Second Chance Mine, page 2
Adrian teased, “Like what you see, Paige?” Pulling me back to the present.
His arms were crossed over his shirtless chest, emphasizing his toned, muscular arms.
I swallowed hard, unintentionally taking him in. Every teenage memory I had of him came rushing to my head.
The girls.
The fighting.
The times we were alone.
The truth was…
I may have had a tiny crush on Adrian Drake.
Two
Paige
From the second Cade and I became best friends a few weeks after I moved in next to him, there was always one strict rule between us I pinky promised and swore I’d never break.
His older brother was off limits to me in every way, shape, and form.
Cade was adamant about this rule. I was his best friend.
Only.
Up until I was sixteen, I had no problem following through on my devoted vow to our friendship. However, one afternoon Cade taught me how to drive the stick shift to his 1967 black Camaro and it all went downhill from there.
The memory of that day played out in front of my eyes.
“Want to go for a ride, Paige?”
I peered around their kitchen. “Where’s Cade?”
Adrian smiled. “Don’t worry about him. Come for a ride with me. I’ll even teach you how to drive my stick.”
“Ummm…”
“Cade won’t be back for hours. He’s running some errands. What kind of brother would I be if I didn’t babysit his best friend while you wait for him?”
“Babysit me?” I repeated. “I’m not a little girl.”
He grinned, causing my stomach to flutter.
“Trust me. I know.”
If I was being entirely honest, my infatuation probably started way before that day.
Shaking away the daze, I scoffed, “You wish, buddy. Not every girl wants to jump your bones.”
Adrian didn’t let up, eyeing me up and down; instantly making me feel naked.
How does he do that?
Once he noticed I was blushing, I looked away while as he baited, “Whatever you say, buddy.”
Cade didn’t pay me any mind, chucking a pillow at Adrian instead. He was absolutely oblivious to my lusting after his brother.
“Get over yourself, Adrian. Paige isn’t stupid enough to fall for the likes of you. She knows better.”
Did I though?
At that point…
I didn’t know anymore.
In high school it was easy to pretend that he was nothing more than my best friend’s older brother. Although, there were times when I swear the line between us was getting crossed, I chalked it up to my delusional imagination and normal teenage girl hormones.
Now they were living together, and it was going to add a whole other level to my hidden desire of wanting to feel his lips on mine. To say I had very little experience when it came to guys would be an understatement. To be completely blunt, didn’t have any. The boys at our school always stayed away from me. I didn’t know if it was because of my tight bond with Cade or if that the second boy I kissed when I was fourteen talked badly about my skills.
It was during a game of Truth or Dare. He had braces and stuck his tongue down my throat, cutting up my bottom lip in the process. It was so traumatizing I didn’t care to be kissed again. Since then, guys at school didn’t approach me. Sometimes it felt like I had the plague.
All I had was Cade.
And that was good enough for me.
Adrian caught the pillow before it hit his face, then hurled it back at Cade.
“All right you two,” I intervened. Much like I had for the last twelve years. “Let’s put down the pillows and be nice to each other.”
“You should listen to Paige before you get hurt, little brother.”
“Eat shit,” Cade chuckled, throwing another pillow at him. “What are you doing back so early anyway? I thought you had a meet and greet with the pledges?”
“I served my time. Thought I’d head back early and see what you two losers are doing.”
“Rude!” I chimed in.
Adrian was a smart ass. He never meant anything by it. It was just his personality.
Changing the subject, he asked, “How’s unpacking going?”
“It’d go faster if Paige stopped riding my ass.”
“Well, I can give her something else to ride.”
This time it was me who threw a pillow at Adrian.
He snickered, blocking it from hitting him. “What?” He held his hands up in surrender. “I was just trying to be helpful.”
“You, helpful?” Cage scoffed, unfazed by his brother’s antics.
Adrian was flirty with everyone. He couldn’t help himself.
“I promised Mom I’d be nice to you. This is me being nice.” He nodded to me. “What are you riding his dick about?”
“Ewww,” I spewed. “Gross.”
“Hey!” Cade chimed in. “Easy on the flirting, okay?”
“Hardly. Paige is like our little sister.”
Talk about a shot to the heart. Nothing like hearing your teenage crush think of you as blood.
