Page 32 of Tops
His fingertips kept moving upwards as he slid under my shirt until he reached the waistband of my shorts. The light touch of his rough hands against my sensitive skin sent a renewed wave of arousal through my body, heating me from the inside out.
I tried to focus on the movie, noticing it was probably already half over by now. Not a lot of plot usually meant a short runtime. I tried pointedly not to focus on Nik’s hand as he ventured lower, slipping under the waistband of my underwear quickly. Mentally, I thanked myself for having enough sense to have shaved before bed last night.
“Not him!” Hannah yelled at the screen, making me jump while Nik discreetly pulled his hand out from under my shorts.
I watched on the screen as one of the main characters slumped with his hand over a blooming rose of red on his shirt. If I had been paying attention, this is where my heart should have felt wrenched in two. Instead, it galloped like a wild horse at how easy it would be for Hannah to figure out what we were doing.
She wouldn’t care, hence the blanket. But the secrecy and sneaking around were all part of this little game. A game I had to be sure I was ready to play if I really wanted to do this with Nik. Soft sobs came from Hannah, who was always easily worked up by fictional deaths.
Sitting up, Nik slid his hand off my breast and out from under my shirt. I shot him a look over my shoulder to table this for a moment. Looking back to appreciate how hot he was, I couldn’t help but glance down. I had to throw the blanket over his crotch. Unlike my baggy shirt, his gray sweatpants did nothing to hide his indecency. Instead, they were practically a neon sign: come one, come all to the massive cock show.
He smirked after I tossed the blanket down, knowing exactly what part of him was causing a fuss.
Hannah’s tear-filled eyes turned to me, and she sniffled. “He was just too hot to die like that.”
I nodded with only a small amount of mocking amusement as I went to get both of us a new glass of wine. I grabbed a beer for Nik on my way back. He did bring them, after all. Hannah took her glass appreciatively, and Nik looked surprised when I handed over the can.
“Never realized you were so domesticated already,” Nik said low after I positioned myself on top of the blanket between his thighs. I still had my wine glass in my hands and didn’t need to spill a second all over my room today.
“Hannah’s worked hard on training me through the years,” I said, playfully, but loud enough for Hannah to hear.
“I figured I’ve done about eighty percent of the chilling the fuck out work Nessa needed. The other twenty requires a good dose of something I was not born with.” Hannah smiled, looking back at Nik before her gaze slid to the bunched-up blanket separating me from his appendage.
I had a feeling a good dose of what Nik was born with would land me in a wheelchair. But I was thankful for the break and the moment to allow my mind time to catch up with chastising me.
What happened to waiting until the hitman business was settled?
Considering the past few days had been full of more excitement than I usually managed in an entire year. I wasn’t sure how to handle this any better. I was a single, twenty-four-year-old, surrounded by three insanely hot men that wanted to share me.
Saint to slut in a matter of three days.
Maybe I didn’t need anyone else to be hard on me, since I managed that well enough on my own. Nik kept his hands to himself for the remainder of the movie, which was possibly more infuriating than when he teased me. I wasn’t sure I knew how I was supposed to act around him now. Or the other guys, for that matter.
I guess I had the weekend to get things settled before Tuesday, and I would need to pretend like Nik, and I didn’t even know each other.
11
Partnership
Hannahspentthenightsprawled out and snoring on my bed while I tossed and turned. Visions of all three of the guys haunted me. They stood on street corners, watching me wander the dream world. I couldn’t escape them now. Not even in the sanctity of my own mind.
A soft knock came at my door in the early morning. The twins had come to collect Hannah and take her back to their safe house. Hannah hugged me goodbye before she jumped into Roy’s arms with the largest smile I have ever seen before. Troy received a hug next as she spider-monkey crawled from one brother to the next.
I knew that no matter what I agreed to with Nik and the others last night, we would never be like Hannah and her men. My morning after was filled with regret more than anything. I guess you could say that I hadn’t done more with Nik than most people do in their teens. We hadn’t even kissed. But I had agreed to let him share me with two other men, and I didn’t know them well.
Getting to know them wasn’t part of the plan, anyway. Just sex with men you wanted to have sex with. This was all training experience and nothing more.
After Hannah left, I laid back down to get a couple more hours of sleep. The sun couldn’t even harass me out of bed because there were no windows. I hoped now that I was free to starfish, I would be able to fall into a deep and peaceful slumber. Darkness swept over me, pulling me into a deep abyss, and Nik, Tanner, and Colten’s faces followed.
Making my way into the kitchen, once I finally decided to get up for the day, my feet led the way while my mind continued to ruminate. Part of me hoped no one else would be in Bottoms. I could use a little alone time to sort through my mind. Maybe I would be ok with seeing Nik first and without a best friend chaperone.
Just to talk.
“Don’t you ever change?” The sound of Tanner’s voice made me jump. He was sitting at the table with a black cup of coffee and a murderous gaze. Great. Out of all of them to run into, Tanner certainly was not the highest on the list. Lack of sleep made me grumpy, and he insulted me again.
I looked down at my baggy shirt, which I wore yesterday. I hadn’t bothered to take a shower or even change last night once Nik left and Hannah started catching me up on all her recent sex adventures. Tanner probably thought I regularly avoided showers and clean clothes.
“I thought since it bothered you so much, I would just wait for you to pick out my outfit,” I snipped, funneling all my embarrassment behind my mask for the day. Nothing could be done about the reddening of my cheeks, but I could control my tone well enough. It helped that Tanner was an easy outlet.
