Quirks & Kinks (20 page)

“No—”

“Oh.”

“No—”

“Okay.”

“No—”

“I get it! You don’t have to keep saying no. Jesus.”

“
Easie.
”

“What?” she asked snottily. I couldn’t help but laugh again and shake my head in exasperation.

“If you’d stop talking for a minute, I might have time to finish explaining that no, I don’t want you to meet me there
because
I want to pick you up.”

“Oh.”

“What did I sign on for here?” I teased, scrubbing a hand down my face as I did.

“Another one of those universally female things. It won’t be any better with another woman.”

I bit into my lip as she added tentatively, “You know, just in case you were considering that someone else would be different.”

I was beginning to think someone else would be
totally
different. And a lot less entertaining.

“How do I get to your apartment?”

“Here. Ashley is better at directions than I am,” I heard her say, followed by a sound of shuffling, a muffled argument . . . hair pulling?

“Ashley here,” her sister greeted, slightly out of breath but covering it well.

“What the hell just happened?” I asked through yet another laugh.

“She doesn’t really suck at directions. She needed time to make herself look human again.”

“Ashley!” Easie screeched in the background loud enough for me to hear.

“Human?” I guffawed. “What does she do? Take off her skin when she gets home?”

“Just trust me on this. There’s a reason people don’t live together right away.”

“Ashley!” Easie hissed this time.

“I can’t imagine Easie looking bad. Ever.”

“How sweet,” Ashley murmured. “And naive. I’ll pray for you.”

A loud scrape of wood against wood rang out in my ear, followed pretty closely by an “Ooof!”

“Ashley?”

“Directions,” she wheezed. “Do you know where South Street Pub is on Forty-Eighth Street?”

I turned to my window. Looked out it and zeroed in on the neon green sign that read South Street in flashing bold letters.

“Uh, yeah. At the corner of Eight Avenue.”

“Yes, exactly! We’re one block up from that at the corner of Seventh. 667. Third floor.”

I nearly dropped my phone, but squeezed it unbearably tight to stop myself.

Rubbing my neck and shaking my head at the same time, I laughed softly. “Tell Easie I’ll be there in five minutes.”

“Five? Like, as in five?”

“Five.”

“But that’s impossible in L.A. unless you—”

“Live one block away. Across from the pub.”

Tammy’s glass hit the kitchen counter loud enough to make me turn toward her.

“That is some freaky shit,” Ashley muttered in my ear, prompting Easie to plead ‘what’ over and over again in the background.

“Nothing,” Ashley said. “He’ll be here in about a half hour. You have plenty of time.”

“Now that’s evil.”

I could almost picture her rolling her eyes. “Fine. Anderson says I shouldn’t lie. It’s very bad of me, and he plans to spank you for my behavior when he gets here.”

“Ashley!” Easie and I both chastised at the same time.

“Which will be in five minutes. Assuming he gets off the phone.”

I took that as my leave, murmuring a polite, “See you soon,” and hanging up the phone before I could hear any more of Easie’s yelling. This early on in the relationship, she was allowed to have those kinds of reactions in private and pretend like everything was perfectly fine to my face. My being able to hear her was kind of ruining it for her.

Phone tucked back in my pocket, Tammy had commentary of her own. “A block away?”

I nodded.

“It’s like kismet.”

“Seriously? You know I respect you completely, but is my old friend Tommy in there anywhere?”

“What did you want me to say?” She let her voice deepen. “Whoa, dude. Easy access. Get laid every night.”

“Don’t be an asshole.”

“Just following by example.”

“Fuck.” I ran both of my hands backward through my hair and blew out a breath. “You’re right. Sorry for the Tommy remark.”

“It’s fine.”

“It’s not. You shouldn’t have to put up with that shit from me.”

“Why?” she asked, inclining her head slightly.

“Because I’m your best friend, and I accept you completely.”

“I’m not an idiot, Anderson. While my transition was for
me,
and about
me,
it affects other people. It affects you greatly.”

“Yeah, but—”

“Stop. Being accepting does not mean hiding your reactions and feelings. You’re allowed to miss Tommy. You’re allowed to tell me that.” She smiled. “As much as I’d like the world to revolve around me, it
doesn’t.
”

“You realize that?”

I expected her to tease back, but she just smiled. Lifted a hand and pointed to the glowing time on the microwave. “How many minutes did you say you would be?”

“Shit!”

Grabbing my keys and my wallet, I slammed my bare feet into my socks and shoes and barely looked back on my way out the door.

I was already three minutes late.

BOISTEROUS CHEERS AND CATCALLS
. Whoops, whistles, and hollers. Heckling and profanity.

And that was just Easie’s contribution to our team.

It was without a doubt the absolute best time I’d ever had playing a game in this league, and if the smiles on the other players’ faces were anything to go by, I wasn’t the only one that felt that way.

Easie had no trouble finding a rhythm—something I’d worried about on the ride over. I knew she didn’t need to be babysat every second of the day, but I felt bad bringing her along only to abandon her while I played and she watched.

But, as was often the case with her, I shouldn’t have bothered.

“That was exciting!” she cheered, jumping into my sweaty arms and wrapping her equally sticky arms and legs around me. I think she might have jumped around even more than I did.

“We lost,” I noted with a smile, holding on to both of her hips and staring at her sparkling blue eyes.

“I know. That’s because you guys really sucked.”

“Gee, thanks.”

“Not you,” she comforted, adding with a wink, “You only kind of sucked.”

I laughed. “Thanks. I think.”

“Don’t worry. You have real potential. If you hadn’t already run a million miles today, you probably would have been above average.”

“Ouch.”

“Sugarcoating won’t get you victories,” she said with a smirk. “Now tell me how flawlessly pretty I am.”

