My lips twitched.
“Got a job there. My family is there.”
“Your family is in Texas,” Asher countered. “Your one brother lives there.”
Tobias grunted. “My sister was there.”
That quieted them down quickly, and I felt the pain roll through Tobias at the memory before he shut the line of thought down.
“You could’ve at least opened it,” Tobias said, pointing the beer at Amos.
Amos shrugged. “Know how you are about people opening your drinks.”
My brows furrowed.
“Why…”
My voice trailed off as, instead of Tobias’ arm around my belly holding me up out of the water, he thrust his thick thigh between my legs and held me up that way.
I gasped as I was lifted even further out of the water, and my pussy came to a stop directly over that muscled thigh.
My clit rasped against my suit with the movement, and I had to control the urge to grind myself down on him.
Tobias got the beer opened and set the lid on the side of the pool before dropping his leg and catching me back around the waist.
“There was this one time when we were in the academy when some girl brought him a beer, but opened it and spit in it.” Amos gagged, while I struggled to get control of my body that was still tingling. “We caught her doing it, but apparently, she was mad that ol’ lover boy over here wouldn’t do a repeat performance.”
There was nothing like a cold dose of reality to douse the ardor that was lighting a fire in my body.
Of course, I really should be unsurprised to know that Tobias was a one-time kind of man. Or maybe had been in his previous life before me.
He was attractive, fairly young and was a healthy man who probably liked sex just like every other man on the planet.
“From then on, he refused to drink from bottles that had been opened unless he did it himself.”
My brows rose at that, but he shrugged like it was completely normal.
“Well then,” I said. “I’ll be sure not to take the lids off of your beers anymore.”
“Anymore?” Amos and Asher said at the same time.
I shrugged. “I’ve been doing it for him for a while. We’re good friends.”
Amos looked between me and Tobias before saying, “Right.”
Why did I get the feeling that he didn’t believe me?
***
Five hours later, Tobias and I found ourselves on the top deck once again, looking for a seat.
“We should’ve come earlier,” I mumbled as I looked around the deck.
It was packed.
So packed, in fact, that there wasn’t a single pool lounger available anywhere on the entire deck.
Tobias hummed and looked around, his eyes scanning the area like a trained professional.
Me, I didn’t see the same thing he saw.
I knew that without a fact.
Because each place I suggested sitting, he said no to. Either because he didn’t like the look of the person we’d be seated next to, or it wasn’t a good place to sit.
I didn’t ask him why, but I was damn curious to know what he was seeing that I wasn’t.
“I only see two seats,” he murmured. “They’re all the way at the top, and in the back. See them?”
I looked at where he was gesturing with his finger, and I nodded. “There aren’t any lights up there. How the hell did you see that?”
He shrugged and started up there. I walked much more slowly in the darkness that was only lit up by the large TV screen.
Bypassing the people sitting on the stairs, I hurried behind Tobias as fast as I could with the boat rocking underneath my feet.
When he came to the spot where there were two seats, he dropped down to his knee on the first one, and then froze.
“Gonna have to share one, honey,” Tobias said, standing right back up.
“Why?” I questioned.
He looked over at the couple on the other side of him, and shook his head.
“Best guess?” he asked. “I think this one fell asleep and spilled his beer. It’s soaked.”
My belly started to tighten.
Chapter 8
Do you ever want to go up to someone and flip them off, then slap their face? No, just me?
-Text from Finley to Tobias
Tobias
There are three things that I could look back on and see were the tipping points for Audrey.
One, she was sitting practically on top of me in the middle of the crowd. The crowd somehow made her bold when otherwise she would’ve been silent.
Two, it was cold. Meaning I’d gone and gotten two blankets—having to sell my soul to the devil, or better known as the deck hand, to get them—and six towels.
Three, we were both tipsy.
Me more so than her. She’d stopped after only one beer, and by the time we were three hours into the Super Bowl, I was well on my way to a good buzz after my sixth bottle of beer.
The deck hands were amazing. They were there, never letting my beer bucket run empty. They were passing out popcorn and offering to bring cookies. Literally, if there was one thing I’d recommend to anybody that loves football, it was to go on a cruise while it was showing. That way you are waited on hand and foot, and you don’t have to move from your spot.
Which I was already reluctant to do seeing as there was a warm woman in between my thighs, leaning her head against my chest.
My balls were slightly squished due to the position, but there wasn’t a single thing I would change about how we’d spent the last couple of hours.
“I think they’re going to win,” Audrey declared.
I snorted.
“They’re down by three touchdowns, darlin’,” I said. “There’s no way they’re going to win.”
Her smile was sweet and filled with menace all at the same time. “I like rooting for the underdogs.”
“The underdogs are not the Patriots,” I informed her. “The underdogs are the other team. The Patriots won last year’s Super Bowl. Trust me, they’re not a crowd favorite.”
Which she’d heard all night. Seemed like the entire boat were not Patriots fans. Whenever the other team scored, the whole boat would cheer, me included.
But as I watched, the game started to take a downhill turn. One second Atlanta was winning, and the next…they weren’t.
“How…” I shook my head. “How?”
The confusion must’ve been evident in my voice, because she laughed, her head thrown back, and she wiggled all at once.
And right then and there, I knew that I loved this woman.
I’d almost said it earlier in the pool, but I hadn’t actually allowed myself to realize the extent of my feelings. She was starting to mean the world to me, and I couldn’t seem care.
I didn’t care that I loved this woman.
And let me explain before my words get taken out of context.
I’d made a promise to myself, after my sisters had died, that I would never love anyone again. Love equaled heartache, and I didn’t have the time, nor the inclination, for that.