A Little More Touch Me (The Fallout Series Book 2)

by Heather Young-Nichols

  “You can change the radio if you want,” I told Porter, who was messing with his phone. The newest pop hit played on the radio. Though it sounded more pop/rock.

  “This is good.”

  As I maneuvered around some slower cars on the highway, I decided this was a great opportunity to get what I sought from Porter. Laney was asleep, so she won’t be suspicious of every question I asked.

  “When’s the last time you did something fun like this?” I asked him.

  “Like this?” His deep voice was quiet but still filled the car with warmth. “Probably never.”

  “Seriously?”

  “Yup.”

  Now I felt like I’d stuck my foot in my mouth. “Well, I’m glad your first friend road trip is to the butter castle.”

  Porter snorted and sat back in his seat. “I’ve gone with Zac up north a few times when he’s taken Dylan. Shit like that.”

  “Well, that’s fun, right?”

  He shook his head. “You haven’t met his dad.”

  “Oh,” I said because there wasn’t much more to say. His meaning was clear. “What about your parents? Do they live in East Branch?”

  “Yup.” His curt tone was noted.

  “Do you see them very often?”

  “Not if I can help it.”

  Well, if that didn’t tell me a change in subject was necessary, then nothing did. Instead of letting me continue, Porter took over.

  “Did you like school?” he asked.

  I shrugged as I made merged off of one highway onto the other, following the GPS without thinking about it. “I loved high school. Even more once Laney arrived.”

  “Why?”

  Ugh. I shouldn’t have said that. “I grew up around a lot of rich, snotty kids, so when I wanted to go to public school my parents thought I’d been taken over by body snatchers. My brother had gone there and fought the battle first, so that made it a little easier.”

  “What about college?” he asked. I reminded myself that he’d never gone to college.

  “College I loved more. So much freedom. I only got to go to Ohio, so not far enough away from my parents, but it was still so much freedom.”

  Porter was silent for a moment. “Why do you need freedom from your parents?”

  I hit the turn signal and merged onto the off ramp. I needed a bathroom break. “That is a much longer conversation.” I brought the car to a stop. We’d been traveling for two hours by then and it was time to stop. I hadn’t even broken into the snacks or drinks. “Sorry. I have to pee,” I told him when we pulled into a gas station. “May as well fill up, too.”

  “I’ll pump the gas,” he told me as he opened the door. I stopped him and handed him my debit card so he could pay at the pump.

  “Thanks.” I twisted around so I could reach Laney. “Wake up,” I said as I shook her. “Pee break.”

  Laney pushed herself up and stretched. Perfect timing. Zac woke up at the sound of her voice and got himself out of the car as well.

  She and I went into the gas station and glanced around until I saw the sign for the restrooms. It was the kind that had multiple stalls. We went in, did our business and washed our hands.

  “I’m going to grab a drink,” I told her on our way out of the restroom. “Do you think the guys want anything?”

  “Probably. We can just grab them a pop.” She reached in and pulled out two for the guys and a water for her. I reached around her before she shut the door and chose a water as well. “Sorry I fell asleep,” Laney said as we when to pay.

  I shrugged and dropped a bill on the counter to pay for all four drinks. The cashier handed me my change and we headed back toward the car.

  “No biggie. I figured you had a late night. Or that’s what it sounded like anyway.”

  “Oh, god.” She slapped a hand over her face.

  “Yup,” I said. “That’s what it sounded like.”

  We burst into giggles, which brought the guys’ attention back to us. Porter was just finishing up with the gas while Zac was leaning against the car not far from where he was.

  Porter offered to drive when it was time to get back on the road. I tossed him the keys because while I didn’t mind driving, having someone else do it also didn’t suck. He climbed in behind the wheel and had to move the seat almost all the way back. Actually, when he first got in, his knees were pushing up toward his ears. I had to laugh. With me being short, I had to sit close to the steering wheel. But he had to be at least six feet tall.

  This time, Laney and Zac didn’t fall back to sleep as we drove another almost two hours to Youngstown, where the fair was being held. We needed to find a hotel and some food because I was starting to get hungry. I meant real food. Not the snacks I’d bought. Mostly I brought those for while we were in the hotel anyway.

  “What about this one?” I asked as we approached a little roadside inn.

  “Looks good to me,” Laney agreed. “Cheap.”

  “Exactly.” I tapped Porter on the arm. “Pull in there.” He did and came to a stop by the office. “I’ll go rent the room.”

  “Let me get you some cash,” she said, which made everyone else in the car go for their wallets.

  “I’ll just put it on my credit card and we can split it up once we know the total. That sound good?”

  Laney replied, “Sounds good to me. Or we could just let Daddy pay for it.”

  I snorted. She knew better than that. He would’ve, of course, if I asked him to, but I didn’t take any more money from my parents than I had to. They’d helped with the apartment in college because they had still been trying to get me to bend to their will. The car had been a graduation gift from them. But this… I had my own money for this, saved from various summer jobs since I was in high school. While in college I let my parents pay for everything so this money just sat there. It wasn’t a lot and it wouldn’t last long if I didn’t figure out what kind of job I wanted, but it was enough for this.

