by Kerri Carr
“You can’t come!”
“Why not? Give me one good reason.”
“Because… because of the business.”
“We’re not exactly hurting for money Daisy,” she replied, reaching for a towel and handing it to me so I could dry myself. “And today when you were out looking for a dress to wear to the funeral, I called all the clients who will be affected by our absence and explained the situation to them. They were all understanding and willing to wait for us to get back to the office except for one person. So what other objection do you have for me coming with you to lend my support? Your always mother was nice to me, Daisy. She treated me like a member of the family and you know how much that meant to me when my own mother ran off and left me with my dad.”
She was right. I had no other objections for her going with me to spend the weekend at my parents’ home. No reason that I could share with her. I could do this. No one had to be the wiser that I’d lie. Not my step-brothers and not Phoebe. They could never find out or I’d end up looking like a big fool. I didn’t like the way all the lies were growing bigger and bigger though.
“Fine,” I told her. “You can come with me.”
“Like I needed your permission,” she claimed and walked from the bathroom.
I was so grateful for her being there for me as a friend. God only knew how I would get through the funeral and with my step-brothers’ accusatory gazes too. She could be a buffer between us.
*****
“There, look. I think I see him.”
I followed the direction Phoebe was pointing in and swallowed as one very hot and tempting step-brother came into my view. Wyatt Montgomery, the younger of the two brothers and older than me by two years. One of the reasons I refrained from returning home. Blond, tousled curls which always made him look as though he’d just gotten out of bed. His dark blue eyes located us and his long legs led him in our direction. Tall and athletic in build, his face split into a tentative grin when he saw me.
When Ty had insisted that one of the two pick me up from the airport instead of me renting a car, I’d been hoping he wouldn’t come himself. Although both brothers were disappointed in me, Wyatt was more carefree and understanding. He wouldn’t hold a grudge. It was his brother who I feared most. I couldn’t believe they were so different and yet I was drawn to both. And like a moth to a flame, I would get burned if I didn’t remember my role—as their sister. That was what I would always be to them. It didn’t matter that they’d come into my life when I was fifteen and just discovering how intense feelings could be between a boy and a girl. Too bad they’d walked into my life at that time and all my feelings about the opposite sex had been confused with them. At that time, Wyatt had been in senior year of high school and Ty was in college.
My hand sought Phoebe’s linking our fingers in a gesture she thought meant a request for support as she squeezed mine but to Wyatt would mean so much more. I blushed a little, not wanting to think of what they both would say if they’d discovered my lies.
“Little sister!” Wyatt cried and enveloped me into an exuberant hug which had me letting go my friend’s hands. “You look good. How long has it been?”
His question caused a lump to form in my throat. “Too long,” I responded. “I can’t believe they’re gone. You must hate me.”
“Of course not,” he stated. “Though none of us understood it, you must have had a good reason. Plus, you’ll have enough on your plate dealing with Ty so I can’t give you as much grief.”
“He is very mad at me, isn’t he?”
“Livid. But it’s fueled by his hurt,” Wyatt commented before turning to observe Phoebe with interest.
I swallowed. Here comes the hard part. I grabbed hold of Phoebe’s hand and tugged her forward. “Wyatt, you remember my girlfriend, Phoebe. Phoebe my step-brother Wyatt.”
I let out a deep breath as they shook hands and none seemed to question my term “girlfriend.” As I’d expected, both had their own interpretation of the word. They didn’t even question it.
“Nice to meet you again, Phoebe,” Wyatt said. “Thanks for coming to support our family at a time like this.”
Phoebe nodded and, bless her heart, placed her hand across my shoulders comfortingly. “I’m glad to be here. I’m so sorry about your loss.”
“Yes, it is a great loss. Come on, the car’s parked this way.”
We wheeled our luggage behind us and exited the airport, walking to the parking deck. When our luggage was packed away in the trunk of Wyatt’s car, I climbed into the backseat with Phoebe instead of sitting up front with him. We were off for the house.
