Authors: Stephanie Haefner
“Good for you.”
His smile was giddy, like a kid who’d just had a stack of birthday presents set in front of him. And it made him completely adorable. Bryn flashed a smile, genuinely happy for her friend.
Behind him, she saw the Classy part of the Classy ’n’ Sassy duo walk through the doorway. “Oh, Mia’s here. I better go. Talk to you later.”
“Hey,” Bryn said as she approached Mia, arms open, and hugged her friend. “I feel like I haven’t seen you in forever.”
“You saw me earlier today.”
“I know. But we were busy at work, so it doesn’t count. We haven’t actually talked in weeks. Someone’s been too busy to chat.”
They took seats at the bar and Mia waved to the bartender who’d been serving them for years—even before they were legal. “I know. I’m sorry. You know how it is.”
“Lucky for you, I remember what it was like when things were new. We hated being apart. I just wanted to do Johnny all the time.”
“It is pretty constant.” Mia’s smile spread across her face, bookended by glowing rosy cheeks. “He can’t keep his hands off me when we’re in the same room.”
Mia’s phone buzzed in her hand. She flipped it over, her grin deepening. She set it down and turned her attention back to Bryn. “So what was that I walked in on with Thor?”
Bryn glanced toward where he stood, checking the ID of a young kid. “Nothing.”
“Really? You both were smiling all goofylike.”
“Just talking.”
They gave their orders to the bartender: Jack and Coke for Mia, vodka and Diet Coke for Bryn.
“It looked like more than just talking,” Mia said when the bartender left to make their drinks. Her text alert sounded again. She looked, smiled, and quickly put it back down. “You have Troy, remember?”
Bryn glanced at Thor again. He was pretty damn hot. Always had been. And he was one of the nicest guys she knew. Maybe . . .
“Hey,” Mia said, waving her hand in front of Bryn’s face. “This is supposed to be a girls’ night. Stop gawking at Thor.”
Just then, Mia’s phone buzzed again.
“Girls’ night, huh?” She grabbed Mia’s phone before she could get to it. “And just what is Mr. Oliver texting you right now?”
Mia reached for her, but Bryn hopped off the bar stool. She swiped the unlock key and the text appeared.
“Give it back.”
“Ha. No way. If you’re gonna preach to me about a girls’ night but sit here and get text after text from your man, I deserve to see what he’s saying that’s so great.” Bryn skimmed the screen. “Oh my.”
“Come on. Give it back.” Even in the darkened bar, Mia’s cheeks glowed bright red.
“Ooohhh! Naughty Oliver.” Bryn began reading aloud. “ ‘I can’t wait to suck those luscious tits and watch you ride my cock.’ My my. What a dirty mouth your beau has.”
“Give me that.” Mia snatched the phone from Bryn’s hand, playful sneer on her lips. “You’re just jealous.”
“I so fucking am!” The girls retook their seats at the bar, their drinks waiting for them. “Why do you get to have all the fun? I want to ride a big cock, too.” Bryn sipped her drink. “Are you sure I can’t sleep with Troy on the first date?”
“Yes. Be patient. Your time will come.”
“But I wanna cum now.”
Mia just shook her head as her phone buzzed again.
“Oh for God’s sake. Just sext the guy back.”
“I can’t. I don’t know what to say.”
“Are you serious?” How could her friend not know what to say to “I wanna watch you ride my cock”? “It’s easy. Just tell him you can’t wait to lick his delicious dick. Shit like that. The dirtier the better.”
Mia took a long guzzle. “I want to reply. I just can’t make my fingers do it.”
“I can do it for you.”
“No! I’ll figure it out.”
