“He can’t help you. And you’re right. On both accounts—I am drunk and shouldn’t be trusted.”
Liam lunges for me, wrapping an arm around my stomach and swinging me around. I scream, laughing until he pulls me to his chest and stares down at me. The specks of yellow in his eyes almost glow in the light.
“So terrible you are.”
He blows a breath full of whiskey at my bangs, clearing them from my face. “Come on, Yoda, you need to catch up. Everybody’s getting crazy tonight.”
The moment he says it, Ethan runs by, stark nude.
“Skinny-dip!”
I bury my face in Liam’s chest and squeal with laughter as he howls at the sky a few times before sweeping me off the ground.
“Nooo!”
“Hell yeah. We’re dipping, Van.”
Over Liam’s shoulder, I see Grey down his drink and toss it, making his way toward us. Liam makes it five more feet before Grey spins us around and steals me right from his arms.
“She’s not skinny-dipping.”
My feet hit the floor, and I’m positioned directly between both my giant boys.
“Well, Van…are we doing this or what?” Liam taunts, completely ignoring Grey.
“No” rings out over me by Grey.
My face shoots to Grey’s and back to Liam’s, just in time to see Liam strip himself of his shirt. “Come on, Van. Don’t be a party pooper. Let Grey be grumpy by himself. Have some fun with me.”
Damn him. He’s so fucking cute. I can’t say no to him. My lips won’t stay neutral; they keep pulling up as Liam takes off his shoes. Then his socks. Dammit.
I turn to Grey, who looks at my smile, then to my eyes. “Hell no.”
“It’s only fair. We had so much fun on the way here. I mean, it is a party…what happened to ‘I won’t tell’ and ‘Have fun, Donovan’?”
My feet carry me backward as I reach for Grey’s sweatshirt that I’m still wearing and peel it over my head.
“Yes, Van. Let’s do this!”
Liam reaches for his jeans, and I cover my eyes, but Grey’s grumpy voice has me peeking through my fingers.
“Leave your fucking briefs on. She doesn’t need to be traumatized by your small dick.”
Liam barks out a laugh. “That water’s cold as hell. We’re both gonna shrivel the fuck up.”
I see Grey kick off his sneakers, and I jump up and down in place, clapping before shimmying out of my own pants and pulling my T-shirt off. I’m left in a lavender lace bra and a white polka-dot G-string. The shirt drops to the ground, and both guys stand there, jeans around their ankles, equal distance apart, staring at me.
“Don’t make this weird. It’s nothing you haven’t already seen, I’m sure.”
Grey’s jaw tenses, and Liam looks out at the lake full of naked bodies and back to me, as I reach behind to unclasp my bra.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa. Leave the panties and bra on.”
“Yup,” Grey grits out between his teeth.
I stand shocked by their attitude. “Oh my God, seriously? It’s a body. They’re tits.” I grip my breast to emphasize my point. “Every other person in the world has a pair. Nobody cares.”
“We care,” Grey growls. “You stay covered.”
“This isn’t Bar-they-lona anymore, Dorothy,” Liam teases, saying Barcelona with a spot-on Spanish lisp.
I narrow my eyes and walk in between them, glaring, and turn away to tiptoe over the grass to stroll out onto the empty deck by myself. They stand there still staring at me, and I want to laugh at how ridiculous they’re being. Looking back, I know that I’m a silhouette, so I reach back and unclasp my bra, holding it up and letting it hang from my fingers, yelling out, “I thought you liked bad-decision Donovan.”
Grey
THE SPLASH DONOVAN’S BODY MAKES diving into the water is like an alarm sounding, waking me and Liam. We kick out of our clothes and push each other as we jog to the deck in nothing but our skivvies.
“Fuck it’s cold,” he laughs, pushing me as we near the end of the dock.
“You coming in or what, losers?” Donovan taunts from the water.
The moon’s made rings on the ripples of the water, highlighting her skin as she cuts through the shadows, swimming toward the floating dock in the distance. We used to try and race to it when we were little, never making past the buoy unless we intended on drowning, but now it would be easy.
