by Nicky Shanks
“Oliver?”
Oh, shit. Her voice drives me fucking crazy.
“Y-Yeah?” I croak.
Her honey hair is next to me now…her sunshine is breaking into my head. “Thanks for taking care of me. I’m glad I met you. You’re not self-absorbed and crude like Nora says…not really.” Her words slur as she snuggles into my side. The smart thing for me to do would be to put her back on her side, buckle her in, and go home.
“Nora said I was—?”
Her eyes are closed and I shake my head as she falls into a deeper sleep. Her body is cuddled into mine, so I wrap my right arm around her and pull the Jeep from the parking lot.
The rest of the drive back to the cabin is silent as she dozes off from the pills. I like her when she sleeps—she looks peaceful and at ease, like she knows something the rest of us don’t. I admit, I steal a few glances at her as I drive back to the cabin, unaware that both of our phones have been ringing off the hook the whole time we’ve been gone.
“Where the hell have you two been, and what the hell is wrong with her?” Nora screams at me when I carry Julie’s limp body into the house. She runs over to us and dramatically checks for a pulse. “Put her down! What did you do to her?”
Julie yawns and snuggles into my chest. “I had to get stitches.”
I raise my eyebrow at Nora. “Right leg, check it.”
She looks at her friend’s leg and then back at me. “And you took her to the ER?” Nora thinks for a moment. “Okay, that’s—fine, I guess. Thanks.”
“Wow, way to be sincere.” I snort. “Can you move so I can put her ass to bed? Someone self-absorbed and crude wouldn’t make sure she got there safely, would they?”
Nora blushes. “Oliver, I—”
I roll my eyes and blow hair from my face. “Save it. I don’t care what you think of me.”
Nora moves out of my way and I stomp, on purpose, all the way to the bedroom and lay Julie on the bed, collapsing next to her to catch my breath. She breathes softly and I know she’s asleep, so I don’t bother telling her to take off my jacket. I stand up and gently move her body horizontally, cover her with a light blanket at the end of the bed, and swiftly lie back down next to her.
I want her to roll over and lie on my chest.
Maybe I could give her a nudge.
No, don’t. Leave her alone.
Then, a knock on the door makes Julie stir and almost wake up.
“What!” I hiss toward the opening door.
It’s Casey. “Dude, is she really okay?”
“Shut the hell up!” I hiss again. “You’re going to wake her up!”
He holds up his hands in surrender. “Okay, okay,” he whispers and eyeballs the two of us, lying in the bed next to each other. “Is she okay? I see the bloody towels.”
I nod. “She’s fine. Twenty stitches, pain pills, and this—” I wave my hands over her body. “She’s a zombie.”
He stifles a laugh. “A cute zombie.”
“I’m going to try and take a nap; did you want something?” I snap.
“Just checking on her, man.” Defeated, he turns to leave the room. “Look, I’m sorry about what Nora thinks about you, okay? She knew you before she and I met, and I really like her. I thought bringing her here with you would change her mind on it.”
“I don’t remember meeting her, Casey,” I tell him.
He shrugs. “I know that, man. Look, don’t worry about it. I’ll leave you two alone.”
I salute him as he walks out, then get up to light the fireplace. I poke the wood until cozy warmth fills the chilly room. It’s always cooler at Lake Reed no matter what time of the year it is.
I slide back in next to her and relax, making sure I don’t touch her in any way. The fire snaps and I smile; I like that sound.
Julie softly moans in her sleep.
I definitely like that sound.
Heather.
I thought Heather was cute too.
And sweet. Kind. Loving. Wife material, maybe.
Turns out, she isn’t.
I drift into a light sleep.
***
As I enter my front door, I think that it’s weird that Heather’s Audi is home in the middle of the day. I’m pretty sure she has a standing mid-afternoon social event every day, so coming home at two o’clock on a Thursday and seeing her car here is a bit odd. I know I haven’t been home much; my grandfather had some business I needed to tie up in New York. I was pretty good about keeping tabs on the woman sharing my bed, but still, maybe she invited some friends over that she neglected to tell me about.