  “Yeah, no,” Porter said before I could.

  I hopped out of the car and he followed me into the motel.

  “What’re you doing?” I asked.

  “Didn’t want you to come in alone.”

  “OK, but now they’re going to think we’re renting the room together.”

  “We are.”

  He wasn’t wrong. But that wasn’t what I’d meant.

  The process was fairly simple and honestly, cheap. We had two hotel room key cards in hand within ten minutes and were in the car to drive around the back to find our room. Once we did that, we took our bags inside. The room was average. Nothing special. Two beds, a chair and small table with a dresser and TV on top. It could’ve used an update but I wasn’t about to complain. Then I demanded we find food.

  We’d passed several fast food restaurants on our way into town and I didn’t care which one we chose. I just knew I needed to eat and that I’d have to relax my healthier eating ways. At least for this trip.

  Laney and I decided to just go to McDonald’s. Everyone could eat there. I could even get a small side salad instead of fries with my chicken sandwich. Win-win.

  “What do you have against fries?” Porter asked from beside me in the booth.

  “Nothing. Fries are delicious. The problem is if I got fries, I’d eat them all. And that’s about a billion calories.”

  “Maybe not a billion,” Laney countered. “But either way, they are a delicious billion calories.”

  I smiled over at her. She seemed to be able to eat anything she wanted and still look amazingly hot.

  “Have some fries.” Porter pushed his in my direction.

  “Seriously?” I asked. He nodded. “This is weird. I tried to take one of Laney’s once and she bit me.”

  The guys roared with laughter.

  “It’s true,” she confessed. “But I was starving.”

  I took three of Porter’s fries and savored every last bite.

  Back at the hotel, Laney and I were lying next to each other on our stom
achs on one of the beds looking on the internet for things to do tonight, while the guys sat an appropriate distance apart on opposite ends of the other bed.

  “Wait,” she said suddenly. “We saw a pool. Let’s go check it out.”

  The guys were going to do whatever we chose, so they followed us out of the room and around the building to where a not horrible pool was. It looked really clean and no one else was in it. I reached down to feel the water and it was surprisingly warm for an outdoor pool.

  “One problem,” I told her. “Did you bring a suit? Because I did not.”

  “No,” she said, then she seemed to ponder the question. “But I am wearing a bra and panties.”

  I snorted. “Good to know.”

  “We can just swim in those. They’re basically bikinis anyway.”

  “True.”

  “Not true,” Zac said, shaking his head.

  “Totally true,” I countered.

  “Porter help me out here. Not the same thing at all.”

  Porter stroked his chin as if contemplating a hard problem to figure out. “I mean… They do cover the same amount skin area, but I can’t say they’re the same thing.”

  “Thank you,” Zac said, sounding quite exasperated.

  “Well,” I countered, “it’s that or naked. Pick your poison.”

  Porter laughed again. “I don’t think you’re making the argument you think you are.”

  I narrowed my eyes at him and then at Zac, who’d joined in by chuckling to himself. “Naked means everyone here sees everyone else. I don’t have a problem with it, but—”

  “Nope,” Zac said, cutting me off. “Underwear it is.”

  Chapter Six

  I glanced around to make sure no one was nearby before yanking my shirt off. Again, it was like wearing bikinis, but someone outside of our conversation might have gotten the wrong idea. As I unbuttoned my shorts and pushed them down my legs, I noticed that Zac and Porter were already as undressed as they were going to get. Of course. Leave it to guys to not care if people are around to see them in just their boxer briefs.

  Neither Laney nor I had worn our sexy, lacy bra and panties. It was getting warmer outside and we were going to be in the car for hours. Most of the time we went for comfort anyway. These are the things you learn about a person when you live with them. All cotton for both of us today. Though thankfully mine were gray and hers were black. White would’ve become translucent in the water.

  I’d already seen Porter at the beach the previous summer when Laney had moved home, but every time was better than the last. He was hard not to admire.

  The thick thighs and strong muscles, maybe a little bigger than Zac’s. Whereas Zac had a smattering of tattoos on his arms, chest, and back, Porter had a single one snaking down his arm. I hadn’t gotten close enough to see the details, but from the parts I had gotten a look at, it was a vine wrapping down to the wrist with flowers, a skull, and various other things attached.

  Zac and Porter dove in without thinking about it, but Laney and I went much slower.

  We sat down and let our feet dangle into the water before dropping our whole bodies in. Though neither of us went completely under right away the way Zac and Porter had. She and I swum around, the ends of our hair getting wet.

  This was exactly the kind of fun I’d had in mind when I’d suggested we do this. The guys hung back, leaning against the side of the pool, watching us, and we splashed and played. Until we got too close to Zac and he reached out, snaked an arm around Laney and pulled her to him. That was when I knew I’d lost her.

  I didn’t blame them. Those two had been through a lot and this was their first time going on an overnight trip that wasn’t at school when he’d come to see her. They deserved to have fun and relax as well.

  After deciding to give them some privacy, I swam over to the other side of the pool, where I braced my arms on the side. Which meant I had my back to everyone, but it was deep enough that my feet didn’t touch. A few seconds later, Porter swam up beside me and did the same thing.

