Only a few months ago, I wouldn’t have even considered chasing a girl to the other side of the city.
“Jesus,” I mutter to myself, scrubbing my hand down my face.
“You okay?” Stella asks, placing her hand on my thigh, her arms now free from holding the baby.
Warmth floods me from her touch, making my skin come alive… amongst other parts of my body.
“Yeah. I’m just going to go out back and call Theo.”
“Okay,” she breathes, leaning forward to place a kiss on my lips.
I’m not even out of my chair before she’s been dragged back into the conversation.
I stop in the doorway and just watch her for a moment. She looks so happy here. Relaxed. The complete opposite to how she was in London. It makes me realise that the person I met at home isn’t really her.
I guess the version of me she met wasn’t real, either.
Chelsea notices me watching Stella, a soft smile curling at her lips as she holds my eyes for a beat before I slip from the room and pull my phone from my pocket.
“What the actual fuck?” It’s not until his rough, sleepy voice comes down the line that I ever consider the time difference.
“You should have been up hours ago,” I state happily, figuring it’s already past lunchtime there.
“You are way too fucking jolly. You got between her legs already, didn’t you?”
“Dude, I never kiss and tell, you know that.”
“Bull-fucking-shit, bro. You usually delight in telling us every minute detail.”
“Yeah, well, maybe times are changing.”
Silence crackles down the line for a beat before he sucks in a breath.
“Fuck me. You really have fallen for her, haven’t you?”
“No, I… uh…”
“Fucking hell, Seb. She fucking owns you, and you don’t even know it.”
I think about the time we’ve spent together since that first fight in Kyle’s brother’s house, and I can’t help the smile that tugs at my lips.
“She’s…” I trail off, not knowing how to explain whatever it is that’s changed between us. “She’s good fun.”
“Yeah, man. I know that, I’ve partied with her.”
“And the faster you forget about that night the better.”
“But the next morning is fair play for the wank bank?”
A growl rumbles up my throat as that memory hits me, of the heat in my brothers’ eyes as they stared at her cunt as I worked her to orgasm.
“Fuck you, Cirillo. Fuck you.”
All he does is laugh down the line, making my grip on the phone turn painful.
What the fuck was I thinking?