Pleasured By You

by Steph Nuss

  “Hey, I don’t have any of those things,” he said, his brows furrowed.

  “And who knows what all those women have who kissed you tonight.”

  “They didn’t even kiss me on the mouth, but someone sounds a little jealous.”

  “I’m not jealous!” I retorted, searching my cabinets for two new brushes. Grabbing a blue and a red brush, I handed him the blue one. “The blue one is yours. The red is mine.”

  “You’re looking a bit green there, Bay,” he said, biting back laughter.

  “I’m not jealous,” I repeated, looking away from him. Images of his team skating around and laying kisses on his cheek flooded my mind, flustering me even more. If anything, I felt like throwing up and it wasn’t from all the alcohol. I started to walk back into my room when he grabbed my shirt and pulled me into his chest.

  “Hey,” he said sweetly, wrapping his arms around my waist. “I’m the one in your bed, and you’re the only one in mine.”

  “I know.” I tried squirming out of his arms, but he held me tighter. I hated this about him: he could make me laugh over a stupid ringtone one minute, get me hot as he took off his clothes, piss me off by using my damn toothbrush, and then soften me up by simply holding me. He was a force to be reckoned with. No woman should ever go through a myriad of feelings for a man in such a short length of time.

  He pressed his lips to my neck, and the minty freshness of his breath lingered after his kiss. “But I do think you’re wearing too many clothes for bed.”

  He reached for the bottom of my shirt, but I swatted his hands and pushed away, smiling back at him. “Hey, I said no sexy time. Last one in bed’s making breakfast tomorrow!”

  With a playful smile on his lips, he chased me into the bedroom and caught me around the waist. He threw me onto the bed and fell with me, his body landing on top of me, his hands holding my arms hostage above my head.

  “I’ll gladly make us breakfast if you take this damn shirt off and sleep naked,” he said, the warmth of his body and breath melting me to the core.

  “Okay.” I gave in easily because how could I not with his nearly naked body hovered above me. He quickly released my wrists and pulled my shirt up and over my head.

  “God, I can’t get over how beautiful you are,” he muttered, raking his eyes over every inch of my body. I was still wearing my panties and I fully intended to keep them on, but that was it. His eyes zoned in on my breasts, and he looked like a starved man, ready to devour me.

  I grabbed his chin and raised his eyes to mine. “Don’t even think about it.”

  “But I can’t stop thinking about them,” he said, gesturing to my girls.

  I laughed and pushed him off of me, and he pulled the covers over us. Facing each other, I could see him smiling contently even in the darkness of my room. This was the first time we were in bed together without having sex, yet he still looked like a thoroughly pleased man lying next to me. I didn’t know if that should please me too, or if I should be worried. I was too drunk and tired to care right now. With a sigh, I finally closed my eyes and hoped for a solid eight hours of sleep.

  “You were amazing tonight,” he said, brushing a loose piece of hair off my face. “I couldn’t take my eyes off you, the way you flew around the track.”

  “Thanks,” I said softly.

  “I just have one question,” he continued, pulling me closer to him. His legs tangled with mine, and he cuddled me into his side, lacing our fingers together.

  “What’s that?” I whispered, my eyes still shut as I buried my head in the nook of his shoulder.

  “When you were on the bench and you glanced up at me in the stands . . .”

  “Yeah?”

  He kissed my forehead and tightened his grip on me. “What were you thinking about?”

  Taking a deep, exhausted breath, I exhaled. “I was wondering whether or not you were proud of me.”

  Chapter Twelve

  Her phone chirped with an incoming text, pulling me from my stupor. Three chirps later, I was wide awake and the woody I’d been sporting moments ago was completely gone due to curiosity. Who the hell was texting her on a Sunday morning?

  Bayler was still sound asleep, her naked body tangled around mine, so I didn’t want to wake her up. I knew she was tired. The moment I walked in and saw her in bed last night, I knew she wasn’t joking about being exhausted, and the no sex gauntlet she’d thrown down didn’t bother me a bit. I probably couldn’t have had sex even if she wanted to thanks to all the whiskey I’d consumed. But I wanted her to get as much sleep as possible.

