Page 111 of Dirty Like Dylan

Sure, I’d been in love. Kinda-sorta, and briefly.

But I’d never really been in love.

I’d never really cared to be.

I’d accused Ash of being jealous. But I was feeling it now, whenever he touched Amber: a twinge of serious jealousy like nothing I’d ever felt before.

By the time he came, then rolled off of her, panting, and Amber reached for me, pulling me to her… it had me so worked up… so hungry for her and so fucking confused. I got so totally lost in fucking her… I almost forgot he was in the room.

When she cried out my name as she came, it made me come… and for a moment there, I actually did forget.

It was the hottest sex I’d had with Amber yet.

Chapter Twenty-One

Ash

I was jealous. I could admit that to myself. Seeing Dylan and Amber coming back from their date last night, all aglow. They looked so fucking perfect together, and I could see how wrapped up in each other they were getting.

Kinda blew me away that they still wanted me around, actually.

After the three of us ate breakfast together, Amber walked Dylan down to the dock and kissed him goodbye before he got into his boat. It was a long, lingering kiss, and his hands were on her ass. She stood up on her tiptoes to give it to him, her body pressed up against his, arms wrapped around his neck.

I watched it from his bedroom window, which was the only place the dock could be seen from either house. And yes, I’d gone straight up there when they left, so I could watch them.

Then I watched Dylan take off in the Dirty Deed. I knew he’d be gone most of the day, rehearsing with Dirty at the church.

When Amber came back into the house, I was already in the kitchen, pouring myself a coffee. “Any plans for today?” I asked her as she slid onto a stool at the island.

She started making herself a pot of tea with the water I’d just boiled for her. “Not sure. I was thinking about going to see my mom later, maybe. I should really do that soon…” She didn’t sound enthusiastic about it. She leaned her chin on her hand and gazed at me. “And I still have some of the images from Katie’s art show to get through. I told her I’d have them to her by the end of the week.”

“Or, you could hang out with me.”

She smiled at me.

I really wasn’t sure at what point she’d started doing that, but she had. Regularly.

I also wasn’t sure at what point I’d started longing for those smiles, but every time she did it, it hit me straight in the gut. Gave me this weird bubbly feeling in my chest that I really couldn’t remember feeling since I’d been with Summer. I’d totally forgotten about that feeling, actually. Or maybe I’d convinced myself it had never been real.

But now here it was.

Every time Amber Paige Malone smiled in my direction.

* * *

About half an hour later, as I slowed my boat down in a secluded little tree-lined bay around the far side of the island, Amber, in the co-pilot seat, looked over at me. When I cut the engine and dropped the anchor, she gave me one of her bright smiles again.

“So what are we doing here?” she asked, gazing around. It was dead quiet, other than the rhythmic lap of the water against the boat, and the odd bird. The coastline that swept around us was dense with trees, not a house or other boat in sight.

“Absolutely nothing,” I said. I grabbed each of us a beer out of the cooler, cracked them open, and handed one to her.

“Don’t you have work to do?” she asked me as she took the beer and reclined in her seat.

“Nope.”

I stripped off my long-sleeved Ramones shirt and stretched out on the floor, which was covered with clean but rough boat carpet. I lay my shirt down, then lay down on top of it. There was a cold breeze off the water, but down here, the wind was blocked. And the sun was out; it already felt warm on my chest.

Amber sipped her beer, cozy in my hoodie, which was giant on her, with the hood flipped up over her hair, and I enjoyed how her pretty eyes moved slowly over my bare chest. “Like, don’t you have a band or something?”

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