by K B Cinder
I snuggled close, greedy for his warmth. I hadn’t had a cuddle buddy to sleep with in ages unless a drunken Juni counted, and if she had tacos, watch out. “She sounds like a nice lady. I’d probably bring her home to my parents.”
“I have,” he murmured, his fingers running along my spine. “Many, many, many times.”
I stroked his chest in return while my heart did somersaults. “And?”
Mabel and Hugh were my second set of parents. I grew up under their noses next to Juni. They knew me inside and out.
“They have yet to pick up on her horny hellion ways. Well, except for that whole sneaky sex toy business of hers.”
I smiled against his chest. “What if I ruined their son’s life with one little revelation?”
I’d never tell him who bought what, but it was still fun to screw with him. Besides, if I let him know that one of my earliest customers was his crotchety grandmother, Babcia, he’d have an existential crisis and end up rocking in the corner for the rest of the night.
His hand froze along my back. “Don’t do it, you wicked little woman!”
I wiggled, trying to coax him into continuing the soothing strokes. “All I’m saying is that being the friendly neighborhood dildo dealer comes in handy.” It was surprising how much nicer people were, even in Jersey, when you knew the dirty deeds of their bedroom.
His fingers fell back into their rhythm, tracing each vertebra. “That’s where you’re wrong: you’re not friendly. You wield those wieners like lightsabers.”
I shrugged against him. “Someone’s gotta do it.”
His chest bounced with a laugh as he planted a kiss in my hair. “But seriously? My parents love that woman.”
I slowed my hand as it slid over his trunk, lingering rib by rib the lower it dipped. “Is that so?”
His fingers found a curl, twirling it lazily. “Yep. That factored into a colossal fuckup of mine long ago.”
“How so?” I traced my name along his skin, focusing on that instead of the sudden jolt of nerves in my gut.
His voice lowered to a troubled mumble. “I didn’t want to disappoint them when I inevitably fucked it up.”
My fingers froze mid-R on his skin. “What is with you and calling yourself a fuck up? You own the most successful gym in the county.”
A laugh rumbled through his chest, jostling me lightly. “Oh, like you’d know? I never see you there.”
The skin cursive continued, my fingers veering lower to spell out his name. “I had to go somewhere else because the owner was a world-class dickhead.”
“Probably because you weren’t that nice either.”
My fingers brushed against his waistband with an extra fancy E in Sage. “I wasn’t, but that’s beside the point. Stop changing the subject. Why do you keep saying you’re a fuck up?”
He didn’t answer right away, tightly winding a curl around his finger before letting it unravel in a cyclone. “I’ve never done what people want.”
“That doesn’t make you a fuck up. Do you really think my parents were happy when they found out I opened a sex toy business? Mama wanted to call in an exorcist.” She splashed me with holy water too, and when I made sizzling noises as a joke, she almost fainted.
I didn’t have to see his face to know he was rolling his eyes out of his head. “Other than that, you’re their model kid.”
I snorted. “Oh, yeah, totally. A twenty-eight-year-old that’s more interested in her business than playing house? Real dream kid for parents that had my wedding planned once they found out they were having a daughter.”
He pulled me close, my body flush with his. “You’re a good egg to brag about. You’re smart, personable, and independent.” His fingers dipped to the hem of my shirt, rubbing the fabric as he seemed to chew over his words. “I might own a business, but I’m mainly known around town for getting mad and getting laid.”
I couldn’t help the giggles that fell from my lips. He was spot-on about that, but he’d always been more than that.
I patted his chest. “You’re the star of your own movie, remember? Coming of Sage. Time to grow up, buddy.”
He adjusted the pillow behind his head, sending us both bouncing as he fluffed it. “I guess I have to if I want to get the girl in the end.”
Wait, what?
“Usually, that’s how it goes…”
He settled back against the mattress, his fingers falling to the hem of my shirt once again. “I don’t know. I’m supposed to have some earth-shattering breakthrough, right? Where she realizes my dick is the cure to all her problems?”
