More Than Friends (2 page)

          “She killed a snake that just about had me, then sucked a splinter out of my chest and had her hands all over me.  I’ve never been so turned on in all my life.  It felt…right.”

          “Hmmm.  What makes you think she’d even go for it?”

          “Like I said, it’s just a feeling I’ve got.  Remember that game we used to play as kids?  The kissing one?” Jake asked, eyeing his friend.

          Brent chuckled.  “Catch and kiss.  We were supposed to run after her and if we caught her, we had to kiss her.  Only she was too damned fast.  She never let us catch her, and at that time, I didn’t really want to kiss a girl.”

          Jake smiled.  “I’m thinking she’d let me now,” Jake said.

          Brent grinned back at him.  “So you say.  Well, if you sleep with her, then I’m going to too.  We need to keep this fair and even, after all.”

          Jake furrowed his brow.  “I don’t think she likes you like that.  I know I don’t like the sound of that.”

          “And I don’t think she likes you like that!  Why wouldn’t I pursue her too if you are?  I’ve known her just as long, and I’ve always had a thing for her.  I just thought we were too close to do anything about it.  Plus, she’s never once acted like she wanted something else from either of us.  I think we’ve made it too easy for her to stay with things just like they are.”

          “You got that right.”  Jake scrubbed his blond stubbled jaw.  “What are we gonna do about it then?  Test her?  Test the waters to see if she likes us more than friends?”

          Brent rubbed his temples.  “I don’t know.  I’d hate to fuck up what we have and lose her completely ‘cause we’re both idiots.”

          “Speak for yourself.”

          “We’ve both had plenty of girlfriends and flings.  You know how complicated women make everything.  I’ve never seen her do anything like that, though.  It just might work.  Hell, when’s the last time she had a boyfriend?”

          Jake widened his eyes.  “She’s had a boyfriend?  You sure she ain’t a virgin?”

          Brent shook his head.  “Hell, I hope not.  It’d make it that much harder.  At this point, I ain’t sure of anything.  But I’ll tell you what, you ain’t going to get in her pants before I do.  That shit ain’t happening.”

          Jake snickered.  “Wanna bet?  Think what you want.  I know how it’s going to go down.”

          “All right then.  It’s on,” Brent said.

Chapter Two

          When Lizzy got home, she thought she’d walked into the wrong house.  The living room, usually littered with Jake’s and Brent’s clothes, was empty of socks, underwear, pants, and trash.  Their empty beer bottles and cans had been put into the recycling bin.  They’d even vacuumed!

          Lizzy dropped the bags of groceries on the floor in the kitchen, astonished to see the dishes had been emptied from the sink.  The hum of the dishwasher greeted her ears.

          A wild hair had crawled out of the guys, if the cleanliness of the house was any indication.

          Jake walked in, flashing her his pearly whites before giving her a hug.  “Hi, beautiful!  Do you need some help bringing anything in?”

          “Brent’s already outside loading up his arms,” she said, returning the hug and giving him a look.  “Who cleaned up?”

          “I got most of it.  Brent got the kitchen.  I better get out there and help him bring in the bags.”

          Jake took off outside.  Lizzy pinched herself, shaking her head.  Usually, they just ignored her walking in with anything, continuing to play video games or doing guy stuff.  She figured it was because they never really paid much attention to her comings and goings.  That’s not to say they never helped her, but this combined with the cleaning...  Maybe they were on something.

          She laughed at that and went to use the bathroom.  It wasn’t until she walked in to use the toilet that she decided they
must
be on something.  The shower was clean, the wastebasket had been emptied and a new liner put in.  It even
smelled
clean, like they’d gone to the trouble of mopping the floor and cleaned off the counter.

          Lizzy relieved herself, washed her hands and dried them off on a fresh clean towel.  She walked outside and saw the guys had gotten everything in and were stocking the pantry and the refrigerator.  “All right.  What’re y’all on?  Did y’all score some drugs or something?  Where’s my roommates?  Have y’all been replaced by body snatchers, cuz something ain’t right here.”

          Brent and Jake stopped in their tracks and exchanged a look with each other, looking guilty in her mind.

          Jake laughed, diffusing the situation.  “We can’t help you when you do so much for us?”

          Lizzy narrowed her eyes.  “Y’all usually don’t do this much at any one time.  God help me if I’m a little suspicious.  You sure you aren’t on drugs?”

          Brent laughed then.  “Like we’d give up our careers before they even get started?  We’re not just a couple of dumb guys like you think.”

          Lizzy huffed and sat down on the couch, flipping on the TV.  “Well, I can’t help it y’all aren’t acting normal.  I do appreciate the fact that y’all went on a cleaning rampage, even if you won’t tell me why you’ve done it.  If you think I’m going to agree to a party tonight or inviting girls over, you can think again.  You can’t butter me up to get your way.  Not like that.”

          Jake and Brent looked affronted.  “We’d never do something like that,” Brent said.  “Besides, I haven’t had a girlfriend in a long time.”

          “I haven’t either,” Jake said.

          Lizzy chuckled.  “Whatever.  Tell that to someone who’ll believe it.”

          Brent knocked over a glass of water when he set a bag up on the counter.  Water sloshed over the granite and splattered on the floor.  “There’s towels under the sink,” she said, pointing.

          “We’re out,” Brent said.  “It’s all right.  I’ve got this.”  He peeled his old t-shirt off and used it to wipe up the water off the counter.

          Lizzy watched the play of his muscles as he moved, spacing out at his back.  She sighed.  Jake shot Brent a killer look, which Lizzy didn’t fail to notice.

          She chortled.  “Y’all are buggin’.  I’m gonna go change and go outside to work in the garden.”

          Coming back out of the bedroom a few minutes later dressed in a bikini top and some shorts, she headed out the back door.

