“Why are you nodding?” Zack asks me.
“Huh?”
“You’re nodding,” he says as we walk down the hall behind Ethan.
I quickly look away from him. “No reason.”
Laughter erupts from the end of the hall. We take a turn and enter a sitting room. I quickly clock the people in it. An upper middle aged man and woman, who must be Ethan’s parents... An older man who is probably his grandfather… And a couple who are about my age.
The way the last two people sit so close they’re practically on each other’s laps gives them away as a couple. They’re nestled together in a love seat, a thin African American girl with a wide smile and a lanky guy with sandy blonde hair parted to the side. The two of them wear sky blue polos, which are basically the male and female version of the same shirt.
Ethan introduces me to everyone. It turns out the couple our age are his cousin, Jeff, and his fiancée Emily. Everyone is extremely pleasant, which is a relief. Ethan’s mom smiles warmly at me and places her hand on my back while asking what I’d like to drink.
“It’s nice to see Zack bringing a girl over,” Ethan’s dad laughs. I rack my brain, trying to remember just what Ethan told me about his father. To the best of my memory, he’s in ‘investing’. I guess that means he makes just as much money, if not more, than Ethan.
“But what about you, Ethan?” Mr. Wilkes asks his son. “When are you going to jump on the ball?”
Ethan sips his bourbon, the question obviously annoying him. I can tell by the way he acts like he doesn’t hear a thing his dad is saying. He’s pulled the act on me several times and it’s annoying as shit.
Mr. Wilkes winks at me. “Do you have any girlfriends you can introduce him to? We’re worried he’s going to be a bachelor until the day he dies.”
“And what’s wrong with that?” Ethan asks in a clipped tone, his hearing suddenly seeming to have returned.
Mrs. Wilkes places her hand on her husband’s shoulder. Though she’s obviously middle aged, her exact age is impossible to place. She still has jet black locks and a face devoid of almost all lines. Perhaps it’s all due to a good hair stylist and plastic surgery, but she looks great.
“Having a partner is wonderful,” she says to her son. “Don’t you want someone to settle down with?”
Again, Ethan only drinks his liquor and looks surly. I’m sandwiched on the couch between him and Zack, though I’ve purposely angled my knees in the direction of my ‘boyfriend’.
Mrs. Wilkes keeps going on. “Look at your cousin over there.”
On the other side of the room Jeff and Emily laugh about something, their heads placed close together. With their matching polos and great teeth, they look like they could be in a department store window for a shop catering to Southampton millennials.
“Most women aren’t worth my time,” Ethan finally replies, with a cased closed kind of look.
I look at him out of the corner of my eye. He briefly looks my way and for a second there seems to be some regret in his face. He clears his throat and stands up.
“I was going to show Mindy around the grounds.”
‘The grounds’. Now there’s something we don’t say in the Bronx. Unless you happen to be referring to a prison.
Mrs. Wilkes smiles. “That sounds lovely. Thanksgiving meal will be served at four. How does that sound?”
Ethan downs the rest of his drink and puts the empty glass on the coffee table. “Great.”
The three of us scamper from the room. The second we’re in the hall Ethan reaches behind me and pinches my ass.
“Ow!” I shriek, then slap his shoulder. “What was that for?”
“Just wanted to do it since I couldn’t before,” he whispers. “You know, since you’re supposed to be Zack’s girlfriend and all.”
I rub my butt and look around to make sure no one’s seen what we’re up to. “You couldn’t do that to any woman in front of your family.”
“Oh really?” he sarcastically asks.
“Really. Sorry to break it to you.”
“So see? I’m no good at girlfriends.”
“Come on,” Zack brusquely says. “Let’s walk around.”
There’s irritation in his voice, and I can’t figure out why. Perhaps he didn’t like the way Ethan spoke in front of the family. I can’t imagine why, though. There must be something else going on between the two of them.
At this point I don’t even care. Being at this luxurious house beats Thanksgiving dinner in a cramped apartment any day.
