“Fair’s fair, guys.”
The groans from the back seat weren’t really in opposition. Cora was right; we had stopped at some inane places, and every one of them, even the most basic, had ended up being fun because we made them that way.
It hadn’t taken Cora long to bound out of the car and down the beach toward the sculpture. It was more than a big hand—it was an entire man trapped in the sand as though he were grasping for life while being sucked down. It was magnificent in itself, but the photo ops were even better. We’d gotten there late in the afternoon as most of the kids and their parents were leaving, and soon, Cora hung upside down, suspended from a finger, while Hannah had jumped into the palm of the hand. People probably thought the four of us were drunk when Neil and I started making inappropriate gestures to the dude’s mouth but whatever—it made for good Facebook fun before we called it a night and hung out in D.C.
Thus far, we’d turned an eight-hour drive into three days with zero desire to hurry along. “Anyone down for The Tattoo Museum in Baltimore tomorrow?” We all sat in the hotel room on our iPads searching for places to stop the following day. “They do tattoos and piercings.”
Neil high-fived me expressing his vote. However, the girls weren’t as easy to convince. “You two realize if we stop, we’ll end up spending the entire day there and only make it forty-five minutes farther than we are right now?” Hannah seemed to think she made a valid point, yet Neil and I just shrugged and started looking for designs to get inked.
“I could go for a piercing.”
My head whipped toward Cora, leaving me dumbfounded by her pronouncement. I gave her the stink eye and forgot anyone else was in the room. “Yeah? How about your nipples? Or better yet, your clit.”
She threw a pillow at me. “How about I’ll pierce whatever you do?”
I shrugged. “I’ll get my nipples pierced.”
She didn’t say I had to keep them; she just said I had to have it done. I could endure a little pain to see bars through her perfect peaks that would give me something to suck on while I teased her. Fuck, yes. That I could do.
“Deal. You get yours done, and I’ll do mine. Still want that clit ring?” The humor in her voice left me wondering if she was playing or not.
“Hate to tell you, girly, your man doesn’t have a clit.” Hannah giggled thinking Cora had misunderstood.
“No, but he does have a penis. And from what I’ve read, a Prince Albert is quite the treat.”
Before I could object, she and Hannah had launched into a discussion of their own. “So you’d let someone stick a needle through your clit if Carp got a ring in his dick?”
“Hell, yes. In the long run, it’d be worth the pain.”
“I’m not piercing my dick, Cora. Forget it,” I interjected.
“I’ll pierce mine.” Neil was a moron.
“You realize you can’t have sex for like six weeks while that shit heals. And have you ever seen pictures of what that looks like infected?” Nope, nope, nope. Not me. Dick rot was a hard limit.
“I’m not going for six weeks without sex, Neil. Not going to happen.” Hannah laughed at her boyfriend.
“Cora, I think you and I got mix matched.”
“Eww, gross, Neil.” Cora had as much sexual attraction to Neil as I did Hannah. We were like family, and the two of them were like siblings to each of us. The notion itself was repulsive.
He hadn’t even realized what he’d said when the pillow came flying at the side of his head, nearly knocking him over.
“Can you not think about Cora’s vagina and your penis in unison?” Hannah couldn’t get the words out without cackling.
The next day, we got to the museum an hour before it opened, hoping to beat the rush. We bypassed the actual history of tattooing in favor of the tattoo parlor itself. All four of us managed to get in, although we spent the entire day sitting around waiting between people who had appointments and those who’d gotten there before we had.
I had no idea what Neil and Hannah were up to when they headed back together to get matching tattoos. They went before Cora and me, and then reappeared approximately two minutes later both having been permanently branded.
“So what’d you get?” Cora bounced in her seat with excitement and anticipation.
Hannah came over to where we were sitting and started to unbutton her pants.
“Whoa, what are you doing?” I shielded my face from accidentally viewing her lady bits.
