The Storm Series, page 6
A year after trying to shake my feelings for Junie, I’d gotten drunk one night, then had confessed everything to Phin in an emotional cleansing that would do any girls’ slumber party proud. He’d been giving me shit about keeping it in my pants, and fed up with his teasing, I had blurted everything out, leaving him speechless and me feeling like I’d just grown a pussy.
It hadn’t been fun.
For either of us.
“That’s it? That’s all you have for me?”
“Afraid so, bud,” he replied dryly. “I’m not exactly an expert at love. Plus, I’ve been drinking.”
“Because you’d have better advice if you were sober?”
“Uh, probably not,” he admitted. “I know how to orchestrate my way around a threesome more than I do love.”
“Jesus Christ,” I swore, running my free hand through my hair.
“Look, just…play it by ear, but be aggressive,” he advised. “All girls like the bad boy type, and if she’s best friends with your brother, well…that nutjob is as aggressive as it gets.”
Phin wasn’t necessarily wrong. While we’d come a long way as a society, Roark was still a little bit behind in the times. While I was possessive, protective, and a bit rough around the edges, Roark’s easygoing demeanor was a very well-crafted façade. Yes, he was a good man. Yes, he was filled to the brim with decency and integrity. Yes, he was considerate.
Yes, yes, yes to all those things.
Still, the guy took alpha to a whole different level when he was dealing with the fairer sex. My mother and Junie had a living, breathing, riding knight in shining armor in my brother, and I felt sorry for the woman that would one day marry the psychopath. Good Time Roark was only a good time when things were going well, something that a lot of people didn’t know about him.
That’s probably why he was going to kill me when this weekend was over.
“You’re no help,” I told him. “But thanks for listening, all the same.”
“You’re welcome,” he replied easily. “You still should have skipped your trip for some blonde fun, though.”
As I thought about that, I knew that Phin was wrong on that score. Even though Junie had Roark, it made my stomach sour to think that she would have had to endure this shitshow of betrayal without any help from me. Granted, I wasn’t sure if I really did help anything, but I wasn’t about to let Leslie and Paul think that they’d broken her again.
“I’m exactly where I’m supposed to be, Phineas,” I stated, knowing it down to my soul.
Phin just chuckled. “Good luck, Rip.”
“Thanks, man.” I hung up, then tossed my phone on the bed. While Phin’s advice hadn’t been groundbreaking, I didn’t see how there was anything else to do. I had one chance to make this girl see me as other than Roark’s older brother, and I refused to fuck it up.
The door to my room opened, and I saw Roark storming in, and he was carrying two suitcases and a carryall bag.
He also looked pissed.
Kicking the door behind him, he walked forward, dropped the bags on my bed, then hissed, “What the fuck, Rip?”
“Look, I know-”
“You don’t know shit,” he kept hissing. “I just spent the past few minutes trying to convince Junie that everything was going to be okay, and that she can trust you.”
That straightened my back. “She can trust me.”
The same exact eyes that mirrored mine narrowed. “I know that, but this is a delicate situation, Rip,” he bit out. “The girl is vulnerable and-”
“And you think that I’m going to take advantage of that?” Deep down, I knew that wasn’t the case, but this was new territory for us. Roark and I had never fought over a girl before, and I didn’t want to start now.
“No,” he quickly replied. “Of course, I don’t think that. It’s just…I know how you feel about her, and that makes this a tricky situation.”
“Then why did you go along with it?” I asked. “Why didn’t you play it off or something?”
“Because I don’t hit females, so the only other thing that I could do was help salvage Junie’s pride,” he answered, confirming what I had suspected. “And don’t get me started on Paul.”
“Look, Roark, I know you’re concerned, and I don’t blame you,” I told him. “But…” I dropped my head back, then cracked my neck from side to side, easing some of the tension.