The glow of the screen reflected on Mia’s face as she typed away. Bryn took another sip and let her gaze wander the room. And of course it landed back on Thor. Damn, that black T-shirt fit snugly, highlighting a nice set of biceps. Wonder how hard they are? Another sip of vodka and soda. So what if she had the date with Troy coming up. She wasn’t chained to the guy yet. She could talk to whomever she wanted. And if she wanted to talk to Thor, and feel his bulging muscles, she could. Wonder how his other bulge feels? He was a big man. All his parts had to be in correct proportion, right?
“Bryn,” Mia sang, waving her phone around. “Ya there? I need you to read this and tell me if it’s stupid.”
She took it and looked it over.
“I can’t wait to touch your penis and put it in my mouth. It’s so nice and soft.”
Bryn stifled her laughter. Poor Mia, she was so bad at this kind of thing. “Um, first of all, ‘penis’ is way too clinical. Use dick or cock. And no man ever wants his manhood referred to as either ‘nice’ or ‘soft,’ even if you’re talking about the actual skin, which I assume you are.”
“See? I suck at this.”
“You do. But you’ll get better. Try again.”
“Okay. As long as you stop drooling over Thor.”
“Why? He’s hot. He’s single. I’m single. And horny. What does it matter?”
“I don’t know. He’s our friend. And he was Johnny’s friend. Wouldn’t it be weird?”
“I guess I won’t know until I try.” Bryn hopped off the bar stool. “You finish sexting with Oliver while I go talk to Thor.”
“Bryn . . .”
“Mia, I’m fine.” She walked away, realizing her panties were moist. Was it all the sex talk, helping Mia find her inner dirty girl, or thinking about Thor and what was inside his pants?
“Seize any fake IDs tonight?” Bryn asked as she approached him.
“Not tonight. But on the weekends I usually confiscate a few.”
She stepped closer, inhaling whatever manly cologne he was wearing. It was subtle without knocking her over like he’d bathed in it. “When we were kids, no one looked twice at our fakes. Mia and I started drinking in this same bar when we were seventeen.”
“Yeah. Me, too, but things have changed a lot since then.” With no more patrons to check, he sat back on his stool.
“Maybe. But some things haven’t.” Bryn liked that he was now on her level, instead of having to look up at him. And she was closer to those tasty-looking lips. “You’re just as hot as you were back then.”
He stilled and his eyes bugged. “Not me. You look amazing, though.”
He crossed his arms, then uncrossed them, fidgeting with the hem of his T-shirt. Had she made this tower of sexy manliness nervous? “Thanks.” And all it did was make her want to calm him, kiss him, wrap her arms around him and see what all those muscles felt like moving beneath her fingertips.
Bryn tossed her hair back and straightened her shoulders, pushing out her boobs a little more. “So, are you seeing anyone right now?”
“Uh. No.”
“Really? A sexy guy like you doesn’t have a gaggle of women clamoring for his attention?”
The left side of his mouth curled into a smile. “No.”
“I’m shocked.” Bryn rubbed her hand on his thigh. Nice and hard.
“I don’t want a ton of girls anyway. I just want one special girl.”
I can be your special girl. For one night, anyway.
“Aw. That’s so sweet.”
A tap on her shoulder. “Bryn.”
Mia, the freakin’ vagina blocker. She had hot sex to go home to. Why did she feel the need to prevent Bryn from getting some, too? “Yes?”
“I think it’s time for us to leave.”
Bryn glanced at the clock above the bar. Damn it. Her hour of freedom was up. She turned back to Thor. “Maybe I’ll see you again soon.”
They walked out of the bar and Bryn barely took two steps on the sidewalk before Mia started. “What were you doing back there?”
“Trying to get laid.”
“Why?”
“Because I’m horny. And lonely. I just want to find someone, okay? You have Oliver. I have no one.”
“It’ll happen. You don’t need to throw yourself on every available man.”
“I wasn’t. And we’ve known Thor for years. It’s not like I was talking up some stranger.” Bryn stepped to the driver’s-side door of her minivan, so ready to get away from Mia and her judginess. “Besides, you’re not my keeper. I can have sex with whoever I want.”
