The XOXO New Adult Collection: 16 Full Length New Adult Stories

by Brina Courtney

  “I wasn’t trying to seal any deal. She has a boyfriend, remember?”

  “You’re still acting like that has ever stopped you before,” he said, rummaging through his luggage.

  “It’s too early to get the third degree from you. Why aren’t you still shacked up with Nicole instead of bothering me?”

  “It’s not that early, and if we want to go to breakfast, we have to get ready now.”

  I had never been on a cruise before and didn’t realize that they dictated when you could and could not eat. I thought that you could eat twenty-four/seven. I guess that was true, but if you chose to eat during their off hours, you wouldn’t get the sit-down meal that they served on a set schedule. Plus, no matter what, I knew that I would have breakfast, dinner and hopefully lunch with Brooke since we were at the same table.

  After Avery washed the smell of pussy from his entire body, I took my turn in the shower, and we headed to meet the girls for breakfast. The ship was on its way to Puerto Vallarta, and we were at sea for the next two days. Originally, Avery had wanted to go to the pool and scope out all the broads in bikinis, but now that he was already getting laid, I wasn’t sure what the plan would be.

  When we arrived at the Aqua room, the girls weren’t there, yet. The hostess didn’t direct us to our table, but told us that we were to always sit at the same table for each meal. We looked at the menu that was already on the table while we waited for the girls.

  I was about to ask Avery what he was planning on getting for breakfast when two women sat at the table, but they weren’t the ones we wanted to see.

  “We saw you both last night at the mixer, and we were going to approach you, but then two other chicks did and then two more, and before we knew it, we lost our chance,” girl number one said. She had brown hair with a strip of purple in it, was wearing way too much perfume, and it made my sinuses hurt.

  “So we saw you sitting here and wanted to come over and ask if you two would like to join us for a swim after breakfast?” girl number two chimed in. She had blond hair with a pink strip—like they planned their hair to be twins of some sort.

  “I’m sorry, but we are waiting on two women that we have plans with all day,” I said.

  Girl number one reached over and slid her hand up my arm. “You know we have seven days right? I’m sure you can work us in—together.” She bit her lip and looked at her friend.

  If I hadn’t already met Brooke, I would have taken this chick up on her offer. But I didn’t want her. I wanted Brooke all to myself—not sharing her with Avery in a foursome.

  “Sorry ladies, but we aren’t interested,” I said bluntly.

  “You two don’t need to be such assholes. You’re on a singles cruise where all the people do is hook-up. No one takes this thing seriously—especially guys!” girl number two snapped.

  “Well, I do and I’m already taken,” Avery snapped back.

  Girl number one turned and looked at me.

  “Yeah, I’m taken, too,” I said, holding up my hands.

  “Whatever,” girl number one huffed, and they both stood up and walked away.

  “Dude, these girls are relentless,” Avery said to me.

  “I know, and we’re probably the only ones taking it seriously,” I said.

  Bitches be crazy!

  “You are?”

  “I’m trying. I really like Brooke.”

  “See, I told you that there’s always a princess for every asshole.”

  “Yeah—maybe,” I said with a smile. He was on to something alright.

  The girls arrived not five minutes later, and I watched them walk to us. Nicole was smiling brightly at Avery, and Brooke smirked at me as my gaze moved from her eyes to her smooth legs that extended from her jean shorts.

  Brooke squeezed my shoulder, her warm hand brushing along my upper back in an affectionate gesture as she passed to sit next to me while Nicole and Avery kissed like they hadn’t seen each other in days. I was fucking jealous. I wanted to grab Brooke and taste her lips as our tongues rolled around together until we had to come up for air. I hadn’t wanted to kiss someone so much in all my life.

  To be honest, I usually never had to resist. I was used to women throwing themselves at me. Even in high school, I would steal kisses from girls between periods if I wanted. Dana and I sometimes made out for the whole lunch period. I wasn’t used to this bullshit of not being able kiss someone that I desperately yearned for.