“Ready?”
“No time like the present,” I answer, as we both run, flipping off the deck and splashing down into the freezing cold water.
“Shit. Fuck,” I yell, coming up and shaking my head. “It’s cold as hell.”
“It’s not as bad as I thought it’d be,” Liam chuckles, blowing water off his lip. “Top or bottom?”
“You have to ask? Bottom.”
We dive under and swim toward Donovan as she gets near the buoy. Liam swims up, calling her name, and I sneak under the pitch-black water and nab her legs. I can hear her scream from under the water before I come up laughing.
“You’re such an asshole,” she giggles, splashing water at me.
Donovan grabs a hold of the steel handle on the floating tower, sandwiched between us. She hangs on with one hand and wipes the other over her locks.
“You’ve got a piece of hair—” I offer, reaching out to brush it off her eye with my middle finger.
She looks flawless in the moonlight. A siren luring men to their deaths. Knowing she’s topless and inches away from me feels like the gates of heaven, so maybe I’m already dead.
“Thanks.”
Her voice is breathy, set against the lapping of water and the clanging from the buoy.
“I have a surprise for you,” Liam says from her other side.
She smiles and keeps herself facing the buoy while we face her. “You mean swimming semi-nude wasn’t enough?”
“Well, that wasn’t my idea. Although remind me to thank Ethan.” He smirks, leaning closer to her.
She giggles and dips her lips under the water and back up.
“I had the groundskeepers set up the dock.”
Donovan looks out behind me over at the shore, but I shake my head and motion to behind Liam, feeling my body move inches closer to hers.
“That way, Cherry.”
She cranes her neck, straightening her arms to push up and away, seeing the deck in the distance decked out with chairs, blankets and a fire pit.
“I love it. It looks amazing, but what if we’re too tired to swim back? Who’s giving me a ride?”
Liam tilts his head to stare at her like he’s lost in his own thoughts. The way he looks at her, like he’s hanging on her every word, makes me want to hold him under, but I can’t blame him, because I am too. She dips her head backward into the water, making it sleek and barely exposing the tops of her breasts. My eyes dart up from her chest, locking with Liam’s irritated glare, but I smile back, cocky and undeterred.
Neither of us want to share something we don’t have claim over. We’re fucking pricks.
“Well? Hello…how do we get back without drowning?”
“It’s on a pulley, Van. Grey and I did it last summer. We’ll pull us back in.”
“Sweet. Race you. That is, unless you were hoping to get another shot at looking at my boobs.”
She pushes off, shouting, “Pervs,” and makes swift strokes over the water as we look at each other laughing. This girl is one of a kind. I should’ve known that if I was beginning to like her, he would be too. The three of us never could do anything without the other.
“She was talking to you, dick,” I laugh, diving in.
“No way. That was all about you.”
We shove off, quickly trying to catch her, but by the time we do, she’s holding the small ladder and climbing onto the dock, each hip rocking up as she climbs, exposing her bare ass and slender frame. She wrings out her wet hair and grabs a towel, wrapping it around her chest and making her way over to an Adirondack.
I lift myself onto the wooden deck and walk next to where she’s snuggled up in the chair. Grabbing another towel, I dry my face first and run it over my chest.
“I didn’t notice that the other day,” Donovan muses, running two fingers down the side of my torso. “Is it Latin?”
“It is. If you can decipher it, I’ll give you a prize.”
“Look at who’s being mysterious now?”
“You can dish it out but can’t take it, huh?”
Liam squats down by the firepit and brings it to life. The fire begins to instantly warm the space around us. But he squirts the can of lighter fluid on it, anyway, making the fire roar. Cheers erupt from the shore, and Liam holds his arms up and yells back, “Fire, motherfuckers!”
Donovan laughs and reaches out, wiggling her fingers. I twist my head around and spot a flannel blanket, so I swipe it up and toss it to her. I secure the towel around my waist and sit down in the seat across the fire from her. I like to look at her, watch her reactions. Being in this spot makes it easy.
