I glanced down at Alex. Her face was relaxed in sleep. “Sweetheart,” I coaxed. “It’s time to wake up.” I kissed her forehead. And then her cheeks. And then her nose. By the time I reached her lips, she was giggling and squirming in my arms.
Jake wove the car through a handful of residential streets before pulling into his driveway. Jake’s house had always fascinated me. Zach and I both had condos downtown. It was closer to work, and generally, the upkeep was minimal. But Jake insisted on this house that was built for a family, despite living alone. His son was grown and had children of his own. I’d asked about it once, but Jake had just shrugged and said that he was attached to the house. It was a place entirely separate from work, so he could actually wind down after a long week.
“Jake, this is beautiful,” Alex said as we got out of the car.
It was, too. The house was a two-story Spanish-style with a manicured lawn. “Thanks,” he said. “I don’t get to spend nearly as much time here as I would like.”
Alex made a soft, wounded sound. “You both work too hard.”
I scoffed. “Says the woman who’s balancing a full-time job and law school,” I countered.
Jake rolled his eyes at the both of us. “Come on,” he said, heading for the door. “I’m starving, and it’s going to take time for food to get here after we order it.”
I leaned in to Alex. “I think I know what we can do until then.”
She giggled but swatted at me. “Shower,” she said. “Ihaveto shower.”
Join her, my mind whispered to me, but we couldn’t do that in Jake’s shower. There had to be a line somewhere, right? “Fine,” I sighed. “I’ll help with deciding what to order.”
Jake got the door open, and we shuffled into the massive open-concept first floor. From the door, the kitchen and living room, clear to the back door, was visible. “Did this place have walls when you bought it?” I asked.
He nodded. “I did the renovation after I moved in. I didn’t like all of the walls being closed in.”
“Tell me again why you didn’t just get a condo or something closer to work?”
“Because unlike some people, I needed a little more separation from my workplace.”
It was a dig, but not one that I felt the need to address. “Where can she get washed up? She’s been complaining since we left Santa Barbara.”
Alex swatted at me again, but her grin was still wide on her face. She looked at Jake. “He’s notentirelywrong,” she said. “Where’s your bathroom?”
Alex pointed to the stairs. “First door to the right,” he said. “Towels are under the sink, and there’s sweats in my top drawer if you need something to wear.”
She nodded and disappeared up the stairs, and I let out a low whistle. “What are we ordering?” I asked, trying not to think about the woman getting naked upstairs.
Jake just shook his head. “Go up there with her, dickhead.”
I shook my head. “It’syourshower inyourhouse. You go.”
He scoffed. “I will if you don’t,” he said, “but I can wait.” He crossed his arms over his chest. “I’m not sure that you can.”
He wasn’t wrong, and I hated that. “You really don’t mind?”
A look passed over his face, and for the first time, I saw the conflict that I had been feeling all day. Seeing his own struggle made me relax. “I’m trying to not mind,” he said. “We’re doing this for her, right? If we keep tugging her in three different directions, then it’s not really helping her. It’s just adding stress to her life, and we could lose her.”
Losing Alex wasn’t an option. I could barely go a day without tracking her down to see her smile, to see what she was wearing, to speak with her. Not being able to do any of that was already unfathomable. Jake was right. We had to make this easier for her, not harder. We couldn’t fight over her because she might think that she had to choose. Or that she was ruining our friendship.
The pipes overhead clanked as the shower turned on. “Go if you’re going,” Jake said. “Or you can sort out dinner.” There was no way in hell that was going to happen. I turned and headed for the stairs, ignoring Jake’s booming laugh as I went.
Finding the bathroom wasn’t difficult. But to find it cracked open, just a little, was surprising.Sneaky girl, I thought and pushed the door open wider. The shower was a walk-in with a wall of glass. There was nowhere to hide. Alex stood under the shower spray, letting the water sluice over her body, washing the remnants of the soap she’d just used down the drain. “I was wondering if you were going to show up,” she said. Her voice was barely audible over the spray.
I tore my shirt over my head and threw it toward the counter. “How’d you know I would come?”Did it matter if it was me or Jake?It wasn’t a fair thought, but my mind couldn’t help itself. Jake was right. We had to do better by her.
As if she could hear the conflict inside my head, Alex smirked and cupped her own breasts in her hands, weighing them in her hands. “Were you not going to?” she challenged, sounding blasé. Like she knew that I would come to her and had anticipated every step of the way.
I unbuckled my belt and undid the zip on my jeans. Her eyes dragged down my body, and I felt the gaze as surely as I would have felt her hands. “Thomas,” she whined. “You’re going so slowly.”
I pushed my jeans down my legs, and I was climbing into the shower before I even realized that I had crossed the room. I pinned her against the tile wall and crashed my mouth into hers. Alex moaned and looped her arms around my neck, keeping me close.As if I had anywhere else to go, I thought as I drove my tongue into her mouth.