The XOXO New Adult Collection: 16 Full Length New Adult Stories (106 page)

We went to the excursion desk, picked a trip to an excluded island that offered lunch, complimentary alcoholic beverages, snorkeling, swimming with a sea lion named Cassandra and monkey petting. We didn’t care if Avery and Nicole didn’t want to go; we were going. As we stood there, booking the adventure, I silently prayed that Brooke was a bikini chick and not a one-piece chick.

“Do you need to reserve anything for Mazatlán or Cabo?” the Excursion Booker asked.

“Oh, I didn’t even think of the other stops,” Brooke said. “We need to do something in Mazatlán, too. For Cabo, I’m meeting up with my sister.”

“That’s right,” I said. The night before when Brooke and I were in my room talking, she mentioned that her sister, Bailee, was in Cabo for Spring Break. Usually with me knowing that there were going to be a bunch of hot drunk chicks in bikinis running around, I would be excited. It’s like a car dealership for me, but I didn’t want to test drive any of those chicks. I wanted the one standing next to me and not only for one night. “What do you have for Mazatlán?”

The Excursion Booker handed us a binder for Mazatlán and we flipped through it, looking at shopping trips, going to a resort to swim in the ocean (mind you, no matter how hot it is on the West Coast, the Pacific ocean is constantly freezing.), taking a bus tour and other random stuff. There was only one that I saw that would appeal to all of us—I thought.

“How about the zip-lining?” I asked Brooke.

Her big green eyes went wide. “I’m scared of heights.”

“You’ll be strapped in and those cables are sturdy,” I assured her.

“I... don’t know...”

“I would never let anything happen to you.”

I meant that. It was only a matter of time before I’d proved it to her.

“You might need to get me liquored up first,” she laughed.

God I loved her laugh and smile!

“We could do that,” I winked at her.

“Alright, let’s do it.”

After we booked all of the excursions, I went with Brooke to the Internet Café on the ninth deck so she could email her sister and figure out what the plan for Cabo was.

“You and Avery should come with Nicole and me to have lunch with my sister,” Brooke said mid-email.

“I would like that. I’m sure Avery will too since he can’t keep his hands off Nicole for more than thirty seconds.”

Already meeting the fam. My plan was working.

“I don’t know if I should be grossed out or jealous. I mean, I didn’t expect her to leave me the whole trip.”

“I’m jealous.” The words were out of my mouth before I realized whom I was talking to.

“You know that I’ll be fine if you want to go find chicks to fuck, right? I could just go to the gy...”

“I don’t want to do that,” I said, cutting her off. She was not getting rid of me because I knew she didn’t want to be left alone and I didn’t want to leave her. “We can go to the gym together if you want.”

“I would like to do that, but getting my workout clothes—might be a challenge.”

“Challenge accepted,” I said, smirking while raising my eyebrows and nodding. Avery was going to kick my ass, but that fucker deserved it.

After Brooke finished her email and we waited a few minutes for her sister to respond—she didn’t—we made our way to Brooke’s room.

“This is going to be so embarrassing,” she laughed.

“Not as embarrassed as they’re gonna be,” I laughed back.

We passed girls and guys that were drunk off their asses and it was barely noon. Most of the women were in bikinis and trying too hard to flirt with the men. The guys were eating it up, enjoying the half-naked girls, making out with them and about to judge a wet t-shirt contest. Spring break plus a singles cruise where you didn’t need to drive anywhere, equaled paradise.

We maneuvered through all the people, finally making it down the stairs to Brooke’s room. As we walked past doors, we heard several people getting laid. We eyed each other, knowing that as we got to Brooke’s door, we would hear the same thing—but we didn’t.

Brooke used her key to open the door, not bothering to knock so we could catch them fucking and have a good laugh. They weren’t fucking. Avery and Nicole were spooning in the middle of the two twin beds that were pushed together. Avery quietly snored in Nicole’s ear and Brooke looked over at me, trying to suppress a laugh, but we both couldn’t hold it in.

“What the fuck?” Avery shouted, throwing a pillow at me.

“You both didn’t come on a cruise to sleep did you?” I asked, throwing the pillow back at him.

