The Stick Handler Read online

  “So good,” she cries out. We stay in that position for a long time. My cock inside her, one hand on her stomach, the other on her breasts. Our breathing finally regulates but I have no desire to move. I could stay right where I am forever, but I’m pretty sure she needs to rinse off, sit down, and get some coffee into her.

  I back her up, and the warm spray falls over us.

  “I think shower sex is my favorite,” she whispers and we both laugh.

  “Not so fast,” I say. “We have a lot more positions to try out.”

  “I don’t think I’ll make it.”

  She’s not the only one. Come the end of the week, if things don’t work out between us, I’ll be the one in real fucking trouble of not making it.

  10

  Katee

  “Ohmigod, this view is amazing,” I say to Luke as I glance out the window of the helicopter. We were lucky that they had a cancellation and we were able to book it fast. The pilot takes us over a huge mountain and when we reach the other side, numerous skiers are weaving their way down a sugary hill. I wave to them, but I don’t think any of them can see me.

  Luke is grinning at me when I turn his way. “You love this.”

  “I do. I’ve never been in a helicopter before.” I grab my phone from my pocket and start taking pictures. “Where’s your phone?” I ask. “You might want to get a few pictures.”

  He shrugs. “It’s back at the suite. I don’t want to take any calls this week. I’m sure my inbox is full.”

  “What if Arianna is trying to call you?” I ask. “You might want to talk to her.”

  He scrubs his chin and turns from me. I put my hand on his leg and give it a squeeze, letting him know I understand he doesn’t want to talk about it, but that I’m here for him just the same. Wanting to lighten his mood, I point to something near the tree line.

  “I think there’s a bear down there?”

  “What, really?” He leans into me, and I breathe in his familiar scent as he looks out the window. “I think it’s a wolf,” he says.

  The pilot glances down, and heads toward the tree line. “It’s a wolf,” he says. “I’ll try to get closer so you can get a picture.” I squeal with excitement, and Luke laughs at me. I’m thrilled to see his mood has shifted again, and he’s enjoying this trip. The pilot heads close to the tree, but the sound of the engine scare the animal and it darts into the trees. I take some shots anyway. When I finish, Luke takes my hand and brings it to his lips. He kisses my fingers and says, “I’m glad you’re enjoying this?”

  “Are you?”

  “Yeah. I’m glad you’re here with me,” he says, and I lean in to him.

  “I’m so glad we won the game. Still we would have had a good time just doing nothing together.”

  “We always do.”

  I’ve always been close to Luke, but after all the intimacies we’ve been sharing, I feel even closer to him. Impossible I know, but true nonetheless. We continued to hold each other, and enjoy the gorgeous views as the pilot finishes our tour, taking us back to the air strip near the resort. Luke gives him a big tip and we hop back into the rental car. Dusk is upon us as we reach our hotel, and Luke hands the car keys to the bell hop.

  I hurry inside out of the cold, and Luke saunters in behind me, like he’s in no hurry to do anything. I let my gaze fall over him, but that’s when I realize I’m not the only one looking. From behind, two girls are whispering and gawking at Luke. He comes up to me, and the jealousy I feel is a bit disconcerting. We’re friends with benefits, and I have no right to feel possessive of him.

  “Aren’t you Luke Erikson?” the girl with the long dark hair asks as she comes up to him, completely ignoring me. Her friend however, a bleached blonde, isn’t ignoring me at all. Nope, she’s looking me over, and trying to figure out if I’m a threat to her at all. She tears her gaze away and beams at Luke. Well then, I guess she doesn’t think I’m a threat at all.

  “They call you the Stick Handler,” she says and chuckles. “I’d love to get an autograph, and maybe we can meet up later for a drink. I’d love to hear all about the ways you handle your stick.”

  I glance at Luke, who’s taking it all in stride, even though deep down he’s a private guy who hates all the attention. I was really hoping no one would recognize him here, and he could use the time to relax after the horrible ordeal back home.

