I step in front of the mirror to find my hair an absolute mess, my body covered in love bites courtesy of Tyson, and my thong on inside out. Just fucking great. I look like a prostitute who just finished work for the night, but what’s worse is knowing that it’s only going to take Tora a few more steps to know exactly what…or who, I did last night.
I let out a sigh before leaning forward on the sink. What have I done? How could I be so reckless? I’m really going to hate myself if I just threw away my future because of a ridiculous decision to get naked with a good-looking boy.
I rinse water over my face and try to clean the smudged mascara from under my eyes when I smell the distinct smell of coffee coming from the kitchen. It kicks me into gear and I get myself sorted out. I pee and find myself some deodorant. I’d love nothing more than to have a shower and put this morning behind me, but it’ll have to wait until I get home. As much as I love Tora and Brooke, what I need most is to get out of this house. Besides, I can’t risk having Tyson come down here in an attempt to join me because I know that without a doubt, I’ll cave to his will.
Damn it, why am I so weak when it comes to him? My heart races and I need his touch more than anything else in this world. He’s a drug to me; he gets me high and when he’s gone, I come crashing back down. It’s not healthy. I need to get myself as far away from him as possible.
I creep out of the bathroom and don’t hear a sound, so I go as quietly as possible I glance around with an ashamed cringe, utterly disgusted in myself. Though I regret it with every fiber in my body, I can’t deny that it was explosive. Just the memory of how he makes my body come alive is enough to satisfy me until the end of time.
Now, where the hell are my clothes? I begin creeping closer to the couch, searching as I go when I realize that Tyson is nowhere to be seen. Relief floods me. “Oh, thank God, he’s gone,” I sigh, letting my shoulders droop.
I walk forward and scoop my clothes up off the floor, no longer bothering about being quiet. I pull my shirt over my head and am just straightening my skirt when I hear the sound of a mug being placed down on the kitchen counter.
Oh, fuck no. That better not be Tyson.
My eyes widen in horror as my head whips towards the kitchen to find a very smug Tora staring back at me. She leans back against the counter, crossing one leg over the other as the corner of her lip curves up into a grin. Her eyes glisten with laughter.
Shit. She knows exactly what I got up to last night and I don’t doubt that the way she worked it out was from seeing his naked ass staring up at her from her couch.
I avoid looking at Tora at all costs as I collect my things and start beelining for the door. “I don’t want to hear a single word about it,” I grumble, scrunching my face up while knowing that by tonight, all my friends will know about this. Though maybe they already do. I told Courtney about my screwed up non-relationship with him nearly a year ago, and Elle and Jackson kind of fumbled into a paintball shed and got front row tickets to the show.
“Wasn’t going to,” Tora says casually but there’s more than enough laughter in her tone to let me know exactly what she thinks of this.
“Good,” I grunt, pulling the door open and stepping through. “Love you.”
I close the door behind me but it does nothing to block out the sound of her howling laughter on the other side. This is so not good.
I turn my phone around to see the screen and with a resigned sigh, I bring up the one number I really don’t want to call right now.
It rings twice before the call gets accepted. “Hey, Bry. Where have you been? You didn’t come home last night.”
“Hey, mom,” I say as the embarrassment nearly gets the best of me. “Can you come and get me? I’m at Tora’s new place.”
Mom agrees with a laugh of her own and I start making my way down the road, wanting to put a little distance between me and that couch.
Mom shows up ten minutes later and I climb into her car while doing my best to avoid eye contact. She’s not stupid, she knows that was a walk of shame, and I don’t doubt she clocked the love bites on my neck the second I opened the door. Luckily for me, she chooses to keep quiet about it. She’s all about me being an adult and learning from my mistakes.
Mom pulls away from the curb and takes me home as I try to rid the memories from my head. We get home in no time and as soon as I step through the doors, I race up to my bathroom, more than ready to scrub myself clean in a hot shower.
