And what about you? I want to ask. Does Lauren need to relax too?
My hand has a will of its own, and I find myself reaching out to cup her shoulder. Not in a sexual way, but more to comfort. The heat of her skin pours into mine, and my thumb strokes the soft flesh. “Christina’s always been a friend to me, so it’s a no-brainer. It’s good to be able to make plans with you, though. I missed that when I was away.”
“Me too,” she admits, and some of the stiffness in her body eases. We’re moving back into that comfortable friend zone. God help me, I both love and hate it. But I push my disappointment away, because right now, she needs to find her footing.
As I try to find a way to broach the subject of Wednesday night, Christina comes back, hands loaded down with shots. I reach over to help take a couple. We distribute them, and I notice Dave’s already caressing Patricia’s hip as he tugs her to his side. Dude works fast.
We swallow the shots down, and the music in the background changes to an upbeat dance song with a thudding bass. All three girls start shaking their asses and cluster in a circle the way girls do when they’re buzzed and dancing. Dave sidles over to me, unable to stop staring at Patricia’s ass.
“Patricia’s fucking hot,” he says, and I can hear the raw appreciation pouring from his voice over her hotness. It makes me laugh in response. “She told me if I beat her in pool best two out of three, she’d come home with me tonight. She won the first game, though—gonna make me work for it, I can see. Apparently she’s some kind of amateur pool shark.” He grins. “Totally worth it.”
A pool bet. I wonder if that would work with Lauren. Not to bribe her into something sexual, though fuck, I would love that, but to get her focused on something outside of her awkwardness and just…relax. As chicken as she is sometimes, she also has this strange competitive streak. Any time I challenged her to race me on the way to school, she ran balls out, giving it everything she had.
My brain stalls when I see Lauren run her hands through her hair, shimmying her hips, eyes closed, lips parted. So sexy. My cock stirs at the sight of her beauty, her sheer sensuality. God, I want her with a strength that almost scares me. I can’t stop thinking about her grinding against me on Wednesday, her pussy pressing toward my hungry mouth, my fingers stroking her channel…
I blink and pull myself out of that dangerous line of thought. Christina, beer in hand, is looking at me, and her cheeks burst into a delicate pink blush as she cocks a brow in my direction. Shit, totally busted staring. I laugh and shrug to play off the intensity of my attention toward their group, and I see her mouth twitch. Then she turns her focus back to dancing, wiggling her hips and shaking her boobs.
Christina downs that beer in record time and dumps the empty on a nearby table. Her glazed eyes and increasingly swaying movements make me concerned, combined with the awkward looks she keeps throwing my way as they dance. Is she unhappy about me having feelings for Lauren and uncomfortable with me now? Her email correspondence when I was overseas was always light and brief, but it was nice hearing from her time to time and having the reminders of home. We never talked about anything serious, keeping the conversation to trivialities. Perhaps she doesn’t think I’m right for her sister? Should I be making a better effort for her to get to know me? I don’t know what to think, and I’m confused.
Dancing ends, and we resume our grouping, with casual conversation about nothing in particular. Lauren stands by me; we watch in silence as Dave and Patricia battle it out on the pool table for a while. They’re tied and playing their last game now.
“You and I are next,” I tell her quietly. Her sweet perfume wafts to me, and it’s so hard to not close my eyes and lean toward her to breathe her in.
She gives a low chuckle. I’m glad to see she’s not as rigid as she was earlier. Either the liquor is easing things up, or she’s growing more comfortable with me. Come to think of it, she’s only done those two shots tonight—she hasn’t even finished her first beer, and she doesn’t seem drunk. Hope blooms in my chest.
“I’ve been practicing, you know,” Lauren says, her tone cocky. “Get ready to be schooled in the art of pool.”
“I look forward to it,” I murmur. I shift just a touch so my arm brushes hers, to see what her reaction is.
She gives very little away, not moving her body, but I hear her breath hitch a fraction, and her lips press together.
Victorious pleasure surges in me. Lauren’s fucking aware of me sexually and she’s unable to hide her own response. Not all the way, anyway.