  “I want an autograph, too,” the brunette says, and unzips her coat. She widens her shirt and sticks out her cleavage. “Right here,” she says and chuckles.

  “Ladies,” Luke begins, and puts his arm around me. “This is Katee. My wife. Someday we’d like to have children and if I autographed you there,” he makes a face as he points to her cleavage, “chances are she’ll remove a few body parts that will prevent that from happening. But if you have a pen and paper, I’d be happy to give you an autograph.”

  Their smiles fall as they look at me. “Oh, I didn’t realize you were married,” the blonde says, disdain in her eyes as she gives me the once over again.

  The brunette fishes a pen and notepad from her purse. “We’ll be at the bar tonight. Why don’t you both come, have a drink with us.”

  “Sorry, but we can’t. We already have plans.”

  “Well, if anything changes…” the girl says refusing to let it go. Goddammit, I’m standing right here. I shift from one foot to the next and think about tripping one of them. Luke gives the autographs, makes a bit more small talk, and then puts his arm around my waist to lead me away. I shake my head.

  “Yeah, I know,” he says.

  I angle my head to see him. “Why did you tell them I was your wife?”

  He gives a casual shrug. “Well, you are.”

  “No, I’m not. But that comment about having children was pretty funny.” He laughs. “Would you have signed her fake boob if I wasn’t standing there?” I ask, then wish I hadn’t. I sound like a jealous wife, and before Ari came along, those were the kind of girls Luke would have been found hanging out with. I wasn’t jealous then. At least I didn’t think I was. Oh, God, maybe I was. Maybe I just buried all the things I felt. Knew better than to crush on my best friend.

  Then again, maybe all this sex is messing with my emotions. I should probably put a stop to it right away. Or tomorrow.

  “No. My boob signing days are behind me.” He grins at me and nudges me with his shoulder. “Besides why would I want to see her breasts when yours are so perfect.”

  As we head to the elevators, I whack him in the gut. “Whatever.” He bends forward and makes a big deal from the hit and I just roll my eyes at him. “What are these plans we have for tonight?”

  “I booked the rooftop restaurant. A romantic candlelight dinner for two, then if I play my cards right, I’m going to play with those perfect breasts of yours.”

  We stop at the elevator and he jabs the button. “I’m sure you’ll play your cards right, Luke. But before you do.” I go up on my toes and put my mouth to his ear. “I’d love to give you another blow job. The last one didn’t last long.”

  “Jesus, Christ,” he says and laughs.

  “What?” I ask innocently, and flutter my lashes at him.

  “First, don’t say stuff like that to me when we’re in a lobby full of people.” He glances over his shoulder and puts his hands in front of his crotch. “Second, how the fuck did you expect me to last? Jesus, that mouth of yours.”

  I chuckle, loving that we can tease each other like this, and that he really likes my mouth on him. I kind of like my mouth on him, too.

  The doors open and we step on, and move to the back as other come in behind us. I lean against Luke, and melt into his body when he put his hands on my hip. I like how we fit together, how he’s just so damn easy to be with. But in less than a week, he’ll likely be back with Arianna, carrying forward with their plans to marry. A lump fills my throat. I really don’t like that girl. Then again, have I ever really liked any of the women he’s gone out with? None of them were good en
ough for him, as far as I was always concerned. Luke never really liked the guys I’ve dated either. I guess that’s just the way it is with best friends.

  The elevator stops a few times, and we’re alone when we finally reach the top floor. There is only one other floor, and that’s the rooftop restaurant, all glass panels to look out over the mountains.

  We step off the elevator, and Luke lets us into our room. I still can’t get over the fact that we’re staying is such a posh place. “What time is dinner?” I ask, but let loose a little gasp when Luke grabs me, holds me against the closed door and kisses me, hard. When we break apart, I’m breathless.

  “What was that for?” I ask and put my hand on his chest.

  “For teasing the hell out of me when I couldn’t do anything about it.”