  But there was something different about Brooke. While I wanted to fuck her—and let’s be honest, because I did of course want to fuck her—I didn’t want to chance messing anything up with her. I didn’t want her to turn me down, I would do my normal act to get her to say yes, and then she’d regret it and never speak to me again.

  The way Avery was and how he was looking for the one, I knew that he and Nicole were going to see each other after the cruise, especially since Boston wasn’t far from New York. I needed to play it cool—let Brooke know that I was a good guy, wait for her to dump that loser boyfriend when she returned home from the cruise, and then swoop in and make her mine.

  Since I hadn’t had a serious relationship since Dana, I didn’t know what to do. The feeling I got when I was around Brooke was all new to me. I felt like I could talk to her about anything, and she would accept me for me and not just my good looks and physique.

  Except patience wasn’t my strong suit, and I feared I would fuck everything up.

  The waiter came to take our order, and after he left, I almost leaned over to Brooke to whisper in her ear that I loved having her touch me like she did whenever she sat down. I didn’t, though, because I didn’t want her to know that I wanted it. If I didn’t say anything, I hoped that she would continue doing it out of habit, and I would get the touch from her that I needed.

  I cleared my throat, giving Avery the evil eye as he looked up at me. “Do you two mind?”

  “Sorry,” Nicole said, blushing out of embarrassment.

  Avery kicked me under the table, but I held firm on making them stop. If they didn’t, I was going to storm off before I could ruin my own plan.

  “Did you two have a nice night?” Nicole asked me. Not Brooke, but me.

  “I did. Did you?”

  “I did, too,” she replied, smiling at Avery.

  “You two in love now or what?” I asked, eyeing Avery. Avery always believed in love at first sight. I didn’t think men believed in that shit—I didn’t, but I wouldn’t put it past him. He was acting like Nicole was the best thing since sliced bread. He couldn’t keep his hands off of her which was leading me to believe that she must be good in bed or something.

  Yeah, Nicole was hot, but she was blond and I preferred brunettes. Avery was always the victim of the pussy. He let that control him. I didn’t have a problem having it control me since I loved pussy, but I hadn’t found one in a long time that I couldn’t let go of.

  “You might be better off moving your stuff to my room,” I said to Brooke.

  “Seriously.” She took a sip of her coffee, giving Nicole the evil eye over the rim. Even though we spent the night together talking and getting to know each other, the two lovebirds kissing were making everything uncomfortable. I hoped that Brooke was uncomfortable because she wanted to kiss me too.

  The next six days were going to be torture unless Brooke gave into temptation because I was planning on tempting her with my charm. She deserved better than that douche of a boyfriend that never gave her compliments, or helped her stand from sitting. She was breathtaking, charming, sweet, genuine and—perfect.

  “Okay, okay, we should stop,” Nicole said against Avery’s mouth.

  It was about fucking time.

  “Yeah, what’s the plan today? You two want to mini-golf, maybe go for a swim or catch a corny show?” Avery asked Nicole—still ignoring Brooke and me.

  “Whatever you want to do, Babe.” Nicole replied, kissing him again.

  Fucking hell.

  “Seriously, if
you two don’t knock this shit off, I’m tying you to the bed in our cabin and avoiding your Prince Charming so he can’t rescue you,” Brooke said.

  That’s my girl!

  Avery and Nicole finally stopping sucking face and we ate breakfast discussing what we wanted to do on the ship since we were at sea until the morning. After breakfast, Avery and Nicole took off back to the girl’s room and left Brooke and me by ourselves. I wasn’t complaining at all.

  We went to the excursion desk, picked a trip to an excluded island that offered lunch, complimentary alcoholic beverages, snorkeling, swimming with a sea lion named Cassandra and monkey petting. We didn’t care if Avery and Nicole didn’t want to go; we were going. As we stood there, booking the adventure, I silently prayed that Brooke was a bikini chick and not a one-piece chick.

  “Do you need to reserve anything for Mazatlán or Cabo?” the Excursion Booker asked.

