Chapter Twenty-Eight
Brody
Cora didn’t come over on Tuesday night, and then she came down with something that had her swearing me off for a few days. I kicked around the house, hating how badly I wanted to see her. It wasn't something I was used to, and yet I felt like I could get used to it.
"You still pouting?" Clay smacked me in the chest as I stood at the kitchen sink, looking out at the lake at all the activity going on.
"What? Yeah, I guess." I ran my fingers through my hair. "She only has a week left out here. Not seeing her for a few days is fucked up."
"You like her." He poked me in the side.
I glanced over at my best friend and snorted. "Yeah, dumb ass. You just getting that vibe?"
"I think it's great." Daniel walked into the kitchen and hopped up onto the counter next to the sink. "Are you going to try to keep things going with her after this next week? Is she staying here in Arizona?"
"I think she is. It sounded like her parents were somewhere close from the side conversations I've heard her have with her friends and the few times we've talked about the future." I rubbed my chest and turned to face my friends. "Let's get out of here this afternoon. There's a big party down on the dock by Clint's house. You guys wanna grab some beers and just go hang out?"
"I do." Daniel hopped off the counter and opened the cabinet, pulling out a bottle of suntan lotion. "I say we forgo inviting the girls and just go have some time to ourselves."
"You tired of Dee?" I asked.
"No, not at all. We decided we're better friends than anything else we could be." Daniel sat the sunscreen down and pulled off his shirt. "I'm thinking it’s for the better, anyway. Med school is going to require all of my attention, you know?"
"Yeah, I can imagine." I moved to the fridge and pulled out a six pack of beer. "Where the fuck is Derek?"
"He's still asleep. I think Cindy stayed over last night. You wanna draw straws on who's going to go wake him up and get her outta here?" Clay laughed and walked to the pantry to get the cooler out.
"Um, no. Emily interrupted me and Cora the other morning, and she's lucky she's so cute or I'd have bitten her head off." I chuckled as Clay growled at me. The boy was in love. I had no doubt that he and Emily would be together for a long time, and I was almost jealous.
Some part of me couldn't help but wonder if Cora was really sick or just too upset over the situation with Tinsley to be around me. My fucking sister and her lies. I couldn't believe it, but after talking with her, she'd confessed. I sat in shock half the afternoon after talking with her. She'd been nothing but a prude from what I knew, and it was crazy how you could live with someone your whole life and not know them, at all.
Cora was struggling with all of it. Her stomach might be upset, but she was struggling, too. Her lack of texts after Tuesday left me with two options: to step up and sweep her off her feet, or let the relationship fade away like she seemed to be trying to do.
I couldn't fathom not having another night with her. Or a day. Or a few hours.
"Hey. Did we lose you?" Daniel waved his hand in front of my face. "You go get Derek up."
"What? Really?" I glanced over at Clay, who was loading up the cooler.
"Come on, dude. You're the only one that he listens to. Go get him, shit." Clay gave me a look.
"Fine." I walked to the cooler and grabbed a beer. "But next time something comes up, one of you limp-dicks is up to handle it."
"Whatever." Clay scoffed at me and closed the cooler. "Daniel, help me lug this shit out to the porch."
I turned and walked down the hall, stopping outside Derek's door to listen. No fucking way I was going in if they were still getting it on. A soft whine caught my attention, and I pressed my ear to the door to hear the sounds of lust pouring from the other side of it.
"Shit, fuck that," I mumbled and walked back to the front as my cock twitched in my swim trunks. I was used to having sex a few times a week at minimum and quite a bit more than that when I went on vacation. The situation with Cora had changed that drastically, yet I still felt myself needing her, wanting her time and attention.
"What's up?" Clay glanced up as I closed their door.
"They're still fucking. I'm not going in there. No matter the size of the stick I drew." I rolled my eyes and grabbed one side of the cooler as Clay got the other.
"I'll leave him a note and he can text us later." Daniel walked back toward the house as I let my eyes move across the beautiful scene before us. The lake was a dark blue, and the brilliant green pine trees almost hovered over the edge of it.