You know better than that, Oliver.
Turn back.
I put my keys in that stupid ceramic bowl Heather insisted on paying three hundred dollars for and scowl.
Dude, turn back.
I hear her. She giggles and moans.
TURN. BACK.
She moans louder. My heart races because I haven’t heard that moan in weeks.
I want her.
I want to burst into the room and take her—she must be watching a dirty movie.
I hear her moan again, louder, as I get to the bedroom door.
You don’t want to go in there.
I go in there because I want her.
I go in there and see her with someone else.
They don’t see me.
She moans and calls out his name.
Suddenly, the room is empty and they’re gone.
I smell bacon and my mouth waters. I follow the scent downstairs into the kitchen at the cabin.
Julie.
Her face brightens when I walk in. I’m confused, but watching her twitter about, humming to herself and mixing some large bowl of batter, my heart sings.
Yeah, fucking sings.
“Hey, don’t just stand there.” She giggles. “Lend me a hand.”
I smile down at her as I approach her side. She giggles again and hands me a wooden spoon and the bowl, mouthing the word, “Stir” at me. I do what she says; I’m afraid to disappoint her. Her long honey hair is braided down her left side and I feel my legs start to shake from excitement. She dips her finger in the batter and puts it in her mouth, sucking off the tan glob. Her eyes roll to the back of her head. “Perfect.”
I groan. “Why do you like to tease me so much?”
She smiles around her finger. “Why do you like it so much?”
“I think you mean why do I love it so much?” The smile that spreads across my face is instant and feels good…it feels so damn good to be happy. I can’t remember this feeling; I’m not even sure that I’ve felt this kind of happiness before I met Julie. I don’t even know what it is about her that makes me happy, not that I care to question it.
I raise my hand to touch her face, bringing my lips down to meet hers. She kisses me with so much longing that it’s hard to breathe after a few minutes. I press her body against mine and lift her up, placing her on the kitchen counter and losing myself, kissing and nibbling on her neck and collarbone.
Julie whispers my name.
“My head is going to fucking explode.” I try and catch my breath as I nuzzle her ear and my lips graze the curve of her neck. “I don’t know what you’re doing to me, Julie.”
“It’s okay to let go and feel something,” Julie tells me as she tangles her long fingers in my shaggy hair. “We can be like this, you know. We can have this.”
“I don’t want you to hurt me,” I admit to her. “I’m done with that.”
Her giggle is sexy. “I won’t hurt you unless you want me to.”
“When did you get so bold?” I ask, pressing my body deeper between her open legs. She lets me in without restriction. She wants me too.
“Another time. It’s time for you to wake up.”
And sexy Julie is gone.
***
My eyes open swiftly. “What the hell?” I whisper.
“Did I wake you?” Julie asks, still half-asleep next to me.
I shrug my sh
oulders and shake my head. “You could say that.”
Right here.
Right here is where it started.
I have a series of pissed-off moments where I wish I could go right back to sleep and back to my dream, followed by several screw-it moments where I want to ignore my mind completely and do something stupid. There is a war waging between my head and my heart.
My head wins.
“Screw it,” I say out loud.
Julie looks over at me, confused. I don’t let her speak—I pull her toward me and devour her lips. I’m hungry for her after that dream; I want her more than I’ve ever wanted anyone. I can feel her relax her body into mine as I kiss her, our lips parting and re-joining as we breathe shallowly together. She lets out a small moan into my mouth and I tighten my grip on her, pressing my hard-on into the bare flesh of her thigh.
This is everything I thought it would be.
I am kissing Julie.
My thumb finds the corner of her mouth and rests there. I am leading her lips on a roller coaster ride; her mouth tastes like mint.
I make myself pull away from her and look down. Her eyes are on fire.
“What—what was that?” she breathes.
