Page 36 of Pirate

“He said he’d be by my place at seven last night, so I made sure I was not there.”

While that was true, it was also not. Pirate and she had ended up staying in his apartment at the clubhouse until after midnight. They’d had sex numerous times and they’d also ended up ordering a pizza, just hanging out talking. It reminded her of their time in Hawaii and San Francisco. So much of their time now was quick fucks and orgasms. Sophia was certainlynotcomplaining about that, but it had also been nice to just be with Pirate. She still couldn’t believe she’d confessed to him about Carlos. She’d never told a soul about that before last night.

Jumper walked back into the room then. He was carrying two steaming mugs of coffee. Jasmine and Sophia sat up in thebed, placing their backs against the headboard. Jasmine had the sheet tucked under her armpits to cover her breasts. Jumper handed over a cup to each of them, but only accepted a kiss from Jazz as payment.

“Thanks, babe,” Jasmine smiled up at him.

“Thanks, babe,” Sophia smiled over at him.

Jumper glared at Sophia but his eyes softened on Jasmine. “I’m going to go get in the shower. I’d ask you to join me but I know where your priorities lie this morning.”

Sophia laid a possessive hand on Jasmine’s knee. “You had all night to have fun sexy time with her. It’s my turn.”

Jumper’s scowl returned at Sophia’s words, which could be taken as an innuendo if he didn’t know her so well.

Jasmine beamed up at him. “I’ll shower in a bit. Thank you for the coffee.”

Sophia just saluted him with her mug.

After Jumper grabbed clothes from their closet, he headed back out of the room. Aerial followed him.

Jasmine turned back to Sophia. “So how did you get out of bringing him to the wedding? I love your mom and all, but there’s no way she would take a simple ‘no’ for an answer.”

Sophia made a face. This was the part she was dreading telling Jazz about. “So, um, Imight havemaybe told her that I waspossiblyalready seeing someone.”

Jasmine’s eyes narrowed on her. “Sophia…” Her tone held a warning.

Sophia put her head back on the headboard and let out a loud frustrated groan. “Fine! I told her that Pirate and I are dating.”

Of all the responses Sophia had envisioned for this conversation, Jasmine asking her back, “Are you?” was not one of them.

Sophia blinked at her. “What?”

Jasmine took a sip of her coffee as she turned on the bed. She drew her knees up towards the headboard, leaning her shoulder rather than her back against it. “Are you dating Pirate?”

“No!” Sophia exclaimed, loudly. Both surprised and aghast by Jasmine’s question, she at least didn’t feel guilty about her answer. Itwasthe truth after all.

Jasmine’s eyes narrowed slightly. “Are you sure? The two of you have this…vibe going. I thought it was just my imagination at first but it’s gotten more intense these past couple of months.”

The coffee in her mouth tasted sour rather than sweet. Jumper had added so much cream and sugar to hers that there were more calories in it than a candy shop. Joke was on him, though, because she liked her coffee sweet.

But now she was wishing she hadn’t taken such a big sip. It hurt to swallow. “No. No, we’re not. What vibe? There’s no vibe.”

Jasmine watched her carefully. “You know, you have a tell when you’re lying, right? It’s not obvious because not everyone knows to look for it.” She switched her coffee mug to her left hand and then held out her right to Sophia. “Hi, I’m Not Everyone. Good to meet you.”

Sophia grumbled. She sat up a little, crossing her legs in front of her. She leaned forward to rest her elbows on her knees while holding her coffee mug between both of her hands. She stared down at the nearly white liquid. She wasn’t surprised she wasn’t able to lie to Jazz. In a way, she was thrilled about it. She didn’twantto lie to her bestie.

“We’re sleeping together,” she finally admitted.

“You still have But Face,” Jasmine informed her.

Sophia looked to her right and glared at her best friend. “There is no ‘but’,” she told her sternly. “That’s it. We’re sleeping together. We have been for months. I didn’t want to tell you because I didn’t want to distract you from your wedding or risk taking away from your big day.”

“Hawaii?” Jazz inquired.

“San Fran,” Sophia corrected in a low voice. Careful of the mug in her hand, she shifted around so she was facing Jazz. Her bestie’s face was usually so easy to read, but now she had a passive expression, or lack thereof, that Sophia did not like. “I swear,nothingis going on between Pirate and me. It’s just sex.”

Jasmine was silent for a long time. So long in fact that Sophia could hear the rattle of dog food going into their bowls in the kitchen. Pirate must be awake and feeding the four dogs. The water was no longer going, which meant Jumper was out of the shower. He’d help Pirate walk the dogs before Pirate got into the shower. Then everyone would head off to work.

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