When I'm Alone with You (Little Lies Spring Break Outtake) Read online

  I shrug. “Sure. But usually it’s the whole, ‘it’s your body, you should learn it before you let anyone else, blah blah blah.’ You know? Like she’s already talked to me about Kodiak, and whether he needs the special condoms, and is he taking care of my needs before his own, that kind of thing.”

  River looks like his head is about to explode. “Isn’t that mortifying?”

  “I don’t know. Should it be? She has a point. Guys are pretty basic. Insert A into slot B, make friction. Women aren’t the same. We have lots of buttons to push and lots of ways to push them. It takes some figuring out.”

  He makes another face. “I feel like I should apologize to all the girls I made out with over the years for the lack of gratification they probably experienced with me.”

  “Meh.” I pat him on the shoulder. “That’s not all on you. You have to ask for what you want, and I’m guessing those girls were too starstruck by your broody, emo prettiness to do that.”

  “Still, I feel kinda bad.” He scowls, clearly mad at himself for not being in tune with whoever he dated before Josiah.

  “But you take care of Josiah’s needs, right?”

  He smirks. “Fuck yeah, I do.”

  I’m aware this is true. Often because Josiah will show up to class after a night with my brother looking very sated and half-asleep. He also likes to tell me my twin is all about seduction. Which doesn’t surprise me. River’s an emotional guy, and he usually hides all those feelings behind a scowl.

  “That’s good. I’m glad to hear it.” I glance down at the table and notice a pair of bananas on one of the chairs in more superhero garb. Looks like Dad missed a couple. I nab them, not wanting Mom to be horribly embarrassed in front of all her friends. “I’m going to find a good hiding spot for these and get my overnight bag, then we can go to Kodiak’s.”

  River heads for the kitchen—he’s always hungry—and I go upstairs. The banana’s I grabbed are dressed up like Superman and his alter ego. They also smell like fresh laundry. I decide not to leave the bananas in my parents’ bedroom. Instead, I toss them into my overnight bag, thinking Kodiak might get a kick out of it. I don’t think we’re into playing dress up with our sex parts, but it’s something to laugh about, and it might make us feel better about our own predilections.

  I also grab a roll of duct tape and a few of my silk scarves from the back of my door and stuff them in too.

  “Knock, knock.” Mom pokes her head in the door as I’m zipping up the bag.

  “Hey. ‘Sup?”

  “Just coming to do my motherly duty and tell you to be safe and careful and all that jazz tonight. I assume there will be drinking.” She leans against my doorjamb.

  “There’s a distinct possibility, particularly since all the young kids are going to the Kingstons’.”

  Mom nods. “I’d tell you to make good choices, but since you’re dating Kody, and he doesn’t strike me as the type to get shitfaced to the point where he can’t function, I’m going to say just stay away from the lake. It’s getting ready to break up and hypothermia is a real thing.”

  “Yeah, we’ll be staying indoors, or by the campfire if anyone can be bothered to make one. You don’t have to worry about that.” I’m not interested in playing chicken with a semi-frozen lake.

  She nods once and taps her lip with her index finger.

  “Anything else you want to talk about?” I prompt, since clearly she does.

  “Do you know what’s going on with Mav? It’s like him and River role-reversed. River’s all happy and in love, and Mav was sullen and withdrawn, just like he was over the Christmas holidays. Hardly any joking around, no pranks.”

  “He left a banana orgy on the dining room table this afternoon.”

  Mom’s eyes go wide. “Oh my God!”

  I raise a hand. “Dad cleaned them up. Don’t worry.” It doesn’t even phase me that I’m calming my mother down about her “banana costumes.”

  “I knew I should have hung them to dry instead of putting them in the dryer last night.” Mom grouses.

  At least I can confirm that they’re freshly washed. “Maybe you need to start locking them up.”

  She drags a hand down her face. “I’m sorry your dad and I have given you so many reasons to need therapy. I can’t believe I’m having this conversation with you.”

  I shrug. “Eh, at least you two still have fun together, even if you’re a couple of weirdos.”

  Not that I should talk when I routinely duct tape my boyfriend to his computer chair and then torture-tease him until we both get off. Recently I started using my silk scarves though, because Kodiak is missing an obvious strip of hair on his forearms, which my cousin and his mother have noticed.

  “We are weirdos,” she agrees. “It’s amazing you all turned out as normal as you did.”

  “I don’t think I’d call any of us normal, but normal is boring anyway.” I shoulder my overnight bag. “As for Maverick and his emo-ness, I don’t really know what it’s about. I’ll mention it to Kodiak and BJ tonight and see if they know anything.”

  “Maybe it’s girl-related. Maybe he’s dating someone?” Mom looks optimistic.

  “Maybe, but I haven’t seen him with anyone in a long while. Not since around the time Kodiak and I started dating, actually,” I say.

  “Do you think he’s reconnected with one of them?” she asks, voice all full of hope.

  “Anything’s possible, I guess. But he seems pretty determined not to get attached to anyone with a potential NHL contract coming his way. He’s kind of secretive, though, you know? More than I realized.” We had a real heart to heart over the Christmas break that put things in perspective, for him and me. I didn’t realize how much guilt he carries around with him for things that were outside of his control.

  “He is. Sometimes I worry about him.”

  I consider being honest with her, but I don’t want to make her worry, so I brush it off with a chuckle and hope she buys it. “He’s probably just cranky because he isn’t getting any action and he’s got assignments he needs to catch up on,” I offer.

  “That seems more likely than him hiding stuff. Apart from his shitty midterm marks last semester. I know he’s all about his professional hockey career, but if it doesn’t work out, I’d at least like him to have a solid fallback plan.”

