Friday Night
Hunter
“HOME SWEET HOME,” I breathed out while shutting off the headlights on my Mustang. It was seven thirty at night and my parent’s curbside was dark, the sole lighting source coming from a motion sensor fixture that flickered twice and then shut off.
I was tired.
Hungry.
Ready to spend the next week sleeping, surfing—burying myself inside of something tight with a nice set of tits.
It was time to relax and enjoy.
Gorge myself on everything I’d gone without to graduate six months early. My bachelor’s in business would serve me well, but at that point, my focus had shifted. For over two hundred and eight weeks, I’d lived the life of a motherfucking monk.
Lived without the three things that any man in college coveted above all else: alcohol, parties, and pussy.
They were a distraction. Something unnecessary at the time.
Especially when my mind was set on something much more satisfying than a drunken conquest.
“Where is everyone?” My eyes followed the small curve in the driveway that led to a garage no one used. Three cars were parked there: two beside each other, and a large SUV that I wasn’t familiar with. I pulled in behind the latter, admiring the black-on-black theme.
It was nice. New. Looked expensive. Emily got a new car?
But then again, I wouldn’t know much about what happened in this house anymore. In the last few years, I’d come home for Christmas once, and that was my freshman year. My parents understood my need to fast track and get my foot in the door, and how little time I had since taking on a heavy course load and then the internship at the city’s biggest marketing firm.
The same one that, as of yesterday, hired me full time to work in their sports division.
Turning my engine off, I opened my door and stepped out. Reaching toward the sky, I stretched my tired limbs from the long drive down from Pensacola. My neck cracked, and then my stomach rumbled, reminding me that I’d been behind the wheel for hours without anything more than a Coke.
Within seconds, beads of sweat formed at my brow, and I gathered my overgrown mohawk and pulled it into a small bun. The humidity and heat weren’t out of the norm in Florida, just something we learned to live with. You adapted to it.
It didn’t matter that we weren’t far from the beach; the summer nights in Daytona were brutal.
Closing the door, I popped open the trunk and pulled out my bag. So far no one had realized that I was here, and I wanted to capitalize on the fact. The front door was out of the question, so I followed the paved path around back and smiled when I found the sliding glass door wide open.
No one was in the pool, but I could just make out Mom in the kitchen taking something out of the oven. Without making much noise, I slipped inside and stood with my back against the wall, waiting for her to turn around.
I counted to one hundred, and nothing. Not even our dog noticed my arrival. Where the hell was Bruiser?
So, I did what any obnoxious son does when scaring their mom…I whistled. One loud, high-pitched sound that caused her to scream and almost drop the pan in her hand.
She jumped—whirled around to face me with one hand on her chest and the other on the baked dish now on the countertop. “What the…oh my God!”
Pushing off from the wall, I opened my arms with a smile. “Surprise.”
“Baby, what’re you doing here?” Flip-flop-covered feet slapped against the travertine floors on her way to me. “Why didn’t you call us? Jeff, hurry...my baby’s home!”
“How about: Welcome home, Hunter. Missed you?”
“I should beat you with my rolling pin, kid.” Her small arms wrapped themselves around my over six-foot-three frame. She squeezed my midsection, face buried into my chest. “We weren’t expecting you until next week for the girls’ graduation.”
My own arms tightened, and I kissed the crown of her head. “Some loose strings were tied up and my schedule opened; I have the full week off, so spoil me, woman.” That earned me a huff, so I carried on with a small laugh. “If you take me into that kitchen and feed me, I’ll answer all your questions and only veto you twice. Think about it…brag worthy.”
“Loose strings, you say?” Out of everything I just said, that’s what she focuses on?
I grimaced. Her mind had veered toward a dangerous subject. “Yeah.”
“Answer all my questions. You promise?”
“Si?” I replied with trepidation, sweat once again beading at my hairline. I’d just dangled a proverbial carrot in front of a motherly I-want-my-son-to-find-a nice-girl horse. The cogs in her head were turning, and I knew what was going to come next.
Mom looked up then and smiled wide. Her slate-grey eyes, so much like my own, held an evil glint. “Does that string have a name? Am I going to be a grandmother?”
What. The. Hell? “Jesus, Mom. You…no…I—” Stepping out of her embrace, I placed my hands on her shoulders and gaped at her like a fish. That woman had no filter.
Almost four years of self-imposed celibacy didn’t add up to settling down with the first woman that crossed my path. Just no. My cock was looking for the right-now kind of pussy.
Just a quick fuck, and then leave in the morning.
“Answer the question, Hunter. Will I be a grandmother within the next year?”
“I’m not going to dignify that with an answer.”
“Give me something, son. Anything.” Mom widened her eyes and gave me the most pathetic look. It didn’t work. I didn’t feel the least bit bad for not giving in. In my twenty-two years, there had only been one person who could manipulate me like that, and I hadn’t seen her in years.
She wasn’t flesh and blood, but the girl had woven herself into my heart like a secondary little sister. More than.
“Please stop.” Running an agitated hand through my hair, I pulled on the long strands, undoing the small bun I kept it in, and massaged my temples while counting to ten. “Don’t start. I just got here.”
“You aren’t denying it.” Mom giggled; her fingers caged my jaw, pulling me down to her eye level. “When you are ready, I’d love to meet her. Promise to be on my best behavior.”
“You? Best behavior?” Laughter, loud and obnoxious, followed those words a second before my little sister fully entered the room. Her eyes met mine, and a huge smile broke out across her face. “Nice of you to show your face.”
