Page 35 of The Stud Next Door (Frisky Business 3)
“Good night.”
Pressing one final kiss to her forehead, I release her, stepping down the stairs and across the lawn with broad strides. One final glance over my shoulder proves to be worth it. Jessa waves from the landing at the top of the stairs, a soft, secretive grin playing on her lips.
Until next time.
12
* * *
CONNOR
It’s a beautiful day, so Hayes recommends we take our usual Monday morning Frisky Business meeting outside.
The sun shines brightly overhead, the wind whipping between skyscrapers as we walk toward Grant Park, morning coffees in hand. Car horns and bicycle bells may be irritating to some this early in the morning, but I’m grateful for the background noise. Anything to drown out the incessant questions from Caleb about my weekend.
“Come on, you’ve got to give me something,” Caleb says, jogging to my left side so he can meet my pace in stride. “Did you take my advice? Did you go to a class? Please say it was the blow-job one.” He grins wickedly.
The bastard.
“Fine,” I say, relenting with an eye roll. “I took her to dinner at the bistro and told her about the classes. It was her idea to go, so we did. Let’s leave it at that, shall we?”
“Which class?” Hayes turns and walks backward so he can face me, a new sense of interest piqued in him.
“Something spice-related,” I mutter, sipping my coffee too soon and burning my tongue. Fuck.
“‘Spice Up Your Sex Life!’” Caleb says loudly, pumping a fist into the air. “Fuck yeah. How’d it go? Did she get all hot and bothered?”
“Caleb,” Wolfie warns from behind us. “Don’t be crude.”
“That’s the goal of the class, isn’t it?” Caleb exclaims, seemingly unaware of his own bullshit. “I just want to know. For curriculum-planning purposes.”
“The goal of the class is education, you freak,” Hayes says with a laugh. “Come on, let’s sit. There’s a table over there.”
He gestures across the grassy expanse toward an unoccupied park table situated under a shady tree. Seems good enough to get to work.
As we all take our seats, Wolfie carefully unpacks our breakfast, a wide array of fresh-baked goods from the local bakery. Soon, I’ve got an everything bagel positively slathered in chive cream cheese hovering inches from my mouth. But before I can take a bite, I’m confronted with yet another question about Jessa and me.
“How do you think the date went?” Hayes asks, his eyes probing me.
I sigh. Of all the men at this table, he’s the one I’d want to talk to the most about this weekend’s events. But that doesn’t mean I’m going to get into the particulars of my sex life before eight in the morning.
“Really well.” I take a bite of my bagel, my teeth making a satisfying crunch into the toasted bread. I’m hungrier than I realized.
“What does that mean? ‘Well’ could mean anything,” Caleb says, unabashedly speaking through a mouthful of orange scone. “‘Well’ could mean you shook hands and fucked off. ‘Well’ could mean you went all the way down to bone town. What does that mean?”
“I mean it was a good time.”
“Oh shit. You totally fucked.” Caleb’s eyes double in size, a goofy smile splitting his face as he jumps to his own conclusions. “The nanny broke the drought.”
I don’t respond, instead taking a sip of coffee that’s still not quite cool enough to drink. But I need caffeine if this is how the day’s gearing up to be.
Hayes raises his eyebrows at me. “Did you?”
I sigh. Might as well throw them a bone. “Something like that.”
Caleb outright howls in triumph and thrusts a fist at me, demanding a knuckle bump. A smile twitches at the corners of my mouth, so I humor him. Gotta admit, the guy’s energy is pretty damn contagious.
“Shit, that’s great, man,” Hayes says, nodding with a sincere look of congratulations in his eyes.
“You don’t need to sound so impressed,” I grumble. These assholes are acting like I’m some virgin who finally got laid for the very first time.
“I’m just happy for you,” he says with a chuckle.
Jackass.
“Okay, gimme the play-by-play. What happened?” Caleb asks, wiping his nose with one finger before planting his elbows on the table and giving me his undivided attention.
All three pairs of eyes are glued on me now, but I don’t have a goddamn thing to say.
“It’s private,” I say, uncomfortable with this amount of attention.
My friends have never been this interested in one of my hookups before. Has it really been that long? Does it matter that much? Or is it because, for the first time, they actually like the girl I’m with?
Caleb leans in, a wicked glimmer in his eyes. “Look, maybe these fucks over here are getting all the ass they could ever want, but me? I’m fucking dying of loneliness. Let me live vicariously through you. I need details.”
