Page 28 of Flipping the Script

Snickering at my choice of words, I stuck my hand under the spray to test it. Still a bit cold, but that wasn’t a bad thing right now.

Shucking off my boxer briefs, I stepped into the shower and pulled the curtain closed.

My only saving grace was that Jesse had kissed me back. I might have started it, but he’d been just as into it. He couldn’t hold that against me without sharing some of the guilt.

Barely seeing what I was doing, I scooped up the tiny bottle of body wash I’d stolen from some hotel and uncapped it. One bonus of spending the last six years on the road was that I had enough toiletries to last through the apocalypse.

I didn’t have a ton of experience with men, especially compared to my experience with women, but I wasn’t a monk. I’d been with enough guys over the years to know what I liked, and that didn’t look anything like what had gone down between Jesse and me.

I wasn’t the type who liked drama. My ex-bassist was, and he and his on-again, off-again girlfriend had spent the last fiveyears having very public fights and breakups, only to get back together after a few rounds of angry make-up sex. They’d be chill for a bit, then the cycle would start over again.

Dealing with that as an outsider had been exhausting enough. There was no way in hell I’d ever choose to live like that.

I liked my hookups and situationships simple and predictable. I hated drama, despised fighting, and had no patience for head games. Relationships were a lot of work for very little return, and sex was fun, but not worth having to deal with anyone’s crap to get it.

With a sigh, I tipped my head back to wet my hair and rinse off the last of the body wash. The warm water soothed my muscles and skin as it sluiced over me, but it did nothing to calm the mess in my head.

I kissed the guy I’d hated since we were eight, and I not only liked it, Ilovedit. I felt things I never had, wanted things that had never been on my radar.

The hunger, the intensity of my desire, had been exhilarating. Knowing I wasn’t the only one feeling it ignited something inside me I hadn’t even known was there.

Did I have a fighting kink? Was I into being manhandled, or had that only turned me on because it was Jesse manhandling me?

My cock stirred as blood rushed south.

Fucking hell. I was getting hard again.

Closing my eyes, I dunked my whole head under the water and held my breath as the water streamed down my face.

Kissing Jesse had been a mistake. I couldn’t take it back, but I could make sure it never happened again.

At least I wouldn’t have to see him for a while. Not until the next time our siblings harangued us into doing favors for them.

5

JESSE

My phone vibratedon the passenger seat as I pulled my truck into a small clearing near Ben’s house that we used for parking whenever he had people over.

Ignoring my phone, I navigated between cars and found a space big enough for my truck. When I was parked, I grabbed it and checked my texts.

Unknown: xox I miss you

A cloud of annoyance and irritation settled over me. I hadn’t gotten a message like that in almost a month, and I’d finally let myself believe it was over.

Of course it wasn’t.

Shoving my phone into my pocket, I climbed out of my truck and weaved through the cars on my way to the huge Victorian house about a quarter mile from the makeshift parking lot.

The house and the three acres of woods it sat on belonged to Ben’s grandparents, but he’d been living there and taking care of the place for the past year after they moved into a retirement community in Arizona.

As I approached the porch, I could hear the tittering of voices coming from the backyard, and the house was lit up andglowing against the dark sky since all the lights on the first and second floors were on. Those, and the cluster of vehicles in the makeshift lot, were the only signs that anyone was over at all.

Ben didn’t host parties often, and the crowds were never huge when he did, which was the only reason I’d come tonight.

I was in a foul mood, and I had no idea why.

Work was good, better than ever now that we had a full staff again and I didn’t have to worry about pulling so much overtime. I had no family or friend drama going on that I knew of, and nothing bad or unexpected had happened.

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