Skin Tight (Skin Deep #4) (14 page)

He shook his head, stretching his glorious body under the sheet. “Nah, I’m good. I’ll probably head over to see what Brandon’s up to, then. But before you do anything, you need to bring that sexy ass of yours over here and kiss me.”

I smiled at him before I jumped into bed, landing on my knees beside him. He pulled me into his arms across his body and pressed his lips to mine in a sweet, but totally toe-curling kiss.

I finally broke away on a moan when I heard Chloe yelling for me to hurry up. “Damn you’re good at that,” I sighed. With a quick smack to his chest, I bounded from the bed, scolding, “Now keep your lips to yourself or I’ll never get out of here.”

He laughed softly behind me, stacking his hands behind his head as he watched me get dressed. And yes, I may have put a little extra wiggle in my hips as I did it…but I heard no complaints.

When Chloe yelled at me again, I leaned over the side of the bed and kissed Ian quickly, hollering goodbye as I dashed out of the room. Chloe was holding a travel mug in one hand, my purse and keys in the other, urging me out the door.

“Geez,” I muttered, taking the mug and everything else from her. “I just woke up and you’re rushing me…feel like I’m getting kicked out of my own house!”

She pushed me out the door, pulling it shut behind her. “Grumble all you want, but today is going to be awesome. So smile, sunshine!”

I smirked, walking to the passenger side of her car. “Isn’t that illegal?”

“Huh?”

“Calling someone sunshine. I thought that was reserved solely for your future husband when speaking to you.”

She tsked. “Someone’s grouchy. You just sit back and drink your coffee…leave the rest to me. For now, at least…”

Chapter 21

“Chloe, we need to get going! We’re going to be late for your own bachelorette party!” I cried, looking at my phone to check the time. “We have an hour to get ready and everyone will be showing up!”

She waved her hand at me, indicating she heard me, but not bothering to move any quicker.

“I have to find something really cute to wear tonight.” She moved down another aisle, sorting through skirts one by one.

“We’ve been to five stores today, not counting the liquor store. The outfit you bought at the first place is super hot, so let’s go!” I whined, slumping along behind her. “Seriously, the limo will be picking us up in an hour.”

She stopped in her tracks. “You got me a limo?” she asked, incredulously.

I blinked at her. “That’s what got your attention? Not the fact that we’re running late?”

“A limo?” she repeated.

“Oh my God, Chloe, yes! A limo! How the hell else are we supposed to get around when we’re all drinking? We used one for Emma’s party, why would you think we wouldn’t do the same for you?”

“Well, I don’t know,” she hedged. “I just figured…I mean it’s not like I’m family or anything. I just…” she shrugged.

My eyes narrowed at her and she swallowed. “Not family? Chloe, you
are
family, and if I ever hear you say otherwise, I’m gonna punch you in the face. I’m being totally serious, too.”

Her eyes filled up with tears and she rushed in to give me a tight hug. “I don’t know how I got so lucky to find such great friends…family,” she hurried to finish when I cleared my throat at her.

I hugged her back even tighter. “You deserve it all, sweetie. Now, can we go get ready now? You got me up early to shop and eat food all day, and I was supposed to be getting stuff together for the party.”

“Pshaw. You’ve had the bags ready to go for a couple weeks now, so don’t give me that. You just wanted to spend the day in bed with Ian.”

I grinned. “Is there something wrong with that?”

She grinned back. “No, but I figured since Brandon had to go in to work for a couple hours and I couldn’t spend the day in bed with him, you wouldn’t get to do it with your man.”

“You bitch!” I yelled, laughing,

With that, I was able to finally drag her away from the stores and home to get dolled up for her party night. We’d been gone so long that Ian was on his way out when we got to my house, looking sexy as hell in a fitted button down and tight, ripped jeans.

I stepped in front of him and tipped my face up for his kiss. “You look so yummy,” I drawled, winking up at him.

“Yummy?” he snorted, quirking a brow at me.

“Yep. I said yummy. You got a problem with that?”

He shook his head and smiled fondly. “I suppose not.”

I kissed him briefly and moved around him, stopping only to smack his ass as I hollered, “Now get your ass outta here! We got girly shit to do!”

His answering laughter followed him through the kitchen and out into the garage as he left.

After that, it was nothing but a flurry of activity as both Chloe and I got dressed up to go out on the town to celebrate her upcoming nuptials. Thank God I had two bathrooms, because both of us had to shower, since we’d been here, there, and everywhere all over town that day.

