His dark eyes are staring right at me, like gravity pulled them there.
Breathing is easier and more difficult at the same time.
“Eric and Oliver gave the all clear.”
I nod my head, as though having security do a sweep of the property is something normal that happens in my everyday life.
“Sweeeet.” Josh drags out the middle of the word as he tugs the t-shirt he’s wearing over his head.
He flashes a panty-dropping smile at poor Avery, and I watch as her jaw drops open in shock at the sight of his chiselled, golden torso.
Been there, sweetie, been there.
He charges off, out through the door I left open and two seconds later, we hear the splash of him hitting the water of the pool.
“Sweet baby Jesus,” Avery whispers, her eyes still trained on the space he last occupied.
“Yip.” I nod in agreement.
“Did you see all his abs? Are there meant to be that many?”
I giggle. “If you play your cards right, he’ll probably let you touch them.”
“Screw touching, I want to lick melted chocolate off them.” She sighs.
I hear a chuckle and look up in surprise. I’ve never heard Masen laugh. The warm, throaty sound is like music to my ears.
“Masen Lennox, did you just laugh?” I demand.
There’s no sign of a smile on his face, but I see it in his brown eyes, he can’t fool me anymore.
“What do you think, sugar?” he drawls.
I step towards him at the same moment that Josh yells out, “Avery, baby, get that sexy ass out here.”
Avery doesn’t need to be told twice, she’s tugging her dress off, revealing her bikini in a flash and taking off after him.
I shake my head in amusement.
Those two are so getting it on.
“Your friend better be good about using protection, because Avery is terrible at taking her pill, and the last thing anyone needs is little mini Joshs running around.”
I haven’t built up the courage to look back at Masen now that we’re alone, but I see him moving out of the corner of my eye, coming in my direction.
He comes up behind me, ignoring my warning. The curve of my lips fall, and my breath comes out in heavy pants.
I feel his fingers graze ever so softly up my arm and down my collar bone.
He sweeps the thick mass of hair from my shoulder and drops it so it trails down my back.
“Did you pack your sexy bikinis, sugar?” he asks, his deep voice right at my ear.
A shudder rocks my body, and I swear I can feel him smiling at the reaction he’s just created.
I nod my head slowly, my eyes trained on the horizon line.
“You gonna wear one for me?”
I bite down on my bottom lip to keep from moaning and nod my head again.
“What about those short shorts? You gonna tease me with those too?”
His fingers find my skin again, this time running from my shoulder up to my neck.
I can’t hold back my whimper of appreciation this time, instead tipping my head away from him to allow him better access.
“Hmm, sugar?” he prompts.
“Yes,” I whisper.
“Good,” he replies huskily, the one simple word nearly turning me to jelly.
His lips brush my shoulder and my lids flutter closed. By the time I open them again, he’s gone.
I stand there, committing to memory how his lips felt on my skin.
“You look like you’re about to orgasm, FG.”
I wish.
I glance behind Josh, but there’s no sign of Avery yet, so I pin him with my best ‘I mean business stare’.
“Uh oh.” He winces. “What the hell is that look for?”
“I’m just going to say this once and then we never speak of it again.”
“Okay.”
“You put your dick near my best friend, you wrap it, got it?”
His expression slowly morphs from shock to shit-eating grin. “You worried about me knocking up your friend, FG?”
“Little bit if I’m honest.” I set my hands on my hips.
He flicks his wet hair, sending a spray of water flying across the room before taking steps towards me, all smokin’ hot muscles and gorgeous blue eyes.
I swear he could probably get a girl pregnant with just that look alone.
I swallow deeply, my nerves coming to the surface. I might be all kinds of hung-up on Masen, but I’m not blind. Josh is sexy as hell. That level of hot can’t go unnoticed.
“You know what, FG? I think you’ve got better things to worry about,” he whispers as he leans in towards my ear.
“Like what?” I reply, my voice shaky.
“Like the fact that my boy is having a hard time convincing himself to keep his hands off you.”
I huff out a laugh. “Bullshit.”
He winks at me before strolling away, leaving my mind reeling, from his abs or his words, I’m not entirely sure.
“I’m telling you, FG, he’s got it bad,” he yells over his shoulder.
I don’t believe him for a second, but it doesn’t change the fact that I’m longing for Masen to touch me again already.
“Shit,” I mutter.
Nothing good can come from any of this.
***
“I’m picking the movie!” Avery yells as she hauls ass into the media room, and I have to admit, Josh wasn’t really wrong – this thing is huge.
A massive big-screen on one wall and the comfiest-looking couches staggered on two platform levels.
It’s just like a cinema, but even better because it comes complete with two of the hottest guys I’ve ever laid eyes on.
I’m all for candy with my movie, but this is candy that’s just for my eyes, and it’s ridiculously good.
Josh bounds to the back couch and throws his body down along it. “Avery, baby, come sit with me.”
Her eyes light up and she rushes after him, pausing when he doesn’t move his legs for her to sit down, instead he chuckles, wraps his long arm around her middle and drags her down, so she’s lying, the little spoon to his big.
