Man Up Party Boy (11 page)

"So you're not mad at me?"

"Are you kidding, I lo. . ."

She stops mid-sentence, as if she caught herself and doesn't want to say it. I know exactly how she feels because I want to say it every time I look at her tonight. But that's not possible, is it? It's too soon, and I won't go there. I won't even make her think it unless I know it's absolutely true.

"What do you say we go congratulate the bride and groom, then head back?"

"I'd say i
t’
s a fabulous idea."

Chapter 15

Lexi

I almost said it. I can't help but think it would spook him if I did. I don't need him to freak out or feel funny if he can't say it back. I can tell by the way he acts he's there, too. But he needs to figure it out on his own.

"Never be the first to say I love you. Never let a guy know how much you care. They're all no good. Useless pieces of flesh."

My mother drilled this into me from the time my father left. She'd be disappointed if she saw me now. I'd never hear the end of it. I can't help letting Noah know how much I care. I'm sure he sees it in my eyes every time I look at him.

"Why are you so quiet?" His hand moves up my thigh.

"Just thinking."

"About?"

"Whether or not I should do this while you're driving," I say as I reach under my dress and pull the black thong down my legs, taking it off completely and twirling around my index finger.

Noah's hand moves between my legs and cups me. He groans, and it's so damn sexy.

"This is my new favorite place. This is where I want to start my day, and end it. This is where I want to be when your happy, but even more when you're not, because this is where I can make you forget the world outside of us exists."

*

"I want you so bad it hurts."

The second the door closes behind us, his lips are on my neck, his hands move greedily from my hair down to my breasts. He's breathing heavy as his tongue runs up my neck and he grinds his hips into me. I shove his jacket off his shoulders and slide it down his arms with urgency. His hands break contact with me momentarily so I can slip it off, and toss it to the floor.

Noah's hands move under my dress and cup my ass. I want his shirt off now, but my heart is pounding so hard and fast my fingers shake and my hands tremble. I'm moving too slow, unable to get the buttons open fast enough. I think about ripping it open because I want to run my hands over his chest. I want to trace every defined line of muscle with my tongue. I have a raging fire burning inside me. It's out of control with deadly flames that threaten to spread and destroy everything in their path, everything that isn't Noah. Only he can calm the wildfire. Only he can contain me.

Noah groans as he clutches my thighs, lifts me, and backs me against a wall. His hips press into me and a loud, breathless moan escapes from my mouth. I wrap my legs around his waist, ready for him to take me here. Now. Just like this.

"Get this off," he orders before crushing his mouth over mine.

My clumsy fingers reach for the zipper hidden on the side of the dress, and pull it down as he carries me up to his room. Noah places me down on the bed. He's standing over me, his crisp white shirt now open and hanging out of his pants. I know he's ready, I see it in his hooded eyes, and in how he's straining against the material of his pants. He works to help me out of my dress, and then stops.

The pause is painful as Noah stands over me, raking his eyes over every inch of my naked body. He looks like he's in some sort of a trance as his eyes blaze and scorch my skin.

"Noah," I call to him in a pleading tone. "Noah, please."

I don't wait for him to make a move. Instead I reach for his belt buckle. I chance a look up into his eyes and I'm struck by the tenderness in them. I swear if he keeps looking at me like this, he won't even have to touch me to make me cum. He's looking at me like I'm the most beautiful girl, like I'm the only girl in the world he can see, and nothing has ever turned me on more.

Once his fly is down, Noah snaps back to life. He rushes to roll a condom on, climbs on top of me, and runs one hand down the length of my body. Once again Noah's mouth explores the area between my neck and my shoulder. By the time he enters me, I'm screaming out, louder than ever, wanting to feel him thrust harder, deeper, rougher. Needing him to push my body over the edge. Each time we come together like this, we burn hotter, fly higher than the time before. All I can think about is how close to release I am and how bad I need it.

