More than a Fling: A Romance Collection

by Quinn, Jillian

  “I never had a girl as a friend before. All of this is new to me.”

  My heart plunges into my stomach, but I quickly rebound from Dean’s comment. No way will I allow him to see the effect his words have on me.

  “I guess I’ll be your first.”

  The corners of his mouth turn up into a smile.

  “Now that you’ve popped your girl friend cherry, do you want to play some air hockey?”

  He lifts the strikers from the vacant air hockey table and hands one to me. “I’m not going easy on you, Kitten.”

  I love the way Kitten sounds coming from Dean’s mouth. A beat passes between us where I stare into his denim irises, studying his olive skin and flawless features. If you overlook the scar under his right eyebrow, Dean is perfect in every way.

  Dean rakes his hand through his short, black hair that has a slight curl at the ends, and waits for me to respond. Lost in his looks, my ability to become his friend dwindles by the minute. I’ve had plenty of friends that were boys, most of them by association with my brothers. But this is different.

  We take our places at each end of the table, staring at each other. There’s a palpable energy between us, an electric pulse which creeps into my bones with each stolen glance in Dean’s direction.

  But he wants to be friends…

  Chapter Three

  Kat: Sophomore Year

  In the basement of the Delta Sigma Phi fraternity house, I sit next to Dean on the couch and cringe. I’m pretty sure someone puked on the fabric earlier. Even with all the alcohol in my system, the thought causes me to scoot closer to Dean.

  “You don’t have to play, Kitten.” Dean taps me in the arm. “I know this isn’t your thing.”

  “It’s okay,” I slur. “I want to play the game.”

  All the Solo cups we pounded during beer pong kicked in about ten minutes ago, and I’m starting to give zero fucks.

  One of the frat brothers had suggested we play a make out game. I thought it was stupid, considering we are not in grade school anymore. But it’s a more advanced version of Seven Minutes in Heaven, or at least that was his claim. I assume this is how they get women to bend to their will.

  Dean has more experience than me. In fact, I still haven’t kissed a boy for more than a few seconds on the lips. There was one time that I guess counted as my first kiss with tongue, but that was so short I have a hard time considering that a kiss.

  If not for the liquid courage, I would be terrified right now. But with Dean at my side, I’m not scared. He has a way of calming me down without saying a word. Just knowing he’s here with me is enough.

  “I don’t want you to kiss a random frat bro,” Dean says, lowering his voice.

  Surrounded by the brothers who live in the house and their next victims, I reconsider this stupid game. They take turns playing Russian Roulette with shot glasses of vodka and water. For every shot of vodka we grab, we have to perform a dare. Of course, all of them involve something dirty.

  Dean holds me close as he drinks his beer and watches the others play the game. Starting to rethink the idea, I want to back out. After making a promise to my younger brothers not to touch me, Dean will want to keep his word. But peer pressure is a bitch.

  After we take our shots, both of them full of vodka, one of the brothers tells us to choose our dare. I shrug at him, unsure of what to pick. Dean stares at me, as if he has no idea what to do, and pounds the rest of the cup on the table in front of him.

  The boy on the couch across from us throws a key into Dean’s lap. “Top floor, last door on the right.”

  Dean lifts the key from his jeans and stares at the boy, confused, but he must get the reference. He wants Dean to take me upstairs.

  Awkward.

  “We’re friends,” Dean tells him, throwing the key back to him.

  He catches the key and throws it right back, and this time it lands on my leg. I lift it, feeling the dull ridges between my fingers, and lean into Dean.

  “Let’s just finish our dare and come back.”

  Dean narrows his eyes at me. “Kitten, you can’t be serious. I’m not going to fuck you in some nasty room in a frat house.”

  “We can pretend,” I breathe against the shell of his ear.

  He catches on to what I’m putting down and helps me up from the couch. While Dean doesn’t even closely live up to his reputation on campus, the people in the room with us expect more from him. I could care less what any of them think about me. I never turned down a dare before, and I don’t plan to start now—not with everyone watching us. Kat Baldwin is no punk.

