Chapter 7
Brynne
Despite being up until well past four in the morning, I’ve never felt so refreshed. It’s only eight now, and I’m wearing one of his t-shirts while he stands over the espresso machine. I’m behind him with my arms wrapped around his bare torso. He’s practically half a foot taller than me, so I get on my tippy toes and kiss the patch of freckles on his shoulder.
“I can go home, shower, and change,” I offer again.
I offered to do this an hour ago when we woke up, but instead of doing that, he grabbed a condom for the fourth time and put it on. He got on top of me, threw one of my legs over his shoulder, and slid into me. All thoughts of going home left my mind, and I closed my eyes while he fucked me to orgasm. I made zero effort to be quiet so as to not wake his friends. After a few more days, I’ll never see them again, so I let go of all inhibitions and acted like a slut.
“No. You look perfect in my shirt.”
“I’m surprised you own shirts,” I say with a laugh. “Several of them, from what I saw.
“I own dozens of them,” he confesses. “I’ll have to show you my collection when we return to reality.”
“You don’t even know where I live. We might be on opposite coasts.”
“There’s a thing called airplanes. Another thing called a car, but I’m going to bet we don’t live far. We both live on the East Coast.”
I tighten my arms around him and imagine what it would be like if we spent every weekend like this, but that’s not what this is. This is a temporary tryst, but he feels so good that I move my hands south and slide them inside his boxers. He’s hard.
He turns, cups my cheeks, and kisses me. The espresso machine whistles, and he leaves me long enough to pour two mugs.
I take a sip.
“Mmhmm,” I moan. “This is the best cappuccino I’ve ever had.”
“Best cappuccino and sex of your life. My ego can’t take any more of this.” He puts his mug down and does the same with mine. He cups my face again and gently kisses my lips, chin, and neck. He then lifts me like I’m weightless, and when I wrap my legs around him, his hand lands on my bare ass.
“Tonight, I’m going to bite that,” he says against my mouth, right before he kisses me deeply.
“Tonight?” I ask, breathless from the kiss.
“Mmhmm. I want to spend every moment with you while we’re here.”
“But my friends,” I say. “I’m not abandoning them.”
“You don’t have to. We’ll all hang out together. We’ll have fun. I promise.” He smothers my words with another deep kiss before I tell him I’ll have to talk to Raven and Amira about that first. I don’t think they’ll object, but I won’t hijack our vacation just because I met a man. Knowing my friends, though, they’ll be all for me. I'll be having this tryst for the next couple of days.
We kiss until I hear footsteps, and Colin quickly puts me down and stands in front of me. His T-shirt is long, but I don’t have any panties on. Brody comes down with his dark hair a mess. He has big glasses and is in only a pair of basketball shorts. He stops short when he sees us.
“Good morning,” he says. “I could have used your help last night,” he says to Colin. “Malcolm and Ian almost came to blows. I’m about sick of those two. Malcolm should have stayed home if he has such a fucking problem.” He goes to the coffee maker and puts in a K-cup before shoving a mug underneath.
“What’s their problem?” I ask Colin.
“Malcolm told Ian not to touch his sister. Ian touched his sister, and he’s never gotten over it. They’ve been in a bunch of fistfights about it,” Colin says with a sigh. He pinches the bridge of his nose.
“Isn’t his sister an adult?” I ask.
“Sure is,” Brody says.
“Thank goodness I don’t have a brother then. That sounds stupid.” I grew up with a stepbrother, and we got along fine. He’s four years older, and I always considered him family. At least I did until my stepfather passed away and he kicked me out of the family home even though I was the one who took care of his dying father for the last eighteen months of his life. In all that time, Oliver only visited once, claiming he was too busy to spend more time with his dying father.
“He came because his sister expected him to,” Colin says. “She doesn’t know he’s still being an asshole to Ian.”
“And he’s doing his best to ruin it for everyone,” Brody mutters under his breath.
I pinch Colin’s butt, and he jolts in surprise before leaning back into me. I wrap my arms around him again.
“He couldn’t ruin this for me if he tried,” Colin says.
“Thirty minutes. Any more than that, I’m going to come looking for you,” he says against my lips.
From over his shoulder, I see Malcolm roll his eyes. I have my dress back on, and I’m prepared to do the walk of shame to my own house. I’ve been trying to leave for the past hour, but each time, he’ll kiss me, and I’ll forget about leaving.
The guys are now hosting a barbeque at their place, and I’m inviting Raven and Amira. Since we only planned on going to the beach today, I don’t think they’ll mind.
“I’ll take as long as I need,” I say.
“Fine, but I’m keeping your panties.” He taps his pocket.
I try to reach for them, but he moves away.
“Are you going to swim with her panties in your pocket?” Malcolm says. “What will Esme think?” he asks.
Colin tenses, and I pull away to look into his eyes.
“That’s my ex, and it’s been over for months,” he reassures me. “Shut the fuck up, Mal,” he warns. “Fucking asshole,” he mutters under his breath. Malcolm huffs and walks out of the kitchen. “I’ll walk you home,” he says.
After kissing me senseless, I watch as Colin makes the short walk back to his place. He goes through the gate to the pool. Malcolm’s sitting there looking at his phone when Colin stands over him. They have a heated exchange I can’t hear until Malcolm sticks his middle finger in Colin's face. Colin knocks it away and storms inside.
In desperate need of a hot shower, I turn and bump into Amira, who’s smiling like a Cheshire cat. Raven soon joins us.
“Spill, slut,” she says, and Amira giggles.
“How big is it?” Amira whispers.
“Massive,” I announce, and they both jump up and down in excitement. “Why are you both so excited? I ain’t sharing it with you.”
“She’s using slang, Mir,” Raven says. “He fucked the properness out of her,” and they both giggle again. “At least you’re getting it. I was married and months would go by without so much as a quickie.”
“That’s because he’s gay, Rave,” Amira says. “It’s nothing you did.”
“I feel stupid and used,” Raven says, but she shakes her head as if chasing the thought away. “No negativity in this space.” She takes a deep breath and slowly exhales. “Give us the dirty details. I have to live through somebody, and Lord knows Amira isn’t getting any.”
I sit at the table, and over the next thirty minutes, I tell them everything. From the time we left the club to going back to his place and getting naked.
Amira fans her face. “You guys didn’t fuck, Brynne. It sounds like he made love to you a bunch of times.”
“You used a condom each time, right?” Raven asks.
“Yes, Rave,” I say with an eye-roll. “I’m not some teenager. And Mir, it wasn’t no lovemaking. It was—”
“Love making,” Raven agrees. “And look at you code-switching. You know you’ll have to explain code-switching to him.”
“I won’t have to explain shit because this will be over in a few days, but whatever. I have to change. They invited us over for a barbeque. Is that cool?”
Raven grabs the hem of my dress and lifts it as I swat at her hand. She drops it, and both she and Amira cackle at my lack of panties.
“Slut,” they both say at once.