"Noah!" I scream his name as my body spasms and shudders around him. I think I'm satisfied. That this carnal hunger inside me has been fed and satiated. Almost immediately that ball of need in my belly is there again. I'm screaming his name, clutching him, holding him tight to me. Wave after wave of pleasure washes over me, and I know without a doubt, he owns my heart, body and soul.

*

I rest my head against Noah's chest as he strokes my arm. I'm glad that he can't see the goofy smile I'm unable to wipe off my face.

"Can you do something for me?" I ask.

"Yeah, sure," his voice is soft.

"Don't let me forget this feeling. I don't ever want to forget how amazing I feel when I'm with you."

He squeezes me in response. "You're not the only one, Lexi. I don't want to forget either. More than that, I don't want this feeling to ever end."

Happy in his arms, I drift off to sleep.

Chapter 16

Noah

Clang, clang, clang!

What the fuck?

It sounds again, Clang, clang, clang.

I shoot up into a sitting position. My heart races as I try to place what that noise is, and where it's coming from.

"What's going on?" Lexi asks, sleep heavy in her voice.

"Shh."

I listen carefully, there are footsteps. My heart rate spikes further. Fuck. Someone's in the house. I retrace our steps last night. I was so focused on Lexi, on getting her out of her dress and into my bed, I don't remember locking the front door.

"Lexi, baby, get up," I whisper giving her a shake.

"What's going on?"

"Go put some clothes on, someone's in the house."

Her eyes open wide.

"I'm sure it's some sort of mistake. Maybe someone realized they left with the key and they're returning it," I lie looking around the room for something I can use as a weapon.

"Noah, I'm scared." I see the fear in her eyes.

I kiss the top of her head, "Just stay in here until I get back."

I grab a pair of shorts from my draw and pull them on.

"Lexi! Noah!" a voice calls just before I open the bedroom door.

My blood turns to ice in my veins. Cooper. What the fuck is he doing here? I don't look back at Lexi, I can't. Not until I get rid of him.

"Coop?" I call leaving the bedroom and pulling the door closed behind me.

"You dog." He grins looking up the steps holding my suit jacket. "You got lucky last night?"

"What are you doing here? What happened to Italy?"

An annoyed sound escapes him. "Didn't you get my email? I told you I was coming home early."

Fuck. I remember seeing it on my phone just before Lexi came down the steps in that mind blowing dress.

"I got sort of distracted and haven't had a chance to read it."

"Selene told me to fuck off."

"Why? What happened?"

Cooper walks into the kitchen and takes a seat at the table, making himself at home. This break-up with Selene must be bothering him because he wants to talk about it. Cooper never wants to talk.

"Bitch went on a day trip to Paris, told me she'd be back late that night."

"No. You didn't. Please, tell me you have more class than that."

"You're one to talk. I tried to stay out of trouble, I really did. I went to the touristy sites, and I met this Italian woman who offered to show me around for the day. Big beautiful brown eyes, nice tits, and an ass . . ."

"So naturally you brought her back to your room and fucked her."

With his elbow on the table he rests his forehead in his hand and I can see this is taking a toll on him. I feel bad, but he deserves to feel a little of the pain he dishes out.

"Selene got back a lot earlier than I expected. Bitch freaked the fuck out."

"Maybe part of the problem is that you keep referring to her as bitch. Maybe if you showed her you cared, treated her with more respect, none of this would've happened. And maybe, just maybe you should've kept your little soldier in his fox hole until she got back from her trip."

"Fuck you. Where's my sister?"

I look away, my stomach is a jumbled ball of nerves. "How the fuck should I know?"

"Lexi!" Coop yells.

I hope she listens to me and stays in the bedroom. I need to get him out of here before he finds out
she's
the girl in my bed.

"You know, she's usually on the beach doing yoga or some shit. Why don't you go out there and see if you can find her."

His face lights up with understanding. "Oh, I'm sorry. You've still got the girl up there. Dude, I didn't mean to interrupt." He claps his hand on my shoulder.

