Gravity Happens (Forcing Gravity)

by Alexander, Monica

  I cocked my head to the side, aiming for playful “Only if you want it to be,” I offered, but really I was joking. I just wanted to hold her in my arms, kiss her if she’d let me, and fall asleep next to her.

  She choked out a laugh, then covered her mouth, and I knew I’d gotten through to her.

  “I totally shouldn’t think that’s cute,” she said, “because I’m so pissed at you, but I guess I have missed your honesty and your sense of humor.”

  I settled into her desk chair, rolling it so my knees were touching the end of her bed.

  “I’m sorry, Nora. I was an asshole. Maybe that’s why I came over here. I just wanted you to know that.”

  She nodded. “Thank you. I guess it makes me feel a little better after getting dumped so unexpectedly.”

  “I’d never had a girlfriend before you, and although the idea of that label scared me, I liked being with you, calling you my girlfriend. I liked it a lot.”

  “I liked being with you too, Ethan. I loved it. That’s why it sucked so bad when you ended things with absolutely no warning.”

  “I know,” I said, rising to my feet. “And I think I just wanted you to know that I’m sorry.”

  I turned to walk toward the door. My hand was on the knob when she stopped me.

  “Wait.”

  I turned around to see her standing behind me, and before I knew what was happened, she was wrapping her arms around my neck and pulling me down to kiss her. As soon as my lips met hers it felt like coming home, and I dove in full force, my hands threading through her long, dark hair, anchoring her to me as I walked us toward her bed.

  When her knees touched the edge, I fell on top of her. Papers crunched beneath us, but if she cared, she didn’t say anything. All she did was wrap her long legs around my waist and kiss me deeper before rolling us so she was on top. Then she stripped off her tank top and her bra and let her gorgeous tits fall free. I immediately closed my mouth around one of her nipples which caused her to moan as her sweet scent assaulted me. My dick twitched in anticipation of what it hoped was coming next. It had been a month since I’d gotten laid, and I was long overdue.

  But that wasn’t why I’d gone to Nora’s apartment that night. No, I’d gone to apologize. This was just an added bonus.

  I let Nora strip my shirt off, pepper my chest with kisses and slowly grind against me, as my head banged against her laptop that was still balanced precariously on the bed. I let my hands roam down to cup her sweet ass, and she smiled against my chest.

  “Can this be a booty call?” she asked me, looking down at me through her thick, dark lashes.

  I looked up at her in what I knew was lust, but I was starting to think there might be a decent amount of love there too.

  “It can definitely be a booty call,” I said, as she reached into her nightstand drawer and dug out two condoms.

  “Cool,” was all she said before her mouth descended on mine once again, and she pressed herself against me, giving me a small taste of what was to come.

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Logan

  I didn’t want to go to Vegas, especially after the incident at the club, but it was Ethan’s birthday, so I was going. Besides, as he’d told me the day before, my mourning period was over. I needed to let Jase go and be okay with it.

  But that was harder said that done, especially after I’d seen him two weeks earlier.

  “Are you sure you didn’t want to invite Nora?” I asked Ethan as the plane touched down and we began to taxi to the gate.

  I’d caught him a few days before looking at her number on his phone as if he was thinking of calling her, but he never had as far as I knew. I was honestly surprised he still had her number.

  “No,” he said, shaking his head, not providing any more explanation than he had when I’d asked him the first time.

  I wondered if he was regretting his decision to break up with her, but he wouldn’t tell me anything, so I didn’t know.

  “Did you want to invite Jase?” he asked sarcastically, so I glared at him.

  I’d told him about Jase’s rescue when the pictures of me getting into his car surfaced on the Internet the next day, and he hadn’t been happy about it. I think he was relieved that I hadn’t been assaulted by the paparazzi, but he was pissed that it had been Jase who’d been there for me. And it didn’t help that I told him Jase asked me to take him back – probably because he could see in my eyes that it was what I wanted. If only I could get past the whole ‘him sleeping with his ex’ issue, which I knew I couldn’t.

  Okay, no, I wasn’t going to do that. I was going to stop obsessing and just get over him already, because I could not change the past. Enough!

