Unexpected (2 page)

He's never
reacted like this, so wildly primal. It turns me on in a brand new
way. In fact, ever since he set foot in the shower, everything has
been a thousand times better than any other time we've fooled
around. How can that be? I'm coming alive with e
very
touch. I'm a butterfly discovering
her wings after emerging from the cocoon. It's like he's a
different person. I'm so close; I can feel the pleasure increasing,
building to greater heights. It usually takes much longer for me to
reach an orgasm. Yet I know the instant he thrusts into me, I'm
going to explode.

It's obvious based
on how roughly he pushes against me that he's losing a battle with
his self-control. His breath is erratic and hot against my ear,
turning me on all the more. When his teeth graze my ear and tug on
my earlobe, a tiny cry comes from my throat before I can stop
it.

“
You're so
goddamn hot,” he whispers, his hands sliding up my
sides.

That's when I tense
against him. That voice...it's not Drew. I gasp when the voice
finally registers in my brain. “Ryan?”

He stops moving
entirely, loosening his grip on my hands. “Alina?”

Turns out I was
wrong before. Today could totally get worse.

Chapter Two

–
Ryan –

What in the holy
hell just happened?

One minute ago, I
was about to lift my girlfriend into my arms, take her to bed, and
make love to her for the first time. Instead of having sex with
Victoria, I'm grinding my cock against her best friend in the
shower.

Fuck me.

I release her, stepping back so our skin is
no longer touching. Alina stays flat against the shower wall, but
turns her face just enough to confirm with her own eyes that it's
me. When she does, her jaw drops. “Holy shit,” she mutters, her
deep blue eyes filling with panic. She reaches for the shower knob
to turn the water off, trying to cover herself with her arms in the
process. She steals a glance back at me and cringes. “What the hell
are you doing in the shower with me?” she chokes out.

I hurriedly
climb out, still half in shock, wrapping a towel around my lower
body. I silently curse myself for my still rock hard cock. “I
thought...I thought you were Victoria.” At least, that's how it
appeared. Both of them have similar hair color and body type. Then
add in the fact there's barely any light in the bathroom. And, on
top of all that, it's not
as if
I had any experience with Victoria to compare it
to.

“
Well, I
thought you were Drew.” Alina reaches an arm out with her head
turned away from me, blindly groping the wall for a towel. I lift
it off the rack and hand it to her. “Thank you,” she mutters. A
couple seconds later, she opens the shower curtain. Her gaze roams
over my bare chest, probably noticing my tattoos for the first
time, then her eyes meet mine again. “Oh my God, I almost made you
cheat on Victoria!”

I blink a few
times. “Wait, what about Drew?”

She bounces from
one foot to the other, then steps out of the shower. “We kinda
sorta were on a break as of last night. I thought you were him
coming to apologize. I should have known it wasn't Drew.”

I narrow my eyes, tightening my grip on the
towel. “
Why?”

“He's not that...impulsive...or
spontaneous...or...you know, he's just not like that.” There's
another word on the tip of her tongue, but she doesn't want to say
it out loud. And I know precisely what kind of word it is because
it's interchangeable with several running through my mind. All of
which neither of us want to be the first to admit. Her cheeks turn
a lovely shade of pink, making me simultaneously proud and
guilty.

I might as well
ease her mind on the other part of the dilemma. “Well, you don't
need to worry about feeling guilty because Victoria and I are
'kinda sorta' on a break of our own, too.”

Alina does a double
take, eyes widening. “You are?”

I rub the back of
my neck. “Yeah. I thought I'd surprise her before work. You're
usually already at work right now so it never crossed my mind that
it was you.”

“
Wait a
second,” she says, holding up a hand, clutching the towel to her
body tighter with the other. “How could you not tell that I wasn't
Victoria? My boobs are way smaller.” I try
hard
to refrain from laughing, but it comes out
anyway. She glares at me, nostrils flaring. Her arms cross over her
chest. “Seriously, didn't you feel a difference?”

I shudder at
the memory.
I hope
she
doesn't get the urge to look down because my cock is refusing to
forget it. “Victoria and I have never...” I trail off, almost
cringing. It's not as if we didn't want to. She told me when we
started dating over a month ago that she wanted to wait at least a
month. I respected her enough for it even though it was
difficult.
Very
difficult.

“
Wait...you
guys never...” When I shake my head, her jaw drops. “But you spent
the night here, and she stayed with you.”

My muscles
tense at her assumption. “And that instantly means we had sex?” I
don't know why I'm getting defensive. It's not as though I don't
usually move
quicker
when it
comes to the women I date.
I don’t hop into bed with a woman
I just met
, but it generally
doesn't take a whole month.

“
No, no,” she
quickly says. “No, I didn't...I didn't mean it like that. I'm
sorry.”

My lips press
together as I grimace. After what just happened, my first
inclination is to make her feel worse? What's wrong with me? “Look,
don't worry about it.”

Alina faces the
wall, leaning against it with her face buried in her hands. “God,
this is major.”

“A little, but it's not like we have anything
to feel guilty about. We didn't intentionally fool around. It was a
case of mistaken identity.”

She turns to me and
nods. “You're right. I hope we didn't wake Victoria up. I really
don't know how to explain this to her.”

The dizzying
aftereffects of almost sex with a girl who's just a friend are
wearing off. Reality is now flooding in. I frown at the realization
I'm having. “Victoria wasn't in her room. I looked before I came
into the bathroom.”

Alina shakes her
head and holds up a hand. “Hold on a minute. She's not here? Why
isn't she here?”

“
I don't
know.” Where could she have... Oh
no. “Why
did you and Drew take a break?”

She shrugs,
rolling her eyes. “He's stressed out, afraid he can't be there for
me like he should be,
insert other excuses here.
Blah, blah, blah.”