"You didn't. Just . . . You know . . . Let me get rid of her, send her on her way so we can catch up." I close my eyes because I hate myself for saying that. I hate that I'm acting like I don't give a shit about the girl on the other side of my bedroom door, when all I want to do is tell Cooper how much she means to me. But I can't tell him anything until she's dressed and out of my room.

"Oh, you're embarrassed. Fucking beer goggles. Is she fat or ugly?"

"Neither. Now get out of here," my voice is stern. I'm losing my patience with him, and for the first time since we've been friends, I can't stomach listening to his bullshit, or being with him for another minute. Not when I can be with Lexi.

"Then call her down, let me give her the once over."

"No! Now go look for your sister and come back in about twenty minutes."

"Look at you talking tough. You take my advice, use a hot piece of ass to get over Dina, and you won't even let me check her out. This is bullshit. Come on." He makes a move toward the steps and I jump up and block his way."

"Cooper, trust me on this, she's not your type."

"Then it's not a big deal for me to sneak a peek."

"No."

"Man this one must be fat
and
ugly if you're that desperate to keep me away."

"Yeah, well what can I say. You can only do as good as the girls in the vicinity."

I hate myself right now. I hope Lexi isn't listening. I'll explain everything as soon as I get him to leave. But he needs to fucking leave or it's all going to go to shit in a heartbeat. I run my hands through my hair, trying not to lose my cool, but one more fucking word and I'll punch him in the face.

"That bad, huh?"

"Get the fuck out of here. NOW!" I say through gritted teeth.

"No, Noah. Let him stay."

I hear her voice, and my heart aches, because I hear pain in it, and I'm not sure how much she heard. It's hard to breathe. I feel like an elephant is using my chest as a trampoline. If she listened, if she heard any of what was just said, I came off as a complete douche bag. I can't turn to look at her.

"Lexi?" Cooper asks as if he can't believe his ears. "You?" he sounds disgusted as he realizes where she came from.

"I thought you were going to tell him?"

"I am. I will." I look up at her dressed in my clothes. The shirt is large and baggy. She's holding the shorts at the waist, and she looks just as beautiful and sexy as she did in her dress last night. In fact she looks more beautiful because she's dressed in my clothes. All I want to do is rush to her side and reassure her that I didn't mean one word of what I just said to Cooper.

"You fucked my sister?" Cooper shoves my shoulders. "You fucking dick head. I'll fucking kill you! You fucked my sister?"

"It's not like that." I try to find the right words to defend myself.

"Don't fucking lie to me, you fucked my sister!" He shoves me again.

She's not saying anything. I look up at her standing at the top of the landing, and she's wiping a tear from beneath her eye. A tear I caused. I can't fight him. I need to get to her.

"You don't own me Cooper. I'm not your property."

"Great. I don't own you, so you give yourself to the first loser that comes along?"

"He's not the first guy I had sex with."

"It doesn't fucking matter, Alexis. You think he likes you? That he gives a crap about you?"

"I do."

He continues as if he didn't hear me, as if I didn't say anything. "Didn't you hear the things he just said? He fucked you to pay me back for going to Italy. That's all this was, you were payback because he was pissed at me."

"Shut up, Cooper. That's not true and you know it." It's lame, but at least I said something.

"Oh really?" Cooper pulls his phone from his pocket, opens his email and starts reading.

"Coop, I can't believe you're bailing on me and saddling me with your bitch of a sister. Wait dude, payback's a bitch, and you can bet your sweet ass I'll be paying you back in spades."

Lexi's biting her bottom lip, fighting back the tears watering her eyes. I shake my head, as if my denial will somehow take her pain away.

"That was before, when he first told me. Lexi, I swear. That's not what this is about."

"He doesn't like you, Alexis. Don't you remember he said you were fat and disgusting. That you repulsed him. Do you think he sees you any differently now that you're a few pounds less? Because I know him, and I can tell you for a fact Noah never gave you a second look. You'll never be anything more than my fat little sister." He's hurting her on purpose. His words hit her, like fists and I want to kill him. "You were a convenient lay. Fucking you paid me back for leaving him in the lurch and helped him deal with the fact the girl he really wants is getting fucked by her husband."

