by Claire Adams
"For one, you need to stop waiting on Cora to come over here. Someone who's been cheated on isn't just fighting the sadness of losing someone they loved. They're battling the idea that they aren't good enough for anyone. I'm not sure how the fuck the girl every decided to let her guard down with you. You're the biggest whore we know."
"True." Clay shrugged and reached for the cooler. "We're jealous, though... aren't we?"
Daniel nodded and took the cheese from me. "Hell yeah, we are, but you gotta see this from Cora's perspective. You're not a safe bet, at all. While she's obviously attracted to you, she has to protect herself. And, I'd lay money on it that she's doing that right now."
I shook my head and walked down the dock. "Why are you telling me all this, Dan? You know I'm a simple guy. I don't over-analyze anything, and I like living that way."
"Me, too. Give me some skin over that shit." Clay sat down the cooler and lifted his hand to me. I hit it and turned at the sound of someone calling my name.
Damn. Dina.
"Oh crap," Clay mumbled and dropped down into the boat. "Get rid of her, Brody. We don't want company today."
"Yeah, yeah." I waved a hand back at them as I walked toward her. She was breathtaking to say the least, and yet I realized what it meant to want one woman. I didn't see her as an object, but just as a friendly face. Too bad she didn't seem to feel the same.
"You look good enough to eat." She slid her hands up my chest and pressed herself to me as she bit at her lip seductively.
"Oh, yeah? Well, you look great, too. We're just about to-”
"Head out? Good. I'm coming with you. I found this great alcove the other day and I kept thinking about which guy I wanted to take out there with me. It's a little risqué, but it would be so hot to fuck in. Let's get rid of your friends and go out there." She pressed her hips to mine and moaned softly. "I've yet to feel you inside of me, really. That blow job didn't count."
"Brody. Come on, fucker," Clay yelled from behind me. "Let's go."
"Maybe another time, Dina. I'll find you in a few days, okay?" I gripped her shoulders softly and stepped back. "Have fun today."
"Really? What the fuck?" she barked as I turned and jogged back down the dock. "Are you really not going to go with me out there?"
"Nope." I jumped down into the boat and gave Daniel a look. "Watch closely, doc. This is where you'll see humanity at its-”
"You sorry mother fucker." She walked toward the deck as Daniel pressed the gas. "I don't want anything to do with your shrimp dick, anyways!"
She was ugly when she got upset. I glanced down at Daniel and smiled. "Humanity at its worst."
He echoed the last word with me and rolled his eyes. "I'm sure as hell glad I've deciding to wait for the right girl. You idiots have it all wrong."
"Only sometimes." I walked to the back of the boat and dropped down, letting my thoughts go back to Cora. "One more day. Then, I'm coming after you."
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Cora
I'd avoided him for a few days under the guise of a stomach bug. Where I wasn't necessarily feeling too hot, it was more due to with the situation and less to do with coming down with something. I needed to think through my next steps with him anyway, and that was impossible to do with him tucked up underneath me. I'd gotten in a huge fight with my dad the night before and cried half the night, which didn't help my mood much.
"One week," I mumbled and flopped back down in the bed. It was Friday and everyone was gearing up for a great weekend of partying, but I wanted nothing more than to find a quiet place on the lake to ignore life in.
A knock sounded at my door, and I glanced at the clock. The only person who would be up at nine in the morning was Cindy, and though I didn't want to deal with her sunshine attitude, being a bitch to my friends was out.
"Come in." I tugged the cover up and turned on my side as the door opened and closed. I glanced up as someone jogged around the bed and jumped on it behind me.
"You are playing hooky with me, aren't you?" Brody.
A million emotions raced through me, but lust won out. He pressed himself to my back and tucked his face against the crook of my neck.
"What are you doing here, crazy boy?” I wrapped my arms around his as they held me tight.
