by LK Collins
Chapter 2
Merritt
“What are you doing?” Willow asks me, in a stern warden-like tone.
Glancing up at her from my phone, a little confused by her question, “Jussssst workin’ a little.”
“Ari, did you not tell him about the rule?”
Rule?
“Oh, I told him,” he says, grabbing another beer from the fridge, but he definitely didn’t tell me about any rules.
“So, what, since he’s your friend, you’re gonna let him keep it?”
Keep what?
Ari rolls his eyes at his sister, and I really have no clue what they are talking about. Ted leans over and says, “I’d give her your phone now, if it was me.”
What the fuck?
Willow outstretches one hand to me, with her other placed on her hip, and I’m in shock. Is she for real? I’m working on a three hundred-million-dollar deal, and she wants my phone? “I’ll stay off it,” I tell her and place it in my pocket.
The room erupts into chaos, everyone yelling and arguing. Well, everyone, except for Quinn. She’s sitting in her chair smirking, sipping on her third pink girly drink. So unbelievably gorgeous that I could fuck her, right here and right now, in front of everyone. She shrugs her shoulders at me, and I ask her, “Did you have to give yours up?”
She nods and I look at the ceiling contemplating my options. I’ve never been without my phone—it’s my lifeline to my job, and my job is my life, so they go hand in hand. “Can I just send this last email?” I ask Willow and reach into my pocket, but she snatches it out of my grip like it’s a stack of cash, and I get up feeling like I’m stuck in a house with a bunch of crazy people. Why can’t we have phones? As I grab another beer, Ari hollers over to me, “You’ll be fine, man, trust me.” I flip him off. Out of everyone, he should know how important my phone is to me.
The girls all begin to clean up from dinner, and without my phone, I find myself watching Quinn. And it’s not because she’s the only single girl here, it’s because I’ve never seen a chick so confident. Wearing a pair of sweats and a t-shirt, with her hair pulled up.
“You know you got that deal in the bag,” Ari says, bringing me back to the moment.
“How do you know?”
“I’ve heard through the grapevine, man,” he says, and what Ari knows is typically the truth in our business.
“Well, nothing’s done until it’s done. Plus, you know my dad will freak if I don’t close it. He didn’t even want to let me take this week off.”
“Fuck your old man. You gotta keep him outta your head when you’re working.”
I nod, hearing Ari’s words, but actually listening to them is an entirely different thing. My dad owns the company I work for, which is a very prominent oil and gas business with offices all over the US. Ari used to work for him too and left to join a corporate venue. Now I run the western US, and the deal I’m working on is to expand into Canada, which would make us one of the top three largest US producers of oil in North America. Quinn’s laugh echoes through the house, pulling me out of my mind fuck and back to her.
“So, what’s the deal with that chick, Quinn?” I ask the guys.
“She’s Willow’s best friend, has been for years. She’s like family,” Ari says as Jacob is shuffling a deck of cards. “You pussies bring your wallets?”
Although Ari inadvertently left out the whole “no cell phone” thing, he did tell me about this. Every night is game night, most of which involves an actual cash pool for the winner.
“Yeah, let me go grab some cash,” I call, walking upstairs to get my wallet out of my bag. I go into the room I’m staying in and chuckle at the small beds. I didn’t notice them before. Probably ‘cause all I noticed were Quinn’s tits, but I’m not sure if I’ll even fit.
Digging through my bag, I find my iPad.
Fuck yeah!
The temptation is too great to resist, and I take it into the bathroom. I power it up and hope it gets service up here. I’m sure it will if my phone did. Sure enough, it does, and as I scroll through my emails, I’ve already received six new ones, on a Friday night no less. As I begin to read them, I’m startled by Quinn as she barges into the bathroom, and I freeze, looking at her in the reflection of the mirror.
“Shit, I’m sorry,” she says, but smirks when she sees my iPad.
“It’s all good. I…I…” I stall, not sure how to explain myself. She and Willow are tight, so I’m sure she’s on her side when it comes to this whole no phone thing.
