Bound Together (12 page)

I stretched my arms over my head, exposing a strip of bare skin at the waistband of my jeans.
I had no game when it came to seduction. I wanted to do something that made his man pa
rts bigger.
I lingered there with my arms above my head
like a clumsy fool
. His expression was more
are you okay
than
you have my full attention
.
Great.
Just what I needed.
I dropped my arms down to my sides.
 

Chapter Fourteen

Matt

Zoey
was acting kind of strange. She
sat
down
at the desk in my room,
and
flipp
ed
through my travel guide while chewing on the end of
a pen. T
he way her open mouth worked around the pen
put me in a
trance. Damn, why was she so orally fixated and was it causing my sex
drive
to kick into action?  I reached over and took the pen from her mouth. 

“Can you stop that? It’s a little distracting.”

“Hmm?”
She looked up at me and pierced me with her blue eyes.

I grabbed a book off the side table and covered my lap.

“What the fuck is that?”
Zoey
asked, pointing at my lap.

Shit. I was busted
. I pressed the book closer to my stomach, hoping I was concealing my
crotch
, but refusing to look down.

She reached for the book and removed it from my lap. But instead of focusing on the budge in my jeans, she studied the cover of the book. I exhaled the breath I’d been holding in. The blood flow started to recirculate throughout my body and I realized she was still waiting for an answer on the book.

“Is this yours?”

I nodded.

“You read poetry?”

I nodded again. She stood and walked across the room to the tiny window, still holding the book. She set it on the window sill and moved the curtains aside to look out the window.

“I write it too.”
I’d never told anyone that before.

“Cool.” She turned and smiled at me in that way she did, raising just one corner of her mouth, so I couldn’t tell if it was a smile.
“Will you show it to me?”

“Um, probably not.
I don’t really show it to anyone.” I shifted under her gaze. She took a step towards the door, almost testing her weight. I wasn’t convinced she actually wanted to leave. And that thought pushed me forward. “I had fun with you today.
”
I reached up and gave her an awkward high five. It was really just an excuse to touch her, to see if she’d let me, but the second our hands touched and then fell apart, I realized how weak my attempt was.

“Me too.”
She looked at me strangely. Then
yawned and stretched her arms over her head
again, which gave me a nice peek at her
stomach ,
which
looked smooth and flat. “Well, I guess I should g
et going.
” She
started past me on her way to the door,
and I’m not sure what made me do, but I reached out and grabbed her wrist.

“
Don’t go
.”

She stood in front
of
where I sat on the bed and waited for me to unhand her, only I didn’t
. My heart raced
. Had the mixture of flirting and bickering all week led to this? Or had I read the situation between us entirely wrong? I knew she could
probably
tell I wanted to kiss her by the way I was watching her mouth, but she wasn’t pulling away from me. I stood up in front of her, the height difference
between us even
more exaggerated at this close distance. I looked down into her eyes.

“You want me to stay?” she whispered. She swallowed and
bit her bottom lip while she waited for me to answer.

I nodded. We stood like that for a few seconds more, only it seemed like forever. I knew I was taking too long. I don’t know why, but she intimidated me. Should I just bend down and kiss her?
Wa
s that what she wanted me to do?
Or would she laugh and push me away? I wasn’t sure if I’d read this situation completely wrong, which was entirely possible.

Tired of waiting,
Zoey
pulled me in by my belt buckle and planted her lips firmly on mine. Once our
lips
met, I was momentarily stunned that I was actually kissing her, but I caught on
pretty
quickly and covered her
mouth
with mine. Sh
e was a good kisser, j
ust like I’d imagined
while watching her play with that pen in her mouth
. She was more frantic than I expected, and it sent a wave of heat through me. 

I pulled back from her.
“Wait. What were we doing?”

“You want to talk
?
N
ow?
”
She rolled her eyes. “
Of course you do.”

I took a deep breath then pulled her to the edge of the bed to sit with me. I brushed
my
fingers along her cheek
, involuntarily touching her again
. “I mean if we mess around
—
we’ll still have to work togethe
r and it might be weird. W
e shouldn’t right? We’re just friends.”

“I didn’t know you’d want to dissect it play by play. Besides, we’re not friends. More like frenemies,” she said.

“Frenemies?”

“Or frenemies with benefits,” she added. I gave her a confused look. She pushed my shoulders back onto the bed
so that I was lying down
. “That okay with you?”
She
bent down and
kiss
ed
me again without waiting for
an
answer. Her lips were hot and tasted like cinnamon gum.
I forgot my previous argument and
I rolled over on top of her and kissed her back, more deeply this time.

