Page 10 of A Photo Finish
“Yeah. I’m not staying at the love shack and splitting you two up.”
“Is that what you call our house?” she barks out, clearly amused.
I can’t help but smile now. She and Vaughn are living in some blissed-out bubble. “Billie, that’s what everyone at the ranch calls it.”
She blows out a tired breath and drags her hand back through her chestnut hair. “I’m not gonna lie. I kind of love that. You’re still staying with me, though. Vaughn will survive.”
“Billie, there’s not even a bathroom on the main floor of your place.”
“Shit.” She looks instantly deflated. “Right. Okay . . . why don’t we move Cole into your apartment and let you take the house. Just for a few—”
Yeah, that can’t happen. “No. He’s not going in my apartment. That’smyspace.”
“Okay then, Violet, what’s your solution here? Wanna go back to Alberta for a few weeks? Stay with your dad? Or I don’t know . . . ” Agitation seeps into her voice. “You gonna go live at the farmhouse with Cole? Because there’s a spare room and bathroom on the main floor.”
I can tell that she’s joking. But that’s looking like the best option at this current juncture.
Yup, today is just full of good news. I’m solucky.
5
Cole
I groanas I stare at the screen of my phone. Am I really about to try this again? It’s so fucking lame. I’m so fucking lame. Just because I’ve decided I can’t show myself to anyone doesn’t mean I don’t still want things.
And the photo is so . . . ethereal? I don’t know. I could get lost in it. I can’t look away from it. It’s so different from living in my head. Light pink nipples on flawless pale skin. I imagine running the palm of my hand up her body, right up the center line from belly button over sternum, before coming to rest on her throat and thumbing those pouty, soft lips.
The way they’d part as I rasped my thumb over them, the little sighing noise that would escape past them.
It’s been way too long, you old perv. You’re getting hard just imagining touching a woman’s lips. The ones on her face, no less.
Not to mention a girl who looks like that isn’t going to be interested in me and what little I have to offer her.
But what the fuck. Why not? What have I got to lose? I look around my lonely West End apartment. The place is basically a shrine to a grown ass man who’s let every opportunity for the past several years slip through his fingers. A living shell.
I haven’t even tried to be better. To get past my hang-ups around my body. To do more. I want all the things. The white picket fence. The 2.5 kids. The wife who kisses me with a little tongue every morning when we part ways. But I haven’t done shit to get there. And it’s probably too late for me now.
It’s just me, myself, and my protein shakes. And my creepy fucking internet persona. Might as well embrace it.
My thumb taps the message icon, and I quickly type before I can change my mind.
Golddigger85:I have a proposition for you.
Then I walk away and get in the shower to wash away how fucking dirty I feel. But I can’t stop thinking about that creamy skin sliding against my own. I imagine running my tongue up the inside of each thigh. Really taking my time to taste her, to feel her writhe beneath me. My hand curls around my cock, but I pretend it’s her pillowy lips, opening up wide for me. Wrapping around me. Her cheeks hollowing out as her silky blonde hair bobs in a steady rhythm while she sucks me off. Then she’d look up at me.Fuck,I love that. Big, wide eyes and my dick in her mouth.
I wonder what color her eyes are as I spill myself against the cold tiles.
For a moment, I wish I wasn’t alone.
Something that I’ll never let happen.
* * *
“Hey, big bro.”Billie stands under the yellow glow of the porch light above my front door, hands on her hips, and blows a strand of hair off her face. I don’t know what she’s doing here. But I know I don’t like it.
It’s 11 p.m. on a Saturday night. Is this what people do in small towns? Invade each other’s privacy? I’m about to ask her as much when I see another set of headlights turn down the driveway. Vaughn parks beside her truck, and I notice now that she’s left the back door open. A shadow shifts inside, and I lean forward a bit to peer past her.
“Is someone lying in your back seat?” I ask.