“Except she has tits and an ass now.”
“She’s had those for a while,” Cade confirmed. “Where have you been?”
“Oh my God,” I intervened. “Ummm… Hello! I’m right here! Stop talking about me like I’m not in the room. And tell me, did come here to help you unpack Cade, or to have you guys pick on me?”
“To unpack,” Cade stated smiling at me.
“The picking on you is just a bonus.” Adrian tossed a different pillow in my direction. “You’re so easy to fuck with. Remember when I used to make you cry?”
“That only happened like five times.”
“I’d say more like twenty, but we can go with your delusional number.”
“Adrian, you turned my Barbie into a hoe.”
“She wanted that threesome with Ken and G.I. Joe.”
“I didn’t even know what a threesome was until you.”
“Oh, I’m fully aware. I was grounded for a month for it.”
“What about the time you peed in your water gun and then shot me with it?”
He laughed, throwing his head back.
He has such a great laugh.
“I was just marking my territory.”
“She’s not your territory, Adrian. She’s mine.”
Adrian didn’t miss a beat, walking over to me. He wrapped his arm around my neck, tugging me into the side of his shirtless chest.
“As I said, she’s our little sister. I was just looking out for her, Cade.”
Someone knocking on their door averted our attention to the sound.
“I’ll get it,” Cade offered, leaving to answer.
Shit… Can Adrian feel my heart beating faster?
As if reading my mind, he whispered in my ear, “Good to know I still affect you, Paige.”
I thought I was imagining what he murmured for a second, but then he let me go, winking at me.
“Adrian.” Cade walked back into his bedroom with a pretty blonde girl behind him. “You have company.”
Adrian glanced over at her, narrowing his eyes for a second. “Michelle, right?”
“It’s actually Ashley,” she corrected. Not caring one bit he called her by the wrong name. “But I can be Michelle if you want.”
I rolled my eyes while Cade ordered, “You can get out of my room now.”
Adrian smirked. “With pleasure.” He threw his arm around the blonde and left, whispering something in her ear as he shut the door behind them.
“New bimbo?” I questioned, trying my hardest to not feel jealous.
“There’s always a new one.”
I chuckled, despite the jealousy I felt in the core of my body.
For the rest of the afternoon, I helped Cade unpack, playing off my real feelings like I could hear his latest conquest giggling loudly through the walls. Maintaining my focus on unpacking instead, I kept finding all these sentimental things I’d forgotten over the years of our friendship.
“Awe!” I exclaimed, holding up tickets. “I forgot about this concert. I had to beg you to come with me.”
“More like dragged me.”
“You loved watching Christina Aguilera.”
“Yeah, she shook her ass the entire time.”
“You’re such a guy. I didn’t know you kept these.”
“Paige.” He shut his nightstand drawer. “Are you going to keep this sentimental shit up the entire time?”
I scoffed. “I’m just wondering what I’m in for. This doesn’t feel nostalgic to you? Just look at this picture. How cute are you with your Peter Pan costume?.”
“You didn’t leave me much choice, Paige. You threatened if I didn’t wear it you wouldn’t share your cupcakes with me anymore.”
“But look how great of a Tinkerbell I made?”
“I still can’t believe Adrian agreed to be Captain Hook.”
“It didn’t stop him from stealing all our Reese’s peanut butter Cups.”
“Yeah, he’s an asshole.”
“Aren’t you sad we’re not neighbors anymore?”
“Your dorm is ten minutes away.”
“I know.” I pouted. “It’s so far!”
“Paige, quit your whining. You’re being such a girl.”
“I am a girl. Can’t you just pretend to be sad?”
“Paige.” He laughed. “Why are you acting like you’re not going to be crashing here most of the time? You chose to live alone. Did you forget you’re afraid of the dark?”
I thought about it for a minute. He was right. I had this irrational fear of darkness.
Except if I was being truthful, Cade having a girlfriend wasn’t solely the reason for not wanting to crash at their apartment. It was the fact he lived with Adrian now too. It was different when they still lived at home with their parents. It felt as if I was sleeping in my brother’s room.
If I slept in their home, I’d be making a conscious decision of not only staying the night at my best friend’s house, but also…
Adrian Drake’s place.
And that, I wasn’t prepared for.