I grinned, sliding my hand under his waistband. “Well, your dick solved some; your fist solved another. The rest is up to her. You don’t want a damsel in distress, Sage. That’s not your style.”
He inched my shirt up, his fingers hot against my side. “What do I want?”
I leaned up, facing him despite the dark. I might not have been able to see him, but I could feel him. “You tell me.”
He lifted my shirt, my head sliding out with a pop of curls. “I want my friend back. I miss the saucy girl that yells at me in Portuguese when I say something dumb. The same one who always makes me feel tongue-tied.”
My fingers drifted lower, wrapping around the base of his cock and earning a hiss. “I think I know a way you can get back in her good graces.”
He unfastened my bra before plunging to my shorts, a hooked finger removing them along with my panties. “How’s that?” he asked, rolling to balance above me.
“You’re a smart boy. You figure it out.”
“I heard the way to her heart is through my mouth,” he snickered as his lips grazed from my breasts to my belly. My heart hammered the lower he went, his mouth feathering kisses between my hip bones in a torturous rhythm.
I threaded my fingers in his hair, sucking in a quick breath as his mouth dropped low enough that his breath drifted over my slit. “I do love a cunning linguist.”
All I received in response was a quick ‘mmm’ before he savored my sex, his tongue swirling so fast I barely had a chance to register what was happening before the next one hit.
Every flick brought more pressure and left me quivering, but I couldn’t flee for relief as his forearms pinned my thighs apart. I was forced to take his teasing, the dance of his mouth as delicious as it was torturous. It was a tantalizing tango, a push and pull of epic proportions, and before I knew it, I was falling apart, crying out to the man who was slowly unraveling.
20
Morning came entirely too fast, Sage’s arm stirring around my waist just before Cher blasted from my phone at five-thirty. We weren’t exactly the most responsible adults by staying up pursuing adventures of the flesh until the wee hours of the morning, but still, my alarm clock could suck it.
“This is shit,” I groaned, extending my arms high above toward the headboard. But all the stretching in the world wouldn’t help me. I might’ve slept like the dead next to Sage, but it didn’t mean squat since we’d only snagged two hours of shut-eye at most.
He kissed my temple and skimmed his hands along my bare sides, tickling a laugh out of me. “Agreed, but it could be worse.”
I swatted his chest before rolling to my stomach to block his hands. It was for his own good, really. Nothing deserved a throat punch more than tickles. “I fail to see how.”
“You could have food poisoning,” he pointed out, untwisting the covers from around my legs. “Like those poor souls in the ER last night.”
“True…” I grumbled, spinning to nestle close to his chest. “That would be a terrible flight home.” Hopefully, none of them were on ours.
“A shitty flight home,” he corrected, nuzzling my neck as his morning wood prodded at my stomach.
I yawned, my body still slack with sleep. “Speaking of which, you need to run upstairs and get your luggage.”
“Don’t remind me,” he grumbled, his five-o-clock shadow grating against the delicate skin of my throat. “But, you c
an distract me…”
I patted his shoulder before nudging him away. We didn’t have enough time for another romp in the sack. “Easy there, Romeo. You need to get going before Juni comes knocking.”
I still needed to finish packing and shower, a tall order for roughly a half-hour of crunch time. But that was me — the queen of last-minute miracles.
Sage pulled back, staring at me with pinched brows in the dim light. “Why?”
I ran my fingers up his arm, still marveled at his raw strength. “Because we both have to finish packing?” I might’ve gotten some done, but knowing Sage, he hadn’t started, and with his hand, he’d likely need my help, too.
“No, why do I have to leave before Juni gets here?” he pushed.
I sat up, scanning for signs of my clothes. “She doesn’t need to know about my sex life.” It was too early to play fifty questions with her, and I really didn’t want to broach the Sage subject at all.
He tucked a hand behind his head, the sheet slipping to reveal his broad chest. “You don’t want to tell her?”
I rolled my eyes as I climbed out of bed. “Uh, not exactly right now.” There were plenty of more appealing things to do, like lick a battery.