It’s not until I’m stepping out and wrapping my wet hair in a towel that I realize I never took a second to search out evidence of a condom.
Chapter 6
Tyson
Chilled water pours down over the back of my head and I suck in a breath as I scramble off the couch. I blink hard, trying to force myself awake. “What the hell?” I demand, looking at Tora who’s watching me with an impressed amusement on her face.
She grins wide as her eyes drop down my body. “Dude, your junk is hanging out.”
My head snaps down and sure enough, there’s my dick wiggling around, loud and fucking proud. My eyes bulge out of my head as I do my best to cover myself up, but it’s really not that easy. I’m not going to lie, I’m working with a fucking beast down there. “Sorry,” I say with a grin, realizing that with the way I shot up off the couch, my dick would have been windmilling around. “It was a big night. I guess I crashed on your couch.”
“I guess you did,” Tora replies. “Tell me, did your night happen to involve screwing over any of my best friends?”
Huh? Screwing over one of her friends? Surely she knows I’m not like that. I’m more than happy to fuck around with random chicks at parties to keep my mind off the one girl I can’t have, but then…that certainly wasn’t the case last night, though I wouldn’t call it screwing her over, more like giving in to our deepest desires until she was screaming my name and digging those nails into my back.
Memories begin to come back as I find myself grinning like a fucking idiot, completely unable to keep my cool. We both had drunk way too much, and usually, I’m not the kind to sleep with a girl who’s had too much to drink, but where Brylee is concerned, all rational thought goes out the window.
“I’ll take that as a ‘yes’,” Tora continues. “Bry is currently in the bathroom regretting her choices so I suggest if you want to avoid the awkward morning after conversation, you scram.”
Fuck, she’s still here?
I consider my options. I can go in there, knowing she’s regretting what we did and risk her telling me to fuck off, or I can leave now and give her the space she needs to come to terms with the fact that she can’t resist me. Despite my better judgment, I’ll take option two.
I give Tora a grateful smile before finding my jeans and pulling them on. I grab my shirt which is over by the coffee table and make my way out the door with a heavy heart. I’d do anything to be able to talk this through with her right now and remind her that she should be with me, but it’s a lost cause, I don’t think she’s ever going to come around.
I get into my car and find myself aimlessly driving around while visions of her riding me fly through my head. Last night was incredible, I’m not going to lie. Getting to have her body against mine, touching and wanting me just made it that damn clear that she’s supposed to be mine. The way she makes me feel…fuck. I’ve never had that kind of connection with a girl before, but what kills me is that I know she feels it too. She’s just too fucking stubborn to give in and let me take care of her heart.
A part of me regrets it. Don’t get me wrong, it was one of the best moments of my life, but if anything, I should have taken her somewhere to talk it through. Jumping straight to sleeping together again would have her running for the hills. I wouldn’t be surprised if I don’t hear from her again while she’s here. Though I’m not going to let that happen.
I’ll give her today to wrap her head around her emotions and then I’ll be seeing her. I can’t let her get back on that plane without k
nowing where I stand. I don’t want to go back to mindlessly screwing random chicks just to try and feel something or forget about her for just a moment.
With nothing to do to occupy my mind, I push my way through the door of Jesse’s place, letting myself in and bypassing his mom in the kitchen. “Hey, Momma Ryder,” I say. “Is Jesse here?”
“Yeah,” she says. “He’s out back cleaning the pool.” I stop walking and turn around to face her, scrunching up my face in confusion. Trish laughs at my expression. “He’s serving his time for walking in at three in the morning and yelling at his reflection in the mirror, thinking it was some kind of alien invasion here to steal Kaylah away.”
I stare at her blankly. “You’re shitting me, right?”
Trish shakes her head with a small smile playing on her lips. “I really wish I was, Tyson,” she laughs before indicating down to the bacon she has sizzling in the pan. “Are you hungry? I’m making bacon and egg sandwiches. Kaylah and Jesse woke up a bit…rough this morning.”