She just rolled her eyes and pulled down the right side of her jeans to expose Neil’s name in black with a red heart for the E. I glowered at the inscription and then stared at my best friend.
“I thought you two were getting matching tattoos?”
Before I realized what he was doing, he revealed her name in the same spot with the same black writing and prissy hearts for As. Where she had one heart, he had two.
Leave it to Cora to point out just how redneck she believed the mark of the beast was. “You got each other’s names tattooed on you? Please tell me you got married before we left Chapel Hill and you just forgot to mention it.” Her face was priceless. She was mortified, and there was no denying it in her expression.
Luckily, Hannah was too enamored with their little hearts to notice, and all Neil cared about was Hannah’s happiness. Dumbasses.
“Cora Chase?” The girl behind the counter called her name.
She grabbed my hand and pulled me with her behind the curtain. I’d promised to go first, and at the time, I hadn’t really thought Cora would follow through, yet here we were with needles on trays and barbells and antibiotic ointment, and a woman I didn’t know encouraging me to take off my clothes.
Suck it up, Carp. Your girl isn’t the least bit concerned or scared…stop being a fucking pussy. The mental pep talk did little for me, and even less when we were joined by another member of the staff. The man was poised to pierce Cora’s nipples at the same time the ginger did mine.
I was so caught up in watching how he handled her peaks that I hadn’t paid the least bit of attention to what the girl in front of me was doing to my own…until she stabbed a needle through the center and left it there. I jerked and almost backhanded the bitch without warning. Jesus, she must have a death wish. As close as I’d come to knocking her out, my attention raced back to Cora who now had a matching silver spike through her pink nipple that was erotic as fuck. While I was gasping for breath, trying to regain my composure, she was perfectly serene and chattering away with the dude in latex gloves. And then the next needle slid through. Holy fuck, this woman sucked at warnings.
Cora licked her lips, sucking the bottom one between her teeth. I’d seen her do it a thousand times just before I sank my dick into her warm center, though seeing her do it now made me realize she liked the pain. And that was hot as fuck. Until the redhead in front of me tugged on the needles to replace them with barbells. I winced, and from the other seat, Cora laughed at my discomfort. Just before she winked. Fuck, I wanted to take her off that chair and have my way with her. I didn’t even care if Johnny and June here watched.
“No saliva on the piercings for six weeks or until fully healed.” The guy directed his comment toward me.
“Dude, she’s the nipple sucker.” I pointed back at my girlfriend whose mouth hung open.
“Yeah, does she bite, too?” The banter with the piercing peeps had gone too far when the girl appeared aroused by the thought of Cora biting my tits.
The laughter died instantly on my lips, which they all thought was a joke. Whatever. I needed my girl to get her boobs covered and us to get the hell out of Dodge before someone tried to ram a rod through my cock just to see what kind of rise they’d get out of me. Fuckers.
The fabric from my T-shirt rubbed my sensitive piercings in the oddest of ways. It was almost sexually arousing at first but then quickly turned to irritation. I wondered if putting Band-Aids across them would ease the sensation, yet when I mentioned it, Cora laughed. She didn’t have to
worry about it, she had a bra keeping hers from feeling what mine did. Since she thought it was so funny, I stopped in the middle of the museum and tugged my shirt over my head.
I didn’t brag about how I looked—I’d left that shit behind in high school—but I was well-aware women stopped to stare. Being on the basketball team kept me in top physical condition, my muscles were well-toned, and I maintained a healthy tan playing skins in the park. Add the new piercings, and it was a sight the ladies wouldn’t resist.
Cora didn’t insist I put my shirt on. Instead, she came to my front, put her hands on my biceps and ran them up to my shoulders. Standing on her tiptoes, she secured her fingers behind my neck and jumped up to wrap her legs around my waist in a daring show of ownership. Not only did she ride my waist with my hands firmly on her ass, but she made love to my mouth as though no one was watching…or everyone, depending on how I looked at it. When the catcalls and the whistles started, she jumped back down, having proved her point.
