
“I want another shot.”
“Maybe we’ve had enough.”
I give him a look. “Really?”
He snorts and pours me another shot. “Your funeral.”
I’m warm and fuzzy, but I’m fine. I slam it back, then lick my lips and scoot back until I’m leaning against his couch. “Where would you go, if you could live anywhere in the world?”
“French Polynesia,” he says without hesitation. “Most beautiful place on earth.”
I nod. I’ve been to Tahiti once. “Nice.”
“You don’t agree.”
I shrug. “Hard to take over the world from the middle of nowhere.”
“That’s my girl.” There’s legit pride in his voice as he says it, but this conversation just reveals the true divide between us. I want big cosmopolitan city, and a life of important responsibility. He wants…bikinis and no drama.
I fall silent, playing with a lime wedge.
“Let’s not talk about you leaving. Or me…escaping to an island. That’s just talk, you know.”
“Okay.” I don’t want to talk about it, either. I meant to tell him that to share that I get how family can be f*ck
ed up, and it came out all wrong. Like I’ll be flippant when what we have ends, and I won’t.
I’ll always remember Scott.
Always…
My stomach clenches hard at the thought of taking another man like I’ve taken Scott. It’s unfathomable, really, but I thought losing my virginity would be this crazy thing, and it had turned out to be wonderful.
Maybe I’ll be celibate once we part ways. I’ve certainly got enough fantasy fodder.
“Hey, smarty pants, stop that.” I look up at him and he’s holding out another shot. “One more, and then we take this party into my bedroom.”
“Not right here?”
He grins. “I’ve got a nice big headboard. I want you to hold on to it while you ride my face.”
Oh. My skin bursts into flames and I take the shot. “All right, then.”
—twenty—
Scott
“I want to take you away for the weekend,” I tell Ali, rolling onto my back. She slides against me, one of her thighs wrapping over mine. That’s all it takes. One hot press of her naked body against mine and my cock is bouncing back to attention. She laughs quietly as he taps her leg, then sways up to my belly.
It’s not f*ck
ing funny. I want back inside her. I want to mark her. Make her wet and stretch her to her max, so she’s sore tomorrow and remembers who owns her p*ussy
.
It’s mine.
She’s mine.
God, she’s driving me out of my mind.
We need some time where I’m not working and she’s not studying. Where we can touch and kiss and f*ck
ing consume each other, non-stop. So we can quench this insane fire that burns so bright between us, I can’t even carry on a f*ck
ing conversation before rolling her onto her back and spreading her legs wide.
“I want to take you away for the weekend.”
“We could just f*ck