The Storm Series, page 7
Taking a deep breath, I twisted slowly, so as to not wake her up, but Junie wasn’t having it. Her ass wiggled against my dick again, and her hand reached up to cover mine, keeping my palm firmly on her tit.
It was fucking agony.
Squeezing my eyes tight, I tried again, but the girl still wasn’t having it. “No,” she mumbled, and jealousy hit me hard at the thought that she was probably having flashbacks of when Paul used to warm her bed. The possibility stung like a bitch.
Leaning forward, my warm breath was at her ear. “Junie, baby? Wake up.”
“No,” she mumbled again, and I almost chuckled. While she was all snuggled up and comfortable, I was dying in a way that only a man would understand.
“Junie?” I tried again.
“Just five more minutes, Ripley,” she mumbled, and relief flooded my body enough to make me want to praise Jesus.
She knew it was me.
“Junie-”
“Oh, God!” she shrieked before jackknifing upright, then scooting her way to the edge of the bed. Her eyes were round with horror. “Oh, God, I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean-”
“It’s okay,” I assured her as I sat up, making sure that the blanket hid my erection. “It’s okay, I promise.”
Not convinced, she held her half of the blanket in a death grip against her chest. “No, it’s not,” she insisted. “I…” Her chin jerked towards me. “I had your…hand on my…” She closed her eyes, her face turning into a pretty blush of embarrassment. “Oh, God…”
“Junie, look at me.”
“Nope,” she replied, popping the ‘p’.
I did chuckle then. “Baby, look at me,” I repeated.
“I’d rather not,” she muttered stubbornly, her eyes still tightly closed.
“Look at me, or else I’m going over there to get you,” I threatened, and that did the job.
One eye popped open, then the second one. “Yeah?” she grumbled.
“How about we make a deal?”
“What kind of deal?” She sounded like a petulant child, and I was trying my hardest not to laugh.
“I won’t mention how you held my hand on your tit, and you won’t mention how I had my dick pressed up against your ass,” I offered.
I didn’t think that her eyes could get any bigger, but they did. “Oh, God,” she choked out. “I can’t believe you said that.”
I smiled, trying my best to ease her discomfort. “Junie, it’s okay,” I told her. “Honestly.”
“There is nothing okay about any of this,” she muttered, running her hands down her face.
“Well, be that as it may, we’re in this together, which brings us to our next issue.”
“We have a next issue?” she asked horrified.
Christ, she really was fucking adorable. There was no way that I was going to make it out of this weekend intact if she didn’t fall in love with me and promise to marry me. I wanted four kids, and I wanted Junie to give them to me. I wanted all my future interviews ending with a thanks to my wife and kids. I wanted Junie cheering me on, making me the best version of myself possible.
“As far as everyone else knows, we’ve been dating for six months,” I reminded her. “You’re going to have to act like you’re used to me touching you.”
“Oh.” My ego tried not to take it personally, but she sounded like I’d just propositioned her with a colonoscopy.
“If you don’t want me touching you, that’s fine,” I quickly amended. “But it might look a little strange.”
“No, no…it’s fine,” she muttered. “I just…I hadn’t thought about that.”
“Junie, the last thing that I would ever want to do is make a woman feel uncomfortable where her body is concerned,” I told her. “That’s a rather unacceptable thing for a man to do. If you don’t want me touching you, I won’t.” I tried to search my brain for something plausible. “We could…I’ll say that I’ve been sick with a cold or something.”
Her shoulders sagged. “I’m sorry, Ripley,” she whispered. “You’re just trying to be a good guy, and I’m messing it all up.”
Not wanting to upset her any further, I decided to change the subject. “Look, how about we just not worry about it right now? Why don’t we just get ready for the day, and try not to stress out about the rest of it?”
“Uh…sure,” she whispered, sounding unsure.
“Do you want to shower first?” I asked.
She shook her head. “No, you…you can shower first.”
“Okay.”