God, she was fantastic. Funny and fun and relaxed in my presence. I couldn’t get enough of her.

“You
are
flawlessly pretty.”

“Hmm,” she pondered. “That seemed a little forced. It was probably the word for word repetition. We’ll work on that too.”

“Come back to my place with me,” I whispered through a groan as I squeezed her tighter. This wasn’t enough. I needed more.

“Okay,” she breathed back, lifting her body slightly and then letting it fall again, rubbing herself against my cock just teasingly.

Fucking hell.

Startling her, I never put her down, instead jogging all the way to my Toyota Tacoma with her in my arms and her legs around my waist.

She snickered as we bumped and rubbed, but I couldn’t manage anything other than the task at hand. My blood supply had already made the official migration.

Rational thinking and reasoning were a thing of the past, and my sense of humor was on vacation until after I’d had the chance to be inside of her.

Dumping her into the passenger side quickly, I rounded the hood and jumped in, firing the ignition amid the sound of more of her giggles. I was fairly certain she tried to get my attention further, but my vision had completely tunneled.

Good thing that court was only ten blocks away from my apartment. I normally wouldn’t have even driven, but I knew how Easie felt about extraneous physical activity. And now that I was faced with this urgency, I was glad for her faux laziness.

Reaching over the console, she put her hand on my thigh and rubbed maddeningly teasing strokes through the fabric of my shorts.

I completely zoned out, flying the ten blocks and staying conscious of only things that could affect our safety.

Thankfully, the mental block seemed to work, and the magically empty parking spot in front of my building beckoned.

Screeching the tires to a stop, I barely shifted into neural and pulled on the emergency brake before flicking off the key and jumping out of my side.

Easie took pity on me for once, climbing out of her side on her own and waiting on the sidewalk while I rounded the hood.

She giggled as I grabbed her hand and pulled her behind me, jogging into the building and through the door to the stairwell. She yelped as I scooped her into my arms and took the stairs two at a time.

Setting her on her feet at the top as gently as I could manage, she grabbed my hand and wagged her brows as I took off at a jog again, eating up the too long distance between the entrance to the stairwell and the door to our apartment as quickly as possible.

The key slid directly into my fingers as I reached into my pocket, and Easie pressed tightly up to my back as I stuck it into the lock and turned. We stumbled in, getting tangled in each other as we fought to turn so that we could taste each other finally.

My lips took control of hers, and she gave into it, turning her head to give me better access and allowing me to lead the way on an exploration of her mouth. I tuned my ears to the apartment though, listening for Tammy and, thankfully, hearing nothing.

The rough edge of Easie’s pant reeled my ears right back into the moment, daring me to listen to anything but her. I could feel the heat of her excitement against the hardness of mine, and with fumbling precision, I backed us toward the open door of my bedroom.

Tripping and bumping into walls along the way, we eventually made it, the loud crack of the door slamming coming slightly after her well placed kick.

Her skin was everywhere—a line of it exposed at the bottom of her tank, the hollow of her breasts, the line of her neck, and her arms all begging to be tasted and touched.

I planned to sample every inch, not leaving any of it untouched, but I needed to take the edge off if I didn’t want to make a complete fool of myself. It had been several years since I’d—

“Oh,
shit.
”

“What?” she gasped and leaned forward, having just pulled her shirt over her head and eased onto the bed.

“I don’t . . .
Fuck!
” I rubbed the back of my neck and sank to my knees. “I don’t have any condoms.”

“How in the fuck is it possible you don’t have condoms?” she demanded loudly, making her exposed breasts bounce and distracting my eyes.

I shrugged, smiled a little at the insanity of the situation.

My dick wasn’t smiling though. Not at all.

“I haven’t dated since college.”

“No, I don’t believe that.”

“Yes.”

“Dated or
dated?
”

“Either.”

“No, no, I don’t believe that.”

“Why not?”

“I just don’t. I mean, how is that even possible?”

“I’ve been . . . well, I’ve been busy,” I answered truthfully. I hadn’t thought about doing even one thing for myself since Evan died. It had all been for him. The harsh realization that stemmed from that admission was truly startling. Until that very moment, I’d never even considered it.

“Don’t even suggest that we do it with no protection!”

Did she really think I would do that? I would never disrespect her like that.

“I didn’t suggest it.”

“I couldn’t be in a more fertile part of my cycle if I tried!”

“Easie, I was
not
going to suggest it. I wouldn’t.”

“It’s not going to happen!”

“Who are you talking to right now?” It obviously wasn’t me.

Her eyes focused on me again. “Oops. Sorry. Personal pep talk.”

“You do that often?”

“Normally, I do it silently.”

“Probably smart.”

“Don’t you dare mock me right now. This is your fault. Don’t you know that you never, ever invite a girl to your place without knowing you have condoms?”

“I was too busy thinking about you to think about anything else.”

“Oh. Well now I can’t be a bitch.”

“Lie back,” I instructed with a smirk, picking myself up and towering over her.

“Why?”

I dropped my voice to a serious whisper. “Easie.”

She looked up at me longingly, the line of her lashes fluttering with each heave of her chest.

“Lie back.”

She complied immediately, scooting up the bed and making her hair fan out all over my pillow.

Crawling over her, I reached between my shoulders and pulled my shirt off, murmuring, “Fair’s fair,” directly into the soft skin of her stretched neck.

A shuttering breath shook the damp hair at my ear as she breathed out and arched into me, running her nails along the newly naked line of my side.

Eager lips and trailing hands worked together as a team as I started at her neck, nibbling and sucking the soft skin away from the muscle and licking the edge when it entered my mouth. She moaned, opening her legs to let me fall in between, and I used a free hand to stroke the exposed skin of her hip in rhythm with my lips.