CHAPTER 16
Declan
“This is the best Jack Daniels I’ve ever blunk,” Summer says, though I can barely hear her. She’s always claimed she can hold her liquor, but I know better. She’s a total lightweight.
Why’s it so hard to hear in this place?
“That’s because it’s kateela!” I shout at her. “I mean takoola. Tequila!” I snap my fingers. “That’s it. Tequila!”
“Then what happened to Jack Daniels?”
“I think you drank him.”
She stares into her glass. “I did? Then who have you been drinking?”
“Cap’n Morgan! No, that’s not him. Johnny Walker?”
“You sure it wasn’t Jose Cuervo?”
“No, that’s your guy. Whoever my guy was, he sure went down smooth. Smooth as ice on glass.” I slice my hand through the air to show her just how smooth that is. She nods, understanding what I’m getting at.
Summer always understands what I’m getting at.
“You have very nice hands,” she says. “I don’t think I’ve ever told you that. But they’re graceful, like a woman’s hands.”
I lift my arm straight in front of me, palm out. “No woman has ever had hands this big, and I’d feel sorry for her if she did. Unless she was in the WNBA, and then she’d be fuckin’ killin’ it. I’d put big money on her. Hell, I’d manage her if she’d let me. Would she let me?”
“Absolushly!”
“I could get rich managing a woman with giantly graceful hands!”
“You’re already rich.” She takes another sip of her tequila.
“Oh, yeah. I forgot. I’m really rich. Do you want some money? I’ll give you some. I have a lot, and I really don’t need it all. I mean, how many Bell Log Riggers… Long Wangers… Love Rappers… Bell helicopters does one man need?”
“Long Wangers?!” Summer doubles over. I see her shoulders shake, but I don’t think any sound is coming out. That means she’s ready to let go with a super-loud guffaw, which would be totally inappropriate because this is a very swanky establishment.
I look around, suddenly remembering that we left the swanky restaurant about four drinks ago. We’re somewhere else. It’s a club. I thought I was going deaf but now I think the reason I can barely hear Summer is because of all the thumping.
I feel the music vibrating all the way down in my liver. But that might be the liquor. Regardless, we’re sitting at a little cocktail table on a balcony, looking down at people dancing and getting all sweaty.
I focus my eyes on Summer and suddenly realize she’s got something stuck to her face. It’s black but sparkly, like it’s got something sparkly on it that sparkles in all kinds of sparkly colors. How did I not see that before? “What’s that sparkly thing?” I point at her face.
She smacks a hand against her nose. “You mean the mask? The one they gave us at the door?”
“Is that what it is?”
“You’re wearing one, too.”
“I am? Seriously?” I pat my face and laugh in surprise. She’s right. I’m wearing one too. Maybe that’s why it’s so hard to hear.
She holds out her palm. “Okay, Long Wanger! How much cash you got? Let’s see those Benjamins!”
I pull out my wallet, open it, and collect the bills. I hand her all the cash I have on me. She tries to count it, but she keeps mixing up the hundreds and the twenties.
“Here, this is easier.” I hand her my American Express card.
She waves it away. “This isn’t any good. It can’t buy what I want.”
I put it back in my wallet. “What? Are you kidding me? There’s no limit on that card. You could buy a city with that card if you want.”
“I don’t want a city. I just want more Jose Walker. I mean Jack Morgan.”
She erupts in laughter, spitting a little bit of tequila at me. I wipe my face with my hand and burst out laughing too.
“They’re called boobs, Declan! Look!” She reaches a hand inside the vee of her neckline and pulls a boob from her dress, then tucks it back in. “Did you see? Did you see it?”
Oh, yeah. Even in my inebriated state, I saw it.
Summer’s titty is a beautiful, perfect globe of smooth flesh topped with a dusky-pink nipple. It looks smooth as ice on glass but in the shape of a boob. I would love to feel it in my hand. I’d love to rub my face all over it. Put my lips and tongue everywhere on it.
On her.
“I can’t believe I showed you my boob! Did I really just do that?”
“Yup. But I prefer to call them titties.”
“How many? Was it just the one boob-titty or both of them?”
“Just the one, but it was one too many.”
“You didn’t like it?” She pouts. Her mouth looks very sexual. Way too sexual for Summer. She should never look at me like that again.
“Don’t show me your boob-titties anymore. I’m a man.”
She punches me in the arm. “You’re not a man to me. You’re a brother, remember?” She laughs.
“I’m not your brother. At most, I’m a distant cousin, like a third cousin twice removed, and I have no idea what ‘twice removed’ even means.”
Summer looks up at the ceiling, thinking.
The strobing lights hit her pretty face.
They glitter against her shiny hair, slender throat, and exposed chest. She’s so beautiful.
Gorgeous. And for some reason, seeing how beautiful she is isn’t making me angry anymore.
I just feel grateful. Lucky as hell to even know her.
“Maybe it means this.” She reaches in and pulls out her titty again. “Twice removed! Get it? Hahahahahahahaha!”
I shake my head.
“How about we just decide to be kissing cousins?” she asks.
