Headlights, Dipsticks, & My Ex's Brother

by Heather Novak

  “No! No! No!” Luke shouted, jumping off the couch and trying to use his whole body to steer.

  Novice move.

  The trick was to be calm and relaxed with your controller at all times. It was a baby and you were rocking it to sleep. And I was the controller master.

  As Princess Daisy rode over the finish line in first place for the third time, Luke fell to his knees and lifted his controller in the air. “A PLAGUE ON BOTH YOUR HOUSES!” he yelled.

  I cracked up and fell back against the couch. “I love that you just quoted Mercutio.”

  With a smile that made that damn bat in my chest flutter again, he sat down next to me, his hand resting on my knee. “The only redeemable character in that damn play, besides Benvolio. I like to imagine Mercutio faked his death and they ran off together.”

  I blinked, then blinked again. “For the dude who got a C minus in Mr. Baker’s English class, you sure have strong opinions on Shakespeare.”

  “You made me watch that movie like fifteen times in one month.”

  I smacked his arm. “It was for a paper!”

  “A two-page paper. You milked it. I was the only one crazy enough to watch it with you.”

  I shrugged. “Whatever. It’s a badass movie.”

  He laughed, shaking his head and lifting up his controller. “One more?”

  With a wink, I nodded. “One more.” This time, I purposely drove off the course and took wrong turns. It was fairly obvious I was letting him win—and even then he was still having trouble—but when he came in second and I came in sixth, the smile on his face was worth it.

  He set the remote down and turned on me. “You little cheater! You let me win!” Taking the controller out of my hand, he set it on the table before launching his tickle attack.

  I should’ve seen it coming.

  I attempted to slip off the couch and out of his reach, but he pinned my hands above my head and redoubled his efforts. I kicked the back of his knees, hard.

  “Ow!” he said, releasing me and sitting up.

  I gasped and sat up. “I’m sorry, are you okay?”

  When he started laughing, I picked up a throw pillow and hit him across the face. He grabbed the pillow and tossed it off the couch, then leaned back in toward me. I scooted forward, pretending to lock him in a headlock.

  He looked over at me, his gaze moving from my mouth to my eyes. My heart stuttered. “You’re beautiful when you laugh.”

  All the breath rushed out of my lungs. “Luke…” I whispered.

  He leaned on his elbow, bringing his face closer to mine. After brushing a piece of loose hair behind my ear, he gently pulled my head forward until our lips were inches apart. “I’ve never wanted anything more than to kiss you and keep kissing you.”

  I lifted an eyebrow. “Not even for real beating me at Mario Kart?”

  His lips quirked. “Not even that.” The inches between us became a centimeter, filled with our mingled breath. He didn’t get closer, but instead waited for me to make up my mind.

  “What happens when you leave?” I asked, searching his eyes.

  A flicker of pain flashed across them and I winced. “My life is in North Carolina,” he whispered. “I have to help take care of my friend and her new baby. It’s why I need the money.”

  “Oh.” That was all I managed to say. My chest tightened. Even though he was single, he wasn’t free. Another woman needed his time and attention. I swallowed hard and smiled stiffly. “You’re an amazing person, Lucas Moretti.”

  His nose bumped mine. “I wish you were able to come with me.”

  “Me too.” I couldn’t leave the shop and my girls. They were my squad, my found family. Anyway, he was going to be wrapped up in his own makeshift family. Grenadine was where I belonged. I just wished Luke and I belonged together, too.

  He let out a long breath through his nose. “Maybe I should go.”

  What would I regret more? Doing something or always wishing I had? It was time to stop wishing.

  I removed the distance between us and pressed my lips to his.

  Luke’s arms wrapped around me tightly, holding me in place. His kisses were sweet and slow, savoring me. His fingers trailed down my jawline and neck, tracing my collarbone, causing a riot of butterflies to flutter underneath my skin. The heat of his body crashed into me and I wrapped my arms around him, squeezing him tight.

  I wanted more. I needed more. As he pulled back to end our kiss, I nipped at his bottom lip. He growled in the back of his throat and kissed me so hard my lips felt bruised.