Forty-five minutes later, my sisters and Allie showed up, and not long after that, the Moms all came. And by the Moms, I meant my mom, Jan; Allie’s mom, Daisy; Chloe’s mom, Sarah; and yes, even Nanny, Allie’s grandma. Needless to say, it was shaping up to be one interesting evening, because Nanny was a last minute edition; the last we’d heard, she’d said she was, ‘too old to be gadding about town like a harlot.’ Not to mention, we were planning on hitting up the strip club tonight, too, and God only knows how that was gonna go with Nanny riding along.

But whatever happened, I knew it was gonna be fun.

I started passing out goody bags, saving all the items I’d gotten for Chloe for last. Before I’d even turned around with Chloe’s Bride-to-Be sash, Nanny had a penis headband on her head, the kind with the two big-ish penises attached to long, floppy springs (I didn’t buy that), a penis shaped shot glass on a beaded necklace looped around her neck (okay, so I did buy
that
), and she’d opened up her jumbo cock pop and stuck it in her mouth.

Every single one of us stood there with varying expressions of horror, shock, and humor plastered on our faces as she twirled the oversized, penis-shaped sucker in her mouth before popping it out and saying, “Mmm…blueberry. Why can’t all of ‘em taste that good? I know I’d be more likely to put it in my mouth on a regular basis if they did. Hmm.”

She cocked her head and stared at me. “You got any more of those things? Maybe I could just wet it down and rub it along-”

“Nanny!” Allie gasped, and her mom was right there with her, yelling, “Mom!”

My mom just shook her head and grinned while Sarah blinked, not quite used to Nanny’s antics yet.

Yep. This was definitely gonna be an interesting night.

Four hours later, we’d had dinner at Manny’s (kind of tradition at this point), we’d been to a couple of bars, including Griff’s, and were just leaving Shimbots, where Emma’s friend, Needa Mann, had bought us all two rounds of shots. She tried to get us to stay for her drag show, but we were on our way to the strip club.

I’d reserved a table up front, just like Allie had done for Emma, with Chloe seated right by the stage. Her cheeks were flushed with alcohol and happiness, just as I imagined most of our faces were.

Nanny had tussled a little bit with Allie, who’d just so happened to take the seat across from Chloe, which put her right by the stage, as well. Eh…maybe it wasn’t so much of a tussle as Nanny just told Allie to move her scrawny ass because she was sitting there because she has bad eyesight and needs to be able to see those ‘dangling wangers’ up close.

Nanny’s kind of a perv. But we love her.

***

I barely cracked open my eyelids and slammed them back down, squeezing them tightly shut against the bright sunlight flooding the room.

I burrowed deeper into the blankets and cuddled closer to the super-soft, sweet smelling pillow under my cheek.

A rumble of laughter caught my attention, but the words that followed it had my eyes popping open wide.

“I’m not sure if we should be aroused or amused at this point,” a low, sleep laden voice mused.

My eyes widened even more as they took in the view directly in front of them, which was the t-shirt clad chest of someone decidedly female. The body of which my arm was wrapped around, whose arm was also thrown over my side, so that we were basically sleep-hugging.

I raised my head, shaking it and blinking as I looked around. I had a head-ache, that’s for sure…and I know things got a little fuzzy last night after the last pink panty dropper I’d had (the cocktail, not the punch), but I didn’t think I’d drank enough to warrant waking up wrapped around my best friend. The kicker of it, though, was when I raised my head, I’d noticed the Chloe and I weren’t alone in the bed.

In fact, I was staring into the grinning face of Brandon, who was lying on the other side of Chloe…and when I turned my head, it was to see the also-grinning face of Ian, who was lying behind me.

“Uh…” I couldn’t say anything else.

Our arms were still around each other when I glanced down to see Chloe staring up at me, frowning.

Her head jerked back and she squinted, her mouth opening and closing, but nothing came out.

“Good morning, Sunshine,” Brandon said softly behind her.

I had to laugh when Chloe’s eyes got even bigger and her head spun around in shock. “Oh my God! What the fuck is happening here?” she cried, then screeched when she lifted her head to see Ian still lying behind me, his head propped up on his hand.

“Ian? Why…did we…how drunk was I?” she moaned, plopping her head back down on the pillow and trying to cover her face with her hands, gaping at me when she realized that we’d been holding each other.

Finally, Ian broke the stunned silence permeating the room. “You two were sleeping when we got home, so we crawled in here with you since every other surface in our house was taken, unless we wanted to pull an Emma and Allie and sleep on the kitchen table and counters.”

