“How many boxes of books does this chick—I mean, Grace. How many boxes of books does Grace have?” Ian grunts, hauling what should be the last of the boxes from the U-Haul truck and into Grace’s new apartment.
“Quit your bitchin’ or else no beer and pizza for you.” Pushing the door open, the cold air from the apartment blasts in my face. “Damn that feels good. It’s a fuckin’ heatwave out there.”
“What was that about bitchin’?” Ian jokes, dropping his box to the living room floor.
As I’m wiping the sweat from my face with my shirt, a loud whistle fills the room. “Well hot damn!” Jade calls out. “Gracie my girl, you hit the lottery with this one!”
“Don’t you have a boyfriend?” Ian jokes, taking one of the beers from her hands.
Jade shrugs, seemingly unaffected by her recent break up. Grace told me about it the other day. Apparently Bryce, this guy she’s been after for months, ended up being a self-involved douche bag. Apparently for some people, having a shit ton of money means you can treat other people like they’re not important. In the short time I’ve known her, Jade is not the type of woman to put up with a guy like that. So she dumped him.
“He doesn’t know what he’s missing out on. Besides, I don’t have time for a man who doesn’t appreciate this kind of awesomeness.” Twirling around, Jade puts herself on display and I see Ian checking her out.
Jade hands me the other beer, whispering, “He’s single, right?”
“Yeah, but–”
“No buts needed. Just wondering,” she dismisses whatever warning I was about to give her. “Oh, Ian,” she beckons. “Would you mind helping me in here with something?” Crooking her finger, she calls him down the hall where the bedrooms are. Needless to say, Ian follows behind her like a dog with a bone. Chugging down my beer, I try not to think about the two of them. It’s too hot and I’m too thirsty to keep my mind on anything but finishing the beer.
“What are they up to?” Grace asks, walking into the living room. Wearing those bright yellow cleaning gloves and a pair of cut-off shorts and a tank top, she still looks damn hot. With her hair piled high on top of her head, all I can think about it letting it loose and tangling my hands in it.
“Who the hell knows? But with the two of them, I’m sure once they figure it out the whole world will know about it.”
“So what do you think?” she asks, walking me into the kitchen. Spanning her arms to the side, she stands in front of me. “Squeaky clean, huh?” Dropping my empty beer into the trash, I let out a whistle.
Wrapping my arms around her from behind, I nuzzle into her neck. “I think it looks clean enough for all the takeout in the world.”
She elbows me in the side before spinning in my arms. “Shut up!” she defends. “I can cook my ass off.”
Digging my fingers into said ass, I stare down into her sparkling blue eyes. “This ass?” I question on a squeeze. She nods, swallowing hard. “I like this ass,” I whisper into her ear, loving the fact that she pushes into my groin. “But I’m not buying the whole cooking thing. You’ll need to prove that to me, Miss McCann,” I joke, dancing kisses along her jaw.
“Fine,” she sighs, stretching her neck to the side, letting my lips move wherever they please. “I’ll prove it to you, but . . .” Her words die out as my teeth sink into her earlobe. Licking over the bite, she groans and her body melts against mine.
“But what?” I kiss behind her ear. Pulling away from her, she moans.
“What?” A dazed and heated look falls on her face.
“You said you’d prove it to me, and then you said but, and then you just stopped talking.” Arching a brow, I can’t wait to see what she comes up with.
“Oh, um. Yeah, your tongue made me forget,” she admits, a touch of pink coloring her cheeks.
“Oh, sweetheart,” I pull her tighter in my arms, letting my lips move against her ear. “I haven’t even had a chance to prove to you all my tongue is capable of.”
“Ahem,” Ian calls out from the opening separating the kitchen from the living room. “Are we interrupting?”
“Yes,” I lament, shooting him an annoyed look.
Walking into the kitchen, he goes to the fridge and pulls out two more beers. “Oh, good.” He laughs, twisting the top off one and handing it to me. He opens the other and takes a long pull on it.
Totally ignoring the fact he’s being a jerk, Grace hands him a stack of takeout menus. “Whatever you want,” she offers. Ian’s face lights up, a sexual innuendo on the horizon. “From these.” Shaking the papers, she brings his attention to them. “For dinner. As a thank you for helping.” Looping one arm around Ian’s waist and the other around mine, she adds, “Seriously, thank you both so much for everything. My parents were busy with work this week and if it weren’t for you two, I would have had to do it all myself.”
“Hey,” Jade calls out, offended. “I would have helped.”
Grace laughs. “You carried the box of pillows.” She calls Jade out on her lack of effort in the actual moving.
“I would have called a moving company. You know where a bunch of hot men come in a haul everything for you, but”—she tips her chin at me and Ian—“since you already found some muscle, I didn’t have to do anything. You did my job for me.” Her simple yet ridiculous explanation is met with loud laughter from Grace.
After a few more minutes of laying into Jade for her help, we all decide on pizza for dinner. Even though they have delivery, I offer to pick it up, Ian joining me for the ride.
“I was wrong,” he admits quite bluntly as soon as I’m buckled in.
“What?” I turn in my seat, not entirely sure I understand what he’s getting at.
“The other day. I laid into you about being so serious with Grace. I was wrong.” His honesty and realness catches me off guard. “Guess it hit a little too close to home for me.”
“Okay,” I answer, still a touch skeptical.
“And I guess I’m just trying to apologize for being a shit lately. The crude comments, the sarcastic digs. It’s me being in a shitty place.”
“Yeah, but without the comments and digs, no one would know it’s you.”
“This is true.” He scratches his chin, considering my remark. “Yeah, you’re right,” he jokes, proud of himself.
“Asshole.” Starting the car, I laugh at him because despite being an asshole, and making a handful of comments about me and Grace being too serious too quickly, he is my best friend.
“This is also true.” With smugness on his face, he looks out the window laughing.
“So are we good on the girly feelings and shit?” I ask, keeping my eyes on the road.
He nods, silently answering me as he turns up the radio.
And with that, all is well.
“Good pizza. Great friends. A new apartment,” Grace announces, crumpling up the last of the garbage from dinner. “What more could a girl ask for?”
“Don’t forget the champagne,” Jade adds with a touch of a slur in her voice, raising her glass.
“Yes, and the champagne. Courtesy of my ever-thoughtful boyfriend” Grace says, slurring a bit herself before yawning. “Man, am I exhausted.”
“Me, too.” Jade stands, stretching theatrically. “And I’d stay and help you unpack. Really I would. But I have work in the morning. And there’s a train in like twenty minutes so I should get going.”
“I’ll drive you back,” Ian chimes in, nearly jumping from his seat on the couch.
Jade agrees all too easily and again Grace and I are left standing there dumbfounded about our two friends.
Standing by the door, I watch Ian close Jade’s door behind her. His face is lit up like a kid on Christmas, but he simply shrugs at me, before sliding into the driver’s seat.
When I close the door, and turn back into the living room, Grace’s eyes are hooded. She’s looking me up and down as she struts over to me. “You mentioned something before about this magic tongue of yours.” Her words, seductive as all hell, send a rippling force of need over my exhausted body. She pushes me up against the door, trapping me between it and her soft, lush body. “But we both know I’ve already experienced your tongue more than a few times. I think it’s time I show you what my tongue,” stretching up, she licks a hot path along my neck, “and lips,” she kisses along my jaw, “and hands,” reaching down, she palms my dick through my shorts, eliciting a low groan, “can do when they all work together.”