Page 26 of The Boyfriend Effect (Frisky Business 1)
Holly nods. “Are you seeing anyone?”
I set my plate down beside hers and pinch the bridge of my nose. “Can we just not do this?”
With a manicured hand on her hip, she gives me a pointed look. “Calm down, Hayes. I’m not trying to start something that you’re not into.”
I inhale and nod. “Good.”
She laughs and shakes her head at me. “Way to dodge the question.”
“I’m single right now, and that’s the way I want it to stay.”
“Understood.” She smiles at me. “If you change your mind, you know where to find me.”
My expression stays blank while Holly continues grinning.
Fucking Holly. I don’t want her getting any ideas about us. This is the last goddamn thing I need right now.
Ignoring the I’m down to fuck if you are gleam in her eyes, I grab my plate. With one last nod in her direction, I stalk away to find someplace quiet to eat.Miraculously, I manage to successfully avoid Maren for the next few hours.
When she’s inside with Scarlett and Penelope tackling the dishes, I’m outside starting the bonfire. When she’s lying in the hammock on the porch with a book, I’m upstairs taking a shower.
Now I’m sitting outside in a lawn chair near the fire with a cold beer.
“Nice job on the fire,” Scarlett says, rubbing her hands together as she leans closer to the warm glow. Chairs are scattered in a circle, around the fire and everyone is here except for Maren. I have no idea where she is or why she hasn’t joined us.
Holly is sitting directly across from me, her eyes daring me to come over there and ravage her. Not fucking likely.
Connor and Wolfie are bickering about whose cannonball into the lake was more epic, and I’ve just started to feel settled when Maren joins the bonfire.
She glances around, quickly noticing that all the chairs are occupied. Then she looks my way and moves closer. “Is this seat taken?”
I’m about to get up and offer her my chair when Maren casually plops down in my lap like it’s the most natural thing in the world. Although for Maren, maybe it is normal, because she’s always been a touchy-feeling type of person. For me, the feeling is . . . unsettling, because I can never seem to wrangle my body under control with her this close.
I mutter something inarticulate as she proceeds to use me as a chair. Wolfie grumbles something under his breath, and I stare into the fire, trying to focus on anything but the way she feels in my lap.
For a moment, I think that I can do this, but the soft weight of her ass pressing into my groin quickly becomes too much. The scent of her shampoo makes my heart rate accelerate, and my body starts to respond. My cock swells, and I’m sure Maren’s about to notice.
When I shift her weight, she meets my eyes, and I can’t help but notice the challenge in her expression. It’s the same feeling that I got when she came to visit the store. We share a silent moment, neither of us looking away. She knows exactly what she’s doing to me, so why isn’t she moving away?
I’m so distracted and on edge that I can barely focus on the conversations happening around us.
After a little while, a couple of people wander off, ready for bed, and pretty soon, only a few of us are left.
“I think I’m going to turn in,” I say.
Maren rises from my lap and gives Wolfie a hug good night. “Me too,” she says, giving me a heated look.
I grab the empty beer bottle from beside my chair and give Wolfie and Connor a fist bump. “You guys will make sure the fire’s out?”
Connor nods. “We got you.”
I wish I could douse my raging attraction to Maren the same way they’ll douse the fire.
“Thanks for grilling,” Wolfie says.
“My pleasure. Night, guys.”
Maren is already heading up the steps and into the house. I follow her, but linger in the kitchen while she climbs the stairs to the bedrooms. The last thing I need right now after that sexually charged bonfire encounter is an awkward hallway run-in with her.
After several minutes, I finally make my way upstairs and pause at the top. The door to Holly and Maren’s shared bedroom is closed, but so is the bathroom door, light escaping from under it. I hear the water running and guess it’s Maren brushing her teeth.
Inside my bedroom, I strip out of the clothes that now smell like a campfire and quickly rinse off in the shower. After putting on a clean pair of boxer shorts, I pull back the blankets and climb into bed.
When it’s finally quiet and I’m sinking deep into the mattress, I realize something is very, very wrong. The sound of feminine moaning is coming from the bedroom next door, and it’s loud. Really loud.
