But she’s staring at my hand like it doesn’t belong there. I remove it but lean forward to meet her eyes. “Sorry,” I say to her, “I didn’t mean to tease. What’s the favor? You know I’d do anything for you.”
Arse. That was not what was supposed to come out of my mouth. But I just smile at her, keeping it cool.
“Well,” she says, looking at the counter, “I was wondering tomorrow, if you’re not busy, if you wouldn’t mind taking me and Ava to IKEA.” She eyes me and quickly continues. It looks like just asking is bringing her pain. “I wouldn’t be long. I just need a new couch and I don’t think I can take the bus with it. I mean, I can try but—”
“I’d be happy to,” I tell her emphatically. “It’s not a problem at all. What time would you like to go?” I don’t bother pointing out that the Mercedes isn’t exactly big enough for a couch, even if it is disassembled into small, aggravating boxes but I figure I can always swap my car for Linden’s Jeep if need be.
Her features relax and she manages a smile. “You really wouldn’t mind? I don’t know, whenever works for you. I’m not working so…”
Everyone knows that Sundays at IKEA are a living nightmare so I suggest we get there as soon as they open and beat the crowds. She agrees and there’s a rare tickle in my stomach. I think I want to drown it with my drink.
I’m still smiling at her when Linden taps me on the shoulder.
“Bram,” he says as I turn around. That blonde with the gold top is standing behind me with him, looking at me expectantly. “This is Paige.”
What the hell is my brother doing? I’ve never known him to try and set me up before. He knows I don’t fucking need it.
“Hello, Paige,” I say to her with a polite bow of my head, because I’m anything if not fucking polite.
“I was just talking you up to her,” Linden goes on but I’m looking back at the bar. My drink is on the counter and Nicola is way down near the other end, serving other customers. Bollocks. Linden sure fucked up that one for me. But still. IKEA is on.
I pick up the drink and take a sip – damn, that’s even hotter than before – and with an internal sigh, turn around to face them. Well, since the blonde is in front of me and she looks just as agreeable as she did earlier, I guess I don’t really have anything to lose.
“You oughta try this, Paige,” I tell her, offering her the drink. “I dare you.”
“Okay,” she says, still smiling but sounding a bit nervous.
“Here, I’ll drink it first,” I tell her, having another sip and trying to hide the burn from showing on my face. “Sweetheart, I don’t need to put roofies in your drink in order to have sex with you.”
“Okaaaay,” Linden says slowly. “I’m going to go now.”
He heads to the washroom and I nod at his empty seat.
“Sit down and drink up,” I tell her. “But if you cough once, you forfeit the dare.”
“All right,” Paige says, wanting to be a good sport. She sits down and I slide the drink her way. She sniffs it before picking it up. Right before she has a sip her eyes catch mine. “Wait, if I cough, what happens?”
“We don’t know yet,” I tell her smoothly, leaning in close so that my knee brushes against hers. It feels all too easy to do this, to pick up a chick. It’s just as much fun as a good shag or two. But at the same time, there’s something prickling the back of my skull, telling me this probably isn’t a good idea. I think that’s the same part of my brain that doesn’t like me to have any fun. I call it Logic.
I watch as Paige has a sip of her drink. To her credit though, she doesn’t flinch. She gulps it down with a smile. I imagine she’d swallow my cum in the same way.
Now Logic’s friend Guilt decides to pop up. I’m not sure why, there’s nothing wrong nor different about my thoughts. Nicola couldn’t give a rat’s arse what I do or who I sleep with. I’m just her neighbor, her landlord, and maybe, just maybe her friend.
For now, anyway.
And perhaps that’s what’s stopping me from going home with Paige. The very minute possibility that one day down the road, I could be with Nicola. It’s unlikely but I’m suddenly unwilling to put it in jeopardy, not until I know for sure that the two of us have no chance together, not even for a hot fuck.
So, though I spend the rest of the evening talking and flirting with Paige, it’s all in good fun. I don’t see Nicola again, nor do I see Linden, so at the end of the night I ask if she wants to split a cab. She enthusiastically agrees, talking about how I must owe her something from drinking the drink so well.
But the only thing I owe Paige is the cab ride home. When we get in the back, it’s quite apparent from the way she’s rubbing my leg just what she thought we were doing and where we were going. I mean, I had told her something about fucking her earlier, hadn’t I?
Tonight, maybe for one of the first times ever, I end up being a cunt-tease. I get the cab to take her where she needs to go but when she gets out, she’s stunned that I’m not following.
“I have to get an early start tomorrow,” I explain, which is completely true now that IKEA is in the cards.
She looks pissed off and I can’t blame her. But still, she thanks me for the ride and tells me I should call her when I don’t have something – or anything – to do in the morning. Though she put her number in my phone earlier, I have no intention of calling her any time soon.
When I get home, the events of the day have taken some kind of toll on me. I feel a million different threads of want and need inside me, but more than that, this nervous, buzzing energy that has no outlet. I start thinking that maybe it was a mistake to drop Paige off, that she could be sucking my cock right now and distracting my mind. But who am I kidding? I wouldn’t be thinking of her at all and I know that it would make things worse.
I hear Nicola’s door open and the small chatter of her and Lisa next door, muffled through the walls, and I wonder if I should go on over. I almost do. I get up and go to the door, one hand on the handle. I want to make sure IKEA is still on. I want to make sure she’s okay. I want to thank her for the drink. I want to touch her hair, brush it behind her ears and get lost in her lips. I want to know what she tastes like – her mouth, her skin, her sweet little cunt. I want to experience every last drop on my tongue.
I’m lacking courage tonight. I stay in. Naturally the night turns into epic wank-fest part two and this time, this time I am loud. I don’t hold back and I don’t drown it out in music. I hope she can hear me.
I hope she likes what she hears.
CHAPTER NINE
Nicola
When I came home last night, I was in a bad mood. I guess it’s not much of a surprise that I wake in a bad one too. This was one of those cases that sleep did nothing to erase the worries of the day before. It’s still all there, simmering, and I don’t even understand why.
Luckily Ava gets up bright and early so I’m used to getting out of bed around seven am. I have no idea whether our IKEA excursion is still on for the day and I’ve regretted asking him since the moment it came out of my mouth.
I especially regretted it when Linden introduced some hot blonde to him and she immediately had his rapt attention. I don’t know why it bothers me so much. I guess because for a second, I thought maybe there was something more between us.
And yes, I know, something more is something bad. Always will be. But when his fingers brushed against mine, sending warm currents up my limb and down the middle of my back, when his eyes seemed so focused on me that I could almost see lightning in those grey clouds, I couldn’t help but imagine, just for a second, what it would be like if he were mine. Mine in bed, mine outside of it, it didn’t matter. But the thoughts – the lust – was there.