They’re cute together. If Josh wasn’t a player and Avery wasn’t a fruit loop, they could have something special.
“Looks like you’re with me, sugar,” Masen rasps, and my insides quiver. The way he calls me ‘sugar’ makes me weak in the knees.
I’ve sat with him before, but not in the dark, surrounded by what I assume is soon to be a make-out session by our best friends. I feel like a teenager on her first movie date all over again, only I doubt that Masen is going to yawn and subtly put his arm around my shoulders or cop a feel of my boob.
He points to the couch, and I pick a side, sinking into the plush fabric.
I moan in appreciation. “Oh. My. God. This feels so good.”
“No need to imagine what you would sound like in the bedroom, huh, FG?” Josh chuckles, and I feel myself blush bright red.
I see Masen move, quick as a cat, and a cushion flies back, smacking Josh right in the face.
“Ow.” He huffs, tossing it back. “What the hell was that for?”
“I told you not to touch my girl,” Masen replies lazily, and my focus snaps back to him.
“I didn’t touch her!”
“Maybe not in real life,” Masen mutters, and Josh throws a hand up in outrage.
“So now you’re going dark on me because I imagined her having an orgasm?”
I cover my face with my hands, blushing even though this entire conversation is based on nothing but Josh’s dirty mind. “Can we please stop talking about this?”
“Please,” Avery agrees. “You all need to shush, I’m putting the movie on.”
I settle deeper into the couch, my face still flaming as the opening credits start to roll across the huge screen.
Masen pulls out his phone and taps away for a few seconds, then we’re enveloped in darkness, just as I feared we would be.
I need to get a hold of myself. I don’t know what it is about him, but he’s taking up far too much real estate in my brain.
It’s unhealthy. I’m obsessed with everything about him.
The title of the movie comes across the screen and Josh groans loudly. “Really, baby? The Notebook? Are you trying to kill me?”
“It’s a classic,” Avery replies.
“It’s a chick flick. Can’t we watch Thor or something?”
“As much as I love me some Chris Hemsworth, my decision is final. Any and all complaints must be made in writing and sent to ‘I don’t give a fuck, at twenty-four, Get-over-it Lane’. Mmmkay?”
“I’ll give you a fuck you’ll care about,” Josh retorts.
I groan. They’ve got each other started now.
“Shut the fuck up. If I’ve got to watch this shit, I at least want to hear it,” Masen grumbles.
They banter back and forth in whispers for a few minutes and then I swear I can hear them kissing.
I bite down on my bottom lip to keep from laughing.
“Un-fucking-believable,” Masen mutters.
I don’t know what the hell happened to my life, but if someone had told me a year ago that I’d be here, watching a romantic movie with one of the biggest superstars on the planet, I would have laughed and told them they were crazy.
I shake my head in amusement and disbelief.
“What’s so funny, sugar?” Masen whispers, shifting himself closer to me as he asks.
I suck in a breath, I didn’t know he was watching me.
“I thought you wanted to watch the movie.”
The screen lightens, throwing a dull glow over us and I’m struck again by just how freaking gorgeous he is.
“I don’t give a shit about the movie.”
“It’s a great love story,” I whisper, pointing at the screen, trying to get his intense stare to shift from me, but it doesn’t work. His eyes don’t budge from mine.
“It’s total bullshit,” he replies gruffly.
“What is?”
“Love. All this one-true-love crap.”
I frown at the sincerity in his tone.
“You don’t really believe that, do you?”
His dark eyes trail over my face slowly, taking in every inch before he answers. “I could ask you the same question.”
I huff out a breath. Of course I believe in love.
Love is everything.
I want true love.
I want my very own prince charming.
I want my happily ever after.
He searches my expressions one more time, then wordlessly turns back to the movie like he didn’t just confess to thinking true love is a joke.
CHAPTER NINE
Masen
“It’s hot as balls out here.” Avery moans as she shifts a little to her left, trying to stay in the shade of the umbrella.
“Get in the pool, babe,” Josh replies, “Or we could go inside and I’ll show you how hot my balls are?”
I roll my eyes behind my shades.
I don’t know how the fuck the guy gets so many chicks with lame-ass lines like that, but they just fall at his feet. Over and over and over again.
I once saw him pick up a chick with nothing more than a beckon of his finger.
That was it. Putty in his god damn hands. Didn’t even speak a word to her.
I mean, shit, I might not say much, but that’s a joke.
My gaze slides to Billie for the one hundredth time, and it’s as if she can feel my eyes on her, because she sits up, her perky fucking tits bouncing in her barely-there bikini as she looks at me.
“I’m going swimming, who’s coming?”
She stretches her arms high above her head, and no fucking way am I going near that, not unless she wants to be stripped bare and taken right here next to the pool.
I need to keep my god damn distance – that’s what I need to do.
“I think I know someone who wishes he was coming,” Josh drawls, his shit-eating grin pointed right at me.