Three
Paige
Breaking my overly active thoughts, my eyes shifted to Cade’s nightstand. “Can I go through your drawers? Or will I find man things in there?”
“What exactly are man things?”
“You know…”
“Obviously, I don’t.”
“Cade, you know what I’m talking about. Don’t make me say it.”
“Oh… I get it now, but I’m a guy, Paige. We don’t have vibrators like you girls do.”
“What about condoms and lube?”
“Condoms and lube bother you?”
“Your condoms and lube would bother me.”
He nodded in understanding. “Fair.”
“Adrian Drake!” Ashley screamed, causing us both to jump. “You’re an asshole!”
In a flash, the sound of their front door opening and then slamming shut echoed off the walls.
“Ugh!” Cade open his bedroom door. “What the hell did you do now?”
Adrian strode in, unbothered by her outburst. We were all used to it.
“Michelle wasn’t a fan of the fact that I fucked her roommate.”
“Her name is Ashley,” I corrected.
“It doesn’t matter.”
I shook my head, staring at him in disbelief. “It never does to you.”
“Don’t look at me like that. She knew what she was getting herself into.” He flung himself onto Cade’s bed. “What’d I miss?”
Did he send her away to hang out with us?
“Condoms and lube,” Cade revealed, causing me to turn three shades of red.
“Two of my favorite things.” Adrian asked me, “What about them?”
“I was telling your brother I didn’t want to go in his drawer and find man things.”
Cade opened his mouth to say something, but his phone pinged with a text message.
“Hayley’s here,” he announced, throwing his phone on the bed. “She could only find parking around the building. I’m going to go help her bring in the groceries she picked up for us. I’ll be right back, Paige.”
I nodded, suddenly feeling nervous I was going to be left alone with Adrian after talking about lube and condoms.
Right when we heard the front door shut, he teased, “Man things, huh?”
Unable to resist, I baited, “I bet if I looked through your drawers, I’d find an arsenal of man things.”
“And I bet if I looked through yours, I’d find your smutty books and a vibrator. Because let’s face it, Paige, the only way you’re getting wet is by fucking yourself.”
I jerked back. Completely caught off guard by his statement.
He grinned, placing his arms behind his head. The move only emphasizing his toned arms and abs.
“There’s no doubt in my mind you’re still a virgin.”
My gaze widened. “I’ve been with guys!”
“Yeah, the make-believe ones from your books.”
Still in shock, I asked, “How do you know about my books?”
“My window was near yours, remember?”
“How could I forget? You were constantly bringing girls into your bedroom.”
He ignored my comment. “Let me give you a piece of advice, Paige. Toys are nothing like the real thing.”
“For your information, I don’t use toys.”
“Bullshit. Every girl uses one. There’s nothing to be ashamed of. It just comes down to how often you use it.” Cocking his head to the side, he questioned with no hesitation, “How often do you fuck yourself?”
Silence.
I couldn’t bring myself to admit that to him.
“Paige,” he rasped in a sexy voice, sitting up. “I’ll even go as far as saying you’ve never seen a dick before.”
“That’s where you’re wrong.” I proudly smiled. “I’m staring at one right now.”
“Cute,” he mocked in an amused tone. “Come on, Paige. Humor me, how often do you use your vibrator to make yourself come?”
I could feel my face burning. “Adrian…”
“The flush on your face answers my question.” I didn’t expect him to add, “Toys can be fun.”
“What?”
“You heard me.”
“I don’t understand.”
Sliding down the bed, he slowly made his way toward me.
“You use them with girls?”
“I have.”
“It doesn’t bother you?”
“You mean am I intimidated by a toy?”
“Yeah. I thought all guys did—”
“Those guys are pussies. I’m confident in my cock getting the job done, but toys can be of great assistance.”
Our eyes connected.
Feeling bold, I asserted, “I’ll make sure to pass that information onto the next guy I’m with.”
In a confident demeanor, he emphasized, “That’s never going to happen.”
“Oh, really, Mr. Know It All? Why is that?”
Once he was standing inches away from my face, he eyed me up and down with a predatory regard.
“Haven’t you ever wondered why you’ve never had a boyfriend?”
“How do you know I’ve never had one?”
Without wavering, he confessed, “Because I made sure of it.”
