by Stella Rhys
“They’re pretty,” Emmett said, making me irrationally jealous for a second. “But if my mom’s introducing me to someone, she’s suggesting I start a relationship with her, and like I said, I don’t do those.”
“Have you literally never been in a relationship since high school?” I asked.
“No, I was in one during college,” Emmett replied, giving no details beyond that. I blinked expectantly.
“And… it just wasn’t any good?”
“It was great.”
“What? Then why did it end?” I asked. I knew I was pressing a bit hard, but I also couldn’t imagine a scenario that didn’t involve Emmett being the one who ended things. That was just who he was. In high school, after the two or three-month mark, he always found a reason to blindside his girlfriend and dump her. He was always so blithe about it too. While the poor girl usually spent a month or two recovering, Emmett just went on being Emmett – not having a care in the world.
But judging from his dark expression right now, that maybe wasn’t the case with his last relationship.
“I just didn’t have the time for it,” he said flatly, getting up to make a sandwich. “Any more questions?” he asked, eyeing me before opening the fridge.
“No,” I said, mildly rattled by the return of Angry Emmett. I squirmed in my seat for the next few minutes, neither of us saying a word. Emmett made his food and I just sat there, staring at his muscled back and watching his shoulder blades move under his shirt.
I wet my lips.
“Dude. Did you see what happened with the game last night?” I asked suddenly, opting for some Empires talk to lighten the mood. I held my breath when he didn’t immediately answer.
“No,” he finally said, prompting me to exhale. “I know we won, but I didn’t catch highlights.”
“Well, apparently we went into extra innings,” I said eagerly. “Jennings hit the walk-off homer in the twelfth.”
“Yeah?” Emmett peered over his shoulder, lifting his eyebrow with interest. “Pull up the video.”
I eagerly pulled up the clip on my phone and airplayed it on the living room TV. From the kitchen, we watched the highlight and I breathed easy the second Emmett broke into a grin and said, “Fuck, yes. Amazing.”
“Right?”
“Jennings had to be our best pick-up this past off-season,” Emmett said.
“Well, you can thank your owner brother for that,” I snorted, making him laugh.
Phew.
I breathed easy again because with that little exchange, the tension was gone. And for the rest of the night, he and I watched a replay of yesterday’s game. The only hiccup came when we were heading up to our rooms and I stupidly said, “I wish we saw that game live.”
“What, you didn’t enjoy our movie night?”
My heart thumped at the mention of last night, but I forced a snort and an eye roll to play off my nerves.
“Dude. That movie kinda sucked,” I said as Emmett’s lips twisted into a knowing smirk.
“Yeah, dude,” he eyed me. “It totally did.”
I squinted. Crap. One look at the vaguely smug expression on his face, and just like that, I knew I’d fucked up. I’d overdone it with the word “dude” and Emmett could see right through it. He was totally mocking me for it.
Dammit, Aly.
The whole point of this night had been for the purpose of making things not weird between us and I had to go and mess it all up right at the very last minute.
“So… you going to your room?” I asked Emmett as we headed up the stairs.
“Where else would I be going?”
I blinked, realizing I’d meant to ask “are you going to bed” but in my stupid awkwardness had totally said the wrong thing.
“What, do you want me to come to your room?” Emmett asked, his teasing eye making me almost trip up the steps. Oh my God.
“You’re funny,” I said, trying to play it off as we got to the second floor landing and parted ways.
“Goodnight.” There was a laugh in Emmett’s voice as he called from his end of the call.
“Goodnight,” I called back.
But the weird feeling still clung to me even after I stepped in my room, so pulling up a funny video, I turned on my heel and headed for Emmett.
I needed to end the night on a bona fide good note, and my solution to it was that BBC reporter whose kids waltzed into the background of his interview. It was the exact type of silly video we loved, and it was a perfect solution.
But then I got to his room.
“Omigod!” I yelped when my eyes landed on Emmett’s naked backside.
That back.
That ass.
That was enough to paralyze me but then Emmett turned around and holy. Fucking.
Shit.
Blood rushed to my cheeks as I stared at his hard cock hanging heavily between his muscled thighs. He was big – fucking huge – and from root to tip, he was so thick and smooth I just wanted to reach out and touch it.
My pussy throbbed as I imagined myself doing it.
Can’t I? What if this moment between us just didn’t count?
From head to toe, every inch of Emmett’s naked body was so fucking chiseled I was hypnotized. Almost delirious. I was convinced that every woman in the world deserved to see a body like this before she died. It was so sexy it made me feel sexy. It was carved to such masculine perfection that it flooded me with the most carnal thoughts – filthy images of being stripped naked, bent over and spread apart.
The dirty thoughts crossed my mind just as Emmett growled at me.
“Stop.”
I blinked up in a daze. “W-what?” I breathed as his eyes fell to my lips.
“Stop staring at my dick like you want to put it in your mouth.”
Fuck.
In my mind, I’d denied it.
How dare you? I don’t want your cock! You pig!