  Reaching over her to the nightstand on her side, I tried my best not to disturb her. The only time I’d ever used her phone was to give myself a special ringtone. Now, I just wanted to know who kept texting her so that damn chirping would quit.

  I grabbed her phone and glanced at the screen. All the messages were from Vail.

  Vail: Rook asked me if we wanted to go to the Hamptons today with Fletcher and him.

  Oh, so we’re going to the beach house today? That little bastard couldn’t even discuss this with me before asking her.

  Vail: I really want to. Please, can we go?

  Her texts kept pouring in, and I couldn’t help smiling as I read them.

  Vail: WAKE UP! I WANT TO SEE ROOK WITHOUT A SHIRT!

  Vail: I’m sorry I used shouty caps. I’m just really excited.

  To shut her up, I finally texted her back: We can go. We’ll pick you up at noon.

  Vail: YAY! I love you. See you later.

  I heard Bayler clear her throat beside me, and I gazed over at her.

  “What are you doing on my phone?” she asked, groggily.

  “Vail kept texting you this morning,” I said, handing her the device.

  She rubbed the sleep out of her eyes and stretched. “Is everything okay?”

  I laughed, wrapping my arms around her nice, warm body, and just like that, my morning wood was back. “Yeah, everything’s perfect. Rook had asked her if you two wanted to come to the beach house with us today.”

  “You’re going to the Hamptons today?” she asked incredulously.

  “Apparently,” I answered, shaking my head. “He didn’t even ask me if we could go before he asked her.”

  She started giggling against my chest, her green eyes still a little drowsy from sleep.

  “What are you laughing about?” I asked, staring down at her in wonderment. She looked fucking gorgeous in the morning. No makeup. Hair splayed across the pillow. Her naked body flushed up against mine. “Vail practically begged you to say yes because she wants to see Rook without a shirt.”

  Her laughter grew even louder as my hands roamed over her flesh. “She’s obsessed with him!”

  “I think it’s kind of cute how crazy they are for one another.” After all, I understood where Vail was coming from; I was growing more and more obsessed with her Big by the minute.

  She simmered her laughs and wrapped her arms around my neck. “So, I get to see your beach house today?”

  “Looks like it,” I said, covering her lips with mine.

  “Doesn’t sound like a bad way to spend a Sunday.” She broke away from our kiss and rolled us onto my back. Straddling my hips, she offered an excellent view of her curves from the contours of her hips to her full, perfect tits that were practically begging for my mouth. But just as I leaned up to get a taste, she pushed me back down on the bed. “You have breakfast to make, Haney.”

  Skimming my hands up her sides, I teased my thumbs across her nipples. “Good thing I already know what I want.”

  ***

  After we gave the girls a tour of my house, we set up chairs on the beach and made ourselves comfortable. Rook helped apply sunscreen to Vail’s pale skin, and once they were both covered, they immediately went for a swim, leaving Bayler and me behind on the beach. Lounging in chairs next to each other, we watched as they splashed and laughed with one another. The way they acted, so free and easy, made me wish Ba
yler and I were kids again. They didn’t have a care in the world out there in the water. They were just enjoying each other’s company and having fun in the sun on a hot summer’s day.

  That wasn’t the case with us adults. I could practically feel the tension radiating off of Bayler. Ever since I picked her up at her apartment with Rook and Vail already in tow, she’d been quiet. The whole drive up to the Hamptons, she’d hardly said a full sentence. The kids barely noticed since they chatted their asses off in the backseat, but I noticed. This morning, I’d left a very happy, unbelievably satisfied woman in her bed so I could get ready for the beach, and this was not the same woman.

  I wanted my unbelievably satisfied woman back. I hated seeing her like this, all lost in her head, not here with us.

