Did she say band? I scan my memory, trying to remember if Cal mentioned a band.
“You want to step inside and I can give you a tour?” Take the deposit. My bank account has been on its knees for weeks and maybe this limo-kissing cousin of Cal’s is the exact godsend I need.
She flips up her sunglasses, exposing her red-laced eyes while inspecting the place. She sets in on a frown and shakes her head. “I’ve seen all I need to.”
“All right, well, I’ll leave the place open. The fridge is stocked with drinks, and I’ll run by and pick up some groceries to start you off. It’s more of a do-it-yourself bed-and-breakfast.”
“We have a chef.” She waves me off as if I’m a fly.
“We have a chef” equals “We have more than a few dollars to rub together,” and my blood starts racing with the financial possibilities.
“Be back in a little while.” She retreats into the dark cave of the limo.
“Hey, what’s your name?” I call after her but the driver has already entombed her inside, and they speed off as quickly as they came.
I’m thinking I should pay a quick visit to my good friend Cal.
The gym is overcrowded and surprisingly muggy. Ever since Cal initiated the hot yoga classes, every male, jock and Greek alike, has stormed the facility.
Molly bounds over and gives me a hug. She’s not the little sister I’m used to. She’s morphed into a model overnight and I don’t like it one bit. It’s nice Cal lets her pick up a few hours around here. At least that way he can keep an eye on her for me, and it gives Molly a chance to line her pocket with some change. I’d like to know what that feels like sometime.
“Hey, kiddo.” I wipe my brow. “Geez, it’s as hot as a freaking sauna in here. How’s school treating you?” I know for a fact she’s already crushing on one of her professors, because Kenny witnessed the event firsthand. Just the thought makes my stomach turn.
“School is beyond cool.” She bounces on her Day-Glo–pink tennis shoes and the soft scent of baby powder emanates from her. Case in point, she’s still a baby, or at least she smells like one. The last thing she needs to be doing is getting her hormones worked up over some guy. “By the way, I got busted at Mandy’s. I guess I’m going to have to move back into the bed-and-breakfast.” She wrinkles her nose, and I can see the ten-year-old still hiding out in her eyes. “Turns out people who aren’t affiliated with the dorm are considered ‘contraband,’ and Mandy was put on probation.”
“Crap. Yes, come back to the B and B.” Then I remember why I’m here to begin with—the purple-haired cigarette eater and the band that’s coming in later with their own sous-chef. “Wait, you can’t.” I suck in a quick breath. “I may have just rented out the entire facility.”
“What about my room? Mom’s room? And now your dad and Karen’s?”
“Dad and Karen won’t be back until after Halloween and Mom is helping grandma out for another few weeks. I’ve already locked those rooms and yours. Besides, there’s no way I’d let you hang out with the entourage that’s about to take over the place.”
“Great.” She puffs a breath through her cheeks and looks all of twelve in the process. “Now where the heck am I supposed to stay? Rush doesn’t start for another two weeks and that only counts if I make it into Tri Delta. It looks like I’m freaking homeless now.”
Shit.
“Okay look, you’re not ‘freaking homeless.’” I wrap an arm around her shoulder and pull her in. “You’ve always got me to depend on. You know that.”
“Of course I know that.” She folds into me, soft as a kitten. “You’re always there for me, Cruise.” Tears moisten her eyes, and this catches me off guard. “You’re like a dad and a big brother all rolled into one.”
My heart melts hearing that. I press a kiss over the top of her head just as Pennington barrels in this direction.
“Dude.” He offers up a knuckle bump to both me and Molly. “Likin’ the lovefest. Dad called, said he’s having a blast in Spain.”
I twist my lips. Dad called him. Figures. Not that I expect a phone call, but the truth is, I thought we straightened out our relationship a bit this past year. He’s gone from an absentee father to taking up residency at the B and B. Anyway, I’m not going to be a pussy about it. He’s closer to Pen, and that’s the way it’s going to be.
“Glad they’re doing good.”
Cal swoops by, immersed in whatever he’s staring at on his clipboard, and I pluck him over by the back of his muscle T.
