Finding Home

by Lina Langley

  She was wearing a sundress that barely covered her ass–yes, I looked when she turned to lead me into the room.

  “Hey, took you long enough. Did you have sand in your crack?” Josh asked from his spot on the floor in front of the couch, not bothering to stand to greet me. When I looked confused he added, “Sand in the crack is hard to get out, at least in my experience it is.”

  He grinned and ducked when Monica threw a throw pillow at him.

  “No talking about cracks tonight. I get enough of that when you tell me about all the men you’ve slept with.” Monica plopped down across from her brother on a pillow next to the low coffee table which was loaded with food from room service. “Pull up a cushion, Nev.”

  She pointed to a pile they’d gathered from the bedroom.

  Grabbing one, I put it at the end of the table and sat as I mulled over what Monica had just said about Josh and the men he’d slept with. Now there was no more wondering which way Josh swung. Maybe a little vacation fling was just what the doctor ordered.

  I let my eyes take in Josh’s sinewy body.

  “You love it when I tell you all my raunchy stories, admit it.” Josh turned his grinning eyes on me and I was glad I was already sitting because that look would have made my knees go weak.

  “Keep it clean, we have company,” Monica was giggling so hard her words came out in stuttered strings.

  “Pfft, I’m sure Nev’s heard worse,” Josh maintained eye contact with me as he spoke.

  I could tell he was interested in my reaction to the beans Monica had spilled so casually.

  “I have. I am a man and we tend to hang in groups and speak of nothing but that which would make the average woman cringe,” I said with a tip of my head.

  “See?” Josh asked, looking vindicated as he reached for the bottle of wine that was already open and half empty. He held it out over the third glass and looked at me. I nodded and he poured. “I brought this from Spain. A man I met there had the most impressive collection in his wine cellar and before I left, he gave me a case of this one, which is from his family’s winery.”

  “Oh, is there a story behind this mystery man?” Monica’s eyes sparkled as she asked, leaving me to guess she really didn’t mind it when her brother told raunchy stories.

  “Not really, just the same old, same old. Went to a party, met a handsome man, went home with him, stayed a few days and left with a parting gift,” Josh leaned back against the couch and sipped his wine.

  His eyes slid shut and a small smile settled onto his lips as if he was remembering something nice.

  Monica turned to me. “That’s always how it goes. He travels all the time and he always comes back with a treasure trove of gifts. I wish I had such a charmed life.”

  I nodded but I was starting to form a not altogether nice opinion of Josh after what he’d just said. From the sounds of it, Josh was a sexual grifter, flitting from man to man only to get something from them when he left.

  “So what is it you do for a living?” I had to ask, even though it probably made my suspicions clear.

  “Oh, well, I travel a lot.” Josh opened his eyes to look at me once again. “Other than that, not much else.”

  “Don’t lie, Josh,” Monica snorted. “He takes photographs.”

  “I don’t like to talk about it,” Josh snapped as he sent his sister a look.

  They held a silent conversation with their eyes until Monica looked away. Apparently whatever argument they were having, Josh had won.

  Josh shifted so his leg brushed mine under the table and I jerked away from the touch of his warm flesh against mine, making him grin. “My photography is private…until I make it public. I don’t like to talk about what I’m currently working on because other people’s opinions have a way of getting into my head and making me lose focus.”

  “I get that. I had an artist friend who never let anyone see what they were working on because of a similar issue.”

  My response made Josh’s face relax back into the easy-going expression he’d lost when Monica had brought up his photos.

  “What do you do?” Monica popped a shrimp into her mouth and said, “Have some food, just grab whatever you want.”

  “I’m an investment banker.” I looked over the selection of food and noticed that they didn’t each have a designated entrée, they were just picking at them all.

  They both nodded but it was Josh who said, “You owe me a hundred bucks.”