“Rip-”
“Nah, man,” I interrupted, looking back over at him. “Look, I’ve respected your wishes for five years, Roark. I’ve stayed away from her and have never once done anything foul or inappropriate. Still, it’s been five fucking years.” His shoulders sagged a bit, but I wasn’t saying all this to make him feel bad. “What do I have to do to prove that I’m not in this for a quick lay? Especially, when I can get that almost anywhere.”
“She’s my best friend,” he sighed. “I just don’t want…I’d hate to see the two most important people in my life hurt because shit went south.”
“Not only would I not do that to her, but I wouldn’t do that to you, either.”
Roark didn’t say anything for a few torturous seconds. When he finally did speak, it was like breathing in fresh oxygen after being trapped underground for weeks. “Don’t fuck it up, Rip,” he said. “I mean it.”
“I won’t,” I promised. “I swear it. I’ll-”
A knock on the door stopped my rush of promises to my brother. “Come in,” he instructed.
I held my breath as the door pushed open and Junie appeared through the opening. She looked nervous, but beautiful as always. Armed with my brother’s blessing and Phin’s generic advice, I was going to do my best to show this girl a different side of Ripley Storm.
Junie shut the door behind her, and she looked like she was entering the end of days. “Sorry, were you guys talking?”
Roark walked up to her, wrapped his arms around her, then pulled her close. Jealousy spiked in my gut as Junie wrapped her arms around his waist, and it wasn’t necessarily jealousy over my brother, but that he had those affectionate parts of her.
“We were just talking about…everything,” Roark told her, his hand rubbing up and down her back, and I wanted to yank her out of his arms, but I didn’t know why. I was used to their hands-on friendship. I mean, they’d been like that ever since I’d first met her, so I wasn’t sure why I was trippin’ now.
Junie pulled out of his arms, then looked over at me. “I guess we need to talk,” she muttered shyly.
I slipped my hands in the pockets of my sweats. “Probably,” I agreed.
Roark kissed her on the top of her head before saying, “I’ll leave you guys to it. Just keep me informed on how we’re going to play this.”
Junie looked up at him. “Like, if we get in a fight and break up tonight or something?”
“We’re not breaking up,” I announced like a lunatic, considering that we weren’t even a couple.
“Well, we could,” she offered. “I mean, I get why you did what you did, but-”
“We’re not breaking up,” I repeated.
“Ooookaaay,” Roark drawled out. “So, I’m just going to leave you guys to discuss…uh, this, and just let me know what’s the plan in the morning. I need a fucking cigarette.” That was Roark’s only vice.
“Sure thing,” I told him, and then he left, shutting and locking the door behind him, leaving me alone with Junie, and it was going to be a long fucking night.
Good times.
Chapter 11
Junie~
I’d thought a lot about this trip and how awkward it might be with all that’d had happened, but I never in a million years imagined that it would be Ripley Storm at the heart of all the awkwardness. While I understood the reasons behind what he’d done out there, this was still uncomfortable as hell.
“Are you okay?”
I blinked. “Huh?”
Ripley jerked his head towards the door. “Even if you are over your relationship with Paul, that shit with Leslie has to sting a bit.”
I let out a ragged breath, rubbing my hands over my jeans. “Yeah, I guess,” I mumbled. “I mean…I feel…well, it’s hard to…I feel stupid.”
His brows furrowed in thought. “Why?”
“Because that’s twice that I didn’t see something that should have been so obvious,” I explained. “I had no idea that my boyfriend was cheating on me, and I had no idea that he was doing it with one of my closest friends. I mean, how could I not…not know that? Was I really that blind?”
He let out a soft sigh. “Junie, I’ve never had a girlfriend,” he confessed, and that took me aback a little. “At least, not since I was in high school.” He shrugged. “So, I’m not the best person to…I don’t know what the signs are if there really are any, Junie. But…I don’t think that’s how relationships work. You’re not supposed to look for signs of cheating. If you are, then you probably shouldn’t be in that relationship. You’re supposed to trust your friends and partners, right?”