Liam stretches his arms out wide, then drops them down and looks to the sky. “Beer me.”
I reach into the cooler next to me and hand him a beer, pulling one out for me too.
“What about me?”
Donovan looks at me expectantly from over the fire, and I smirk. “No more rule following?”
“I’m topless on a deck with two guys…I feel like a beer is mandatory.”
I hand it to Liam, and he passes it to her, twisting the top open first. Silence surrounds us as we sit, Liam standing, looking at the stars and taking swigs of our beers and just being us.
“I missed this.”
She says it to no one in particular, but Donovan’s already looking at me when I connect with her over the fire. Liam walks over and stands her up, sitting down in her chair and bringing her back onto his lap. He tucks his chin onto her shoulder, closing his eyes.
“We missed you,” I answer, keeping my eyes on her, and take another drink.
Liam wraps his arms around her like she’s a lifeline and opens his eyes to stare at the fire. She twists her head to try and see his face, but he holds her in place.
“Hey, you. What’s going on?”
“Same thing since the last time you knew me.”
“Your dad?”
I see his head nod, and my eyes shift between the two of them. I hate that she’s on him, but I’m not jealous, more selfish. But mostly, I’m happy he can talk to her because I’m sure as hell not sitting on his lap.
Donovan rests her face against the top of Liam’s head and looks out to the stars before letting out a sigh.
“When I was in Spain, my mom always wanted to take the train. Everywhere. It was so obnoxious. I hated it.” Her eyes seem sad as she looks at me. “Sometimes, it was to close-by towns. Other times, we’d go all the way to Paris. But what I remember is that each time, I would wish that something would happen, and I’d get lost. So lost that she wouldn’t find me, and I could just start over. By myself, without all her bullshit.”
My brows draw together as I lean forward, placing my forearms on my knees, my beer bottle hanging between my fingers.
“I wish that too. That I could get lost,” Liam agrees, sitting back and patting her hip, so she’ll stand.
She doesn’t move. Instead, she pulls her legs up into his lap and rubs a hand over his chest. “We are lost. When we’re together, it’s like all the other bullshit doesn’t exist. Just like always.”
He rocks forward and winks at her. “Thanks, Van.” He picks her up as he stands, then places her back to the ground.
“What would you do or be if you could be someone new?”
Her question is thrown over the fire as Liam walks over to me and exchanges his empty beer bottle for a full one.
“Truth?” he questions, looking back to her.
“Always,” I answer, watching her wrap herself back up in the blanket.
He shrugs his shoulders and grins. “I’d paint.”
“Really!”
Her excitement has us both laughing. I clink bottles with Liam and tip mine back, finishing it before adding, “He’s not bad. Not great yet either. But definite potential.”
Liam tips an invisible hat and sits down next to me, looking out at the water. Donovan stands and shuffles over to our side, wrapped in a towel and blanket, planting her ass on the arm of my chair. “You guys are too far away.”
Liam and I grin at each other right as I pull her back onto my lap. She squeals but leans into me, snuggling into my chest. Her brightly painted toes land on the arm of Liam’s chair, and he takes the edge of her blanket and tucks it around them, so she’ll be warm.
“What would you be or do?” I question down to her.
“Hmmm. I’d be emancipated.”
Liam laughs, but I don’t join in. “That’s not a real answer. Who would you be?”
“I’m still trying to figure that out,” she answers thoughtfully before taking another sip of her beer.
I pull her in closer to me, rubbing a hand up and down her arm. “Was it both of them? Or just your mom that made the last five years shit?”
“Both. I don’t know. Maybe me. My father barely spoke to me, and I was a burden for my mother. I was lucky to hear from either of them, even on my birthdays. I will give it to my mom—she at least texted until I was fifteen, but then I was a ghost to everyone. Miles Kennedy had a company to run. And Lillian Kennedy had to fuck her way through Spain, drinking champagne and throwing lavish parties all the while looking for someone to make her feel again.”
“Damn. So it was nannies and butlers for you? Like us. That sucks, Van. I was always so jealous that your parents seemed to have it together.”