  Dean leads me by the hand up the basement stairs and to the top floor of the old Victorian. We’re doing this for appearance sake. No one will even notice how long we’re gone or if we bother to come back.

  Once inside the room, Dean shuts the door behind us and locks it. I was expecting a bed, but instead, there are two couches, a coffee table, and a flat-screen TV hanging on the wall. I sit down and grab the remote from the table to turn on the TV. If we have to pretend, we might as well keep ourselves entertained.

  “I’m sorry about this, Kitten.” Dean sits next to me on the couch, places his hand on my knee, and squeezes it. “I should have known better than to bring you into the basement. That’s where all the weird shit happens in this house.”

  I shrug against the cushion and lean into his bulky frame. “Don’t worry about it. They have no idea what we’re doing up here. No one will know if we kiss or not. Let’s hang out here for about twenty minutes, return the key, and get out of here.”

  He leans his head back on the cushion and looks at me. “I should have brought some beer with us.”

  “Fuck it.” I climb onto his lap and straddle him, pressing my palms down on his shoulders. “What’s one kiss between friends?”

  He reaches up to run his calloused thumb along my jaw and traces his way to my lips. “You’re beautiful, Kat, but I don’t want you to do this because some asshole dared us to come up here together.”

  I dip down to brush my lips against his. “We can kiss and still be friends.”

  He slides his hands down to my waist and holds me tight. “Once we do this, we can’t go back.”

  “It’s just a kiss, Dean.”

  “You say that now, but what if everything changes tomorrow? I can’t afford to lose you, Kitten. You mean too much to me.”

  “Haven’t you ever wondered what it would be like?” I move his hands from my hips to my ass, staring into his eyes. “Shouldn’t we see if there’s something more between us?”

  “Where is all this coming from? Don’t let those idiots get under your skin.”

  “They’re not.” I take his bottom lip in my mouth and suck on it. “I thought you were asking me out the day we met.”

  “Would you have said yes?” He breathes the words against my lips.

  “In a heartbeat,” I confess.

  With that, Dean cups my ass in his hands, gripping me with so much force I let out a soft moan. “Is this what you want, Kitten?”

  “Uh-huh.” I grind on him, feeling him grow beneath me. “I know you do, too.”

  “You’re drunk,” he grunts. “I feel like I’m taking advantage of you. I made a promise to Theo and Tucker that I would take care of you. I’m violating their trust and abusing the situation.”

  “You can’t take advantage if I want it to happen, Dean. Now shut up and kiss me. Stop overthinking the dare. We won’t even remember this in the morning.”

  Once our lips collide, Dean slips his tongue into my mouth, taking his time at first. It shouldn’t feel this good to kiss my best friend. But damn me for wanting more of him. I want all of him. If we weren’t in this room, I would allow Dean to wander more.

  Heat spreads from my cheeks and down to my chest, warming my insides. As Dean navigates my body with his strong hands, he commands his dominance over me, my sex clenching from each touch. His soft kisses turn more passionate and rough with each flick of
his tongue. He palms the back of my head, threading his fingers through my hair to deepen the kiss.

  For years, I’ve had to watch the Dirty Dean I know come out to play with other girls, and I had to pretend I didn’t secretly wish I was them. He never did anything with girls in my presence. But knowing he has the occasional hookup bugs me sometimes. Now, I have the chance to be that girl for the night.

  We spend the next twenty minutes kissing and running our hands over each other’s bodies, never pushing the limit far enough that we can’t go back. Sex is a fine line that could cost us everything.

  Chapter Four

  Dean: Sophomore Year

  “Did you hook up with our sister?” Theo strolls into my bedroom, giving me a disgusted look. He plops down on my bed next to me and waits for my response.

  “It was for a game,” I admit, leaning my back against the wall. “Kat and I are friends. Don’t read anything into it.”