My heart dropped to the floor. I didn’t say a word. I couldn’t. Frozen in the place I stood.
“I already told you you’re like my little sister.”
I winced, incapable of hiding it.
“Does that bother you?”
“No.”
“You sure?”
“Positive.”
He grinned. Mindful I was lying.
I watched as his fingers reached for my hair and swept it behind my ear. Almost immediately, there was a huge shift in the air. Our eyes locked in a way they never had before.
My heart raced.
Sweat pooled at my temples.
Little by little, my resolve to keep him at arm’s length was getting tested.
“What’s wrong, Paige? Do I make you nervous?”
I shook my head despite the obviousness of his effect on me.
It all happened in a flash, although it felt like it played out in slow motion. The adrenaline pumping wildly through my veins was a feeling I’d never forget.
“Do you ever think about the fact I met you before Cade?”
It was crazy he chose to ask that question when I was just recalling the memory of that day.
Instead of answering, I challenged, “Do you?”
“More than I should admit to you.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means I need to stay away from you, but how am I going to do that with my brother living with me?”
“You’re the one who offered.”
“I know.”
Question after question tore through my mind at a rapid speed with no end in sight. There was so much I wanted to ask, to express, to confess…
I couldn’t. Cade would hate me.
He wouldn’t stand for it.
Not for one second.
Surprising me yet again, Adrian coaxed, “You want to know my dirty little secret, Paige?”
My head nodded on its own accord. As if I was simply his puppet. He controlled my strings.
My emotions.
My heart.
I desperately wanted to be loyal to Cade.
My chest ached from the concern about what was happening between us. It felt like I was cheating on my best friend with none other than his own flesh in blood.
I swallowed hard, dangling on the edge until Adrian snapped the cord by his admission, “I’m the reason they stay away from you, and I’ll continue to be the cause of why stay away from you.”
I sucked in a breath.
The back of his fingers caressed my cheek. “The summer before you entered high school, I made sure everyone knew your cherry was off-limits.”
This moment was the first time I started to think that maybe our past encounters weren’t merely a figment of my imagination. That thought only intensified as he began backing away from me uttering three words.
Those three little words had the power to change everything between us in a way I was never prepared for.
His arms were crossed over his shirtless chest, emphasizing his toned, muscular arms.
I swallowed hard, unintentionally taking him in. Every teenage memory I had of him came rushing to my head.
The girls.
The fighting.
The times we were alone.
The truth was…
I may have had a tiny crush on Adrian Drake.
Two
Paige
From the second Cade and I became best friends a few weeks after I moved in next to him, there was always one strict rule between us I pinky promised and swore I’d never break.
His older brother was off limits to me in every way, shape, and form.
Cade was adamant about this rule. I was his best friend.
Only.
Up until I was sixteen, I had no problem following through on my devoted vow to our friendship. However, one afternoon Cade taught me how to drive the stick shift to his 1967 black Camaro and it all went downhill from there.
The memory of that day played out in front of my eyes.
“Want to go for a ride, Paige?”
I peered around their kitchen. “Where’s Cade?”
Adrian smiled. “Don’t worry about him. Come for a ride with me. I’ll even teach you how to drive my stick.”
“Ummm…”
“Cade won’t be back for hours. He’s running some errands. What kind of brother would I be if I didn’t babysit his best friend while you wait for him?”
“Babysit me?” I repeated. “I’m not a little girl.”
He grinned, causing my stomach to flutter.
“Trust me. I know.”
If I was being entirely honest, my infatuation probably started way before that day.
Shaking away the daze, I scoffed, “You wish, buddy. Not every girl wants to jump your bones.”
Adrian didn’t let up, eyeing me up and down; instantly making me feel naked.
How does he do that?
Once he noticed I was blushing, I looked away while as he baited, “Whatever you say, buddy.”
Cade didn’t pay me any mind, chucking a pillow at Adrian instead. He was absolutely oblivious to my lusting after his brother.
“Get over yourself, Adrian. Paige isn’t stupid enough to fall for the likes of you. She knows better.”
Did I though?
At that point…
I didn’t know anymore.
In high school it was easy to pretend that he was nothing more than my best friend’s older brother. Although, there were times when I swear the line between us was getting crossed, I chalked it up to my delusional imagination and normal teenage girl hormones.
