Total pages in book: 132
Estimated words: 124923 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 625(@200wpm)___ 500(@250wpm)___ 416(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 124923 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 625(@200wpm)___ 500(@250wpm)___ 416(@300wpm)
She scowls but doesn’t say anything because she knows I’m right. This is our thing. I say shit to get under her skin, and she gives it right back. I move back to the other side of the counter, taking one of the plastic containers of pancakes out of the bag. I don’t bother heating them up or adding butter. I just open the syrup package, fold my pancake in half, and dip it inside.
She looks shocked as she watches me eat the whole thing in one bite.
“What can I say? I’m starved. My meal was interrupted.” I hear the toilet flush, and I know we only have a minute before Shayne’s back. “By the way, your shirt’s inside out. And backward.” Or should I say my shirt?
Taking me by surprise, Valen holds my stare as she whips my shirt over her head, revealing those perfect tits I had my mouth on just minutes ago. She takes her time righting her shirt, allowing me to look my fill. I can’t tear my eyes away from her chest, and I’m seconds away from taking one of those little hard nipples into my mouth when I hear the bathroom sink shut off. Valen pulls the shirt back over her head the right way, smirking at my crotch when she notices the very inconvenient bulge in my sweats. Fuck, I’m pissed all over again. Pissed and hard.
“So,” Shayne says, bouncing back into the room, completely oblivious to my torment. I step back behind the counter to hide the tent in my pants. “The weather is supposed to get bad again tomorrow around ten. We can either leave tonight or get some sleep and head out early.”
“Morning,” I answer at the same time Valen says, “Now’s good.”
Shayne looks between us, a smile on her lips. “The day you two agree on something is the day Hell freezes over.”
Thayer comes down the stairs, carrying one of their suitcases.
“What do you think?” Shayne asks him. “Turn back around and go now or in the morning?”
“Sooner the better,” he says predictably before turning his attention to me. “But you’re driving so I can sleep on the way.” He tosses me the keys and I catch them before stuffing them into my pocket.
“It’s my car,” I point out. “No shit, I’m driving.”
Valen heats up her food in the microwave before taking a seat at one of the barstools. She starts to tear her pancakes into bite-sized pieces while she talks with Shayne. Meanwhile, Thayer and I take to loading up the trunk with our bags and discuss the best route home with most of the roads still being closed. I’m half-listening, in a foul mood, and it’s getting worse by the second. I’ll admit, I was stupid to think I’d feel the kind of cold ambivalence that comes after a casual fuck, but I thought I’d feel satisfied after hooking up with Valen. I’m nowhere fucking near satisfied.
I should’ve never touched her. Because now I want more.
Valen
Somewhere between Holden almost eating me out on the kitchen counter and the hour spent packing up our stuff, something shifted. The drive home is silent, and Holden’s even quieter. Shayne’s next to me in the back seat, a pillow wedged between her head and the window. She passed out almost immediately. Thayer’s up front, his seat reclined and his feet on the dash. I’m pretty sure he’s asleep, too, considering a single word hasn’t been spoken for the last forty minutes or so. Then again, he’s not the talkative brother.
The talkative one is anything but right now and hasn’t so much as spared me a glance since we left. I could lie to myself and say that he’s just focusing on the winding roads that are pitch-black and slick with ice beneath thick layers of snow, but the vibes are off and I can feel it. I see his fingers squeeze and release the steering wheel—which, again, can be attributed to driving in this shit—but I know something else is bothering him. If there’s one superpower I got from growing up with unpredictable mother, it’s my ability to read a situation on nothing but vibes alone.
I almost take advantage of the fact that we’re the only ones awake to call him out on his sudden shift in behavior, but what’s the point? It wouldn’t be the first time in history that a guy turned into an asshole after getting what he wanted. I assumed there was a mutual respect there, under all the hostility and bickering. Someone who could handle a casual hookup without getting weird afterwards. But then I remember his words to Thayer in the kitchen.
I was bored and she was the only one awake…
When we finally get out of the mountains, my phone lights up, and to my surprise, my screen is flooded with text after text from my mom and missed calls and voicemails galore. My stomach instantly fills with lead. This whole time I was desperate for a phone signal, and now I wish I were back at the cabin and completely out of reach.