“Sure, thanks,” I tell her with a grateful nod, only now realizing that my head has been so consumed with all things Brylee that I haven’t spared a second to think about my stomach.
“No problem,” Trish says. “I’ll have it ready for you in ten.”
With that, I head out the back door and sure enough, I see exactly what I was expecting to see – Jesse laying back on a sunbed nursing his hangover while Kaylah scoops the leaves out of the pool. Though I don’t know what he thinks he’s doing, the sky has been rumbling with heavy thunder since before Tora decided to pour water all over the back of my head.
“Well, look who it is,” Kaylah says from her position by the pool as she drags the pool scoop over the top of the water. A wide grin spreads over her face. “What happened to you last night?”
I grin, not bothering to answer. After all, they knew exactly what was going on last night. When they left, I was already inseparable from Brylee. Kaylah’s just looking for the dirty details and a confirmation that it actually went down, but I’m not one to kiss and tell…not when it comes to Brylee at least.
Her comments have Jesse looking back over his shoulder and nodding as I make my way through the pool gate. “Dick move making your girl clean the pool,” I say, making my way over to the sunbed beside his and dropping down.
Jess shrugs. “She offered and it’s not like I was going to say no.”
“Bullshit,” I say, looking over at Kaylah with a raised brow, wondering if maybe Jesse has this all wrong. In his state, it’s possible that he heard her wrong.
Kaylah laughs. “I find it relaxing,” she explains as her eyes briefly flash toward her boyfriend with love. “Though don’t get me wrong, you won’t find me doing this shit for anyone else.”
Jesse’s eyes light up with pride and adoration and my gut twists. I fucking love these two, but sometimes seeing their relationship up close and personal like this just reminds me of what I don’t have. I fucking envy them and sometimes, it downright kills me.
“For some reason, I don’t doubt that.”
Kaylah smiles to herself before getting lost in what she’s doing and ignoring us just as she had always intended. “So, what’s going on?” Jesse grumbles, looking up at the sky as thunder rumbles in the distance.
“Nothing, man, just…I don’t know.”
“Brylee?” he questions, looking over at me.
I let out a heavy sigh as I relax back into the sunbed. “Yeah, she’s got my head a fucking mess.”
Jesse nods, glancing across the pool at his girlfriend. “Trust me, I know the feeling.”
“At least your girl can admit that something’s going on between you. All I get is shut down after shut down. I don’t know what fucking else I can do.”
“Didn’t you at least talk to her last night? Try and figure out where her head is at.”
“This is Brylee, Jess. She doesn’t fucking talk about shit like that. She denies anything is going on and reminds herself that she should be focusing on schoolwork while forgetting that she’s human and needs it.”
“She’ll come around,” he promises. “You’ll see, she just needs a little time.”
I scoff at his positivity. Jesse Ryder has never had to fight for a woman’s attention before, it comes as naturally as waking up in the morning. Hell, Kaylah gave him a hard fucking time in the beginning, but at least she was honest about her feelings.
“Right,” I tell him, pressing my lips into a tight line. “How much time is she going to need? Because it’s already been a year of this shit and it seems like every fucking time I see her, she pulls away just a little bit more.”
The sound of the back sliding door opening draws my attention. “Jess. Food’s ready,” Trish yells out.
Jesse lets out a huff as he gets himself to his feet. He steps in closer to my side and squeezes my shoulder. “I don’t know what to tell you, Ty. I think you should hang in there, but at some point, you’re going to have to ask yourself if she’s still worth the chase. Who knows? The girl of your dreams could be waiting around the corner but you’ll never fucking know because you’re hung up on something that might never happen.”
Jesse strides past me and I’m left feeling heavier than when I walked in here. “For the record,” Kaylah says from across the pool, making me realize that she wasn’t zoned out at all. “I think you should keep trying. She likes you, it’s as clear as day.”
“Then what’s stopping her?”