"I love it out here. My dream house would be tucked into those large pines over there." I pointed before taking another drink of my beer as we wrestled the cooler down toward the dock.
"I couldn't agree more." Clay stopped at the edge of the pier and sat the cooler down. "Let's grab some lunchmeat and bread so that we're not starving later."
"Alright." I ran my fingers through my hair and walked back toward the house with him.
"Did you decide on whether you're going up north after this summer yet?" He gave me a sideways glance.
"No, I think it's going to really depend on what happens by the end of the summer. If I'm still single and not tied down to the thought of being with one girl, then I'm headed out of here. If by chance someone steals my heart…”
"Steals your heart?" Clay laughed and patted my back. "Where the fuck is my best friend? What have you done with him?"
I rolled my eyes. "You know what I mean. Don't throw that shit at me, either. You know you and Emily are talking long-term stuff and you barely know each other."
He nodded. "Yeah, we are. We just fit, you know? It's an amazing feeling."
"I can't imagine." I opened the door as Daniel walked back out.
"We ready?" He took his glasses off and started to clean them.
"Yeah, just grabbing food." I walked into the house and let out a sigh. My eyes moved to the darkened hall, and I couldn't help but wish it were me and Cora wrapped up in my bed together. Desire raced through me, but I shoved it back down. I was going to go over there in the morning if she hadn't called or come over first. There was too much between us that I wanted to explore to let things fall silent. Did she want that? For me to leave her be and let things just fizzle out?
"Have you talked to Cora about the possibility of you leaving here after the summer?" Clay's voice behind me jolted me. I'd assumed he's stayed out on the porch with Daniel.
"What? No." I smirked. "We've barely started talking. It's really not that serious yet. I like her. A lot. A lot more than any other woman I've been interested in the past, but that doesn't mean that she feels the same way." I grabbed a few things from the fridge and shrugged. "She's probably just looking for a fun fling over the summer, and with her leaving in the next week, if that's all she wanted, then it'll be time for me to move on."
He rolled his eyes. "You're not moving on. Stop talking that psycho-babble-bullshit to yourself and ask her out."
"I have asked her out." I grabbed the bread and tossed it to him. "We've been on two dates, and both were a load of fun."
He rolled his eyes and walked to the door. "That's not what I meant and you know it."
"Right." I closed the door behind me, juggling the meat, cheese, and mustard while Daniel stood aside quietly. "I don't want to force anything on her, Clay. She's got a lot of baggage from the last guy she was with, and I found out on Tuesday that Tinsley was the girl that was fucking him when she walked in on them."
Clay jerked around. "Our Tinsley? Your fucking sister?"
"Yeah." I shook my head. "Unbelievable, right? I swear that girl's going to hell for lying and doing it really, really well."
"Damn. All those years of making sure not to look her way because she seemed so innocent and-”
"Hey." I glanced over at him, cutting him off. "She's still my little sister. Watch it."
Daniel laughed and took the cheese and mustard from me. "You guys are so easily duped. Your sister's been as active as you are all these years, Brody. Anyone with half a brain would know that."
"Oh yeah, doctor Dan?" I pushed at his shoulder as we stopped by the cooler. "What else have we missed? You know... us idiots."
He turned to face us, and I swear he aged 10 years in front of my eyes.
"For one, you need to stop waiting on Cora to come over here. Someone who's been cheated on isn't just fighting the sadness of losing someone they loved. They're battling the idea that they aren't good enough for anyone. I'm not sure how the fuck the girl every decided to let her guard down with you. You're the biggest whore we know."
"True." Clay shrugged and reached for the cooler. "We're jealous, though... aren't we?"
Daniel nodded and took the cheese from me. "Hell yeah, we are, but you gotta see this from Cora's perspective. You're not a safe bet, at all. While she's obviously attracted to you, she has to protect herself. And, I'd lay money on it that she's doing that right now."
I shook my head and walked down the dock. "Why are you telling me all this, Dan? You know I'm a simple guy. I don't over-analyze anything, and I like living that way."
