I rolled my eyes at my brothers.
“Go on, get it all out,” I said. They looked at each other and shrugged, apparently done with their teasing for now. “All right. Well, I’m going to have a drink with Kelly. I’ll be back in a bit.”
For the next couple of hours, I went back and forth between the table with my brothers and Kelly. I could have asked her to join us, but I didn’t want to expose her to the three of them. In truth, I didn’t want them to be around her, either. I wanted her all to myself. Her friends came and went, but she lingered there. Every time I went back to my brothers, they teased me like crazy, as brothers do. I was expecting nothing less. And each time I got back to Kelly, I got the same feeling low in my belly, and my heart rate ticked up a few notches.
I wasn’t a virgin but being around her made me feel like one. She turned me on and made me crave her, but still left me a bit nervous. It was getting late when she finished her second beer and stood up. I figured she was ready to leave, and disappointment dragged on me.
“Can I have your number?” I asked.
I tried not to cringe after I said it, not believing those words were actually coming out of my mouth. I sounded like an awkward fourteen-year-old wanting to ask a girl to the movies. A hint of a smile curled Kelly’s lips, and she took a step closer to me.
“Why don’t I give it to you later?” she asked.
Her fingertip ran along the side of my neck and then down my chest. Impulse took over, and I leaned in to kiss her. She eagerly kissed me back, and when we parted, she lifted her eyebrows at me. She didn’t have to put the request into words. She was asking for us to leave together, and I was more than happy to take her up on it. It gave me exactly what I wanted and saved me the bumbling awkwardness of figuring out how to ask her.
As we walked out of the bar, I waved at my brothers. They waved back, grinning broadly. I was going to hear it from each and every one of them, but I didn’t care. Kelly’s sexy body and sweet lips were well worth it. We got outside, and I pulled up a rideshare app on my phone to request a car to bring us to my house.
2 Kelly
This was ridiculous. I knew it as soon as Darren flirted with me. Or, at least tried to. That’s what caught my attention to begin with. The man was cute as hell and had half the girls in the bar staring at him, but he didn’t even seem to notice them. He was sweet and quiet, almost shy and a touch nervous. He wasn’t like most of the men I encountered, and a happy change of pace from the arrogant guys who sidled up to me brimming with bravado and acting like they were already holding a ticket to my panties. I would much rather have the young, gorgeous, unassuming man who looked at me like I was the only woman in the room.
I should have stopped it there. I should have talked to him for a few minutes, maybe bought him his birthday drinks, then sent him back over to his brothers and went about my night. As soon as the girls left, I should have left with them. They were only there to say goodbye to me, after all. That was the thing. That’s why this was so stupid. I was only at the bar that night to say a final quick farewell to some friends before leaving in the morning. In less than twenty-four hours, I wasn’t going to be in the country anymore, much less in town. Hooking up with Darren now was just setting myself up for a one-night stand, something that absolutely wasn’t my usual style.
But he caught my attention and piqued my interest. He was a bit younger than me, but that didn’t bother me. I was having fun with the newly minted twenty-one-year-old, and the longer the night went on, the less I wanted him to just walk away. He was charming and funny, and despite knowing better, I wanted him. It became clear pretty early he was never going to be the one to bring up us going home together. He had barely been able to muster up the courage just to come up to me and had only managed to say “hi” when he finally did.
So I took the reigns. He didn’t hesitate, and that first kiss was enough to make me need him even more. It was my last night, and I was going to make it count. At least I could leave the country with the memories. It didn’t occur to me until he requested the rideshare that we hadn’t talked about where we were going. We’d made it out of the bar, but that was as far as our plans went. I was the one to instigate us leaving together, so maybe he assumed I’d take him back to my place. That wasn’t an option. I’d turned the keys for my house in that afternoon and was spending my last night before heading out in a hotel. Somehow bringing him to a tiny hotel room stuffed to the brim with my possessions didn’t give off the sexy vibe I was hoping for.
Fortunately, it wasn’t an issue. Darren didn’t even ask before telling the car to bring us to his place. We climbed in the back seat before I started wondering what I was getting myself into. This was a guy who had only just turned twenty-one. Were we going to show up at some cramped place with a bunch of roommates and towers made out of empty pizza