Now they were living together, and it was going to add a whole other level to my hidden desire of wanting to feel his lips on mine. To say I had very little experience when it came to guys would be an understatement. To be completely blunt, didn’t have any. The boys at our school always stayed away from me. I didn’t know if it was because of my tight bond with Cade or if that the second boy I kissed when I was fourteen talked badly about my skills.
It was during a game of Truth or Dare. He had braces and stuck his tongue down my throat, cutting up my bottom lip in the process. It was so traumatizing I didn’t care to be kissed again. Since then, guys at school didn’t approach me. Sometimes it felt like I had the plague.
All I had was Cade.
And that was good enough for me.
Adrian caught the pillow before it hit his face, then hurled it back at Cade.
“All right you two,” I intervened. Much like I had for the last twelve years. “Let’s put down the pillows and be nice to each other.”
“You should listen to Paige before you get hurt, little brother.”
“Eat shit,” Cade chuckled, throwing another pillow at him. “What are you doing back so early anyway? I thought you had a meet and greet with the pledges?”
“I served my time. Thought I’d head back early and see what you two losers are doing.”
“Rude!” I chimed in.
Adrian was a smart ass. He never meant anything by it. It was just his personality.
Changing the subject, he asked, “How’s unpacking going?”
“It’d go faster if Paige stopped riding my ass.”
“Well, I can give her something else to ride.”
This time it was me who threw a pillow at Adrian.
He snickered, blocking it from hitting him. “What?” He held his hands up in surrender. “I was just trying to be helpful.”
“You, helpful?” Cage scoffed, unfazed by his brother’s antics.
Adrian was flirty with everyone. He couldn’t help himself.
“I promised Mom I’d be nice to you. This is me being nice.” He nodded to me. “What are you riding his dick about?”
“Ewww,” I spewed. “Gross.”
“Hey!” Cade chimed in. “Easy on the flirting, okay?”
“Hardly. Paige is like our little sister.”
Talk about a shot to the heart. Nothing like hearing your teenage crush think of you as blood.
“Except she has tits and an ass now.”
“She’s had those for a while,” Cade confirmed. “Where have you been?”
“Oh my God,” I intervened. “Ummm… Hello! I’m right here! Stop talking about me like I’m not in the room. And tell me, did come here to help you unpack Cade, or to have you guys pick on me?”
“To unpack,” Cade stated smiling at me.
“The picking on you is just a bonus.” Adrian tossed a different pillow in my direction. “You’re so easy to fuck with. Remember when I used to make you cry?”
“That only happened like five times.”
“I’d say more like twenty, but we can go with your delusional number.”
“Adrian, you turned my Barbie into a hoe.”
“She wanted that threesome with Ken and G.I. Joe.”
“I didn’t even know what a threesome was until you.”
“Oh, I’m fully aware. I was grounded for a month for it.”
“What about the time you peed in your water gun and then shot me with it?”
He laughed, throwing his head back.
He has such a great laugh.
“I was just marking my territory.”
“She’s not your territory, Adrian. She’s mine.”
Adrian didn’t miss a beat, walking over to me. He wrapped his arm around my neck, tugging me into the side of his shirtless chest.
“As I said, she’s our little sister. I was just looking out for her, Cade.”
Someone knocking on their door averted our attention to the sound.
“I’ll get it,” Cade offered, leaving to answer.
Shit… Can Adrian feel my heart beating faster?
As if reading my mind, he whispered in my ear, “Good to know I still affect you, Paige.”
I thought I was imagining what he murmured for a second, but then he let me go, winking at me.
“Adrian.” Cade walked back into his bedroom with a pretty blonde girl behind him. “You have company.”
Adrian glanced over at her, narrowing his eyes for a second. “Michelle, right?”
“It’s actually Ashley,” she corrected. Not caring one bit he called her by the wrong name. “But I can be Michelle if you want.”
I rolled my eyes while Cade ordered, “You can get out of my room now.”
Adrian smirked. “With pleasure.” He threw his arm around the blonde and left, whispering something in her ear as he shut the door behind them.
“New bimbo?” I questioned, trying my hardest to not feel jealous.
“There’s always a new one.”
I chuckled, despite the jealousy I felt in the core of my body.