  Heat curled over every inch of my skin and I swear if I looked down, I’d be glowing. I wanted to luxuriate in him for hours, days, weeks. He needed to be naked; I needed to feel his velvet skin against mine everywhere. “Upstairs. Before someone interrupts us.”

  He trailed kisses down my neck and I tilted my head back to give him better access. The slide of his smooth lips and rough stubble shot sparks straight to my stomach, the smolder breaking into a flame. “Upstairs,” he agreed against my skin. I shivered.

  He wrapped my legs around his waist and hoisted me off the couch. His mouth was glued to mine as we climbed the stairs excruciatingly slowly. Sure, it would’ve been faster to stop sucking face long enough to get up the stairs, but where was the fun in that?

  I pointed to my room and we walked in, Luke kicking the door shut behind him, and I locked it. He flipped on my desk lamp, then pulled my computer chair away from my desk, wedging it under the door handle. “No interruptions.”

  My stomach flipped. I was about to make love to Luke. It was surreal. When had this childhood friendship turned into something more? Why did he feel more right than Will ever had? I kissed him again, trying to clear my head of all the things I could worry about tomorrow.

  If this was going to be the only night I had him, I wanted to remember it for the rest of my life.

  He walked over to the bed and laid me down before covering me with his body. For the last two weeks, and maybe for the last several years, life had been spinning out of control. Grandma getting sick, then Grandpa and Mario. The diet change, the engagement, the breakup, and now the shop. But as soon as his weight settled on me, everything stopped. It was just him and me. The outside world, the worries, the shop, everything disappeared.

  Stay.

  He took my mouth again and I arched into him, my thigh rubbing against the amazing hardness trapped between us. I melted into the bed and through the floor. He pulled back, his nose bumping mine as he searched my face. “I never thought…” He kissed me so softly that my throat tightened with emotions I didn’t want to think about. “I never thought I’d be this lucky.”

  “You didn’t?” I whispered. A rush of heat covered my neck and face and I knew I was probably red. I didn’t care.

  “I’ve been crazy about you for a long time, Reeses.”

  Wait. Wait, what?! “Come again?” My eyes went so huge, they began to sting.

  He smiled shyly and pulled back, shrugging one shoulder. “Do you think I would’ve dug your Hot Wheels out of the trash if I didn’t think you were the coolest kid on the block? And then when I came home and saw you in that prom dress…” He shook his head. “You went from being that cool kid who always hung around to being a beautiful woman. Pretty sure I fell in love with you that night.”

  “I...love?” Holy shit. My skin burned and I’m pretty sure all of me was bright red. Pretty sure I fell in love with you that night. I couldn’t breathe. What was breathing?

  “Breathe.” He chuckled, and kissed the tip of my nose. “Just always thought you were meant for...” my brother. The words rang clear, even though they were silent. “Someone else,” he rushed.

  My stomach pitched and a thousand questions bottlenecked in my mouth. What did this mean? Did it change anything? What happens tomorrow? What about next week?

  Stay.

  My heart was racing, and I just couldn’t think about everything with his erection pressing against me. So I
chickened out and put my hands on either side of his face. “Tonight, I’m yours,” I whispered.

  His top lip bumped mine, tilting my mouth upward. He carefully pressed his mouth to mine with a searing kiss, branding me forever. Embers fell from his lips into my haystack of a heart and it burst into flames, warming me from the inside.

  Every inch of my skin begged to be touched as he deepened the kiss. My muscles tightened, my breath quickened, and need filled my veins. My heart thumped a hard warning, one last SOS, but the rest of my body told my heart to shut up.

  This was Luke. Luke. He deserved to be savored.

  Each kiss, each caress was harder, more desperate. I rolled us over and hit his head with mine. I sucked in a quick breath and pressed my hand to my forehead, but it was more shock than pain. He tried to rise up, but I shoved him down.

  “I’m perfectly fine. Take off your shirt.”

  “I need that embroidered on something.” Laughing, he balled the shirt up at the back of his neck and yanked it off so fast the seams strained. “Better?” His eyes were dancing in the yellow glow of my room.