“No, we came here to meet
the one
and now that we have, we plan to fuck and sleep.” He pulled Nicole closer and she giggled and wiggled her backside into him.

“Fuck no, this is my birthday present Nicole!” Brooke said, her hands on her hips.

“She’s right,” Nicole said, looking back at Avery. “Fine, just give us a minute to get dressed.”

“Fine.” Brooke turned on her heels and I followed behind. When we were out the door and it closed behind me, she spoke. “I really want to get a massage for my shoulder. Want to walk with me to the spa to book it?”

“Sure. What’s wrong with your shoulder? You never said.”

“I don’t know. I woke up about three months ago with it hurting. The doctor said that I probably pulled a muscle. I haven’t been doing any strenuous exercises since and I think it’s getting worse.”

“The medication doesn’t help?”

“Nope. The muscle relaxers knock me out and that technically helps with me not being in pain, but only when I’m asleep.”

“You should go back to the doctor. Something doesn’t sound right,” I said as we stepped off the elevator onto the eleventh deck.

“I know,” she said with defeat in her eyes.

I hated to be in pain. When I played baseball, I always ended up pulling, spraining or breaking something during the seasons. I couldn’t imagine being in pain for three months straight.

After Brooke booked a massage for the day after we would depart from Cabo, we went back to her room to find Avery and Nicole dressed and ready to socialize with us. We played mini-golf (I won), ate lunch at the Aqua Room and then watched a
Dating Game
live show with people from the cruise.

Both Avery and Nicole were stoked for the private island excursion and zip-lining that we booked and after we had a few drinks at the pub on the ship, we had dinner at our designated dinner spot.

Avery and Nicole were still hanging all over each other, making Brooke and I jealous—or at least me. It was only day two and I didn’t know if there was much more I could take before I devoured the lips that I stared at all day.

*~*~*

“W
hat’s wrong?” I asked Brooke. She had been sitting beside me on the bus to the zip-lining excursion. As we neared, her right leg beside me bounced up and down.

“Nothing,” she murmured.

“Doesn’t look like nothing. Are you scared?”

“Yeah, I’m kinda freaking out here,” she said, taking a deep breath.

I smiled. She was so fucking cute and even cuter when she was freaking out. “Come here,” I said, pulling her shoulders so she leaned against me.

Her hair smelled like...flowers, as I nuzzled it and then kissed the back of her head. It felt good having her in my arms and I never wanted to let her go, but she was still trying to find women for me to hook up with on the cruise and only wanted to be friends.

“What if the cable breaks?”

“They won’t.”

“How do you know?”

“Well, I don’t know for sure, but the cables are made of steel and you’re strapped onto them with a harness.”

“But, I’ll be high in the air.”

“Not that high.” I really didn’t know how high we would be. I’d never been zip-lining, but I was trying to convince Brooke that it would be fun.

“Trees are high like buildings.”

“Yeah, but just think about flying in the air, the wind in your hair or some shit. It’s going to be fun, not scary. I promise.”

The bus pulled into the parking lot and after a safety speech from a man that had a strong Hispanic accent, a group that consisted of the four of us and a few other people, followed behind him.

Everyone went, but the four of us. Brooke watched each person go, but I could tell she was freaking out.

“Do you want to go first?” I asked her.

Nicole shouted from the bottom of the platform. “Hurry the fuck up!”

Without saying a word, Brooke turned to climb down the ladder. Her eyes were the size of silver dollars, but I couldn’t let her pass up this opportunity. I knew she would regret it eventually. Over the last few days, we’ve talked about how she always put people before her. How she doesn’t normally do stuff for herself, like she always caters to Jared and is always there for Nicole in a crisis and especially being a mother figure to Bailee.

I placed my hands on both of her shoulders, spun her towards me and looked her in the eye. “From what you’ve told me these last few days and what I’ve seen, you’re the strongest woman I know. If you can raise a six-year-old when you’re only thirteen—which is scary as hell—you can’t let a little trip on
strong
cables hold you back. Now get out there Superwoman and fly.”

“Senorita, it’s your turn,” an instructor waved for her to come to him.

“Okay,” she said, turning and going to the instructor.

