“I win. Eight to six. Thanks for playing.” Her voice was quiet as she spoke, but he saw the first glimpse of a smile—small, but a smile.
“Bullshit. Tie.”
“How do you figure?” Now she was perking up. She was competitive if nothing else.
“You only get credit once for embarrassed, humiliated, and mortified because they mean the same thing. Rules, dear Bailey, are not something I’m willing to set aside even for you.”
“Did you know I was watching?” Her eyes were suddenly off studying the water again, and Darren suddenly couldn’t breathe. He sat up, letting his own gaze move to the water. He was hoping something, anything, would save him from having to answer this question, and as Jess hollered out to him from farther up the beach, he let out a deep, steadying breath he hoped Bailey wouldn’t notice.
“Hey!” he hollered back to her, wasting no time calling her over rather than dealing with a question he wasn’t ready to answer. “What’s up, Jess? How’s the head?”
“Good, now that I’ve gotten half a bottle of Motrin in me.” Jess was smiling again, and she finally looked glad to be alive rather than wishing she were dead. Jess crawled onto the lounger on Bailey’s other side but propped her feet up on the raised head of the bed. She instantly turned to Bailey’s feet. “You need a pedicure; your feet look disgusting.” That was Jess. Outspoken even to her best friend. Of course nothing Jess said could ever offend Bailey.
“Yeah? Well, you need a face-a-cure.” Bailey smirked at Jess as she reached over and pinched her leg.
“What the hell are you two doin’ down here? Thought you were making out for a minute.” Darren was suddenly holding his breath again, but given the sudden tension in Bailey’s shoulders, she was too. “Sooo. . .” She got tired of waiting for a response that wasn’t going to be coming. “What are we doing tonight?”
“Seriously, Jess. ’Cause you didn’t have enough fun last night? Maybe you two should take it easy tonight.”
“I was thinking we could go out.” Jess was begging with her eyes, but they weren’t aimed at Darren. She didn’t give a shit if her older brother wanted to go out or not. Instead her eyes were pleading with Bailey. Bailey had that unsure, questioning look on her face, and he was siding with her at the moment.
“Come on. I didn’t even get to enjoy last night because you guys cheated at quarters and never let me win. It’s not my fault I got drunk and passed out.”
“I’m too old for this shit,” he muttered.
“And I was asking Bailey to go, not you. You can have a whole evening of nothing but you and your brain-dead girlfriend. Bailey and I are going out without you.”
“There isn’t a chance in hell you two are going out alone. No.” Bailey was sitting silently watching them.
“Then I guess you’ll just have to act younger than your age, go with us, and have a good time. Feel free to leave the brain-dead girlfriend here.” Jess stood and smirked at him, pulled the sarong from her waist, and started for the water. Bailey remained by his side for a moment, awkwardly fidgeting, before she finally stood and peeled her white shorts down her legs as he watched.
“You could come with us tonight. Might be fun.” He had no doubt it would be fun with Bailey there. He enjoyed spending time with her just a bit too much. Always had, even when they were kids. They’d always talked easily, laughed a lot, and been close. He used to think of her as an extra sister who he actually got along with, and then she became the cute teen he avoided because she was too young to have a crush on. Now she was just the pretty young woman who was still just a bit too young but who he very much had a crush on. He didn’t even bother trying to keep his interactions with her to a minimum because he just plain didn’t want to. And on spring break when Jess had begged him to go in with her and Bailey on a vacation house they couldn’t afford on their own, what was a big brother to do? He also didn’t much like the idea of Jess and Bailey being in Galveston alone. They might technically be adults, but it did not mean they acted like it. He wasn’t at all sure he did either, for that matter. He was certain of it, in fact, after the night before.
He watched her black bikini-clad ass walk down to the water’s edge. She stood with her legs shoulder-width apart, and he studied the perfect proportion of her legs. She had fit legs from years of running. They ran together at least a few times a week on campus, so he was very familiar with her build. Her bottom was as tight as her legs, and his groin was tightening with every passing second. He didn’t just like spending time with her too much; he just plain wanted her too much to. It was entirely physical; it was also entirely more than just that.
She glanced back once, catching him staring at her. From that distance she couldn’t possibly know he was staring at her ass, though he wasn’t sure it really mattered; he was just plain staring at something he had no business staring at. He climbed up from his spot, thanking God she was too far away to see his raging hard-on, and he headed back up to the house as she joined Jess in the water.
Trinity nearly caught him with his dick in his hand when he gave into the temptation of letting his mind wander away to Bailey for a while. And it wasn’t just Bailey. It was naked Bailey, aroused Bailey, willing and wanting Bailey. She’d watched him fuck his girlfriend for a reason last night, and while alcohol might have played a part on both of their accounts, there was more to it than that. She wanted to see him, she wanted to watch, and it was her want that was driving his arousal as he stood in the bathroom staring into the mirror as the shower heated up.
Trinity wrapping her hand around the length of his shaft from behind him was an unwelcome interruption. “Looks like someone’s been thinking about me.” Her hand was gliding up and down along his hard length, but he was struggling to deal with the feel of her hand on his skin.
“Sorry, Trinity. I can’t do this right now.” He peeled her hand away from him and brushed past her as he stepped into the shower.
He and Trinity weren’t going anywhere. He and pretty much every girl he tried to get involved with never seemed to go anywhere. He ended up bored more often than not, and he just wasn’t sure there was any point. He was going to spend the vast majority of his time, waking and otherwise, in the hospital starting the following year, and residency after that wouldn’t be much better. He wasn’t even sure why he asked women out anymore. It would likely be more respectful to just have random one-night stands. At least then he could avoid dumping them later on when he realized, yet again, he was just bored and unsatisfied. He was starting to think maybe he was an asshole.
He’d want to kill a man who did the same to Jess, though it was almost easier to think of her pulling that move on a guy rather than the other way around. He would most definitely kill a man for doing it to Bailey. Bailey wasn’t Jess. She was . . . well, he didn’t know what she was. But she wasn’t brazen and loud like Jess. She also wasn’t weak. They were as opposite as could be, but they were attached at the hip. Jess was jealously protective of Bailey, an inclination Darren understood well, and Bailey brought a sense of softness to Jess that she didn’t naturally have on her own.
All it took was a glare from Bailey to silence Jess when she was being loud and outlandish. Next came the, “Okay, okay, sorry” as Jess rolled her eyes, but it was the restraint that Bailey inspired in her best friend that was most amazing. She gave Jess maturity and thoughtfulness, and in return, Jess gave her undying devotion and support.
By the time Darren stepped back out from the shower, he’d still not stopped thinking about Bailey, analyzing her, obsessing about her. He’d simply spent entirely too much time with her this week. He ended up flopping down on his bed and falling asleep. He wasn’t that tired, a bit hung over perhaps, but the nap was more to stop his brain from thinking about a woman a bit too young for him, a bit too close to him, and just plain too fucking much for him. The fact was, he cared just a bit too much for her to subject her to his brand of relationship. He couldn’t hurt her.