I feel her sigh against my chest.
“I wish it was like that, Liam. It was more hands-off. But I don’t want to talk about it because it’s a downer, and I came to party.”
She doesn’t have time to keep the sorrow in her eyes because Liam jumps to attention. “We need shots. That’s the answer. It’s back to shore for us, beautiful.”
I nod and pat her leg, so she pushes up to the arm of the chair, saying, “I’ll pour. You guys drink.”
“That might be a worse idea,” I laugh as Liam pulls up the end of a thick black rope with a sailor’s knot at the end.
“Bad ideas seem to be tonight’s trend.”
I grab the heavy rope in my right arm, taking point, and yell to the night sky, “Let’s get this.” Liam growls and flexes a muscle at Donovan.
“You’re both nuts.”
But her laughter drops off the side of a cliff the minute we start pulling. We made this system one summer as a workout to increase our back and arm strength. We’d float and row the deck out, then pull it back until our arms wouldn’t work anymore. It wasn’t intended for putting on a show, but Donovan seems to be enjoying herself.
“Who’s the perv now?” I grunt out, every muscle in my back rippling and flexing as I pull one hand over the other.
“Me.” She grins and lets her eyes roam over our bodies. “It’s like watching gladiators in real life.”
The yells off in the distance get louder and louder as Liam and I work in tandem, dragging the dock with our brute strength, grunting and gripping the rope with ferocity. Whistles and claps sound out from the drunk assholes watching us from the shore, making Donovan laugh and drumroll her feet against the deck.
“Come on, boys, you’ve got fans. Do some work.”
We pull two, three, four more times and let go with a roar. My head falls back as I stand breathing heavy. Donovan stands slowly as the dock rocks gently against the shore. Shedding her blanket, she keeps the towel tucked around her and grabs all three of our beers. “I got these. It’s the least I can do. And thanks for the show.”
I swat at her ass weakly before Kai meets her at the edge of the deck and helps her down. We follow close behind, but she’s about four feet ahead of us when I see Caroline lean ov
er and whisper into the ear of one of our crewmates from the porch. He smiles and jumps off the railing, walking toward us, but as he passes Donovan, her towel is snatched from her body. Gasps and laughs accompany her face as it shoots down, and her hands come up to cover herself. My eyes blink slowly, the realization setting in that everyone can see her naked chest.
Everything goes black.
The next thing I know, I hear Donovan screaming for me to stop and feel Liam throwing his arm around my neck, tugging me backward. Spit flies from my mouth as I stumble over my feet, none of the words I’m trying to say making it out from the vice grip around my neck.
I’m pulled further away from Doug’s kneeling body and bloody face. My head twists as much as it can, to Donovan, seeing she has the towel back around her. Tapping Liam’s arm, I let him know I need air.
“You good? I’m not letting go until you say you’re good.”
If I wanted out, he wouldn’t be able to stop me, but I am good, so I need him to relax.
“Yeah, yeah. I’m good.”
He releases me fully, and I beeline to Donovan, picking her up at the waist, her hands land on my shoulder as her worried face takes me in. I hoist her up and wrap my arms around her, keeping her in place with her chest against mine, and start to walk inside.
“What the hell happened? Are you okay? “Did he land a punch?” she questions into my cheek.
It doesn’t feel like he did, but I’ve never gotten so immediately angry that I blacked out.
“No. You went crazy. He never got a chance.” I feel her looking over my shoulder. “We need to make sure he’s okay, Grey.”
“Fuck him. He should’ve never laid a hand on you.”
Donovan’s shaking her head when Caroline’s scared face reveals itself behind the crowd. I walk up the porch and search out my vile little step-burden, holding Donovan in one arm as I stab a finger in Caroline’s direction.
“And fuck you. I should make you walk home. Get out. You and your used-up friends aren’t staying here tonight.”
“Hey.” Donovan’s hands tug at my face, but I won’t look at her. I keep my eyes on the traitor to the right of me. Because that’s what she is. If she’s against Donovan, then that makes her a traitor to me.
Filthy Little Pretties Page 11
