Prince Albert Read online

  and his mouth turns up at the corners, that shit-eating-grin on his face. Damn it, I just know that he's going to be impossible to live with now. He's going to think I want him all the time. I feel obligated to let him know that is definitely not going to be the case.

  "I hope you don't think this means anything is different between us," I say. Crap, that came out wrong. It sounds totally bitchy.

  But Gaige laughs. "Whatever you say, darlin'," he says. "You want to pretend like you're not lusting after me all the time, go right ahead."

  "See, I knew that's what you'd think if we ever hooked up." I slide off of him, feeling incredibly awkward standing there naked, and scramble around for my clothes, scurrying back into them as quickly as I can.

  Gaige stands there looking around, buck naked, holding the used condom in his hand. "I don't suppose there's any discrete way of throwing this out, is there?"

  "Oh my God, no," I say. "Not up here. You want the staff knowing we screwed?"

  "I'm sure your father has hidden cameras or something in the house," Gaige says, his voice calm.

  "No way," I say, my heart beating wildly in my chest. "Oh my God. You don't think he does, do you?"

  Gaige laughs. "Relax, darlin'," he says. "It's our dirty little secret." Then I watch as he puts the condom in my teacup.

  "Did you just put that in my cup?" I ask, my voice like two octaves higher than its normal pitch. "That's the grossest thing I've ever seen."

  Gaige shrugs. "You'd rather I carry it through the house to the bathroom?" he asks. "The cup's empty. Get rid of it in the bathroom. Don't be such a priss."

  "I'm not being a priss," I say, bristling at his attitude. Did he really just say this was our dirty little secret? I mean, I don't want him to shout it from the rooftops, but shit, he's acting like he's all embarrassed to have screwed me. This is more awkward than I thought it would be. "And you don't have to worry. I'll keep my mouth shut."

  "I sure as fuck hope not," he says, pulling his t-shirt on over his head. He winks at me, obviously meaning it in the lewdest way possible. "I kind of liked it when it was open."

  I can feel my face flushing warm, and try to hide it by leaning over to grab my novel, but Gaige sees it.

  "You're blushing," he points out helpfully. "It's cute."

  Of course that makes me blush even deeper. "Cute," I say. "I can't believe I heard the word cute come out of Gaige O'Neal's mouth."

  He raises his eyebrows as he walks past me, teacup in his hand. "Stick around, darlin'," he says. "I just might surprise you."

  Gaige does surprise me, a few minutes later, after I've retreated to my room. I'm undressed and about to step in the shower when his voice makes me nearly jump out of my skin. "Hey."

  "Shit, you scared the crap out of me. What, are you no longer knocking now?"

  "Touchy, touchy," he says. He's grinning. He's fucking pleased with himself, so I slap his arm playfully. "Careful, darlin', I remember how you liked the spanking I gave you earlier."

  "What are you doing here?" I ask. "You know our parents aren't going to be out all night."

  "What, you think they're going to check our rooms for us?" he asks. "We're not sixteen."

  "They could hear," I say, swatting his hand away as it slides up my leg.

  "Only if you're as loud as you were in the sunroom," Gaige says. I feel myself flush, and Gaige laughs. "Don't feel bad. I'd be that loud if I were having the best sex of my life, too."

  "You're full of yourself," I say. "I'm getting in the shower."

  "I never pretended to be humble," Gaige says, stepping around me and into the shower without even asking. "Are you going to join me, or what?"

  "Are you always this annoying after sex?" But I step inside, closing my eyes as the water runs over my head and down my body. I brush away the water on my face, opening my eyes to see Gaige watching me.

  "I don't know," he says.

  "You don't know what?"

  "I don't know how I am after sex." He applies body wash to his hands, then rubs his hands over my shoulders and along my arms, working up a lather on my skin.

  I shouldn't be showering with Gaige. I mean, I definitely shouldn't have done what we did earlier in the sunroom either, but I really shouldn't be prolonging things. What happened in the sunroom was crazy, my mind snapping and me losing all sense of reason and propriety. But my sanity is back now.

  At least, my sanity is back until his hands are roaming over my breasts, my skin slick. And until I look at his well-defined chest muscles right in front of me. Then I think I lose my mind again. I reach out and touch him, running my fingers down his abdomen. "What do you mean, you don't know how you are after sex?"

  Gaige shrugs. "I don't usually stick around long enough to find out what chicks think after sex."

  "Chicks?" I ask. But I'm still smiling. "You really are a pig, aren't you?" If he doesn't stick around after sex, why the hell is he here?

  Gaige grins broadly. "Oink, oink," he says.

  "That's hot. At least you're honest."

  "Want to hear some more honesty?" he asks, his finger tracing around my nipples, one and then the other. Heat rushes through my body at his touch and I find myself wanting him back between my legs. Damn it. It's like we didn't just have sex minutes ago.

  One time is a mistake, I think. Twice…well, that's something else entirely.

  "Why are you here?" I ask him.

  Gaige takes my hand and wraps it around his cock. "Because you make me so fucking hard I can't think straight," he says. "Because I spent a whole summer four years ago hanging out with you all the time, and thinking every day how it would feel to have your lips wrapped around my cock. Today was the first time I got to feel them."

  "You spent a whole summer thinking about me blowing you?" I stroke him lightly, my hand running down his length, even as part of me thinks there's no way in hell I should be doing this. I'm worried that Gaige is going to be addictive, and that's terrifying.

  "I spent a whole summer thinking about you on your knees with your lips wrapped around my cock," he says, his voice low and gravely. "I spent four years thinking about you sitting on my face. Four years thinking about you riding me."

  "I – " I start. I realize I don't know what the hell to say. The fact that Gaige has spent any time at all fantasizing about me – about us – seems absurd. "I'm sure you say that to all the girls."

  Gaige laughs. "Not quite, sweetheart."

  "You know, some people use that word as a term of endearment," I say, my hand stroking him lazily. "You make it sound like an insult."

  "You take it whichever way you want, darlin'," he says.

  "I don't know whether to be annoyed or turned on."

  "Now, I've definitely heard that before," he says, smiling as he reaches between my legs. "I'd say turned on is more accurate."

  Arousal courses through my body when he touches me, but I stop his hand with mine. "I've never been turned on by someone who irritates me as much as you do, Gaige."

  He grins. "I'll definitely take that as a compliment, sweetheart." He spins me around to face the shower wall and pins my hands above my head. "I only washed your front. Can't miss the opportunity to wash the other side."

  "You're so thoughtful," I start, but I'm immediately distracted by his hands traveling down my hips and ass, and then between my legs.

  "People tell me that a lot," he says.

  "Yes," I murmur, as his fingers find their way inside me. I can't follow the conversation anymore; all I can think about is his fingers and what they're doing. I move to turn around, but he reaches up with his other hand and pushes my palms firmly against the shower wall again.

  "Assume the position," he says, and I can't help but giggle.

  "What position is that?"

  "It's whatever position I put you in," he says, and the throbbing between my legs intensifies. Damn Gaige. He says the kind of things that my brain tells me I should think are totally misogynistic and repulsive things to say