  I vowed then and there that the weekend would be about me doing just that, and if that meant getting sloppy drunk to numb the pain and simply blocking him out, so be it.

  I reached for Ethan’s hand that was on the armrest between us and squeezed it. “This is going to be a really fun weekend.”

  He grinned at me, his blond hair falling forward into his bright blue eyes. I reached out and tucked a lock behind his ear, then I leaned forward and kissed his cheek.

  * * *

  “Another!” Ethan called out, and his brother handed him a shot of Patron.

  I giggled and swayed on my feet, wondering why I felt compelled to wear heels. I hated heels, and even though I’d become a little more adept at walking in them due to having to learn to be graceful on red carpets and not embarrass Jase, at least for the brief moment in time when I’d been walking red carpets with him, I still didn’t enjoy wearing heels.

  “Shit,” I cursed. “Pour me another.”

  Ethan turned to me. “You thought of him again? Psshh. You suck, Lo.”

  I shrugged and then tipped the shot back. It was my sixth? My seventh? I’d lost count, and then I lost my balance and fell into Ellie.

  “Whoa, girl, are you okay?”

  I pouted. “I hate heels. And I hate Jase. I’m drunk because of him.”

  I was playing the Jase Brady drinking game, which was my own private game that only I was playing, because I guaranteed I was the only one thinking about him. I made the decision to play when I got hit with the first stab of pain in my chest when we walked into Mandalay Bay, and I remembered Jase telling me that was where he’d celebrated his eighteenth birthday. From then on, I had to take a shot every time I thought of stupid Jase. I’d let Ethan in on my game, and that had been a dumb idea.

  But thinking about Jase was even dumber, because now that I’d officially rejected him, he was probably shacked up with Chloe. I could just picture them running around naked and being famous and having sex in every room of his stupid house. And he was probably loving that she was so much more experienced than me. I hated her. She was a slut, and I hoped she got pregnant.

  I clamped my hand over my mouth. Okay, I did not wish that, because if she got pregnant, then she would be having Jase’s baby, and it wasn’t like I wanted to have his baby. Hell no. I was only eighteen, but I didn’t want her to have his baby.

  Ethan chose that moment, as I was pouting and seriously inside my head, to place another shot in front of me, because he knew I was thinking of Jase – again! I glared at Ethan but slammed the shot back anyway. Then I grabbed him by the back of the head and kissed him hard on the mouth. I had no idea what came over me in that moment, but I suddenly wanted to kiss him, so I did.

  “Whoo-hoo, Logan!” someone called out, probably one of Ethan’s friends.

  Hunter and TJ were with us, and I couldn’t really decipher their voices when Ethan was suddenly responding and shoving his tongue in my mouth. All I could think was that I really liked it, and I wondered why I hadn’t kissed him before. I dug my hands into his hair, as his hands went around my waist, and he pulled my body flush against his.

  “Oh shit. What the hell is this?”

  That was Garrett. I’d recognize his voice anywhere.

  I broke away from Ethan and turned to
face Garrett, and as I did, Ethan’s arms swooped around my waist and pulled me back against his rock hard chest. I settled comfortably there, wondering what was next on our list of fun things to do to celebrate his birthday. It was well past midnight. We’d already had dinner, gambled a little – I’d lost ten dollars – and now we were camped out at the hotel bar.

  Maybe we could go dancing! Yeah, that would be totally fun.

  Garrett was glaring at me, so I chose not to ask him. He’d been a little crabby all night, and I personally felt like maybe if he and Ellie snuck off and had some sex, he might be a little more fun. I knew they were missing each other since he’d been off in Maine filming the second Earthbound movie for the past two weeks and had flown to Vegas solely for Ethan’s birthday weekend, which was why Ellie was with us. So maybe he just needed to get some already.

  I spun in Ethan’s arms, and he looked down at me in a drunken haze. He’d had a lot of shots, because it was his birthday, so everyone was giving him drinks. But because of my game, I’d had a lot of shots too.

  “We should totally go dancing!” I told him, and he started to grind against me, so I threw my head back and laughed. Then I came back to center, planted my hands on either side of his adorable face and kissed him again.