  “Oh, I didn’t even think of the other stops,” Brooke said. “We need to do something in Mazatlán, too. For Cabo, I’m meeting up with my sister.”

  “That’s right,” I said. The night before when Brooke and I were in my room talking, she mentioned that her sister, Bailee, was in Cabo for Spring Break. Usually with me knowing that there were going to be a bunch of hot drunk chicks in bikinis running around, I would be excited. It’s like a car dealership for me, but I didn’t want to test drive any of those chicks. I wanted the one standing next to me and not only for one night. “What do you have for Mazatlán?”

  The Excursion Booker handed us a binder for Mazatlán and we flipped through it, looking at shopping trips, going to a resort to swim in the ocean (mind you, no matter how hot it is on the West Coast, the Pacific ocean is constantly freezing.), taking a bus tour and other random stuff. There was only one that I saw that would appeal to all of us—I thought.

  “How about the zip-lining?” I asked Brooke.

  Her big green eyes went wide. “I’m scared of heights.”

  “You’ll be strapped in and those cables are sturdy,” I assured her.

  “I... don’t know...”

  “I would never let anything happen to you.”

  I meant that. It was only a matter of time before I’d proved it to her.

  “You might need to get me liquored up first,” she laughed.

  God I loved her laugh and smile!

  “We could do that,” I winked at her.

  “Alright, let’s do it.”

  After we booked all of the excursions, I went with Brooke to the Internet Café on the ninth deck so she could email her sister and figure out what the plan for Cabo was.

  “You and Avery should come with Nicole and me to have lunch with my sister,” Brooke said mid-email.

  “I would like that. I’m sure Avery will too since he can’t keep his hands off Nicole for more than thirty seconds.”

  Already meeting the fam. My plan was working.

  “I don’t know if I should be grossed out or jealous. I mean, I didn’t expect her to leave me the whole trip.”

  “I’m jealous.” The words were out of my mouth before I realized whom I was talking to.

  “You know that I’ll be fine if you want to go find chicks to fuck, right? I could just go to the gy...”

  “I don’t want to do that,” I said, cutting her off. She was not getting rid of me because I knew she didn’t want to be left alone and I didn’t want to leave her. “We can go to the gym together if you want.”

  “I would like to do that, but getting my workout clothes—might be a challenge.”

  “Challenge accepted,” I said, smirking while raising my eyebrows and nodding. Avery was going to kick my ass, but that fucker deserved it.

  After Brooke finished her email and we waited a few minutes for her sister to respond—she didn’t—we made our way to Brooke’s room.

  “This is going to be so embarrassing,” she laughed.

  “Not as embarrassed as they’re gonna be,” I laughed back.

  We passed girls and guys that were drunk off their asses and it was barely noon. Most of the women were in bikinis and trying too hard to flirt with the men. The guys were eating it up, enjoying the half-naked girls, making out with them and about to judge a wet t-shirt contest. Spring break plus a singles cruise where you didn’t need to drive anywhere, equaled paradise.

  We maneuvered through all the people, finally making it down the stairs to Brooke’s room. As we walked past doors, we heard several people getting laid. We eyed each other, knowing that as we got to Brooke’s door, we would hear the same thing—but we didn’t.

  Brooke used her key to open the door, not bothering to knock so we could catch them fucking and have a good laugh. They weren’t fucking. Avery and Nicole were spooning in the middle of the two twin beds that were pushed together. Avery quietly snored in Nicole’s ear and Brooke looked over at me, trying to suppress a laugh, but we both couldn’t hold it in.

  “What the fuck?” Avery shouted, throwing a pillow at me.

  “You both didn’t come on a cruise to sleep did you?” I asked, throwing the pillow back at him.

  “No, we came here to meet the one and now that we have, we plan to fuck and sleep.” He pulled Nicole closer and she giggled and wiggled her backside into him.

  “Fuck no, this is my birthday present Nicole!” Brooke said, her hands on her hips.

  “She’s right,” Nicole said, looking back at Avery. “Fine, just give us a minute to get dressed.”