For the rest of the afternoon, I helped Cade unpack, playing off my real feelings like I could hear his latest conquest giggling loudly through the walls. Maintaining my focus on unpacking instead, I kept finding all these sentimental things I’d forgotten over the years of our friendship.
“Awe!” I exclaimed, holding up tickets. “I forgot about this concert. I had to beg you to come with me.”
“More like dragged me.”
“You loved watching Christina Aguilera.”
“Yeah, she shook her ass the entire time.”
“You’re such a guy. I didn’t know you kept these.”
“Paige.” He shut his nightstand drawer. “Are you going to keep this sentimental shit up the entire time?”
I scoffed. “I’m just wondering what I’m in for. This doesn’t feel nostalgic to you? Just look at this picture. How cute are you with your Peter Pan costume?.”
“You didn’t leave me much choice, Paige. You threatened if I didn’t wear it you wouldn’t share your cupcakes with me anymore.”
“But look how great of a Tinkerbell I made?”
“I still can’t believe Adrian agreed to be Captain Hook.”
“It didn’t stop him from stealing all our Reese’s peanut butter Cups.”
“Yeah, he’s an asshole.”
“Aren’t you sad we’re not neighbors anymore?”
“Your dorm is ten minutes away.”
“I know.” I pouted. “It’s so far!”
“Paige, quit your whining. You’re being such a girl.”
“I am a girl. Can’t you just pretend to be sad?”
“Paige.” He laughed. “Why are you acting like you’re not going to be crashing here most of the time? You chose to live alone. Did you forget you’re afraid of the dark?”
I thought about it for a minute. He was right. I had this irrational fear of darkness.
Except if I was being truthful, Cade having a girlfriend wasn’t solely the reason for not wanting to crash at their apartment. It was the fact he lived with Adrian now too. It was different when they still lived at home with their parents. It felt as if I was sleeping in my brother’s room.
If I slept in their home, I’d be making a conscious decision of not only staying the night at my best friend’s house, but also…
Adrian Drake’s place.
And that, I wasn’t prepared for.
Three
Paige
Breaking my overly active thoughts, my eyes shifted to Cade’s nightstand. “Can I go through your drawers? Or will I find man things in there?”
“What exactly are man things?”
“You know…”
“Obviously, I don’t.”
“Cade, you know what I’m talking about. Don’t make me say it.”
“Oh… I get it now, but I’m a guy, Paige. We don’t have vibrators like you girls do.”
“What about condoms and lube?”
“Condoms and lube bother you?”
“Your condoms and lube would bother me.”
He nodded in understanding. “Fair.”
“Adrian Drake!” Ashley screamed, causing us both to jump. “You’re an asshole!”
In a flash, the sound of their front door opening and then slamming shut echoed off the walls.
“Ugh!” Cade open his bedroom door. “What the hell did you do now?”
Adrian strode in, unbothered by her outburst. We were all used to it.
“Michelle wasn’t a fan of the fact that I fucked her roommate.”
“Her name is Ashley,” I corrected.
“It doesn’t matter.”
I shook my head, staring at him in disbelief. “It never does to you.”
“Don’t look at me like that. She knew what she was getting herself into.” He flung himself onto Cade’s bed. “What’d I miss?”
Did he send her away to hang out with us?
“Condoms and lube,” Cade revealed, causing me to turn three shades of red.
“Two of my favorite things.” Adrian asked me, “What about them?”
“I was telling your brother I didn’t want to go in his drawer and find man things.”
Cade opened his mouth to say something, but his phone pinged with a text message.
“Hayley’s here,” he announced, throwing his phone on the bed. “She could only find parking around the building. I’m going to go help her bring in the groceries she picked up for us. I’ll be right back, Paige.”
I nodded, suddenly feeling nervous I was going to be left alone with Adrian after talking about lube and condoms.
Right when we heard the front door shut, he teased, “Man things, huh?”
Unable to resist, I baited, “I bet if I looked through your drawers, I’d find an arsenal of man things.”
“And I bet if I looked through yours, I’d find your smutty books and a vibrator. Because let’s face it, Paige, the only way you’re getting wet is by fucking yourself.”
I jerked back. Completely caught off guard by his statement.