  “Dancing!” Hunter shouted, and I pulled away from Ethan to look over at him. He had a beautiful blond in a really small dress clinging to him.

  I narrowed my eyes at him. “Hunter?”

  “Yeah,” he responded, as the girl sucked on his ear.

  “Who is that?”

  He shrugged, then he turned to the girl. “What’s your name?”

  “Melissa,” she said, rolling her eyes, and I had a feeling she’d told him a few times. When exactly he’d picked her up, I wasn’t sure.

  He turned back to me then. “That’s Melissa,” he said, grinning at me.

  I grinned back. “Melissa, do you want to go dancing?”

  “Sure,” she said, as she scooted ever closer to him and rubbed against his thigh. He grinned like a kid at Christmas, no doubt knowing he’d be getting some later.

  Next to him, TJ was making out with a brunette who I guessed was probably Melissa’s friend. I noticed they tended to hook up with sisters or friends a lot, and one time they had an absolute field day with a set of twins.

  “TJ!” Ethan shouted.

  “Yeah!” he said, coming up for air. He had the brunette’s red lipstick all over his mouth.

  “We’re going to Tao. Come on.”

  “Tao?” I asked, turning to Ethan.

  He nodded. “Best club on the strip.”

  “Okay.” Then I turned to Garrett and Ellie. “Are you guys coming?”

  Ellie was a little drunker than Garrett, so she answered for them. “Right behind you, sweetheart.”

  “Great, let’s go,” I said, as we trudged outside to the limo Garrett had hired for the night. He was such a good big brother.

  Ethan pulled me onto his lap for the short ride to the Venetian, so I turned and kissed him again, wondering why I wasn’t grossed out kissing my best friend. It wasn’t at all like when I’d kissed Garrett. That had been like kissing my brother, and I’d thought kissing Ethan would be the same, but it really wasn’t.

  I suddenly pulled away from him and tuned toward Garrett and Ellie. He was whispering to her, making her smile, and she was half-draped over his lap.

  “Gare,” I called out to him as Ethan’s hand slid up my thigh. I pushed it away, wondering why he thought that was an acceptable thing to do.

  “Yeah,” he said, looking up at me. Ellie suddenly pulled her hand back, and I realized where it had been. And that made me giggle.

  “I think your brother is a better kisser than you.”

  As soon as the words were out of my mouth, I watched Garrett’s eyes go wide, and behind me I felt Ethan stiffen. Then his grip around my waist tightened.

  “How the hell would you know how he kisses?” Ethan growled in my ear before he started sucking on my earlobe.

  “Yeah, Logan,” Ellie said, sounding somewhat affronted. “Tell us how you know how my boyfriend kisses.”

  “Shit,” Garrett hissed under his breath.

  I was well-aware that I was frozen in place with my mouth hanging open. “Um.”

  “Yeah, that’s not an answer,” TJ piped up, and I wasn’t sure how he had anything to do with our conversation. The girl he was with giggled.

  Garrett sighed. “Logan and I sort of hooked up last summer.”

  “Sort of hooked up? What does that mean?” Ellie asked, and Garrett squeezed her hand.

  “What the fuck?!” Ethan asked, practically exploding out of his seat as he tossed me to the side and lunged for his brother.

  “Dude, back off,” Garrett warned, and rightfully so.

  He’d packed on close to twenty pounds of muscle in the past six weeks in preparation for his reprisal role as Lucas, the badass fallen angel. He had to go shirtless a lot, so the lean muscle he usually sported wasn’t enough for the part. He had to get all jacked up, and because of that, he could definitely kick his brother’s ass. Not that he actually would, but still.

  “Ethan!” I called out to him before I kicked off my shoes and physically went after him. I could not navigate a moving limo in four inch heels.

  I wrapped my arms around his waist and tugged him down to a nearby seat, sitting on his lap. Below me his breathing was ragged and heavy. I placed my hands on his chest and looked him straight in the eye.

