Overcoming Fear (Growing Pains #2) (27 page)

“Then I won’t get drunk.”

“But I would like to see you drunk. And
naked. But, you know, with underwear or whatever. I guess.”

He just smiled and turned to reach for his
beer. “I have to drive anyway. Let’s see if we can go for three.”
His eyes were twinkling as they looked down at her.

“Question: does that theater house always
put plays on in two weeks? It seems quick.”

Sean looked at her like she’d just used
another language.

She elaborated, “You were only leaving early
for a couple weeks.”

Light bulb. “Their lead got in a car
accident so I subbed in. Not a lot of time. I had to improv a few
lines, but they are all good enough actors that they covered for
me.”

“Huh.”

“No work!” Jasmine yelled behind Krista. “Hi
Captain.”

Krista realized she was standing close to
Sean, but he’d removed his arm. Krista hadn’t noticed anything
besides those glorious green peepers, or she might have made a
scene before she realized he was doing it for her—she was the one
keeping the secret from her friends, not the other way around.
Thankfully he was staying sober, because if left up to Krista, the
secret would be out in no time, on account of her sitting in his
lap. Naked.

Without a chance to say a word, Krista was
dragged away and shoved onto the dance floor with beer in hand.
Cassie then showed up to feed her another shot.

Eyeing Cassie as the shot was burning down
her throat, Krista said, “You’re nice when you’re sober all right,
but get you drunk, and you become a pushy bitch.” Krista handed her
the empty shot glass.

Cassie nodded approvingly, “You need help
being fun. I provide it. Now shut your trap and dance!”

Chapter Eighteen

Sometime later Krista was sweaty, even more
naked because she took off her outer shirt and only had a tiny
singlet on, and sitting in a booth with Cassie.

“So tell me,” Cassie was saying, blearily
looking at Krista.

Sean was talking with all his actor friends
and having a great time. He was leaning against the bar with that
easy lounge while surveying the scene. Every ten minutes or so a
woman would wander right next to him and strike up a conversation.
The conversation lasted a polite couple minutes before he turned
back to his friends. Throughout, he would glance to either Krista
or Cassie, or like right now, since they were sitting together,
both of them.

“HEY!”

Krista got shoved, cutting short her
attempted wink at Sean.

“What?”

“I
said
did you and my brother
do
it
last night?”

“I don’t think we are this friendly yet. You
could be a spy.”

“Yeah, I could. But I don’t
talk to him about sex.
Gross!
But I am curious. You seem really intimate with
him. But he isn’t all weirded out by you. First time. How did you
do it?”

Krista hesitated.

Cassie closed one eye and looked at her
harder. Apparently she was trying to see just one Krista, instead
of two.

“Girl talk,” she said. “It is protected
under the girl code. No word shall be breathed. Or remembered,
even.”

Krista gave in, “No sex. It’s a shit rule,
but there you have it.”

“Ever?
” Cassie was appalled.

“Don’t know. For now until he releases the
ban.”

“But yet you spent the night with him.”

“Yeah, I am pretending I am a virgin.”

“I hated losing my virginity! It was some
loser, too. I picked a world’s fair ass to give my sacred flower
to.”

“Sacred flower?
Jeez
, talk about over
dramatic!”

They both laughed, and suddenly they were
swapping sex stories. Cassie was a lot more of a loaded gun than
Krista originally thought.

“Room for one more?”

Cassie and Krista both jumped. Sean was
standing at the end of the table, three beers in hand, waiting for
the verdict.

“Since when do you ask?” Cassie asked, one
eye still closed.

“He’s nervous that he’s suffocating me,”
Krista said, sliding toward the wall.

“I’m nervous that you two will continue
talking about sex, actually, and since you are both virgins, I
don’t want to spend my night talking fantasy.” Sean scooted in next
to Krista.

“We three virgins, huh, Sean?” Krista said
with an evil smile.

Cassie started to cackle.

“Where are Kate and Jasmine?” Krista asked,
looking at the dance floor.

