Total pages in book: 74
Estimated words: 71044 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 355(@200wpm)___ 284(@250wpm)___ 237(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 71044 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 355(@200wpm)___ 284(@250wpm)___ 237(@300wpm)
I don’t intentionally break anyone’s heart.
And I’ve got my reasons for guarding mine.
“Something tells me you don’t wear a big fluffy robe to bed,” teases Finn.
Yes, that’s what I’m wearing. Intentionally. I swung by my place to change and freshen up after dropping food off to my mom and brothers—Kent wasn’t there, thankfully—and found a big robe in my closet with the fancy Elysian Seaside Resort emblem on the chest. I don’t remember how I got the robe, but now I’m wrapped up in it, and it feels like a snuggly goddamned cloud.
I guess showing off my bod isn’t exactly the mood I’m in right now. “I couldn’t show up here in my birthday suit, now could I?” I retort.
“You’re naked under that thing?”
“Yep.”
“Sounds like an accident waiting to happen. I sleep naked, too, actually. But that’s because Theo prefers it that way.” Finn glances around the crowded room. “Speaking of, have you seen my boyfriend in the last ten minutes?”
The guy across the room keeps staring me down. Now he’s licking his lips and clinging to his dance partner tighter, like he’s humping the poor fellow in anticipation of humping me later, his eyes never leaving mine.
Honestly, it’s annoying that my body’s first response is to get hard as I watch this guy drool over me. I’m Pavlov’s dog and all of these different parties every weekend full of gyrating, half-dressed, DTF men are my predictable bell.
But that doesn’t mean I have it easy. How can I trust even a look across a room when the only thing a guy wants is what’s in my pants? Aren’t I worth something more than that? Or am I really nothing but a piece of ass?
“You okay? You look pissed about something.”
I turn to Finn. “Are guys only nice to me because they want my dick?”
He chokes on his beer. “Say what?”
Why am I letting Kent and Erick get to me like this? I shrug it off the next instant. “Nothing.”
“Did you seriously just ask me if guys are only nice to you because they want your—?”
Someone turns the music way up, lights start flashing, and the crowded living room turns into a nightclub. Now Finn and I can’t hear anything we’re saying at all, let alone thinking, so with a few hand signals we decide to make our way to the back, which involves squeezing between sweaty chests and dancing bodies. The sliding glass door opens to a small terrace where the quieter half of the party is going on—but it’s regrettably no less crowded. The hot tub is swarmed by twelve guys, some sitting on the rim, and two of them right in the middle making out, though no one seems to be paying attention. The grill is opened, but not for barbecuing, as it’s covered in other people’s crap, including a flannel pajama top someone must have been wearing and took off. A fire pit burns in the corner of the yard surrounded by more underwear-clad guys.
One of them is my lovely brother Kent, joined by his boyfriend Jonah, his boss Malik, and my coworker Erick. As if they have some kind of magic sensor, all four of them turn my way, spotting me the moment I spot them.
“Phew, now I can hear myself again,” says Finn with a laugh, then he draws quiet. “And … now I can’t remember what we were talking about.”
I can’t escape my brother’s words nor him himself. I turn my back to the fire pit, which brings me face-to-face with the fence, and now I look like an idiot.
Finn, clueless as ever, mumbles on. “Really, what the hell was I talking about …?”
“You were looking for your boyfriend Theo.”
“No, no, it was after that. Oh! You were asking if guys are just nice to you because they want your—”
“Aren’t your boyfriend and Teegan best friends?” I ask purely to distract Finn’s easily-distractible mind. “The two of them might be hanging out somewhere inside.”
“Good point.” Finn frowns. “Now where’s Teegan?”
“Isn’t that the thing about Teegan? You can never find him at his own parties.” I glance back at the house through the sliding glass door pretending to look for them. I don’t see Teegan or Theo, but I do spot the horny dancing dude from earlier. The guy is staring right back at me like he never stopped.
I pull away from the door, then catch myself glancing at the fire pit once again. Kent is still looking my way. He lifts a hand to wave, but I quickly turn away, ignoring him. Why should I wave back and act like things are cool when he’s half the reason I’m in this mood?
I let out a sigh. “Dude, I think I should just bounce.”
“Already? I thought you liked Teegan’s parties.”
Now it looks like Kent and his boyfriend are talking about me, the two of them glancing our way. Erick, too, whose face is easier to read than a billboard.