Gravity Happens (Forcing Gravity) (12 page)

“I have a hot tub,” I offered, and then waited for her to tell me no.

“Done,” she said, forcing the single syllable word out of her chattering mouth.

I grabbed her hand and pulled her behind me up to the deck, pressing the button to start the bubbles, as she stripped off her soaking wet sweatshirt to reveal a tiny red bikini top that barely covered her full chest. Next came her cutoffs, and before I knew it, she was standing before me looking hot as fuck in a bathing suit that left very little to the imagination.

“You were going to surf in that?” I asked her as she draped her wet clothes over the balcony.

She looked up as I was lowering myself in the steaming water. I felt instant relief on my ice cold skin. She took a step toward me before lowering herself into the water opposite of where I was sitting and sighing loudly.

“This feels incredible,” she said, leaning her head back so she could rest it on the deck. After a few seconds she looked back up at me. “And no, I wasn’t planning to surf in this suit. I was planning to look sexy.”

“Mission accomplished,” I said, as I scooted around the bench seat until I was sitting next to her.

Then I took her chin in my hand and
started to bring my lips down on hers, finally giving in to what I knew she’d been hinting about since she’d shown up at my place, and what I’d pretty much wanted to do for a solid month. But then she stopped me, pulling back.

“No,” she said, and I knew it was a struggle for her to say it. I could see in her eyes how much she wanted to kiss me.

I raised an eyebrow at her. “Excuse me?”

She scooted away from me and took a deep breath. “Ethan, you can’t kiss me.”

“But, you want me to,” I reasoned.

She sighed. “I know I do, but I won’t. Not yet.”

Not yet? Was
she
playing hard to get now, because I hated when girls did that. I did not enjoy the chase as much as some guys did. When girls did that, I wanted to tell them, quit messing around and just get in my bed, because you’re going to end up there anyway, and all you’ll have accomplished by holding me off is missing out on a week of great sex. It wasn’t like I was going to fall for them. I didn’t do girlfriends, and no amount of playful teasing would make me suddenly want a girl I just wanted to sleep with to be my girlfriend.

Of course Nora was different. She was cool and fun. And maybe it wouldn’t be so bad to chase her a little bit
, but shit, we’d been dancing around this thing between us for a month. No chase needed. I knew she liked me, and she knew I liked her.

Then again,
maybe letting her tease me a little wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world. It would make the sex that much better once we had it.

I scooted close to her
, pulled my now wet hat that she was still wearing off of her head and lowered my head so our faces were just inches apart. Her green eyes darted back and forth, as if she didn’t know what to expect from me, but I wouldn’t try to kiss her again. I was just going to do a little teasing of my own.

“Here’s the thing, Nora. I think you are incredibly sexy, and you have these perfect pink lips that I really want to devour.” She swallowed hard. “But I’ll wait for you to kiss me. I’ll let you make the first move. How about that?”

She just stared at me for a few seconds, but then she nodded her head quickly.

I smiled. “Alight then. Game on.”

Then I slid back, giving her some space and a chance to catch her breath, because she looked about ready to spontaneously combust as she closed her eyes and inhaled a few times. When she opened then, her gaze zeroed in on me.

“The thing is, Ethan, I’m not sure if I’ll ever be ready to kiss you. I’m not afraid, and I’m not playing hard to get. I’m practicing self-preservation.”

Huh?
What the hell did that mean?

“I know you have feelings for Logan,” she said then, catching me off-guard. I wasn’t aware that she knew about that.

“What are you talking about?” I asked, playing dumb, but I was no actor. My brother had gotten those skills. My skills were all tied to my ability to charm people, but how the hell was I supposed to charm my way out of this one.

“Don’t play dumb,” she said, calling me out.
“I know you told her you loved her, then you took it back, but come on, I think she was the only person who actually believed that.”

I let out a deep breath and
folded my arms across in front of my chest. “I don’t want to feel what I do for her, but I can’t help it. Maybe if I had someone to take my mind off of her, it would help,” I suggested, frankly just being honest.

Nora laughed out loud. “Nice try, Easy E, but I’m not falling for that.”

“Easy E?” I questioned, laughing at her nickname for me.

She shrugged. “Oh come on, it totally fits.
If I wanted to, I could totally get into your pants right now.”

“Do you want to?” I asked, ever opportunistic.

She bit her lip and cocked her head to the side, but she didn’t respond.

She scooted closer to me, allowing her smooth, bare thigh to graze mine. “Ethan, if I asked you to go upstairs and ravage me right now, would you do it?”

In a fucking heartbeat.

“Ravage you?” I asked in amusement, my dick getting hard just thinking about that opti
on. If only she’d let me.

“Yes, ravage me,” she said, her voice rough
as she leaned ever closer to me.

“
Hell yes.”

Then she pulled back, and I realized I’d fallen for her trick.

“See, you’re easy.”

“I have standards,” I defended. “I don’t just sleep with anyone.”

“But you sleep with a lot of women, right?”

What is a lot? Really?

“I thought you said I wasn’t really a player, that it was all for show?” I asked, confused by her sudden turnaround.

She shrugged. “I think those are two separate things. You can be a genuine guy and still have a lot of sex. I think you’re totally genuine, and
you really are a good guy, but you’ve been with a lot of women, right?”

“Um, yeah, I suppose.”

Would she think I was disgusting if I told her how many women I’d been with? I hoped she didn’t ask.

“Have you been tested?”

“Uh, no. I haven’t, but I always use protection.”

She nodded. “Get tested.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Why?”

