“I’m so sorry!” Garrett shouts. “I’m sorry, Jennie!” His hand slaps at my arm, then my shoulder, before wrapping around my neck. He turns me around and pushes me against the wall. “Just stay there, please!”
He releases me as I stand frozen, face smooshed against the bamboo slats that created this whole mess when they somehow managed to capture the knot in the end of my bikini string.
Slowly dropping my hands, I peek over my shoulder. Garrett reaches into his shorts and adjusts himself with two squeezed eyes and a hiss. He nabs my top off the ground, and I quickly turn back to the wall.
“Here.” He shoves my top into my hand. I quickly slip it on, covering my boobs and still-erect nipples. “It’s really, it’s…it’s not a big deal, ya know? I didn’t even see anything.”
“Really?” The erection just appeared out of thin air?
“Yeah,” he lies, and not at all convincingly. “Nothing at all.”
“Hey, do you see my nipple ring anywhere?” I spin toward Garrett. He’s got his robe back on, though the thin silk does nothing to disguise that he’s still hard, and still gigantic. “I can’t find it.”
“Nipple ring? I didn’t notice a pierc—” His face pales. “Oh shit.”
I narrow my eyes. “Yeah, oh shit, Mr. I-didn’t-even-see-anything.”
He rubs his nape, cheeks pink. “Well, I…I…” With a resigned smile, he lifts a shoulder. “I’m a weak man, and they’re nice tits.”
My stubborn nose points to the ceiling. “Yeah, I know they are.”
His shy smile blooms into a megawatt grin. “I’m sorry, Jennie.”
“You really look it.”
“If only you could’ve seen something equally as embarrassing.” He punctuates his sentence with an exaggerated eye roll. “Then we’d be even.”
“Oh, trust me, buddy. I saw it, and I’m still seeing it.”
He plants his hands on his hips, drawing my attention south. “Can’t miss it, huh?”
I shove my hand in his face as I strut over to my robe. “Go back to being shy. Your arrogance is not wanted here. I have enough huge egos in my life.”
Garrett chuckles softly. “Are we okay? I really am sorry.”
“We’re fine. This day needs to end though.”
“Agreed.” He points down a hallway. “Just gonna wash my hands and grab a water. Want one?”
“No thanks.”
Garrett meets me at the door a minute later, slurping down his water. He screws the cap back on as he follows me out, an easy smile on his lips, much more welcome than the terrified look he normally wears.
“I’ll ride down with you,” he tells me, calling for the elevator.
“You don’t have to.”
“It’s late. I should make sure you get to your door okay.”
“Thank you.” I study him carefully from across the elevator. The bruising around his eyes has become more prominent in the last two hours, and he looks nearly about to pass out. “How are you feeling?”
“Good,” he answers too quickly, then grins at my arched brow. “My head hurts and I’m tired as hell.”
“Do you need help? Like…” I wind my damp braid around my fist. “Do you need me to check on you in the middle of the night or something?”
“Nah.” Palm pressed to my lower back, he guides me into the hall. “Adam’s calling me every couple hours, and the guys are gonna check in in the morning.”
I nod, pausing at my door. My gaze goes to Emily’s apartment across the hall, and Garrett’s eyes follow.
“Look, Jennie. I’m not gonna sleep with her again.”
I frown. “Why?”
“Your friendship is more important to me.”
“We’re friends?”
His face falls. “Well, I didn’t mean…I mean, I thought that we could be…friends? Or we don’t have to be. If you don’t want to be. Whatever.”
I smile when he looks to the ground. I don’t know why I find his awkwardness so endearing, especially when minutes ago he boldly asked if it was hard to miss his XL erection.
“Garrett?”
His cautious gaze rises. “Yeah?”
“You should work on saying exactly what you’re thinking, all of the time, not just some of it. It’s nice when people are honest, don’t you think? There’s no guessing.”
“I guess I struggle with that sometimes when I’m getting to know someone.”
“Well, I’m a Beckett. We don’t censor our thoughts.”
He laughs, a hearty, warm sound. “You guys really don’t, do you?”
I press up on my toes and peck his cheek, smiling as it warms beneath my lips. “Thanks for the second most awkward night of my life.”
“What was the most awkward?”
“The day you found my box of dildos.”
Wow, I don’t think I’ve ever seen his face so red. He buries it behind his water bottle as I open my door. I turn back to him once more.
“Garrett?”
“Yeah?”
“I’m sorry Indiana Bones slapped you in the face.”
“Indiana Bones?” His brows tug together as he lifts his water back to his mouth, cheeks like a chipmunk as he guzzles.
I see the exact moment realization dawns as the wrinkle in his forehead smooths, followed promptly by the fountain of water that bursts from between his lips as he keels over, gripping his knees, choking for air.
Smiling, I slink backward into my apartment. “Sleep tight, big guy.”
I leave him rooted in place in the hallway, gaping, and I strip down to my birthday suit as I head for my bedroom. Tugging open my favorite drawer, I hum to myself as my fingers flutter over my extensive collection of rubber and silicone.
I wrap my fingers around the perpetrator himself, pulling Indiana Bones from his spot in the drawer, and carry him into the shower. Slapping the suction base against the tiles, I crank the faucet with a happy sigh.
“All right, big boy. Let’s raid some temples tonight.”
CHAPTER 8
WHOOPS
GARRETT
There’s nothing like having four NHL players over two hundred pounds each in your entryway to make the twenty-two-hundred square feet of open space feel like a closet.
At least Adam brought gifts.
He shoves the massive box into my arms. I’m a little scared to open it. Will a bunch of rubber dicks jump out? I already can’t look Carter in the eye. I know what his little sister does at nighttime, and I kinda wanna help her out.
Especially now that I’ve seen her tits.
They’re nice. Really nice. Round and perky with super fucking rosy buds; bags of fun the perfect size to fit in the palm of my hand.
I think. I’d have to test the theory to be certain.
“You gonna open the box or keep staring at it like you wanna make love to it?” Adam laughs to himself. “It’s from my mom. Express shipped it Thursday night as soon as she saw you go down on TV.”
From his mom? “Oooh, fuck yeah, Bev.” Adam’s parents live in Colorado. They’re both amazing, but Bev takes the cake as my unofficial foreign snack dealer. I can’t wait to see what her post-concussion goodie box holds.