Chapter 28
It takes me about a half an hour to unpack my stuff and make a list of basic toiletries that I need. Mack offered to run out and grab them for me, and although I’d initially planned on going with him so I could be sure to pay, I hand him a list. I’m more exhausted than I realized.
I let Midnight out of his carrier and he streaks out of my room to who knows where. He’s an inside outside cat, and Mack says the guys will keep an eye out if he’s waiting on either side of the door.
I take the longest, most glorious shower I’ve ever experienced.
Thankfully, there are a couple of half-full shampoo and conditioner bottles in the shower--a really good brand--as well as a pretty-scented bar of soap.
I take Mack’s invitation to ‘go nuts’ to heart and stay in there until the room is steamed, even though I ran the exhaust fan the whole time.
I dry off in a towel that feels like it was spun from clouds and get dressed in my ratty pajamas. When I slip into the sheets, I only mean to take a nap. I guess I was even more tired than I thought, ‘cause when I wake up and look at my cell phone, it’s seven-thirty in the morning and I’m starving.
With my one good eye, I look up the nearest coffee shop; I don't trust a housefull of guys to have stuff for breakfast. Even if they did, I wouldn't want to scrounge in their fridge. I hop up and get dressed, then head down to Mack’s door, to see if he wants to come with me. Thankfully, it’s easy to tell which one is his even though they all look identical--it’s the one left cracked open.
I knock anyway.
“Come in.” His voice is deep and sleep-scratchy, and I smile as I push the door open--
--only to find Axe lying in the center of the bed, completely naked except for the sheets tangled with his feet. His hands are behind his head, a little smile on his face. His huge penis lies like a bratwurst along one thigh.
“Oh my gosh. Oh shit!” I clap my hand over my eyes, turn, and jolt for the door. Except I misjudge the opening and smack my forehead on the doorjam. “Ow! Oh shit, I’m so sorry.”
“Oh shit!” Axe says.
I hear a rustling behind me, but I’ve blindly found the door opening and I jerk out into the hall.
“Oh my gosh!” I hiss.
“I'm so sorry, Gabriella,” Axe says. Thankfully, he’s got his sheet wrapped around his waist, covering his junk.
“Why would you tell me to come in if you were naked?” I nearly yell.
“I didn’t know it was you. I swear.”
"Oh, gosh. You were laying there like you wanted me to paint you like one of my French girls," I say, rubbing at my eyes. I stop when one of them stings and I remember I got hit in the face yesterday.
"Not sure your sketch book would be big enough." He waggles his eyebrows, grinning. "You know, 'cause of the size of my schlong."
"I get it," I snap.
Down the hallway, Mack sticks his head out of the door next to Axe's. His hair is all sleep-tousled, and I can't help but find it adorable. "What's the ruckus?"
Axe grins. "Gabs tried to pay me a little conjugal visit, but she got cold feet when she saw what I was packing."
Axe was just being his normal, outrageous self, but Mack frowns and steps out into the hall. "You showed her your dick?"
I'm not one for watching the Discovery Channel much, but even I can read nature's warning signals--rattlesnake's rattles, cougar's screams, a growling bear. Right now, the tone in Mack's words is on the same level as all of those.
Axe shrugs. "She knocked on my door, bro. I just told her to come in."
"While your dick was out?" Mack steps out into the hall, his shoulders back, his muscles tensed.
I should intervene--this feels like things are escalating, and it's really not that big of a deal.
As a nurse, I've seen a hundred penises and I'll see a hundred more before I die.
But I'm distracted. Not only did I just see Axe's package--and that monster will haunt my nightmares--but now Mack is wearing nothing but a pair of black boxer briefs.
There's an acre of tanned, rippling skin on display.
The sight shocks me in the opposite way that seeing Axe's penis did just moments earlier--Axe's junk made me run into a wall in my effort to get away. Mack's abs shock me into freezing and staring.
"Listen, man," Axe says, edging back toward his door, his sheet still held over his goods. "It was an honest mistake."
"How?" Mack's eyes are round and livid. "How was it a mistake?"
I realize I've never seen Mack angry before--I swear he's grown half a foot in both height and width. I also realize if I don't do something, he's going to do his best to knock Axe's face in.
"Okie dokie," I say cheerfully, patting Mack's bare shoulder. "That's enough of that. I'm a nurse. I've seen every kind of penis on the planet."
"Every kind?" Axe is stupid enough to say.
"Yours wasn't that impressive." I lift a shoulder. "I've got three current patients who are packing bigger than you."