  I loved every second of the kiss I shared with Kat. I didn’t want it to end. But we’re friends. If anything, the kiss only complicated our relationship.

  “Don’t let it happen again,” Tucker says, sitting on the opposite side of Theo.

  I laugh at him. “What are you going to do about it, tough guy?”

  He makes a fist, with his face twisted in mock anger, and punches me in the arm.

  I guess I deserved that much for kissing Kat. Being with her gave me the worst case of blue balls. After I walked Kat to her dormitory, I stood in the shower for at least an hour. Nothing I tried had helped.

  The worst part is that I cannot stop thinking about her mouth and those luscious lips. I dream of what she would taste like and how good she would feel beneath me. I want all of her. But I need her friendship more.

  Ever since Kat’s twin brothers joined the Senators this year, I have become just as close to them as Kat. She wasn’t joking about them being overprotective. Kat’s brothers would kill for her.

  Growing up with no siblings and a single mother who worked three jobs to keep me in skates, I never knew what it was like to have a big family. I spent most of my time at other people’s houses or playing video games to keep myself entertained. My mom did her best, and she still busts her ass to make my pro hockey dreams become a reality.

  But seeing how a close family operates makes me wish I was part of one. That’s why I can’t screw things up with Kat, despite my feelings. Kat has become family to me, and by extension, so have her brothers.

  “Kat texted me.” Tucker sits up to read the message. “She wants us to meet her at the SAC to play air hockey.”

  “Kat likes her air hockey,” I deadpan.

  He shrugs. “We played it all the time at home when we were kids. It’s our thing.”

  “I noticed. Kat makes me play with her almost every night we don’t have a game or practice.”

  “I’m hungry,” Theo says to Tucker. “Tell Kat to meet us in the cafeteria first. And make sure she brings some cash with her. I’m out.”

  “You’re rich,” I say, stating the obvious. “How are you out of money?”

  “I put the rest of my cash down on us winning the game tomorrow night. I only need to borrow a few bills for dinner.”

  “If dad finds out that you’re placing bets, he will kick your ass.” Tucker, the eldest of the twins by two minutes, gets up from the bed and stares down at his brother. He’s the more responsible of the two. “You’re such a dumb ass. Don’t go gambling away your trust fund on sports betting. Remember what happened to Uncle Steve?”

  Theo nods, deflated. “Yes, Dad. I won’t do it again.”

  Tucker snorts. “You know I’m right. Stop jerking off and focus on staying on the team.”

  Theo rolls his eyes at his brother. “My game is fine, thank you very much, and my spot on the team is secure.”

  “What do you think happens to players that take bets on their team, Theo?” Tucker points his finger at his head. “Think with your head for once. If you get kicked off the team, there goes your shot at the NHL, and Dad will kill you if you blow it over a stupid bet.”

  “Okay, enough fighting, boys.” I push myself up from the bed and to my feet, holding out my hand to help Theo up.

  He takes my hand with a sigh. The Baldwin twins go at each other like this for hours. Sometimes, one of our teammates, who live in the house with us, has to break up their arguments. The one thing every member of the Baldwin family has in common is their tempers, Kat included.

  * * *

  After thirty minutes of non-stop fighting, I get Theo and Tucker to stop yelling at each other long enough to drag their asses to the Student Activity Center to meet Kat. The scents of herbs and fried foods assault my nostrils as we go through each station. I hadn’t realized how hungry I was until we got here.

  We fill our trays in a hurry and set off toward the table in the back of the room, the one where we always meet our friends. Kat peeks up from her plate, locking onto me. She pats the seat next to her.

  Now, she’s the one beckoning me. We still joke about the day we met. Back then, I used my usual tricks on her, not even thinking that they wouldn’t work on a girl like Kat. She has me so whipped that sometimes even I wonder why we never took our relationship to the next step. Until last night.

  But I have to set those feelings aside for the sake of our friendship. As much as I would love to explore more with Kat, it could never work with her brothers around to block us at every turn. She’s never even had a boyfriend because of them.

