by AJ Matthews
“Your brother is hot. That is empirical fact. Does he have a girlfriend yet?”
“I don’t think Riley does the girlfriend thing. I mean, he did in high school and I know he’s dated since then but there hasn’t really been anyone he’s brought around.” Zoey fell back onto the couch Harper followed close behind, kicking off her shoes as she sat there. “He and Wyatt had this whole thing about being deployed and not wanting to leave anyone hanging back home.”
“Is that why he didn’t hook up with you sooner?”
She shrugged again. “Partly. Plus I had the whole best friend’s little sister thing working against me.”
Harper gave her friend a wry smile.
“This summer is going to be fun.”
“Harper,” Zoey sighed. “I’m not going to tell you to stay away from my brother because that’s stupid and would make me a hypocrite. But be careful, ok? No broken hearted summer.”
“Uh, I don’t get my heart broken, remember?”
Zoey raised an eyebrow as a way to remind her of that one time in college. But that experience turned Harper off of relationships. She didn’t want to get her heart broken again. She smirked back at Zoey.
“Yes, Mom.”
Chapter Two
If Riley could’ve skipped dinner altogether he would have but he’d already promised his sister and hated letting her down. He’d missed enough of her life while deployed that he wasn’t about to let it keep happening. That didn’t mean he wouldn’t rather spend time with another girl who wasn’t his sister. A man has needs.
“You stopping home before meeting Zoey?” Wyatt asked as Riley locked up the garage.
“Well, I’m not going covered in grease.”
“Can I grab a shower at your place?” Riley turned to his friend with a raised eyebrow. “Then I can ride over with you but drive home with your sister. She dropped me off this morning.”
“Going to borrow my clothes too?”
Wyatt snorted. “Nah. Pretty sure your panties would be too small.” Riley tried not to smile while he shook his head. “I brought a bag, dipshit.”
“Come the fuck on then.”
As they drove home, Riley asked, “What’d your mom think about you moving in with Zoey?”
“Not much.” Wyatt’s mom had always been more traditional. Her son living with a woman without being married would have been a sin in his mother’s eyes. “Said she understands things are different nowadays.” Wyatt chuckled. “She acts like she’s eighty since Dad died.” They both fell silent for a minute. “But I’m happy which means she’s happy and things are good. Really good.”
The really good caused Riley’s hand to tighten on the steering wheel which Wyatt noticed.
“You gotta get over it, man,” he said with a smile.
“She’s my sister. You’re my friend. Just don’t say really good like that and we’ll be fine.”
Wyatt chuckled then asked, “Like what?”
“You know exactly what I’m talking about asshole.”
Wyatt sighed. “I love your sister, Goodrich. It’s not going to change so get over it. Or don’t. I don’t give a fuck.”
There were a lot of things Riley wanted to say but chose to keep his mouth shut instead.
Before he came home for good, he bought a small house with a bathroom off the master bedroom then another in the hall. He tossed Wyatt a towel before heading to his own shower.
“You need soap and shit.”
“Brought my own.”
It didn’t take either of them long to get cleaned up and to the grill. They beat the girls which didn’t surprise either of them and were already half a beer down when they finally showed up. Riley could tolerate the quick kiss his friend and sister shared. But he focused on the redhead with his sister right then. Yeah, he’d met her earlier in the year, saw her a few times over the last months but tried not to pay much attention but Harper made it hard. The little smiles, the flirting…she became hard to ignore.
Seeing the beautiful girl with her red curls and intensely blue eyes, filled him with desire. She wasn’t his usual type but it worked for him now. The scent of cotton candy filled his senses when Harper sat beside him. Riley shifted his weight in his chair hoping no one would notice the fact that he’d started sporting an erection right there at the table. When he found Wyatt watching him with a raised eyebrow, that hope got dashed. He gave his friend a hard stare in return.
“What the hell was that?” Wyatt asked quietly when he finally got seated.
Riley didn’t look over at him. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
His friend snorted. “Sure you don’t.”
The group ordered, the girls got their drinks and the food arrived while they filled the air with small talk mostly dominated by Zoey and Harper. Those two could carry the entire conversation for the four of them.
“I don’t envy you,” Riley said to Wyatt as he took a big gulp of another beer.
“Why exactly is that?” Harper responded before anyone else could, her eyes narrowed and her lips pursed.
“He has to live the summer with the two of you.”
“And what’s wrong with that?” Zoey pushed back.
“The high-pitched voices and the fucking giggling. Dear lord the giggling. And I’m pretty sure he won’t be able to say a word the entire summer.”
Wyatt snorted beside him. “You, my friend, are asking for trouble.” Riley gave him a half-cocked grin in return.
He was fucking with the girls but mostly with Harper. Something about her made him want to get her fired up.
“You should be so lucky to hang out with us this summer,” Harper said back. “In fact, I say we leave him,” she pointed her thin finger all the way out, as close to Riley as she could get, “out of all the fun this summer.”
“I agree.” Zoey nodded her head emphatically.
“Sounds good to me,” Riley sparred back.
“Wait,” Zoey said sitting pin straight in her chair and smacking her hand against the table. “We all need to go to the beach. Like soon. How about this weekend? It’s going to be hot enough.”