I grabbed her wrist to stop her. Without any words, I clipped her straps together on her helmet. We stared at each other as I clipped them and finally I saw calm in her eyes.

Breaking our eye contact, I slapped the top of her helmet and smacked her ass as she turned to walk towards the instructor. She looked over her shoulder at me after they hooked her harness to the cable and mouthed “thank you” and then slid down the cables.

My heart clenched in my chest, a foreign feeling for me. I didn’t know what it meant, but I loved the feeling.

B
rooke

The last four days and five nights have been some of the best ones of my life. Hanging with Easton was as good as hanging with Nicole—since she was all over Avery. I was extremely comfortable with him. It was like we had been friends forever. I was surprised that he did everything with me and didn’t wonder off to flirt or sleep with all the available women.

I bet neither one of us expected to find a friendship like the one we had found on the cruise. He made me forget about my worries with Jared, forget about my mother, my stressful job and also helped me to keep my mind off my shoulder pain.

He offered to rub my shoulder a few times, but I turned him down. It wasn’t that I didn’t want him touching me—I did. I wanted him to caress my back, rubbing the knot I assumed was there in my shoulder and then slip his hands to the front to cup my breast—among other things; I wanted his masculine hands all over me. I turned down his offer because I was scared of how bad it would hurt when he rubbed my throbbing shoulder.

I wasn’t one to complain about it hurting, even though it bothered me the whole time. Nicole only asked when I would slip a pill in my mouth and her healing instincts of being a nurse would come out for two seconds instead of a lovesick fool.

Easton didn’t bring it up either, but that was probably because I was hiding the pain from everyone. I didn’t want any of them to know how badly it hurt. It was getting worse and it really made no sense at all. The only strenuous action I used my shoulder for was to raise my hands in the air when we all went dancing the last few nights.

If dancing was causing my shoulder to become worse, then something was seriously wrong and I needed to find a doctor that would actually touch me. I needed to go see Dr. Sam, stat!

Now I lay in Avery’s bed (well, mine as of late) while Easton is sound asleep three feet away, and I’m daydreaming about his hands. I couldn’t believe that I was sleeping in a stranger’s room. Nicole and Avery were fucking like rabbits and Easton and I were both trying to fight the chemistry we had towards each other. Each day was getting harder and harder.

I watched Easton’s chest rise up and down as soft snores escaped his nose. He was so fucking hot and the more I thought about his
man hands
, the more I envisioned stripping off
his
t-shirt and boxers that I was wearing and crawling into his bed, straddling him while I lay kisses down his silky smooth chest.

I thought about his cock growing hard against my ass as he started to wake up. The way he would look down at my lips before capturing them with his, causing me to moan as he cupped one of my breasts in his hand and lightly pinching my nipple and then kneading the heavy globes. The way I would break our lips apart and kiss his chest again, but not stopping until I had his boxers off and his dick in my mouth.

His free hand reaching down between my legs, running a finger between my folds and discovering how wet he made me as I licked the tip of his cock, tasting his warm, salty pre-cum. His fingers would massage my clit, making me moan again, on the verge of coming from just him touching me.

“Mornin’ Superwoman,” Easton said, bringing my eyes back up to his. He was smiling that damn smile that made me want him even more.

I felt my face flush from being caught in my daydream. “Morning. I...ah...I need to take a shower,” I said, jumping out of bed and bolting into the bathroom.

Way to not be obvious!

Our second night of the cruise, Nicole pulled me aside and promised me the stars and the moon if I would switch rooms with Avery. She thought it was okay for me to share a room with a stranger since there were two beds. I hadn’t had a chance to talk to her about the feelings I was fighting towards Easton and the only reason I was fighting them was because I had Jared at home probably surrounded by stacks of pizza boxes and the stench from not showering for five days.

“Brooke, I’ve never met anyone like Avery.” “Brooke, I think I’m in love.” “Brooke, please just let me have these days with Avery before we go back to Boston and he goes back to New York.” “Brooke, switch rooms and I will love you forever.”

Nicole wasn’t against begging when she really wanted something. If I hated Easton and didn’t want to have anything to do with him, I would have stood my ground, but he made me feel things I hadn’t felt in a long time. He made me feel
wanted
. He made me feel
desired
. He made me
happy
.