Dirty Sex Read online

  We had to go through the mass of people dancing to get outside, which brought us continually closer to Reese. With every step, Reese’s eyes got darker and narrower. I couldn’t see in the dim light, but I knew that as she got angrier her brown eyes would be invaded with flecks of charcoal. Ryan’s did that same thing when he got mad or high. I wondered if hers went gray when she was high too. Probably never tested the theory. I pulled my keys from my pocket and let go of Andi’s hand.

  “I’ll meet you outside. I need to give these to a friend.” She nodded and left.

  “You might want to check her ID,” Reese suggested wisely. She stopped dancing, but her partner continued her fondling.

  I leaned forward so Reese could feel me everywhere. I wanted to make her forget the foreign hands roaming her body. A vein in her neck jumped and her jaw clenched. “Thanks, buttercup. I’ll keep that in mind,” I whispered in her ear. “I won’t need these tonight. Will you give them to Aus for me?” I slowly pushed the keys into the pocket of her super tight jeans. She gasped in response and looked ready to deck me all at the same time. “Thanks.”

  When I joined Andi outside, I was primed and ready to go. She looked sexier under the streetlight. We made it down two streets to 19th before we started groping like teenagers again. The blood in my head was quickly draining and pounding through my hands, my clit; even my mouth tasted metallic. Maybe that was from her teeth. She smelled like girl. I love the smell of girl. Slightly perfumed, like an afterthought and the way skin tastes. I wanted to fuck her right there.

  It was another two streets before I stopped at the window of a store. Done with waiting, I pushed Andi back against it, yanked her skirt up around her waist, and pushed her panties aside. Her mouth was in the open collar of my shirt sucking, biting, so I’d remember in the morning. Each wet connection to my skin made my clit twitch with need. When I buried two fingers in her pussy, she bit down hard. My thumb found her distended clit and started the smooth beat of pressure and release making her slump forward against my chest. With my other hand, I tilted her chin up and took her mouth. I like to kiss when I fuck. Hopefully, we’d get to finish before someone found us. One of her legs wrapped around my thigh, opening her wider. I slid a third finger in.

  “Fuck. Yeah, like that.” She encouraged me so I went deeper. “More.” And deeper. I ground my thumb into her clit, guided by the forward jerk of her hips. The skirt was almost up to her tits and she’d gotten my shirt unbuttoned somehow. With every thrust into her cunt, my hand got wetter. The moisture spread down my arm slowly, the strands of wetness stretching between my naked stomach and her thighs.

  With a final grind, her body electrified and shuddered before collapsing with a whispered, “Fuck.”

  Carefully, I withdrew my fingers, flexing my hand. My boxer briefs were soaked and the material was pressed insolently against my aching clit.

  “How close are we to your place?” I closed my shirt with trembling fingers. She pulled her skirt down and straightened her top.

  “Close.” Andi smiled and started strutting down the street again, forcing me to stare at her scantily clad ass.

  I stayed a step behind to admire the view.

  Chapter Three

  Before dawn, I slid from the bed, leaving the sleeping woman without looking back. On the way to the door, I picked up the remnants of my clothing. Everything was sore. My nipples hurt, my thighs, even my face, and I wasn’t sure how that was possible. I remembered drinking a lot after we fucked and then I remembered fucking some more until the alcohol wore off. I didn’t remember sleeping.

  I let myself out onto the street. It wasn’t quite cold, the way summer mornings are where the lack of heat is refreshing. I started walking toward the Capitol after figuring out where the hell I was. There was no way Reese and Austin were still in Sacramento. And without my car, I was fucked. I thumbed through my cell until I found Austin. After it went to voice mail, I hung up. Carpooling to the bar suddenly seemed like a terrible idea. There was a light rail station near Naked Lounge. Maybe I would grab some coffee at Naked and then catch the light rail. It would at least get me within fifteen miles of home. Great. I could call home, “Hi, Mom. Got stranded after hooking up at a bar. Want to pick me up?” My phone rang.

  “’Lo.”

  “Coop.” It was Austin. “I’m so glad you called.” A sentiment I shared. “You woke me up in time to get out without morning awkwardness.”