Making sure that I was covered, I sat up with my back to her. Luckily, the bathroom was attached on my side of the bed, so all Junie would see was my back as I made my way to the shower. My dick was still hard, and I didn’t need to add that elephant to this already ridiculous situation.
Once I was safely inside the bathroom, I turned the water on, then let it warm up as I brushed my teeth. Twenty minutes later, I was clean enough to start the day, but in my haste to make sure that I didn’t embarrass Junie with my raging erection, I’d forgotten to grab some clothes. I was going to have to walk out there in a towel, grateful for the little things and that my dick wasn’t hard anymore. Taking a deep breath, I opened the door to face the music.
Junie had her back to me, on her phone, when she heard me coming out. “Sheridan texted that they’re all gathering for breakfast,” she mentioned conversationally.
“Okay.”
“Yeah, I figured we-” She stopped talking when she turned around and saw me practically naked.
“Yeah?” I knew that I was acting cocky, but I liked that I could turn her speechless. It provided hope.
“Holy shit,” she whispered under her breath, and there was a real threat to my dick popping back up again.
“Like what you see?” I teased, and her face turned as red as could be.
She lowered her eyes, then quickly began gathering the pile of clothes that was next to her on the bed. “I’m just going…over there. To shower,” she stuttered.
I wisely stopped the teasing as I watched her race around the bed, then fly past me into the bathroom. The lock sounded loud and significant, but I still smiled. While I didn’t enjoy embarrassing the girl, the fact that she was gave me hope.
Junie Becker wasn’t immune to me.
What more could a guy ask for?
Chapter 13
Junie~
Thirty minutes later, I was still an embarrassed mess. However, to be fair, what woman wouldn’t turn into a stuttering mess while staring at a practically naked Ripley Storm?
Sweet Baby Jesus.
Last night, when Ripley had been sweet enough to let me know that he would keep his hands to himself, so that I wouldn’t feel uncomfortable, all I could think about was how much I hadn’t wanted him keeping his hands to himself. Something that I feared I was going to have to talk to Roark about soon. The last thing that I wanted to do was blindside Roark with this…mess.
There was also the fact that I had shamelessly kept his hand on my breast and my ass up against his groin like a hussy. I kept trying to tell myself that it’d just been because it’d been so long since I’d been held by a guy, but that wasn’t it. If I’d been that starved for male company, I could have remedied that situation ages ago. It wasn’t all that hard for a woman to get laid if she left her morals and standards at home.
The cuddling had felt good because it’d been Ripley Storm cuddling me. His large body had felt warm and wonderful wrapped around me. It would have felt sweet and comforting had it not been for that huge steel pipe that had been pressed up against my ass. That weapon of mass destruction had felt sizable enough to cause some concern if I were ever so fortunate as to get lucky with the man.
God, and then there was the way that he’d kept calling me baby. Though I didn’t have an issue with my name, it wasn’t the sexiest name around. It wasn’t a Victoria or Marigold or something exotic like that. It was flippin’ Junie; uncommon but not original. So, hearing Ripley calling me baby had sounded sexy and sensual, and a girl could really get used to hearing that on the regular.
When I finally joined everyone downstairs, everyone was scattered around, breakfast on everyone’s plate. Sticking with tradition, Roark and Bruce were still wearing their aprons, both men responsible for the massive breakfast spread all over the place. Everyone looked happy, and I wasn’t even annoyed at Paul and Leslie sitting next to each other. I was done with him, and there was no forgiving her, but I wasn’t as bothered as I should be.
As soon as Roark saw me, he produced a plate that was filled with my favorites. “I got everything you need, Junie Bug,” he said, automatically setting the plate next to him.
“Thank you.” I sat down next to my best friend, my stomach growling with eagerness. You’d think that I’d be slightly hungover after everything that I’d tossed back last night, but I wasn’t. I actually felt good.
“Shouldn’t your boyfriend be making you a plate?” Leslie asked snidely, and it was hard not to just throw my plate at her face.