I flip him off, adjust myself in my shorts and grab my pack of smokes.
“You know, they say kissing a smoker is like licking an ash tray,” Billie says, and I halt the cigarette in the air, mid-way to my lips.
I smirk. “You asking to test that theory, sugar?”
Her eyes widen, her smart-ass grin sliding off her face.
She stands up, the towel around her waist falling to the ground, and she’s all long, bare legs and sexy mussed-up hair.
Fuck.
I am so fucked. She’s a walking wet dream.
“It’s a dirty habit, that’s all I’m saying.” She holds her hands up in defence as she strolls towards the edge of the pool.
“Yeah, man, it’s a dirty habit,” Josh parrots, trying his best to rile me up.
“Why don’t you fuck off inside?”
He blows me a kiss, and I resist the urge to smack him.
I light my cigarette and take a long drag as I watch Billie raise her hands above her head and dive gracefully into the water, popping up a moment later.
She swims to the side of the pool, while I pretend not to watch with rapt attention, and lifts her arms to the edge, so she’s perched there.
I nearly choke on my smoke.
The only thing sexier than Billie in a bikini, is her in one soaking wet.
“You coming in?” she asks me, a devious smirk on her lips.
She might scream sweet and innocent, but right now, I’m god damn certain she knows exactly what she’s doing.
I shake my head, not trusting myself to say a word.
“Why not?”
Why not?
Isn’t that just a loaded little question…
It’s not that I don’t want to get in that pool, but I know damn well if I start taking my clothes off and getting up close and personal with this girl, then it won’t be close enough. That tiny scrap of fabric covering her won’t last half a second, and the things I want to do to her aren’t fit for public consumption.
That’s fucking why not.
“He doesn’t trust himself around you when you’re so moist, FG,” Josh answers for me.
Sweet fucking Christ.
Billie shoots him a look of disbelief and Avery pretends to gag.
“That’s disgusting.”
“Doesn’t make it any less true though does it?” He grins back.
“Don’t ever let me hear you say the word ‘moist’ again,” Billie demands.
The asshole winks at her. “I’m going to get it printed on a t-shirt, just for you. Mooooiiissst.” He gestures across his chest.
“Yeah well you can shove that t-shirt right up your –”
“Enough,” I bark, rising from my seat and stalking off down the beach.
The last thing I need is to be thinking about that girl, this way.
She might be here to help me out, but right now it feels like someone sent her to trap me in my own personal hell.
She’s like a bottle of whiskey to me – no matter how much I want to down the whole thing in one go, I’m not even allowed a little taste.
I drag my cell from my pocket as I put as much distance between myself and the house as possible.
“What’s going on?” Chuck answers.
“Nothing,” I reply.
“Why’d you ring me then?”
I shrug, not answering. I don’t fucking know why I called.
“You got a problem up there?” he tries again.
Yeah, I’ve got a problem, a real big fucking problem and it’s standing at attention in my shorts, but I doubt Chuck wants to hear about that.
“Ange been off your case since Billie moved in?” I question.
He pauses for a moment, no doubt sensing that I didn’t call to make small talk.
“Na
h, she’s been a raging bitch, but if you tell her I said that, I’ll ruin you.”
I smirk, trying not to chuckle. Pretty sure I’ve got ruining me covered all on my own.
“Whatever, man. Tell her it’s under control. The press are eating Billie and me up. The cameras love her.”
“And what about you, how are you dealing with having a chick at your place?”
I glance back down the beach towards the house, and I see her, sitting on the fence, watching me.
She waves at me and, like an idiot, I raise my hand and wave back.
“Masen?” he questions.
“Yeah… fuck, it’s alright. I dunno… could be worse.”
I drag my gaze from Billie and walk even further down the beach. It’s a waste of my time. I couldn’t escape her if I tried. If she’s not in my sight, she’s right there in my mind.
“Just keep it in your pants and we’ll be golden,” he reminds me.
I’m all too aware of the fact that it’s in my pants and absolutely nowhere else.
“Yeah, yeah.”
“Gotta go, kid, good chat.”
I huff out a humourless laugh. “Yeah.”
“Maybe next time you call me, you’ll actually say what you called to say.”
I hang up the phone. Maybe, but I doubt it.
***
“Where’d the love birds go?” I question Billie as I find her alone in the kitchen, cutting up a carrot.
She pops a piece in her mouth and shrugs.
“Are they still here?”
“Dunno.”
“Where’s Eric?”
She shrugs again.
I narrow my eyes at her. I don’t know what the fuck I’ve done to deserve the silent treatment. I don’t know why I care either.
“You pissed at me, sugar?”
Her breath hitches at the use of her nickname, and my lips twitch in amusement.
I love the way she reacts to me. It’s hot as hell.
She catches herself staring and looks away, still munching on her god damn carrot.
“I’m not pissed at you,” she says, going back to her chopping.
“Still trying to figure out if I taste like an ashtray?”
Her hands pause, then resume the action.
Mr. October: A Rock Star Romance (Calendar Boys Book 10) Page 6