“So, yet again, I’m good enough to fuck, yet not good enough to tell your best friend about?”
I grabbed my discarded shorts, strolling to my bag to tuck them away. “Uh, my best friend is your sister, and you said…”
“Forget it.” The bed creaked beneath his weight as he moved to stand.
“Sage, you’re the one who…”
“I don’t want to hear it,” he snapped, sliding his briefs on as he cut me off.
“Sage, what the hell?” I wasn’t the biggest fan of arguing with no clothes on, but I’d do it. Sure, I probably looked ridiculous, but I was right, and I’d die on that hill. Naked.
“I thought we squashed all that, Karine.”
“Squashed what? I said, you couldn’t tell anyone because you’ll inevitably fuck whatever this is up. I accepted that — as shitty as it is — because it still gives me you in some capacity. Not to mention it saves me from the I told you so that comes with sleeping with you. ”
He stopped mid-zip of his jeans’ fly. “What the fuck does that me?”
I crossed my arms over my chest. “You said it yourself: you’re known for getting angry and getting laid. Anyone climbing into your bed knows what they’re getting: nothing long-term.”
His throat bobbed as he stared at me for a long minute before snatching his shoes and shirt to his chest. He turned away, for once not biting back.
“Sage?”
He brushed past me, meeting my call with a response of his own: slamming the door as he left.
I wheeled into the elevator with my luggage cart stacked, more than ready to fly the hell away from the city that had knocked me to my knees.
“Girl, what the fuck kind of porn were you watching last night?” Juni asked as she stumbled in with her rolling bag and a jumbo-sized bottle of water. “Or what freak of nature did you bring home?”
“I’m not sure what you’re talking about,” I answered, readjusting the clip holding my damp curls high.
She paused as she took a sip of water, glaring at me over the bottle. “Oh, my God! Tell me, you snatch.”
I picked at invisible lint on my shirt. “Maybe it was just a recording of what I heard coming from your room the other night.”
She leveled a ticked glare at me as she put a hand on her hip. “Uh, no. Those were definitely Karine moans I heard. I don’t know Portuguese, so there’s no way I can dirty talk in it.”
God, shoot me dead.
Sage and his mouth got me into trouble in a whole new way. “Nonsense.”
Her hands cupped my right one over the handle of the cart. “Karine! Come on! I’m a promised woman. Let me live vicariously through you. Tell me about him. Every delicious detail.”
I averted my eyes, the truth stinging. “I don’t kiss and tell.” Eventually, I’d tell her. Maybe when we were old and half-senile in a nursing home somewhere.
Her fingers squeezed mine as if they were a lemon she could juice for the scoop. “You weren’t just kissing, bitch. You were moaning the alphabet and all sorts of freaky shit. It was so fucking hot that I made Dash wake up and listen. Spill it!”
Oh, fuck. Please let Dash not know what Sage sounded like in the sack. They had been roomies at some point, so there was a damn good chance. Christ, I knew the difference between Juni’s oral big-O and her sex one.
“It was just a guy, okay?” I sputtered.
“A stranger or what?” she pushed, hanging on every word.
I glanced back at my bags, unable to lie while looking her in the eyes. “I know him from around.”
She patted my hand excitedly. “Around where? Oh, my God! You haven’t boinked a guy in like two years. Your puss probably had cobwebs. No wonder you were so loud.”
Boinked. For real? The word didn’t seem in the same galaxy as the sex we’d had.
“I just know him, okay? It’s not important. It’s not happening again.”
Dash, of course, boarded with a shark-like smile and luggage. “From what I heard, it definitely should happen again.”
I cringed, meeting his eyes. His lips curled into a smirk, the look on his face sending my gut into a frenzy of knots. He knew.
I pulled my hands from the cart, wrapping my arms around myself. “It won’t. Sorry.”
He had no idea what he was saying. If he had an inkling of the past, he would know what a disaster that would be.
Dash didn’t drop it, setting the bags down and facing me instead. “But your partner needed it.”
