Page 21

JAC0B

Riley isn’t wearing any panties. I noticed the pink lace poking from the bundle of clothes in her arms, and the shirt she’s currently dressed in is one of Hayes’. If I had to guess, she was, at some point, naked with my brother and maybe interrupted by Shawn. Hayes carried the scent of her arousal, and the whiff of a man interrupted before he got the chance to come.

I shouldn’t find that amusing, but I guess I am a little mean in a brotherly way. I always want the best for my brothers, but there’s something about being a sibling that encourages a little gentle competition and many opportunities for humor. Imagining Hayes upstairs with his blue balls while Riley stays down here to play nursemaid to me is funny as fuck.

Riley sits awkwardly on the sofa, smoothing the shirt over her ass before she perches on the edge. Bless her for not wanting to leave her snail trail on the furniture.

“I’m usually like you,” I say, shifting in the chair and pinching my eyes closed to keep out the residual light from the corner lamp. “Could you turn that light off? I think I’ll do better in total darkness.”

Riley rises again, leaving her clothes on the couch. As she bends to find the switch for the lamp, I get a delicious view of her thighs and just a hint of rounded ass cheek that thickens my cock nicely. Not that I can do anything about it, but it’s reassuring to know the blow to my head didn’t fuck up my dick.

She returns to the same spot. When I don’t continue, she asks. “...like me?”

“Oh, yes. When I’m home, I like to go commando. Nothing like getting a little air to the important parts.”

Even in the dark, I can sense the flush that heats her cheeks.

“Did Hayes get you off before Shawn interrupted?”

“That’s none of your business, Jacob.”

Her tone is patient and flat, nothing like the sparky Riley that retaliated in The Red Devil. She’s pitying my current state, which I hate. I don’t want her sympathy. I want the spark and the fight. I want the challenge that I don’t often find in a woman.

“You seem relaxed,” I say. “If Hayes left you wanting, you’d be more on edge. Antsy.”

“You should go to sleep.”

Shuffling back, she reaches into the crumpled jeans to find her phone, then taps out a message with her bottom lip gripped between her teeth. She’s telling someone she’s not coming home tonight because she’s staying with me.

Why does that make me inordinately happy?

“Who are you messaging?” I ask.

“My dad.” She continues tapping on the phone. “And I’m setting some alarms so I can wake you.”

When Riley’s done with that task, she lowers her phone to the couch. “Is there a bathroom downstairs so I can get dressed?”

“Yes,” I say. “But I don’t think you should leave me, just in case.”

She snorts but hesitates, imagining finding me unconscious, fitting, or worse. I’m an evil asshole for filling her with uncertainty and fear. I accept it. “I’ll keep my eyes shut while you dress here.”

“Of course you will,” she says. Through the slightest crack in my lid, I watch her roll her eyes, but she takes her underwear from the pile and pulls it up her thighs, wriggling them under the shirt and into place. There shouldn’t be anything sexy about the way she does it, all rushed and practical, but my dick goes from a semi to an iron bar in seconds. If I ran my finger over that underwear, I bet it’d be damp.

Her jeans are next, tugged on, zipped, and buttoned without me glimpsing anything noteworthy. Her bra and top are the last items, but I guess she must decide against stripping off Hayes’ shirt. Maybe, when I’m sleeping, she’ll finish the job. Until then, I get to appreciate the view of her untethered tits, full and heavy, with the bumps of tight nipples beneath the thin fabric. I could jerk off over nothing but that image and reach the sweetest release, imagining cupping all her warm softness. Even better, gripping her breasts around my dick so I can shoot my load over her throat. The urge to adjust my junk is real, but I resist.

“So, what brings you into the lion’s den?” I ask.

“Hayes.” Her reply is soft and simple, and my fingers flex at my sides in response.

“At least one of us managed to overcome all that frost.”

“Not frost.” She sighs, sounding like a ninety-five-year-old who’s just collapsed into a chair after an hour of exertion. “Do you ever turn down the assholery, Jacob? Don’t you ever get tired?”

My throat makes an audible click as I swallow reflexively, taken off guard by her question. I do get tired. So damned tired. Holding everything at arm’s length is exhausting. Keeping up a shield so I can protect all the pathetic and weak parts of myself is a full-time job.

“Women love an asshole.”

“Some women.”

“And what about you, Riley? You don’t get turned on by a hate-fuck. All that frantic shoving, biting, sweating, clawing makes sex so much hotter, don’t you think?”

I watch her freeze at the question, and my mind begins to spin over the why? Every other question I’ve asked her has been met with a quick-witted or hard response, but this? She looks like a deer in headlights.

