Brightest (Brighter #2)

by Rochelle Allison

  After a long, leisurely breakfast, I took Caroline to Shoy’s Beach, her favorite from last time. The sun was brilliant by eleven, with no sign of the previous day’s gloom. Sundays were always crowded, and today was no exception. We dodged mommy groups and tanning couples, finally finding a sweet spot on the far end of the beach.

  Caroline snapped roughly thirty pictures the second we stretched onto out towels. “Right to Instagram, so Jeremiah’s ass sees,” she muttered. “And maybe Facebook, for Gramma; she was pissed I didn’t post more last time.”

  After a couple of selfies, I took a picture of her, beer in hand, a wide swath of Caribbean blue glimmering in the background. “For Gramma.”

  She posted it, smirking. “Thank God for technology.”

  With a clink of our bottles we settled back, continuing the conversation we’d been having earlier about my classes down at UVI. I was explaining our upcoming thesis project when Caroline sat up, shading her eyes. “Who’s that?”

  I frowned, twisted around to see what she was staring at.

  A small group of guys sparred playfully near the water’s edge. Capoeira, by the looks of it. I recognized it because some of our friends were into it, guys like Eli and...

  Miles. My mouth dropped open. Son of gun. If that wasn't fate, I didn't know what was. “You know, I think I might recognize one of them,” I hedged. “You, uh, wanna go check it out?”

  Caroline adjusted her bikini top. “You know this.”

  Brushing sand from our behinds, we walked over to watch. Had they been strangers, I never would’ve felt comfortable just wandering up like this, but I knew some of them from town. And then, of course, there was Miles. He and another guy danced and dodged, playing off the encouragement of their friends. After a couple of flips and kicks, Miles swept his foot low, nearly knocking his friend to the sand. This went on until someone else broke in, and then Miles backed off, grinning when he saw me.

  He loped over, water glistening off his ridiculously toned, tanned chest. I saw the second he realized I’d brought a friend…an attractive, female friend. His eyes lit up, his chest puffed up and oh, Lord… I turned to Caroline, not sure if I should preface the intro with a warning, but she looked as intrigued as he did.

  “Hey, Alina,” said Miles, kissing both of my cheeks. He smelled like weed and beer and Egyptian musk.

  “Hi, Miles. This is my girl, Caroline. She's visiting from Miami.”

  “Hi,” Caroline said, offering her hand. Miles bypassed that, swooping in to kiss her cheeks. A dark blush unfurled beneath those brown cheeks, but before she could say anything, Miles laughed.

  “Jude didn’t lie. You’ve got some pretty friends for real, Alina.”

  “Well.” Caroline lifted her chin with a smirk. “What did you expect, island boy?”

  Chapter Five

  At some point during dinner, Caroline had moved from her side of the table to Miles’ and now she was practically in his lap, listening to his tales of growing up Cruzan. I was pretty sure he was making things extra juicy just for her, but I couldn’t fault him for it. He'd taken her mind off her douchey ex, and the smile on her face was all I needed.

  Anyway, Jude had pulled his friend aside earlier, giving him a heads-up—something along the lines of, “if you hurt Alina’s friend, not only will she string you up by the balls, she’ll make me suffer by proxy.” I suspected he’d told Miles about Jeremiah, and what he’d been like, because Miles was being remarkably well-behaved.

  Well, for Miles. He still had a hard time keeping his eyes away from Caroline's cleavage, but...hey– she had it out there for his perusal.

  It had been a fun, low-key couple of days. I had morning classes and the occasional shift at Larsen’s, but we worked around that, fitting in plenty of beach time. And when I was busy, she hung with Miles. He worked for a local tour company, driving tourists through the wilderness, so scooping her up to have wild adventures was easy. He pitched it like he was taking her off my hands, but we all knew he just wanted her in his hands. Horndog.

  “This trip is healing me in ways I didn’t even see coming,” she’d said earlier in the evening. We’d spent the past few hours at a lounge downtown, drinking beer and playing darts. “I can’t remember the last time I did shit just for me.”

  “You definitely deserve it.”

  “Yeah.” She smiled at Miles, who’d put yet another dirty R&B jam on the jukebox. “Maybe I’ll just move down. Follow in your footsteps.”

  I squeezed her hand. “Don’t tease.”

  But now it was late, and the yawns were coming fast and deep. Between Caroline, school, and work, there hadn’t been much downtime.

  “Tired?” Jude asked, resting his hand on my thigh.

  I glanced up at him, my heart giving a little thump. There hadn’t been much Jude-time, either. I linked my fingers with his. “I'll be okay.”

  “We can go home if you’re sleepy.” Caroline tucked her hair behind her ears. “Or I can just get a ride with Miles. He said he’d drive me home.”

  “I’ll bet he did,” muttered Jude.

  Miles smirked, resting his arm around the back of Caroline's chair. “Hey, now. Haven’t I been a gentleman, Caroline?”