  “We kissed in an elevator and a little more in his hotel room when he was in Miami, but then we both realized what a colossal mistake it was and stopped before things went too far. It didn’t mean anything.”

  I wasn’t sure why Ethan was so riled up.

  “Why didn’t you tell me?” he asked, so quietly.

  I shook my head. “I didn’t tell anyone. We were trying to keep it a secret.”

  “Word to the wise, if you want your secrets kept, don’t get Logan Kessler drunk,” Garrett called out good naturedly. But just for good measure, I glared at him. And he laughed. Jerk.

  But so did Ellie, so that was good. At least she wasn’t mad. We’d hooked up before they’d even met.

  I looked back at Ethan who was pouting, so I kissed him on the cheek. “Don’t pout, gorgeous,” I told him. “It’s your birthday. It’s totally not allowed. We’ll find you a really hot girl to take home okay?”

  He looked up at me, eyes wide, then he grinned goofily. “I have a really hot girl sitting on my lap.”

  “She’s not going home with you,” I told him.

  He leaned in closer to me. “But she’s sharing my hotel room, so she sort of has to go home with me.”

  I was suddenly very aware of Ethan’s hand snaking up under my dress and grasping my thigh. Then before I knew what he was doing, he had me straddling his lap, and all I could do was stare into his deep blue eyes that had me captured there in that moment with him.

  Then the limo jerked to a halt and everyone started to pile out. Everyone except Ethan and me.

  “Five minutes, Gare,” he told his brother who paused as he was exiting the limo.

  “Ethan, don’t,” Garrett warned.

  “Why, you did?” Ethan responded sarcastically, and Garrett shot him a look.

  “Don’t go there, dude.”

  “Just give me five fucking minutes,” Ethan growled, and Garrett mumbled something unintelligible in response before he ducked out of the limo.

  As soon as everyone was gone, Ethan looked back at me.

  “Happy birthday,” I told him, and he looked up at me with such longing.

  Had I been sober, I never would have been engaging in what I was doing with him, because I knew how he felt about me. I knew I was leading him on.

  “I love you, Lo.”

  “I love you too, E.”

  Then he kissed me, pulling me down so there were only strips of fabric separating me from the hardness between his thighs, and had
I been any more sober, I would have seen red flags everywhere, but such as it was, my head was swimming. So there, in the back of a limo with tinted windows, so the hundreds of people passing by couldn’t see in, I made out with my best friend.

  “Five minutes is up,” Garrett called into the limo a time later, and I broke away from Ethan.

  “We’ll meet you inside,” Ethan barked at him, and Garrett slammed the door.

  Ethan glanced up at me then with a hunger in his eyes that I’d only seen once before on another guy’s face.

  “I needed another shot,” I murmured, as I crawled off of Ethan’s lap.

  His eyes narrowed. “You’re kidding me, right?”

  “What?” I asked, trying not to get distracted as I poured clear liquid into a glass. I wasn’t sure what it was, but I didn’t care.

  “You were seriously just thinking about him while you were kissing me? That’s fucked up, Lo.”

  I slammed the shot back and wished I hadn’t. I was pretty sure it was gin, and it was disgusting. Then I turned on Ethan and glared at him.

  “I’m sorry if I’m thinking about him tonight, but we only broke up like five weeks ago, and I miss him. Okay? But I’m here with you, so cut me some fucking slack, will you?”

  I started to leave the limo, but Ethan grabbed my hand and held me back. I turned to look at him and saw the pain in his eyes.

  “You’re never going to love me like you love him, are you?” he asked, and it broke my heart.

  Tears started to prick the backs of my eyes, because even though I knew exactly what he was saying, I couldn’t break his heart. Because I did love him – just not how he wanted me to love him.

  “Ethan, I can’t answer that right now,” I told him. The last thing I wanted to do was say something I’d regret.

  He took a deep breath. “Fine. Pass me that bottle?”

  I handed him a different bottle than the one I’d drunk from because I wouldn’t subject even my worst enemy to that crap.

  Ethan took a few swigs, and then handed the bottle to me. “Here’s to forgetting about those we can’t have,” he said, and even though we weren’t on the same page, I knew exactly how he felt.