He grinned, placing his arms behind his head. The move only emphasizing his toned arms and abs.
“There’s no doubt in my mind you’re still a virgin.”
My gaze widened. “I’ve been with guys!”
“Yeah, the make-believe ones from your books.”
Still in shock, I asked, “How do you know about my books?”
“My window was near yours, remember?”
“How could I forget? You were constantly bringing girls into your bedroom.”
He ignored my comment. “Let me give you a piece of advice, Paige. Toys are nothing like the real thing.”
“For your information, I don’t use toys.”
“Bullshit. Every girl uses one. There’s nothing to be ashamed of. It just comes down to how often you use it.” Cocking his head to the side, he questioned with no hesitation, “How often do you fuck yourself?”
Silence.
I couldn’t bring myself to admit that to him.
“Paige,” he rasped in a sexy voice, sitting up. “I’ll even go as far as saying you’ve never seen a dick before.”
“That’s where you’re wrong.” I proudly smiled. “I’m staring at one right now.”
“Cute,” he mocked in an amused tone. “Come on, Paige. Humor me, how often do you use your vibrator to make yourself come?”
I could feel my face burning. “Adrian…”
“The flush on your face answers my question.” I didn’t expect him to add, “Toys can be fun.”
“What?”
“You heard me.”
“I don’t understand.”
Sliding down the bed, he slowly made his way toward me.
“You use them with girls?”
“I have.”
“It doesn’t bother you?”
“You mean am I intimidated by a toy?”
“Yeah. I thought all guys did—”
“Those guys are pussies. I’m confident in my cock getting the job done, but toys can be of great assistance.”
Our eyes connected.
Feeling bold, I asserted, “I’ll make sure to pass that information onto the next guy I’m with.”
In a confident demeanor, he emphasized, “That’s never going to happen.”
“Oh, really, Mr. Know It All? Why is that?”
Once he was standing inches away from my face, he eyed me up and down with a predatory regard.
“Haven’t you ever wondered why you’ve never had a boyfriend?”
“How do you know I’ve never had one?”
Without wavering, he confessed, “Because I made sure of it.”
My heart dropped to the floor. I didn’t say a word. I couldn’t. Frozen in the place I stood.
“I already told you you’re like my little sister.”
I winced, incapable of hiding it.
“Does that bother you?”
“No.”
“You sure?”
“Positive.”
He grinned. Mindful I was lying.
I watched as his fingers reached for my hair and swept it behind my ear. Almost immediately, there was a huge shift in the air. Our eyes locked in a way they never had before.
My heart raced.
Sweat pooled at my temples.
Little by little, my resolve to keep him at arm’s length was getting tested.
“What’s wrong, Paige? Do I make you nervous?”
I shook my head despite the obviousness of his effect on me.
It all happened in a flash, although it felt like it played out in slow motion. The adrenaline pumping wildly through my veins was a feeling I’d never forget.
“Do you ever think about the fact I met you before Cade?”
It was crazy he chose to ask that question when I was just recalling the memory of that day.
Instead of answering, I challenged, “Do you?”
“More than I should admit to you.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means I need to stay away from you, but how am I going to do that with my brother living with me?”
“You’re the one who offered.”
“I know.”
Question after question tore through my mind at a rapid speed with no end in sight. There was so much I wanted to ask, to express, to confess…
I couldn’t. Cade would hate me.
He wouldn’t stand for it.
Not for one second.
Surprising me yet again, Adrian coaxed, “You want to know my dirty little secret, Paige?”
My head nodded on its own accord. As if I was simply his puppet. He controlled my strings.
My emotions.
My heart.
I desperately wanted to be loyal to Cade.
My chest ached from the concern about what was happening between us. It felt like I was cheating on my best friend with none other than his own flesh in blood.
I swallowed hard, dangling on the edge until Adrian snapped the cord by his admission, “I’m the reason they stay away from you, and I’ll continue to be the cause of why stay away from you.”
I sucked in a breath.
The back of his fingers caressed my cheek. “The summer before you entered high school, I made sure everyone knew your cherry was off-limits.”
This moment was the first time I started to think that maybe our past encounters weren’t merely a figment of my imagination. That thought only intensified as he began backing away from me uttering three words.
Those three little words had the power to change everything between us in a way I was never prepared for.