"You son of a bitch!" I can't hold back any more. I shove him so hard he falls back on his ass. I hope it shuts his mouth. "You're a liar, Cooper."

I want to deck him. The only thing stopping me is Lexi. I don't want to make this worse for her, and right now I can see the anger, the betrayal in her eyes. I'm enemy number one. If I go after Cooper it will look like it's because he's telling the truth, and he's not. I just don't know how to get her to listen to me.

"I have the email right here, sis. You can take a look for yourself."

She shakes her head. "No."

Her voice is cracking with emotion. I need to get to her. I take the steps two at a time. As soon as she sees me coming, she makes a run for it, ducks into her bedroom and locks the door. I know I can kick it down, but I also know that won't solve anything and might even make her retreat further away from me.

I pound at her door, desperate for her to open it. Desperate to see her face.

"Lexi, I swear, that's not what happened. Please, open the door and talk to me."

"I know what I heard."

"I didn't mean it. Not one word. I was just trying to get rid of him."

"Go the fuck away. I hate you," she screams in between loud, ugly sobs.

I never thought words could hurt so much. That something that lacks physical substance could pulverize me. But these words are heavy hitting and hard to swallow. They cut me, slice me open. My heart bleeds, and there's nothing I can do to stop it. Nothing but pack my things, and leave until I can think of a way to win Lexi back.

*

My phone buzzes, and I jump for it. I hope it's Lexi. She won't answer my calls. She won't return my texts either. Disappointment seeps from my lungs as I stare at a picture of Troy's face on my phone. I don't answer. I can't. I haven't seen or spoken to anyone since I came home three days ago.

I listen to the voicemail. Marlena had the baby in the middle of the night. It's a girl, seven pounds two ounces, and Troy is over the moon.

I should go. It's the right thing to do. They're the first of my friends to become parents. Maybe, for like thirty seconds or something, I'll think of something other than Lexi.

Troy's sitting in a chair staring down at the tiny bundle in his arms that appears to be three quarters blanket, with a tiny face and cap on top. Marlena is next to them resting in bed, her eyes closed.

"Congratulations." I whisper entering the room with the giant helium balloon shaped like a baby bottle in one hand, and a fuzzy pink teddy bear in the other that I just purchased in the gift shop.

Troy smiles at me, and I swear the fucker is glowing. It's like he has a light inside him that just flipped on.

"Who knew something this small would become my whole world in a matter of hours."

"She's beautiful."

"Yes, she is," he says in a voice one would only ever use with a small child. "My little Mia is the most beautiful girl in the world."

Marlena, who had her eyes closed a second ago clears her throat.

"Because she looks just like her mommy."

The baby is sleeping contentedly in her father's arms, like she knows she wrapped him around her finger already, and that she has nothing to ever worry about because for the rest of his life, Troy is going to do anything and everything he can to ensure her happiness. It's beautiful, and for the first time, my life feels empty and meaningless.

"You're not looking so good there, Noah," Marlena says. "And since Lexi isn't with you I'm guessing you had a lover's quarrel."

I take a deep breath. "She doesn't want anything to do with me. Cooper came home, and caught us together. I wanted to tell him, but not while she was literally in my bed."

"That must have went over well," Troy snickers.

"In minutes he did everything he could to get her to hate me."

"I'm sorry, Noah. Give her some time, she'll come around."

I shook my head. "She won't. It was ugly man. She didn't trust me to begin with, and then he wouldn't leave, so I was saying anything to try and get him to go before he found out. She thinks I don't care. And she's not going to listen to one word I have to say unless Cooper admits he lied, and that's never going to happen."

"Lied?" Troy enters the conversation. "What about?"

I give the happy couple the abridged version of my week with Lexi. One week that changed my life forever. It feels good to get it out and hash through it with someone. I start at the beginning with the whole party boy perception Cooper created, and the awful things he claimed I said about her, the worse things I did say with her listening on the other side of the door. They listen like the good friends they are.