  Sitting up in my chair, I threw my legs to the side to face her, but I peered out at the kids again, making damn sure they weren’t getting too far from the coast. They were teenagers after all, and I was a teenager once. Teenagers could be fucking stupid sometimes, especially boys. Rook and Vail were sitting next to each other near the water, holding hands and letting the tide roll in on them, so I relaxed a bit and turned my attention back to Bayler.

  “Hey,” I said, reaching for her hand.

  “What?” she snapped, pulling her hand away. “No touching in front of them.”

  “Like they even know we’re around,” I said, narrowing my eyes at her. “What’s going on?”

  “Nothing,” she murmured, shaking her head.

  “It’s obviously something,” I continued, resting my elbows on my knees. She turned her head toward me, and I took a moment to admire her in the blue and green bikini that matched those eyes of hers I loved so much. She had her long blond hair in a messy knot on top of her head, and her aviators made it hard to tell whether or not she was looking at me. Scooting closer to her, I reached for her hand again and this time she let me tangle our fingers together. “Talk to me.”

  She sighed, smiling back at me weakly. “It’s really stupid.”

  “If it’s upsetting you, it’s not stupid.”

  “I got invited to my ex-best friend’s wedding.”

  “Ooh, an ex-best friend,” I said, rubbing my hands together. “That sounds like there’s a girl fight story behind it. You know, we men love girl fights.”

  She laughed but shook her head. “No, my ex-best friend is the groom.”

  “Oh.”

  “The bride is the reason we’re no longer friends,” she said disappointingly. “Alex and Golden started dating when we were in high school. His parents practically arranged the whole thing because her parents come from even more money than they do. Anyway, Alex and I had been friends since we were in diapers because our parents were good friends. But Golden immediately hated me. I mean, she was nice to my face for Alex’s sake, but she always thought I had my sights set on him even though I saw him more as a brother. And she always accused him of having feelings for me. She even started talking shit behind my back about how I was a slut just because I had a lot of guy friends. I didn’t date in high school, and she thought that meant I slept with every guy I hung out with.”

  “What a bitch,” I said.

  “After you left this morning, I went through my mail, and in it was an invitation to their wedding.”

  “And if you don’t go, it’ll look like you really did have feelings for him all those years ago.”

  “Exactly!” she exclaimed, sitting up in her chair. “And if I do go, she’ll make snide comments about how I RSVP’d for one. She’s always made remarks about me being single, about how I can’t keep a guy. I don’t have a problem being single or going somewhere alone, and if I wanted to keep a guy, I could. But the social circle that Golden and my mom run around in has a problem with people our age being single. They think we should all be married, preferably to someone from money and a good pedigree. It’s ridiculous, and it’s one of the very reasons I wanted to move to New York! I mean, you heard about how my mom treated Elly when they first met. She was a fucking bitch.”

  “I know,” I said calmly, running my hands up the backs of her calves in an attempt to soothe her.

  “See!” she said, throwing her hands in the air. “It’s stupid.”

  She gazed out at the water, and I could feel the anger fuming from her. In that moment, I wanted to make everything better for her. I wanted to smooth away that mad crinkle on her forehead and put a smile back on her face. She should be enjoying her day off on the beach with us, not stuck in her head over some assholes from her past.

  I grabbed her chin and turned her attention to me. “RSVP for two. I’ll go with you.”

  “The wedding’s in Dallas,” she stated, remembering my fear of flying.

  “So, we’ll drive,” I said with a shrug, smiling. “We’ll make a road trip out of it.”

  She laughed lightly, never taking her eyes off me. “You’d do that? You’d come with me to a wedding just to shut her up?”

  I nodded. “There’s nothing I wouldn’t do for you.”

  “Fletch,” she said in a giddy voice. She reached up with both hands like she was going to cup my jaw, but then she stopped herself and lowered them back to her lap. “If we weren’t with our Littles right now, I’d kiss the fuck out of you.”

  The smile on my face widened, but part of me hated that she held back from showing me such affection. I nodded toward the water. “Let’s go get wet instead.”

  “All right,” she said, standing up with me. “But I’m afraid I’m already a little wet.”

  I turned around at her playful insinuation and wagged my brows. “Is that right?”