  “I know. I would have bet that if you hadn’t picked it first.” Monica kicked Josh’s leg to punctuate her sentence. My eyes bounced between them as I tried to puzzle out what they were talking about. Monica noticed and giggled again. “He bet me you were an investment banker right after he met you. I had to pick something else so I went with insurance salesman.”

  “I just knew it. You reek of corporate money.” Josh laughed at my stunned expression. “Oh, come on, don’t tell me you can’t see the big flashing sign above your head in the mirror.”

  “The sign?”

  “Yeah,” Josh said, pausing to sip at his wine, “The one with dollar signs on it.”

  “Quit it, Josh, you’re making him uncomfortable.” Monica looked at me apologetically. “I’m sorry. My brother can be a jerk sometimes, ignore him. He still thinks he’s fighting the man by not conforming to the world’s idea of what success is.”

  Oh, I got it then. Josh was one of those idealists. He probably drifted from one place to another, barely scraping by on his art but living in the lap of luxury due to those who surrounded him–like his sister and her husband, who were probably paying for this luxury vacation.

  All of a sudden, I understood Tom’s point of view when it came to his brother-in-law.

  I scooped a bit of the gourmet macaroni and cheese onto the small empty plate in front of me and then stabbed a slice of prime rib from the plate in the center of the table before looking up at the two of them.

  “It’s okay. I’m fine with what people think of my career choice. Mostly, I just figure those who hate me for what I do are just jealous.”

  I shrugged as I took a bite of the meat which practically melted in my mouth. I may as well get a meal out of this since it looked like Josh wasn’t going to be on the menu.

  Josh snorted into his wine glass. “I’m not jealous, believe me. If I had to be stuck in an office thinking about money all day long, I’d take a dive out of my window and hope it was high enough to kill me when I landed.”

  Nodding, I chewed my food to keep from saying something about not fucking my way through life because I was currently a guest in their room.

  “Josh, stop it.” Monica got up and stretched, drawing my eyes to her long lean legs and the bottoms of the lacy panties that showed from beneath her dress. “I’m going to go take a shower to wash the airplane stink off me. Be nice or when I get back, I’ll give you a purple nurple.” She smacked Josh in the head as she passed on her way to the bedroom.

  “You two have an interesting relationship,” I said as my eyes followed Monica.

  “We tend to fall back into our childhood sibling roles when we get together,” Josh said with a smile. “I like it because it reminds me of home and Monica is as close as I can get to going home again.”

  “Parent problems?”

  “Yeah but it’s more me than them. They’re fine with me, I mean, as long as I don’t talk about my love life at all.”

  He paused for a second and sighed. “It wears on a person when you have to censor everything you say so you don’t accidentally start world war three in your parent’s living room.”

  Josh refilled his wine glass and offered the bottle to me. I shook my head. I hadn’t even started on the first glass he’d poured. “So, Monica is your only connection to your family and her husband doesn’t like you so you meet up in the Bahamas?”

  Josh chuckled. “Not always. It just so happened that this is where I needed to be right now and Monica needed a break from Tom.” The way he emphasize
d the word break made me wonder what he was getting at but I didn’t have to wait long for an explanation. “She’s here to fuck some random dude so that she can save her marriage.”

  I sputtered as I choked on my first sip of wine.

  Josh leaned over and clapped me on the back, which was never as helpful as people thought it was. It took me a few seconds to start breathing right again and then I wiped the tears from my cheeks with a napkin before I could look at Josh once again and asked, “What?”

  “Every so often, Monica feels trapped in her marriage and starts to think about divorce. Tom realizes that things are heading down hill so he suggests she take a vacation, which is code for go out and get it out of your system and then come home and be my perfect little socialite wife again,” Josh sneered the last words, like his sister being an uppity housewife was what truly offended him.

  “I guess that’s one way to handle things,” I mumbled and rolled my eyes.

  It made Josh chortle.

  “Yeah, I guess it is.” We laughed and the tension seemed to drain out of the room for a second.

  That was until Josh said, “She thinks you’re hot.”