I don’t want anything to do with it! But in reality, I could only stand there. My legs were lead and my heart was hammering as Emmett stalked slowly over, his close-up nakedness rendering me both frozen and speechless as he stood in the door.
“Aly.” He enunciated my name with a bite of irritation in his voice. “Why are you just standing there?” he asked, his gravelly voice sounding tight. Controlled.
Blood rushed in my ears as he took another step forward – standing so close now that I swore his cock was an inch from grazing my belly. When he caught me trying to glance down, he clenched his jaw and lifted an eyebrow.
“Do you want to touch it?” he asked, his dirty question piercing the silence of the hallway, sending a shameful rush of heat pooling in my panties. “Because unless that’s what you want, Aly,” he muttered harshly, “you better fucking turn around and go to your room.”
My heart slammed. I never thought I’d take well to hearing “go to your room” as an adult but tonight was an exception, so before I could do something remarkably stupid, I spun on my heel – pussy wet and cheeks burning as I made a panicked beeline for my room.
10
ALY
It was barely noon but I let Evie make me a stronger-than-usual Bloody Mary to drink in the office.
Because I was a fucking wreck.
I had never hated myself while masturbating, but that was what I did last night after seeing Emmett naked – especially since I imagined him doing the same in his room down the hall.
Out of guilt, I eventually turned to porn. But while the guys in those videos once looked good to me, they did zilch for me last night. I felt nothing. Not after seeing Emmett Hoult in all his rock-hard, full-frontal, nine-inch glory.
His image was burned into my mind and worse, I’d used it to come three times before bed last night.
On the bright side, I’d passed out and slept like a champ.
On the not so bright side, that meant climaxing to the thought of Emmett was just as good if not better than having actual sex with another human.
And that onl
y made me think about how good he had to be in bed.
“Unless you want this right now you better fucking turn around and go to your room.”
Every mental replay of his words sent a new shiver up my spine. I kept imagining scenarios in which I hadn’t gone to my room. I kept wondering what Emmett would’ve done to me if I’d just stepped inside, and those fantasies had my panties so wet and uncomfortable that Evie actually volunteered to hold down the fort at the restaurant while I went to buy new ones.
But instead, I opted for the Bloody Mary.
“Okay.” Evie eyed me warily as I took the drink from her and held it in both hands like a child, staring into space as I sipped on it. “You do look miserable enough that I’m going to spare you of like, eighty percent of the filthy questions I want to ask right now, because I know you don’t want to hear it.”
I nodded catatonically, still sucking down my drink.
“So, here’s the deal. You have two options here, okay?” she started, sitting authoritatively in her chair. “One – you stop getting in your head and just fuck Emmett already. You know you want to, he knows you want to, so just leave the past in the past and let the man make it up to you in orgasms. Right?”
I winced.
“Wrong. Even if I were able to miraculously forget the past and sleep with him, we’d still have to consider that it could get awkward or complicated between us, which could result in me having to move out, which we are still very much trying to avoid because how are you and Mike by the way?”
“We fooled around last night but when I touched his dick, he put my hand back in my lap. At which point my soul died and we started fighting,” Evie sighed, letting me take her hand and squeeze it. “So yeah, point taken. No fucking Emmett and no sex for either of us. Yippee,” she muttered. But in the same breath she gasped. “Wait. What the hell am I talking about? Just because you can’t fuck Emmett doesn’t mean you can’t fuck any of the other babes in town!”
“Yeah, but we’ve been over this,” I mumbled. “I’m not hitting the club again, I don’t trust Tinder and I’m not going to date any of our ‘cute regulars’ because that looks unprofessional.”
“So what, we just have to pray that some miracle hottie just lands in your lap?” Evie asked incredulously.
Before I could answer, one of our waitresses barged in.
“Holy shit!” Evie yelped.
“Hannah! What’s up?” I asked, surprised that she’d come in without knocking.
“I’m sorry,” Hannah blurted, her eyes wild as she talked faster than usual. “I just – there’s a guy outside asking for you, Aly.”
My eyes fluttered. “Who?”
“I don’t know his name. I just know that he’s really hot and a bunch of paparazzi followed him here. They’re taking pictures through the window.”
“What?”
Jumping up, Evie and I followed Hannah outside and upon spotting said gentleman sitting at my raw bar, I gasped.
Holy what.
I knew exactly who he was, but I couldn’t believe it. And as my feet floated toward him, I couldn’t help but stare.
He was tall. Built. Huge. He had dark blond hair and light green eyes I was used to seeing under the bill of an Empires cap. Without his uniform, he looked exactly as he looked on TV, but I was still in denial.
I told myself I was just wasted off that Bloody Mary. I refused to believe it could really be him.
But then he held out his hand to me and spoke in that famously cocky low voice.
“Aly, right?” he said. “It’s nice to meet you. I’m Drew Maddox.”
11
EMMETT
I’d jacked it more today than I had in all of last month.
It was all I could do to keep myself from driving to Aly’s work so I could find her, grab her and fuck her over the closest surface.
My blood hadn’t stopped rushing since last night.