  “Please tell me that means you’re still in Sac.” I was guessing Reese still had my car and was home in her warm little bed. If Austin was still downtown, I would at least have a buddy to catch a ride with.

  “You know it. I’m on, umm, Nineteenth and P.”

  “I’m Seventeenth and N. Meet me at Naked?”

  “Yeah, I figured. Do you have your car?”

  “I gave the keys to Reese.” Something I would never do again. She probably crashed it just to spite me. I had no idea what I was thinking.

  “Damn, we’re kind of fucked, huh?”

  “Yeah, I guess we’ll figure it out. Maybe we should call Ryan.”

  “Maybe. I’ll see you at Naked, ’kay?”

  “Yeah.”

  Five blocks later, I stood in front of the coffee shop. The sky was just turning the blue gray of morning. Despite the chilly walk and the intoxicated all-nighter, I was pretty awake. Austin wasn’t inside yet so I leaned against the lamppost outside to wait. Naked was a converted Victorian like most of the buildings in midtown. With the exception of two bored employees, the place was dead. I heard pounding footsteps behind me and turned in time to have Austin half jump, half crash into me.

  “Morning, sunshine,” he said all excited and sarcastic.

  “Darlin’.”

  “Sweetness, what did you do last night? You smell like lesbian sex and scotch.” Aus backed away like I offended him.

  “Whatever you did to smell like boy sex, but more.” I held the door for him.

  “Uh-huh.” He grinned at me just a little too knowingly.

  We got coffee and went out to the little yard on the side of the building. It was shielded from the sidewalk by a high fence and a couple overly huge trees. There was a chick in the corner smoking a slim cigar and drinking coffee. Reese.

  “Jesus fuckin’ Christ,” Aus said. “What the hell are you doing here?”

  “Drinking coffee.” Rather than sounding sarcastic, Reese made the words sound sexy and aloof, like some exotic drink I’d never try and would always want to.

  “Reese, honey, tell me you went home with that beautiful thing last night,” Austin probed.

  “Maybe.” Ambiguous. Thanks for that, Reese.

  “You did not,” Austin said breathily as he sat down.

  “I did.” She merely raised an eyebrow at Austin’s incredulous expression.

  “I always took you for the type to stick around for breakfast.” I yanked out the chair holding Reese’s feet and collapsed into it. “Careful. You don’t want to pick up my womanizing habits.” If I said it before her, it was better for everyone.

  “Not everyone fucks the women they go home with.”

  “Actually, they do,” I responded after a microsecond of contemplation.

  “Come on, Reese,” Aus crooned, “details.”

  Reese looked him dead in the eye. “I told her I wasn’t going to sleep with her. We spent the night drinking wine and discussing philosophy.”

  “Bullshit,” I said immediately.

  “Fine.” She smiled at me coldly. “It wasn’t philosophy, but we did stay up all night talking.”

  “Fucking,” Austin whispered to me.

  “Fucking,” I whispered back.

  “I suppose whatever you did for the last six hours allows you to criticize my behavior?” She made it sound like she was asking both of us. She wasn’t. Just me.

  “Don’t act so high and mighty, princess.”

  “Sweetheart,” she said like the bitch she was, “how does your face feel?”


  What the hell did that mean? It was especially weird because my face hurt like a bitch. Like I’d been punched in the eye. Did I get in a fight or something the night before?

  “Oh. My. God.” Austin jumped out of his chair. He grabbed my head and turned it so I was looking directly at him.

  “What the fuck?” I tried to push him away. Reese was laughing her ass off. “What the hell are you doing?”

  “Come with me.” Austin dragged me back inside the coffee shop. He opened the door of the bathroom and shoved me inside.

  “Seriously, what the fuck?”

  “That.” He squared my shoulders in front of the mirror. And then I remembered.

  “I got my eyebrow pierced.” I told his reflection in the mirror. Apparently, I will do just about anything to impress a girl. That was a whole new side of myself I wasn’t aware of. Not a pleasant realization.

  “And you had no idea.” He was absolutely gleeful.