*****

The hour long make out session with
Zoey
was not nearly enough, but we had to go meet the group
downstairs
for a bus trip t
o a nearby winery to learn about the wine making process
. When she left my room to go downstairs, she didn’t even look back.
And then, on our tour of the winery
, she walked ahead of me with Amanda and Stephanie, even though I knew she didn’t really like them.
Zoey
was quiet at dinner and didn’t sit near me on the bus ride back. I wondered
if she regretted what happened earlier or if it was just a one
-
time thing. It was l
ate when we got back
and
instead of trying to go out in the little time we had left before curfew, I went to my room alone.

A few minutes later, I heard a knock at the door and found Zoey standing there.

“Can I come in?” she peeked around me to see if Bobby was inside.

I stepped aside.
“Of course.”

She came in and sat down on my bed. Man this was messing with my head, sometimes she seemed interested in me and other times she completely ignored me. I wasn’t sure what was going on with us, but somehow, that only made me want to find out more.

“So, what’s up?” I stood in front of her.

“I thought you could use a little company.”
She put her hands on my hips, and just that small touch sent bolts through my stomach, bringing all my senses to full attention. “Plus, I thought earlier was fun.”

I swallowed.

She scooted further onto my bed and lay down on the pillow. Apparently we weren’t going to talk, but I wasn’t going to wait for a formal invitation. I lay down on top of her, covering her body with mine. I held myself up on my forearms, keeping most of my weight off her. “Am I too heavy?”

“No,” she breathed against my mouth. I could tell she’d brushed her teeth. Damn. Why hadn’t I thought to do the same? Probably because I didn’t know she’d come over after ignoring me the rest of the day.

She ran her hands along my biceps and pressed her lips to mine. I kissed her back and opened her mouth. Her tongue was soft and firm at the same time and the way it lingered around mine was getting me hot. I pressed my hips into her and she wrapped one leg around my back, drawing me even closer. God, she was sexy. She wiggled her way out from underneath me, and pushed me down onto my back, straddling me. She pressed her hips into me and bent down to
kiss me. She was wearing her hair down again and it fell around us, creating a curtain. She lifted my T-shirt and ran her hands over my stomach.

“Damn.” She lifted my shirt to inspect me
further.

“What?” I asked trying to sit up to see what was wrong.

“You have a six-pack.”

“Oh.” I fell back onto the pillow. “You like?” I teased.

“Very much.”
She smiled.

I cupped her jaw in my hands. “Come here.” I guided her mouth back to mine.

The door opened and light streamed into the room. We sprang apart from each other, sitting up on the bed and straightening our clothes. Bobby stood in the doorway, looking smug.

He flipped on a lamp. “Next time, leave a sock on the doorknob man, I had no idea you had a….lady in here.”

I didn’t like the way he hesitated around the word
lady
, but it wasn’t something I was going to address right now.

“It’s cool—I was just leaving anyways,” Zoey said. She hurried out of the room without looking back or saying goodbye, leaving me watching the door long after it closed.

“What was up with that?” Bobby asked, still staring at me.

I wish he’d turn away—I had a raging hard-on that I needed to adjust. I shrugged. “I don’t know,” I admitted.

Chapter Fifteen

Zoey

The days quickly turned into Matt and I looking for ways to be alone together. Meeting in my room after Amanda left for the day, or his room at night when Bobby was out, ducking around the sides of buildings on our walks in the city, or
heading down
deserted hallways of the museums we visited
to
get away from the group
, but it never seemed like we had enough time.
We were always interrupted before either of us could get our fill.

It was really unexpected the way I seemed to crave him, his very
lickable
lips, the way he trembled when I touched him and
how
he seemed fascinated by playing with my hair. He was definitely a fun plaything.
My very own euro
-
fling.
Morgan was going to shit when I told her I hooked up with Matt on this trip. It was just like she predicted. M
aybe she knew something I didn’t
—
that preppy guys like Matt liked to go slumming from time to time.

I used our hotel’s ancient desktop computer to log in to my email and send a note to Ty
midway through our trip
. I was almost afraid to check in and get bad news about how things were going at home, but in the end, my curiosity won out. I typed a quick note asking
about what
w
as happening at home
and hit send. I didn’t expect to get a note back so quickly, given the time difference, but Ty’s reply popped up when I was halfway through clearing out all the spam
in my inbox
.

Sis, things are weird w/out you. Mom’s annoying me and keeps forgetting stuff, like that we need lunches packed.
I’m trying to help out but you’re better at this than me.
When are you coming home?

Ps. Don’t worry
about
Pete, he’s doing fine.

Ty

I knew it was a strange reaction, but tears welled up in my eyes. It felt good to be needed and missed.
And I was relieved to hear Pete’s asthma was under control. I’d never forgive my mother if something happened while I wasn’t there.
When I was home in my daily rhythm, sometimes I felt invisible, like no one really paid attention
to
all that I did to keep the house running. My dad was clueless, since he was always at work, and the kids just excepted
that I would
always be there. But now that I was away, maybe they’d appreciate everything I did more now that they’d experienced what life was like without me.