“Not so fast. Your cousin is in town. What’s her name? Hell, what’s the band’s name? I couldn’t get two words out of her.”
“Lisa?” He perks up at the thought.
“Lisa seems too normal for her.”
“That’s because it is. She goes by ‘the Skin.’”
“The Skin?” Molly jerks her head back. “Sounds disgusting.”
“What’s the band’s name?” Pen, my younger, less-concerned-about-finances half brother, is suddenly interested.
“The Plague.” Cal nods just as his phone goes off. “I gotta go. I’ve got another insurance adjuster looking at the basement.” He pats me on the back and takes off. “Tell the Skin I said hello!” he shouts, zipping toward the exit.
I suppose the insurance adjuster has to do with the basement fire a few weeks back. Morgan’s little nightclub endeavor pissed off the wrong people and nearly burned the place down. Bonehead.
Cal is lucky they didn’t close down his entire business in the interim.
“The fucking Plague.” Pen socks me in the stomach and knocks the wind out of me while he bounces around like a six-year-old. “This is going to be fucking badass.”
“Watch the language,” I reprimand. “There’s a young lady around.”
“I’m not a baby, Cruise.” Molly cuts me a death stare before taking off toward the girl’s locker room.
“I didn’t say you were a baby.” I thought it. “I’ll see you tonight at the cabin,” I shout after her.
“We’ll see.”
“Perfect. She’s a ball of hormones on the loose. If you ever see her around campus, keep an eye on her for me, would you?”
Pen shakes his head. “I’m not hanging with the little girls if you know what I mean. I doubt I’ll see her. I’m all about the Greek ladies this year.”
“Yeah, well, if Molly gets her way, she’ll be one of them.”
“Got it. I’ll make sure to steer the boys in the opposite direction.”
“I appreciate it.” For a second my brain ventures into the pity party once again and I wonder if it were Pen’s B and B that was going down Titanic-style whether good old Dad would offer to come to the rescue. I thought about asking for a loan, with more interest than he’d get at the bank, only because I can’t get an actual bank to lend me a pen, let alone some actual currency, but in the end I didn’t bother. “Hey, how’s your mom?” Rumor has it Jackie’s been off celebrating the divorce from my father in grand style and with men thirty years her junior.
“Living it up. She just got back into town.”
“Tell her I said hi.”
“Will do.”
He takes off just as my phone buzzes. It’s a text from Kenny.
Expecting big things to come tonight. Namely you.
I give a little laugh. I don’t remember her ever being so brazen. Now that’s one ball of hormones I won’t be protesting.
Kenny makes the world go round—that’s for damn sure.
I pick up Chinese for dinner and hop in the shower before Kenny gets home. I’ve already initiated a plan of action for this, our first night of the fornicating challenge, and I hope to meet and exceed Ms. Jordan’s expectations. I was hoping to work on my thesis a little tonight but I’ll shelve that for another day. I’m hoping I didn’t throw away the countless hours I spent on the thing, but I felt pretty passionate about it at the time. I hate not finishing something I start, so I’m pretty sure I’m going to see it through regardless of
whether it proves to be a fruitless effort. I guess somewhere in the back of my mind I’m still holding out for a miracle. Getting back into Garrison would somehow add to the magic of everything that’s already happened this year—namely Kenny. Besides, she’s the real reason my thesis changed on a dime. My approach was to explain why love at first sight is a misnomer in modern society—how lust has threatened the infrastructure of true love. But now I happen to think lust and true love can go hand in hand, thus the revisions I’m planning. Not to mention that Kenny helped me debunk the theory of “the heresy of love at first sight.” Kenny cured me of that on night one. I’m still feeling pretty damn lucky I went to that Alpha Sigma Phi party, or the entire last year would have played out differently. Most likely with me suffering the ill effects of some incurable STD and Kenny fighting off douche bags named Rutger or, God forbid, Pennington. Not that Pen’s a douche. He’s just not the one for Kenny. I am.
