A nervous energy that had been building up in my guts finally erupted in the form of uncontrollable laughter. “Did you,” I wheezed, lungs burning in my chest. “Did you seriously shout ‘yoink?’”

Jeremy started to laugh with me. “You know what? I think I did.”

“Dude, you’re so lame.”

“It just came out of me! I couldn’t think of anything else to say!”

I was laughing so hard that my stomach hurt. I had to bend over and rest my hands on my knees in an attempt to breathe properly. “Ay, cábron, I’m never going to let you live it down. ‘Yoink.’ What a fucking loser.”

Jeremy’s cheeks were bright red, but his smile was wide and chipper. “Oh, shut up. You were the one who swooped in like some kind of superhero. Maybe we should get you a pair of tights and you can beat drunken assholes for a living. I might even join you.”

“As my sidekick?”

“I was thinking more along the lines of a union. We could set something up if we tried.”

“Ugh, but think about the paperwork.”

He crinkled his face up. “You’re right. Never mind. That doesn’t sound fun at all.”

Beside us, Alice was giggling like crazy, clutching at her stomach as she nearly keeled over. “You two are nuts.”

She came over to kiss us both on the cheek, tugging on our shirt collars a bit to get us to bend forward. The warmth that bloomed across my face from the point where she kissed me left my skull buzzing with excitement. I would later blame the alcohol, or blame it on the heat of the moment, but I could no longer help myself. Alice was just too sexy and cute to ignore any longer. I didn’t even care that Jeremy was right there. The moment felt right, and I was certainly a man of opportunity.

I took her chin between my thumb and forefinger and tilted her head up, the perfect angle to lean down and kiss her on the lips. They were softer than I ever could have imagined. Even with traces of beer still on her tongue, Alice tasted incredibly sweet and warm like running honey. Much to my relief, she didn’t pull away. Instead, she circled my neck with her arms and kissed me back, the tip of her tongue teasing my mouth open to explore inside. It was honestly perfect. She fit wonderfully in my arms, pressed up against my chest. I caught a whiff of her hair, hints of vanilla filling my nose and leaving me in a cloud of euphoric haze.

When we finally pulled apart, Jeremy was staring at us with his eyebrows raised. “Well, check out the kahunas on you,” he said to me before taking a step forward. With one fluid motion, he swept Alice out from under me and dipped her backwards, a firm hand on the back of her head and lower back. Jeremy kissed her next, looking all too pleased with himself as Alice ran her fingers through his short hair and moaned into their embrace. He stared into her eyes with a fondness I’d never seen. It was obvious that he cared about Alice, but that didn’t stop the sting of jealous in my chest from taking control of my body.

The second their mouths separated, I pulled Alice over to me and pinned her against the alley wall, mouthing hungrily at the soft skin of her neck. She gasped, immediately melting against my touch as I sucked hard enough to leave a mark. Jeremy, never one to be discouraged, joined me in my task of pleasing Alice, teasing her jawline and earlobe with a flurry of kisses. Alice gripped at the both of us, arching her back to press her body closer. The languid moans that we managed to pull from her were too fantastic for me to bear, the sounds traveling straight through me to pool with throbbing heat in the front of my pants.

“N-not that I’m complaining,” she groaned, “but what brought this on?”

“We wanted to see who you liked more,” said Jeremy, an exploratory hand slipping around the curve of her hips.

“You need to choose,” I growled against her.

“Oh,” she gasped when I licked a stripe up her neck. “I-I don’t know what to say. I like you both very much. I don’t really want to choose.”

My mind was spinning. Now that I had a taste, I really wanted more. I just couldn’t stand not being able to have her. It was growing more and more difficult to deny my attraction to her. And to be perfectly frank, I didn’t like the idea of fighting one of my best friend’s over a girl we both liked. If I had to share Alice with Jeremy, so be it.

“Then don’t,” I said.

Jeremy smirked. It looked like he knew exactly what I was thinking. “I’ll call us a cab.”


Tags: Nicole Casey Romance