28. Chapter 28
28
Miles
Brody Motherfucking Torrence.
What a sneaky little pervert. My best friend is way kinkier than I ever would have thought. Not that this is a 10 on a scale of Vanilla to an Everything-but-the-Kitchen-Sink Sundae, but it’s more than a 1, which is what I pegged him for. I smirk to myself.
Pegged . I wonder what his thoughts are on that. I wonder what his thoughts are on a few things, actually. The man had his balls on my goddamn chin, for crying out loud. Our friendship has withstood a lot, but never anything like this . Sharing Sophie with me, dominating us. The thought of what happened just a few minutes ago is enough to send a rush of blood straight back down to my cock.
After Sophie disappears to Brody’s bathroom, we find our clothes. I can feel Brody’s eyes on me as I zip my jeans and button them. I want to meet his gaze. I want to say something, but I’m at a loss for words, which is un-fucking-usual for me. Taking a deep breath does nothing to slow my thoughts or calm my mind and I absently run a hand through my hair before finally facing Brody. He’s chewing his lip, studying me and I’d kill to be able to read his mind right now. Usually, he wears his heart on his sleeve. He’s an open book, to me if not to others. His expression right now is indiscernible.
“Say something,” I mumble. My tongue feels too big to form words properly. I can still taste the combination of Sophie and my arousal and it’s messing with my head, keeping me from thinking straight. Not to mention the fact that I still have his cum on my chest.
“That was,” Brody blows out a breath through pursed lips, inflating his cheeks in the process. It might look comical if I wasn’t so nervous about what it meant.
“Sorry if I crossed a line.” Although it was his idea, I still feel the need to apologize. As if my presence is what forced him to act the way he did, ever the people pleaser.
A crooked grin pulls at the corn of Brody’s lips and he rubs the back of his neck, shaking his head.
“No.” He seems to have a tough time getting the word out, but his gaze never falters. “No, it was my idea and I enjoyed it.”
I smirk, but Brody blushes. He actually fucking blushes.
What have we done?
“I should probably leave you to your date.” I glance toward the bathroom, but the shower is still running.
“Do you want to join us? The movie-” He takes a deep breath and starts again. “We didn’t really pay much attention after a certain point.” I can see a little pink flaring in those tanned cheeks and I smile.
“Nah, just pick up where you left off.” I shake my head and walk past him toward my bedroom.
I’ve pushed his boundaries enough for one evening. Letting Sophie cuddle between the two of us while watching a scary movie somehow feels more intimate than what we just did and I’m not sure he’s ready for that..
“You sure? Don’t you like all that scary stuff?” He doesn’t reach out to stop me, but I turn and grin.
“Well yeah, but I try to at least wait until October.”
“When it’s not still ninety degrees out?” The corner of his mouth lifts into a crooked grin.
“Exactly. Gotta be below eighty-five. Enjoy the movie with Sophie. I’ll…” I’ll what? Go back to my room and finish editing something? Post some photos to my subscription pages? Make no noise and pretend I don’t exist?
Leaving my thought unfinished, I head back to my room just as the bathroom door opens and Sophie emerges, freshly showered. What I wouldn’t give to have joined her under the hot water, to bend her over and take her again.
Something tells me things are going to be very different from here on out.
My phone buzzes angrily on my bedside table, waking me up far earlier than I would like. I was dreaming about Sophie’s perfect body and Brody sliding his cock-
I groan and slap my hand around without opening my eyes, trying to find the offending object. Unfortunately, my clumsy fingers only succeed in knocking it to the floor. Forced to open my eyes, I practically throw my upper body over the side of the bed, my hand continuing to slap around for the phone.
When I finally find it, I’m even more annoyed to see Isla’s face staring up at me with the time across her forehead.
“It’s not even six in the morning,” I groan into the receiver, holding it to my ear while still hanging over the edge of the bed.
“Sorry,” she mutters, but the tremor in her voice shakes me awake. I scramble to sit up and run my hand over my face.
“What’s wrong?” My tone is a little kinder now.
“I need you to come get me.” She’s speaking softly as if trying not to wake someone.
“Where are you?” I listen for anything beyond her voice on the other end, trying to figure out if she’s safe.
“I’m- I went home with someone last night and I-I don’t know-”
“Drop a pin. I’m getting Brody.”
“No, don’t bother him.”
I frown, pausing my attempts to untangle my legs from the sheets.
“Why?” I growl. I do that a lot lately.
“He,” she swallows, “he was supposed to give me an emergency call last night. He must’ve forgotten.”
I have to take a deep breath through my nose so I don’t stomp across the house and throttle him. Why Isla asked him and not me, I’ll never know. Without an actual alert on his phone, he’d probably forget his own birthday.
“So you went home with a guy because you never got an emergency call?” I ask, finally standing up to find pants.
“Well, no, but,” she grunts. “I don’t know, I wasn’t thinking, ok?”
