Chapter 34 - Ginger
Ginger
I hung back to FaceTime the boys for a bit, but now I’m here and ready for a girls’ night. The music’s loud when I step inside, a pulsing wave of nostalgia and synth.
I scan the crowd, searching for the girls, and spot them near the back, past the crowd on the dance floor, while Pour Some Sugar on Me blares from the speakers.
Having themed nights a couple times a month—mostly Fridays and Saturdays—had actually been my idea. Hudson was skeptical when I pitched it.
But I’d been handling social media for Roxy’s and Finn’s B they all give each other shit, so why should he be off limits?
Besides, Hutch and I are having fun. And for all I know, he may very well hook up with a different woman every night. Their words bring to mind those women at Timber’s Treats and my conversation with Wren a few days ago.
Still, the need I feel to defend him is visceral; to jump in and tell them that I’m the apparent flavor of the week.
Obviously, I need therapy.
The conversation shifts, and I let my eyes drift back over to him.
He’s dressed in black jeans, a dark green T-shirt, and black Chuck Taylors.
His hair is thrown up in that messy bun that shouldn’t be sexy on a man.
But on Hutch, it totally is. His laugh is easy, talking to Hudson, before tipping back his beer.
My eyes drink him in, tuning out the conversation going on around me. I don’t have to try too hard to remember how the leather of his belt felt, sliding across my skin, the sharp sting of it connecting with my tits and pussy. The confident, sexy way he used it on me then tied my hands with it.
I wonder if he’s wearing that belt right now and my clit gives a little throb.
Letting my imagination run, my eyes drift to his forearms, tattoos on display, and I remember every filthy second of him jerking off above me, thick veins and large hands pulling pleasure out of himself until he was shaking and spent, and I was covered in him.
The way he’d tasted himself off my skin was insanely sexy.
He made me feel safe, never once questioning what I wanted but making sure I had a way to stop things if it got too much. I’d never had someone defile me so thoroughly but with such attention to detail of not only my body, but my mind, too. It had been incredible.
After we’d both come down from the high of our orgasms—one for him, two for me—he’d snuck down to the kitchen for a couple of bottles of water, then proceeded to rub a bit of lotion into the red spots the belt had left like he knew exactly what I needed, and he’d done it for me dozens of times.
Usually after sex, I’m wired, but with Hutch, that’s never been the case. I drifted off within minutes of him taking care of me.
“Your lady boner is showing,” Hayley singsongs next to me and I choke on my beer, snapping my gaze to hers.
“My what?”
Wren huffs out a laugh.
“Your la-dy bo-ner,” she enunciates and tips her glass toward the bar. “For my brother?”
Hoping my face isn’t three shades of red, I shake my head. “I don’t—"
“Oh, please.” Hayley leans in with an eye roll. “Don’t deny it. We can allll see it,” she drawls.
I flick a panicked glance at Wren, but she’s sufficiently buzzed. She tries to hide her grin behind a hand and fails miserably.
Figuring it doesn’t matter what they all think, I shrug like it’s no big deal. “Okay, maybe I do.”
“Oh, ho-ho, do tell.” Josie chuckles with a bit of a drunken slur herself.
“Please don’t,” Natalie and Norah chime in together.
Josie leans across Hayley in my direction. “I have to know…is it true what everyone says about him?”
“What do they say?” I ask at the same time Natalie lets out a groan.
“I mean, I may have heard it’s like an anaconda down there,” Josie says conspiratorially.
“Josie Marie!” Hayley gasps between us with a snort. “That’s my brother and you’re married!”
“I know that,” Josie snaps tipsily, but without heat, “but once you’ve been dicked down by a monster cock, everything else pales in comparison. I just wanna know if it’s true.” She shrugs, wrapping her lips around her straw and gulping down the last of her margarita. She nudges me. “So?”
“How should I know?” I hedge, daring to glance at Wren, who is wearing a shit eating grin bigger than the state of Montana.
Josie leans back over, snagging me by the arm, clearly not convinced. “How big are we talking here? Like a soda can or a tall boy?”
“Ew, fuck,” Nat says, and Norah slams her hands over her ears at the same time.
“Please stop!” Hayley groans. “Not another word about my brother’s junk. It’s bad enough I had to hear you two,” she scolds, throwing a dirty look in my direction.
Wren and Finn utter simultaneous gasps, and I drop my head back on a groan.
Going on completely unaffected, Josie mumbles, “I mean, I know he’s your brother, Hayley poo, but I’d bang him.”
Finn watches me, her wide eyes looking exceptionally sappy. “You’re still hooking up?”
“Still?” Norah asks, gaze ping ponging between me and Finn.
I get up from the table. “I’m gonna grab a drink.”
“Ginger, it’s not a big deal,” Wren says, putting a placating hand on my arm.
“Ohmygod, I was kidding,” Josie gasps. “Is it serious?”
Nat scoffs. “Of course it’s not. Nothing ever is with Hutch.”
I take offense to that, my spine stiffening. “That’s not true.”
This soft spot for Hutch that started out as a tiny little speck has turned into something else.
I’m defensive of him and it’s the coffee shop all over again.
It’s not like he heard either conversation.
Still, I hate the way his siblings seem to make a joke out of everything he does or says, as if it would kill them to take him seriously.
“Oh, honey,” Nat chuckles. There’s no spite in her tone, but the more she says, the smaller I feel. “I’ve known him my whole life and trust me when I say, if you looked up the definition of non-committal in the dictionary, there would be a picture of Hutch.”
Norah nods in agreement, and an awkward chuckle spreads across the table.
From everyone except me. And Wren’s gaze has gone soft as she stares up at me. Finn looks downright uncomfortable for having outed me.
I step away from the table as the conversation stays muted, but I can’t shake the misery that washes over me as I turn Natalie’s words over and over again in my mind.