  I sit next to Kat and slide my chair into the table.

  “What did you get?” Kat scans my plate. “I’m still hungry.”

  “Cheesesteak and fries. You want half?”

  She lifts a fry from my plate and stuffs it into her mouth, speaking between bites. “Maybe just a bite of your steak.”

  “You owe me a few bucks for this joker,” Tucker says to Kat, pointing at Theo with a goofy smile.

  She pulls a twenty out of her back pocket and throws it across the table at Tucker. He picks it up, looking victorious.

  “I’m not a joker,” Theo says, defensive, but he’s too busy eating his food to argue.

  Kat and her younger brothers only have a one year age difference between them, but you would assume by their behavior that the twins are years apart from Kat. While she’s mature and sensible, they’re both wild and think after they act. Tucker surprises me on occasion, but that doesn’t happen often.

  Then, there’s Duke and Austin, who are over five years older than Kat and rough around the edges. The Baldwin’s are a dynamic bunch. Never a dull moment around any of them.

  I break my steak in half and give it to Kat. Instead of taking it from me, she grabs my hand and sinks her teeth into the sandwich. She pins me down with an intense stare, making it harder for me to focus on anything other than her face. I watch each movement of her mouth, thinking of how her lips felt pressed against mine. I miss being that close to her already.

  Does she feel it, too?

  Can we make this work between us?

  For better or worse, things have changed between us. I can’t deny the connection I have to Kat. It was always there. But how do we move forward?

  Chapter Five

  Dean: Junior Year

  Sitting on the bed next to me, with her back against the wall and her legs pulled up to her chest, Kat reaches for the remote between us. She turns off the TV, leaving the room in silence. We were in the middle of another one of our crappy movie marathons.

  She takes my hand in hers and tugs hard enough to bring my attention to her beautiful face. “Dean, would you be my first?”

  My heart speeds up, beating out of my chest. I have no idea how to answer Kat. After spending months working out my feelings for Kat, things had finally returned to normal. I thought our summer apart had healed the old wounds, only for her to rip them open again.

  “You mean sex?” I have to clarify just in case I’m way off base.

  She nods. “Yeah
. Is that a weird thing to ask you?”

  “Where is this coming from?”

  “I’ve been thinking a lot about sex, and I want to do it.”

  “And you want it to be with me? Are you sure, Kitten? That’s a huge responsibility. You should have sex with someone you love.”

  She shakes her head, smiling. “I love you, silly. That’s why I want it to be with you. If I make the mistake of having sex with some random dude, I will regret it later. But I would never regret my choice if it was with you.”

  I should be happy about the situation. After pining for my best friend for what feels like an eternity, this is what I want. But I have my reservations about sex destroying our relationship. It had taken me long enough to get over our kiss. But I want her. I never stopped.

  In one swift motion, I grab her by the hips and pull her onto my lap. She squeezes my legs between her thighs and stares down at me, licking her lips.

  Starting at her hips, I run my hands down to her legs, feeling her soft skin. “Once we go down this path, there’s no turning back. We can’t hit the reset button.”

  I should confess my feelings for her so that everything is out on the table, but I don’t want to ruin the moment. Kat asked me to do something for her that should be handled with care.

  “Not in my room,” I tell her. “If this is what you want, we should plan it out. I want it to be special for you. Your first time shouldn’t be in the house I share with my teammates. Plus, your brothers are on the other side of this wall. Hell, we even share a bathroom. How will that look if they find us together?”

  She beams with delight. “So, you’ll do it. I was so afraid to ask you.”

  “Kitten, having sex for the first time is not a Band-Aid you have to rip off. If you only want this because you think it’s the right thing to do, then you’re doing it for the wrong reason.”

  She pushes her hair behind her ears, sitting up just enough to give me a perfect view of her tight body. With her full breasts popping out of a fitted blue top, I had trouble focusing on the movie, but now, I can’t even think straight.