“You have had sex, haven’t you?”

“What I do in my private life is none of your business.”

There she is. Riley’s back, but her answer gives nothing away, and it suddenly strikes me that she might be a virgin.

“You know, me and my brothers can assist you with that,” I say, easing my eyes open. “Your virginity, I mean.”

She rolls her eyes but doesn’t deny it like I was expecting her to. I lick my lips, like a ravenous wolf with a lone sheep in his line of sight.

“I’m serious, Riley. I know you like Hayes. And Shawn. We come as a package deal, you know? We always have. I think it’s because we were meant to be one person, but fate chopped us up. Being apart… well, it just doesn’t work for us.”

“Doesn’t work for you ,” she says. “Hayes seems just fine with it.”

“Hayes likes you, but me and Shawn will always come first… unless…”

I chew over the idea in my mind, leaving Riley hanging. She’s shifted forward in the seat like she’s gripped by every word.

“...unless you’d have us all.”

She snorts, sitting back against the sofa, shaking her head at my obvious insanity. Except, I’m not being stupid. I’m making sense. This could work. If I can find a way to convince her, I won’t have to lose my brothers. This would be a way of keeping us close and bonded. It might be the only way to hold on to the last of the family I have.

“Why not, pretty girl? Why wouldn’t you consider it? I mean, we’re not bad looking. Some would even say we’re handsome.” She rolls her eyes, but I continue. “We’re athletic, intelligent, family-oriented, funny.”

“Yeah, you’re fucking hilarious,” she says dryly.

“Kind.”

“Oh yeah. You’ve really maxed out on the kindness, offering your services to pop my cherry. Totally altruistic.”

“Well, I mean, I would get something out of it, but no kind gesture is without its reward.”

“That punch has fucked with your mind,” she says solemnly.

“I’m thinking clearer than ever.”

“I think it’s time for you to get some sleep.” There’s a blanket on the back of the sofa that she reaches for, passing it to me.

I shake my head. “You keep that,” I say. “I run hot.”

The pounding in my head worsens, even with my eyes closed, but it’s nothing I haven’t gotten through before with a willing woman or a five-knuckle shuffle.

“Before you go to sleep, could you get me some water?”

“Sure.” She reaches the door before she pauses. “So you’re not worried about me leaving you for water, but you were when I needed to put my panties back on.”

“It’s all about risk versus reward,” I say earning a bemused look.

While she’s out of the room, I drop two pills into my palm and hide the rest in my pocket. I wait until she’s settled on the sofa before I gulp them down with the whole glass of water.

After a few minutes, when the pills start to take the edge off the pain, I glance at Riley’s form. She’s settled onto her side, half covered by the blanket. This is a chance for me to push things a little, and I can’t waste it. Not if I want her to think of me as more than Hayes’ annoying older brother.

“Riley,” I whisper.

“What?”

“I need to get myself off… the pain in my head… it’s the only thing that helps.”

She’s silent for a long time and then props her head on her elbow. “You want me to leave?”

“No,” I say. “I’d like you to help.” I smile when she makes a choking sound in her throat. “Hayes wouldn’t mind. He was always good at sharing his toys.”

“I think sharing his girlfriend might be a little different.”

“Girlfriend?” Are they that serious, and I didn’t know?

“Girl he’s fooling around with,” she corrects.

“Our dicks are the same, you know. Same length, same width, same everything. I bet we even taste the same. Have you tasted him?”

“Jacob…”

“So, that’s a no.”

“Can you stop?”

“Probably not. I didn’t say we were divided equally. Hayes got all the patience and the kindness. Shawn, the charisma and the humor.”

“And what did you get?” she asks.

“The relentless need to win. At everything. All the time.”

She snorts and rests against the throw pillow to stare at the ceiling. “Must be exhausting.”

“You have no idea,” I mutter.

The pounding in my head is still strong enough to make my eyes water, and my mouth go dry. I flick the button on my jeans and lower the zip, no longer caring whether Riley is okay with this or not. If I don’t find some relief, I might cry from frustration, and I’m not doing that in front of her.

I get my hand around my thickening dick and squeeze it enough to make it fully hard. My balls tighten in anticipation, and when I moan, tipping my head back, Riley lets out a little surprised gasp. I jerk myself slowly at first, thinking about her heavy breasts and the nipples that stayed hard throughout our entire conversation. I think about her curvy ass, which would fill my hands and spill out into more than I can grip onto, and her soft thighs, which would cradle me perfectly as I worked my way inside her. I imagine her pussy, pink and wet, glistening for me. So sweet and so innocent. I’d go slow so she could take my dick without hurting. I’d make her slippery so that she could take me easily, crying out only in pleasure. I think of her smell that Hayes wore like cologne, the sweet muskiness of it that tripped my switches.

