18. Chapter 18
I would let that man disrespect me.
My fingers fly across the keyboard, but my brain is only halfway engaged. The rest of it is reserved for the man who is probably fast asleep in cottage five. I wish he was still here.
Rule one, Juli, I scold myself. You both agreed on it.
I’m halfway through my chapter when the ringing of my phone startles me. Picking it up, I see it’s a FaceTime from Holly.
“Hey, you’re up late,” I announce when I answer. My sister-in-law is a game warden, so she generally gets up early in the mornings.
“Yeah, Aiden woke up and decided he was hung-y,” she tells me, and I laugh at the cuteness of my nephew.
“Did you feed the little angel?”
“Your brother gave him a little snack. They’re both back asleep now, but I—I couldn’t sleep.” A tear slips down her brown cheek, and I’m instantly alarmed. Holly never cries.
“What’s wrong. Are you sick?”
She shakes her head and swipes at the tear, which is promptly replaced by another. “No, I had to rescue a turtle today. He got caught in a trotline on the river.”
Awww, my poor friend. “Was he… Did he make it?” I ask cautiously.
Holly rolls her lips in and out a few times, her head bobbing in the affirmative. “Yeah, he’s okay. I just…” She looks away from me, blinking up at the corner of the room.
Then it hit me. Turtles . “It made you think of Evie,” I surmise in a gentle tone, and her face crumples .
“Y-yes. He was a Sabine map turtle, not a sea turtle like Evie loved. But I still couldn’t stop thinking of her the entire time I was disentangling him.”
“Oh, Holls. I’m so sorry. I’ve been thinking of her too.”
She looks back at me, her head tilted to the side. “Because you’re in a tropical location? Like where she went missing?”
My own tear escapes my eyelid and tracks down my face.
“Yeah, Evie’s always on my mind when I think of the ocean.
She loves the beach so much.” Loves , present tense.
Not loved , past tense. Because even after seventeen years, I can’t bear to think of my full-of-life friend not being out there. Somewhere.
Holly scrubs at her face. “What if I hadn’t gone straight to bed that night?
She said she was going to the ice machine.
I should have walked with her. I didn’t hear a struggle or anything.
Why didn’t I hear anything, Jules? How could she just disappear off the face of the motherfucking earth?
” She was getting worked up, a mixture of grief and anger turning her skin ruddy.
My sister-in-law and I first met in college, and a group of six of us went on a Spring Break trip together, including Evie Bouvier. The hotel was unable to place all our rooms together, so while I was on the third floor, Evie and Holly’s rooms were on the seventh.
“Holly,” I say soothingly, “don’t start spinning. It’s not good for the baby.”
She closes her eyes and nods, taking several deep breaths to calm herself. “You’re right,” she finally says, lifting her eyelids. Her hazel irises shine with the guilt I know she always carries with her since she was the last person to ever see our friend alive.
“It’s not your fault,” I say for about the millionth time since the disappearance. “When we’re done talking, I want you to go get in bed and cuddle up with Bubba. And if you’re not feeling better tomorrow, maybe you should call your therapist.”
Holly sighs. “Okay. I’m sorry. I don’t know why I’m like this. ”
My heart pinches in sympathy but I attempt to lighten the mood. “I hate to pull the pregnancy hormone card, but it does heighten your emotions. Remember the McDonald’s ice cream incident when you were pregnant with Aiden?”
A scowl falls over her face, her mood instantly shifting.
“Seriously though, is it too fucking much to ask to get a caramel sundae at midnight on a Thursday? It’s absolutely ridiculous that their ice cream machine is always down.
Is there some kind of ice cream machine repairman shortage that I’m unaware of? ”
“It’s completely absurd,” I agree, stifling a laugh, but she notices anyway.
“Don’t laugh at me, bitch. I’m fragile.”
I can’t hold back anymore and snort with laughter. “Oh yes. You’re a delicate flower, Holls.”
“Distract me,” she demands with a wave of her hand. “Tell me what’s going on with you and Sir Forearms.”
Sinking back into my chair, I rake my teeth over my bottom lip. “Girl, he’s so fucking hot. I’ve had more sex in the past few days than I’ve had in the past year.”
