“Sounds like a plan,” Shaw says. “Brook, why don’t you help Vaughn get ready? Wink, wink.”
“I’m gonna fuck you up one day,” I say to Shaw as I ease Brooklyn off my lap. She stands beside me and takes my hand.
“Come on. I need to change into my bathing suit. Help me.”
I glare at Shaw as Brooklyn pulls me out of the kitchen and up to her guest room. I step into the room, taking in the unused space and Brooklyn’s things on the foot of the bed. I turn back to her just as she closes the door. I don’t miss the look on her face as she crosses the room. Maybe I shouldn’t be pissed at Shaw. I don’t know what kind of mood she was in when she arrived, but she’s turned on now and it would stupid of me to not to lean into that. She steps close to me, putting both of her hands on my chest. She has to crane her neck to look up at me, giving me a damn good view of her beautiful face.
“I’m sorry,” she says. “He caught me off guard.”
I reach up and stroke her cheek. “You don’t have to apologize for getting off. I understand the difficulty in resisting Shaw.”
“Come here.” She nudges me back toward the bed, going for my belt, but I stop her.
“Hold on a sec.”
“You sure? My head game is next level.”
“I know. I remember the last time I nutted in your mouth.”
“Good, ’cause I definitely didn’t forget.”
“It’s not what I want.”
“Well, tell me what you want,” she whispers. I gaze at her lips and think about the way I feel when she responds to my texts. How the silly selfies she sends me from her office are becoming the highlight of my day. Yeah, I’ve been waiting over two weeks to be inside Brooklyn again, but what I really want is to hold her and kiss her. My hands slide up the side of her neck and I lean down, pressing my lips to hers. I feel it in my chest when she sighs against my mouth.
“You are such a good kisser,” she says.
“Yeah?”
“Yeah,” she smiles. There’s something on the tip of her tongue, but she’s doing that thing again, holding back.
“What is it?”
“Tell me something bad. Give me one little thing to hate about you.”
“Why?” She’s said this before. She was joking then, but now I think she’s actually searching bad shit out.
“’Cause I don’t want to fall for you, Vaughn. Make it easy on me. Please.”
“I hate doing dishes.”
“Yeah, but you’re a great cook and that kinda makes up for that. Try harder. Dig deeper. Give me something truly awful. Tell me you bite your toenails.”
“That’s nasty as fuck.”
She laughs as she gently nudges my stomach.
“What would be so bad about falling for me?”
“Well, for one, I’d have to put up with that asshole downstairs,” she says with a sexy smile.
“Yeah, he sucks wicked bad. But besides that shiftless bum?”
“I’m not ready and you, Vaughn Coleman, deserve someone who’s ready. I mean, besides Shaw. If that’s what you want.”
“Fucking Shaw.” I lean down and kiss her again, slow and deep. I soak in the way she sags against me, her arms wrapping around me. I need to let go of this desire to keep Brooklyn with us. It’s gonna fuck me up in the process, but I have to. I believe her when she says she’s not ready and she’s right. I want to move forward with people who want to move forward with me. I break our connection and focus on the weekend we’ve agreed to spend together. That’s good enough for now. It has to be. “I’ll give you one thing.”
“Oh! Please tell me.”
