Page 18 of Caught Up

Taylor grinned. “Hate sex, ha—”

I reached past Ryan and clamped a hand over her mouth. We’d run out of pillows. “That’s a bad idea for nine million reasons.”

Taylor licked my palm.

I wiped it off on her pajama pants.

“Hey!” she whined.

I sat back, out of her reach and whatever retaliation she was plotting. “Junior hurt me once, badly. And while I might have been temporarily lobotomized by lust, I will never,evergive that man a chance to do it again. I’m sure the only reason I was so caught up by him was because it’s been too long since I’ve fooled around with someone.”

Ryan set their drink aside and stood. “Okay. We’re going to the club tonight to fix that.”

Taylor let out an excited shriek. “Yes!” She looked to me. “Right? Yes?”

“Yes,” I agreed, pushing up from the couch. “I’ll take Walter out now if someone else takes him right before we leave.”

“I can,” Ryan said.

In less than a minute, I had Walter in his walking harness and out the door.

The sun was starting its slow descent toward the horizon, painting the brick and stone buildings around me in gold. It had been hot earlier, but a slight breeze had picked up since I’d gotten home, blowing some of the heat away, and I tried to soak it all in while I could, knowing that winter would eventually come back around to ruin the vibes.

Motion across the street caught my eye. I looked up just in time to see a man kick his leg over the back of anexpensive-lookingmotorcycle. He dropped into the seat, helmet already in place, leather jacket more suited to a DC villain than a biker. With a flick of his hand, the engine rumbled to life, low and throaty. This wasn’t the first time I’d caught sight of him, and I figured he must live nearby. Unfortunately, I’d never seen him without his helmet on. Or maybe fortunately, for me. Something about a man on a bike scrambled my brain to the point that if I ever tried to speak to him, I’d probably blurt something stupid like, “Hi. Hot. Fuck?”

He must have clocked me staring, because he gave a jerk of his head like he was sayingWhat’s up. I smiled, waved, and quickly looked away, my mouth dry, my nether regions...not. What was it about a guy kitted out in motorcycle gear that was such aturn-on? Was it the badass stereotype? The fact that so many bikers had been depicted as rebels without a cause in film and TV? Or was it the anonymity of the helmet? Anyone could be underneath that thing, and I’d always had a bit of a mask kink.

Whatever it was, one thing was for certain: It had definitely been too long since I’d gotten laid.

Here’s hoping that all changed tonight.

7

Junior

The engine rumbled between mythighs as Lauren shot me a look before continuing up the sidewalk, herbear-sizedshepherd mix leading the way. She’d changed into linen shorts and a tank top since church and had switched out her heels for a pair offlip-flops. Her hair looked different, too, like she’d run her fingers through it. Or at least I hoped it was her who’d done it and not some, as of yet undiscovered, significant other who I would obviously have to kill,violently, so there would be nothing left between us, and I could—

Anothernot-so-sneakypeek over her shoulder at me.

I grinned, my murderous thoughts forgotten. Nah, she was single. I’d bet money on it. Or if she was seeing someone, it wasn’t serious enough to warrant bloodshed. A person in a happy, committed relationship wouldn’t be shooting looks at me like this. And they definitely wouldn’t have responded to me like she had in the church hallway. That spark between us was still there, burning even hotter now than it had when we were teens. I’d felt it the second I got close to her, knew she did, too, from her reaction alone: dilated eyes, slightly parted lips, the way she’d arched into me on instinct and then immediately tried to banish me to hell when she realized what she’d been doing.

I shook my head, glad that some of the old Lauren was still in there. Yeah, she’d been shy and studious, but she’d also been a little weird, and that was one of the things I’d liked about her most.

Earlier, she’d been so distracted trying to pretend she didn’t still want me that slipping a discreet tracker into her handbag had been child’s play. I knew she hadn’t discovered it afterward because she’d led me straight to her house. I mean, I’d alreadyknownwhere she lived because I’d made it my business to learn everything about her over the years. The tracker was just so I could keep up with her when I wasn’t free to watch her in person.

She disappeared behind the cars lining the street between us, and reluctantly, I pulled my gaze away and inspected my surroundings. This side of the city was nice. The cars were mostly luxury European models, the brownstones were in good repair, and enough plant life was crowded together that this neighborhood felt like a small oasis of green in a concrete desert.

I might have barely graduated from high school, but math was never my issue. If I’d been born into a different life, a different family, I could have made a career out of it. Hell, if things had gone better between me and Lauren, I might have. She was the only person who ever told me I could bemore, that I didn’t have to follow in my father’s footsteps. No wonder Dad washell-benton keeping me away from her.

If my memory was correct, Lauren charged a monthlyforty-dollarflat-ratefee for her Me4U page. With that, you got her entire backlog, four new videos a month, and endless photos of her. It might seem pricey, but over sixteen hundred people had subscribed, which meant she was pulling in over three quarters of a million dollars in revenue a year,notincluding all the tips she received and paid requests from subs like me who wanted her all to themselves for a few minutes. That kind of money was harder to predict, but based on her rates, I was guessing it added several thousand to her monthly income.

Lauren could more than afford to live in this part of town, and something inside me always loosened at the sight of her so at ease. She looked content, happy. Like she belonged. Every time I’d seen her here had been the same.

Lauren was okay. What happened back in high school hadn’t ruined her life. She’d found her footing and made something of herself, grown into someone who didn’t take shit from anyone. Her attempting to knee me in the balls and then threatening toface-tasemy brother proved that.

My phone buzzed in my pocket. I dug it out to see a text from my father.

Now,was all it said.

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