Page 85 of Knockin' Boats

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I reached over, trying to grab it.

Ring. Ring. Ring.

Behind me, Ash snuffled and moved, starting to wake up.

I reached a little farther, my fingers brushing over the screen?—

And tumbled out of the bed.

“Fuck!”

The phone stopped ringing. Becauseof courseit fucking did.

Ash laughed, a low, sexy rumble of sound. And when did I start putting Ash andsexyinto the same sentences?

“You can’t sneak out,” he said, voice still hoarse from sleep. “It’s your place.”

“I wasn’t sneaking out,” I protested. “The phone was ringing.”

A tinny voice said, “Uh, Sawyer? You there?”

I looked down at my phone in horror. Apparently when my fingers brushed the screen, I’d answered the damn thing.

I scooped up the phone and lifted it to my ear. “Mason?”

“Bad time?” he asked with a chuckle.

“Uh…” I met Ash’s gaze, and he winced, mouthingsorry. “No, not a bad time. Just give me a sec.”

I pressed the phone to my chest. “You can go shower. I’m gonna talk to my brother for a minute.”

“Sure,” he said.

I found a fresh pair of board shorts in my dresser and tugged them on, hyper aware of my bare ass in full view of Ash.

“Sorry.” I went out the front door and collapsed into a lawn chair. “I was still asleep when you called.”

I realized my mistake as soon as I said it.

“With a guy there?”

“Uh.” A million excuses ran through my head. He just drank too much and crashed. Or he was a friend who needed a place to stay. But in the end, I didn’t want to lie. Not about this. Not to my brother. “Yeah. It’s new.”

“Holy shit, Saw.”

“I know.”

“Is it…I mean, was this some drunken experimental thing or are you…?”

“Well, I wasn’t drunk, and it wasn’t really the first time.”

“Wow.”

“Yeah.” I sighed. “I haven’t fully figured out what it means. Other than the obvious.”

“What’s the obvious?”

“I like sex with a guy just as much as with women.”

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