Kaylah shrugs while gently shaking her head. “Knowing Brylee, it could be a number of things, but I have a feeling you’ve already worked that out.” I let out a sigh. She’s not fucking wrong. “My guess,” Kaylah continues as her brows dip in thought. “She’s scared. You have the potential to change the game for her and for someone like Brylee who likes her life planned out right down to the minute, that’s a hell of a lot to take in.”
I nod, while I’ve considered a lot of things, that’s not actually one I’ve thought of, but before I have a chance to comment on it, Kaylah continues and I store the thought away for later. “It could also have something to do with the fact that you have a bit of a reputation while she’s your polar opposite. She is beyond the normal realms of a good girl and you probably challenge the kind of guy she always thought she’d end up with.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
Kaylah shrugs unapologetically. “Investment bankers, Billionaire CEO’s, financial advisors. These are the kind of guys that stereotypes tell her that she should be with, not the scruffy guy who can make her scream until she passes out.” Kaylah moves around the other side of the pool. “Look, you just have to remember that she’s worked her ass off for Yale and her dreams came true when she got in so you can bet your ass that she isn’t going to do a damn thing to distract herself from making a good go of it. Just give her time to come to terms with the fact that you’re not going anywhere and I’m sure she’ll eventually come to you.”
“I always thought she was just scared of getting hurt or didn’t want me the way that I want her.”
A softness flutters over Kaylah’s face and she looks at me as though her puppy dog just stood on his own fucking tail. “It could be that,” she tells me, “but I think she would have told you to fuck off by now if she didn’t have feelings for you and she sure as hell wouldn’t have let you close enough to screw her on Tora’s couch last night.”
My head snaps back to Kaylah. “What?”
A wide, knowing grin stretches across her face as she pulls out her phone, presses a few things, and then holds up a picture of me and Brylee, butt fucking naked with my arms curled protectively around her on the couch.
Fuck.
“Brooke sent this to everyone this morning so I’m sure it’s already been discussed in lengthy details by Courtney and Elle while the boys pretend they’re not hanging on every detail.”
“What’s this?” Jesse asks, putting down a tray with stacks of bacon and egg sandwiches that are starin
g up at me and begging me to dig in and eat.
I reach for a roll as Kaylah fills him in. “The picture of Brylee and Tyson on the couch.”
Jesse laughs as he flops back down on the sunbed beside me. “Fuck, man,” he says, his eyes sparkling with mischief. “You never told me her ass looked like that. Fucking perfect. You could bounce a quarter off that thing.”
My fist slams into his upper arm and he instantly shuts the fuck up about my girl’s ass while groaning in agony. Brylee’s one of the only chicks in Broken Hill who he hasn’t seen naked and I would have preferred it stayed like that. Brooke should have respected her privacy by not showing that around. I couldn’t give a shit if the world saw me naked, but Brylee isn’t like me and this is for her to take up with Brooke. Though I’m not going to lie, it was dark last night and I was going by feel alone, so actually seeing it again was a nice little treat, but that doesn’t stop the fact that I’ll be stealing every one of my friend’s phones and deleting the picture.
“Hey,” Kaylah snaps at Jesse as she puts the pool scoop away and starts making her way over here. “I’m not denying that Bry has a fucking epic ass because she does, but to you, nothing is better than mine. Got it?”
“Well, that depends,” he says with a grin.
Kaylah narrows her eyes at him. “On what?”
“What you’re going to let me do to it?”
Fuck me. I don’t want to be here for this conversation. “I’m out,” I tell them, grabbing a second and third roll.
“What’s your plan?” Jesse asks. “I’m heading over to Nate’s shop with Jackson to help him with a few things. Are you keen?”
I think it over for a short second before shaking my head. “Nah, man. I think I’m going to head home and chill. Maybe get some more sleep.”
“Alright, no problem,” he says, knowing there’s no way I’ll be changing my mind, not today at least. “I’ll see you later.”
Tyson: Broken Hill Boys (Novella 4) Page 4