I leak into my palm as the fantasies in my mind lead me up the slope toward orgasm.

“Jacob.” Riley’s voice is breathy, soft, with that little rasp at the back that makes me think of sex, even when she’s talking about completely unrelated shit.

“Yeah.” My response is gravelly and desperate sounding.

“Does it feel good?” she asks.

“So fucking good,” I groan, even though my brain is vibrating like the skin of a bass drum.

“Come for me,” she whispers. “Come all over your belly. Let it go.”

Fuck. I jerk harder, and as the surge from my balls begins, I tug up my shirt and release over my abs in ribbon after ribbon of satisfaction. The blood that pounds through my head is hotter than lava, but as my heart and breathing slow, the familiar relief comes as cool as the rising tide.

Riley stands, and our eyes meet in the darkness. What is she going to do?

I know what I’d like her to do. Take my softening cock in her mouth and suck it gently, keep it nice and warm while I come down from my high. Getting her on her knees between my legs would be a fantasy come true.

But of course, she isn’t going to do that. Taking tissues from the box on the table, she hands them to me for cleanup duty. I still have my dick in my hand, the tip visible. It’s dark, but the evidence of my orgasm is clear, and so is my body spread out before her. I let go of my dick to clean my belly, watching as her eyes travel over it. I can’t tell what she’s thinking; it could be lust or disgust.

Maybe I’ve blown my chance with her, or maybe this experience will burrow into her mind like a little sex worm and make her want more than what Hayes alone can offer.

“Time to put your dick away,” she says softly.

“I don’t think I have the energy.” I crack a smile, and she shakes her head.

“Leave it out then,” she says. “But watch Hayes chop it off in the morning when he comes down and finds you exposing yourself with me in the room.”

With that hideous visual burned into my mind, I toss the tissues into the trash can and zip myself away.

“Time to get some sleep,” I tell Riley, already feeling a little better.

I wait until her breathing evens out before I finally allow myself to drift off.

***

“Jacob.”

I groan and curl my body inward, pressing against warm flesh.

“Jacob.” A hand on my shoulder shakes me hard enough to clash my teeth. I open my bleary eyes, finding Riley’s face filling my field of vision.

“What?” I mumble, my mouth too dry to open fully.

“I’m checking you’re still alive. Remember?”

“I’m alive.”

“And hogging the blanket,” she says, tugging it from where it tangled around my legs. “Why are you on the couch again?”

“Chair was too uncomfortable. Don’t worry. I won’t do anything.”

She snorts. “Damn right, you won’t unless you want my knee and your junk to become intimately acquainted.”

“I’ll pass on the offer of your knee, but there are a few other parts of your body my junk wouldn’t mind becoming best friends with.”

“Not happening. How’s the head?”

“Okay,” I say, bringing my hand to my temple, testing . For now.

“That’s good. Go back to sleep.”

I touch my forehead in a mock salute. “Yes, ma’am.”

Her smile is sweet, plumping the apples of her cheeks in an adorable way that makes me want to pepper her face with kisses. Fuck. All it takes is this girl and a punch to my head, and I’m softening. It’s disconcerting.

I close my eyes and wait as she adjusts her position, and when she drapes the blanket over me, I smile. She really is a great nursemaid. Much more considerate than either of my brothers would have been.

“You’re different than you used to be,” I whisper, freezing after the admission. Why the fuck did I say that? What could I possibly be hoping to achieve?

She turns to look at me, and our eyes meet in the dark. “Am I?”

I nod, and her lips part like she wants to ask how, but she presses them back together, deciding against it. Turning back to her sleeping position, facing away from me, she pulls the blanket higher.

“You’re different, too,” she says quietly. “And the same.”

I want to know the differences, but I don’t ask because it doesn’t matter. I know that any change is only skin deep. She knew a wiry kid whose bones were more prominent than his muscles. I had the face of a child when we lived together. I might look like a man now, but I’m still the same brittle boy, pretending to be tough and hoping no one will see the truth. Riley doesn’t know, though—nobody does—and that’s how it will stay.

“Night, Riley,” I whisper. “And thanks.”

“No problem.”

I wait until her breathing has returned to the even cadence of sleep, and then I reach for her hand, wrapping it in mine. We sleep like that until the next time she wakes me.