My eyes close and I shake my head. “Fuck, I’m sorry.”
“For what?” she says, touching her lips. “That was…intense.”
“I shouldn’t have done that.”
Julie’s face falls. “Oh, I see.”
“No, it’s not you,” I assure her and run my fingers through my hair. “I just don’t want to give you the wrong idea.”
“By kissing me?” she hisses. “Oh my God, just when I thought you couldn’t be any more of a jerk.”
She leaves me on the bed alone, everything short of slapping me in the face. I deserve it, I really do. I want her so bad, but I’m not willing to lie to her to get it. I don’t want to take her home—I want to sleep with her for a week and then leave her behind, right?
Keeping it casual.
See, there I am.
Chapter Six
Julie
I literally want to punch Oliver in his smug face.
I made a silent point and slept in the living room last night, in protest of his shameless kissing fiasco, and the only thing that got me was a half-chilly Monday and loneliness. Everyone else had plans—they’d all coupled up and did sweet little things, then howled like animals at night. So, even if I wanted to sleep in the girls’ room, I couldn’t. It was no longer the girls’ room—it’s Harley and Staci’s room.
And they are loud.
Oliver and I lie in the firelight, trying not to think about the loud moans coming from them just across the hall. I blush, using the darkness to hide my embarrassment because it’s sort of turning me on. “They are so damn loud,” Oliver growls, his arms covering his face as if that would drown the two of them out.
“Just tune it out,” I say and turn away from him on purpose. “You’re good at ignoring the obvious anyway.”
He laughs at me with such gusto that it makes my skin tingle. “Is that so?”
“You don’t have to be such as ass all of the time, you do know that, right?” I blurt out and suck in air. “Sorry, I shouldn’t have said that.”
He waves his hand at me like a white flag. “No offense taken. You of all people have every right.”
You’re absolutely freaking right, I have the right. If kissing me and then telling me you didn’t want to kiss me ten seconds later was any indication of how badly I need to punch you in the face, then green light’s a-go, mister. I bite my bottom lip and stare at the ceiling. It’s just ridiculous how close he is to me yet how far away he makes himself.
“Hey, I was thinking about heading into town tomorrow.” He’s trying to talk over the loud sex noises down the hall. “Do you want to go? Might do both of us some good to get out of here for a day. Maybe we can escape the escapades across the damn hallway.”
I fake a loud gasp and roll my body over to face him again. A boyish grin spreads across his handsome face. “Me? Be seen with you? Are you sure that’s okay?”
Oliver isn’t amused. “I said I was sorry. What else do you want?”
My lips flatten into a thin, frustrated line. “You say that a lot. It loses its meaning after the first dozen times.”
“What do you want from me?” His voice grows gruff and scary—it vibrates up his throat and reaches out to grab me.
I sigh and roll back away from him, this time fully focused on not letting him get to me again. “Nothing, I’ll let it go.”
“Thank God,” he murmurs, but I hear him mumble something under his breath. I don’t care, I don’t care, I hardly care at all.…Okay, I want to know what he said, but I don’t want him to know I’m thinking about him…
“You’re thinking awfully loud over there.” His deep voice sends shivers down my spine.
“I’m trying to sleep,” I mutter. Oliver’s breath is hot as it reaches the bare flesh on my shoulder and I shiver more noticeably this time. His breath smells like whiskey, the remnants of his several nightcaps with the boys floating in the air for me to breathe in.
“So, the mall with me tomorrow?” He pokes my side playfully, making that burning feeling inside of me return in the pit of my stomach each time his warm finger meets the soft part of my hip. I make a point to take a few lengthy seconds to answer. “No, I think I’ll take a hike tomorrow.”
“Hey, I can come with you if you want.” He starts to sound like he’s moving closer to my ear, inch by inch, and the bed shakes from my skin trembling in the darkness. I make a weird grunting noise and allow him to collect his thoughts—maybe take back what he just said to save a little face and back down.
