by L. L. Ash
“I knew you missed him. You denied it for so long, but I knew you still loved that boy; that you want him back.”
“I never said anything about wanting him back,” I fumbled, but she just poked my cheek.
“This blush all over your face tells me differently, girly. You’re still in love with him.”
“So what?” I yelped, making the people inside the coffee shop we were loitering outside of, turn our way.
“Nope. I’m calling it now. You and Hunter Hayes are going to get married in four, maybe five years, and you’re going to have the prettiest blue eyed, blond haired babies!”
She squealed in delight and I just wanted to pull her hair, or maybe splash her coffee all over that smug face of hers.
Hey, sisters are allowed to fight.
“We’re not getting back together,” I hissed. “Besides, I’m still talking to Jamie, and I’m really...confused about everything. I don’t know what to think about half the stuff in my life right now. I mean, Dad married my ex-best friend’s mom, who I knew when I was a kid. Now things are really freaking awkward at home, and Dad’s always busy with her, and now Hunter’s always there, flashing his abs and the little tattoo on his ribs and I’m drowning emotionally while I’m trying to figure this out!”
Hillary’s face softened again and she got out of her chair.
“Get up, girl. Give me a hug.”
I let her pull me up and put her arms around me in a tight squeeze.
“It’s times like this I wish I had a real mom,” I whispered, which made her squeeze me harder.
“I know. But you have me. You’ve always got me.”
I did, until she found a guy and suddenly, he would become more important than I was. It was bound to happen, and I dreaded the day that it eventually would. Hillary had been my foundation for so long. And for the first time since we’d become joined at the hip freshman year, I felt like I was wavering without steady footing.
“There’s only another couple weeks before we need to head back, so just enjoy your time with your dad. I’ll come down again next week, and we’ll make up for me missing last night. At least I can promise that I won’t sleep with you.”
I gave a teary snort, snot blowing out my nose in the most unladylike fashion.
“Girl, pull it together,” Hillary said with a laugh, reaching into her purse to give me a tissue.
I wiped my eyes, then my nose before sitting again to sip at my watery iced coffee.
“What should I do?” I asked her eventually.
My best friend looked me in the eye, the same way she did when Mom left with that dude to Australia.
“Ivory Bell, you’re a beautiful, strong, independent woman. You can win any man in the world that you want, and you can be successful at anything you try if you work hard, and work smart. If you want Hunter, you can have him. If you want this Jamie with the magic fingers, you could have him. Or, have any other guy. It’s about you, and it’s about love, and if those boys don’t give you what you need, then fuck ‘em.”
Hillary didn’t curse often, so when she did, I paid attention.
“If Hunter goes back to his douchey self, then he can go buy himself a lemon and suck on it. If you decide to give him another chance, then actually give it to him. You can’t hold what happened years and years ago over his head forever.”
“He slept with me for spite in junior year,” I reminded her.
“He was an idiotic eighteen year old who couldn’t keep it in his pants.”
“He’s still an idiotic twenty-one year old who can’t keep it in his pants.”
She held her frappe up like she was toasting to that.
“Yes, but as long as yours is the only pant’s he’s getting into, then does it matter?”
Only Hillary could find a good thing about Hunter’s horny tendencies.
“I’ll think about it,” I told her, feeling for my phone again, just to remember that it wasn’t there.
“I should head home. I don’t know what Dad’s plans are for the day, and I’m sure your parents are missing you.”
“Yeah. Daddy promised he’d take me to dinner tonight to celebrate my ‘successful’ job, and Mom invited my aunt and uncle.”
She play gagged, then rolled her eyes.
“Best of luck to you, my friend!” I told her, standing up again as I palmed the tissue that was still between my fingers.
“I’ll take you home. Maybe you and Hunt should have a little sit down.”
“We slept together. We’re not a couple all of a sudden. I doubt he wants to do anything like that.”
“You’ll never know until you ask him,” she said, poking my chest before leading the way back to her car.
Hillary was the best friend a girl could ask for, but damn, sometimes she drove me nuts with her perpetual optimism and her rosey view of the world.
Hunter didn’t want me. Not like that. I mean, he couldn’t, right? I was convenient, and we were mostly naked, not to mention we were still buzzed from the shots we took. He’d just been so nice and caring and attentive, that it was easy to pretend that it was more than it was.
While sliding into the passenger seat of Hillary’s Bug, I shook my head to myself.
Nah, we didn’t need to have a talk.
- 35 -
Ivory
We needed to have a talk.
Right fucking now.
Like, yesterday.
“You can’t just stroll into the bathroom while I’m showering!” I yelped when the door burst in.
“What?” Hunter asked before I heard the sound of the toilet lid lift and a solid stream of urine hit the bowl.
“Hunt!” I shrieked.
“Dude, we both know what each other look like naked. What’s the big deal? I really had to piss!”
“It’s called privacy, and you should get in on it,” I hissed, shutting the water off when he flushed and a raging stream of boiling hot water started pelting my skin.
He scoffed.