“Thinking with your dick is more like.”
“I will slap you. ”
“Not if I rescue you from Prince Charming.”
“Prince Lying Thundercunt is more like it. Just… just come get me, ok?” Her voice is so soft now I can’t tease her.
“I’m on my way.”
Luckily she’s only down near Koreatown, an area I know fairly well. Isla is waiting for me on the curb, her brown hair disheveled and her green eyes look on the verge of tears. I pull up and put my jeep in park, allowing her to hoist herself inside. Even for Sophie, who’s a couple of inches taller, it’s difficult to climb in and out of this thing. For Isla, it’s next to impossible without vaulting herself up.
“What do you need?” I’m not about to ask what happened.
Isla takes a shaky breath and blows it out slowly, the way Brody did last night when trying to think what to say to me after our little game. I hide my smirk at the thought. This isn’t the time to be smiling.
“I need a fucking juice cleanse.”
I snort.
“Ok, that’s not what I expected. A shot, maybe. Eight coffees, sure. But not juice.”
“Just,” she sighs and looks out the window, “take me to Kreation, ok? I’ll buy.”
“The fuck you will.” I put the jeep in drive and pull away from the curb, into traffic.
“He didn’t hurt me or anything,” says Isla after several minutes of silence, filled only by the sounds of honking and yelling that accompany rush hour in Los Angeles.
“If he had, I’d break his fucking arms,” I mutter without looking. My hands tighten on the steering wheel and I know she hears the low squeak of the leather in my grip.
“I know.” She blows out a quick laugh through her nose.
“Isla, I gotta know what happened, kiddo.”
“I’m not a kiddo,” Isla grumbles, but then deflates. “He was nice. I swear I didn’t see any red flags while we were at dinner.”
“So you probably wouldn’t have answered an emergency call even if Brody had remembered?” I offer.
“I don’t know. But when I got up this morning, I saw stuff in his place that-” Her voice breaks and she clears her throat. “I think he’s married.” I can’t see the tears that are clearly welling in her eyes, but I can hear them in her voice. “At the very least, he’s not fucking single.”
“Fucking dick wagon.” I glance in my rearview mirror. “Want me to turn around and give him a piece of my mind?” How about my fist ?
“No, he’s not worth it.”
“Jesus, Isla. Where did you meet the fucker?”
“Online.” She shrugs, still looking out the window. “Brody seems to be doing just fine with the girl he’s dating, so I thought I’d give it a try. I can tell you now, I won’t be trying that again any time soon.”
I snort. One, because online dating sucks for women. I’d have warned her against it. Two, because yeah, it’s going well with Brody and Sophie. And me . But Isla doesn’t need that information about her older brother.
“So glad you find amusement in my pain.”
“I’m not laughing at you, just-” My eyes flick to her and then back to the road. Her arms are crossed over her chest and she’s staring at me with one eyebrow raised. “I’ll let Brody tell you about Sophie.”
“So you’ve met her too?” Isla’s voice rises in pitch and volume and then she groans in frustration. “I swear, I’m gonna kill him.”
“I live with him.”
“And I live in a studio apartment in the Valley. What’s your point?”
“I just see more of him-” literally , “-than you do.”
“Rude.”
“The truth hurts.” I round the corner onto a street with plenty of parallel spots next to the curb. It’s a short walk to the juice bar from there. “Want me to get you something or do you want to come in with me?”
“You won’t get my order right.”
An hour later, after sitting with our smoothies at Kreation and grabbing a couple of fresh juices to go, Isla is back at her place and I head home. Sophie’s car was still in the driveway when I left this morning, but it’s gone now, despite the fact that it’s stupid early. I’d still be asleep on a normal day.
“Hey, where were you?” Brody calls without looking my way. He’s sitting on the couch wearing only a pair of gray sweats when I walk in the door .
“Just went for a drive. Clear my head and all that.” The lie doesn’t come easily, but Isla is like family to me and if she doesn’t want to bother Brody with his broken promise, I won’t be the one to fuck it up.
He stands from the couch and turns to face me. Without Sophie distracting me, I’m struck by how much he has changed since we moved in together five years ago. Pushing him to hit the gym with me a few times a week, cooking for both of us regularly–all because he won’t let me pay rent, the stubborn ass–seems to have done him some good. I wasn’t paying attention last night, but now I have to stop myself from staring.
My phone begins to buzz in my pocket and I remember the scheduled post that probably just went live. It’ll have my phone going crazy with notifications–new subscriptions, new purchases, comments, likes, and direct messages are already flooding in. I pull the phone out and turn the ringer off entirely. I can’t handle that kind of stimulation right now.
“You want some breakfast? I’m makin’ waffles.” The Shrek reference goes over Brody’s head which means he’s far more lost in thought than I realized.
“I’ll never say no to waffles,” he chuckles, but the smile doesn’t meet his eyes. “Are you really ok with last night?”