          Jake gaped at her on the way out.  He’d forgotten what a killer body she had.  Why hadn’t he paid much attention to it before?

          “You finish up here.  I’ll help out Lizzy in the garden,” he said, leaving Brent stewing behind him.  They both knew gardening wasn’t something Brent enjoyed doing and had never shown any interest in.  It’d look suspicious as hell if he went out there too, though he had half a mind to go anyway just to cock block Jake.

          Jake shut the door behind him and followed the beaten down path to their garden.  The heat of the summer sun was waning, but dusk was still about two hours away.  The heat and humidity hit him like a slap in the face, instantly beading his skin with a sheen of sweat.

          Ahead in their small garden, Lizzy was bent over picking out weeds from her tomatoes.  She made a delicious picture that he stopped to admire for a minute.

          He felt himself hardening just watching the sway of her breasts barely caught in her red bikini from his side view of her.  They were just big enough to overflow his hands, should he ever get a chance to grope them.  Her waist was small, flaring out into generous hips, but it was her backside he’d always found the biggest draw.  It looked firm and round, jutting out from her waist and begging for a good grab.  He wanted to sink his teeth into that juicy ass.

          The uniform mahogany of her skin only added to her allure.  He’d never known another woman quite like her.

          He felt like a caveman ogling a prize.

          “Hey,” he said, breaking his stupor and walking up to help her.  “It’s a scorcher today, ain’t it?”

          She spared him a glance.  “Yeah.  Not too bad now that it’s getting on in the evening.  I like to work out here around this time the best.”

          Jake peeled off his shirt and wiped his forehead and chest off.  She noticed and stopped to stare at him a brief moment before continuing on with her task.  He smiled.  Brent wasn’t the only one who could take off his shirt.

          He grabbed the water hose and started watering the beans along the fence.  He pulled the hose, watching her from different angles as she squatted and tended the garden.  A fine sheen of perspiration coated her warm, brown skin, making her gleam in the sunlight.

          Impulsively, he squirted water at her, splashing her chest to watch droplets rivulet down the valley of her breasts.

          “Stop that!” she said.  “I’m not ready for a bath yet.”

          “Why?  You look hot,” he said, squirting her legs when she stood up to glare at him with her beautifully framed brown eyes.

          “I’m gonna kill you.  That’s freezing.”

          He laughed.  “All right.  I’ll quit.  I’ve about got everything watered anyway.”

          “You missed these over here,” she said, motioning to the row she was working on.

          “Well, I tried to get them, but you’re in the way.”

          “Believe me, I’ll move,” she said with a smile, leaning on the fence to watch him water the last row.

          He swiped a hand across his forehead and looked at her.  “Me and Brent were talking about a game we used to play with you when we were kids.”

          “We played a lot of games.  Which one?”

          “Catch and kiss.  Do you remember it?”

          Lizzy laughed.  “Yeah.  Y’all never did get me.  You were both too slow.”

          Jake finished and turned off the water, rolling up the hose.  “I’m not that slow anymore.  I’m sure I could outrun you now.”

          “Hmph.  I’d like to see you try,” she said, smiling.  “I’m still pretty fast.  I run every morning.  I haven’t seen you getting out of bed early to exercise.”

          He looked insulted and frowned at her.  “All right then.  Tell you what, I’ll even let you get a twenty second head start instead of ten.”

          Lizzy shook her head.  “I don’t need it.  I’m confident you won’t catch me.  You never could and never will.”

          “Get ready then, ‘cause it’s on!”

          Lizzy yelped and took off, dashing through the fence and heading down the beach.  Jake counted to ten then went after her.  He might not work out around their home, but he did almost every day on the school track.  Just because they were on summer break didn’t mean he’d suddenly fallen out of shape.

          From behind, he could see the play of her dark skin over her muscles, entrancing him, the sway of her hips as she ran, her ass jump as her feet hit the sandy beach.  He was determined to win this time.

          He was taller than her, and his legs ate the ground at a faster pace.  After a few seconds, he’d caught up with her and snatched an arm around her waist, taking her to the sand and rolling on top of her.

          She giggled and panted when he landed above her.  Her chest heaved from the exertion.  She smiled up at him, her brown eyes twinkling beneath thick black lashes.  “First time ever you managed to get me.  I guess I couldn’t hold my record forever.  I forgot you were a runningback in high school.”

          “Yeah, you did.  Now, for that kiss.”

          She grinned then puckered her lips and gave him a peck on the mouth.

          He looked down at her, his eyes as serious as he felt.  “That’s not the kind of kiss I wanted.”

Chapter Three

          Lizzy met his green-eyed gaze, stunned into silence.  She opened her mouth on an inhalation of surprise, and he closed the gap between them.

          She had dreamed many times of kissing Jake and Brent.  From the moment puberty had hit them, her before the boys; she’d noticed how cute they were but completely off limits.  They’d never acted like she was anything other than a friend.  It hadn’t stopped her from dreaming and fantasizing about what they’d do together, how each would kiss, how each would be different.  The fantasies had gone on for years without any of them ever showing the slightest interest in her, until finally all her imaginings had finally dried up when faced with the reality that nothing was ever going to happen.

          She wondered what had suddenly changed and why.

          The moment his lips met hers, she felt lost.  The heat of his chest, slick from the run crushed down on her breasts, making breathing difficult, frantic as her nostrils flared with the effort to breathe.  She felt light-headed, drunk and dizzy.

          She whimpered into his mouth, feeling his lust shimmer between them like a palpable thing.  She jerked against him when his tongue surged suddenly into her mouth, swirling inside like ravaging invader.  This was nothing like the sweet, gentle fantasies of her youth.  Nothing like the fumbling, sloppy kisses her one and only boyfriend had bestowed on her years ago.