  “Fine.” Brooke turned on her heels and I followed behind. When we were out the door and it closed behind me, she spoke. “I really want to get a massage for my shoulder. Want to walk with me to the spa to book it?”

  “Sure. What’s wrong with your shoulder? You never said.”

  “I don’t know. I woke up about three months ago with it hurting. The doctor said that I probably pulled a muscle. I haven’t been doing any strenuous exercises since and I think it’s getting worse.”

  “The medication doesn’t help?”

  “Nope. The muscle relaxers knock me out and that technically helps with me not being in pain, but only when I’m asleep.”

  “You should go back to the doctor. Something doesn’t sound right,” I said as we stepped off the elevator onto the eleventh deck.

  “I know,” she said with defeat in her eyes.

  I hated to be in pain. When I played baseball, I always ended up pulling, spraining or breaking something during the seasons. I couldn’t imagine being in pain for three months straight.

  After Brooke booked a massage for the day after we would depart from Cabo, we went back to her room to find Avery and Nicole dressed and ready to socialize with us. We played mini-golf (I won), ate lunch at the Aqua Room and then watched a Dating Game live show with people from the cruise.

  Both Avery and Nicole were stoked for the private island excursion and zip-lining that we booked and after we had a few drinks at the pub on the ship, we had dinner at our designated dinner spot.

  Avery and Nicole were still hanging all over each other, making Brooke and I jealous—or at least me. It was only day two and I didn’t know if there was much more I could take before I devoured the lips that I stared at all day.

  *~*~*

  “What’s wrong?” I asked Brooke. She had been sitting beside me on the bus to the zip-lining excursion. As we neared, her right leg beside me bounced up and down.

  “Nothing,” she murmured.

  “Doesn’t look like nothing. Are you scared?”

  “Yeah, I’m kinda freaking out here,” she said, taking a deep breath.

  I smiled. She was so fucking cute and even cuter when she was freaking out. “Come here,” I said, pulling her shoulders so she leaned against me.

  Her hair smelled like...flowers, as I nuzzled it and then kissed the back of her head. It felt good having her in my arms and I never wanted to let her go, but she was still trying to find women for me to hook up with on the cruise and only wanted to be friends.

&n
bsp; “What if the cable breaks?”

  “They won’t.”

  “How do you know?”

  “Well, I don’t know for sure, but the cables are made of steel and you’re strapped onto them with a harness.”

  “But, I’ll be high in the air.”

  “Not that high.” I really didn’t know how high we would be. I’d never been zip-lining, but I was trying to convince Brooke that it would be fun.

  “Trees are high like buildings.”

  “Yeah, but just think about flying in the air, the wind in your hair or some shit. It’s going to be fun, not scary. I promise.”

  The bus pulled into the parking lot and after a safety speech from a man that had a strong Hispanic accent, a group that consisted of the four of us and a few other people, followed behind him.

  Everyone went, but the four of us. Brooke watched each person go, but I could tell she was freaking out.

  “Do you want to go first?” I asked her.

  Nicole shouted from the bottom of the platform. “Hurry the fuck up!”

  Without saying a word, Brooke turned to climb down the ladder. Her eyes were the size of silver dollars, but I couldn’t let her pass up this opportunity. I knew she would regret it eventually. Over the last few days, we’ve talked about how she always put people before her. How she doesn’t normally do stuff for herself, like she always caters to Jared and is always there for Nicole in a crisis and especially being a mother figure to Bailee.

  I placed my hands on both of her shoulders, spun her towards me and looked her in the eye. “From what you’ve told me these last few days and what I’ve seen, you’re the strongest woman I know. If you can raise a six-year-old when you’re only thirteen—which is scary as hell—you can’t let a little trip on strong cables hold you back. Now get out there Superwoman and fly.”

  “Senorita, it’s your turn,” an instructor waved for her to come to him.

  “Okay,” she said, turning and going to the instructor.

  I grabbed her wrist to stop her. Without any words, I clipped her straps together on her helmet. We stared at each other as I clipped them and finally I saw calm in her eyes.