“Yeah, you can. But I’m your best friend, and part of that job description includes preventing my friend from making a mistake. I’m all for you getting together with Thor, if that’s really what you want, but don’t go off and have a quickie in the parking lot just because your lady bits are tingling.”
If there was ever a way to break the tension between them, it was Mia and her choice of words. Bryn couldn’t contain herself. “ ‘Lady bits’? Seriously? And they’re doing a whole lot more than tingling. They’re freaking on fire.”
A smile broke across Mia’s face, too. “You might want to have that looked at.”
Bryn stepped back toward her friend and gave her a hug. “Thanks. You’re right. I don’t want casual sex. Well . . . maybe a little. But I’ll go home and have it with my toys instead.”
“Good choice.” Mia loosened her grip on Bryn. “I’ll see you tomorrow at the shop.”
“Okay. Go home and fuck Oliver’s brains out.” She stepped toward the van but had one last question for Mia. “Hey, what did you do about the text?”
Mia giggled. “I channeled your sexual boldness and told him I wanted to devour his dick and fuck him raw.”
“Nice. You better go. You shouldn’t keep a hard dick waiting.”
Mia shook her head and laughed as she walked to her car. What Bryn wouldn’t give to have a man waiting at home for her, erect penis or not.
CHAPTER
Eleven
B
RYN WOKE
up panting, covered in sweat. Can women orgasm in their sleep? It sure as hell felt like she had. The moments before she woke flooded her conscious mind. A hard, tight body had covered hers, muscles rippling under her touch. His mouth had been on her breasts, tasting her, then moved to her neck, her ear, and finally her lips, ravaging her. Her tongue mingled with his as her hands raked over his skin once again, ass muscles under her palms, tensing with every thrust.
I think I’ve been given a glimpse of heaven.
If this is what the real Thor would be like, Bryn so needed to get on that. Now. But then her brain flashed her the rest of the dream. And it wasn’t Thor’s gorgeous face she stared into as she’d erupted in orgasm. It was Eli’s.
What the hell? Bryn was trying to forget about Eli and move on. But there he was in her dreams, turning her on. So. Damn. Much. This was bad.
Bryn hopped out of bed, determined to shake off the heat traveling through her body. A chilly shower did the trick, but it only cooled her down for a few minutes. The second she walked into the living room and remembered the way Eli had kissed her on that couch, she was right back to being all hot and bothered.
She needed to occupy her mind, and hopefully get her vagina to stop being so needy. Especially for Eli. He was the last man her vagina should want.
Bryn marched into the kids’ rooms and shook them out of bed. “Come on. We have things to do today.”
“No. I wanna go back to sleep,” Jax grumbled as he pulled his comforter over his head.
“Even if we’re going to buy supplies for your birthday party?”
That got his attention. “Can I pick out whatever I want?” he mumbled from under his blanket.
“Yep.”
“Fine.” He threw the blankets off of him. “Let’s go.”
She sat next to him. “I think you need to get changed and brush your teeth first.” Reaching for his knee, she started tickling him.
“Mom! Stop!” He kicked around. “Tickling is for babies.”
Bryn put her hands up in surrender. “Sorry. I didn’t know.”
Jax stomped out of the room and Bryn heard the slam of the bathroom door. Geez.
Bryn managed to get the kids out the door in a somewhat timely manner, and after stalking every aisle in the party store three times, Jax still hadn’t chosen a theme.
“They’re all for little kids. Don’t they have anything cool here?”
“What about the pirate theme? That’s cool.”
The look he gave made her wonder if he was a teenager trapped in a kid’s body. She’d had that scowl perfected by the time she was fourteen.
“Okay. How about Mardi Gras? Or Vegas?” She grabbed a package of paper plates that looked like casino chips. “That could be fun.”
“That’s for old people.”