She’d changed so much since I’d been gone. Gone were the chubby cheeks and glasses, and what stood before me now was a beautiful girl who was still incredibly short for her age. Her hair, the same shade of black as mine, was cut into a short, angular bob with side-swept bangs.
Emi looked like a miniature adult.
“Is that any way to greet your big brother, Emily? Come here, squirt.”
At my mention of her childhood nickname, her blue eyes narrowed, and her lips pursed. “Stuff it.”
“Stop being melodramatic.”
“Quit being a jerk.” Emily walked over to me then and punched my shoulder. It didn’t hurt in the least, but I didn’t say a word as I pulled her in for a tight hug. “Missed you,” she whispered into my shirt, her hold tight.
I squeezed her tighter. “Missed you too, squirt.” At that, she poked my ribs and I jumped back and away.
“Kids, behave,” Mom chided, but the happiness in her tone was clear; it’d been too long since we’d both been home. “And where the hell is your father?”
“I’m right here, Kelly.” Dad walked into the room still in his scrubs. He was a dentist, while mom ran a small accounting firm from the house. “And I see we have another crasher for the week?”
Another crasher? Is Bailey here too?
I hadn’t seen her in so long. Too long, if I were being honest.
“Seems so.” Mom walked over to him and kissed his cheek. “Now, say hi, and please go get changed for dinner.” Dad nodded, but the second she turned around, he rolled his eyes. “Saw that, Jeff!”
He paused mid-step at her yell. “That woman has eyes in the back of her head,” Dad muttered before pulling me in for a bone-crushing hug, causing Emily to squeak in my hold. We laughed at her while she squirmed out from our embrace.
“You guys suck.”
“And maybe, you don’t feel like going out tonight?” Dad released me and turned around to look at her with a raised brow. “You guys can stay in and…what is it you kids call it? Chill?”
“Love you, Daddy, but that would be a no.” Emi batted her lashes.
“Where’s this party at?”
“What party?” I butted in, turning to stand beside him with my arms crossed over my chest. I know I’d been gone a few years—the most important ones since she had a boyfriend from what I heard—but while I was around, she was expected to be a saint. “And tell me you aren’t wearing that?”
“First off—back off, Jolly Green.”
“Here we go, Jeff.”
“They never grow up, love. They’ll be forty and still go at it over the littlest things.”
“Answer me.”
“This is none of your business, Hunter.” No matter how much she tried to out-glare me, I held out longer than her. Four minutes into our standoff, she threw her hands up in the air. “Fine! The Birks are throwing a huge blowout for the senior class down at their high-rise. They’ve given us use of the banquet hall, pool area, and restricted beach owned by the building.”
“Mighty nice of them. Why?” Something smelled fishy. That, and she wouldn’t look me in the eye.
“Because we’re dating their sons.” Emily spoke low, but I caught it. Their kid was the punk dating my sister.
“Okay.” Not more I could say or do until…something registered then. We? “Who’s the other half of this we?”
A throat cleared, and my eyes flickered toward the person interrupting us.
Son of a bitch. I stopped breathing while my heart beat inside my chest like a war drum.
There, standing by the kitchen’s entrance, was the incarnation of everything I found beautiful. Exquisite. A carnal temptation sent to destroy my male pride.
Tiny in stature, this woman was slender and curvaceous. My mouth watered at the sight of her in a simple pair of cutoffs and an off-the shoulder midriff top. The string from her bright pink bikini peeked out—a tease—from over the shirt’s rounded collar.
Her skin was tanner than I remembered, a sweet shade of golden honey that made her light green eyes stand out. My own eyes devoured every single inch; from the bigger-than-a-handful breasts, to the tight curve of her ass.
Jesus Christ. My little Bailey was all grown up.
Fuck. It was maddeningly brutal to will my cock to stand down at that moment. To not twitch, much less swell, at the soft scent of vanilla that invaded my senses then.
I kept my eyes on her face and fought to keep them there.
The usual warmness in her green orbs was absent, though, but I still caught the small gasp she let out when our eyes connected. Behind her cool exterior, there was a small fire lit.
She was angry with me, but not indifferent, and that I could work with.
“Jock is not my type, chick.” Familiar eyes swept over me a final time before looking at my sister. Fuck, I wanted them on me, almost said her name to pull her attention back, when she rolled her eyes at Emi. “And furthermore, loudmouth, Brad is not my boyfriend.”
That small turn of her head flicked the mass of black curls over her shoulder in a move I’d only seen on commercials; it was nearly impossible to hold my groan in at the sight.
“He seems to think differently.”
“Because you thought it’d be cute if we all dated. You’re the reason he’s such a pest.”
“Not true, B—”
“Emi, I love you, but he and I won’t happen. I’d rather avoid his kind of attention.”
“What do you mean by that?” How could my parents just stand by listening to her say that he forced himself on her? Were they not hearing the same thing?
She rolled her eyes and waved me off. “Metaphorically, Hunter. I’d kick his ass—”
“And I’ll break his neck.”
“Language, Bailey,” Mom and I spoke at the same time.
No one mentioned my slip; how inappropriate it was to demand liberties that weren’t mine. The anger and possessiveness in my immediate reaction stopped me cold.
This was not the way a brother figure felt. Acted.
I needed to remind myself that this was Bailey. Emily’s best friend Bailey.
That I couldn’t see her that way. Had fought everything within me not to.
She was the same sweet girl I once saw as a sister. She’s not so little anymore. Completely legal.
Our eyes met once more, and the floor beneath my feet shifted. Things had changed. This couldn’t be happening again.
This was not good. For either of us.
Fuck.