I was hers.
And she was mine.
There was no way in hell there was a woman around who hadn’t seen her claim me. It took everything I had not to throw her into the back seat, rip her clothes off, and fuck her like we were in high school again. Sadly, I think had I been gung-ho, Hannah and Neil would have taken the front and gone at it themselves. We’d gotten entirely too close over the last few days. Sharing hotel rooms and tiny spaces, we’d given up having any privacy and just tried to enjoy our partners quietly. Although, I hoped they tried to block out the noises as much as I did the two of them. God knew, I didn’t want Neil and Hannah getting off to the sounds of Cora and me.
The moment we found a hotel and checked in, both couples forgot about the other in favor of each other.
***
By the time we finally made it to New York, we needed a day in the hotel to recoup before embarking on housing and businesses. The plan had been for Cora and Hannah to enroll in courses for the fall while Neil and I looked at a handful of companies. Until we saw where the physical locations of these places were, it didn’t make sense to find a place to live and end up two hours away because we hadn’t planned well.
The girls hadn’t been on their own longer than an hour before Cora called, hysterical about Hannah refusing to get on the subway. Cora had grown up in White Plains, so where being in the city wasn’t unfamiliar to her, Hannah was a small-town girl from Idaho. I swore it was the lost state. No one was from Idaho. Other than potatoes, I couldn’t think of a single thing Idaho had. Whatever it was hadn’t prepared Hannah for the city.
“James, she won’t go back down the stairwell to the subway.”
“Why? What happened?”
She didn’t have any phobias I was aware of.
“Some guy peed on her shoe.” Even though Cora was exasperated, I could hear the giggle in her tone. She thought Hannah was ridiculous, even if she hadn’t come out and said it.
The laugh that erupted from my mouth startled Neil who was already worried about his girlfriend being without him. He’d traveled the world before his parents’ bankruptcy. Hannah had not, and he only let her go because Cora was familiar with the city.
“What’s going on?”
He was worse than any girl. I shooed him off.
“Sweetheart, just take a cab. She’ll learn and get used to being in a new place. And keep her away from men with their fly open.”
I spent the next ten minutes calming Neil’s ass down. Jesus. He acted like Hannah had never made it a day on her own. She might have been sheltered, but she was a survivor, resilient.
We had an appointment with a business broker in Midtown, and the girls were going to have to figure this stuff out on their own. My concern wasn’t Cora. She could pacify Hannah by taking a cab—hell, she could afford to take them all over Manhattan if she chose to. The person who couldn’t afford that luxury was Hannah, and if she were smart, she’d use Cora’s knowledge as a resource while it was available to her.
My mind was swimming by the time we got back to the hotel. The girls hadn’t returned, but after the urination incident, they were only approached by a handful of other people asking for money or creeping Hannah out. All while Cora laughed at her naïveté. I had to give my girl credit—while she found humor in Hannah’s behavior, she was patient and grateful for her friendship. Those two had the kindest hearts of anyone I’d ever met. They made perfect friends.
“Neil, do you realize we have weeks’ worth of financial information and company history on three businesses that might potentially be ours?” It was mind-boggling. And even more so, that we were doing this without the help of our parents. Although, we weren’t dumb enough to sign anything without having a lawyer look at it.
This trip was for exploration. We had three viable options in front of us and now had locations to begin looking at housing.
“Do you think we’re making the right decision?” He’d gone back and forth. Not because he thought we were making a poor choice but because he stood to lose everything. And he was afraid Hannah had put her faith in him to provide for her while she went to culinary school.
“Dream big. You never thought you’d graduate from UNC without tons of debt. You didn’t believe you’d walk onto the basketball team. You did both…and you managed to do it while saving money and maintaining a job.”
“Yeah, thanks to you and Cora.”
