Page 8 of Something to Someone

But they were the happiest I’d ever seen them, and being two of my favorite people in the world, it was easier to accept.

I opened my arms, and he knew what was coming. He half-heartedly sighed and let me hug him. It didn’t last long, though. A second later, he was shimmying out of it and pointing toward the bathroom.

“Go shower, you reek of liquor,” he instructed. He didn’t wait for me to respond before he walked out of my room.

“Love you, too!” I called after him. The front door closed a second later, and I walked into the living room to lock it behind him. I was expecting a bigger mess, but there were only a few cups left on the kitchen counter and the couch was a wreck.

I reached to start cleaning, but then I smelled myself and realized exactly what Theo had been talking about. A shower had to happen before anything else.

I stripped as I walked to the bathroom and deposited my dirty clothes in the laundry hamper in my closet. When I turned on the shower and impatiently waited for it to warm up, more memories flooded back from the night before, particularly of my short yet very memorable conversation with Caroline.

Just the thought of her had my blood heating. I stepped under the still-cool water to try to douse the reaction before it could take over, but it wasn’t so simple.

My crush had started so long ago, I couldn’t remember what it was likenotto want Caroline Grant.

My mom dragged me to a Fourth of July party in our neighborhood. I was only fifteen at the time, so everything felt like a chore, and that party was the last thing I wanted to do. But I went, and that was the first time I’d laid eyes on her.

She was nothing less than perfect. With precise recollection, I remembered every single thing about that moment. She was wearing a red, white, and blue bikini which was peeking out from beneath her open white button-down shirt. Her cutoff shorts were light blue and fraying at the hem.

But it was her smile, the joy radiating off her that made me stop in my tracks.

And my crush hadn’t waned in the past eight years, it had morphed into something more than a schoolboy crush on the hot older woman. There was more to it than that.

Which was how I wound up confessing those feelings to her in the middle of her kitchen a year and a half ago. I’d found out aboutmy mom and Theo a week before, so my emotions were raw. Caroline had also been paramount in keeping me from going off the rails.

It was the perfect storm, and I couldn’t keep my feelings locked up any longer. An eleven-year age difference didn’t feel like it was insurmountable, and with my mom and best friend shacking up, why couldn’t I pursue who I wanted, too? Even if she was my mom’s best friend.

So, I took a leap and stopped holding my tongue. I’d always been a little flirty—it was hard not to be with Caroline especially when the banter was so good—but I crossed that line I’d been careful to tiptoe next to for so long.

And her response had been nothing like I expected. The second she told me I was dangerous, I was done for. She couldn’t admit it then, but I knew she would eventually—everything I felt, she felt it, too.

I wasn’t the type of guy to keep pushing when it wasn’t reciprocated or wanted, though. That was gross. So, I took a step back. Went back to casually flirting when the opportunity arose, but I was still intent on keeping myself at the front of her mind.

I was careful until recently, and especially until this weekend. I was a case study on how easily alcohol could lower your inhibitions.

And yet again, her response was nothing like I expected. She pretended to be annoyed, but it was just that, an act. She could have hung up the phone at any moment, but she didn’t. I gave her an out, but she stayed on the line.

And she was taking a fucking bath? How cruel was the universe?

I braced my hands on the shower tiles and let my head hang as the spray streamed down my back. Straightening, I started my normal shower routine, grabbing the shampoo and lathering it in my hair. Rinse and repeat.

But the monotony of the motions did little to help the direction of my thoughts. I could control them as well as I could control my raging hard-on. I ran my soaped-up hands over my arms and chest, continuing down my stomach until they were hovering above my cock. I gritted my teeth and finally gave in to the need.

A quick jerk just to take the edge off. That was all I needed.

I wrapped my fingers around my shaft and let the soap guide my hand up and down. But when I closed my eyes and braced my free hand against the wall, it was Caroline’s slender fingers encircling me. I bet she would grip me hard and enjoy the twinge of pain that it would elicit before the sensation transformed into pleasure.

So, I tightened my own hold, my hand shaking with the excitement of impending release. Blood pounding, my cock swelled and leaked, thinking about the possibility of her touching me that way. My eyes dropped, and I watched the fat head push through my fingers. I was leaking everywhere and fantasizing that it was her fingers, her pussy that was squeezing around me.

“Fuck, fuck,fuck,” I moaned as I shot against the wall and all over my hand.

Trying to catch my breath, I straightened and washed away the proof. It felt good, of course it did, but it didn’t curb the craving like I wanted it to.

I had a feeling little would have that desired effect. Nothing excepther.

FOUR

BEST MAN

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