However, before I could answer, Roark was already there, being my hero. “I’ve got seniority,” he replied as he flipped her off. “Besides, my brother had her all night, that’s plenty.”
I could feel my face turning red, and when I looked over at Ripley leaning against the counter, a coffee mug in his hand, he just sent me a flirty wink, a smirk on those kissable lips of his. Roark had made it sound so damn dirty when it’d been super innocent. Well…except when I had forced Ripley to molest my breasts.
“Leslie, why don’t you give it a rest, yeah?” Paul muttered low enough to be respectful of his fiancé, but loud enough to be heard all the same.
Before she could attack the man, Bruce spoke up, again, ever the peacemaker. “So, the lake today or what?”
We had a routine when we came up here for the weekend, and that usually consisted of swimming in the lake on our first sober day. Thursday nights were always light drinking, de-stressing from the drive and what not. Fridays were always a big breakfast morning, a day at the lake, then some heavy drinking. Saturdays were always spent nursing hangovers until we were well enough for board games or whatever. Sundays were always spent with everyone doing their own thing with a cookout for dinner. Then Mondays were always spent with another big breakfast before everyone packed up, then went on their way.
“Oh, well…” Leslie started looking around at all of us. “I was hoping that we could have some girl time and make a wedding board.”
“What the fuck is a wedding board?” Roark asked.
Leslie rolled her green eyes. “It’s a Pinterest thing. You create a board with wedding ideas and pin them. It’s to help with ideas and stuff for your wedding.”
“Well, since I have a dick, I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Roark replied.
“Nor did I expect you to,” Leslie snapped back.
“Junie and I are going swimming,” Ripley announced. “You guys can do whatever you want.” Was it rude? A bit. Still, everyone was used to Ripley’s curtness. No one was phased by it anymore. However, I was seeing an entirely different side to him now, and the girly part of me liked that I was the only one seeing it.
“Yeah, I vote for swimming,” Sheridan chimed in.
“I’m all about tradition,” Roark lied. “I’m with the lake people.”
“Sorry, Leslie, but if it’s a choice between bullshitting with these assholes and ogling Démon in a bikini? Démon in a bikini wins every damn time,” Bruce added cheerfully.
“Dude, put a ring on it already,” Roark laughed as he threw a tater tot Bruce’s way. “It’s been years.”
Things suddenly took a turn for the serious when Bruce said, “All she has to do is say the word.” Where Bruce always had some teasing in his voice, it was completely absent now.
“Well, since I’m the first one getting married, can we focus on my wedding first?” Leslie huffed, her self-centeredness on full display. “Even if Démon wanted to marry Bruce, my April wedding will still happen first.”
“How do you know?” Démon asked. “We could always elope.”
“Proving my point that my wedding is the one that we need to focus on,” Leslie insisted.
I watched Leslie command the room, and it was amazing how someone looked so different once the rose-colored glasses were off. I’d always thought of Leslie in the same manner as Sheridan and Démon before. While we all had our faults, I never focused on those. I’d always tried my hardest to make allowances for people’s differences because that’s what made the world so fascinating.
However, with Leslie showing her true colors, I was finding it hard to see any good in her. Especially, since all she was showing was some serious bad right now. How could she really believe that I would want to sit around and help plan her wedding to Paul? Not only was the idea insensitive, but it bordered on cruel. How was she the victim in all this?
“Well, I’m pretty sure that I won’t be any help anyways,” I told the room. “I prefer the fall and winter months to spring and summer.”
“So, if you were getting married, what kind of wedding would you want?” Sheridan asked, and it was hard not to grin at her. I knew that she was irritated with Leslie, so this was her subtle way of showing whose side she was on.
“Yeah, what kind of wedding would you want?” Ripley echoed from where he was still leaning back against the counter, and the raspy sound of his voice sent chills down my spine.
Staring at those blue eyes that seemed to burn right through me, I said, “I’d want to get married in the snow. Small, intimate, and cold as hell.”