  I nodded because...what were words?

  “You’ve got a bit of drool...” He reached up and thumbed the corner of my lips. I smacked his hand away and straddled him, his erection meeting the spot where I needed it most. His groan almost undid me.

  He sat up and kissed me hard, our tongues tangling. I don’t know who took my bra off, but I cried out when his mouth broke away from mine to lick and nip and suck down to my breast. I was drowning in his attention, that invisible thread inside me winding tighter and tighter. My fingers dug into his hair and I held tight as he brought me to the edge while I still had my pants on. “Luke,” I groaned. “More.”

  He pulled back, his eyes nearly Tuxedo Black with desire. “Pants off.”

  He didn’t need to ask me twice. I yanked off my jeans and underwear, almost falling off the bed in the process. I was graceful like that.

  He struggled with his belt, but I came to his rescue, because I’m a giver. After discarding his clothes, I stared at him for a long moment, my entire body pulsing with the idea that his beautiful, hard length was about to be inside of me.

  Luke.

  Him.

  I leaned over to my nightstand and pulled out a condom, then crawled up the bed. I paused to kiss the head of his erection, but he hissed and pulled back. “If you touch me right now, I’ll make a mess.”

  I smiled. “Isn’t that the point?”

  He pinched my butt and my entire body throbbed. “I’m not twenty-one anymore. I need more than three seconds to reboot.”

  I immediately scrambled away with a salacious grin. “No touchy, got it.”

  He ripped open the condom and I watched, mesmerized, as he pinched the tip, then rolled it down his length. “Now, come sit on my face before I slide inside you.”

  I moaned at the words, my body desperate for his touch. As I crawled over him, embarrassment gripped me. I looked over at the light, wondering if it was too late to turn it off.

  “Reeses,” he whispered. “Look at me.” My eyes found his. “You’re perfect. And I need to taste you, or I think I’m going to die, right here. So please bring that amazing body to my mouth.”

  My insides twisted tighter and tighter at his words, and on shaking arms, I moved my hips over his face. Biting my lip, I closed my eyes, trying not to be self-conscious.

  He kissed one thigh and then the other, whispering words that sounded like “beautiful” and “need” and “perfect.”

  He gripped my hips. “You’re mine,” he whispered into me, then kissed me softly. I sucked in a sharp breath as his lips moved over me like a first kiss.

  He swirled and then he sucked, and I was floating off the bed and into the clouds. Nothing had ever felt like this before. I fisted the sheets as his tongue thrust inside me before finding my sensitive nub. He took his time exploring me with shallow kisses, then deeper kisses, and I moaned louder and louder.

  My hips jerked as his rhythm increased and I grabbed onto the headboard, afraid I’d float away. “Luke, Luke, Luke,” I repeated as he tightened his grip. His kisses became wild and relentless and I ground down onto his mouth. “Oh God, oh God,” I groaned, my breath hitching as the sharp wave of energy hovered just out of reach. “I’m so close, so close.”

  He hummed against me and it pushed me over the edge, tumbling headfirst into an ocean of sensation. Wave after wave crashed over me as he took his time, lapping me up, tasting my pleasure. Every part of me was on fire. My nipples were so hard, they were almost painful. My legs shook and my arms turned to jelly.

  I gasped for air as I descended from the clouds.

  He held me in place until life returned to my useless limbs. Carefully, he helped me move down the bed and turned me onto my side, facing him. “Thank you,” I whispered. I didn’t need to tell him it’d never been like that, not with anyone. I knew he could see it in my eyes, could feel it in the way he kissed me when I tasted myself on his tongue.

  His erection found my soaked wet folds. “Are you sure this is what you want?” he whispered.

  “More than anything I’ve ever wanted in my life,” I admitted, searching his eyes. “You?”

  “Longer than you’ll ever know.” He kissed me slowly, lifting my leg over his thigh before running his hand over the smooth skin. “Why’d you stop sending the emails?”

