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“Frankie…” “Don’t you Frankie me.” It came out more heated than I intended, but at the same time…nowhere near as angry as I really was. “I’ll grab a shower and warm up. If you guys would put my bags in here, I’ll also take care of undressing and redressing myself.” He paused, eyeing me. “But what I won’t do,” I continued, dropping my folded arms as I stood and poked him in the chest, thumping him once for each item on my list, “is be given orders, hauled around like a sack of potatoes, or be snapped at because I was having fun.” He backed up a couple of steps but I wasn’t done, so when he
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The last thing I wanted to do was fight with Jake or spoil our first hour here by getting mad. At the same time… I huffed out a breath. The bossy thing was sexy to a point, but I wasn’t a child, nor did I require manhandling, and maybe it was time they remembered that. Maybe what I needed to do was remind them.
“So you’re saying I should have just let her freeze?” “I’m saying maybe not just tossing her over your shoulder and spanking her as you carry her up the stairs and then ordering her to strip like she’s property,” Coop drawled. “You know, maybe talk to her instead of at her? Maybe that could work.”
“Do you actually think you were a jackass, or are you saying that so I’ll stop being mad?”
“You were freezing,” he half-growled. “Blue lips. Wet feet. Your socks were soaking when I got them off, and your feet were really cold.” “I was there,” I told him. “But I return to my question, do you actually think you were a jackass?”
“No, I think you were too caught up in how gorgeous it is out there to be safe and I didn’t want you hurt. I tried to coax you, but you didn’t want to listen, and these assholes were too delighted with your delight to say something.” “But you’re never afraid to call me on my crap,” ...
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“Coop’s not said anything,” Archie pointed out. “Coop is fine,” Coop stated, stretching his arms over his head and letting a bit of his abdomen peek out as the hem of his shirt rose. “Coop wants Frankie. Coop has Frankie. Long as Frankie is happy, Coop is happy.” “He’s also apparently talking about himself in the third person,” I murmured, eyebrows raised.
“Anyway…last one outside has to sleep in their own room tonight.” Coop bolted for the stairs before the last word left his lips. “Fuck,” Jake swore and tore after him with Ian right behind him. Archie stared at me with a bemused expression, and I had to wonder if I wore the same one. “Do you think he knows I’ll be the last one?” I had to ask, and Archie threw his head back and laughed before he offered me his arm.
“I’m in this for the long haul, Frankie. Cradle to grave. That hasn’t changed.” There had never been a point in my life that I could remember where Coop wasn’t a part of it. “I can share you with them,” he continued in the same soft voice.
“Girl wants to see the cookies before she gets in the van,” I retorted. Not missing a beat, he opened the container with the edible cookies, and I burst out laughing.
“You don’t have to protect me all the time,” I chastised him. “Yes, I do,” he disagreed. “I protect what’s precious, and you’re the most precious thing in my life.”
The fact that she strolled out in that barely there bikini for the second time without an ounce of her shyness from the first night? Win. The smile on her face? Win. The idiots splashing into the hot tub around us, making her laugh and smile? Fuck it. Win, too. I took a bite of a cookie and stretched back after she took the glass of wine. This was the kind of life we could all get used to. If I had my way, we would.
“Your turn, Baby Girl.” Challenge twinkled in his eyes, amusement that dared me to get them back for their teasing. I could totally do that. “Never have I ever gone down on a girl.” The rich baritone of his laughter as the guys groaned buoyed me. But all four of them did their shots.
“You can spoil me, or despoil me, anytime you want,” Archie said. “I totally volunteer as tribute.”
Okay, I lied. It hurt like a bitch. I swore it was like they were literally carving the symbols into my back and not just using a little tiny set of needles.
Nah, doesn't feel too bad on the shoulder blade unless it's up near the back shoulder bone.
“This is going to sound really sexist, but I love the fact that you have my name on you,” he half-growled the words. “Ours. Our names. Our girl. Right there, and if any asshole gets too close to you, there is no mistaking who you belong to.”
“Well, fuck you,” Rachel replied. “I have no idea how I’m getting a condom cactus home.” A condom… “A what?” I asked, staring at her, and she turned the camera to the cactus sitting on the table. It was indeed a phallic-shaped cactus that looked like it had a condom on it, with little spines sticking out. Laughter escaped me, and I clapped a hand over my mouth.
It was kind of adorable, and I’d seen the card attached to it. I didn’t know if she’d meant me too, or not. But the guys were getting a kiss for that. From a set of pricks to the prickly bitch, thanks for sticking it to us and with us.
“We go home day after Christmas, thank fuck. I’m tempted to bedazzle some horns and wear it to dinner tomorrow, because if I’m going to Hell, I might as well get a full scholarship.”
Hells to the yeah!!!
“So, all done with me, tell me what you’ve been doing. I know who…” “Don’t hate me,” I began, and she gave me a gimlet stare. “We saw Torched…” She swore at me in French. For ten minutes. It was epic.
Jake got actual boxing gloves that had all of us laughing, but then again, Jake had just grinned. For Ian, there were a series of different guitar picks that had my face on them. Wow. Ian loved them, but I died at Archie’s utterly serious, “Now you can finger her whenever you play…” comment.
For Coop, it was an amusing Dr. Freud therapy ball. Kind of like a Magic Eight Ball with a twist. That, and a bunch of inkblots that made no sense until he held them up with a delighted grin and said, “They’re you. He used your face to map inkblots.” Archie smirked. “We see her everywhere, there must be a diagnosis for that…”
My gift though… I’d assumed it would be a charm, but it wasn’t. It was a photo of all five of us from ninth grade. I barely even remembered that day, just that we had all been laughing. I was hanging off of Jake’s back for some reason, my arms looped around his neck, as Coop and Ian flanked us, and Archie was...
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Archie didn’t intend to open a gift, but screw that. I dug around until I found one of the ones I’d gotten for him and thrust it in his hands. Thankfully, the guys had backed me up. He eyed the package and then me. He shook it once. “A card redeemable for sex whenever I want it?”
“You utter sap,” Archie mumbled, before chewing his lip as he stared down at the framed photo I’d wrapped for him. “But I know how much it meant to you,” I teased him, and he turned it around to show the guys. It was me and Archie at our first mini-golf ‘date’ that I hadn’t known was a date. We’d gotten in one of those photobooths and taken goofy pictures. There was a scrawled note included that he’d written when he asked me to go in the first place.
“I would have said no if you’d asked me before doing all of this.”
know, babe. That’s why I didn’t tell you. Sometimes, it’s just easier to ask for forgiveness than permission. I want to spoil you with everything. You needed this trip.”
“It’s always been you since the day I met you, Frankie. I’ve always been yours. Now you’re mine, too.”
“We should probably get video of the dropping jaws.” “And the jealous looks,” Rachel said with a hum. “So many jealous little bitches are going to cry.” “Be nice,” I told her. “What?” Rachel said. “You want me to offer them a fucking tissue?” It was our last first day of high school. It was going to rock.