“Ty and I decided to stay in the house while you’re there,” he mentioned. “To give you some company. We don’t want you staying there on your own.”
I could feel myself starting to panic at the thought of being back in our past situation. Under the same roof—with Tyler and Wyatt. One was bad, two was impossible to resist making me doing stupid things. Like the times I’d run off the girlfriends they brought home due to jealousy I couldn’t contain. When one of them had ended up with a concussion from a prank I’d pulled to get her to leave the house and never return, I’d realized how serious this was and decided to move away to college. Away from the men who made me do crazy things because I couldn’t bear to see them with other women.
It hurt.
They never noticed me. I was a little sister to them, to make fun of. Their girlfriends had been slender and made me feel insecure about my curves. Not to mention the way they used to tease me about my baby fat which I hadn’t started to lose until college.
“Y’all don’t need to do that,” I told him. “I’ve got Phoebe to stay with me.”
“Well, we didn’t know your girlfriend was coming too,” he stated. “But we already got some of our stuff at the house to stay. Plus, I think it’s best to stick together now, you know.”
“Yes, you’re right,” I strangled out. He was right but I was sweating at the idea of them being so close. Damn, it was eight years since I moved away. Was I really not over them?
Phoebe placed her hand on my jean clad thigh and rubbed. “Are you okay?” she said so softly, I was sure Wyatt didn’t hear although he was peering at us from the rearview mirror.
I placed my hand behind her head, into her hair and pulled her to me so I could whisper into her ear. She leaned into me, thinking nothing of the gesture but I was going for an intimate look.
“When we get to the house, please don’t leave me alone with those two.”
“Why not?” she whispered back.
“It’s a long story. I’ll tell you when we get back to Los Angeles. Just promise.”
“Okay I promise.”
“Thank you!”
The drive from the airport to the house in Vestavia Hills was approximately fifteen minutes. As Wyatt drove through the security gates and up the driveway to the porch, I was nostalgic. By now my mother would have been waiting on the porch, smiling at me. I couldn’t believe she was gone.
I wasn’t the only somber one. Silently, Wyatt retrieved the bags from the trunk. My feet were heavy with grief as I took the wooden steps to the porch. The porch that my mother had so lovingly decorated. Lanterns, wicker chairs, a swing, a table, all lovingly selected by her. As if sensing my need for strength, Phoebe wrapped an arm around my waist supportively.
Before we got to the door, it was opened and Ty filled the doorway. One would have never guessed he was Wyatt’s brother. He’d taken after his dad with dark good looks while Wyatt was fair, resembling their deceased mother. Raven locks clipped short and deep blue eyes. Ty was also bigger, not so much in height as in body size. Not an ounce of fat on his body. His broad shoulders and chest were all rock solid. I knew he worked out religiously in and out of the gym though I didn’t know when he found time. He was the CEO of Montgomery View, the hotels owned by the family and passed down to each of us from his dad. Not feeling as though I deserved any part of this, I’d even wal
ked away from my share in the company.
I was prepared for a fight with Ty and straightened my shoulders. He’d always been very verbose about my decision to leave Alabama and live in another state where I knew no one but Phoebe. So when he opened his arms shockingly and said, “Welcome home,” his voice gravelly with emotion, I burst into tears and walked into his arms. Comforted, cherished, loved, that was how he made me feel at this moment. They both had welcomed me in their family and shown me love and kindness. Was it any wonder I was in love with them both?
*****
“Your parents were incredible people and…”
I’m such a slut, I thought, smiling and nodding at the man who had been some business associate or another of my step-dad. I couldn’t remember his name and I wasn’t inclined to ask him either. If he was being inappropriate by ogling my breasts at my parents’ funeral, I was going to hell for watching my step-brothers who were working the room, accepting condolences. My grief hadn’t dulled my senses when it came to my step-brothers and I was devastated when a woman I assumed to be Ty’s girlfriend sat with us in the family pews earlier at the funeral. She was now hanging onto his arm, a glass of champagne in hand.