  “You’ve been all right,” she said, hiding her smile behind a cup of ice.

  Letting them leave together had its appeal, though. Because as exhausted as I was, I was also in the mood. I missed Jude. The closeness, the sex, the waking up next to him.

  I glanced at Miles. He winked and stood up, slipping his hand into Caroline’s. “So, we’ll check ah you latah?”

  “Sounds good,” Jude said, on his feet. Damn, guess we were all ready to go.

  “Have fun…drive safe.” I hugged Caroline, slipping her Theo’s old house key, just in case. “I might just stay at Jude’s tonight. I’ll let you know.”

  Miles kissed my cheek, and then they were gone.

  “Finally,” said Jude, sliding his arm over my shoulders. “My place or yours?”

  “Yours.” It’d been at least a week since I’d been up there, and even then we hadn’t been alone. I missed it. I missed that shower, that bed.

  “I’m thinking of getting a dog,” Jude said, as we turned on to his long, winding driveway.

  “Really? That would be great,” I cried, thinking of the beloved pets I’d had over the years.

  “Tommy’s Rottweiler’s about to have puppies.”

  I clapped my hands in excitement, thinking of the utter adorability. I could already envision us rolling around the lawn with it, playing catch in the sunshine.

  I yawned again as we pulled up to the house, grateful I had the next day off…and that I’d given Caroline a key to my place. I had a feeling she and Miles would take advantage of the fact that that the house was empty when they finally made it back there.

  “What’s that face for?” Jude laughed, linking our fingers as we walked down the hallway to his room.

  “Miles and Caroline are totally going to do it in my house.” I shuddered. “Maybe in my bed.”

  “Maybe they’ll just fuck in his car,” Jude said, flipping his light on.

  “Now, that’s a visual,” I said, thinking of the old Acura Miles drove.

  “Yeah, I'm surprised he hasn’t hit it yet.”

  “Jude.”

  He snickered, kicking his shoes off. “I'm just saying. They’re obviously on the same page.”

  “I know, I know. Just...” I unbuckled my sandals. “It’s weird thinking about other people having sex.”

  Grabbing the hem of his t-shirt, he pulled it over his head and tossed it aside. “That's why I only think about us having sex.”

  “Nice segue.” I perched on the side of his bed.

  “I thought so.”

  He stalked closer, running his hands up my legs until he got to the hem of my skirt. “I like this dress thing.”

  “My skirt?” I laughed.

  “Yeah. Your skirt.”

  I smiled, kissing him.
“Caroline brought it down for me.”

  “I like the little shorts you wear to work, too,” he added, cupping my bottom with both hands.

  “They keep me cool.”

  “Funny, because they keep me hot. They’re almost…” He nipped my throat, then sucked the spot. “Too short.”

  I wrapped my legs around him, liking how he moved against me, how his jeans bit into me. He could make me feel good just like this, but there was no comparison to how he felt inside.

  “Take your jeans off,” I whispered, kissing his ear.

  He eyed me, straightening as he obeyed.

  I peeled my clothes off, meeting him in the middle of the bed, rubbing my hands over his warm skin. He slid his hand between my legs, touching me until I was wet, and then pulled me on to his lap. I leaned over, kissing him, letting him put me where he wanted me, and then I rode him slowly, gripping his sides as he held my hips.

  “I love having you here,” he said, eyes caught on mine.

  “In this house?”

  “In this bed...and this house. With me.” His hips rose, and he went deeper, harder, tracing his fingers in wet little circles that drove me crazy.

  Closing my eyes, I arched back and came. It rushed through me like a violent tide, pulling me under so I could barely breathe. Jude stilled, pushing me onto my back, and then my stomach, lifting my hips to meet his as he drove inside. I smiled against the sheets, because maybe he enjoyed slow and sexy…but he craved hard and fast.

  He leaned close, his body covering mine. “Stay with me, ‘Lina.”

  “I am…I will.”

  His fingers dug into my skin, warning me that he was coming, and then he did, with all the tempest of a hurricane.

  I rolled over as he pulled out, taking his face so that I could cover it in kisses. “Are you asking me to move in?”

  He collapsed beside me, breathing hard. “Yeah.”

  It wasn’t the first time he’d asked. I’d always said I needed space, but sometimes I wasn’t sure.

  “You sure you can handle me when I’m in the zone?” I smiled, squeezing his cheek. “Things can get a little crazy toward the end of the semester.”

  He gave me a little smile of his own. “I’ll handle what I have to.”

  “You say that now, but…”

  Pulling me close, he kissed me very gently, pressing his warm mouth to mine. “I just…I’d like to try. You moved down so we could do this thing, right? So, let’s do it.”

  He was softening me, damn it. “I still have a couple of months on my lease.”

  “I can wait.” Jude’s breath was coming slower now. “I know you love that place.”