She looks down at my iPad and says, “You better not let Willow catch you on that thing.” Standing next to me, she sets a small bag on the counter and unzips it.
“I can leave,” I tell her.
“No, you’re fine. I mean, we are going to be sleeping together.” She takes out a contact lens case, and I can’t focus on anything else, except for her words. “Not like that,” she says. I nod, going back to focusing on my email. Being this close to her, alone, has my mind on other things. Goddamn, she smells so good; she’s very distracting. “What’s so important on there anyway?”
“Fucking work,” I tell her, and when I think about it, I realize that I hate that it runs my life, but it does, and I’m not sure how to change that.
“What do you do for a living?” she asks me.
“I’m in oil and gas. You?”
“Investment advisor.” Nice, she’s got her priorities in check, that’s for sure.
“So, no wife or girlfriend?” she asks me.
“No, you?”
“Wife or girlfriend?” she gapes back at me, holding one of her contacts on her finger.
“You know what I mean.”
“No, thank God.”
“What’s that mean?” I ask her, a little offended by her remark.
“Nothing, it’s just…I was with this guy for a bit, and he turned out to be a total ass. Let’s just say it didn’t end well and left a sour taste in my mouth when it comes to men.”
“I’m sorry,” I tell her as she slides on a pair of glasses.
“It’s all good, it’s not your fault. This vacation is not about the past, Merritt, it’s about unwinding and letting go…” She trails off as her eyes get wide thinking about something, and I wonder what happened to her. What did her ex do that made her so anti-men? She recovers and looks down at my iPad, so I lock it. “I’m sure the whole no electronics thing seems crazy, but you really should try it. Once you’re unplugged from the world, it’s refreshing.” She goes to leave the bathroom, passing me close enough that I smell fresh rain and something else, the combination coming from her skin makes my cock twitch. Then she licks her lips—such a tease—and breezes past me. Her scent and her mouth, God, I fucking love it, I want it.
Grabbing my wallet, I drop my iPad in my bag and head back downstairs for something else to drink, something stronger, something that will tame the animal inside of me that Quinn is tempting. Because right now, for some reason, this chick has my head spinning, and I have no clue why. Not that I’m complaining, ‘cause she’s hot as hell, and I’d love to fuck her. But she’s fresh off a breakup and doesn’t want anything to do with men. So for once I’ll spare myself.
Chapter 3
Quinn
“Are you guys ready?” Kami asks as she holds up the box for some new game that she’s brought. The guys all gripe, not liking to be taught something new, but she quiets their complaints by saying, “Stop it…you’ve all played UNO, right?”
“Yeah, when I was in kindergarten,” Ari grumbles. She ignores him and empties the contents of the box onto the table. In the center of the coffee table is all of our contributions to the pot, which I really hope I win. Last trip, I won five out of the six pots.
Merritt comes into the living room with a glass of what looks like Scotch on ice in his hand. He must really hate not having his phone.
“You mind if I sit here?” he asks me, and I shake my head, tucking my feet further underneath me. As I lean on t
he arm of the couch, Kami is rambling away, and I find my eyes wandering, taking in glimpses of Merritt. He’s muscular, but not too big, clean-shaven and his hair looks like he just ran his fingers through it. The sleeves of his black dress shirt are rolled up, and his thighs are straining the fabric of his jeans. Biting my bottom lip, I look at his cock, and Jesus, it’s... “Any questions?” Kami asks us. I blink wildly, like a kid on the first day of school that hasn’t a clue what to do.
Merritt passes me a blank card and a tiny marker, and I look at it, perplexed. Peeking around the room, everyone is writing on their cards, and I whisper to Merritt, “What do I do?”
“Write a rule or something.”
“A rule?”
“Yeah, like something the person has to do that picks the card.”
“Can it be anything?”
“I think so.”
“What did you put?” I ask him.
“I’m not telling; she said not to.” He covers his card, and I sigh in frustration. I have no clue what to write. The only things that come to mind are just dirty. What is wrong with me? As everyone hands her back their cards, I go with it; no one will know I wrote it, right? Remove one piece of clothing, jewelry excluded.