I dropped on the edge of the bed, running my hands down my face. “I suppose,” I conceded a bit. “I just…” I looked up at him. “I just…didn’t even recognize her. As angry as I am at her, shock still kind of has me by the shirt, you know?” I shook my head. “I really don’t know what I’m feeling right now. A part of me wants to kick her ass, but then the other part of me wants to go along with this charade for pride’s sake.”
“Well, I have a question,” he said.
“What?”
“How pissed off are you that I interfered the way I did?”
I couldn’t maintain eye contact with that question. The problem wasn’t that Ripley had ridden to my rescue because, in all honesty, knowing Roark the way that I did, it didn’t surprise me that Ripley had the same chivalrous tendencies. The problem was that I was finding myself attracted to him, and that probably wasn’t the wisest thing that I’d ever done. While I’d always thought that Ripley was gorgeous, sexy, and hot, I’d never felt the butterflies that I’d been feeling tonight.
“Junie?”
“I’m not sure,” I answered honestly.
“Junie, look at me.” When I didn’t, Ripley walked towards me, then dropped on his haunches in front of me. “Junie?” I peeked a look at him, hoping my face wasn’t flaming red, though I knew that it was. “Are you mad at me?”
I shook my head. “No,” I whispered. “I’m more surprised than anything.”
“Why?”
“I thought you hated me,” I answered with the truth. “I’ve known you for years, and you’ve barely spoken ten sentences to me.” I shrugged. “I…I didn’t see you coming to my rescue, is all.”
Something flashed in those blue eyes of his, but he quickly masked it. “I don’t hate you,” he said. “I have no reason to hate you.”
“Maybe,” I allowed. “But we’re not exactly friends.”
“No, I guess we’re not,” he agreed. “However, I couldn’t just stand by and let Leslie pick at the scab.” Ripley stood up, then peered down at me. “If you ask me, she seemed a bit too happy to share the news with everyone.”
I thought about that comment, and it sucked that it felt like the truth. “I’ve never done anything to her,” I told him. “Never.”
He just shrugged. “Sometimes you don’t need to do something to someone for them to have an issue with you. For all you know, she might have had a thing for Roark all these years and resents you for being so close to him. It’s possible.”
I eyed him. “Didn’t she try to hook up with you a while back?” I could remember Leslie saying that she’d had a thing for Ripley once, but I hadn’t ever asked what had come of it.
If anything.
“She tried, but I wasn’t interested,” he admitted. “I’ve never been interested in Leslie.”
Ignoring that, I gnawed on my bottom lip. “No, I can’t see it.”
“See what?”
“Roark’s not her type,” I remarked in thought. “If she has an issue with me, it’s not because of Roark. She must have always had a thing for Paul and just…that has to be it.”
“Well, no matter what her problem is, I think it’s safe to say that your friendship with her is over,” he said. “And if that’s the case, I’ll tell them to leave if you want me to. It’s your call.”
I let out a humorless laugh. “I would love nothing more than to kick her ass, take a liquor bottle upside his head, then kick them the hell out, and hope to never see them again,” I confessed in a sad rant. “But…”
“You take her, I’ll take him, then we can all have a great weekend,” he joked.
Or maybe he wasn’t joking.
“The highroad,” I mumbled pathetically.
“The highroad?”
“I’ve been doing my best to walk the stupid highroad since all this happened, and…” I let out a genuine laugh. “You know what? I have no idea why? At first, it was because I didn’t want to put anyone in an uncomfortable spot of having to choose between friendships, but now? I have no idea what I’m doing.”
Ripley grinned, making my stomach tighten. The worst thing that God had ever done to women was put dimples on gorgeous, sexy, ripped men. Roark had the same set of dimples, and they’d both gotten them from their mother, but I wasn’t attracted to Roark. Unfortunately, I was attracted to the eldest Storm.
“So, we get a good night’s sleep, then feel things out tomorrow,” he suggested. “No matter how badly you wanted to keep everything civil, Sheridan, Démon, and Bruce have already chosen sides, Junie. Whether right, wrong, or indifferent, it’s obvious that no one agrees with what Paul and Leslie did to you.”