Ethan takes us back through the foyer and out a back door. In the yard sits a wide patio, a covered pool, a hot tub, and a gazebo. Across the lawn is a tennis court. Sadly, the pool is shut down for the season, but the tennis court and hot tub surely get a lot of use.
“You play?” I ask Ethan, nodding my head at the court.
He makes a sour face. “No. Come on. Want to see upstairs?”
Zack makes a growling noise. I look over at him in question and he pinches my butt cheek, just like Ethan did earlier.
“Jesus,” I complain. “What’s up with you guys?”
We take a second and smaller set of stairs, ones near the kitchen. The second floor hallway is even wider than the first floor one, winding and splitting off at multiple points. I count the rooms we pass, losing track somewhere after fifteen.
We finally arrive at the very end of the hall. The door opens and we climb a very small, narrow set of stairs. The end of our journey takes us into a large room with a slanted ceiling.
“Is this the attic?” I ask, turning a three sixty to take the space in. There are windows, but they’re smaller than the ones on the two lower floors.
“Part of it,” Ethan says, plopping down on a large bed. “This was my room.”
Right after he says it I notice the photos on the walls and the trophies on the shelves. I go over and inspect them and then laugh. “Polo!”
“No beer pong out here,” Ethan says.
I laugh so hard I lose my breath. “You were just making fun of tennis, and yet you used to be a polo champion?” I can’t stop the giggles from coming.
For the first time today Ethan cracks a grin. “Laugh all you want. It’s ridiculous, I know.”
Zack sits down at a desk and starts fiddling with some of the knick knacks there. I make my way over to the wall covered with photos. They’re mostly from what look like high school and college days. In most of them a younger looking Ethan, his wild blonde hair all over the place, smiles up at the camera alongside a plethora of friends.
“No Zack,” I comment.
Zack sticks out his lower lip. “Yeah Ethan, why no photos of me?”
Ethan rolls his eyes. “Because I don’t think I’ve spent more than four nights a year up here since I’ve met you, that’s why.”
I take a seat next to him on the bed. “So how did you guys meet anyway?”
Zack immediately starts laughing. “This is a good one.”
I look back and forth between them. “Oh yeah?”
Zack props his feet up on the desk. “His bike got stolen. Well, not all of it. The frame was still there by the time he got back to it.”
Ethan shrugs. “I was stupid. I shouldn’t have left it on that street.”
“Actually, you were probably high,” Zack points out.
Ethan nods. “Yeah, I was probably high.”
“Wait,” I slowly say. “So what happened next? How did you meet?”
Ethan cracks a slight grin. “I was sitting in Washington Square Park feeling sorry for myself when Zack walked by and offered me a cigarette.”
“And how about the…sharing part?”
“That didn’t happen for a while. I think you know we’re not into…each other. We just enjoy sharing.”
“Yeah, I got that.”
“Well, let’s just say a Yankees owners’ meeting got a bit wild. Strippers were present…alcohol was flowing.”
“Those were escorts,” Zack c
orrects him.
“Wait. Back up. You’re part owners of the New York Yankees?”
“We dabble.”
I open my mouth to ask something but Zack interrupts. “Don’t worry,” he says. “We don’t smoke anymore. That was just when we thought it would make us cool.”
I smirk. “You read my mind. One more question. Tell me about the dragon tattoos.”
They exchange a look. A heaviness fills the room.
I clear my throat. “Never mind. You don’t have to. I know tattoos can be personal for some people.”
They keep looking at each other, having some kind of silent exchange.
Finally Ethan cocks his head in my direction. “Dragons represent strength and good luck.”
“And you got yours at the same time?”
Ethan nods. “Right after I finished school.”
Zack smiles and plays with a little metal slinky, tossing it back and forth between his hands. “They’re kind of symbolic of… our commitment.”
“To each other?” I slowly ask, worried I’m getting too personal but not able to check my curiosity.
“Fuck no,” Ethan answers. “To leaving it all on the field, as they say. Work hard, kick ass, make it count.” He licks his lips. “Zack kind of helped me out in that department. If it weren’t for him, I’d be coasting on my good looks and Daddy’s trust fund money.”