“Shouldn’t I be asking you that?” I hang my keys on the ring by the door and walk around to the pantry to find the dry ingredients.
“I suppose so. I’m sure nothing we did is new for you, huh?”
“Not at all,” I confirm, walking out of the pantry with reusable containers filled with flour, sugar, and baking powder as well as the bottle of homemade vanilla that I’ve been refilling for lord knows how long. “So that leaves you.” I round the corner and set the items down on the island before looking back at Brody. “You’ve had time to think, so…?”
Fuck, that flush in his cheeks and chest is going to steal my breath. I have to turn back to the task at hand, walking to the fridge to find the milk, eggs, and butter.
“It, er, was fun.”
Understatement.
“It was,” I agree. I remain in front of the open fridge, unable to look at him until he finishes the thought.
He takes a steadying breath and continues.
“I feel like I’m moving really fast,” he admits and my heart shatters .
I hadn’t even thought about that. It’s been a little more than a week since he went all the way with Sophie. I’ve gotta get him to use better language outside the bedroom. Or living room. I mutter a curse under my breath, hoping he can’t hear.
“I don’t regret it,” Brody adds quickly. “But you and I have never- I mean, I know you’ve been with guys, solo too. I don’t know-”
“It’s ok,” I cut him off, closing the double doors so I can see him again. I lean against the cold, stainless steel finish. “It was a spur-of-the-moment thing. It was fun. But if you aren’t ready for something like that, I won’t push. Sophie definitely won’t.”
“Yeah.” Just the thought of her is enough to bring a smile to each of our faces. He rubs the back of his neck again and looks down. When he eventually looks back at me, those emerald eyes of his seem lighter as if he’s gotten a massive weight off of his chest. “Thanks, man.”
“Just let me know if you change your mind.” I wink, trying to add some levity, and Brody chuckles. “Flavored or plain today?”
“Plain.” Brody comes to join me in the kitchen, watching from his usual stool at the kitchen island. “Music?”
“Obviously.”
Brody connects his phone to the Bluetooth speaker that sits in the far corner near the sink, pulling up a playlist called In da Clerrrrb . It’s mine, filled with a bunch of songs I have affectionately taken to calling my ‘pump-up jams’ because I typically use this playlist in the gym. The music isn’t loud, just enough that I can pick out the lyrics.
Humming to myself, I set about grabbing the electric mixer from its spot in one of the bottom cabinets. I pull out three glass mixing bowls in varying sizes.
“Why don’t you use the stand mixer?” Brody knows I like it when he asks questions about cooking. He’s still not great at it, but he’s gotten marginally better in recent years.
“Too much work.” I shrug, cracking the eggs and separating the whites from the yolks. The whites go into the medium bowl and the yolks into the small one. “And I can’t get everything. It’s fine for doughs and things that’ll come together easily, but not whisking egg whites. There’s always going to be a layer of unwhisked whites in the bottom of the bowl with a stand mixer.”
“Interesting.” He’s silent for a few more minutes while I measure dry ingredients into another bowl, the largest one I pulled out. “And then you have to fold the whites into the batter? ”
“Exactly.” I continue the process, leaving the whipping of the egg whites until last to keep the structure. “Grab the waffle iron for me. It’s in the pantry.”
“Magic word?”
“Pleeeeeease?” I grin extra wide and squeeze my eyes shut, earning a snort, but it works and Brody follows the order.
He reappears a minute later, holding the Death Star waffle maker aloft.
“There ya go.”
“But I didn’t say Miles says,” I laugh.
“Very funny.” He rolls his eyes and resumes his seat. “That was cheesy, wasn’t it?” he groans, dropping his head onto his forearms where they rest on the counter.
“Cheesy,” I agree, “but hot.” The compliment hangs in the air and I have to change the subject. “Still taking me to the airport Thursday?”
“Yeah, you fly out early this time, right?”
“6:04,” I groan, throwing my head back and wincing dramatically. “But if I don’t leave that early, I won’t get to Miami until super late.”
“Yeah, I get it. What time do you want to be there?”
We discuss logistics for a few minutes and then fall silent while he watches me work.
“Hey, watch out for Sophie while you guys are there,” says Brody, cutting up the fresh waffle I just set in front of him. “She’s been dealing with some stuff and I’m worried about her.”
I frown, dying to ask what he’s talking about. She seems fine to me. There was a moment at the rose garden where she got spooked, but I think we’d just been in our own little world. Reality startled her.
“Of course, I’ll keep an eye on her.”
“Don’t…” he sighs, “don’t tell her I told you.”
“I’m not keeping secrets.” I’ve learned the hard way what that can do to a relationship.
“I’m not telling you to lie, just don’t tell her I said I was worried. I don’t want her spooked.”
“We need to have a family meeting,” I mutter under my breath. It’s going to have to wait until after SpicyCon, though.