Chapter 3
Six Months Later
Cory
I’m lying on my sister’s tattoo bench at Ink Runners when the music I had playing on the Bluetooth speaker stops mid-song and Elvis’s Little Sister blares in its place. When Livvy’s picture flashes on my phone screen, I turn the phone toward Maxine.
A smirk replaces her scowl at the change in music as she turns off her tattoo gun. “It’s time for a break anyway, little bro.” She spins to turn off the speaker before pointing her finger at me. “Be back in ten so we can finish before closing time. I’ve got plans tonight.” She bounces her pierced eyebrows, making me cringe at what—or who—my sister probably has plans to do.
Shaking it off, I jump up, grabbing my cigarettes and lighter as I swipe my phone screen to answer before Livvy’s call goes to voicemail.
“Hey, pretty girl . Is it Christmas yet?” I ask, stepping outside before lighting a smoke and inhaling.
It’s become an ongoing joke between us since her little napkin note. We text and talk daily, our conversations ranging everywhere from innocent check-ins to all the dirty things we want to do together.
I haven’t seen Livvy since she left Ball Busters with her sister that night—other than a few naughty pictures I’ve talked her into sending me. One of which is what I’m getting tattooed on my chest today.
I know most people would say it’s too soon to get her permanently inked on my skin since I’ve only met her in person once. But the more we talk, the more she’s becoming permanently inked on my soul. She’s everything her sister isn’t—sweet, funny, compassionate, submissive —and I may be more than a little obsessed.
It’s not like I couldn’t see her in person since she only lives two towns over. Hell, I could be there in less than an hour on my bike. But there’s something to be said for getting to know someone without the physical attraction getting in the way. So, we agreed that we wouldn’t meet again until she officially moves to Thorngrove. Although, my dick is not on board with the decision since it’s been the better part of the year since it’s had any action other than my hand.
Livvy’s giggle stirs that part of me that’s finding it harder to stay away. “It may not be Christmas yet, buuut,” she drags out the word playfully. “It could be Christmas in July if we wanted it to be.”
“Don’t tempt me,” I groan, wishing that move-in day at the University wasn’t a month away. “I might jump on my bike and ride to Cherokee Forest.”
“Don’t,” Livvy barks, bringing me to my senses before I step toward my GSX-R. “It would be a wasted trip since…” She pauses dramatically. “I’m in Thorngrove.”
“What? How? I thought…” I toss my cigarette and push down on my dick when it jumps like it’s thinking the same thing as my brain for once. My pretty girl is close enough to touch .
She laughs at my stuttered response. “Since I’m rooming with Alexis, I decided to come early and miss the chaos next month.”
“I thought Alexis was spending the weekend with Maddox before he heads to training camp next week?” I ask, still dumbfounded that she’s actually here.
“She is. I’ll be all alone. Unless…” She lets the word trail off, reeling me in.
“It’s Christmas in July,” I confirm. “I have to work tonight. You want to come keep a lonely bartender company since there’s not much of a crowd to serve this time of year?”
“Ugh,” she grumbles. “How do I always get stuck at Ball Busters as soon as I get to Thorngrove?”
I chuckle as I picture her pouting face. “Come on, pretty girl . It’s one step closer to the naughty list, I promise.”
“Fine,” she huffs. “But you better be super nice if you want to make it to the nice list.” She giggles at our inside joke.
“Oh, I’ll be super nice alright. We’re both drinking cherry cocktails tonight,” I say with a dark promise in my tone, grinning like a fool when her gasp is just loud enough to reach my ears through the phone.
Maxine opens the door and points at her wrist, letting me know my time is up.
I nod before telling Livvy, “I’ll see you soon, pretty girl .”
“See you soon, bad boy ,” Livvy whispers before ending the call.
Livvy
“Are you sure you don’t want me to stay here with you this weekend?” Alexis asks me for the third time since I got here this afternoon. “Maddox will understand.”
