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Sully Can we not? I haven’t announced that yet. I don’t need my phone getting hacked and that news leaking to the media. Mavvy THAT’S what you’re worried about if your phone is hacked? The photos on mine would get me in so much trouble lol. And Emmy. Huddy Boy Stop. You’re going to make my ears bleed.
G-Money Yeah. We’ll totally show up to court like Elle Woods’s friends do in Legally Blonde and cheer for you!
“Aren’t you excited to deal with the bullshit that comes with having to communicate with people?”
There’s a reason you pulled through that night. Your purpose is so much bigger than you think it is.”
“Today? I’m fine. Yesterday? I ate a pint of ice cream and didn’t leave the couch.” “Not every day can be sunshine and rainbows. A lot of days suck, but you got out of bed today. That’s a win,” he says.
“The longer you let what happened consume you, the longer everything else in your life is going to suck. You have to mourn it. Loathe it. But then you have to learn you’re so much more than this injury.
I’ve been so worried about what I can’t do that I haven’t bothered to consider what I can do, which is fucking live. Enjoying everything I was seconds away from losing.
“The only way I can go is forward, so I might as well enjoy what I have.”
It’s not always easy. You can’t magically become undepressed, but you have to find something that makes you feel good.”
“I don’t care what you do, but you need to do something. You can’t live like this forever, Riley.”
Not when you’re so much more than what’s under your clothes.”
No one does unless they’ve had the most important thing in their life stripped from them.
It’ll be my new life until the day I die, and… that’s hard to grapple with.”
“Let me, ah, put on some different clothes.” “Really? But the view is so good,” I tease, and his blush deepens. “You’re a goddamn flirt, Armstrong,” he calls out over his shoulder as he makes his way down the hall. “You like it,” I call back, and I swear I hear him say yeah, I do before he disappears, and a strange sensation flutters in my chest.
Piper elbows his ribs, and a smile works its way onto his mouth. All this fresh air away from my apartment is making me hallucinate.
“Is it okay if I touch you?” Screaming out fuck, yes, anywhere you want is probably too aggressive, so I nod. I try not to blush when she rests her palm on my hip, and I’m glad the lighting is shitty back here. The last thing I need is for Hudson to glance over and point out how red my cheeks are, even if I would blame it on my lack of athleticism rather than the hot girl I’m crushing on giving me a lick of her attention.
“Relax. There you go,” she murmurs, her touch warm and soft. I bet the rest of her is warm and soft too. Her thumb presses into the muscles around my neck, and I almost whimper. “That’s so good, Riley.” Fuck me. Up to this point, my attraction to her hasn’t been a physical thing.
How she would taste if I was given the chance to take her to bed and worship her like she deserves.
“Are you okay?” Lexi asks, and the question makes me want to laugh. No, I’m in hell. I’m picturing you naked, and I want to die. Do you have any other secret tattoos besides the one on your hip I want to see? What about piercings? Would you like it if I tied your wrists together, or would that freak you out?
“I’ve seen more of Hudson’s ass over the last five years than I’ve seen women naked. I’ve probably seen it more than my own ass, if we’re being honest. I think we’re all set on bonding.”
“You don’t look at your ass in the mirror?” she asks. “No. Do you?” “Regularly. I have a spectacular ass.”
There’s nothing I love more than kicking men’s asses and watching them cry. Especially when they think they’re the superior species.
“Only women’s numbers. I got hoes in every area code, you know?” He can’t lie to save his life.
“You like this, don’t you?” So fucking much. I’m in heaven. I could stay here forever. The only thing that would be better is having my head between her thighs, and I’m done drawing this out.
“You’re a fucking goddess.
He brushes the hair away from the back of my neck and drops a kiss to my forehead. It’s the most romantic thing a guy has ever done for me, and that’s alarmingly sad.
Who needs a horse when you can ride a cowboy?”
“Do you like watching, Riley?” I whisper. “Yes,” he says, voice thick. “I do.” “It’s a shame you got me off earlier. I would’ve let you watch me play with myself.”
God forbid someone likes to pretend they’re in a fictional world where women are treated right and orgasms are plentiful, because no way in hell does that happens in the reality where I’m currently living.
I’m feeling better both mentally and physically, and I’ve successfully gone four weeks without getting on my hands and knees and begging Lexi to let me fuck her again.
After so much time away, it’s like coming home.
Me He’s unbearable when you’re not around. That man is obsessed with you. Emmy As every man should be. I love it.
Me I bet you have a nice vagina. Piper That’s so sweet! I think I do.
“What is your thing?” You. Naked and on top of me.
He cups my cheek, thumb stroking along the curve of my jaw. “Don’t worry. I’m not in love with you. I’m playing by the rules.” “Shut up,”
I’m not going to blow my cover by being a pathetic, yearning mess of a man who will have her any way I can get her.
Can we still be friends if I come before you? I promise it won’t happen again.”
“At the risk of sounding cliché”—she gasps when I spit on my thumb and rub a slow circle over her clit.—“I’m about to come too.” “Race you there?”
There’s no rhyme or reason for any of it. Some days the irritation and depression last for twenty minutes. I’ll take a bath, and it’ll disappear. Other times it stretches for hours, and I turn off my phone, lie in bed, and stare at the wall.
I’m trying to find something new to live for after the greatest thing in my life was ripped away from me. I realize there are people who would miss me, and I’d miss them.”
“We’re friends. All we’re ever going to be is friends, and I’d rather have her in my life as that than not have her in my life at all.”
“I’ve been waiting for this one.” Grant rubs his hands together and grins. “A dark romance where she falls in love with the stalker but only after she makes him crawl on his knees and beg for forgiveness? It’s like the author wrote this shit just for me.”
“She also crawls to him.” Maverick grins. “That’s an underrated microtrope if you ask me.” “Remember that other book where the guy tells her to lose her ring and crawl? Hell.” Grant fans his face. “I wish I had the balls to say that to a woman. I wouldn’t be able to get the words out.” I wonder if I could get Lexi to crawl to me. She’d probably put up a fight and flat-out refuse in the name of feminism, but I bet I could convince her by crawling to her first. I’m all for an equal power dynamic if it means watching her temporarily hand over control again.
“Women.” Grant sighs. “So complex. So brilliant. We’re so undeserving.”
Me Dead serious. We’re conquering the ice, Mitchy! Wanna fuck after?
“I’d give fucking anything to go back to those days. I didn’t know how good I had it.”
“None of us ever know how good we have it until it’s too late. And it fucking sucks,”
Friends, I tell myself. Bullshit, my brain whispers back.
“I don’t remember the last time I felt this shitty. Probably the time I went to my first frat party in college and had way too many tequila shots. I still can’t smell the liquor without having a reaction.” “Damn. That’s what I was going to give you when you finished your next glass of water.” “Sorry to burst your bubble. You’re going to have to stick with vodka.” “Oof,” I say. “That’s my downfall. Guess we’re moving on to bourbon. A good compromise.”
“We could go to my bedroom,” she suggests, and when I level her with a serious look that tells her absolutely the fuck not, she rolls her eyes. “To spread out and get comfortable. Calm down. I wasn’t going to jerk you off. The lingering smell of vomit doesn’t really do it for me.” “Bummer. That’s the only thing that gets me going. This friendship might not work out long-term.”