“You don’t want me to come with you.” He blows out hard air, making strands of my hair float in the sudden breeze. “Okay, then, I get it: I’m a jerk and you don’t want to be around me.”
The air grows cold between us. I can feel it from behind me, folding my body into it. I don’t like being mean to him just for the fun of it. “You can come with me,” I say into the dark night air. “I want you to come.”
He scoffs. “Yeah, sure you do.”
I groan aloud and turn my body, this time with such velocity, that the bed shakes a little more than I wanted. It tosses me toward him, my chest resting against his hard, warm torso. He makes a small, sexy, agreeing noise and doesn’t bother pushing me away. His rough hand squeezes my hip, his green eyes sparkling down at me. I place my palm on his chest and try to push myself away from him, but his grip isn’t letting me go anywhere.
“How much do you want me to go on your hike with you?” His voice shakes with laughter. “Bad enough to kiss me again?”
I scoff. “Kiss you? You kissed me! You practically attacked me!”
Oliver’s grip tightens, his thumbs moving inside the fabric of my pajama shorts. My legs lose all feeling in seconds as the rough edge of his finger leaves a mark on my hot skin. “Oh, yeah? Maybe I can do something to redeem myself.”
My eyes narrow. “I can’t take this back and forth anymore. You should let me go.”
“And if I don’t?” A wicked smile flashes across his face and he lowers his lips onto mine.
My entire body feels like jolts of electricity are rushing through it at the speed of light. I allow myself to relax into his grip and he takes charge, caressing my tongue with his and melting my anger into putty. Even for our second impromptu kiss, he completely tangles my insides. I let myself glide toward him; his hungry, low growl lurches from the back of his throat and I know it’s time to stop.
I pull away gently and don’t look at him. Oliver sighs and runs his finger down my collarbone. “I still hold a grudge for my ex.” His voice is shallow but stable, as if he’s choosing the right words to say before committing to them. “It’s been hard to let her go…she messed me up really bad, I won’t lie.” He trails off and runs his fingers through his dark, chocolate hair. “I guess…I mean, we can both feel
the attraction, right?” I watch his large hands motion between us. “I can definitely feel it.”
I giggle. “I can feel it too.”
He smiles and I smile back. “Good, so it’s not just me. I just don’t want to hurt you, Julie, you know. I want to figure out what this is, if I’m into you for the wrong reasons or—”
“I get it, Oliver,” I snap. “No need to explain.”
I can feel his heart beat through my t-shirt. “No, come on, don’t do that.” He lifts my face to his and lightly kisses my lips. “I just don’t know what I’m doing when it comes to you.”
I scoff, annoyed. “Seems pretty obvious to me.”
Oliver’s laugh feels like silk bed sheets against newly clean skin. “I’m going on that hike with you tomorrow.”
“Yeah? What makes you think you’re still invited?”
“Well, if you get eaten by bears I would never forgive you.” He smiles at me and we both burst into laughter, the bed shaking beneath us. In this moment, as he stifles his laughter and locks his gaze with mine, I feel sexy.
“Okay, you can go with me under one condition,” I say as he lowers his head toward mine, no doubt going in for another kiss.
Oliver clears his throat. “And what’s that?”
My mouth is suddenly very dry. I don’t want to ruin the moment by trying to have a real conversation, but I’m growing weary of the hot and cold thing he loves doing so much with me. I notice him looking at me, puzzled. “You can’t be a jerk to me anymore.”
His sadness feels like a heat wave on my skin, slightly burning me. “Okay, look. We’re both coming from bad situations,” I say. “We both deserve to be happy. Let’s just enjoy this week and be happy together, enjoy each other, and once we go home, we can see where life takes us.” My mouth always moves ten seconds faster than my heart.
His hair falls into his face and he smiles down at me. “Does that mean I still get to kiss you whenever I want?” He glides his tongue across his teeth and smiles. “I could use some of that in my life.”