“You think they’ll feel uncomfortable enough to leave early?”
His brows jumped. “We can only hope.”
“Okay…okay…” I let out a deep sigh. “Sleep. That’s what we’ll do.”
Ripley winked at me before walking over, then grabbing a couple of the pillows off the bed. There were four, but that was probably because the bed was so big. I was pretty sure that it was a California King. It also felt comfortable as sin underneath my ass.
When Ripley tossed the pillows on the floor, I felt bad that he’d kept saving me, and I hadn’t even said thank you yet. “I can do that,” I told him as I stood up. “I can make my own mat on the floor. You’ve already helped me enough, which-”
“Are you insane?” His head reared back. “There’s no fucking way that I’m letting you sleep on the goddamn floor. What’s wrong with you, woman?”
I slapped my hands on my hips. “And you think that I’m going to let you sleep on the floor? After everything that you did to salvage my pride out there? No way.”
“Junie, this isn’t up for discussion,” he argued. “Even if Roark wouldn’t go ballistic on me for letting you sleep on the floor, I don’t get down like that. You get the bed and that’s final.”
I couldn’t let Ripley sleep on the floor, no matter his stance on chivalry. It would be wrong on so many levels. I was about to suggest something that had my mind screaming danger, but my lady parts dancing in hormonal glee. Still, it was the right thing to do.
“Ripley, the bed is big enough for both of us,” I told him. “I don’t mind, unless…I mean, I don’t want to make you uncomfor-”
“Junie, are you sure?” he asked. “I know what happened out there, but I don’t want you feeling pressured or-”
“No, no, no,” I rushed out. “I trust you.”
Ripley’s eyes narrowed a bit as he bit his bottom lip. He didn’t say anything, and I wondered if I’d overstepped. My heart began to beat rapidly as I watched him grab the pillows, then place them back on the bed. Still, that was nothing compared to when Ripley grabbed the hem of his shirt, pulled it up over his head, then let it fall on the floor.
Blue eyes locked onto mine, he asked, “Are clothes off okay?”
Holy Mary, Mother of God.
All I could do was nod.
Chapter 12
Ripley~
My dick was hard, but there wasn’t anything that I could do about it. Morning wood was no joke, and I only had three choices in the matter. I could piss, jack off, or slide it inside the tight little body of the woman that was currently wrapped up in my arms.
Getting into bed had been uncomfortable as hell last night. After Junie had given me permission to sleep in my boxer briefs, I had climbed into bed like it’d been the most natural thing in the world. I had even been polite enough to roll onto my side, away from where Junie had been sitting, to give her some privacy. After a couple of minutes, Junie had crawled into bed with me, her petite frame barely making an impact. The only sound in the room had been the soft hum from the ceiling fans that were still rotating on either side of the room.
Determined not to make an ass of myself, I had remained on my side until I’d fallen asleep. However, sometime in the middle of the night, my king-size bed had turned into a twin. Junie had spooned her way to my side, and my body had automatically big spooned her little spoon.
Now, I wasn’t a stranger to having a woman sleeping in my bed, but it’d been a while. College, in fact. That was the last time that I’d given any consideration to a serious relationship. While I had no problem ‘dating’ the same girl, the last girl that I had labeled my girlfriend had been in high school.
Once I’d gone pro, the sleepovers had been no more. Not naïve to what fame did to some women, whenever I hooked up with someone, I got in, then got out. No double dipping, nothing wild enough to warrant blackmail, and nothing serious. By the time real fame had come along, Roark had already introduced me to Junie, so that’d been it for me. That wasn’t to say that I hadn’t slept with anyone during these past few years, because I’d had. It’d just been nothing serious.
Closing my eyes, not only was Junie’s ass pressed firmly up against my dick, but my hand was cradling one of her luscious tits, and I was loathed to move it, even though it made me feel like a pervert. If she were awake, there was no way that she’d let me fondle her tits, so this was borderline sexual assault in my book. If the woman would just love me back, everything would be fucking perfect.