There was a big cluster of people, all
moving too fast to focus on any one of them, but Krista couldn’t
see either of the girls.

“They told me to tell you that they needed a
booty call and they‘d talk to you tomorrow,” Sean said, leaning
back and putting an arm around Krista.

Krista eagerly leaned into his chest, “They
couldn’t tell me that themselves?”

“I told them where you were, but Kate
couldn’t be bothered to walk up two steps. Jasmine called her a
pigmy, and they walked away arguing.”

“Figures. What about your actors?” Krista
asked, resting her right hand on Sean’s inner thigh.

“They’re at the bar. Most of ‘em, anyway. I
thought that since the coast was clear, I’d sit with my two
favorite women.”

“Aw
,” Cassie said, rolling her eyes. “I’m going to
la toy-lette
. See you
all on the flip side.”

Sean shook his head and looked down at
Krista, “Hi.”

“Hello. How is your night?”

“Really good. We had a good run with the
show—last one—and I’m really glad you get along with Cassie. She
seems to really like you. I couldn’t ask for more.”

“She and your girlfriends not getting along
is a deal breaker, huh?”

He kissed her on the head, then the nose,
then, because she gave him a look to keep going, her lips. “Not a
deal breaker, no. But it would be hard. Cassie is my family. She
and I talk constantly. The two most important women in my life not
getting along would be tough.”

“Makes your girlfriends jealous, though, I
bet.”

Sean looked at her intently for a minute
before he said, “I haven’t had all that many instances to find out,
but some, yes.”

“Huh. Well, she’s too pretty to be as nice
as she is, so I’m glad her inner-bitch jives with my outer bitch so
you don’t have to give me the chuck.”

Sean shook his head, “There was too much
slang in there for my wee-sized intellect, but I’m glad you two get
along.”

Krista shrugged into Sean’s smile and
burrowed closer.

“What are you two talking
about?” Cassie asked as she
launched
herself into the
booth.

“You being a bitch,” Krista answered.

Sean gave Krista a squeeze as he said, “We
were just talking about—“

“No, Sean,” Cassie said, holding up her
hand. “You don’t have to cover for her. I’ve got her number.”
Cassie looked at Krista, nearly went cross-eyed, then closed one
eye to focus. “Tequila, right? The crappy stuff? That’s what you
like, right?”

“Okay, okay, I take it back,” Krista held up
her hands in surrender.

“Hah!
Victory!
” Cassie exclaimed, and then
took a slug of her beer, which she did not need.

No sense telling her
that
, Krista thought as she took a slug of
her own beer, which she also did not need.

It seemed like only ten minutes had gone by
when the lights were flickering. Sean had finished paying his tab
and was on his way back over to the girls.

“He is
sooooo
hot,” Krista told
Cassie.

“Eww. Do you love him?”

“Yes,” Krista said without thinking. She
realized what she’d said and started choking on her beer. She threw
a finger up at a smirking, one-eyed Cassie, “Drunk talking. Do not
repeat that.”

“I won’t tell. But good!” She fell silent as
Sean approached.

“You girls ready to go?”

“Hey, what happened to Keith tonight?”
Krista asked as Sean helped them out of the booth.

It was no easy matter because neither girl
was all that great at standing.

“Sent that idiot home. He
was hot. Shit in bed, though. And really,
really
stupid.”

Krista laughed as Sean told Cassie to behave
herself.

“Where did the girls go?” Krista asked
through a blur of alcohol.

“Booty calls, remember?” Cassie said,
bumping into a wall while Sean was trying to navigate around two
jerks with giant combat boots.

“Oh yeah, they both have men at
present.”

“At present. Men. They come, they go, they
only leave heartache or irritation in their wake.”

“Hey, bitter Betty,” Krista
yelled as Sean navigated them out of the bar, “there is someone for
everyone, and all that jazz. More fish in the sea. Love conquers
all. Love and hate are two horns of the same goat. Blah blah blah.
But goats, though—
they’re so
gross
!”