Kami collects the cards and then passes out our hands. “God, I feel like a kid,” Ari complains.
“Trust me, man, this one is fun,” Jacob chimes in. “I had Kami sucking my cock the other night on every other hand.” She hits him on the back of the head, and we all laugh as she blushes, obviously still thinking about their game.
Oh God, did someone put a card like that in there?
As we work around the room, playing a traditional game of UNO, I begin to think this isn’t so bad, but my eyes are on the little machine that sits in the middle of the table which has our cards all inside of it, and I wonder what’ll happen when we have to use it. Then Willow lays down a card that has a picture of the machine and grabs the lever. The entire room silences, telling me that no one wrote anything nice on their cards.
As she spins the tiny slot machine-like device, we wait for it to stop and when it does, she asks, “What does that mean?” It’s got a picture of a blank black card on it with a question mark.
“Oh, that one means you pull a card and do whatever it says,” Kami tells her.
“But I thought you said that we could choose who had to do it.”
“If it gives you that option, then yeah. But it didn’t.”
“Just pull the card, babe,” Ted tells her, and reluctantly she does, rolling her eyes and being all dramatic. With the card in her hand, she’s just looking at it, not saying a word.
“What does it say?” I finally ask, hating the suspense.
“Make out with anyone in the room for one minute.”
“Who put that one in there?” I ask, and Kami says, “Were you listening to anything I said at all? I told you, you’re not allowed to say.”
Willow drops the card on the table and grabs ahold of the sides of Ted’s shirt as she whips her hair around. I giggle, what is she a 1980’s porn star? Then she climbs on top of his lap and begins to kiss him. As I finish my drink, Merritt asks me, “You want another one?”
“Sure.” He gets up, and I follow him into the kitchen. “Did you write that?” I ask him.
“No, I thought you did.”
I smirk and awkwardly look at Willow who is still going at it with Ted. His hands are on her hips, then Kami yells, “Time.” And they slowly stop.
“Who would you kiss, if you pulled that card?” Merritt asks me, refilling my glass.
Sipping on my drink, I look around the room, filled with all of my closest friends and know my options are limited. Really it’s Ari or Merritt, and Ari is like a brother to me, and I bet Merritt knows that, so he’s expecting me to say him. I look up at him, and he winks at me. That is his card.
Sonofabitch!
“It’s a hard choice between Willow or Kami, maybe both!” His mouth drops open, and I strut off to the couch. When I sit down, he’s still standing in the exact spot I left him, watching me.
He shakes his head with a smirk on his face. “So what do I lay down?” I ask as Willow’s blue card with the machine is on the top of the deck.
“You’ve got to either match the picture or color.” Looking at my hand, I have one card with a machine on it, but I’m not about to make that move, not until I see what else these crazy fuckers have written down. Merritt sits back down next to me, and I lay a blue six, then Ari lays down the dreaded card with the fucking wheel on it again, and he spins the machine. This time it’s got the same blank black card with a question mark, but it’s surrounded by tiny arrows. “That one means you can choose anyone to pull a card, or you can yourself,” Jacob tells him and Ari looks at Merritt.
“For real, man?”
“Yeah, why not?”
Merritt grabs the machine and takes the top card out. I look over at it as he reads it.
“Take a tequila body shot off anyone in the room…except yourself.” He holds his breath, and I do the same, knowing he’s gonna pick me. He won’t pick one of the other girls. He might pick Ari to be funny, although I sure as hell hope he doesn’t. As I wait, the anticipation has me questioning things.
“Quinn?” he asks me and everyone cheers. I roll my eyes at their response and take his hand as he leads me into the kitchen. On the center of the huge island is so much liquor you’d think we were hosting a frat party.