Okay. First too young. Now too old. They walked down the aisle and back again, stopping to look at everything. Zach and Cammie had found a handheld pinball game, so at least they were busy and not in Bryn’s hair. Her eldest child was testing her patience enough.
“I kinda like that,” Jax finally said, pointing at a cardboard cutout of a metallic silver electric guitar.
“Yeah?” Bryn pulled it down, along with the other designs. “We can hang them on the wall and do a whole rock-and-roll theme. I can play all your favorite music. Musical chairs would be really fun.”
“No games.”
“Okay. What do you want to do then?”
He looked at the wall of rock-and-roll party supplies and stood on tiptoes to grab a CD of headbanger karaoke music. “Can we get this?”
“You like to sing?”
Pink tinged his cheeks. “Kinda.”
“I can hire a professional karaoke company for the party. Would that be cool?”
He let a small smile form. “Yeah.”
“Good.” Bryn began pulling plates and cups from the shelf and filled her cart. She grabbed a package of invitations, but wasn’t sure how many she needed. “Who are we inviting to this shindig?”
“I don’t know. All the guys from my class last year.”
Zach decided to put down his game and add his two cents. “And don’t forget Ammmeeelia.” He ended it with some kissy noises.
Jax pushed him. “Shut up, butthole.”
But Zach just laughed. “You love her and you want to kiss her and touch her—”
“Zachary!” Bryn scolded before he could finish his statement.
Jax pushed him again, landing him against the rack of birthday candles. A few fell off.
“Cut it out. Now.”
“Tell him to shut his big, fat mouth.”
“Tell him to admit he loves Amelia.”
“Enough! Both of you.”
Bryn was used to the kids arguing and annoying each other, but she was so not ready for this. How could he already be having feelings for girls? He wasn’t even ten yet.
And of all the girls in his school, why the hell did he have to have a crush on Eli’s daughter?
“PLEASE OCCUPY
my mind with something that does not involve men, sex, or children’s birthday parties,” Bryn said as she walked into the shop and found Mia and Penny at the front counter with sandwiches from the deli.
“I think we can avoid birthday party talk, but not the rest. All the fashion show merchandise came today.” Penny held up a florescent-green pair of briefs.
“This I can deal with.” She rummaged through the pile of Day-Glo lingerie items. “It’s cute and it will look great onstage.” Bryn looked up at Mia. “Logan will be totally into this.”
“Yeah. He thrives on this stuff.”
“He’s an attention whore, but in a good way. He’d do the whole show himself if it were possible. I should probably call the agency and hire two male models.” Bryn looked at the rest of the items, then put them back into the box they came in. “Where’s the women’s stuff?”
“Right here.” Penny brought over another box and sliced open the packing tape. “I’m glad Gilles is okay with us having women in the show, too.”
“Even though the club is mostly frequented by men, there are some women that go. And the show should attract more than just their clientele. I’m hoping many of our regulars will go, too.”
“We need to work on hiring some female models. How many do you think we need?” Mia asked.
“Three should be good, but these model fees are really gonna kill us.”
“Well, we can save some money by eliminating the fee on one.”
Bryn held up a hot pink bra with yellow straps. “I’m not sure if two will be enough.”
“I didn’t say only two models. I said we’d only pay two of them.”
Bryn met Mia’s gaze. “You know someone that will work for free?”
“Yeah, I’m looking at her. You told Gilles you’d think about it.”
“Uh, he was referring to all of us. Not just me.”
Mia laughed sarcastically. “Yeah, okay.”
“If you do it, I’ll do it.”
“What? No. Not happening.” Mia scrunched up the deli paper from her sandwich and tossed it in the garbage.
“Gilles was right when he said you guys are gorgeous,” Penny added. “The whole real-women-modeling-for-real-women thing. I like it. It would be great for the shop.”
“Oh really? Then your body can be put on display, too.”
“I’m married. I can’t. And I might be a whale by then.”
