Page 43 of Hot Route
“Use me.”
Blaze and I both turn our heads to him, confused. “What?” we both say, in unison. My voice sounds genuinely perplexed, while Blaze sounds like he might jump over this island and strangle him. Dalton must read his friend’s tone, because he puts both hands up in surrender.
“Not likethat,” he says to Blaze before turning toward me. “Make me over. I’ll be Dia tonight.”
“Dude, no,” Blaze says at the same time I shout “Yes!”
Before he can say anything else, I jump out of Blaze’s arms and fly up the stairs toward the bedroom. I go straight to the ensuite bathroom and fling open the drawer that holds all of my skin care products. Filling both arms to the brim, I head back downstairs, blowing past the guys and into the theatre room. I hear them come in behind me just as I dump everything onto the couch.
“Sit,” I say to Dalton, motioning for him to take a seat.
“Fine,” he says, raising a brow. “But not because you told me to. Because Iwant to.”
“Jesus Christ,” Blaze says, shaking his head as he sits on the other side of me before grabbing the remote. “I’m going to let you two girls do…whatever it is that you do, while I find a movie. Any requests, Baby Doll?”
I don’t even look at him as I tear open the foil package containing a pink sheet mask. “Doesn’t matter. It just has to have cute boys in it.” I look back at him. “It’s tradition.”
He huffs a frustrated breath. “Alright.”
“Whoa,” Dalton says as I approach him with the mask. “What the fuck is that?”
“You've never used a sheet mask on your face before?” I ask. “Please tell me you're not one of those guys who uses a three-in-one shampoo to wash their face a few times a week and still has skin likethat.”
“Of course not,” he scoffs. “I use bar soap.”
It's unfair, honestly, how guys can get away with doing stuff like that and still be so pretty. Meanwhile, we have to get a special soap for every single part of our body, otherwise we’ll break out and look like we rubbed a greasy pizza all over our skin.
“I'm going to pretend that doesn't make me want to put my fist through this wall,” I say, putting my hand under his chin to tilt his head up before laying the mask over his face.
Once the mask is in place and Blaze has queued up the new Ryan Reynolds movie,good choice by the way, I sit between the two guys.
“What now?” Dalton asks.
Blaze looks over me, eyes landing on his best friend. “Now you shut the fuck up so I can watch this movie.”
“Nope,” I say, turning toward Dalton. “Now, we eat snacks and gossip.”
Dalton grabs a bag of chips and pulls it open, popping one in his mouth, careful not to jostle the mask. “Soooooo,” he looks at me. “You and Blaze, huh?” He uses the thumb and pointer finger on his left hand to make a circle, moving the pointer finger of his right hand in and out of it in a lewd gesture that has me throwing my head back in a loud laugh.
“What the fuck,” Blaze groans from behind me, making me laugh even harder.
Turns out being in Boston isn’t so bad after all.
An hour later, Dalton snores next to us as I move to cuddle up in Blaze’s lap. He kisses me softly for a moment before he pulls back and rests his forehead against mine.
“So, your birthday is this weekend. What do you want to do?”
Ugh. I was trying to be stealthy about that. I hate birthdays. I don’t really even know why. My parents would always plan a special dinner where I’d unsuspectingly eat my meal before the entire restaurant staff sang Happy Birthday to me in front of all the other patrons. Is birthday anxiety a real thing? Because if it is, I have it and that’s probably why.
“I don’t know,” I sigh. “We don’t have to do anything. It’s not even a big deal.”
He pulls his head away, raising a brow. “It’s a very big deal. And we’re definitely going to do something special. I’ll figure it all out, Baby Doll. Don’t you worry.”
I roll my eyes. “Fine, but nothing big. You don’t need to be spending all sorts of time or money on me. This is supposed to be your week off.”
We turn back to our second movie of the night, but I don’t last very long until I’m asleep in his arms.
THIRTY-FOUR