The funeral had been beautiful, the tributes touching and the mayor had even spoken about my mother’s contributions to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation. Now that the deed was done, my parents laid to rest, the hollow feeling in my chest was being replaced with the jealousy of seeing Tyler and his woman together. Typical of him to date a slender woman who made me feel very aware of the heavy fullness of my breasts and the snug fit of my dress about my waist. I shouldn’t even have these feelings of insecurity since I’d turned heads today but there was no confidence killer like seeing the brothers with different women. And not with me. Never me. Why not me?
Even as I asked myself the question, I knew the answer. They only viewed me as a sister. Nothing more.
My eyes swept the room for the other brother and froze when I saw Wyatt standing to one side and having a chat with Phoebe. Crap. I couldn’t have them talking alone without me guiding the conversation. If Wyatt let out that… Oh shit. Phoebe glared at me from where she was. While her eyes never left me, she said something to him and started in my direction.
“If you’ll excuse me, sir,” she announced, interrupting the man who had kept on with his one-sided conversation. “I need to steal my girlfriend away for a minute.”
My heart beat wildly in my chest as she dragged me from the ballroom in our parents’ house where the guests had convened after the funeral service. I glanced in the direction of both brothers and realized they were staring after us. Instead of resisting Phoebe, I went willingly with her. Let them think what they will! They already thought we were having sex anyway especially when I’d begged Phoebe last night not to use the guestroom but to stay in my old bedroom. We slept in the same bed, Phoebe doing nothing but holding me as I cried, remembering my parents and the great loss but no doubt they thought we were doing more.
If they only knew the truth. A truth I wouldn’t be able to keep from Phoebe any longer or she would blow everything. I refused to be the loser that had a crush on her step-brothers who didn’t even know she was alive.
She didn’t stop walking until we were upstairs and into the bedroom we were sharing.
“Why does your brother think we’re getting married?” she asked closing the door behind us.
I groaned. “I don’t know,” I tried to bluff. “Did you ask him?”
“You really want me to go and ask him, Daisy? Okay, let me go.”
“Noooo,” I grabbed her arm to halt her from opening the door. “Okay, I’ll tell you but you’ve got to promise you won’t be mad at me.”
“I’ll not promise such a thing. Just tell me.”
“Okay, okay. I kinda told him we were a couple,” I said on a cringe.
“Why would you do that?” she asked calmly.
“Because it was the easiest thing to explain,” I answered. “You don’t know them and how they used to jeer me all the time about not bringing a man home. That Christmas when you came home with me, they cornered me and were at it again, asking if that’s the reason I never brought a man home. I answered yes. It was easier to answer the question than to tell them the truth.”
She walked toward me which made me back up until my knees hit into the bed.
“What secret are you harboring from them?” She wanted to know.
“Look, I’m sorry I told such a lie but I haven’t asked you to do anything out of the ordinary than be a friend. Just keep up the charade until we get back to L.A. and then we can go back to being fake girlfriends in their eyes but from a distance.”
“What if I don’t want to go back to being platonic friends?” she asked.
My brows furrowed in confusion. “What do you mean?”
“What if I’m very intrigued by this ploy of yours? What if this has been my fantasy too?”
I laughed nervously at the way she was looking at me. “Will you stop joking around? I’m sorry okay? I never should have lied and involved you in it. I’ll tell them we broke up and decide to remain friends.”
“I think I much prefer your way,” she said, so close to me now that I tilted backward and fell onto the bed. “Why just make it pretense? As long as I am your girlfriend, why not just go all the way?”
*****
I still didn’t believe Phoebe was serious when her hand trailed under the skirt of the black dress I’d worn to the funeral. I could feel the trace of her fingertips on my flesh as she slowly ran her hands up my thighs.
