Page 57 of Show Me
Eric lowered his shades and gave me a salacious wink before toasting me with his glass. “Speak for yourself. I’m only interested in one guy out there, and he loves it when I watch.”
“You know, you and your brother look absolutely nothing alike,” Joel piped up from next to Eric, thankfully interrupting a line of conversation that could have only gone scandalously downhill.
I peered around Eric at him. “Thank you so much, Joel. I have nevereverbeen told that before. I wonder if I was adopted,” I said with mock horror.
“Does anyone else in your family have red hair?”
Eric burst into a laugh and swatted Joel lightly. “He was messing with you, man.”
“I know, but I’m curious.”
“You realize you’re one to talk, right?” Joel was almost half Sam’s size in both width and height.
“Unfortunately.” Joel nodded solemnly. “I love Sam and all, but him graduating and going off to college so I no longer have to stand beside him looking like a pipe cleaner next to a fucking bridge pylon has been the best thing that ever happened for my ego. One of our sisters is huge, too, but the rest of us are small to average size.”
“My mom has flaming red hair and my second youngest sis, too, but I got the wishy-washy genes,” I confessed.
Joel cocked his head appraisingly at me. “I kinda like it like that. You really see the gold highlights in the sun.” He angled another glance at my brother, who was currently horsing around with Sam. Not many cars were getting washed. No one seemed to care. The view was still spectacular, though. The group of moms standing a dozen feet away seemed to agree.
My gaze lingered and I forgot what we’d been talking about when Sam looked up and tossed a wave in our direction, water still dripping down his chest like he’d be posing for a swimsuit calendar any second, and his trademark crooked grins hooking one corner of his mouth.
I must have made some sort of noise because I caught Eric’s gaze shoot over at me from the corner of my eye.
I cleared my throat. “Really nice day for a charity car wash, huh? Guess you could say the weather was feeling…charitable.”
Eric lifted an amused brow. “You could, yes.” He added on a mocking airba-dum-tsshigh-hat tap.
I straightened in my chair as Sam trotted toward us. He feinted left and hauled Joel from his seat in spite of his protests. “You’re next,” Sam warned me with playfully narrowed eyes, unperturbed by Joel’s fists hammering at his back. I could totally see why Joel had been glad for Sam’s absence. He really did look tiny next to him. I supposed I did, too, but instead of being annoyed by the idea, I found it a mega turn-on. Feeling Eric’s gaze on the side of my face, I tried to temper my goofy grin.
Sam pointed at Eric. “I’m not messing with you. Nate’ll have my ass if I even breathe too close to you.”
“Good call,” Eric agreed.
Sam trotted off with Joel still flailing, and I sucked down more of my mimosa to the blissful sight of grown men roughhousing. “They should make car washing a sport.”
“Wouldn’t disagree with that.” Eric’s gaze practically prowled over Nate, staying glued to him as he moved around the wash area with a bucket and a sponge, possessive and adoring at once.
“Aren’t you ever scared Nate will change his mind and decide he misses women?” I blurted.
Eric set his mimosa down and laced his fingers over his waistband, head cocking as he watched Nate another intent moment before angling a look over at me. “No more scared than I am that he’ll decide he wants someone else altogether, woman or man. Just because he’s into both doesn’t mean he feels like he’s missing out because he’s with one over the other.”
I swirled the dregs of my mimosa. “What about when you were first with him, though? Before he’d figured stuff out, back when you were just fooling around.”
Eric gave me a longer stare. “Early on? Yeah, that was nerve-racking.” He scrubbed a hand over the back of his neck thoughtfully. “I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop. For him to say he was done or wasn’t into it. I thought about calling it off a lot at first.” He paused, then continued when I prompted him with a look. “But I couldn’t. And then when I tried to, it lasted all of a few weeks before he called me out. They were the most miserable three weeks of my life, and I do not recommend that tactic.” His gaze moved Nate-ward again, drawn like a magnet. “Being with him was different than with anyone else I’d ever been with. From the very first moment. Sounds crazy, right?”
“No,” I said softly, “sounds nice.” And I absolutely wasn’t thinking of lying in bed with Sam the other morning and how for the five brief seconds that I’d allowed the sensation to creep in, the solidity of his weight, and the sense of him surrounding me and his warm, sleepy laugh had felt better than any insignificant hookup I’d had in the last three years.
Eric cut me a sidelong glance that turned suspicious. “I thought you didn’t mess with baby bi’s anyway. That’s been your trumpeting call since I’ve known you.”
I didn’t even try to act surprised that Eric had seen through my question. He was perceptive that way. But I also appreciated that he didn’t call me out specifically. “I’m not. I mean, I’m not sure he’s bi, technically. I’m not sure…shit, he kind of defies labels.” I accidentally smiled at the thought and then rubbed it away with a groan. “Ugh. I’m just setting myself up for disappointment, and it’s extra annoying because IknowI’m doing it and I’m still doing it anyway. At least when I walked in on Reid and that girl, I was legitimately surprised. That one wasn’t my fault. But this was supposed to just be sex videos, and now it’s like I actually look forward to the company, too, even when—”
Eric spit out a mouthful of his drink. “Come again? Could you repeat what you just said?”
I sealed my lips around my drink straw, and Eric yanked the glass away, leaning closer.
“Did you say you’re makingsexvideos with him? With Sam Harding? The two of you?”
“Which part of that is it that you’re having the most trouble believing?” I demanded, growing a little defensive at his incredulity.