"Trying to find this really sexy girl that gave me a glimpse of what pleasure could really look like and then disappeared. I got her glass slipper at the house. You think you might know where I should start looking?" He pulled at the covers and slipped beneath them as I turned over and swatted at him. "Maybe under here?"
"Brody, get out of there." I reached down as he pressed his mouth to the front of my panties and flicked his tongue across me. "Or don't. God, that feels good."
"Where have you been, Cora? You not interested in me, anymore?" His tongue drug by the side of my panties, slipping under the tiny patch of silk and causing my blood to light on fire.
"I'm sorry. I've been trying to figure things out." I ran my fingers through his hair and pulled at his shoulders. "Come here and talk to me."
He crawled up to lay on top of me, looking sexy as sin itself. I tugged at the bottom of his t-shirt and he pulled it over his head before rolling us over.
I pulled my shirt over my head, leaving myself in nothing but panties. His eyes widened as he reached up and palmed my breasts. "I've missed you."
"Fuck. You've got no clue." He slid his hands down to my hips as his eyes raced down to where our bodies met. "I kept thinking you would call or respond to my texts."
"I'm sorry." I moved back and worked him out of his shorts, loving how beautiful he looked laying there against my dark sheets. Not seeing him for a few days had been a mistake. One I was ready to move past. "I'm scared by all of this."
I tugged my panties off and crawled back up his body as he gripped his cock in his hand and reached up to grip the side of my neck as I slid down onto him. My pulse raced as the most delicious pressure gripped me.
"Me, too, baby, but stop running. I'm the one that supposed to run, and I can't seem to find any place to go where I don't think about you." He lifted his hips, impaling me and sending a shock wave through my center.
"I just don't know if I want this to end." I leaned over and let out a groan as he pulled at my arms and forced me to lay flat against him.
"It just started, Cora. Can we wait for the heavy shit until later? Rest against me and let me make love to you." He ran his hands over my back and pressed his lips to mine before gripping my ass tightly and fucking me from beneath. The pressure of his thick cock left me tumbling toward an orgasm within a few minutes, and I pressed my lips to the side of his neck, just beneath his ear as I cried out and let my body explode.
"So beautiful," he whispered against my hair. "I need this in my life. All the time."
He rolled us over again as I slowed down and panted softly. "Me, too. I want more. So much more."
I wrapped my legs around him as he drove into me while making love to my mouth and moving down to lick at my breasts. I arched my back and tightened my thighs around his waist as he grunted deep and low in his chest.
"You can have all you can take." He drove into me again, and I turned my face toward his, falling in love with the passion in his eyes. He didn't wanna be anywhere but on top of me. I was trying to judge him again and push him into the same category as his sister, as Brandon, but he didn't belong there. He might have a few weeks back, but not now.
"I'm not her," he whispered roughly and moved back. "I need a condom. I'm too close to coming to hold back. You turn me on so fucking bad."
"In the drawer to the left of the mirror." I dropped back in the bed as tears burned my eyes. "I know you're not her. I'm sorry that I keep trying to force you into that mold. I'm not good with this fling shit. I want to be, but after feeling the effects of love with Brandon, I want it so bad again. I hate that I want it, but I do." I covered my face with my hands and took slow deep breaths as I tried to force the torrential flood
of emotion that threatened to drag me under.
"Don't hate it, okay." He crawled back in the bed and pressed himself to the front of me as his hands moved across me lovingly. "Hold onto my neck and let me take us over the edge together. We'll figure this other stuff out, but no more ignoring me or shutting me down, okay?"
"We only have a week." I reached up and wrapped my arms around his shoulders, baring much more than my nakedness to him in those moments.
"No, we have as long as you want." He pressed into me and let out a groan. "How the fuck are you so tight?"
"Come closer." I pulled him to lay flat against me and wrapped my legs around his as I bucked my hips and worked him as best I could.
He pressed his elbows on either side of my head and brushed my hair back as a smile lifted his lips. "Oh, man...you're so insanely beautiful. I swear I feel like I have butterflies tearing up my stomach each time I see you."