  “I do, but I love you more.”

  He smiled, side-eyeing me, so I kissed him.

  “I've always lived alone, you know,” he said.

  “No roommates? Not even in college?” I said, shivering when he dragged his finger down between my breasts.

  “No girlfriends, I mean.”

  “Oh.” I exhaled slowly. “I only ever lived with Theo.” But even as I said it, I knew living with Jude would be nothing like that. Theo and I had sort of fallen into it on vacation. This would be intentional.

  We looked at each other.

  “You like your independence, and I like that about you. But I also like the thought of coming home to you.” This was intense Jude, the one that had both intimidated and attracted me in the beginning.

  “All right, let’s do it,” I said.

  “We’ll have a dog.” He grinned real slow, as if the thought appealed to him like no other. It got to me, too, and I smiled back, nodding. “And friends over for dinner.”

  “Christmas decorations.”

  “You’ll miss your tree,” he said, remembering my fondness for the flamboyant tree outside my bedroom window.

  “You’ve got good trees,” I said. “And the best view.”

  “I better stock up on mosquito spray. Those fuckas love you.”

  “Okay, but Citronella candles are prettier.”

  He snorted, running his hands through his hair as he sat up.

  “I wonder what my mom’s gonna say,” I mused, sitting beside him.

  “You think she’ll freak out?” he asked, frowning.

  I shook my head. “She loves you.”

  “What about your dad?”

  “What about him?”

  “Maybe we should, I don’t know. Run it by him.”

  “What is this, the fifties?” I huffed. “My father doesn’t give a shit what I do, Jude.”

  He cocked his head, watching silently as I slid out of bed.

  “What?” I asked. “I mean, you’re not asking for my hand, here.”

  “Oh, no?”

  My heart leapt. “No, I mean…I—”

  “Should I be?” There was that smirk, that infuriating little gleam in his eye when he was messing with me.

  I couldn't tell if he was kidding around or being serious, so I popped him in the face with a pillow and marched to the bathroom. Yeah, I thought about marrying Jude, in the abstract, fleeting way you think about the guy you’re dating when things are going well.

  But we didn’t need it, not yet, not quite. We’d done well going with the flow, feeling one another out…and I felt like we’d know. I rolled my eyes, starting the shower. Dammit, Jude. Always throwing me off.

  “Ey,” he said, beside me now, squeezing my ass. I caught his hand, squeezing it. “I love you. Know that.”

  “I do know that.”

  “Good.

  ~

  Caroline picked me up from school, pulling expertly onto Centerline Road as she chatted about her day with Miles.

  Caroline, whose ticket home had expired two weeks ago. She’d found out through friends back home that Jeremiah had knocked some girl up and that was it; I’d never seen her so hurt. My Caroline was eternally cool, the one pulling me together when I freaked out over school or my Dad or whatever. This Caroline had nearly come unhinged. She may’ve been done with him for good, but it didn’t mean she was over him yet.

  “I need a job, Alina,” she said as we hit a stoplight. “If I’m staying here.”

  I squinted at my notes from class. “How long’re you planning on staying?”

  “I don't know. Forever.”

  “Oh, really?”

  “Girl, that’s what you did,” she shot back. “Who questioned you?”

  “Everyone.” I clapped my notebook shut. “Except Jude.”

  That seemed to take the wind out of her sails. “Well. I just...can’t go back. Not yet. I don’t even have a job anymore.”

  This was true. She’d lost that, probably around the time she’d lost her mind. Seriously, I wasn’t used to this new, impetuous Caroline.

  “Maybe you can help Ivy. And, uh, Ariel. They have another wedding coming up, at the Buccaneer.”

  She wrinkled her nose. “I’m good.”

  “It pays well. They wanted me to do it, but I have to work on my thesis—”

  “Thesis my ass. You just don’t want to work with Princess Ariel.”

  “Touché.” I laughed. “We’ll figure something else out.”

  We drove along in easy silence, listening to one of Miles’ mixtapes. Well, mixed CDs. My car was old enough that it played both.

  “You know you can stay for as long as you want,” I said, squeezing her shoulder. “I love having you here…it’s like old times. I just want you to stay for the right reasons, you know?”

  “Preserving my sanity is a good reason. Not seeing Jeremiah’s ugly-ass face and his ugly-ass pregnant girlfriend is a good reason.”

  Who could argue with that? “I guess I was thinking more about Miles. He doesn’t have the greatest track record, either.”

  “You sound like my mother.” She smirked. “Let me worry about Miles.”

  ~

  “Miles says he loves her,” Jude said, shrugging as he popped another peanut in to his mouth. We were at the bar, killing time while I wa
ited for one of my orders.

  “Oh my God, and I thought we’d moved fast.”

  “We didn’t move that fast.”

  “Miles just thinks he loves her, when really what he loves is her…body.”