  I grin at him. “Well, now that I know what the punishment is for teasing…”

  “Oh, you think that’s only kind of punishment I give out?”

  “It’s not?”

  “No, and if you do it again, you’ll see what real punishment is like.”

  A jolt of heat goes through me. There is a filthy side to my best friend that I never knew about, but goddammit, I like it. “Well, then…”

  “Careful, Katee Kat,” he says playfully, but the heat in his eyes turns me on even more and makes me want to experience his brand of punishment firsthand.

  I swallow. “What time is dinner?” I ask.

  He checks his watch. “One hour. Enough time for us to shower and dress.”

  He shrugs out of his coat and helps me off with mine. “I only packed one black dress. You know the one that has the buttons along the back and comes to above my knee.”

  “I know the one. It’s perfect.”

  “What about you. Did you bring anything dressy?”

  “Suit. It’s in the closet.”

  “Oh, which one?” I ask, and walk to the closet to open it. When I do, I see his phone on one of the shelves. The little red light is flashing, indicating he has messages. I take in his dark suit, then shut the door. “I love that one on you.”

  “You should. You picked it out.” I turn around to see him, and laugh when I find him standing there stark naked.

  “What are you doing?’

  He grins at me. “Getting ready for the shower. Why are you still dressed?”

  “You definitely don’t waste any time.” I give him a wink.

  “If you’re referring to the blow job again, I—”

  “I’m not, I’m not,” I say, laughing as I strip down. My god, I love the way he looks at my body, like my curves are sexy and my flaws are non-existent.

  “Next time, your mouth is going to get sore from sucking.”

  “Oh, is that right?”

  I follow him in to the bathroom. “Yeah, that’s right.”

  “Too bad, then.”

  He turns on the shower, and tests the temperature. Once it’s hot, he reaches for my hand and drags me in.

  “Why too bad?” he asks.

  “Because if you were going to be fast again, I would have given you another right now, but I guess that can’t happen since we don’t want to miss our reservation.”

  “You know you’re going to pay for that, right?” he says and puts me under the spray. The water feels glorious on my chilled skin, but not as nice as his hands do as he washes me.

  “What did I do?”

  “I never knew you were such a fucking tease.” He shakes his head.

  “And I never knew you liked a little kink.”

  He swallows. Hard. “What am I going to do with you?”

  “I don’t know, but I can’t wait to find out.”

  11

  Luke

  We step off the elevator and I glance around the dimly lit roof top restaurant. Katee’s eyes are big as she takes in the opulence, as well as the view outside the floor-to-ceiling glass wall.

  “Nice, huh?” I say, and take her hand in mine.

  “This place is amazing.”

  The hostess comes up to us and I give our names. She smiles and showcases perfect white teeth. “Ah, you two are the winning honeymoon couple. Congratulations. Please come this way.” We follow her to a quiet table in the corner, overlooking the slopes. “Best seat in the house,” she tells us.

  “Thank you,” Katee says.

  “Your server will be by to take your order, and I’ll send over a bottle of champagne.”

  She places our menus in front of us, and Katee giggles. “Champagne.”

  My mind goes back to when I poured it over her belly. But I can’t think about that right now. This is not the place for a hard on. “Remember when we were kids and you drank too much champagne?” I ask.

  She waves her hand at me. “I’m not sixteen anymore. I can handle my liquor now.”

  “You danced on my patio table, nearly fell and broke your damn neck.”

  “Good thing you were there to catch me.”

  I nod. “I’ll always be there to catch you,” I say, and she goes quiet when the champagne arrives. The server introduces himself and presents the bottle. He uncorks it, and pours a splash into my glass. I taste it and nod in approval. The server fills Katee’s, the, adds more to my glass.

  Once he leaves, I says, “I had to carry you home and put you to bed.”

  “Thank God Mom wasn’t home. She would have killed me.” She goes quiet for a moment, like she’s remembering the event, then says, “Wait, didn’t I wake up in my pajamas?”

  “I undressed you.”