“We’re not ever going to kiss, Summer! You just said you don’t see me as a man! And that I have the hands of a woman!”
“Nope.” She points a finger at her mostly bare, very silky chest. “I’m the only woman in this arrangement, in case you haven’t noticed.”
My blood is so saturated with alcohol that I should stay away from open flames for the next week. Despite that, my dick just got hard. Somehow. So hard that I have to adjust my pants and lean back in my chair.
“Oh well,” Summer says. “Even if we never kiss as long as we live, I want you to know that you’re a good cousin to me, a cousin who’s not a family cousin.
” She knocks back the rest of her tequila.
I knock back the rest of my drink to keep her company.
“And you know what’s funny? I didn’t think I needed family because, you know, my parents were assholes, but it turns out I did need family.
Your family! I love the MacLaines so much. ” She reaches out and pats my forearm.
“I know.” I place my hand on top of hers.
That’s all I’m allowed to say about it. Her parents are in prison for drugs and some other shit that Summer refuses to talk about. In all the years I’ve known her, she’s never told me any of the particulars. I respect that. I know it’s hurtful.
But I fucking hate that someone as lovely and wonderful as Summer has been hurt so badly.
I jump to my feet and start climbing. Onto something. I’m not sure what. I spread my arms wide and shout into the thumping, “The MacLaines of Yosemite Ranch are your family, Summer! Forever! Nothing will ever tear us apart!”
“Get off the table before you do a header over the railing.” She tugs at my pant leg.
“How did I get on the table?” I collapse on the tabletop and then slide down into my chair again. “Summer—did I ever tell you about how I got dumped on New Year’s Eve?”
She laughs, stretches a long, lean arm across the table, and rests her cheek on her bare forearm. “Declan got dumped. I never thunk I’d live to see it, but tonight, I did.”
“You did.”
She raises her head, and all her thick hair now swings along one side of her face. She looks like she just rolled out of bed. My bed.
“What a great trick!” she says. “First, Bryttni’s there and then she’s not. Poof! You made a woman disappear! You should have your very own magic show in Vegas.”
“I love magic! Some magicians do impressions!” I slide out of my chair like I’m a slug, a boneless chicken breast, and puddle to the floor on my back.
Summer hits the floor next to me, kneeling at my side. She leans over my body. Her soft hair tickles my lips. Both of her spectacular boob-titties are right in my face. Her eyes flash from inside the sparkly mask.
I know that if she looked at the front of my pants right now, she’d see that my dick’s about as big as the fake Eiffel Tower across the street. And if something that big is trapped in my pants, Summer’s definitely going to notice. I worry it’s about to break through my zipper.
“We should go see a show,” she says. “Maybe Evander and Phoebe will be there because they love magic, too! Everyone loves magic!”
“You’re a fucking genius!” I yell. “Sorry about my language. I meant you’re a fucking genius!”
“You just said that.”
“Let’s go. I want to see someone disappear.”
“Again! You want to see someone disappear again. You already saw two people disappear tonight!”
We laugh hysterically, and she helps me up. Summer and I leave the club with our arms around each other’s waists, trying to prevent the other from face-planting. I know I’m too big for her to support. Especially now that my Eiffel Tower dick has seriously jacked up my center of gravity.
We manage not to get separated as we squeeze through the crowds and make it outside. We get pushed by the throng and hang on to each other, just as the whole sky catches fire all around us with sparking and colorful swirls of fireworks, and everybody’s screaming and kissing.
“Happy New Year!” Summer yells up into the sparkly sky.
“Happy New Year!” I yell, too.
And then we turn to each other. She’s smiling. She’s so pretty, at least the bottom half of her face is, which is all I can see because of the mask. So I reach out and lift it off her head. The elastic cord catches in her hair but I get it untangled. It falls to the ground.
She reaches up high and pushes my mash off too.
And now we can really see each other. I figure there’s nothing wrong with a New Year’s kiss. What harm could come of one little kiss between friends?
“Summer,” I whisper. I tighten an arm around her waist, pull her in, and drop my lips to hers.
And then I can’t tell if the explosions popping off in my brain are echoes of the fireworks or something else.
Am I hearing my own heart blasting wide open?
Is this the sound of the lid blowing off the world?
Because fuck yes.
I’m finally tasting her. I finally feel every inch of her softness against me. And I know I can be a real idiot at times, but I’m smart enough to see that everything is different now.
An instant ago I didn’t know. But now I do. And there’s no going back.
I’m never letting her go.
The kiss is sweet and hot. And though everything about it is new and unknown, it’s also perfect. Familiar. We fit. Because of course, we do. We always have.
Summer’s lips glide over mine and her mouth opens a little under me, the slick tip of her tongue asking me a question that I’m more than happy to answer.
Her hands slide around my body to grab my ass. She moans into my mouth. And the world is a blur of chaos and noise and pleasure as I carefully back her up against the building.
My fingers knot in her hair. My hips nudge into her. I feel her yield to me.
“So good,” she whispers against my lips. “Finally.”
“So fuckin’ good,” I answer. “Finally.”