Total pages in book: 77
Estimated words: 72990 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 365(@200wpm)___ 292(@250wpm)___ 243(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 72990 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 365(@200wpm)___ 292(@250wpm)___ 243(@300wpm)
When I pass Gabriella her plate, she reaches out for it with two hands. “I’m going to demolish this,” she says. “I’m ravenous.”
There’s a roughness to her voice that has my dick stirring between my legs. He’d like her to be ravenous too, just not about that kind of meat.
Travis, forgive me. What kind of friend am I, sitting in front of my best friend’s sister, imagining her feasting on my sausage with as much gusto as she’s using to handle her burger?
A terrible friend.
A terrible friend who’s listened to his brother’s crazy ideas and wants them to be reality more than he wants to win the next game.
“Be careful where your dick leads you,” my dad told me when I turned thirteen. “Your dick can be your best friend or your worst enemy. Just make sure he isn’t the one making your decisions, or he’ll get you into trouble.” I laughed at him, thinking his tirade of advice sounded ridiculous. I was too young to grasp the concept of powerful desire. I was too foolish to grasp the power that comes with wanting a woman so much you’d sacrifice sense and loyalty and self-respect. But now, sitting with a burger clutched in my hands and the object of almost all of my fantasies sitting in front of me, I understand the wisdom of my old man.
Maybe my dick can be my best friend and my worst enemy at the same time if I let him get his way, and Gabriella doesn’t have a shit-fit at the suggestion.
That’s probably what will happen if I dare to voice what me and Blake and Dalton have wanted for more years than I can count. Not probably. Definitely. I mean, what kind of suggestion is it? Hey Gab, want to play pass the sausage with me and my douchebag brothers?
Even suggesting it would probably be construed as an insult.
It’s not that we’re not appealing prospects. I’m not oblivious to the longing looks we all get when we’re out. There are enough jersey chasers on this campus to keep my bed filled every night. The thing is, none of them measure up to Gabriella. Not even close.
“So, are you dating?” she asks, breaking my downwardly spiraling train of thought.
“No.” The single word sounds more abrupt than I meant it to, and her eyebrows pull up in surprise.
“And your brothers?”
“Dalton is too busy hefting bricks, and Blake works ridiculous hours. With my training schedule, we spend most of our downtime on our couch, exhausted.”
“All work and no play.” Gabriella pops a fry into her mouth and chews with a half-smile.
“Yeah, we have some time to play. We just haven’t been lucky enough to find someone worth playing with.”
Across the canteen, Elias and Dornan are having some kind of disagreement. I’d usually step in to intervene, but I’m not risking losing my spot with Gab. Let someone else break up their stupid rivalry.
“Someone?” she says. “Like, you’re looking for just one woman between the three of you?”
I lower the burger, realizing my slip, and then take on board what the beautiful girl in front of me asked without a hint of disgust in her voice.
“Your best friend shares three dudes, right?” I ask, knowing full well that Ellie is in a committed relationship with Colby, Seb, and Micky. It’s deflection but relevant.
“Yeah. I like to think I played a major hand in that blissful union.”
That surprises me. “Really. What did you do?”
“It all started with a dare,” she says, glancing over her shoulder as though she’s worried someone might be listening to our conversation. “I mean, I knew Ellie had a thing for her stepbrothers for a while, so I nudged her in the right direction.”
“Maybe your momma should have named you Cupid.”
Gabriella winks and wiggles her eyebrows and I drop my head from side to side, suddenly feeling the need to limber up. It’s like the minutes before a big game when a surge of nervous anticipation makes my skin tingle and my head hot.
“To be honest, I thought she would get down and dirty with one of them and that would be it. I never imagined she’d sleep with them all.”
“Well, sometimes sex is just sex,” I say. “And sometimes it comes with feelings.”
“Awe, listen to you, Mr. Big Bad Baller, getting all emotional.”
I pick up a fry and toss it at her. “It isn’t the nineteen-fifties, you know. Men don’t have to be made of stone anymore.”
“I always took you for a tough guy,” she says. “Remember when Tommy pulled my pigtails in our front yard? You punched him so hard you made his nose bleed.”
“I was nine,” I snort. “But I’d do it again now if anyone messed with you.”
Gabriella rests her hand over her chest, drawing my attention to the soft skin of her neck and clavicle, and the curve of her breast beneath her black tank. “Be still my heart.”