“Huh? I asked, carefully removing my arm from Chloe and sitting up. “What do you mean?” Then I snorted, the situation really hitting me. “Guess it’s a good thing we have a king size bed, huh?”

I grinned at the round of chuckles that brought from my other bedmates.

We all sat up and Brandon chimed in. “Well, Nanny and Daisy are in the spare bedroom, snoring up a storm. Allie and Emma are sharing the couch, and Chloe’s mom is in the recliner.”

“Where’s my mom?” I asked.

“Oh, your dad picked her up when he was dropping the babies off to my brother and Jacks. And he said to tell you that he loves you, he loves your sisters, and he loves your brother, but the next time you all go out and leave him and Noah with all the kids, he’s killing you all.”

“Well, he volunteered,” I muttered. “Besides, I don’t even have a kid, so why’s he telling you to tell me?”

Brandon smiled evilly. “He said to pass it along to each and every one of you, including your mom. But you get to tell her now that I told you.”

“Chicken shit,” I coughed out, barely attempting to conceal my words.

He nodded solemnly, making me laugh again.

I stretched, almost knocking Ian off the bed in the process. With a sheepish smile, I apologized and suggested that we get up and go wake everyone else.

As Brandon walked by me, I reached up and wacked the back of his head, making him wince and yell, “Hey! What the hell was that for?”

“That was for your comment, you ass!”

“What comment?” he said, defensively.

I answered him, deepening my voice comically as I mocked, “
I don’t know if we should be amused or aroused right now.”

Brandon drew back and huffed exaggeratedly. “That’s not what I said.”

“Yes, it was!” I shouted. “Don’t you lie!”

“I’m not lying,” Brandon stated simply. “You just didn’t say exactly what I said.
I
said, I’m not sure if we should be aroused or amused at this point.”

I rolled my eyes. “Seriously? That’s almost exactly what I just said, just with a couple different words. You’re such a smart ass, Brandon. You know that?”

“I know,” he replied, smugly.

I just walked away from him, shaking my head.

I heard movement in the kitchen and went to investigate while Chloe gently shook my sister’s shoulder, trying to get her up.

I stopped dead in the doorway to the kitchen, grunting when Ian ran into me from behind.

Nanny was traipsing around the kitchen in one of Ian’s t-shirts, her bare little chicken legs sticking out the bottom. His shirt covered her from neck to shin, and her hair was sticking straight up in the air, almost like she’d put her finger in a light socket.

“Good morning!” she crowed, waving at me with the spatula she had clenched in her hands. “I figured I’d get up and make breakfast for you sleepy heads.” She addressed Ian over my shoulder. “I snuck in and grabbed one of your shirts, cause I didn’t know I’d be sleeping over. You guys were so cozy lookin’, all snuggled up in that big ol’ bed.” She looked back at me. “I put my clothes in the washer. Hope you don’t mind.”

“Uh…no. Nope, I don’t mind. What time you did you get up, Nanny?” I asked her, entering the kitchen to see what she was cooking.

“I don’t know, it was like five a.m. I tried to get Daisy up to take me home, but that damn woman would only snore and bat me away.”

I snatched a piece of bacon from a pile and she smacked me with the spatula.

“You go on and get everybody in here so we can eat,” she ordered.

“Yes, ma’am,” I answered cheekily, biting into the bacon with a grin.

Once everyone was at least half-awake, I ushered them into the kitchen where Nanny fed us all heaping plates of pancakes, bacon, and scrambled eggs.

The talk quickly turned to tales of last night’s activities, including Nanny’s blow by blow account of the “Buff Daddy” that shook his “man meat” in her face so close she’d been afraid he’d poke her eye out.

“So, I take it your night wasn’t as wild?” Chloe asked Brandon.

“Not really. We weren’t out too late because Luke and Jacks promised they’d get the kids from Emma’s dad and Noah, and it just wasn’t as fun without you girls around like last time,” Brandon replied, dryly.

“And you’re full of it, too,” Emma answered.

“Rule number one of Bachelor Party Law is you don’t speak of what happens!” Brandon called out, earning him a swat from Chloe. He just grinned, because he knew we knew he was kidding.

I thought of something then and turned to Allie. “Hey, you remember how many life savers you put on that Suck-for-a-Buck shirt you made Chloe?”

“Yeah, I think I stuck a hundred of them suckers on there. Why?”

“Holy shit! I made a hundred bucks last night?” Chloe exclaimed, looking around for her purse.