“Who in the fuck wants to get married in the snow?” Roark complained.
“Don’t come,” I fired back.
He looked over at me. “We both know that I’ll end up being your Maid-of-Honor, so shut it, woman.”
Trying to trip us up, Leslie asked, “Wouldn’t you be Ripley’s Best Man? I mean…assuming that Ripley and Junie ever become serious enough to get married, that is.”
“My best friend, Phineas, can be my Best Man,” Ripley easily replied. “No way would I disappoint my bride by stealing away her Maid-of-Honor on her big day.”
I wasn’t sure what made me say it, but I imagined that it was the need to put Leslie in her place. Since I’d made the decision not to kick her ass, I chose to fight fire with fire instead. “Our big day,” I corrected.
“Our big day, baby,” Ripley echoed, and there went that shiver again.
“Okay, enough,” Sheridan announced. “I’m all for love, but since I’m the only single idiot here, I’m good off all the wedding talk.”
“Hey, I’m single, too,” Roark reminded her. “So, you’re in good company.” He threw her a sexy wink, making her grin.
“Yeah, let’s put all the wedding talk on hold for today,” Démon agreed. “I’m ready to go swimming.”
Leslie grumbled her displeasure but didn’t say anything further as we all finished up our breakfasts, easy conversation around us.
The only issue?
I couldn’t get winter weddings out of my head now.
Chapter 14
Ripley~
At the time, the lake had sounded like a great idea. I figured that it would get Junie out of having anything to do with Leslie and Paul. Swimming around made it hard for conversation.
However, watching Junie walking down the stairs in a bathing suit cemented just how fucking stupid I really was. The woman had a perfect body, and that little ‘one-piece’ that she was wearing was putting it all on display. Sure, the material connected enough to be called a swimsuit, instead of a bikini, but it had these random patterns cut out all over the place, so soft flesh was popping out everywhere. This shit was starting to border on gluttonous torture, and I wasn’t sure how much longer I was going to be able to hold out. This was worse than mastering The Rewind, and I almost killed myself a million times getting that one perfect.
I seriously needed to talk to Roark, and soon.
Careful not to touch her, I didn’t say a word as I escorted Junie out of the cabin, then down to the lake. Everyone was making their way with us, even Paul and Leslie. The lake was a beautiful body of water just a few yards behind the cabin, and that was one of the reasons that I had purchased the property. The lake froze over during the winter, and though I didn’t get to spend much time here because the winter months were my busiest, I was able to get out here once or twice, and the blanket of snow and frozen lake were as peaceful as it got.
The lake also had a boating dock, but no boat. The dock was shaped like a three-prong fork, and it had enough space to secure two boats inside if I’d wanted to own a boat, which I didn’t. So, instead of two boats, I had patios sets on the two outside decks, and a couple of lounge chairs and a table on the center deck.
As we reached the water, Leslie and Paul went straight for the center deck, and I couldn’t say that I was sad about it. While I had plans to be in the water with Junie, if we needed a break, I didn’t want to have to share a table with Leslie.
Sheridan, Démon, and Bruce took the right deck, and that left the remaining deck to me, Roark, and Junie. Before fake-dating Junie, I hadn’t ever joined them in whatever they’d been up to. These weren’t my friends; they were Roark’s friends. Sure, Roark and I had jumped in the lake together a few times, but usually everyone else would be busy doing something else.
The second that Roark put his stuff on the table, he had his arms wrapped around Junie, and he was jumping into the water with her, the sounds of her shrieks coming to an end as they both went under. Bruce let out a whoop and holler, and he was quickly joining them with Démon in his arms, tossing her into the water in the same fashion.
I glanced over at Sheridan, and she was laying back on one of the lounge chairs, a drink in her hand, not the least bit interested in getting into the water just yet. Paul was rubbing lotion all over Leslie, politely ignoring the rest of us, which worked for me.