“Phoebe what are you doing?” I squealed. “I already told you I’m sorry.”
“You don’t need to be sorry,” she said softly. “Just tell me yes.”
“Yes?”
“That’s all I need, Daisy. Do you know how long I’ve wanted to do this? To fuck you.”
My mouth fell open in surprise. Was this real? She had to be playing a trick on me because of what I’ done.
“So you’re going to eat me out?” I asked jokingly, my eyes shining with laughter at her antics.
“Yes. Sit up.”
She helped me to sit and before I could tell her that this was not going to happen, she had my dress in her hands and yanked it over my head. My top knot was disturbed and waves of hair fell down my back. I was left sitting on the bed in a black underwear set with my stockings and garters.
“I’ve always thought you so sexy,” she murmured, reaching behind my back for the clasp of my bra and unhooking it. I was so mesmerized and shocked at what she was doing that I couldn’t react when she pulled the scrap of material down my arm and threw it onto the bed. “Your breasts are so big and beautiful. All those times you walked around naked or I entered the bathroom for a silly reason just to see you naked. Do you know what I did immediately after, Daisy?”
“Uh no,” I croaked, wondering what had happened to my friend. This was not the Phoebe I knew. Phoebe didn’t like women. She dated men. Except now I was thinking about it, I couldn’t remember much of Phoebe’s dating history, neither women nor men.
“I would return to my bedroom, close my eyes and think about you while I make myself cum.”
“Phoebe we are friends!” I reminded her.
“Exactly why I should be honest with you. If I were honest with you, Daisy, I would have told you how much I wanted you since you became my roommate back in college.”
She unzipped her dress and shrugged it off her shoulder, letting it drop to her feet. Sh wasn’t wearing a bra again. Her small breasts were firm, sticking out of her chest, the nipples distended from desire for me. She was wearing a red thong.
Phoebe got into bed and sat on my lap. She had done so many times before as a friend that it didn’t feel weird at all. Except now she sat with her legs behind me, straddling me. Her hands went to find my breasts and she squeezed them hard and a moan escaped her mouth.
“They are even better than I ever thought,” she m
urmured and pushed me back to lie down onto the bed. A part of me wanted to run out of the room and I was seriously contemplating it when she took a nipple between her lips.
“Phoebe!” I gasped in surprise, as pleasure shot through my pussy. She didn’t ease up but worked her tongue and lips over the tips until they were rock hard. I’d have never thought I could be turned on by a woman before but the feel of her mouth on my breasts were no different than a man’s and my body reacted. She started going wild on me, leading me to believe she must have really wanted this just as she had said. She sucked my nipples harder, moaning in the back of her throat as her hand trailed down my tummy to my black thong. Her fingers brushed against the lace edges before she plunged her hand beneath the material.
My first instinct was to clamp my legs shut but she easily slipped her lithe body between my thighs. Her fingers slipped through my pink wet folds.
“So wet for me, Daisy,” she mumbled. “Damn your pussy is so soft and meaty. I can’t wait to eat it.”
I shuddered at the effect her words were having on me. Unlike most girls who went through the bi-curious stage of being with another woman, I’d never been there before. I was plenty bi-curious now though at the words she was saying to me. It was so long ago since I’d gotten anything on my body parts sucked.
Her finger pressed expertly on my clit, working the nub with her forefinger. My hips jerked in response and I was beneath her, my hips moving restlessly in want. She kissed down my tummy and continued the path leading to my mound. When she pulled her hand from underwear and started sucking her fingers, glistening from my juices, it hit me that this was real. This wasn’t fake. My best friend was about to go down on me.
I had a split second to decide what to do as she grasped my underwear and pulled it off. I raised my ass for her to take off the thong but I was having a heated exchange in my mind.
You need to stop her before this goes any further.
But it feels so damn good.
This can ruin your friendship, your business relationship. Is that what you want?