“You coming out to remind me?” he asked as I opened the curtain a tiny bit to reach for my towel hanging on the rack.
I fumbled for it, but then a low grunt preceded the towel being thrust into my hands.
“Thanks,” I mumbled, wrapping it around my body before hobbling out of the tub.
“I don’t get you,” I said once I was out.
Hunter was washing his hands at the sink.
He flipped the water off, then braced his hands on the counter and stared back at me in the mirror.
“What?” he demanded.
“I mean, after what happened on my birthday...”
He sighed. “Yeah? What about it? I thought we were pretending it ‘never happened’.”
Oh, right. I did say that, didn’t I?
“Well, yeah, but no. I mean, it did happen, and you’ve been weird as shit ever since!”
“I’ve been weird?” he demanded, spinning around in place. “I haven’t been weird. I’ve been doing what you asked me to do. I can’t read your fucking mind, Ivy.”
“So we’re really pretending like it didn’t happen? Just sharing the bathroom like good ol’ siblings?”
“If I had it my way, I’d be fucking you every morning, noon, and night. But I don’t get my way, do I?” he asked.
My mouth popped open in shock, and his eyes widened with the same.
Neither of us could believe he’d just said that.
“Are you serious?” I asked, half afraid of what his answer would be.
He wet his lips and looked away before folding his arms across his chest.
Oh my God, he was.
He was totally serious.
It was his tell. Ever since we were little, he would cross his arms when he got defensive, and then he’d cross his legs at the ankle, like double protection or something.
I stared at his bare feet, crossed at the ankle as he turned and leaned back against the bathroom counter.
“Wait. Do you...like me?” I
asked, feeling my heart rate picking up.
His eyes lifted from his feet and met mine, spearing right through me.
“Is this a joke?” he asked, voice deadpan and edged with anger.
“A joke?” I scoffed. “You’re the one who said you want to fuck me morning, noon, and night. I asked a simple question, and I think I deserve an answer.”
His jaw worked while he stared me down, the muscles in his forearms bunching and clenching as the wheels turned in his head.
“How do you even have to ask?” he offered eventually.
It wasn’t helpful.
“I’m asking because for the past eight years, you’ve been treating me like a second class citizen. That’s why,” I countered, folding my arms across my toweled chest to mirror him.
“You’re not dumb, Ivy. Of course I like you.”
The words hit me like a physical blow.
“I’ve always liked you, and I always will like you. That doesn’t change anything.”
It changed everything.
Taking a step forward, he watched me with weary eyes as I got closer.
One step, two steps, until our toes were touching and my towel bumped against the backs of his arms where they were still folded defensively against his chest.
“If that’s true,” I whispered, feeling my heart simultaneously swell and shatter, all at the same time. “Then kiss me.”
His brows wove together in confusion, but as his eyes flicked between mine, he must have found what he was looking for, because all of a sudden his arms were unfolding and he was pulling me in for a kiss to end all other kisses.
Brutal lips met mine as his fingers dug through my damp hair and gripped it in his fist.
“You really like me?” I breathed against his lips, nibbing on that lip ring that had taunted me for so long.
He dipped his tongue into my mouth to dance with mine for just a moment.
“Really-really,” he agreed as a little smile tugged on the edges of his lips before he got to work again.
He unraveled me, slowly, one kiss at a time until my back was hitting the bathroom door and we were banging around, making one hell of a racket. Good thing Dad and Penelope were gone, because we must have made for quite a sight.
Hunter’s jaw worked mine, meeting me with open, delicious kisses that had me getting wetter, instead of dryer after my shower.
Whelp, guess I was done drying off.
The towel around my body suddenly got ripped off and tossed to the floor as Hunter’s hands started to rove over my skin. His eyes were open a little as he licked and nibbled up my neck, and a long, low groan of approval left his throat.
“If you don’t want this, tell me right fucking now,” he whispered, the words taking quite the effort, if the strain in his voice was any indication.
“Fuck me,” I whispered, and he didn’t need any more encouragement.
I barely got out the second word before Hunter had me up against him, legs wrapped around his waist as he moved out of the bathroom.
“Ow! That’s a wall!” I yelped as he banged around, sightless since his face was nestled into the valley between my breasts, right there at his eye height.
“Sorry,” he mumbled, then tore his face from distraction so he could get us into his bedroom, shutting the door behind us.
“Oh my God,” I groaned while his mouth wandered my aching breasts, tongue tracing each curve and lips taking turns wrapping around my puckered nipples.
“This feels great,” I gasped as he gave one particularly hard nip, “but now you’re just teasing me.”
“Foreplay is a thing,” he mumbled back.
“Yes, but not when your girl is this wet and ready and aching for you.”
A tortured sound left his throat before he sat up and started stripping off his shirt.
“Say it again,” he demanded, his cotton shirt popping over his head, making his hair stand up and look crazy and sexy at the same time.
“Which part?” I yelped as he ground his hard length against my spread thighs.
Shit, wasn’t he still wearing pants?
That had to change.