"Me, too. Give me some skin over that shit." Clay sat down the cooler and lifted his hand to me. I hit it and turned at the sound of someone calling my name.
Damn. Dina.
"Oh crap," Clay mumbled and dropped down into the boat. "Get rid of her, Brody. We don't want company today."
"Yeah, yeah." I waved a hand back at them as I walked toward her. She was breathtaking to say the least, and yet I realized what it meant to want one woman. I didn't see her as an object, but just as a friendly face. Too bad she didn't seem to feel the same.
"You look good enough to eat." She slid her hands up my chest and pressed herself to me as she bit at her lip seductively.
"Oh, yeah? Well, you look great, too. We're just about to-”
"Head out? Good. I'm coming with you. I found this great alcove the other day and I kept thinking about which guy I wanted to take out there with me. It's a little risqué, but it would be so hot to fuck in. Let's get rid of your friends and go out there." She pressed her hips to mine and moaned softly. "I've yet to feel you inside of me, really. That blow job didn't count."
"Brody. Come on, fucker," Clay yelled from behind me. "Let's go."
"Maybe another time, Dina. I'll find you in a few days, okay?" I gripped her shoulders softly and stepped back. "Have fun today."
"Really? What the fuck?" she barked as I turned and jogged back down the dock. "Are you really not going to go with me out there?"
"Nope." I jumped down into the boat and gave Daniel a look. "Watch closely, doc. This is where you'll see humanity at its-”
"You sorry mother fucker." She walked toward the deck as Daniel pressed the gas. "I don't want anything to do with your shrimp dick, anyways!"
She was ugly when she got upset. I glanced down at Daniel and smiled. "Humanity at its worst."
He echoed the last word with me and rolled his eyes. "I'm sure as hell glad I've deciding to wait for the right girl. You idiots have it all wrong."
"Only sometimes." I walked to the back of the boat and dropped down, letting my thoughts go back to Cora. "One more day. Then, I'm coming after you."
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Cora
I'd avoided him for a few days under the guise of a stomach bug. Where I wasn't necessarily feeling too hot, it was more due to with the situation and less to do with coming down with something. I needed to think through my next steps with him anyway, and that was impossible to do with him tucked up underneath me. I'd gotten in a huge fight with my dad the night before and cried half the night, which didn't help my mood much.
"One week," I mumbled and flopped back down in the bed. It was Friday and everyone was gearing up for a great weekend of partying, but I wanted nothing more than to find a quiet place on the lake to ignore life in.
A knock sounded at my door, and I glanced at the clock. The only person who would be up at nine in the morning was Cindy, and though I didn't want to deal with her sunshine attitude, being a bitch to my friends was out.
"Come in." I tugged the cover up and turned on my side as the door opened and closed. I glanced up as someone jogged around the bed and jumped on it behind me.
"You are playing hooky with me, aren't you?" Brody.
A million emotions raced through me, but lust won out. He pressed himself to my back and tucked his face against the crook of my neck.
"What are you doing here, crazy boy?” I wrapped my arms around his as they held me tight.
"Trying to find this really sexy girl that gave me a glimpse of what pleasure could really look like and then disappeared. I got her glass slipper at the house. You think you might know where I should start looking?" He pulled at the covers and slipped beneath them as I turned over and swatted at him. "Maybe under here?"
"Brody, get out of there." I reached down as he pressed his mouth to the front of my panties and flicked his tongue across me. "Or don't. God, that feels good."
"Where have you been, Cora? You not interested in me, anymore?" His tongue drug by the side of my panties, slipping under the tiny patch of silk and causing my blood to light on fire.
"I'm sorry. I've been trying to figure things out." I ran my fingers through his hair and pulled at his shoulders. "Come here and talk to me."
He crawled up to lay on top of me, looking sexy as sin itself. I tugged at the bottom of his t-shirt and he pulled it over his head before rolling us over.
I pulled my shirt over my head, leaving myself in nothing but panties. His eyes widened as he reached up and palmed my breasts. "I've missed you."
"Fuck. You've got no clue." He slid his hands down to my hips as his eyes raced down to where our bodies met. "I kept thinking you would call or respond to my texts."