  I had to hand it to myself. This time, I didn’t almost die when Josh picked the exact time I was drinking to drop his bomb. I swallowed and then set my glass down. “Is that why I’m here?”

  He lifted one shoulder in a halfhearted shrug. “I guess she was testing the waters,” he said before stuffing a bit of chocolate cake in his mouth.

  My eyes went to the bedroom door as I thought about the possibilities. Monica was attractive and she’d offer a no strings attached vacation fling.

  But then, what about Josh?

  Sure, I thought he was sort of a con man but that didn’t mean I didn’t want to fuck him if given the chance. Plus, I had no gifts to give him so I wasn’t going to be a great mark if that’s what he was looking for.

  “I don’t think I could, in good conscience, sleep with a married woman,” I said. I was testing the waters myself a little now, wanting to hear what he’d say.

  “Even if you knew her husband was okay with it?” He cocked his head to stare at me as if he didn’t believe me.

  “Nope. It’s just not right. At least, it doesn’t seem right to me. I know people do that sort of stuff but it’s outside my comfort zone and I don’t want to be a part of it.”

  It was true. I’d always viewed marriage as between two people. Maybe it was narrow minded of me, but it was how I felt and was one of the reasons I’d never gotten hitched myself.

  “Huh, a banker with moral values, isn’t that refreshing?” Josh reached for another bottle of wine and started opening it. “Monica’s not going to be happy when she finds out you won’t sleep with her.”

  “Maybe I should leave before she comes out of the shower?” It sounded like a solid plan to me.

  “And leave me here to break the news? No way.” Josh pulled the cork from the bottle and filled my glass. “Here, have some more wine. It’ll help replace the spine you lost.”

  “Hey now, it’s not my fault I’m irresistible to the opposite sex and terrified of them at the same time.”

  Gulping my wine, I decided that getting drunk would definitely help if I had to tell Monica I couldn’t be her vacation from marriage fuck buddy.

  “I wouldn’t say irresistible, fuckable, yes, and I say that as someone who can appreciate the male form.” He made a show out of letting his eyes trail down over my body. “You have a very nice form.”

  “You mean nice for an investment banker, right?” I scoffed and he laughed.

  “Drink some more wine and eat some of this,” he held out a bit of the cake he’d been eating. “Before I eat it all.”

  Leaning forward, I surprised both of us when I sucked his fingers into my mouth, only releasing them once they were free from the gooey sweetness of the cake. “That is delicious,” I purred as he stared at me.

  “What’s delicious?” Monica’s question startled us into moving further apart.

  Because nothing says we’re not doing anything weird like jerky movements.

  “This cake. I told you we should have gotten two pieces,” Josh said before picking up the last bit and putting it into his mouth, making a show out of licking the fingers I’d just had in my mouth.

  “Well, you could have at least left me some,” Monica sat down on her pillows again. She was in nothing but a robe now. “You shared with him and not me?”

  “Sorry, Sis, you snooze, you lose.” Josh smiled, showing off his chocolatey teeth.

  “I should probably get going,” I said preparing to stand.

  Monica reached out and grabbed my wrist.

  “No, stay a little longer, please.” She gave me her best puppy dog look and then nudged Josh, who joined in.

  And how could I say no to that look on his face?

  “Okay but I’m warning you, I might need to be carried out if I drink any more of this wine.”

  I held up my empty glass which Josh promptly refilled.

  “I’m sure I can handle getting you into bed if you need help.”

  He winked and Monica’s eyes widened. She didn’t say whatever it was she was thinking as her eyes bounced between the two of us.

  “How very kind of you.” I drank my wine as he launched into a story about one of the men he’d met in Italy. I observed the two of them while they talked and drank but stayed out of the conversation as much as possible, which was why I found myself laying out on the floor among the pillows and then nodding off after my sixth glass of wine.

  “He’s even more handsome when he sleeps.” Monica’s voice sounded far away and dreamy.

  “He told me he’s not going to fuck you because he doesn’t do married women.” Josh’s voice had a sharper edge to it as he told his sister the news.