As soon as he says it he flushes a bit.
Warmth fills my chest. It’s a new side of Ethan I’ve never seen. I already knew he and Zack had a strong bond but now I’m just getting how deep it goes. It’s beautiful, actually. And it comforts me to know Zack really does have a family, what with his dad gone.
Ethan is his family.
I’m his family.
I look at my lap. No. Wrong. Zack and I are still… I don’t know what. I don’t think we’re fuck buddies any more. Friends with benefits is more like it.
Zack looks down at the slinky in his hands, giving it an undue amount of attention. I get the sense I’ve put them on the spot a bit by having them discuss their relationship. It’s time to lighten the mood.
“Well,” I seductively say, running my finger across Ethan’s shirt. His tattoo is covered up but I know exactly where the claws and tail run along his muscles. “They’re extremely sexy tattoos, I have to say.”
Lust flashes in Ethan’s eyes. “You don’t say?”
“How sexy?” Zack asks.
I laugh. “What, you want me to give you a rating on a scale of one to ten?”
“Yeah,” Ethan says. “Let me guess? Zack’s is a two and mine is a ten.”
“Dream on,” Zack joshes. “It’s more like the other way around.”
“Aw, don’t get jealous now.”
I grin. “Guys, chill.”
Zack jabs his chin at me. “Forget the rating system. How about you just show us how sexy they are?”
14
Zack
“Show you, huh?” Mindy softly asks, her voice dropping a note with each word. “I think I can do that.”
She takes Ethan’s face in her hand and turns it to hers. It’s an interesting move, a bit of a show of dominance, which I never would have guessed she had in her. She kisses him deep and he reaches up to ball her hair in his hand.
A spark ignites in my core then turns into an all-out wildfire. I can’t stop the pleased sigh leaving my chest. To see Mindy take charge in a way she never has before does something to me. She’s a new woman, the kind I didn’t even think I wanted to see. Usually it’s us wielding power over her. Having it reversed unexpectedly and forcefully turns me on like I can’t believe.
She presses her palms against Ethan’s chest and pushes him down onto the bed, following him as he goes. He stiffens a little bit, his shoulders boxing up.
Mindy breaks the kiss and sits back up. “What’s wrong?”
Ethan clears his throat and pops up next to her. “Nothing.”
“You seem really tense.”
“No I’m not.”
Her eyes narrow. “Really.” She pokes his shoulder. “Then why are you so stiff?”
“I’m not stiff,” he says through a tight, practically lock-jawed, mouth.
“Wait a second...” Her eyes rove around the room. “Oh. Yeah. I see.”
“What?” I ask.
She nods at the general wall. “We’re in his childhood bedroom.”
It makes me laugh. “A little too awkward for you, Ethan?”
He grumbles something under his breath.
Mindy bites her full lip. “Can we go to another room?”
Ethan rubs the back of his head. “There’s not really any other room. Since we’re not staying the night nothing’s been set up for us. If we go somewhere else someone might find us.”
Mindy shrugs. “Let’s just forget about it then. We’re leaving here in a few hours anyway. And it might be weird to do, uh, you know, this with your family downstairs.”
The tent in Ethan’s pants says he wants to do anything but forget about it. The same with the fire inside me. No way can I look at Mindy sitting there in her skinny jeans and not get turned on.
“I’m comfortable,” I say.
Mindy gives me an exasperated look. “But Ethan’s not.”
“Well what about you?”
She shrugs, but then slowly nods, her cheeks flushing. “I don’t think I can wait till we get back to the city.”
I grin. “So how about you and I start, and let him watch?”
Ethan shoots me a disparaging gaze. “I’m fine.”
He’s clearly not.
“Or,” Mindy says. “We could just make him be more comfortable.”
“Huh?” I ask.
One corner of her mouth twists up into a grin. “We could just tie him up and make him like it.”
I chuckle. “That’s rich. Ethan Wilkes, the submissive.”
Mindy keeps grinning. “I like it. Thinking about it makes me kind of hot.”