  I ran my fingers down his cheek and along his jaw. I had stopped sending them because Will had kissed me for the first time. Emailing Luke had been something so special and so emotional that it felt like cheating. My subconscious knew even then that my feelings for Luke weren’t casual or platonic, even if the rest of me didn’t. “I didn’t think you still read them. You never answered me back.”

  His lips touched mine and he spoke against my mouth. “It was too hard. You made me homesick for you.”

  I breathed his name and he placed himself at my entrance. We were silent, still, savoring. A perfect moment suspended in time. We both sucked in one large breath and he pushed in.

  I thought I would die. My heart raced as he filled me slowly, slowly, slowly. I moaned at the feel of him. So full. So right. It was like my body had been waiting for him my whole life. “Luke,” I gasped.

  He moved, making me arch against him. His arms pulled me tight against him. He was so deep, and I wanted to fuse our bodies together like this forever. I didn’t care how awkward it would be to explain.

  “I was right,” he said against my lips. “You feel like home.” He thrust hard, igniting the fire inside me again. He set a steady rhythm, and I was helpless in his arms. He kissed me everywhere he could, across my shoulders, along my collarbone, every inch of my neck.

  All of my feelings poured out of me on my shaky breaths and whispers of his name, wrapping around us. Every inch of his skin pressed against mine and I tried to memorize every stroke he made. Please remember this forever. The fire inside grew hotter and hotter until the flames threatened to burn my skin away.

  “So close, so close,” I begged.

  “Edith,” he said through clenched teeth. “You’re so amazing. Please baby, I need you to come.”

  His words caused a detonation.

  Every muscle in my body tensed as pleasure rolled through me a second time. This time it was deeper, longer, on the knife-edge of pain as every muscle in my body wrung itself out. He made the sexiest noise I had ever heard low in his chest, and then he was throbbing inside of me, extending my orgasm. Tears filled my eyes as the pleasure overwhelmed me. The feelings. The love.

  His lips kissed away the stray tear that escaped from my eye. We were both panting and sweaty, but it didn’t matter. We searched each other’s eyes, reading all the unsaid words and unshed emotions.

  A small smile touched his lips as he brushed my hair out of my face. “I wish we had done this years ago.”

  I kissed him lightly. “Me too.”

  “You’ve ruined me for everyone else,
you know.”

  I shrugged. “I’m not mad.”

  With one last kiss, he pushed himself up and went to the bathroom to clean up. He brought me back a cool washcloth and pressed it between my legs carefully. My cheeks heated with his ministrations, but then I remembered this was Luke. The most thoughtful guy I knew.

  With one more kiss, I made my way to the bathroom, bouncing on the balls of my feet. I was alive, truly alive, for the second time in my life—the first time was after I’d changed my first transmission at eleven. Luke was waiting for me in my bed. Luke!

  I cleaned up, washed my face, rinsed with mouthwash, and all but ran back to the bed. Luke opened his arms as I approached and I gladly slipped in next to him. He guided my head to his shoulder and ran his fingers through my hair and down my arm. Goose bumps followed everywhere he touched.

  “You still staying at a motel?” I asked.

  He nodded. “The one off seventy-five.”

  I lifted myself up on an elbow. “Why don’t you come stay with me?”

  “There are so many reasons I should say no to that.” He tugged me back down.

  “Like what?”

  “Your mother. My brother.”

  I winced. “Accurate.”

  “But I will, if you want me. Because I don’t want to stay away.”

  “I want you. Always.” I flinched at the look on his face, knowing I’d taken it a step too far.

  “Reeses,” he said quietly. “I’m still leaving soon.”

  I tried not to tense, but when we were lying together, naked, it was kind of hard to hide. I cleared the ball of emotion from my throat. “I know,” I lied. I was hoping I could change his mind. But if changing a person with sex was possible, then I had yet to see an example.

  He kissed my forehead and took a deep breath. “I think it’s time I told you the whole story.”

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Edie’s Tip #3: Some cars you’ll remember for a lifetime. Sometimes because it’s an Agera RS, other times because there are snakes living in your Dodge Shadow’s air vents.