"I'm sorry." I moved back and worked him out of his shorts, loving how beautiful he looked laying there against my dark sheets. Not seeing him for a few days had been a mistake. One I was ready to move past. "I'm scared by all of this."
I tugged my panties off and crawled back up his body as he gripped his cock in his hand and reached up to grip the side of my neck as I slid down onto him. My pulse raced as the most delicious pressure gripped me.
"Me, too, baby, but stop running. I'm the one that supposed to run, and I can't seem to find any place to go where I don't think about you." He lifted his hips, impaling me and sending a shock wave through my center.
"I just don't know if I want this to end." I leaned over and let out a groan as he pulled at my arms and forced me to lay flat against him.
"It just started, Cora. Can we wait for the heavy shit until later? Rest against me and let me make love to you." He ran his hands over my back and pressed his lips to mine before gripping my ass tightly and fucking me from beneath. The pressure of his thick cock left me tumbling toward an orgasm within a few minutes, and I pressed my lips to the side of his neck, just beneath his ear as I cried out and let my body explode.
"So beautiful," he whispered against my hair. "I need this in my life. All the time."
He rolled us over again as I slowed down and panted softly. "Me, too. I want more. So much more."
I wrapped my legs around him as he drove into me while making love to my mouth and moving down to lick at my breasts. I arched my back and tightened my thighs around his waist as he grunted deep and low in his chest.
"You can have all you can take." He drove into me again, and I turned my face toward his, falling in love with the passion in his eyes. He didn't wanna be anywhere but on top of me. I was trying to judge him again and push him into the same category as his sister, as Brandon, but he didn't belong there. He might have a few weeks back, but not now.
"I'm not her," he whispered roughly and moved back. "I need a condom. I'm too close to coming to hold back. You turn me on so fucking bad."
"In the drawer to the left of the mirror." I dropped back in the bed as tears burned my eyes. "I know you're not her. I'm sorry that I keep trying to force you into that mold. I'm not good with this fling shit. I want to be, but after feeling the effects of love with Brandon, I want it so bad again. I hate that I want it, but I do." I covered my face with my hands and took slow deep breaths as I tried to force the torrential flood of emotion that threatened to drag me under.
"Don't hate it, okay." He crawled back in the bed and pressed himself to the front of me as his hands moved across me lovingly. "Hold onto my neck and let me take us over the edge together. We'll figure this other stuff out, but no more ignoring me or shutting me down, okay?"
"We only have a week." I reached up and wrapped my arms around his shoulders, baring much more than my nakedness to him in those moments.
"No, we have as long as you want." He pressed into me and let out a groan. "How the fuck are you so tight?"
"Come closer." I pulled him to lay flat against me and wrapped my legs around his as I bucked my hips and worked him as best I could.
He pressed his elbows on either side of my head and brushed my hair back as a smile lifted his lips. "Oh, man...you're so insanely beautiful. I swear I feel like I have butterflies tearing up my stomach each time I see you."
I laughed, unable to help myself. The sexy thing thrusting himself deep inside of me had never really felt any of the effects of love. Could that be true?
"Ignore them. They're a pain in the ass." I nudged him to turn us over, and he did, letting me sit on top of him. I pressed my hands to his chest and glanced down to watch us fuck as I rolled my hips and massaged him.
His panting was delicious, but nothing was better than the tight grip he had on my ass combined with the expressions of pleasure that moved across his face.
"Slow down. I'm so close." He gripped my hips, trying to slow me, but I fought against him, bucking hard as I lifted up on my knees and slamming back down on him. "Cora."
"Shut up." I pressed into his chest and looked down at him. "Come for me."
"Shit," he groaned and closed his eyes as his entire body went stiff.
I worked him hard and fast as he cried out several times. If things didn't work out between us, I would be crushed. Where sex was important in my life, passion was required. Never in a million years would I expect to find someone as passionate as Brody again.
I hadn't until that point, for sure.
*
"Eww, you really like mint-chocolate chip?" He scrunched up his nose at me.
