“Kyle thinks I only know how to make bad choices when it comes to men. He thinks I should stop dating guys who are gonna hurt me, that I should find someone nice – though I’m not exactly sure he thinks any guy is ‘nice.’ Meanwhile, nobody knows more about how much of a player Nate is than my brother. Mix the two, and you’ve got a recipe for disaster. Or at least a few broken limbs.”
“She’s right,” Lorelei adds, adding force to my point. “Her brother called me up once and shouted at me for a full minute before realizing he’d got my number mixed up with her ex-boyfriend’s. He’s an animal. Pretty cute, but an animal.”
I purse my lips at Lorelei.
“What?” Cassie shrugs. “So it’s okay for your brother to be best friends with him, but not for you to date him?” I nod.
“Pftt,” Stephanie grunts, “men and double-standards go together like me and margaritas.”
I giggle along with the others.
“But you feel something for him, don’t you?” Cassie says seriously.
I take a long sip of margarita and reach for one of the tortilla chips on the table, holding it up and studying it as if the answer might be scorched into it.
“I…uh…”
The idea feels like a solid block in my mind, impenetrable and heavy. Trying to articulate it feels like trying to speak a language I never learned. I look at each of them, three pairs of eyes trained on me keenly, waiting for an answer that’s not even necessary anymore.
Then my phone buzzes.
I go for it, immediately breaking the spell as the others continue to talk about something completely different. It’s a text from Nate.
I’m coming to eat your * right now. Get ready.
I shift slightly on the couch and try to hide my smile from the others as I reply.
I’m not at my apartment.
I pause before I press send, looking up at my friends. They wouldn’t really mind. Plus I’ll see them next week. And I do need a pick-me-up after that bad loan news…
I delete what I wrote and replace it with:
I’ll be home in twenty minutes.
In a few seconds he replies.
I’m gonna make you come harder than you ever have before.
I believe him.
“Girls,” I say reluctantly as I stand up, “I’m gonna have to go.”
“Aww, why?” Cassie says.
“Something’s just come up.”
Lorelei’s face breaks out in a smile.
“I’ll bet it has.”
Cassie and Steph look at her, then look at me with equally suspicious smiles.
“Seriously?”
“No, it’s not like that.”
“Yes it is,” Lorelei says. “Look at her! She’s blushing – she always does that when Nate’s coming over.”
“I do not!”
“Go,” Stephanie says. “I forgive you.”
“I don’t,” Lorelei pouts. “It’s not fair. Doesn’t he have a friend for me? Or a clone?”
“Ha-ha. I promise I’ll call you. Each of you. Bye ladies,” I say, shifting my bag onto my shoulder and hurrying out the door as they fall about laughing behind me.
I drive home like a maniac, my body already tingling, my panties already wet, my blood already thumping. When I get inside the apartment I take off my jacket, brush my teeth, and use every ounce of mental energy trying not to think about Nate’s hard body pinning me down and fucking me. Every second the agony of waiting for him builds up, filling my body with a sensation of anticipation that’s ready to burst the second I hear the doorbell.
After a couple of long, slow breaths, I go to the hallway, put my hand on the doorknob, and swing it open.
Nate looks up at me, a small smile rising on the corner of his lips – in that moment, he’s fucking perfect. But it’s only a moment, because within seconds he’s slammed the door shut behind him, carried me down the hall, and thrown me down onto the bed in my room.
We tear at each other’s clothes like animals in heat, mad with lust. I tear his shirt. He tosses my skirt. His tongue on my breast. My teeth on his bicep. I claw and clasp at his broad back like I’m slipping into an abyss, while he gorges on my neck like a beast. I’m already moaning by the time I feel his stubble move down my abdomen, already enraptured by the prospect of his tongue going lower, lower. Tracing its slow, thrilling route across my navel, below my waist…I moan and cry out, so loud that I almost miss the doorbell.
Nate pulls upright like an alert wildcat, and I open my eyes to see the surprise on his face.
“Lorelei?” he asks in a low whisper.
After a few seconds to stop the dizzying feelings in my mind, I shake my head.
“No. She’ll be with the girls for at least a few more hours.”
The doorbell goes again. Nate’s eyes widen.
“Hold on,” I say, grasping at a sheet and wrapping it around me as I head for the door.
The bell rings a third time just as I peer through the peephole.
Fuck.
It’s Kyle.
14
Nate
I sit on the edge of the bed, naked, out-of-breath, and with an erection you could hang a full luggage bag on. Whoever is at the door, I hope they don’t intend to stay.
Jessie comes quickly back into the room like she’s just seen a ghost, and it asked her to give it a kiss.
“Who is it?” I ask, as she immediately starts grabbing at the tossed clothes and getting dressed in a hurry.