She sighed
and leaned into me. “Because, as much as I’m fighting this, I have a feeling we’re going to end up sleeping together at some point, and I want to know you’re clean before my mouth goes anywhere near you.”

Beneath the water, my dick
twitched at the thought of her mouth on me.
Holy shit!

“Your mouth?” I asked, the corner of my own mouth creeping up. I couldn’t help it. The idea of
getting a blowjob from her was making me giddy.

“Yes, Ethan. My mouth. Think about that, but keep in mind that I don’t want to be with someone who’s hung up on another girl. Logan is with Jase, and they’re not going to break up anytime soon. Trust me. My brother loves that girl more than life. He’s not letting her go. So you can move on – and be with me and my mouth – or you can continue to lust after someone you can’t have and we can be friends. I’ll let you take your pick.”

I opened my mouth to say something, but no words came out. Nora rose out of the water, her tight little body glistening in the sunlight. I so badly wanted to grab her and pull her back to me. She snagged a towel from the nearby basket and wrapped it around herself, closing me off to the great view I was enjoying. Then she turned to me.

“You don’t have to make your decision today, because I know getting over someone doesn’t happen overnight, but let me know. I’ll be waiting for you.”

As soon as she was gone, I let my head fall back against the deck and groaned. This girl was seriously going to be the death of me. She was already so far inside my head that I didn’t foresee her getting out anytime soon. And all I had to do was get over Logan, and then I could be with her.

How the hell was I supposed to manage that?

Chapter
Nine

Logan

“I kissed Ethan,” Nora announced when I walked into the café
where she worked on Wednesday. Several patrons looked up from their meals at her statement, but she didn’t seem to notice. “Actually, I totally made out with him.”

My
eyes got wide, and my jaw fell open. “You did? I thought you were playing hard to get?”

She grinned. “I’m kidding! I just wanted to see what you’d say if I told you that. I didn’t kiss him at all. Possibly in time, but for now we’re just friends.
”

“Friends? Really? But you were all excited about seeing him yesterday.”

I was totally confused, but Nora hadn’t dated anyone since we’d met, so maybe this was normal behavior for her.

She shrugged. “I just need to be sure he’s really interested in me before I take that step. You’ve told me enough stories about his usual pattern with women, and I’m not about to get caught in that trap. I like him, and he’s so freakin’ adorable, but I won’t be another woman he sleeps with for a while and then ditches. It’s so not me.”

I instantly felt bad for airing Ethan’s dirty laundry to Nora, but back when I’d told her about my best friend, I never would have thought she’d go for him. Hell, I was still having a hard time wrapping my head around it since they were really different. Nora was a good girl. Ethan usually went for fun girls, but maybe he was growing up. Maybe they’d be great for each other.

“He’s a really good guy, Nora,” I said then, just because I felt like I needed to provide a positive plug for Ethan.

She smiled. “I know he is. I can totally see beyond the façade he shows the world, and that’s why I’m willing to give him a chance.” She shrugged. “You want your usual?”

I nodded. “Please.”

She got to work making me a double mocha latte. They were super-addicting, and she’d gotten me turned on to them a few months back. I’d started hanging out at the café more and more when I needed to get out of my dorm room and needed a quiet place to study. The location of the café was in a residential area of Brentwood, so no one bothered me, and frankly even if they recognized me as Jason Brady’s girlfriend, no one had ever approached me. And I liked the feeling of anonymity.

Ever sinc
e Jase and I had gone public, I felt like I was under a microscope at school. Occasionally people approached me and asked me if I was his girlfriend, which usually led to them asking if they could meet him or if I could get them an autograph. And it was hard to tell them politely that, no I couldn’t do that, when what I really wanted to say was, ‘Are you kidding me? I don’t even know you, and you’re brazen enough to approach me in the library and ask for my boyfriend’s autograph? Get a life’.

But I never said that. And I didn’t tell Jase. He’d be pissed if he knew people were bugging me about him at school. When we were out together and he was recognized, he signed autographs for fans, but I knew he hated it. Just the week before we’d been shopping on Melrose, and he’d been spotted. It started out as just a few people, but the crowd then grew in numbers, and they started to shove me out of the way to get to Jase. As soon as he’d see
n that, his hand had clamped onto my wrist, and he’d signaled for Charlie, who had been standing a few feet away from us, to intervene.

I knew it bugged him to have to do that, but fans could get out of control if left to their own devices, and he wasn’t taking any chances. It was why he’d hired Charlie in the first place. He’d wanted to hire me a security detail, as well, and we’d actually gotten into an argument about it a few months back, because I was not about to live my life with a shadow. I wasn’t famous. My boyfriend was famous. That was it. I was totally fine with Charlie tagging along when we went places, because he was a nice guy, and it made me feel better about Jase’s safety, but I didn’t need that myself.

As Nora made my drink and toasted me a sesame bagel, because I was predictable as hell and ordered the same thing each time I came in, I went and settled into my favorite armchair in the corner by the window and spread out my books. I had major reading to do for my philosophy class, which I hadn’t been excited about taking, but I’d sort of grown to love it. The material was a little bland, but my professor made it fantastically interesting, relating it back to current moral issues that the world faced.

Nora set my latte and my bagel slathered in veggie cream cheese in front of me and went back behind the counter where I noticed she was reading a textbook herself. She spent a lot of downtime at the café studying, which might have been part of the reason why I liked hanging out there. Although we went to different schools and had different majors, we were both freshmen, so it felt relatable.

Thirty minutes later my phone rang. I inwardly groaned when I saw it was my mother and debated not answering. No, that would only make things worse.