My heart is beating profusely, and my stomach is in my throat. I glance at the girls, and they get up, following us for a better look. “Oh, come on, you guys,” I complain as they all crowd around us. Merritt pours the shot, then grabs a lime and the salt. Now that he has everything he needs, he turns and zones in on me, his eyes carnal, like he’s about to eat me alive… or tear my pants off and fuck me.
I swallow nervously, and he looks at my throat, gently placing the lime backwards in my mouth before I can say anything. I guess I don’t have a choice on where he places the salt. His eyes scan my body, and I swear he can hear my heart pounding, it’s so loud. With no warning, he leans into my neck and licks it slowly. I keep looking off, nervous as shit; like not making eye contact with him is going to make me any less turned on than I already am.
He’s not giving me room to breathe and grabs the salt, pouring it on me like a pro. Once it’s added, he braces his weight on either side of me on the counter top, then says, “Look at me.” I pull my eyes away from the ceiling and zone in on him. Helpless under his control, with the lime keeping me silent, he smirks, smashing his body against mine, the bulge of his cock pressing into me, and I about gasp. Then his lips are on me again as he sucks hard, pulling up on the skin of my neck. The girls squeal, and I want to whimper, it feels so good, but I resist.
He knocks back the shot, and I about drop the lime as he comes in on me, giving me a little nudge before his lips brush up against mine. Everyone hollers and I blush a shade I haven’t in a long time. Redder than I think Kami did earlier remembering her UNO game with Jacob.
Men don’t typically do this to me. No, wait, they never do. I’m always in control; it’s how I get them to like me, but with Merritt, the control I normally have is stripped away as he owns it, suddenly making me question everything.
Chapter 4
Merritt
Taking the lime wedge out of my mouth, I whisper into Quinn’s ear, “Would you still kiss one of the girls, now?” She shakes her head, and everyone shuffles back to the living room, not hearing what I said to her. I still have her pressed up against the counter with my body, completely motionless. The sexual tension between us is heavy. I’m not sure what it is about her, but she makes me want her like I’ve never wanted a woman before.
I didn’t like how she told me that she’d kiss a girl over me. And to most guys it would probably be a turn-on, but not me, not when I want someone. I don’t share.
Our eyes still locked on each other’s, she knocks back a swig of the tequila str
aight from the bottle and grabs another lime, biting into it. The juices squirt, landing on my cheek, and I chuckle at her outburst, backing off, releasing her. Immediately, she darts back to the couch, and I have to give my cock a moment to go down. Her tight ass is so hot jiggling beneath her sweat pants.
Feeling satisfied, I refill my glass and sit back down next to her so we can continue our game.
As turn by turn goes on, the cards keep getting worse. These people wrote some fucked up shit down. One of the cards says to remove a piece of clothing, and as I look at Quinn, with both of her feet bare, I can’t wait ‘til she picks that card again, ‘cause she’s gonna have to take off either her pants or shirt.
“UNO,” Willow calls out, the game close to coming to an end. But not before Quinn lays down a card that activates the wheel. As we all wait for it to stop, the six cards have been reshuffled and added back in, so it’s anyone’s guess what will be picked.
It lands on her, and she rolls her eyes, reading the card out loud to us, “Do twenty jumping jacks.”
Both Ari and Jacob had to do it earlier, and it was pretty funny to watch them. But there’ll be nothing funny about watching Quinn’s hot ass do it. She gets up a little wobbly from so many drinks and begins. Coolly, I drink my Scotch, trying not to stare at her, but it’s hard with her tits all over the place.
Is she even wearing a bra?
As she jumps and we all count for her, she’s back to looking in the corner of the room. I lean back in my seat, placing my hand on my thigh. Her eyes move to me, and I have to battle with my cock to stay down. I can’t tell you how many hard-ons I’ve gotten tonight.
“Twenty!” The room erupts, and she plops down smelling even better than she has all night.
As we work back around, Willow ends the game, cheering as she lays the final card down and collects her winnings. The guys all toss their hands on the table, pissed that they lost and I couldn’t care less. Getting up, I decide to sneak away to check my email, hoping I’ve received the final confirmation that the Canadian deal is closed.