Once my eyes were done rolling to the back of my head, I started fumbling between us to unbutton his jeans. He just ignored my hands and rolled his hips, grinding dry against me while I threw my head back, still trying to pull his jeans down with little tugs.
“I hate you right now,” I panted, my body clenching against nothing even though I could feel the pressure of him and the fire he ignited within me.
“Not that part,” he panted back, finally managing to pull down his jeans and boxers to his thighs. “The part about you being my girl,” he said with a grunt.
Oh shit!
No warning, just instantly balls deep.
With a howl, my back arched and Hunter laughed before choking on his own pleasure.
“Still waiting,” he said, sitting still as I adjusted to his size.
“I’m not your girl,” I told him, catching my breath before poking him in the chest.
“You just said you are.”
“It’s a saying. I’m not yours.”
“Yet,” he added, dragging his shaft out of me before plunging back in.
“Oh shit,” I panted, squeezing his biceps and digging my nails into his biceps.
“If you leave marks, your dad’s going to find out,” he whispered, a shiteating grin on his face as I practically choked on his cock.
Was my uterus and throat connected? It seriously felt like it. My God… Every time he’d bottom out, it felt like he was tickling my uvula.
“Hunt,” I finally spoke, still breathless, but also kind of pissed that he was taking his time.
“Yeah baby girl?” he asked, taking one long, slow stroke that was driving me freaking nuts.
“If you don’t start fucking me, I’m going to push you off and go find my vibrator.”
His grin widened as he looked down at me with approval.
“Then give me your ass,” he told me, whispering in my ear.
Again, I didn’t have time to react. Hunter was out of me and grabbing my hips before throwing me over and onto my belly. I had to catch myself on the edge of the bed, since it was just a little twin size, while he spread my knees and lined himself up, hips against my ass cheeks.
This time, I let my face do whatever it wanted as I groaned into the pillow each time he sank into me.
“Your mine,” he growled, pumping faster until we were making that nasty fap sound that was equal parts disgusting and fucking beautiful.
With every stroke, he nudged my g-spot, but when his fingers slid down my spine, then curled around my hip and found my clit, I was done for.
I was coming around him, gripping his cock like a vise as his fingers kept swirling around my clit, not giving me a chance to breathe while he kept pumping in and out.
The distinct sound of the front door shutting made us both freeze.
“Oh shit!” I hissed, starting to crawl away from Hutner.
“No fucking way!” he whisper-yelled right back at me before grabbing me around the waist to get me back on the bed.
I let him, though my eyes stayed glued on the door as his pace ratcheted up until he was biting back his own sounds of ecstasy while he came inside me.
“Too freaking close,” I told him, finally stumbling off the bed to gather my cloth—
Shit! My clothes were in the bathroom!
“Ivory? Hunter?” Penelope called down the hall.
“I don’t have my clothes!” I seethed.
Hunter was laughing quietly, sprawled glorious and naked on his bed like our parents weren’t just outside the door.
“Just a sec,” Hunter called through his door.
“What the hell?” I hissed.
“Am I supposed to pretend I’m not here?” he asked, looking amused as hell while I was freaking the fuck out.
“I’ll distract them. You run back to the bathroom and get your shit.”
>
Well, that was actually a...good plan.
Hunter pulled his underwear back up, then did the same with his jeans before strolling out the door with zero shirt, smelling like jizz and musk.
Or maybe that was just me.
Dammit, and I had just showered.
“You just wake up?” Penelope asked as Hunter joined them in the kitchen.
“Yeah,” he said, putting on a show of yawning and stretching.
“Why don’t you go put a shirt on, huh?” Dad told him. “Other people than you share this house, including a young woman.”
I could literally feel my face heat with embarrassment.
If only Dad knew what we’d been doing when he got home…
Now was my chance.
I covered the important bits and made a run for it, closing myself in the bathroom before getting back into the shower to wash the scent of sex off me. When I got out, Dad and Penelope were laughing about something while Hunter fussed around with something in his room.
“That was too close,” I whispered to him from his doorway.
He looked over his shoulder and grinned at me.
“Just makes it even sweeter.”
“I almost had a heart attack!”
“Then you need to lay off the trans fats.”
A smack rang out in the room when my hand hit the back of his head.
“Ow!” he yelped, but he melted into laughter while I internally steamed.
Why did he have to be so handsome when he smiled?
Ugh.
It was impossible to stay mad at the asshole.
“You out of the shower, Ivory?” Dad asked, coming over to my room, then peeking into Hunter’s room when he found mine empty. “You two getting along?”
His words and tone implied that we were twelve year olds getting into a little tiff, not twenty-one year olds who had a whole trainful of baggage between us.
“Peachy,” Hunter agreed, throwing a wink at me before shuffling through the box on his floor again.
“Hey, so, Hunter had an idea,” Dad told me, which immediately had me on guard.
“Hunter never has good ideas,” I countered, which had Hunter snorting with laughter.
Well, he had that one idea a few minutes ago, but other than that…
“And what is this bright idea?” I asked, looking from Dad to Hunter, then back again.