“Yes,” Harper nodded slowly. “I’d like to spend the entire summer at the beach.”
“Wait,” Riley countered. “I thought I was being left out of all of this.”
“No. You’re going,” Zoey said with a smile. “We’ll have to make sure you don’t have any fun. See how that works?”
Wyatt chuckled. He warned Riley there’d be trouble.
“Besides,” Zoey continued. “What kind of friend would that make you to force poor Wyatt to be the only dude in the group? You’re better than that, Riley.”
His sister knew him too well. He wouldn’t leave Wyatt to squander his summer with the girls. Friends don’t do that.
Dear lord Harper forgot how hot Zoey’s brother actually was. She didn’t forget exactly but really enjoyed being reminded. She saw hot guys all the time but now that the entire summer would be spent with Zoey, she might need to give him a bit more thoroughly inspection. Tall, broad shoulder…he must still work out even though he wasn’t in the service anymore. That blonde hair, darker than Zoey’s, tan skin and blue eyes threatened to melt her panties off her body. But she needed to get those thoughts out of her head while they were together in a group. Too many more naughty thoughts and every single person at the table, if not the bar, would know exactly what she had on her mind.
“So you never did tell us much about Zoey in college,” Wyatt said bringing her away from thoughts she shouldn’t have been thinking right then. At least not with all of them at the table.
“I told you. Keeper of secrets here. I can’t tell you anything she hasn’t. It’s part of the friend code. You may know it as the Bro Code. Only for girls.”
“This is how she got the best friend job,” Zoey added popping a fry in her mouth.
“Zoey, you’ve always been the good kid,” her brother countered. Man, maybe he didn’t really know his
sister. Zoey’d never been bad exactly but she’d had the college experience. “There really can’t be much dirt there.”
She narrowed her eyes at him. “It’s not like I hotwired cars but it was college and you two didn’t go that route so you wouldn’t understand.”
“You think they didn’t do things overseas they’d want to remain in the dark?” Harper asked with a smile which got her friend thinking until Zoey’s entire face scrunched up in a look of “ew” making Harper laugh loudly.
“Oh please,” Riley scoffed. “This guy just sat around waxing poetic about some girl that he didn’t even hook up with. Something about a kiss he couldn’t forget and some other sappy bullshit. It sucked.”
The story sounded familiar to Harper. She glanced over at her best friend asking a silent question. Yup. Harper heard that same story back in school. Zoey’s face said it all. The kiss between Wyatt and Zoey after her high school graduation. Wyatt looked at Zoey with an intense gaze while Zoey had her head cocked to the side with the softest look on her face.
“You talked about me?” Zoey asked. Wyatt tightened his jaw and continued to watch her. He didn’t need to answer for the girls to know he talked about her.
“Fuck. That was about you?” Riley groaned loudly when Zoey pushed off her seat to wrap her arms around Wyatt’s neck while he pulled her onto his lap. The couple whispered in each other’s ear but the other two at the table couldn’t hear a word they were saying. Sweet but also a reminder to Harper that she hadn’t gone on a date in months. Long months. More months than she cared to admit which left certain needs in her own hands.
“All right you two break it up,” Harper said pulling at Zoey’s arm. She got Zoey back into her own seat but scooted her chair closer to Wyatt at the same time.
“Don’t rain on our parade because you’re a spinster,” Zoey teased back with a huge grin. She knew that settling down wasn’t a top priority for her friend. Harper gave her a smile back.
“Pff, spinster. Let’s get back to college days, Zoey. Do they know that their good girl hooked up with a few other girls to “try it out”?”
Zoey’s eyes grew wide.
“What?” Wyatt gasped at the same time her brother said, “What the literal fuck, Zoey?”
The guys weren’t angry which made Harper laugh. She knew what they were thinking. Wyatt likely imagined his girl with another woman in typical guy fashion while Riley tried not to think about anything sexual in regard to his sister.
“You guys are too easy,” Zoey said with a shake of her head before she began laughing. “She’s fucking with you.”
They turned to Harper who acted as if nothing had happened while she sipped her beer. It only lasted so long before she too burst out with a laugh spraying some of the beer foam onto her face.
“Seriously. If she had done that I wouldn’t be able to tell you. Keeper of secrets. Remember that.”
Chapter Three
With the way things were going at the garage, Riley earned a couple of drinks after work. He’d originally planned to keep it to just him and a few guys working in the shop but with jobs piling up, the time came to hire some more people. Which meant getting Glenn and Wyatt to recommend a few because Riley wasn’t about to hire anybody blindly if he didn’t have to. He gave a small wave to the bartender for a beer and it appeared almost right away. They weren’t busy and Riley came in often enough to be considered a regular which meant he got good service.
“Come here often?” A female voice asked sliding in beside him. He could hear the smirk in her voice and yet hadn’t expected to see Harper sitting next to him. She’d been in town a couple of weeks and they’d seen each other almost every day but always with Zoey around.
“Seriously?” He asked trying not to smile.
Harper wore this loose tank top that gave him a glimpse of cleavage. Something he always appreciated as he did the little shorts she chose for the day. Classic summer attire but it fit her small body like a glove.
