Page 15 of Forced to Share
Jeremy laughed before grabbing it from my hands. I pulled out a bottle opener and popped the caps. We clinked the drinks together in a toast before tipping them back. The entire time my eyes were glued to the way his lips wrapped around the mouth of the bottle and how his Adam’s apple bobbed when he swallowed. This was such a bad idea. He’d just split up with my sister. A sister who was still right down the hall.
“Is it going to be like that the whole time?”
Jeremy’s question snapped me out of my thoughts. I took a quick swig of my beer before crossing my room to siton the bed. “I have no idea. They’re normally better than that, but this is Leah we’re talking about.”
He nodded slowly before sitting next to me. “Did they react the same when you’d been hurt?”
Something vibrated beneath my skin at the question. Would my parents have acted the same had they even known about it? My brain said yes, but I had no way of knowing because I hadn’t even had the chance to tell them about Jeremy before he’d up and vanished. There was no reason to involve them in all of that. Leah knew a little, but I’d even kept some of it from her. It was then that I had to remember that I didn’t have a right to be mad about her keeping so much from me when I’d not told her everything either. All she knew was that some guy had ghosted me.
“Honestly? No, they didn’t know about it.”
Jeremy stared at me for a moment before scooting a little closer. Our thighs touched, and his body heat permeated through the material of my jeans.
“What do you mean, they didn’t know?”
I shrugged, lifting my bottle again to take another drink. It was stupid that I was embarrassed to tell him I hadn’t told them about him.
“It was just something I kept to myself.”
Jeremy turned away, taking a drink before reaching over to set his bottle on the nightstand. He took mine from my grasp and set it next to his.
“I know that it’s too little, and way too late, but I really am sorry for how things went down back then. I should have at least told you I was leaving.”
The damage was done, and even with the apology, he was right that it was coming way too late to make a difference. There was a side of me that recognized that something was going on with him, that there were parts he was hiding because how else would I have missed the part where he’d never slept with my sister? Not that I’d really wanted to hear about it. I’d known about Jeremy’s past issues with women. How had I not processed that it could have still been a thing for him?
“How about this? We call a truce. At least for now. There’s no point in dwelling on it while you’re stuck here, or this will be hell for everyone. This is such a long trip, and I’d rather enjoy my time with my family and not see everyone fighting the whole time.”
Jeremy laughed, reaching for his beer bottle again, only to realize he didn’t remember which one was his. He shrugged before picking one up and taking a quick drink.
It might have been me, and for whatever reason my mind wandered to the idea of an indirect kiss. That wasa dangerous thought. There was no need for me to have those thoughts, not right after burying the metaphorical hatchet, and definitely not with my sister sleeping right across the hall. Then again, we’d exchanged a lot more than saliva a few years ago.
When Jeremy polished off the bottle, he stood from his spot on the floor. “I’m going to throw this away. Want me to bring anything back for you?”
I shook my head, watching him because, for some reason, I couldn’t talk around the lump in my throat. I was going to have to share a room with him for a week and a half.
“Okay, then I’ll probably go take a shower after.”
Again, all I did was nod. Not that Jeremy seemed to notice. He walked over to his bag, pulling out a shower kit before disappearing into the hall.
The bathroom was right next door, so I heard when the water kicked on. My eyes slammed closed because, like an idiot, I was doing more shit I shouldn’t be doing, like picturing the man taking his clothes off and getting under the spray. I imagined the way the soap would slide down his body... and fuck me.
I had a real problem.
I let out a groan as I pushed my growing erection down in my pants. As tempting as it was to yank one outwhile Jeremy was in the shower, it was wrong. So wrong. Though, it might make it easier to sleep next to the man later without prodding him with it.
Instead, I ignored it, getting up to find my own pajama pants and a loose t-shirt. I normally slept in my underwear, but the idea of being so exposed next to Jeremy all night screamedbad idea.
By the time I changed, Jeremy was already coming back into the room, so it was good that I hadn’t given in to my initial urge. Who knew he would have been so quick in the shower? As he placed his stuff back in his bag, his brow furrowed.
“Is everything okay?”
He looked up at me with that frown still on his face. “Yeah, uh, I got out because Leah was knocking on the door saying that people were waiting, but when I got out... no one was there.”
Go figure that my sister would cause problems. She wasn’t normally petty, but her feelings were still raw.
And that was when I got a good look at Jeremy. He was shirtless, and water still speckled his pale chest, which was covered with just a hint of red hair. My throat was suddenly dry, and I needed to sit down or something because there would be no hiding the boner I was developing at the rate I was going.
So that was exactly what I did. My ass plopped down on my bed so damn fast there was no way it didn’t look suspicious. Hell, I even knocked over the remaining bottle of beer on the nightstand.