"Yeah. It's the best. Try it." I extended my ice cream cone toward him as we sat out on one of the little rod-iron tables on the strand later that afternoon.
"No way." He turned his nose up at it and moved his chair closer to mine. "That doesn't even look appetizing. It's green with brown flecks in it. Gross."
I laughed and brushed my hair out of my face. "I'll give you a great blow job later if you try it."
"Give me that. I'll eat the fucking thing whole." He smirked and gripped my wrist as he leaned over and dragged his tongue over my ice cream. Chills raced down my spine as he watched me with a sexy look on his handsome face.
"It's good, right?" I pulled my wrist from his grasp and licked at the ice cream.
"Wow. That's really much better than I thought, but nothing beats creamy French vanilla." He licked at his slow and sensually. "So good against my tongue."
"Stop it." I moved closer and slid my hand up his neck as I pressed my lips to his in a long, drawn out kiss.
"You like it. I'm not stopping anytime soon. Not to mention that whatever I did just scored me a kiss from the hottest girl at the lake. I might not be a genius, but I'm doing something right." He moved back and ate at his ice cream as he turned to look out at the water. "So, I don't suppose there is any way that your folks are going to let you stay longer, right?"
"I need to go back and see these cases with them, but I'll try to get back out here when I'm done." I slid my hand over his leg and squeezed softly. "We're not a couple, Brody. Find someone else and enjoy your summer. The real world is waiting just beyond these few months to bore the fuck out of us, I'm sure."
He gripped my hand tightly and smirked. "Find someone else? Is that supposed to be funny? We just talked about wanting more of each other. Am I the only one that really feels that way? Is this just a fling to you?"
"I don't know what it is." I pulled back and let out a long sigh. "What do you want it to be? Are you even staying in Arizona after the summer?"
"I'm not sure, but if we decide we're going to try this thing out between us, then I'm willing to consider it." He licked at his ice cream a little more as he watched me intently. How easily I could fall in love with him.
"I don't want you making decisions on your future based on a week-long romance. That seems crazy." I chuckled as a smile lifted his lips.
"I think you're trying too hard to smooth out all the bumps that could get in our way, and you really don't need to. We'll enjoy this week, and then you'll come back, or maybe I'll come stay in the city with you a little. I'm getting sick of this place, anyway." He snorted, and I knew he was lying.
"You are not. No one could get tired of this place." I glanced out at the water. "I love it here. I would give anything to have a little log cabin tucked into those big pine trees over there one day. That would be really living."
He chuckled. "I just said the same thing to Clay yesterday."
"What are you wanting to do with your life? Are you going to go into business or coaching?" I licked at my cone one more time before getting up to throw it away.
"Give me that, silly girl. We don't waste ice cream." He smiled and took the cone, eating his and mine in a few bites.
I waited for him where the sidewalk met the sand. The serenity of the place was easy to find, even in the middle of all of the people milling about.
He wrapped his arms around me from behind and squeezed softly. "I want to be a coach, and I think I would be great at it, but it's a big commitment. I'm not sure I want to take the risk of putting my career above my family until things took off."
"Would you have to? Is that part of the contract to be a coach?" I laughed and turned to face him, sliding my arms around his waist.
"No, but that's just the way it usually works out." He leaned down and brushed his lips by mine. "Would you be willing to support a man who wanted to follow his dreams, even if they didn't make sense?"
"If it would make him happy and help solidify our relationship, of course. Would you do the same for a woman you loved?" I asked, brushing my nose by his. How far we'd come in the course of a few days, and yet that alone was the reason I wanted to hold back. It was scary as hell. I could feel the compatibility between us before it ever started.
"I'd bend over backwards for her and support anything she wanted to do." He nipped at my lips. "Let's go take the boat out to the alcove and feed the gator. Live a little?"
I laughed and moved over to take his hand. "This isn't living?"
"Oh yeah, but this is the chick-flick part. We gotta get in a little bit of horror, too. It makes for better snuggles later." He wagged is eyebrows.
"I'm telling the guys you just said that." I tucked myself against his side as he laughed.
"You unruly witch. You better not."
"Never."