The door rattles and I can feel the cool breeze coming in. I snatch up a towel to dry off as best as I can and wrap it around my waist.
“Honey, I’m home!” She practically sings the words. I’d be lying if I didn’t admit how fucking happy I am that she fell for someone like me.
I head into the bedroom and grab my tie off the nightstand.
“Close your eyes,” I say before I hit the living room, and she’s already got them squeezed tight with a giggle brewing in her chest. I shut the door and help her put down her backpack and a Garrison bookstore bag that might as well be laden with stones, it’s so heavy. My stomach cinches when I see the total. Three hundred big ones. The fine print catches my attention. Jordan scholarship fund.
Shit. Morgan threw this on his tab. Now I really feel like crap. I had a few hundred dollars I meant to give her yesterday to cover books. Maybe I’ll give it to Morgan instead.
“I went shopping and got the cutest baseball caps for us today,” she chirps. “Mine says bride and yours says groom.” She squeals as I wrap an arm around her waist and land a gentle kiss on the back of her neck. “They’re all sparkly and cute. Well, mine’s sparkly and cute. Yours is sort of a baby blue and, well, not too emasculating—as long as you’re not threatened by a stray rhinestone or two.”
“As long as I get to be there on the wedding night I’m okay with sparkly.” I slip my necktie over her eyes and secure it to the back of her head by way of a knot.
“Ooh, I like where this is going, Professor Elton.” She purrs it out like my favorite song.
A demonic laugh gets buried in my chest. “Ms. Jordan”—I slip her coat off and unbutton the front of her shirt—“prepare to have your most thorough lesson of the day. Erogenous Zones 101.”
“That’s my favorite class.” She unbuttons her jeans, showing me exactly how eager she is.
“I’m glad, because there’s a hell of a lot of homework involved.” I help her over to the fireplace while she gropes around like a blind man.
“Where are we?” She lets it out with a breathy laugh, and I just stand there admiring her for a moment. Kenny has a perfect body, with curves in all the right places.
“Never mind. You just take off the rest of your clothes for me, nice and slow.” I drop my towel and my dick springs to life in anticipation of the big show.
Kenny fumbles with her jeans and flicks off her heels, nearly taking out the front window. She pulls off her top and leaves her G-string and barely there lace bra.
Hot damn. I shake my head while examining her.
She should be illegal.
My hands ride over her hips and she arches her head back and gives a little groan. I pull her panties down nice and slow until she steps out of them.
“Turn around,” I instruct, and Kenny spins apprehensively. I know she’s not crazy about me checking out her body with even a limited amount of light, let alone before sunset in the living room, but her skin calls to me, smooth like velvet. “You have a perfect ass.”
“Please,” she groans. “My entire body should be hidden from the free world now and forever. I’ll have to write your eyeballs an apology later for subjecting you to the disaster at hand.”
“No disaster here.” I wrap my arms around her waist and pull her in until her skin sizzles over mine. “All I see is sheer perfection.”
“I’m serious.” She scratches at my chest. “I should go into hiding. I’m hideous.”
I hold back a laugh. Kenny is fragile and vulnerable but she’s pretty rock solid. She knows she’s fine, and so do I.
“I’m okay with you hiding from the free world as long as I’m invited to view the show.” I land a string of soft kisses on the back of her neck before securing her wrists together with her G-string “That should do you.”
“Am I being arrested?”
“That’s tomorrow night. I’ve got an entire hostage drama mapped out. Of course I’ll be the one to rescue you.” I land a kiss in her ear.
“I bet I’ll be very, very thankful.”
“That’s the idea.”
“So what’s tonight’s lesson? Set up the scene for me.”
“The scene?” Boy, she’s into this.
“I mean, Professor Elton, what exactly is it that you’re going to teach me?” She drops her voice into a lower register and my hard-on extends farther than I could have ever imagined.
“Tonight’s lesson is all about lingual affection.” I run my tongue up her spine and she quivers into me. “Bend over.”
A choking sound emits from her throat and Kenny complies without wasting a second. I lash my tongue over her neck, across her shoulder blades, wet my way down to the perfect bottom and pause.