“Lame excuse. And it’s not gonna work. Even if you’re preggo, the baby would be the size of a pea, so you wouldn’t have a baby belly yet. If Mia and I do it, so will you.”
Penny looked from Bryn to Mia. “Uh-uh.”
“If I do this. And that’s a huge if,” said Mia, “it would only be to save the shop some money. Models don’t come cheap.”
“I don’t think Jack will like it.”
Bryn rolled her eyes. “It’s not like you’d be grinding on a pole or anything. It’s just walking up and down a catwalk.”
“In a thong.”
“So if it’s not a thong, you’ll do it?”
“I didn’t say that.” Penny sifted through the pieces for the show. “But if I decide to do it, the thongs would be off-limits.”
“Fine. I’ll take one for the team and model all the thongs.” Had Bryn seriously just offered to model thongs in front of hundreds of people?
“Well, you do have the nicest ass,” Penny added.
“So this is settled then? We’re modeling in the show?”
Penny was the first to confirm. “I guess.”
“Great.” Bryn turned her attention to Mia. “So?”
“Do I have a choice?”
“Not really.”
“I guess I’ll do it then.”
“Fabulous. I’ll get on the phone and see if we can find two male models that won’t cost us Penny’s firstborn.”
Mia shook her head, but an inkling of a smile formed. “How the hell did this happen?”
“Gotta do what’s best for the shop.”
“That’s sure an understatement. I’ve gone above and beyond for this shop over the last few months. This better make us a ton of money.”
“It will. I know it.”
They needed this fashion show to solidify their shop’s success and their place in retail heaven.
BRYN PICKED
up the kids from her parents’ and headed home. She hated the nights she worked the late shift. Once school started back up again, it would be really tough. Nine o’clock was too late to get the kids home on a school night. If this fashion show worked out the way they hoped, she and Mia might be in a better place financially and could think about hiring more employees. Neither of them would have to work nights anymore. Or at least not so frequently.
“Mom, tomorrow’s a camp day, right?” Jaxson had come up to her when he was done with his bedtime snack.
“Yeah.” Once a week the kids attended a summer day camp at the school. “Why?”
“There’s some kids I want to invite to my party. Can I hand out invitations tomorrow?”
Crap. The party was a little over three weeks away. She really needed to get those invites out. “Sure, honey. We’ll fill them out right now before you go to bed.”
He ran to the dining room and rummaged through the plastic bags still sitting on the table where Bryn had plunked them earlier.
“Okay. Let’s make a list of who to invite,” Bryn said, and grabbed a notepad and pen.
“Jordan, Elliot, Ryan, Alex, Brian, Evan—”
“Whoa! Slow down.” Bryn giggled, but loved the excitement she finally saw in her eldest son’s eyes. He’d been in such a prickly mood that morning. “Okay. Go on.”
“Nick, Emmett, and Ryan.”
“Wait. I already have him.”
“Nope. There are two Ryans.”
“Okay. Is that it?”
Jax’s gaze dropped to his hands, suddenly very intrigued with the raggedy remnants of a fingernail. “Um. Maybe one more.”
“Who?”
He put his finger in his mouth, his voice barely above a whisper. “Ahmeelamah.”
“I didn’t understand that at all. Finger out of your mouth, please.”
He dropped his hand into his lap, his eyes still not meeting hers. “Amelia, okay?”
“Oh.” So this little crush thing was true. “We can invite her if you want.”
“Can I go now?”
“Sure. I’ll have the invitations ready for you to take to camp tomorrow.”
He got up and started to walk away, but turned back, wrapping his arms around her. “I love you.”
She kissed his head. “I love you, too. Get in bed and I’ll come tuck you in, okay?”
“ ’Kay.”
Jax trotted off, leaving Bryn with the task of writing out the party invitations. And also the debate on whether or not to invite Eli and Austin to the party, too. Could she just invite Amelia? It felt wrong. Eli would be hurt.
And yeah, she did care if she hurt him.