Chapter 7
SEVEN
LAUREN
Noah lays next to me, snoring lightly, and I stare at him full of complete and utter envy. How he can sleep so peacefully when there’s so much still unknown is completely and utterly wild to me.
Men.
Looking over at the clock on his nightstand, I sigh when I see the time stamp of 1:10 AM staring back at me.
I feel completely and utterly wired.
Getting up, I pad to the patio quietly, aiming directly for the pool. While I didn’t see Sean again tonight—him claiming some bullshit excuse that he didn’t feel well so his guests would leave—I highly doubt he would put his foot down at me swimming in his pool.
If he wanted me out that bad, he’d just kick me out.
The thought makes me pause as I shimmy out of my crop top and shorts. God, I hope he doesn’t hate me. Pushing the thought away and using my lingerie as my bathing suit, I jump in the water, submerging myself instantly.
Bad idea, my subconscious screams. I pop out of the water with a gasp, shivering instantly. I thought the pool would have kept some of its warmth from earlier that day, but apparently the pool’s heater isn’t on.
I jump and turn towards the patio door when I hear it slide open and a man cursing. Sean looks at me, bewilderment clear on his face. “What the fuck are you doing?”
I point out the obvious. “Swimming?”
He glares at me before stomping over to a thermostat near the sliding glass doors. “It’s fucking freezing. Are you trying to get sick?”
“I thought it would have been warm from earlier today,” I whine through chattering teeth.
He merely shakes his head at me, pressing buttons and grumbling under his breath. The sight makes me want to giggle, but I have the feeling that I’ll be scolded even more if I do.
He turns back towards me, walking my way, only to collapse against a patio chair. “The pool heater is now on overdrive. You should warm up soon.”
“Sorry…”
Sean lifts his head to look at me. “For?”
I think about it for a second before saying, “Yes.”
A chuckle leaves him and he goes back to laying flat, staring up at the sky. Deciding to join him, since he joined me, I turn to float on my back. I know without a doubt in my mind that my nipples are pebbled underneath my bra…but I just hope he keeps his eyes on the sky.
While I would have thought otherwise, the silence between us is nice. Comfortable.
Different.
It’s the laying still that makes me uneasy.
Moving my arms backwards, I glide through the water, keeping my eyes up. Though, the sound of the water splashing must snap him out of whatever trance we were in. “You swim?”
“Mhhhmm. It was my escape in high school and college. It’s the only way I got into college, actually.”
“What did you go to college for?”
“Marketing and advertisement.”
“What do you do now?”
I smile as I move to flip over and swim towards the edge of the pool where he’s sitting. “Are we playing the question game again, Sean?”
His gaze is heavy on me. “I tried looking for you, you know.”
The smile on my face drops with shock following it. “What? Why? Why didn’t you just call me?”
A look of pure confusion and sarcasm falls over him. “With what phone number? 1-800-find-your-hookup?”
I bark out a laugh. His lips turn up at the sound, his gaze dropping to my mouth, but he doesn’t comment. I sober up instantly. “I left my phone number on the key card holder the receptionist gave us. You really didn’t see it?”
Instantly, his face falls, and I know he’s telling the truth. “No. I…I was really upset there wasn’t a note or anything. Pretty much threw the key card at the receptionist before I left.”
I cringe.
I really hope that wasn’t Rory.
“I couldn’t find a piece of paper. Couldn’t even find a napkin. Was severely late for work—almost lost my job entirely that day, actually—and you were in a coma. Tried to do what I could.”
Sean wipes a heavy hand over his face tiredly, saying, “Fuck,” loudly.
I flinch back.
His voice is hoarse. “I’m sorry, just…frustrated. Looked for you for an entire year, you know. Kept thinking you’d come to the bar again.”
One of my eyebrows raise in question. “Would you go into the bar of a man you fucked at a glory-hole if he didn’t call you back when you did, indeed, leave a number?
I wasn’t going to stalk you, Sean.” My voice drops down into a whisper.
“For fuck’s sake, I already felt like a cheap whore when I woke up. ”
He sits up ramrod straight and grips the chair. My eyes immediately land on his tanned, tattooed arms. “You are not a whore.”
I break my gaze from his arms. “I’m literally eye-fucking you right now.”
“Yeah, and I have been the second you jumped in that damn pool. What does that make me?”
Fair point.
Hard to not look at someone so intensely when something so intimate was shared.
I shrug. “Point still stands. I was a hook-up at a glory-hole. Me trying to find you, especially after you didn’t call, would have landed me with a restraining order in a lot of books.”
“I thought it was the sharing scenario that scared you off. Since I told you that it would just be one-on-one that night.”
I tilt my head back and forth, dipping my hair back into the water. “I’m still here, aren’t I?”
He blinks in confusion. “What do you mean?”
“I mean, you told me that night, and Noah told me again this afternoon—and I’m still here, aren’t I?
” I smirk, and my eyes watch as he swallows roughly.
The poor man. “I’m a grown woman, Sean. If I didn’t want to be in either yours or Noah’s presence with the information presented, then I wouldn’t be here. ”
He stands then, and I hardly have a moment to blink before he’s right in front of me. “I want to kiss you so badly right now.”
It’s Noah’s voice that breaks us apart. My head snaps to the patio entrance where he stands, arms crossed and eyes hungry. “Do it, then,” he says.
Sean looks between the both of us. “If we do this, then that’s it. I’m not trying again.”
Noah raises an eyebrow. “I know. She does, too.”
Sean looks at me then. “You do?”
I nod. “I told him everything. Every single detail. And he told me both of yours in return.”
Noah speaks up again. “She’s our girl, romantically and sexually. She wants some time getting used to it, but she wants this. She wants us.”
Sean looks at me for confirmation.
I nod. “Just my Daddy and my boyfriend. Yours.”