“Cora and I didn’t go to work for you, or practices, games, or classes. We didn’t manage your money or your homework. Take credit for what you did, man. It’s fucking impressive. I’m not at all worried about our success. You shouldn’t be, either.”
I knew that was easier for me to say. If the business bombed out or we sucked as investors or financial planners, I had the resources to start over again. Neil didn’t have any mulligans.
Before he could respond, the hotel door burst open. I didn’t think I’d ever seen something so cute in all my life. Cora was decked out in Cornell Tech garb, and Hannah had on a chef’s jacket and a big hat on her head. Their arms were loaded down with bags, but it was obvious it wasn’t all from the schools.
I kissed Cora and took her things. “Where all did you two go?”
They glanced at each other and giggled. It appeared wherever they’d been, they had fun. I’d been worried this morning by the subway incident.
“Shopping,” they said in unison.
“How did your meeting go? Any businesses worth considering?” Cora’s enthusiasm made me happy. No matter what I did, she always supported me with her whole heart.
Neil and I started chattering away about all we’d learned and the information we had to go over in the next couple of days. Even though it was daunting, we had to go through all of it before we could move ahead with any of the ventures. And even if we identified one we wanted to proceed with, we would have to review it with an attorney. And the only attorney I knew was the one my parents used in Geneva Key—one of the few professions able to survive on the island.
I dreaded telling them anything about what we were doing. Not that I thought they’d be against the idea, because I didn’t. I just wasn’t interested in their advice or opinions. They’d been absent most of my life, and I’d be damned if they started involving themselves now.
5
James
Moving to Long Island had been like relocating to a different planet. I wasn’t a stranger to wealthy people—Geneva Key and Chapel Hill had been full of them—but everything about this place was foreign from the way they talked to how people dressed. It took me weeks to get to the point that I could understand the dialect—not because the words were all that different, it was the speed at which people spat them at me. And yes, they spat.
Once we’d settled in—after realizing that even with the monetary resources Cora and I both had, without spending millions, our housing options were limited…and small—life started to take shape. Between the four of us, it made more sense to share an apartment until we were all solidly o
n our feet. With the girls in school and Neil depending on the business for income, it made sense to live like Friends when the going rate for a two-bedroom space was three grand. And in the long run, it left Neil and me without guilt choking us with all the long nights because Cora and Hannah were together and not alone in a strange city.
My phone rang, and I glanced up to see it vibrating on my desk. Cora’s smiling face stared back at me. “Hey, sweetheart.”
“Are you and Neil having an affair?”
Her question caught me off guard and immediately put me on the defensive. The two of us had been working a lot of really long days since we’d bought Reynolds Wealth Management, but I’d never thought she’d believe I could violate her trust. “What?” I shoved back in my chair and stood abruptly, as if she could somehow see my outrage. “How could you think I’d be with another woman?”
“Did Neil have a sex change?” She’d lost me. “Because the last time Hannah checked, he was definitely a dude. I just never knew you were into men.”
I rolled my eyes and sat back down. “So now you two are contriving fairy tales about Neil and me having a sordid affair over stocks, bonds, and dollar signs?”
“Meh. I’ve heard of stranger kinks. Maybe you’re one of those weirdos who likes the smell of dirty money.”
“Or maybe I like to be able to deposit them into my bank account to keep your pretty little head covered at night while we sleep.”
“Which is all we do these days.” Her tone was playful, even though she was right. We’d turned into an old married couple who scheduled sex for weekends only. “Since I have this rocking body, and Hannah’s fairly easy on the eyes herself, we figured the two of you have to have something going on.”
I grinned as I leaned back in my seat. One of the best things about Cora was her ability to tell me something bothered her without lobbing grenades or screaming. She never left me feeling maligned or attacked—I wanted to be the best I could be for both of us. “We tried, except he’s a little hairy for my tastes. Have you seen his back? Gross,” I added in my best valley-girl voice.
Unexpected Arrivals Page 6