  “Why would you do that?” She angles her head and pinches her lips tight. “Did you at least close your eyes?”

  I laugh. “You couldn’t go to bed in your clothes. You got sick all over them, and no, I didn’t close my eyes.”

  She groans. “Luke…I didn’t want you to see me like that, I was…”

  “Perfect.” She rolls her eyes at me, and we clink glasses. “To perfection,” I say.

  I open my menu, and quickly shut it. “That was fast,” she teases and I shake my head at her.

  “I’m getting—”

  “Let me guess,” she says and looks over the menu. “Surf and turf.”

  “You got it.” She closes her menu. “I’m going to have the same.” I take another sip of champagne, and look her over as she glances out the window. “Some of those kids are so good on skiis.”

  “Do you really not want kids?” I ask her.

  She screws up her nose. “I don’t know. I guess maybe someday, but I don’t want to be a single mom, and marriage is out of the question.”

  “If the right guy came along, would you rethink it?”

  She laughs. “I don’t think there are any right guys for me, Luke.”

  I lean toward her. “Okay, describe your perfect guy. What would he look like, what would he do?”

  “Hmm.” She takes a sip of champagne. “This is so good,” she says and I reach for the bottle to refill her glass. “Okay, well, I guess he’d be tall. I like tall guys.”

  “I’m tall.”

  “I know that. Anyway, I’d want him to be athletic. I would like for my kids to be sporty, and they’re definitely not going to get that trait from me.” Another sip of champagne. “Sunbathing on a beach is about as athletic as it gets for me.”

  “You went skiing.”

  “I slid down the bunny hill. Big difference.” We both laugh. “I like dark hair on guys too. I’ve never much been into blond.”

  “I like dark hair on girls, too,” he says.

  Her head jerks back. “Um, Ari is a blond. A bleached blonde, but a blonde nonetheless. Actually, Luke, most of the women you’ve been with have been blonde.”

  “Go figure. What else do you like in a guy?”

  “He has to be honest.”

  I avert my gaze and look out over the mountain. I hate that I can’t tell her what really went on between Ari and me, and that what I’m really doing here is less about giving her lessons and more about trying to get her to want all
of me the way I want her. I just hope to fuck Ari has come to her senses. But what if she hasn’t? What if she still wants to go through with the wedding? I’m not about to, not when I don’t love her. Will she turn spiteful, revengeful, do or say something to impact my career? Worry knots my gut, and I suck in a quick breath.

  “Luke?” she asks.

  “Go on,” I say, working to pull myself together. “Tell me more.”

  “Okay, well, I like blue eyes.”

  “I have blue eyes.”

  “Yeah, you have the nicest blue eyes I’ve ever seen. Mine are boring brown.”

  I scoff. “Far from boring. You have the darkest eyes I’ve ever seen, Katee, and they’re so expressive.”

  “Ah, so that’s why you always know what I’m thinking?”

  “Clean shaven or beard?”

  She toys with the stem of her flute. “I like clean shaven, but I also like that scruff thing you’re sporting,” she says.

  “Do you like the burn marks it leaves on your body?”

  Her hand quivers and she nearly drops her glass. “Jesus, Luke.”

  I laugh. “You didn’t answer the question.”

  “Yeah, I like it.”

  “I like it too. I also like when you licked your lips today, to let me know you could feel me dripping out of you.”

  The server comes back, and Katee has a flush on her cheeks as I give our orders. When the waiter leaves, I guide the conversation back to where we were. “What kind of job would your perfect guy have?”

  “You know, I don’t care, as long as he’s happy doing what he does. He doesn’t have to make a lot of money. You know that’s not important to me.”

  “I know.”

  “So he could be a sports guy, on the road a lot and that wouldn’t bother you.”

  “I’m used to that with you. I miss you when you’re gone, though.”

  I reach across the table and take her hand in mine. “You know you could always come with me. A guy needs his own personal masseuse when he’s on the road.”

  “Yeah, but what about when the kids come?”