“
And it
happened last night?” The gears are turning in my head and I
don't like
the direction they're
taking me.

“
Yeah...” She
narrows her eyes. “What are you thinking?”

“
Why would
both your boyfriend and my girlfriend decide on the same day at the
same time to take a break?”

Her eyes
widen when she catches up with me. “Are you implying what I
think
you're implying?”

I reach down,
grabbing my clothes off the floor. “We have to get dressed.”

She blinks at me.
“Why? What are we doing?”

“
Investigating.” I leave the bathroom and hurriedly change
back into my clothes in Victoria's room. I need to know; it's too
much of a coincidence to be just a coincidence.

When I emerge from
the bedroom, Alina's still in the bathroom. I glance at my watch,
leaning my back against the hallway wall as I wait for her to open
the door. She comes out, fully clothed with her light brown hair
combed out. It's still as damp as mine, another reminder of the
incident.

Clearing my throat, I ask, “
You have a key to Drew's place, right?” She nods.
“Okay, let's go. I'll drive.” She wordlessly gets her purse and we
walk outside to my red pickup truck. “I'm going to leave the
windows down so our hair dries faster, if that's okay with
you.”

“
Yeah, that's
fine.” It's the first thing she's said out loud since we put our
clothes back on. As I start the truck, I peek over to get a read on
her face. While she seems somewhat reluctant to believe it's
possible that
Drew and Victoria are cheating on us with each
other, her silence shows that her mind is racing.
She's thinking back on her relationship with Drew,
questioning all the innocent words and actions. I hate the idea of
her torturing herself like that. We may not have gotten to know
each other that much over the last month, but she's a sweet girl
and she doesn't deserve it.

Alina stays in her
quiet contemplation the whole drive. I should be paying attention
to the road, but I can't stop glancing at her, wondering what's
running through her head. When we pull into the driveway of her
boyfriend's duplex right outside town, she lets out a long sigh. I
put the car in park. “Alina?”

“
Yes?” she
says quietly, looking at her hands.

“
Whatever
happens, I'm here.” She finally makes eye contact with me. “To
talk, shoulder to cry on, punching bag. Whatever you need.” I don't
know what possessed me to say all that. Maybe it's because I knew
she needed to hear it, needed to know she's got a friend in me in
case she's about to lose two people she cares about. Maybe it's
because I know that's what I would need to hear if I were
her.

She nods with a
half smile, then gets out of the truck. I follow her to the door.
Her hand hesitates at the doorknob, contemplating what we're about
to do. I touch her shoulder gently and she startles. “Sorry,” she
mutters.

“
It's okay,”
I say quietly as I let go.

Alina presses
her lips together, then she unlocks the door. We both step inside,
careful that our footsteps
aren’t loud enough to be heard.
A shrill cry followed by a giggle
comes from down the hallway. Her head snaps back to me, her eyes
suddenly filled with fiery rage. She's no longer worried about
intruding on Drew's privacy.

Before I can stop
her, she's down the hall, shoving open the bedroom door with a
bang. A screech echoes through the apartment as I come up behind
her to see precisely what neither of us was hoping to find.

Chapter Three

–
Alina –

I didn't want to
believe in the possibility, but it was the only logical
explanation. There are only so many coincidences available in the
known universe. Despite knowing all this, actually seeing it still
throws me for a loop.

Drew and
Victoria, most likely completely naked under the bedspread, stare
at us with wide eyes and pale faces. Victoria screeches,
gathering the sheets in an attempt to cover herself more. I flinch
at the memory of picking out those eight hundred-thread count
Egyptian cotton sheets...of being the only one between them with
Drew. Or so I thought.

Victoria glances
between Ryan and me, then looks directly at me and asks, “What are
you doing here? I thought you were at work.”

I blink a few
times. “And I thought you were sleeping in your bedroom staying
faithful to your boyfriend, but I guess we were both wrong.”

She reaches for her
shirt on the floor as Drew shimmies into his boxers under the
covers. “Alina, let me explain,” she pleads.

My pent-up
anger from this day surges inside me. I spit out, “Explain
what
exactly? It doesn't matter what excuses you
give, cheating is cheating. How long?”

“
What?”
Victoria asks after she gets her shirt on.

“
How long has
this been going on?” I ask slowly through clenched teeth, glancing
between them.

Victoria and Drew
exchange a guilty look. She's expecting him to speak up, to help
her defend what they did. When he doesn't, she scowls and turns
back to me. “Four months.”

My jaw drops,
my eyes snapping to Drew. “You've been cheating on me for four
months? Four
months
? You rat
bastard. I should punch you both.”

I step forward to follow my words up with the
action, but Ryan holds me at bay. He whispers in my ear, “Don't.
It's not worth it.” He looks at them and says louder,
“
They're
not worth it.”

With Ryan's
body pressing at me from behind, I nearly shudder. My body is
reacting to his touch exactly as it did before in the shower. How
is that even possible? I should just be angry right now, and
yet
my best friend’s boyfriend is turning me on
.

Is best friend even
the right term anymore?

Flaring my
nostrils, I let Ryan lead me back to the doorway. I point at
Victoria. “I want you out of the apartment.”

The shock
of
being
caught has worn off
based on the dirty look she gives me. “That place is in my name,
too, you know.”

Her instant and
snarky response shows me how little she cares about me as a friend.
It's something I should have seen coming, but I allowed myself to
believe our friendship would get better. That we would be closer
again someday like we were before.

I was fooling
myself, but not anymore.

I jerk out of
Ryan's grasp. “Fine, maybe
I'll
leave. I
can't even look at your face. Or yours,” I say to Drew. I stalk
down the hall with Ryan following close behind me.