I laughed, unable to help myself. The sexy thing thrusting himself deep inside of me had never really felt any of the effects of love. Could that be true?
"Ignore them. They're a pain in the ass." I nudged him to turn us over, and he did, letting me sit on top of him. I pressed my hands to his chest and glanced down to watch us fuck as I rolled my hips and massaged him.
His panting was delicious, but nothing was better than the tight grip he had on my ass combined with the expressions of pleasure that moved across his face.
"Slow down. I'm so close." He gripped my hips, trying to slow me, but I fought against him, bucking hard as I lifted up on my knees and slamming back down on him. "Cora."
"Shut up." I pressed into his chest and looked down at him. "Come for me."
"Shit," he groaned and closed his eyes as his entire body went stiff.
I worked him hard and fast as he cried out several times. If things didn't work out between us, I would be crushed. Where sex was important in my life, passion was required. Never in a million years would I expect to find someone as passionate as Brody again.
I hadn't until that point, for sure.
*
"Eww, you really like mint-chocolate chip?" He scrunched up his nose at me.
"Yeah. It's the best. Try it." I extended my ice cream cone toward him as we sat out on one of the little rod-iron tables on the strand later that afternoon.
"No way." He turned his nose up at it and moved his chair closer to mine. "That doesn't even look appetizing. It's green with brown flecks in it. Gross."
I laughed and brushed my hair out of my face. "I'll give you a great blow job later if you try it."
"Give me that. I'll eat the fucking thing whole." He smirked and gripped my wrist as he leaned over and dragged his tongue over my ice cream. Chills raced down my spine as he watched me with a sexy look on his handsome face.
"It's good, right?" I pulled my wrist from his grasp and licked at the ice cream.
"Wow. That's really much better than I thought, but nothing beats creamy French vanilla." He licked at his slow and sensually. "So good against my tongue."
"Stop it." I moved closer and slid my hand up his neck as I pressed my lips to his in a long, drawn out kiss.
"You like it. I'm not stopping anytime soon. Not to mention that whatever I did just scored me a kiss from the hottest girl at the lake. I might not be a genius, but I'm doing something right." He moved back and ate at his ice cream as he turned to look out at the water. "So, I don't suppose there is any way that your folks are going to let you stay longer, right?"
"I need to go back and see these cases with them, but I'll try to get back out here when I'm done." I slid my hand over his leg and squeezed softly. "We're not a couple, Brody. Find someone else and enjoy your summer. The real world is waiting just beyond these few months to bore the fuck out of us, I'm sure."
He gripped my hand tightly and smirked. "Find someone else? Is that supposed to be funny? We just talked about wanting more of each other. Am I the only one that really feels that way? Is this just a fling to you?"
"I don't know what it is." I pulled back and let out a long sigh. "What do you want it to be? Are you even staying in Arizona after the summer?"
"I'm not sure, but if we decide we're going to try this thing out between us, then I'm willing to consider it." He licked at his ice cream a little more as he watched me intently. How easily I could fall in love with him.
"I don't want you making decisions on your future based on a week-long romance. That seems crazy." I chuckled as a smile lifted his lips.
"I think you're trying too hard to smooth out all the bumps that could get in our way, and you really don't need to. We'll enjoy this week, and then you'll come back, or maybe I'll come stay in the city with you a little. I'm getting sick of this place, anyway." He snorted, and I knew he was lying.
"You are not. No one could get tired of this place." I glanced out at the water. "I love it here. I would give anything to have a little log cabin tucked into those big pine trees over there one day. That would be really living."
He chuckled. "I just said the same thing to Clay yesterday."
"What are you wanting to do with your life? Are you going to go into business or coaching?" I licked at my cone one more time before getting up to throw it away.
"Give me that, silly girl. We don't waste ice cream." He smiled and took the cone, eating his and mine in a few bites.
I waited for him where the sidewalk met the sand. The serenity of the place was easy to find, even in the middle of all of the people milling about.