  I leaned in close to the scarred mirror to inspect my eye. The piercing was red and a little crusty. Gross.

  “I’m never drinking again.”

  “Of course not, sweetness.” Austin patted my back reassuringly, then steered me out of the bathroom and back to our table. Reese was still sitting there snickering.

  “You guys ready to go?” I allowed my frustration with myself to bleed into my tone. They nodded. “Where’s my car?”

  “The street.” Reese nodded in the general direction, which made her hair flutter provocatively around her face. We definitely needed to leave.

  *

  Bed was good. That was my only thought as I fell into mine. I didn’t take off my jeans or shower. I just crashed. My wonderful sleep was interrupted throughout the morning by my phone vibrating. The noise became increasingly insistent until I shut it off. My mom was downstairs making the normal morning kitchen noises. There were voices too. I blocked it all out in favor of sleep. I needed to get my own apartment.

  I was asleep again when my door flung open, and before I could open my eyes, a body landed on me, followed by one, two more. Ryan, Carson, and Derek, the bastards. It was Saturday morning. How could I forget? My mother liked to make breakfast, and she liked to make enough to feed a small army. So every Saturday morning, about twenty of our closest friends descended on the blue house on the corner.

  “I hate all of you,” I told them without opening my eyes. “And your mothers, and your future children, and the mothers of your future children. And I hope they all die painful deaths.” They responded to my tirade by bouncing up and down on me like six-year-olds.

  “Come on, Cooper.” Derek.

  “Yeah, Coop.” Ryan.

  “Miss Vivian Cooper.” Carson. I hated my name.

  “None of you guys will live to see twenty-two.” I curled up in a ball. “And don’t call me that.”

  “The way I see it is this,” Ryan put it down for me. “Your mother is making breakfast. You need to wake up and shower.”

  “Definitely shower,” confirmed Derek.

  “So you can do all of that on your own,” Ryan went on.

  “Or we can help you out,” Carson finished.

  “If you guys don’t get the hell out, I will kill you.” I opened one eye. “Slowly.”

  “Sounds like she needs help.” I wasn’t sure how Ryan drew that conclusion.

  “Don’t even think—” But they were already going. The three of them wrapped me in my sheet, despite my kicking and yelling and empty threats, and carried me into the bathroom. Unceremoniously, I was dropped into the tub. It didn’t feel good.

  “Get her shoes off, Derek,” Ryan directed. I didn’t even know I was still wearing my shoes. Derek yanked them off my feet and tossed them over his shoulder while Carson and Ryan held me down. I began screaming creative obscenities at them. They turned on the cold water full blast and ran out of the bathroom, slamming the door behind them. By the time I freed myself from the cold, wet sheet, it was pointless to chase them.

  I made future plans to make their lives hell as I turned the water to hot and stripped off my soaked clothes. I’d start with stealing Ryan’s stash and his little pot plant called “Peggy Sue.” For a moment, I considered letting Derek’s dog out of his backyard. No, that was too mean. The dog wasn’t that smart. It would be better to take Austin’s gay porn and poorly hide it in Derek’s room where the housekeeper could find it. Yeah, that sounded like a good idea. For Carson, I would siphon the gas out of his car while he was at work. By the time I went downstairs, I was almost calm.

  The kitchen table was crowded with plates of hot food and twenty-year-olds. As I rounded the corner into the kitchen, Derek and Carson both looked me straight in the eye. They quickly turned the opposite direction when I put my finger to my lips. Both were probably hoping I would punch Ryan instead of them. I did. Right in the kidney.

  “Ohh, you bitch,” he yelled at my feet. They were all he could see from his bent over position.

  “Language, Ryan.” My mom didn’t even turn from the stove to admonish him.

  “Sorry, Mrs. C.” He straightened up with what I imagined to be a little tear in one eye.

  “You had it coming, asshole,” I whispered.

  “I know.” He at least tried to smother the grin. “But, damn, bro. In the kidney?”

  “Both of you. Language.” This time she did turn around.

  “Sorry,” we said simultaneously while giving each other the how-the-hell-did-she-hear-us look.