“But is it good sex?” she asks with an arch of her dark eyebrows.
“Phe-nom-en-al,” I sound out, syllable by syllable. “I would let that man disrespect me in any way he wanted to. Like, I’d give up every ounce of dignity I possess for five seconds of his rude-ass mouth.”
“Ohh, I love when they get rude,” Holly groans. “Your brother does this one thing where—”
“Ah, ah,” I scold, holding up both hands and scrunching my nose. “Let me just stop the kinky train before you pull it into the station, sis.”
She lets out one of her hearty laughs. “Right. You don’t like it when I talk about your brother banging me like a barn door in a hurricane.”
“And yet you continue to do so,” I reply archly, tapping my fingertips against my lips before continuing.
“Anyway, he’s got this filthy mouth while we’re engaged in our…
activities. But when we’re done, he’s a total dreamboat.
And not just the regular aftercare. He gets really sweet and praises me. ”
Holly’s hand covers her heart. “Aww, I love that for you, honey. Now that we have a kid, we’re usually exhausted by the time we’re finished, so I’m happy to get a smack on the ass and a good job, babe. ”
I giggle because that sounds exactly like something my gruff brother would do. Holly covers a yawn with her palm, and I bring my face closer to the screen. “Why don’t you go get some husband cuddles and try to fall back asleep.”
Her eyelids droop a little, and she nods. “Sounds good. Thank you for talking me through my breakdown. You’re one of the only people who understands how it feels to have been there.”
“I know, sweetie. And you can call me any time.” I chew the inside of my cheek. “You know, one good thing came from Evie’s disappearance.”
Holly tilts her head in thought before a soft smile crosses her rosy lips. “I wouldn’t have met your brother if he hadn’t driven you to that TV interview we did after she went missing.”
“Yeah,” I say quietly. “And you know Evie would have totally taken credit for you two meeting and getting married.”
Holly’s smile turns sadly nostalgic. “She would be the best honorary aunt in the world.” She yawns again.
“Go,” I order. “Husband snuggles. Now.”
“Maybe I can wake him up and get him to wear me out to the point of exhaustion,” she suggests with an eyebrow wiggle.
“Go for it. Just don’t tell me the deets.”
“You loved hearing about my exploits when we were in college,” she argues with a teasing frown.
“That’s before your exploits included my freaking brother ,” I point out.
“He is a freak,” she adds cheekily, and I groan.
“Go away, brother fucker.”
“Bye, Sir Forearms fucker. ”
Once we disconnect, I stare at the blank screen of my phone, a sense of envy settling on my shoulders. Holly is probably curled up with her husband right now, taking comfort in not being alone.
And I’m here. By myself in my cottage.
Before I can think about it, my thumbs tap out a message to Reno.
Juliette: I miss you.
I immediately want to take it back. Shit! Stupid, stupid, stupid. That sounded so needy. My brain scrambles to remember how to unsend a message. My younger brother, Xander, showed me once. He’s the tech-y one in the family.
My thumb presses against the dumbass message I’d just sent, and a menu pops up. I’m about to hit the Undo Send option when a knock sounds on the back door a few feet away. My head whips around.
“Who the hell?” I murmur, but then I know. Or is that hope?
Setting down my phone, I cross to the sliding door and pull back the vertical blinds to reveal one very large hockey player standing on my back porch. In his goddamn underwear.
Disengaging the safety bar and lock, I yank the door to the side. “Reno…”
But he doesn’t give me time to say much more than that because he barges in like a bull, lifting me from the floor with his big arms before charging toward the bed.
“Fuck rule one,” he snaps before tackling me to the soft mattress.
Happiness fills my soul as Reno begins to rip my pajamas from my body. Oh hell yes.
Fuck rule one, indeed.
Turns out the big bull is a cuddler. I awake at dawn on Saturday morning to the feel of a hard body plastered to my back, a tree trunk of a thigh draped over my hip, and a hand holding my left boob hostage.
At some point in the night—between rounds three and four, I think—Reno got up and closed the door, which he unceremoniously left open when he did the whole hot tackling thing. But he forgot to close the blinds, so the first gossamer strands of sunrise are now slinking into the dark room.