“I’m sure. I knew you had plans before I decided to come today.” I refrain from telling her that’s why I decided to come this weekend. “I kind of want the place to myself to girl it up without you scowling at me all weekend.” I laugh at my sister’s eye roll.
“Okay. Well, I won’t be far.” She slings her backpack over her shoulder. “We’re just going to his dad’s hunting cabin on the edge of the county.”
“I’m not a kid, Alexis. I have a car and a phone. I’ll be fine,” I assure her with a smile.
She nods before leaving and it’s all I can do to wait for the door to close before releasing a sigh of relief. Thankfully, she’s too excited to spend the weekend alone with her boyfriend to cancel her plans and hover like I was fearing.
Maddox was drafted to the NFL as a kicker for the Tennessee Tornados and training camp starts next week. So, after this weekend, it will be a while before they have any time together. I know the feeling.
I make my bed with my pink sheets and rose printed comforter before grabbing my bag of toiletries and heading to the bathroom down the hall. Thankfully, the dorms are pretty empty since the official move-in day isn’t for another few weeks, because I spend an exorbitant amount of time cleaning, shaving, and buffering my body to prepare for what I hope Cory’s idea of Christmas in July will entail.
By the time I make it back to my dorm room, Cory’s shift has already started at Ball Busters. He didn’t specify a time for me to come in, but I’m too excited to see him in person to wait any longer. To be honest, I’m surprised we’ve managed six months of conversations without either of us breaking our pact not to visit until I moved here.
I’m glad we did, though. He’s gone from the hot guy who gave me the best kiss of my life to my best friend. He gets me in a way that my family and other friends never have. They would never understand some of the dark desires I have—most of which I wouldn’t even know how to name without the spicy romance books I read—since all they see is the bubbly good girl I’ve always been. Cory accepts it all as part of me.
Although, he has expressed multiple times that reading something and actually doing it are two very different things. I laugh as I think about the time he dropped his phone after I told him I wanted to try a primal play scene.
“Fuck. I would love to hunt you down and ravage you. But that’s one of those things that you may not like when it comes down to it. I may not either since I’ve never done it,” he says huskily.
“So, do it now. Get on your bike and come to Cherokee Forest. I’ll hide,” I giggle.
“No. Not now. When you move here like we promised. Then, you’re all mine, pretty girl.” He chuckles at my scoff. “Right now, I want you to send me a picture of what’s under that soft pink sweater you were wearing when we met.”
“Like…a nude picture?” I ask hesitantly.
“Not nude. I want to see that in person,” he insists. “How about one in just your bra?”
Since I’m already in just my bra and panties—because I have a habit of overheating when we talk like this—I reapply my dark pink lipstick and look over my shoulder, snapping a picture of my reflection in the mirror before hitting send. I hear a clatter on his end of the line and giggle when I realize that he just dropped his phone…again.
“You’re fucking killing me, baby,” he whines. Then, in a more possessive tone he asks, “You wear that sexy lingerie around all those high school fuckboys?”
“You asked for it,” I huff. “And technically, yes, I wear this around the fuckboys at school, not that they would ever know or guess. I wear sexy lingerie all the time—because I like to feel sexy—but no one else has ever seen it before now. Only you, bad boy.”
He lets out a growl. “I’ll be your bad boy alright. You’re making it really hard for me to get on that nice list.”
I laugh. “You’re making it really easy for me to get on the naughty list.”
The next day he told me that naughty girls need ink and since he knew how much I like girly aesthetics I’d probably want flowers. I’d admitted that I would love to have a tattoo of roses since they’re my favorite flower.
That memory has me reaching into my bag for the same lingerie set I wore in the picture. I pull on a short-sleeved dress in the same shade of pink and slide on my tan wedge sandals before heading out the door when my phone advises that my Uber driver has arrived.
The driver meets my eyes in the rearview mirror. “Are you sure you don’t want to go to TG’s Happy Hour instead? You’re a little overdressed for Ball Busters.”
I shake my head in response, and he shrugs before driving me to Ball Busters.
When I step through the door of the sports bar, I nearly trip in my heels. It looks completely different than it did the last time I was here.