  “Breakfast is going to get cold. Sit down.” My mom set another platter on the table. Pancakes.

  Ryan and I sat down with everyone else and started filling our plates. Ryan sandwiched himself between my sister and Austin. I joined my dad and Carson, who looked like he might wet himself.

  “I’m sorry.” Carson leaned over and started whimpering. “It seemed like a good idea at the time.”

  I didn’t even look at him. “You’ll get yours.”

  “Come on. Are you really mad? We were just playing.” He actually looked sincere.

  “Don’t worry, Carson.” I looked up at Reese to see what she could possibly contribute to my empty threats. “She’s all talk.”

  “Anyway,” my dad pointedly cut in. “How was your semester, Reese?”

  “I’m not sure. Grades aren’t in yet.” She grinned to accentuate what I could only interpret as an attempt to be charming. Dad laughed accordingly. My parents loved Reese.

  “I’m sure you did just fine, honey,” my mom reassured her from where she was still screwing around in the kitchen.

  “Mom, sit down,” I said. “We like it better when you eat with us.”

  Mom shot me a look then leaned over me to set a pitcher of juice on the table.

  “Honey, you need a haircut.” She ran her fingers through the back of my hair.

  “I think I can handle it.” I tried to brush her hand away. It didn’t work.

  “Your dad needs one too.” She started playing with his hair at the same time. “Mitch, take V with you next week when you go to the barber.”

  “Mom.”

  “Vivian.”

  “Mom.”

  “I know you hate it when it gets long in the back,” she offered in explanation.

  “Sit down and eat.” This time everyone at the table loudly agreed with me.

  It was rather hard to follow any sort of conversation in my house on Saturday mornings. My mother had started the tradition of weekend breakfasts when I was really little, and during the summer when everyone was home from college, she still insisted on them. I didn’t even invite people anymore. They just showed up. I was actually surprised none of Adriana’s friends were there. Half of them were in love with Austin, and the other half were in love with Ryan. They were all afraid of my dad though. He looked like a fifty-year-old version of me. He had the same slightly muscular build and pale blond hair that people said made him look like a handsome all-American guy, and just made people say I looked like a boy.

  �
�Did everyone see the, umm, what shall we call it, Aus? The fruits of Cooper’s labor last night.” I hated Reese. She was such a bitch.

  “Huh?” Ryan brilliantly looked up from his pancakes and sausage. “What’s that mean?” He looked back and forth between Reese and me, as did everyone else at the table. Austin started laughing.

  “Nothing.” I shot Reese an I-hate-you look. “I just, never mind, it’s nothing.” That got their attention. Good job me.

  “None of you noticed her eyebrow?” Reese acted totally affronted on my behalf. As if I wanted the goddamn piercing.

  “The eyebrow ring? I thought she always had that,” Carson spoke up after they all stared at me.

  “No way. You got your eyebrow pierced?” I could always count on my little sister to encourage me.

  “Get this.” Austin stopped giggling long enough to explain my stupidity. “She picked up this chick at Twenty-One and…” He had to pause to gulp air and laugh some more. “They go and somehow the girl convinces Coop that she should get a piercing.”

  “How?” Ryan asked.

  “I’m guessing the very short skirt the chick was wearing and a lot of booze.”

  “Enough. Stop. You’re done,” I told him. “My mother is at the goddamn table. Just a little respect, please.”

  “Language, Vivian,” was all she said.

  “Well, it looks good,” Derek told me.

  “Yeah, it’s kind of sexy,” Reese said. Every person at the table stopped staring at me to look at her. A piece of bacon fell out of Derek’s mouth.

  Ryan recovered first. “Did you just say Coop looked”—he swallowed loudly—“sexy?”

  “What?” She sipped some orange juice then slowly licked her lip. “I was just making an observation.”

  My pulse skyrocketed and my hands started shaking.

  “So are you guys going camping soon?” My mom thankfully changed the subject.

  “I hope so.” Ryan sounded a little surprised. “I made reservations already. For next, next weekend.” He interpreted the blank looks properly and explained further. “Two weeks from now.”