I wiggle a little, and that movement is met with a disapproving grunt from the man behind me. His arm bands more tightly around my middle.
“I have to go to the bathroom,” I protest, and he grunts again but releases me.
As soon as I do my business and return, Reno yanks me back onto the bed, facing him this time, and tucks my head beneath his chin. “Five more minutes and then I have to do my workout.”
“Stupid workouts,” I murmur, quite content with my face buried in his neck. He smells like sex. Like, an ungodly amount of sex.
When I wake again to the sound of heavy breathing, I peer over the edge of the bed.
Reno is a shirtless, sweaty mess, obviously just having come from a run, and he’s on the floor banging out approximately five million push-ups.
His spine is ramrod straight, and the muscles of his arms and shoulders bunch with every movement.
Then he has the audacity to roll over and begin doing sit ups while I watch with rapt appreciation. When he’s done, he rolls back onto his shoulders and then shoves forward, landing on his feet like some kind of goddamn super-sized gymnast .
While I lie there with my mouth gaped open, he grabs a towel from the chair and rubs his head, leaving his hair a sexy-ass mess of damp raven locks. Then he turns around and notices me, flashing a half-cocked grin that hits me right in the vagina.
“Hey, babe.”
“If my vajajay didn’t need physical therapy from last night’s marathon of debauchery, I would be all over you right now,” I warn, lifting up on one elbow.
Reno chuckles and walks over to me, bending to place a soft kiss on the tit that just popped out to say hello. “Relax, dream girl. You have other holes.” Then he sucks my nipple into his dirty mouth, and oh my muffins, my pussy decides maybe she’s not so sore after all.
“Give me a minute to check my insurance co-pays, and maybe we can…”
He laughs around my boob before pulling off slowly in a long suck. “I’m kidding, Juliette. We can just hang out. We don’t have to fuck like rabbits every time we’re together.”
“I think your cock begs to differ,” I tell him when he straightens and I see the heavy rod suddenly standing at attention beneath those tight workout shorts of his.
And again with one of those adorable smiles… “Don’t pay him any attention. He has no self-control when he sees you.” He adjusts himself, and I try to figure out exactly how one is supposed to ignore something of that magnitude. “I’m going to take a quick shower, and then we can grab breakfast.”
“I don’t usually eat breakfast,” I tell him, earning me a scowl.
“You have to eat something,” Reno protests. “Even just some fruit or a protein bar.”
“I’ll eat a good lunch.”
He strokes a hand through my messy hair. “I’ll order you some fruit after my shower. ”
Stubborn-ass man.
“Do you need help with this in the shower?” I inquire sweetly, palming the bulge in his shorts.
Reno cocks an eyebrow. “I wouldn’t turn that down, but no sex ,” he says firmly.
We stuck to the no sex rule. Well, kind of. I gave him a hand job and let him come all over my stomach, and then he dropped to his knees to slowly, gently eat my pussy with a single finger inside me to stroke my G-spot.
And now we’re having some hammock time while I tap away on my computer. I don’t generally like anyone watching me while I write, but Reno has actually been quite helpful.
“I like the way you worded that,” he says about my last paragraph.
“There are so many things expected in a romance book, but I try to phrase them slightly differently or come up with something unique.” I chew on my bottom lip. “Like every single female character wears smokey eye makeup and red lips, but I want this character to be different.”
I feel Reno’s eyes on my face. “What’s that pink stuff you wear on your eyelids when we go to dinner?”
“Just a pink shimmer.”
He nods, still inspecting me. “Yeah, go with that. It’s pretty and soft.” Lifting my chin with one finger, he kisses my mouth. “And lips don’t have to be bright red to be sexy. That pink lip gloss you wear makes me have very unsavory thoughts.”
Good lord, this man…
“Unsavory. I like that word,” I tell him, going back to my writing before I jump him like a cat in heat.
When I finish the chapter, we read over it, and I nod. “I like it.”
“Me too,” he says, taking the laptop and placing it on the ground beside us. Then he removes my glasses from my face and sets them on top. “Now make out with me until it’s time for lunch. Then we can hit the beach. ”
“Can we do the pool today instead? I’m feeling cocktails and a lounge chair.”
“Perfect,” he says. “Just like you.”