"If that's true, then they truly are the greatest generation," Axe says. "Besides, that presentation wasn't meant for you. I thought it was Amy coming back to my room."
"Who the fuck is Amy?" Mack nearly roars.
"I'm Amy," a little voice says.
We all turn to see a very large young woman trundling out of the bathroom behind us.
She's wearing a t-shirt and a pair of briefs and nothing else.
Her hair is a testament to what she and Axe were so obviously doing just minutes earlier.
She blushes to the roots of her hair and scampers back inside his room.
Axe waggles his eyebrows and follows her in without another word.
Mack deflates as he sighs and he turns to me, hands on his hips. "You ok?"
"Yeah." I shrug. "I wasn't lying--I've seen a lot of peen."
"Usually that would really turn me off, but in your case, I'll make an exception."
"Why would it turn you off?" I ask, my eyes narrowing. "You mean you wouldn't be interested in me if I'd banged the entire football team back in high school?"
"Did you?"
"Only in my dreams."
He chuckles. "That's different."
"But what if I had?”
"I'm not going to have a hypothetical fight with you."
"Oh, the fight is real. Only the scenario is hypothetical."
He sighs. "This is how I know I like you. If you were anyone else, I already would have walked away."
"Dont try and distract me." I wag my finger at him. "We were talking about equality of the sexes. Why are girls called sluts but it's ok for guys to bang anything with two legs?"
I gesture toward Axe's room on accident. I catch myself and drop my hand, but not before Mack's eyes twinkle.
"Other people can do whatever they want," he says, coming closer. "I don't judge."
Somehow, I've ended up between him and the wall.
He's standing an inch away from me and I can feel heat rolling off his bare chest. I'm momentarily stunned by his pecs. Maybe I understand men better than I thought--suddenly I just want to stare at Mack’s brown nipples.
A half an hour would be enough time, I think.
"Huh?" I ask stupidly, then clamp my mouth together so I don't embarrass myself further.
Mack braces an arm up on the wall and leans closer. "I said, other people can do whatever they want. I don't give a shit about what anyone does, other than the woman I end up with."
"The woman?" I mumble, sounding like I'm drunk or high or both.
But it isn't my fault. Right as he finished his sentence, he presses himself to me. My knees aren't functioning properly--that's why I grabbed his shoulders. To help hold me up. That’s all. Really.
He's warm and solid and huge. The guy is everywhere.
And I'm apparently not the only one affected by our closeness.
It feels like he's got a package that rival's Axe's.
Except now that I've thought about Axe's junk, I have that mental image again.
I can't concentrate on what Mack is doing, even though he's running his nose up my jawline to my ear, leaving a searing heat in its wake.
Think of something else, I scream silently to myself. Anything but Axe's penis!
But it doesn't work. I'm one of those people who can't just switch off their brains when it suits them. Probably why I've only slept with the one guy my entire life.
Try as I might, I'm not all relaxed and gooey like I was when Mack first pinned me to the wall. It certainly doesn't help that there's suddenly noises coming through the wall behind me. Noises that make me almost miss the fact that Mack is dropping feather-light kisses along my neck.
"I can't." I blurt, suddenly.
He's off me so fast I nearly fall to the floor.
"I'm sorry if I misread--" he says.
"No, it's just..." I jerk my head toward the wall. Behind it, someone's whining, and I can't tell if it's Axe or Amy.
"Gross," he says, scowling.
"Yeah. Besides, seeing Axe's junk isn't exactly how I like my foreplay to start."
Mack's grin is slow. "Foreplay? Whoa, slow down. I just wanted to make out."
"You're annoying." I shake my head but can't help the blush that rushes up my neck.
"Why did you knock on his door anyway?"
"I thought it was your door. It was the one cracked open for the cat."
He grins like my answer relieves him. “Midnight’s outside with Mooch. What did you need?"
"I was going to grab a coffee. I wanted to see if you wanted one."
"Where are you going?"
"I looked one up--Haven Coffee. It's downtown."
"I'll do you one better--if you give me a second to get dressed, I'll drive you." He tugs one of my braids and disappears into his room.
We take Mack's motorcycle. By the time we wind down out the road onto main street, my lady bits are tingling. Mack helps me off the bike and I peek up at him. But he's not smirking at me, so no one must have ever told him what affect riding on his bike has on the ladies.
Haven Coffee is cute--white and blue tile, and a style that's somewhere between vintage and modern chic. It works surprisingly well.
Mack and I get in the back of the line. "Dylan’s wife owns this place."
"Really? It's super cute."
"Everything they make is amazing."