AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I’ll have a glass of red wine.” I look at Steven with a smile.
“I’ll have a pinot grigio,” Kristal says and he nods at us as he walks away. “I swear to God, when I’m done with this case, I’m taking a week off.”
“A whole week?” I joke with her, knowing full well she’ll take three days off and then die of boredom.
“Seven full days, six nights,” she confirms, and I just look at her in shock. “I think I’ll visit one of those places where they don’t even have cell service.”
“You mean jail?” I wink, and she laughs.
“That might not be such a bad idea if I wasn’t afraid of being someone’s bitch. Because, let’s be honest, I would definitely end up being someone’s bitch,” she teases, smiling and tucking her bleached-blond hair behind her ear. “Just the thought—” she says but then stops when the server comes over with our wine. She waits a couple of seconds for him to walk away before she continues. “Anyway, what’s up with you? How was the wedding?” She takes a sip of her wine. “Forget that, how was the freaking Oscars?” She shakes her head. “And in that freaking dress.”
Taking my own sip of wine, I answer. “It was surreal that both of them won,” I say, proud of the two of them. “If either of them was going to win, I was rooting for my brother.”
“So nice.” She smiles. “So the wedding, umm, hello. Who were all those hot-ass men in your pictures?”
“Um.” I take a sip of wine or maybe it’s a gulp. “Gabriella’s family is mostly hockey players.”
“Ohhh.” She smirks. “Sign me up for one of those.” I laugh nervously. “I need all the tea.”
“Well,” I start, and she hits the table with her hand, her mouth open, “I might have…” I think about how to word this. “A couple of months ago, I made out with one of them.”
“Excuse me?” Now her eyes go as big as her mouth that is still hanging open.
“Stone Richards,” I say his name, and I get a pulse in two places, my stomach and my vagina. Not sure if I’m going to be sick of him or if I want him to fuck me.
“Please hold.” She holds up her hand while she grabs her phone and pulls up Instagram. I see her fingers move across the phone and think this is a good time for me to finish my glass of wine. “Um,” she hums, turning the phone around to show me. It’s a picture of him on vacation, I think. His hands are in his hair, and water runs down his face. His eyes are the warmest brown I’ve ever seen them. “This man?”
“That would be him,” I confirm, holding up my hand to catch the server’s attention, who looks over at my empty glass. He nods his head and turns around. “The one and only.”
“How was it?” She doesn’t even bother looking up at me as she scrolls through his Instagram, something I forced myself to ignore doing. “Damn.” She turns the phone toward me, and there is a picture of Stone with his cousins Christopher, Stefano, and Matty—all of them in bathing suits, all of them shirtless, all of them top-tier boyfriend material. “Look at his body.”
I can’t even stop my hand from reaching out for her phone as I grab it from her. I read the caption first,Summertime fun and mischief. I roll my eyes at it and then make the stupid mistake of reading through the comments. The number of girls is insane, but what did I expect with half a million followers. “It’s a thirst trap,” I mumble, trying not to look only at Stone. I mean, I felt his hard chest under his shirt when he kissed me, but now seeing it, I’m definitely getting tingles elsewhere.
“I don’t know what that is, but someone sign me up for that trap,” Kristal muses as I hand her back her phone. “How was the kiss?” She again just trolls his Instagram while I get another glass of wine, drinking half of it before I speak.
“It was a kiss, and I was surprised,” I admit. “Nothing spectacular,” I lie because, well, what else was I supposed to do, tell her it was the best kiss I’ve ever had? Fuck no. No one needs to know that. Tell her that it was a kiss I still thought about occasionally? I definitely don’t need to say that. Tell her I was a bit disappointed when he didn’t try to kiss me at the wedding? Not one person needs to know that.
So instead, I avoid talking about him and change the subject to talk about work. We each order a burger, and I have two more glasses of wine, and by the time I get home, I’m a little tipsy.
I kick off my boots and dump my bags at the door before walking straight to my bathroom. After I undress, I take a shower, then slide into bed wearing a tank top and panties. I grab my phone and see his Instagram message is still there ready to be read.
Instead of answering his message, I decide to snap a picture of half my face and my naked shoulder as I look up.
Me: Hmmmm, let me think about it for a second,
I type as I press send to the picture and the message.
I can see that he’s just read it, and my heart speeds up as I turn in the bed, waiting for him to answer. I wonder where he is tonight, if he’s home by himself. When was the last time he had sex? Just random thoughts I want to ask him, but know I would rather die than actually ask him these things.
I’m expecting him to answer, but instead, I see a voice message has come through. I hover my finger over the Play button, and then his voice fills my room. It sounds like it’s heavy with sleep. “Damn, gorgeous, I’ve never been more jealous of a bed than I am right now.” He chuckles, and my chest contracts. “What I wouldn’t give to be able to kiss you right now. I’m also thinking of other things we could be doing right now.”
I think about not answering him, but the pull to him is too great. Instead, I press the microphone button and talk into my phone. “Well, I don’t know what you would be doing right now,” I say softly, “but in about five seconds, I’ll be doing that to myself. Have a great night, Stone.” I toss my phone to the side and reach for the vibrator in my drawer, and I may or may not picture him using it on me.
CHAPTERSEVEN
stone
The soft alarm bells start slowly but then build up to a blaring sound. I wait until I can’t stand it anymore before I roll over and turn it off. I check my notifications first, then my email, and finally, I open Instagram since I can’t fucking text her.