I could swear I heard the faint sound of a girl laughing. It’s probably just “the Skin” disease that’s moving into the bed-and-breakfast. Maybe I should go out and see if everything’s okay.
Kenny nestles her body into me, and I shake all thoughts of the B and B out of my head.
I run my tongue lower, all the way to her left thigh, and Kenny moans as if I’m killing her. I give a few careful licks leading up to her inner thigh and the laughter outside intensifies, followed by a very loud “Cool! I’ll call you later,” and this time I distinctly recognize the voice as Molly’s. A rustle erupts at the door, and I scoop Kenny up and carry her into the bedroom without giving it a second thought.
Shit.
“Who’s that?” Kenny squirms in my arms as I lay her gently on the bed.
“My sister.” I hop into my sweats and toss on a T-shirt.
“Cruise?” Molly shouts from the living room. “Geez, you guys live like pigs.” The sound of a backpack being flung to the floor thumps through the tiny cabin, then footsteps heading in this direction.
“Molly?” Kenny bites down over her ruby-red lip.
I lift the tie off her head, leaving her hands still bound.
“Let me say hello, and I’ll be right back.” I run my finger down her chest and circle over her left breast. Kenny is soft as a dream. “Don’t go anywhere.”
I zip into the living room running my hands through my hair, only to find Molly already raiding the fridge.
“You’ve got the diet of a six-year-old.” She smirks as she pulls out some brownies from the freezer and a soda. Nothing beats a frozen brownie at midnight. She pulls out some bread, too, and starts making a sandwich. “So I’m crashing. Do you care?”
“Nope.” I glance down the hall to make sure I shut the door. “Kenny and I are glad to have you. You can take the spare room if you want.” Crap. It sounded like a much more reasonable offer when I didn’t have Kenny hog-tied in the next room.
“Thanks.” She gives an unenthusiastic eye roll. “I really can’t wait to get my own place. Maybe I’ll start looking for an apartment next week.”
“An apartment?” I’m stunned she could even entertain the idea with a straight face. “With what—your good looks? Last I checked, landlords want a mint to lease a room out.”
“Well, it’s not fair you get to live here for free.
What about me? What do I get?”
She’s got a point. Almost. “I live here in exchange for running the B and B. Plus I can keep an eye on you.”
“Maybe I don’t want you keeping an eye on me. What if I have a date and I want to bring him over to the house?” She’s red-faced and yelling and what the hell just happened? “I can’t because everyone knows you’ll go ballistic and yank his balls out of his ass.”
“I’m your big brother. It’s my job.” I pull back my shoulders, damn proud of her astute assessment.
“It’s all your fault I lost Morgan,” she seethes, and suddenly I fear for my balls. “And now he’s chained at the hip with that ditz Ally and I’m stuck all by my lonesome here in Siberia.” She throws her hands in the air as if the cabin is the equivalent of middle-earth. “I’ll never have anyone, and I’ll die an old lady. But that’s okay because deep down inside you know that’s how you want it!” She slaps her sandwich together and hightails it to the back bedroom, then slams the door.
Shit. I shake my head, putting the mayo back in the fridge.
I return to the bedroom and find Kenny has worked off her cotton cuffs and is flipping channels on the television with the covers pulled up to her nose.
“What was that about?” She gives a wry grin like she knows.
“Moll needs a place to stay so I offered her a room.”
“Molly is going to be living here?” Her mouth opens wide, and it’s clear she’s shocked by the revelation. “Now we’re never going to have exciting sex.” She lets the remote slip through her fingers.
“What are you talking about?” I lock the door and bounce down next to her on the mattress. Kenny looks perturbed, and I can’t help but smile. She’s cute as hell when she’s angry.
“Face it. Being confined to these four walls—our sex life is going to take a nosedive and fast.”
“Not true.” I pull back the cover and wrap my arms around her waist.
“It is true. We’ll be locked in this bedroom and nothing exciting will ever happen again and we’ll be forced to elope.”