“Are you girls going to get in?” Sean asked
from inside the car.

“Oh, we’re at the car,” Cassie said,
blinking.

They then fought each other for shotgun.
Krista won because she was wily. Cassie called her a slut in
retaliation, climbed into the back of the car, and started snoring
immediately.

“Are you okay to drive?” Krista asked
Sean.

“Yes. Are you going to throw up?”

“Oh G
od no. No, no.
I am
good
. I could keep
going.”

“That might not be such a good idea.”

“Well. I could, though.”

They passed some time in silence, Krista
wanting to make sure she had just told the truth.

Then Sean asked, “Do you believe in
God?”

“What a weird and random question on a drive
home after a drunken night. Um, yes. But I don’t necessarily
believe in church.”

“Why do you believe in God?”

“Sean, I am not sober enough, or you are not
drunk enough, for this conversation. But I will tell you this:
There is no way someone as damned handsome as you could be in
existence without a little aid from something divine. Okay, that
sounds like a pick-up line, but I honestly believe it. Seriously. I
thought it sober, so you can take to the bank. All the other crap I
spew from my mouth tonight you might disregard. But that one nugget
is true.”

“I worry that I drag you down because I am
such a head case.”

“What does that have to do with the price of
apples? Oh, I see, confusion tactic. You are trying to get truths
out of me because I am drunk, yeah?”

“Yup.”

“Sneaky. You forget: I am also a head case,
sir. There will come a time when you will do something that
triggers a bad memory, and I will panic. I will try to push you
away. I might even cry, I don’t know. How is that any different
than the stuff you put on me?”

“Do you love me?”

“Oh ho, I am going to plead the fifth on
that one. I am not sober enough, or you are not drunk enough, for
that conversation.”

“It was worth a shot,” he laughed. “I am a
bit insecure about the matters of the heart, as I told you. This
stuff has never gone well.”

“Well, you can trust me. If I were going to
screw you over, I would’ve done it last night. Instead, I left
partially satisfied. That has to be worth something, right?”

“Only partially?”

“That was wrong to say,
wasn’t it? I meant, mostly. No—
shit!—
I meant satisfied. I mean, I
orgasmed in the end, right, so
yay!
”

He was quiet.

“I just screwed up, didn’t I?” Krista asked
in a weak voice, albeit too loud because the ability to talk
quietly had left her hours ago.

He was still quiet.

Krista fretted as they parked in the garage.
He got out, helped Krista out, and carried Cassie into the house.
He deposited his sister on the couch and glanced at Krista to make
sure she was following him.

She did so, like a lost lamb. An incredibly
horny, lost little lamb.

When they got to his room he closed and
locked the door, shut off the light, and kissed her deeply. She
rode the kiss as she tried to take off his pants. He pulled back
and stilled her hands.

“Okay, look,” she said crossly. “I will not
be able to control myself. If you have an episode, you run the risk
of derailment because I will not be in the right mind to--”

He kissed her again to shut her up.

Krista was backed toward the bed. Sean
removed her clothes without ceremony or hesitation.

“Are we going to have sex?” she asked in
disbelief.

“Is that what you need from me?”

“No. Well, yes. But can we wait until we are
both sober?”

“I do love you, Krista. You can believe
that—last night wasn’t the right timing, or setting, but it’s true.
I do.”

“Yes, but you also know it doesn’t count
because I probably won’t remember it in the morning.”

“Just so.”

“Sneaky bastard.”

“Do you love me?”

“Fifth.”

“I’ll get it out of you one way or the
other,” he said menacingly.

She was now naked in front of him. He went
about kissing her nipples and to her delighted surprise, slipped a
finger into her core.

She gasped as her body started to overheat.
Waves of desire pulsed through her, spurred on by the suction of
his mouth and that glorious finger.

He stood up to her, licked her neck, and
said, “I will stay in control. You can let go. But first, will you
take off my clothes?”