“So did you,” Juni added with a wink.
Was it normal to love and hate your best friend at the same time?
I smacked the lobby button. “Well, good thing we got it out of our system, huh?”
“But did you?” Dash pushed, flashing a brilliant white smile as he kept his eyes on me.
“I did,” I protested.
He nudged my shoulder playfully. “I don’t think so. Slow-brewed desire is hard to burn off that fast.”
I shook my head. “It was a raging inferno. Sorry, no survivors.”
“Any fire that burns that hot deserves to be stoked again,” Juni urged with a dance of her brows.
“Can we please stop talking about my sex life?” I begged. “We’re all adults here, and for once this weekend, I want a sliver of privacy!”
I didn’t know I was crying until Juni’s face fell and she reached toward me. “Oh, Rini, I’m sorry! You know we were just playing…”
“It’s not a game!” I choked out, swiping at tears as they fell in a hot fury. Fuck, what was wrong with me? “None of this is a game!”
21
No one said another word about my late-night sexcapades. I slid sunglasses on and settled into the passenger seat of the airport shuttle van once we checked out, refusing to sit next to Sage any longer than I had to. Six hours on the plane home would be more than enough.
Having made it to the airport obnoxiously early, we had two hours to burn before our flight. Given the morning events, I was more than happy to waste away in the sky bar, and everyone else followed.
They ordered coffee and breakfast pastries like despicable functioning adults. I was the odd one out, grabbing a Long Island iced tea, refusing to order a sangria in front of Sage. I wasn’t feeling sweet.
“So, do you have to pay for the door you broke?” Dash asked as he tore off a corner of a cheese danish.
Sage shrugged away the lie he’d obviously used to cover his pesky cast. “They’ll bill the room, I’m sure.”
Dash stiffened, crushing the delicate pastry between his fingers. “Dude, that could be a couple grand. You were staying in a penthouse suite.”
“It was a maintenance door. No biggie.”
I took a sip of my drink when I dared to wonder what the actual cause looked like: Trey’s
face. It didn’t matter. I didn’t care about any of it anymore.
“You need to get control of your temper,” Juni warned as she blew on her cappuccino. “You’re getting too old for this shit. You need to grow up.”
Dash winked as he elbowed his best friend’s ribs gently. “Yeah, your little sister is getting married, old man.”
Sage waved a dismissive hand. “She is, and I’m happy for you two, but we aren’t all made for the slow lane, apparently.”
“Apparently?” Juni echoed.
Sage lifted his hulking mug of black coffee. “Yeah, I thought maybe I was, but it turns out that was just wishful thinking — that or gas.”
I was grateful for the sunglasses shielding my eyes so he couldn’t see the tears that turned his face into a blur in an instant. Wishful thinking?
“I think you’re more than made for it,” Dash objected with his eyes darting between us. “You just need the right partner to ride through life with.”
Juni cackled in her seat, blissfully ignorant. “Yeah, get out of the carpool lane. It’s not about the quantity of riders, it’s about the quality, Sage.”
Sage threw back his head and laughed. “Whew, Juni, I’ve had the best rider. Seriously, it’d blow your fucking mind.”
Juni threw a crumble of pastry at him. “I do not want to know who or what has gone for a ride on you.”
“Are you sure about that?” Sage dared.
I gripped my napkin. He wouldn’t.
Juni tossed her ponytail over her shoulder with a disgusted frown. “Uh, yeah. I’m good.”
Sage drummed his fingers on his mug with a grin. “Oh, come on now, dear sister. You don’t want your mind blown?”
Juni snatched a hunk of raspberry danish from Dash’s plate. “At this point, I’d be more surprised by who you didn’t sleep with, dude.”
Sage held his casted hand against his heart. “I’m wounded, Juniper!”
“You’re lucky you’re not diseased, you creep. I’m serious, though: stop screwing around. Your muscles won’t last forever.”
“Nor will your dick,” Dash added with a smirk. “All the little blue pills in the world won’t do you any good if it rots off.”