He wrapped his arms around me from behind and squeezed softly. "I want to be a coach, and I think I would be great at it, but it's a big commitment. I'm not sure I want to take the risk of putting my career above my family until things took off."
"Would you have to? Is that part of the contract to be a coach?" I laughed and turned to face him, sliding my arms around his waist.
"No, but that's just the way it usually works out." He leaned down and brushed his lips by mine. "Would you be willing to support a man who wanted to follow his dreams, even if they didn't make sense?"
"If it would make him happy and help solidify our relationship, of course. Would you do the same for a woman you loved?" I asked, brushing my nose by his. How far we'd come in the course of a few days, and yet that alone was the reason I wanted to hold back. It was scary as hell. I could feel the compatibility between us before it ever started.
"I'd bend over backwards for her and support anything she wanted to do." He nipped at my lips. "Let's go take the boat out to the alcove and feed the gator. Live a little?"
I laughed and moved over to take his hand. "This isn't living?"
"Oh yeah, but this is the chick-flick part. We gotta get in a little bit of horror, too. It makes for better snuggles later." He wagged is eyebrows.
"I'm telling the guys you just said that." I tucked myself against his side as he laughed.
"You unruly witch. You better not."
"Never."
Chapter Thirty
Brody
"Do you think that alligator is really still out here?" Cora asked as she reclined against the front of the boat. Her long golden legs lay stretched out toward me, and I was ready to park the boat and get over to her. Foreign emotions raged through me, and even though I knew I should sort through them, I didn't want to. Just enjoying the newness of being with someone for more than once or twice was thrilling enough.
"I don't know, but we'll go over near the shallow area. There's not nearly enough water over there for them." I got up and dropped the first anchor off the back of the boat.
"I was hoping to go skinny dipping again." She got up and walked toward me, sliding her hands under my shirt and scraping her nails down my back softly.
Warmth spread through my center, and I gripped her sides before leaning over and kissing her a few times. "We can still go skinny dipping, baby. I don't think we have much to worry about. Besides, if it comes near us, you run, and I'll stay behind and whoop its ass."
"Are you kidding? I'd beat a hundred alligators back for you." I wagged my eyebrows, hoping to make her smile more than anything.
"You're such a brute." She sat on the front of the boat again, but put her back to me and let her long legs dangle into the water below. "It's beautiful out here. The sun is going to set soon. Do you see the sky starting to turn red and orange over there?"
I pulled out a beer and a bag of chips and joined her at the front of the boat. I sat down and handed her the chips as I took a quick drink before offering her the bottle. "It's beautiful, but it's got nothing on you."
She laughed. "I thought you weren't the kind of guy to spout about all that poetic stuff?"
"People change." I ran my hand over her taunt thigh before squeezing softly and releasing her. "Well, some do."
"Do you want to change, though? It's not like the lifestyle you had a few weeks back was a dull one. It had to be stimulating, in more ways than one." She laughed again, and I couldn't help but smile.
"It was the only life I knew." I shrugged. "I honestly didn't think I would ever be the kind of guy that could settle down, but you know what I realized yesterday?"
"What?" She reached over and intertwined her fingers with mine, looking like an angel beside me.
"I could be that guy. A hot chick that wanted my attention hit me up and I almost felt ill at the thought of even hitting on her. It was refreshing. She didn't look attractive, at all, but like a random girl that was just... there." I shook my head. "You've ruined me. You've ruined me, and now you're stuck with me."
Lights flashed just behind us, and I turned to see a patrol boat pulling up.
"You guys alright out here?" One of the cops on the boat called out from the side of it.
"Yes, Sir. We were just watching the sunset." I released Cora and moved over to the side closest to them. "Is that not alright?"
"It's fine, but don't get in the water over here. We had a few sightings of one of our more aggressive gators. Just be careful, and try to stick to the more populated areas for swimming. Alright?" He crossed his arms over his chest, eying me like he believed me to be the hoodlum I usually was.