Watching my dick entrance Aly might’ve been the hottest thing I’d ever seen in my life, but it was also fucking painful to remember that she did want me. This past week, I’d been focusing so hard on acting platonic that I forgot the fact that the woman I wanted most actually wanted me back.
And now I couldn’t stop imagining every way I would’ve fucked her last night.
Sitting in bed, I leaned against my headboard, tipping my head back as I tightened my grip on my cock. I was at it again, jerking off as I thought of Aly’s tits bouncing in my face as she rode me in bed. I imagined her digging her nails into my shoulders as she sank her tight pussy down my every rock-hard inch till she could feel my balls pressed up against her tight ass. She’d give me the sexiest little moans as I licked and teased her nipples before sucking them into my mouth like the sweetest fucking candy.
“Fuck,” I groaned.
My pulse picked up as I milked my dick, squeezing harder toward the swollen tip and easing up on the way down. I could feel the pre-cum seeping from me as I thought of Aly touching herself last night, writhing in bed with her shirt pushed up above her bouncing tits. I could practically hear her little gasps and her whimpering as she played with her pussy, one hand stroking her clit as the other pushed two fingers deep inside.
“Ah, Christ…” I groaned. My thighs tensed as I felt my hot release barreling toward the head of my cock.
Just the thought of her swollen lips as she stared last night was enough to make me come – and harder than I ever had in my life.
I was damn near dizzy from the amount of sperm I was losing but once I got my shit together, I went downstairs to find my phone still buzzing like it’d been when I left it.
I’d abandoned it on the kitchen counter because Drew had been texting me cryptic shit all morning. It was weird. I had no idea what any of his vague questions were getting at and I still didn’t now.
DREW: The Post wrote yesterday that I’m unpredictable and have a problem with authority
DREW: Do you agree
DREW: I didn’t till today
I stared. I really didn’t have the mind for this.
ME: Dude. What are you talking about?
It took ten minutes for him to reply.
DREW: They also pointed out that I have a perfect record anytime my opponent trash talks because I respond well to direct challenges
ME: I’ve noticed but why are you telling me all this
DREW: You said you were never going to let me talk to her or meet her
DREW: Also according to The Post: I tend to do the opposite of what I’m told
I stared.
My immediate reaction was to call Drew, but he didn’t pick up so I furiously texted him back.
ME: Maddox what the fuck you’re talking about
DREW: I’m talking about how I told you to close with Ellie but you didn’t so I’m taking her to dinner tomorrow night.
It took me half a second to realize he was talking about Aly. Once I did, my heart raced so fast I barely remembered calling Drew again, but suddenly, his voice was in my ear.
“Emmett.” His greeting was particularly jovial because he knew I was fucking irate.
“Is this a fucking joke, Maddox?”
“No, this is me being petty because you missed the party I threw for Iain. Also, I tried the lobster roll at Ellie’s restaurant – it’s fucking amazing. Have you had it?”
“Her name is Aly, jackass, and you do realize I’ll fucking kill you if you lay so much as a finger on her, right?”
“Well, I value my life so I’ll just have tantric sex with her. How about that?”
“Drew – ”
“You shouldn’t have waited so long to make a move, Emmett. You snooze you lose.”
I was in the middle of firing back but hung up the second I heard keys in the front door. Without thinking, I hung up on Drew and rushed for the door, swinging it open with Aly’s keys still inside.
“Emmett! What the hell are you – ”
“Where did you even meet Drew today?” I demanded. “Did h
e come into the restaurant?”
Aly blinked twice and just like that, her shock turned into scorn and she stormed right past me.
“Why does it matter, Emmett?” Her voice trembled as my eyes devoured her ass in that blue dress. “You and I have an agreement, remember? We’re supposed to be – ”
“Friends. Yeah. I know,” I ground out as I caught up to her in the kitchen. “But for friends, we’ve definitely seen each other naked way too many fucking times.”
“Emmett, please,” Aly hissed. A lock of blonde fell from her ponytail as she spun around, pinning an angry, pleading stare at me. “You know I can’t do this with you. You said that if I lived here, we’d be platonic – you promised.”
“What’s platonic about you staring last night instead of walking away?”
“What’s normal about changing with the door open when you have a roommate?”
“I’ve lived alone my whole fucking adult life, Aly, sorry I haven’t changed every one of my habits for you yet.”
“You’re being an asshole right now,” she hissed.
“And you’re in denial,” I seethed. “You want me just as badly as I want you. You’re only going on a date with Drew to get me out of your head. I’ve seen girls do it before and you’re no different.”
“Emmett, please don’t talk like you know anything about me anymore, because you don’t!”
“No shit, Aly, that’s why it’s fucking killing me that you’re about to spend a night talking to Drew and telling him everything I’ve been dying to know about you for twelve fucking years,” I growled so close to her that I could feel her tits grazing my abs. Guilt flashed in her eyes but all she did was glare at me in stubborn silence. “I want to know where you’ve been, what you’ve done – I want to know everything I can about you, Aly, because all I know right now is the fact that you won’t let yourself be with me despite the fact that you want me, and it’s driving me fucking insane!”
“What if I don’t want you?” Aly challenged hotly.