  “Feeling left out?” he asked.

  I snorted. “Not at all. I’m giving them some privacy.”

  “You don’t mind that your friend was basically taken over by her boyfriend?”

  “Nope.”

  He raised his eyebrows in surprise. I’d guess that wasn’t how he was used to women behaving. But I wasn’t insecure enough to think I needed Laney’s full attention all of the time.

  “I’m happy for Laney,” I said, keeping my volume to a minimum. “When I met her, she was the saddest I’d ever seen someone be if they weren’t in mourning.”

  “Fuck,” he muttered.

  “Yeah. It was quite the road and I’ll be honest I don’t think she trusted me as a friend at first.”

  “That was our fault.”

  I looked over at him again. “I know. I used to hate you guys.”

  He nodded and looked away. “I can understand that.”

  “But she was sad and it took a long time for her to be her again. Now that she’s with him, she’s the happiest I’ve seen her. How could that bother me?” I glanced over at Zac and Laney and shuddered. “Though I’d rather not see all that tongue happening.”

  Porter chuckled beside me. “I don’t even notice it anymore.”

  “Or his ass again.”

  “What?” he asked without a trace of his former humor.

  “It’s a great ass, don’t get me wrong, but I walked in on them in college.”

  Now he laughed a bit louder. He was so close beside me that I felt the heat coming from his body. It was welcomed. A playful squeak echoed off the nearby building, which made me glance back at the happy couple again.

  “They’re not going to last here long,” I told Porter.

  “No. They’re not.”

  True to my words, Laney pushed back so Zac could climb out of the pool. Then he reached out to her and helped her out. She padded over to us while he went and grabbed their clothes.

  “Um… ” Laney pushed a piece of hair behind her ear. “We’re going to go to our room if that’s all right with you.”

  “That’s fine,” I answered.

  She mouthed the words I love you to me then went back to Zac.

  He called over his shoulder, “And maybe stay away for at least twenty minutes.”

  “Twenty minutes?” Porter countered. “Laney’s a lucky girl.”

  Zac lifted his middle finger up behind Laney’s back.

  “Did she really ask your permission to get laid?” he asked once we couldn’t see them any longer.

  “Basically. That’s what we do in situations like this.”

  “I’ve known a lot of women and I think that’s absolutely not what they do.”

  I rolled my eyes at him and let myself lower into the pool. “If they’re friends, they do. Laney was making sure I’m OK staying here with you.”

  “Why wouldn’t you be?”

  I looked up into those beautiful blue eyes. “No reason. But women have to look out for each other and in this case it’s more about her not wanting to leave me behind. Has nothing to do with you. You’re her friend. She’d trust you.”

  He nodded. “That makes more sense.” He moved in closer to me. “Because I’d never hurt you.”

  I wet my bottom lip as my heart rate increased. Being this close to Porter could’ve been dangerous. Everything Laney had told me about him passed through my head. But the things she’d said absolutely did not line up with the way he was around me.

  My hand still hung on to the side of the pool until Porter reached out and wrapped an arm around my waist, taking all of my weight onto him. If I insisted he let me go, I’d either go under or have to tread water. But I didn’t want to tell him to let me go. If anything, I wanted him to pull me even closer.

  As if hearing my silent desire, Porter pulled me into so closely that even the water couldn’t get between us. I braced my hands on his broad shoulders, wanting to see the details of
his tattoo up close but wanting him to kiss me even more.

  He brought his other hand up to my face and stroked my cheek with his thumb. Every single move he made turned to me JELL-O, including his growing erection against my stomach.

  This man was going to be the death of me.

  Finally, after an eternity of me not being able to look away from him, he moved in and took my lips as his own. It was gentle at first, his soft lips against mine, but the moment his tongue touched the tender skin of my lips, my body ignited. I wanted more of this. Needed more of this. He pushed my lips apart so that his tongue could slide in. The arm around my waist moved lower. His hand cupped my ass.

  My ass that was only covered in underwear.

  I wrapped my arms around his shoulders to give myself more leverage because if he thought I was just going to stand here—well, float here—and let him kiss me, he was dead wrong. I was going to kiss him right back.

  That moment was one of the best I’d ever experienced. While I didn’t care how Porter had become an expert at kissing, I also didn’t want to think about it. But I sure as well appreciated it.

  An unattractive moan became strangled in my throat. He heard it. No way he hadn’t. But he just kept right on kissing me. Who needed to breathe anyway?

  Once he brought the kiss to an end, I continued to hang on to him, my breasts rising and falling as I tried to catch my breath had my very hard nipples scraping against his bare chest. Thank goodness we’d chosen to swim in our underwear instead of naked. That really would’ve been hard to resist.

  “We should… ” I had to take another breath. “We should get back, right? They’re probably done.”

  Porter licked his lips and closed his eyes, as if he could still taste me there, then nodded. “Probably.”

  He moved us over to the ladder and let me get out first, but as an afterthought, I considered he’d done that so he could watch my ass as I climbed out. While this might’ve bothered me if he were someone else, with him, it made my inner self do a little shimmy of excitement.