“I thought you could appreciate cheesy.” She smiled and took a drink from her own bottle.
He gulped down half of his beer then said, “Aren’t you supposed to be joined at the hip with my sister?”
“Gross.” She sat up straighter. “No. Not at all times, if you know what I mean.” Then she winked.
He groaned making her giggle.
“Her and Wyatt needed some alone time.” Her face pinched together. “Or rather, I wanted to give them some time alone. They’re in the honeymoon period and now I’m always around. After two weeks, it was time.”
“So you’re going to hang out here and drink?”
Harper let a flirty, half grin cross her face. “Unless you can think of something better for me to do.”
Riley leaned an elbow onto the bar and rubbed his top lip with his index finger. He could think of many better things for her to do. With him specifically. His eyes locked on hers as he tried to decide what to say next. He went with exactly what he wanted.
“I can think of a few things.”
Harper’s eyebrow quirked up and that small grin grew wider as she nodded. “That’s kind of what I hoped you’d say.”
This time both of his eyebrows shot up. That kind of honesty…he could get used to. When she didn’t say anything else, Riley glanced over to her and found her draining her bottle of beer, her neck contracting with each swallow then she slammed it onto the bar and sighed.
“You ready to get out of here?” She asked.
Damn.
“Yup.” He tossed a bill on the bar and stood up. He didn’t want to waste a moment getting out of there. Even a minute longer than necessary before finding out if her naked lived up to his imagination would be too much.
This was weird even for him. His hookups didn’t usually start off with an offer and an acceptance. Unless of course, she’d been thinking this would happen eventually. Either way, it was weird. Usually, it took some finesse. Talking to the girl for a while, flirting, a few innuendos then leaving for somewhere more private. But he and Harper flirted since the first met earlier in the year. She’d caught him appreciating her body more than once. The idea of the two of them hooking up wasn’t surprising, how it happened shouldn’t be either.
“I’ll follow you to your place,” she said digging her keys out of her purse.
“What?”
When Harper’s eyes met his, he could see the playful sparkle even in the dim light of the streetlamp.
“Well, we can’t go to my place unless you like your sister’s couch. And I need a way home so I need my car.”
Riley nodded. “Right.”
He drove his regular ten minutes slower than he normally would’ve, watching his rearview more than the road. This little redhead might be the death of him. Her hair and tight body coupled with the confidence their earlier exchange showed might be more than he could handle. He shook that thought off. Being honest, which he’d never be outside of his own head, he would admit that he’d thought about Harper more than once since they met. And not in a purely platonic way.
The curve of her lips made him imagine them on his body, somewhere good, and the thought of her on her knees in front of him had pushed him over the edge more than once. Getting her out of his system would benefit him in two ways. The first being that he had absolutely no doubt that she’d be excellent at everything they did. The second, it’d give him something real to think about when he needed it.
Harper didn’t pull into his driveway instead opting to park at the curb on the street. They didn’t talk as they slowly walked into his house. He hit the light switch in the kitchen and that’s where they stopped.
“Zoey never mentioned that you have a house.”
“Yeah, I bought it five or six years ago.”
“Were you even in the United States then?”
He shook his head. “It sat empty until I moved back.”
“Didn’t want to stay with Mom and Dad?”
“Hell no.”
T
hey fell quiet again, their gazes locked in a battle of heat. Excitement raced through his body. They both knew why they were there, what they were about to do. He couldn’t see a point in waiting or pretending they planned to do anything else.
“So…” Harper wet her lips then pulled the bottom one between her teeth.
Riley rubbed a hand on the back of his head.
“Does this seem weird to you?” He asked.
She snorted. “Not yet.”
Riley couldn’t help the smile that appeared before he cocked his head to the side.
“Weird, how?” She asked still chuckling quietly.
“I mean…we’ve known each other a while. Things seem very matter of fact.”
She took two steps toward him putting her within his personal bubble.
“Why wouldn’t we be matter of fact? We both know why we’re here and I’m sure you’ve hooked up before.” She took one small step back while saying, “But if you’ve changed your mind…”
Riley’s hand shot out and grabbed Harper’s arm to stop her from retreating any further.
“I didn’t say I changed my mind.”
This time she threw a smirk his way. “Then kiss me already.”
Riley didn’t need to be told twice. He closed the distance between then and cupped her cheeks. He leaned down to touch his lips with hers. There was nothing soft about anything he did. His lips were a demand on hers, one she returned with gusto.
They pushed their bodies toward the other, Harper grabbing onto his jeans at the hips. Until she yanked at his shirt. He pulled back, missing her taste, just long enough for her to get his shirt off. The minute she accomplished that, he tugged her to him again.
The feel of her soft hands against his chest shot blood south and he pushed himself against her harder. Now he needed to get that shirt off her. It didn’t take him as long and she stood in front of him in a simple white bra. He might not know Harper as well as he could but she never hit him as the frilly kind of girl. He hadn’t expected a lacy bra but the simple cotton was sexy as hell and turned him on even more. Kind of the good girl vibe and Harper didn’t seem anything like a good girl.