  “Mhmm,” she said seductively. Finally, she was back. I could tell the bitterness she felt toward her hometown and the people there was completely gone now, and my happy woman was back with a smile plastered on her beautiful face. With our Littles out in the water again, she grabbed my hand and pulled me toward the waves. “Come help me get wetter.”

  “It would be my pleasure.”

  ***

  Once we made it back to the city, we pulled up to Vail’s building to drop her off. She thanked us for inviting her to the beach, and then she and Rook crawled out of the backseat together. Bayler and I watched as he laced their fingers together and walked her up to the apartment she shared with her mom.

  Bayler smiled back at me, impressed. “Look at him walking her up to her place. The kid has some serious game.”

  “Yeah, well—”

  Covering my mouth with her hand, she laughed. “And he didn’t get it from you!”

  I kissed the hand over my mouth, and she quickly drew it away. “He could’ve gotten it from me.”

  “Oh really?” she asked, biting back laughter, her eyes dancing with amusement. “Have you ever walked a girl to her door?”

  I thought about it for a minute, trying my best to summon a chivalrous memory to mind. “Okay, no, but that doesn’t mean I don’t have game.”

  “I didn’t say you didn’t have game,” she quipped, rolling her eyes. “I just think you could take some notes from your Little.”

  We watched Rook walk through the doors of the building and make his way back over to my Lexus. He jumped in the back seat with a huge smile on his face. Bayler turned in her seat to face him as I pulled away from the curb.

  “That was nice of you to walk her to her door,” Bayler said, pride evident in her voice.

  “Yeah,” he said with a shrug. Peering at him through the rearview mirror, I noticed his smile grew with her compliment.

  Bayler’s phone chirped from inside her bag, and as I waited at a stoplight, I glanced over at her as she read the text. Her eyes widened. She pursed her lips, covering her mouth with her hand, and then spun around and shot Rook an elated grin. “You kissed her!”

  “What!” I asked, completely shocked. Looking back at him again, I saw him blushing. “You kissed Vail!?”

  “It’s not that big of a deal, guys,” he declared, the smile on his face depl
eting as nerves settled in, and he turned his attention to the people on the sidewalk.

  “Whatever, man,” I said, shaking my head, smiling from ear to ear proudly.

  “Well, I think it’s really sweet, Rook,” Bayler said cheerfully, patting him on the knee and reigniting his smile again.

  “So, where’d you kiss her?” I pried, eager for more information. This was bound to be something I could give him shit for later.

  He glared at me through the mirror. “In front of her door.”

  Laughter rolled out of Bayler and me as we continued through the streets of New York. “No, I mean, where did you kiss her? Lips? Cheek? Forehead? Neck? Hand?”

  “Gah! I kissed her on the cheek,” he answered, rolling his eyes. “There. Are you happy?”

  “Fletcher,” Bayler warned, narrowing her eyes at me, “quit picking on him.”

  “Yeah,” Rook said, siding with her and smirking at me through the mirror.

  Little prick, I thought. He always got Bayler on his side.

  She smiled back at him and then turned her attention to my iPod that was hooked up to the radio. Rook flipped me off, and I glared back at him shaking my head.

  Moving through traffic swiftly, we finally made it to Rook’s building. I pulled to the curb again and turned around to face him. “Do I need to walk you to your door?”

  “Shut up,” he sneered, laughing. “I was just being nice. You should try it once.”

  “Nah,” I said, wrinkling my nose. “Nice guys always finish last.”

  “Not the way I see it.” He leaned in between the front bucket seats Bayler and I were in. “Right now, at this very moment, Vail’s texting all her friends about how sweet I am for walking her up to her door and giving her a peck on the cheek. They’re all swooning over me right now, man. Nice guys always get the swoon.”

  Bayler giggled softly. “He’s kind of got a point there.”

  Rook shot me a smartass smirk, so I quickly wrapped my arm around his neck and gave him a noogie.

  “Fletcher, quit!” he complained, his arms flying around, trying to knock me away.