Just hearing she’s hot makes me hot.
“Let’s do it,” I say, unable to wait any longer.
Ethan’s eyebrows shoot up. “Wait. What? You’ve got to be kidding.”
Mindy stands. “Nope, not kidding at all. Do you have any rope around here?”
Ethan opens his mouth like he’s going to protest but he doesn’t say anything. Mindy starts looking around the room. I open the first drawer at the desk, then the second. On the third I get lucky.
“Oh yeah,” I coon, pulling out the thin rope and dangling it for them to see. “Left over from your boy scout days, Ethan?”
Mindy practically giggles like a school girl. I stand and toss her the rope. “Think this will do the job?”
“Oh, definitely. Have a seat,” she tells Ethan.
His lips purse. “I don’t know.”
Her words are low and drawn out. “Have… a… seat.”
Ethan gulps. This is a side to Mindy we’ve never seen, someone only a half-step away from dominatrix mode. He stands and takes my vacated chair.
Immediately Mindy starts wrapping the rope around him, twisting it tight against his torso. He grunts when she gives it one last tug before tying the ends up.
“I can’t get out,” he complains. “You didn’t say it would be this tight.”
Mindy bends to look him straight in the face. “You not being able to get out is the idea.”
Irritation washes across his face, but as he stares defiantly back at Mindy it’s replaced by lust. My dick is getting so hard I’m about ready to tear my pants off and take Mindy right then and there, just so long as she keeps talking in this sexy vixen voice.
She runs her hands over his shoulders and down across his abs, her palms meeting between his legs. He lets out a soft groan.
“Mindy,” he starts to say, but she presses a finger against his lips and shakes her head.
“God,” I gasp under my breath. I want to touch her so bad but also can’t bear to interrupt the show. I reach up and claw at my o
wn hair instead, the frustration mounting by the second.
Mindy slowly pulls off her sweater and shirt to reveal a black bra. She takes just as much time on her pants, unzipping them and wiggling out of them. With nothing remaining but her matching lingerie, she gets on her knees and unzips Ethan’s pants.
He groans in agony, his head falling back across the top of the chair. Still she takes her sweet time, pulling his dick out and lightly running her fingers over it.
I can’t handle it anymore. Unzipping my own pants, I pull my dick out and give it a little squeeze. Mindy stands and then leans over to give Ethan a lick. He gasps and buckles in his chair.
Bent over the way she is, I’ve got a perfect view of Mindy’s ass. The black fabric of her thong slips between her cheeks, disappearing into her soft caverns. I edge forward and swivel my hand across her thick flesh. My fingers thrum with the desire to dig into her, to bind her, to claim her. I settle by spanking her hard.
She lets out a little yelp and glances back at me. I give her a smug smile. Her ass is red where it’s been struck. I smooth my hand over the mark, soothing the injured area.
Mindy turns back around and lowers her face to Ethan’s crotch. Slurping noises fill the room as she sucks him.
I spank her again, making her jerk and gurgle around Ethan’s cock.
Nearly twitching from desire, I take the thin strip of fabric between her cheeks and push it to the side. Her engorged lips shine with wetness.
I groan and bite my lip. “God, Mindy.”
She’s too busy sucking cock to respond, but the way she thrusts her butt up against me says everything I need to know. I push the tip of my dick against her thigh, the bit of pre cum there helping me to slide easily against her skin.
Pushing a finger between her folds, I feel around for the ridged spot inside of her. I stroke it gently and a fresh gush of wetness flows onto my hand.
“Fuck,” I gasp, gritting my teeth. I don’t remember ever being so turned on. The whole room is spinning and pulsating, the world a feverish blur of colors.
Mindy bobs her head, taking in Ethan’s whole length. Guttural grunts leave him. I pull my fingers out of Mindy and replace them by nudging the tip of my dick against her opening. Her lips throb and open, begging me to enter them, but I take my time by sliding up and down them.
Two Billionaires Next Door: A Dark Bad Boy MFM Romance Page 10