  “Well that sucks. I suppose you told him the whole sordid tale of my marriage,” Monica said just as I opened one of my eyes. “Oh, look, he’s awake.”

  “Hey, Nev, you passed out there for a minute.” Josh put an arm around my shoulders and helped me sit up. My head throbbed a little and I cursed the wine I’d drunk. I should have known better. “If you want, I’ll help you back to your cottage so you can sleep in a proper bed. I’d offer to let you stay in mine but my dear sister is making me sleep on the couch.”

  I nodded but the action wasn’t the greatest idea when my head felt on the verge of explosion.

  “Yeah, I should go anyway.” I tried to stand.

  After one failed attempt, let Josh heft me onto my feet. He put an arm around my waist to steady me as we walked to the door. I stopped and swiveled partway to look at Monica. “Thanks for inviting me. I had a good time and I’m sorry I can’t be the guy you need right now.”

  I wasn’t sure how else to say sorry I’m not going to fuck you, and to be fair, I was still quite drunk.

  She crossed the room to hug me tightly. “It’s okay, Nev. I understand and we can still be friends,” she stepped back and poked Josh in the side. “Make sure he gets inside. Don’t leave him on the patio.”

  “Yes, Mom.”

  The interaction between them made me wonder how many men Josh had left on their doorsteps before, but I didn’t get the time to contemplate the thought because Josh was moving us out the door and down the path between the cottages.

  He was supporting most of my weight, which I was thankful for because the world started spinning around me, but then I realized, it was me who was spinning as Josh turned us and pinned me against the side of my cottage.

  “What are y—” My question was both cut off and answered as his lips crashed down on mine. The kiss would have been pleasant had his probing tongue not have set off my gag reflex, which was sensitive, given my alcohol intake.

  He managed to step out of the way before I let loose. His laughter was the perfect accompaniment to my yakking noises.

  His cool hand landed on the back of my neck. “I shouldn’t have kissed you without asking fi
rst, but jeez, was it really that bad?” he asked through his chuckles.

  I shook my head as I spit one last time. “I’m sorry. Me and wine don’t have the best relationship.”

  I stood back up and in the dim light from the windows of the two cottages, I could see he was more concerned than he was letting on. “Seriously, it was the wine, not the kiss.”

  Nodding, he absentmindedly ran a hand through his hair. “That’s good, because kissing you was all I could think of all night.”

  He stepped in closer once again but I put my hand on his chest to stop him.

  “I just threw up. Besides that, I’m too drunk to do anything more than go in there,” I pointed to my cottage “and pass the fuck out.”

  “I wasn’t going to try to kiss you again. I was just going to help you get in there so you don’t do the passing out part here. Monica would kick my ass if she wakes up and finds you in the sand.”

  His lopsided grin made him even more handsome and I wished I was in better shape now that I knew he was interested in pursuing a physical relationship. His arm was once again around my waist and we made our way to my front door where he dug through my shorts pockets to find the keycard.

  “Thanks,” I said once we were inside, thinking he’d turn around and leave but he shut the door behind him.

  “I told you I’d help you get into bed, and since I’m a man of my word…”

  “I think I can make it on my own.”

  I wasn’t too drunk to see that having him in my bedroom would lead to things happening that I wasn’t up to.

  If I was going to have a vacation fling, I wanted it to be good, not something that ended in me having to avoid my next-door neighbor out of shame.

  “Are you sure?” He was a pushy fucker, I had to give him that much.

  “I’m sure, but if you’re not busy tomorrow, maybe we can meet up when you’re not busy with your sister,” I said, hoping he’d get that I was only saying no for tonight.

  “Sure, that would work. Monica will be on the prowl tomorrow, hopefully she’ll find the right guy for the job this time and I’ll have some free time.” He opened the door, stepped out, hesitated for a moment and then turned around. “I didn’t mean the things I said earlier about you being a soulless corporate hack.”