Total pages in book: 137
Estimated words: 131271 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 656(@200wpm)___ 525(@250wpm)___ 438(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 131271 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 656(@200wpm)___ 525(@250wpm)___ 438(@300wpm)
“I’m not dying,” Jacob mutters, cracking one eye. “I know when I’m okay, and I’m fine.”
Hayes and Shawn exchanged a look, the kind that family or close friends manage to communicate volumes through without a single word.
“If you’re not going to the hospital, we should get you into bed,” Shawn says finally.
Jacob makes a low, irritated noise in his throat. “You guys have practice tomorrow. Coach will be pissed if we’re all fucked.”
“Says the guy out partying late on a Monday,” Shawn shoots back, shaking his head. Their back and forth is so quick and sharp that I can barely keep up.
Malik raises his hands in mock surrender. “I should probably go. You guys got this?”
Jacob winces as he touches his temple, and something in my chest twists. He doesn’t look good. I don’t know if it’s just the punch or the headache he had yesterday. Either way, he’s gray as fuck.
“I have a first aid certificate,” I blurt out before I can stop myself. “I could stay up with him.”
Jacob’s grin reappears, lazy and crooked. “Nurse Riley,” he slurs, his eyes half-closed. “I’d rather see your pretty face in the middle of the night than either of those two assholes.”
“Jacob,” Hayes warns, his tone sharp.
“What?” Jacob tilts his head, his grin widening. “You worried she’ll decide she prefers me over you?”
“NO,” Hayes and I snap simultaneously, the word bursting out of us with the same reflexive force.
Shawn laughs, crossing his arms as he leans against the wall, surveying us like he’s thoroughly enjoying the chaos. “Now, isn’t this special?”
Hayes crosses the room, putting his big body between me and his brothers. He ducks his head slightly, our eyes locking. “You don’t have to do this, Riley. We can take care of him.”
“I know I don’t,” I say, keeping my voice steady despite my pulse picking up at his intensity and proximity. I stare at the mouth that gave me so much pleasure only minutes ago. Would we have gone further if Shawn or Jacob hadn’t come home? I would have put my mouth on him, that’s for sure. But sex? I’m not hanging on to my virginity for any particular reason, but giving it to Hayes Drayton? In the moment, with passion surging, it would have been easy. “But I don’t have classes until tomorrow afternoon. I’ll be fine.”
For a moment, he just stares at me, his attention flicking to my mouth like he’s considering something, and then he steps back, closing his eyes briefly. The tension between us is like a live wire, humming with everything spoken and unspoken. Jacob’s sex proposition. Shawn’s eagerness to watch. Hayes’ hands and mouth and the dick I didn’t even get to hold tonight. I’m a raging ball of urges and hormones surrounded by three men that half the campus would sacrifice an eye or a limb to be with.
Did Hayes want to kiss me? A kiss would be more than welcome after all the pleasure he gave me, but in front of his brothers, it’s just awkward. Then again, Shawn saw a whole lot more than a chaste kiss.
“If you’re sure…”
“I’m sure,” I say quickly, even though I’m far from confident about my suggestion. It’s a lot of responsibility, but if Jacob’s condition were to worsen, his brothers would only be a flight of stairs away.
Jacob groans in the chair, breaking the moment. “Are we done playing musical babysitters? Because I’d very much like to pass out now.”
“Yeah,” Hayes says, his eyes lingering on me, already heading to the door to show Malik out.
When Shawn leaves the room, he flexes his eyebrows. “Be careful with Jacob. He might look all weak and wounded, but when it comes to women, he’s a shark who can smell eager blood from a mile away, and you, Riley, smell like sex and happiness. It’s a scent he’ll struggle to resist pursuing.”
“I’m not asleep or dead yet,” Jacob says. “So maybe save talking about me until I succumb to one or the other.”
My face is a riot of heat and embarrassment. Sex and happiness.
I guess there are worse things to stink of.
“Don’t worry about me,” I say with a shrug. “I eat men like Jacob for a midnight snack.”
“Oh, baby,” Shawn says. “I’m sure you do.”
17
JAC0B
Riley isn’t wearing any panties. I noticed the pink lace poking from the bundle of clothes in her arms, and the shirt she’s currently dressed in is one of Hayes’. If I had to guess, she was, at some point, naked with my brother and maybe interrupted by Shawn. Hayes carried the scent of her arousal, and the whiff of a man interrupted before he got the chance to come.
I shouldn’t find that amusing, but I guess I am a little mean in a brotherly way. I always want the best for my brothers, but there’s something about being a sibling that encourages a little gentle competition and many opportunities for humor. Imagining Hayes upstairs with his blue balls while Riley stays down here to play nursemaid to me is funny as fuck.