  “Do you think that’s even possible? Him not making the cut?”

  Mom shrugs. “Always better safe than sorry, right? He’s an excellent player, but he can be impulsive, in life and on the ice. Anyway, enough psychoanalyzing your brother. Enjoy your night. Don’t drink too much. Use condoms. Make sure you get the first orgasm.” She waves the last part away and rolls her eyes at herself. “Sorry. I wish I could stop things like that from coming out of my mouth, but they just happen.”

  “It’s solid advice, though.”

  “Still, I try not to be as mortifying as my mom was with me, but I doubt I’m all that successful since we’re carbon copies of each other.”

  “Oh, Gigi is a million times worse about this stuff than you are.” At least my mom tried to come up with a plausible excuse for the “banana costumes.” Her red blotchy face gave away the fact that she was lying.

  “That’s reassuring. As is the fact that the word-vomit gene seems to have passed you by.”

  “Small mercies, I suppose.” I don’t know if I agree that the word-vomit gene passed me entirely, but I have more of a censor than she and Gigi do.

  I give her a hug, and she tells me she loves me and that I’m her favorite daughter.

  She disappears down the hall to her bedroom, and I head downstairs to meet River and Josiah, feeling mildly bad about the two bananas tucked into my bag and the fact that Mom will probably notice the missing costumes and worry about what Maverick did with them.

  I’ll return them tomorrow, and she’ll be none the wiser.

  2

  PRE-DINNER SNACK ATTACK

  Lavender

  It’s already closing in on
six by the time me, River, and Josiah hop in my car and make the drive to the Bowmans’ house on the next lake over. My cousin BJ’s place is only two doors down from Kodiak’s, and my other cousins Lovey and Lacey are just a few minutes away as well. It’s kind of cool that all our parents have retired up here in the lake district. It’s like living at an exceptionally nice cottage.

  Kodiak’s brother and sister are going to friends’ places tonight, and all the young kids are staying at the Kingstons’ with a babysitter.

  Kodiak throws the door open as soon as I have the car in park and comes down the stairs wearing a pair of flip flops, despite the fact that we can see our breath bursting out of us in little puffs that disappear a moment later.

  “Where’s Mav?” he asks when River and Josiah get out of the car and circle around to the trunk.

  River and I exchange a look before I turn back to Kodiak, who is now right in front of my face, bending down to give me a chaste peck on the lips. Or as chaste as he’s capable of, anyway. It’s not like we haven’t seen each other every single day over the break. But he still can’t seem to get in enough alone time with me. I blame it on the fact that we haven’t been able to sleep beside each other. Not that I would want the awkwardness of sleeping in the same room with him when his parents or my parents are just down the hall.

  “We thought you might know. River said he went back to Chicago this afternoon.”

  Kodiak’s gaze flicks to my twin, who adds, “He said he needed to get some early reading done.”

  Kodiak snorts a laugh until he realizes that River isn’t joking. “Maybe he had to pick up a shift at the gym?”

  “I thought he had the week off, though?” It’s more question than anything. “And why would he give a lame-ass excuse like he needs to get early reading done?”

  Kodiak meets River and Josiah around the back of the car and shoulders my overnight bag. Then he picks up all the grocery bags in one hand before anyone else can step in to help. When he tries to lift my Tupperware cupcake container, I elbow him out of the way. “I’ve got this.”

  River closes the trunk, and we trudge across the driveway.

  “Maybe he’s seeing someone?” I ask the question both River and I pondered earlier, and follow Kodiak up the front steps, opening the door for him.

  “Maybe? I don’t know. I mean, he was late coming up here for the break, and he’s been . . . off while he’s been here? Distracted?”

  “He’s taken over my role as the emo brother,” River says as we all kick off our shoes, leaving them in a heap on the mat.

  Except for Kodiak, who uses his toe to arrange them neatly before carrying the groceries to the kitchen. He sets my overnight bag on a chair and puts the groceries on the counter, immediately emptying the bags. “Damn, Lav, you really went all out, didn’t you?”

  I shrug. I figured it would be fun to make those charcuterie boards my mom and her friends are always so fond of. Besides, it’s no fun getting super wasted and only having bags of chips to snack on. Plus, I wanted us to have a real dinner that didn’t consist of pizza from a place which may or not use lactose free cheese.

  So I went ahead and made three different kinds of lasagna: a vegan, non-dairy option for me and Lovey and Lacey, an all-meat version for the guys, and a butter chicken one just to keep it interesting. I also have all the makings for Caesar salad, garlic bread, and of course, dessert in the form of Lucky Charms-inspired cupcakes, because they’re my fave. And I brought two boxes of cereal for breakfast in the morning. And bacon and eggs, in case I’m feeling ambitious.

  The guys go about unpacking all the food, and Kodiak turns on the oven so we can reheat the lasagna. I assemble two charcuterie boards; one full of candy and one with meat and cheese and crackers and nuts, because these guys are always hungry.

  Once all the grocery stuff is taken care of, Kodiak shows Josiah and River to their room—which happens to be one of the two spare bedrooms in the house—and then we make the short trek out to the pool house to drop off my bag. Yes, the Bowmans have a pool, even though we’re on a lake and the water is amazing. But sometimes in the summer it gets busy and noisy with boats, so the pool is a nice, quieter change of pace.

  As soon as we’re inside the pool house, Kodiak takes my face between his palms and drops his head. His lips are soft at first, and then a deep groan vibrates through him and he strokes inside, tongue finding mine.

  I sink into the kiss for several long, drawn-out seconds before I clamp my teeth together so he can’t put his tongue back in my mouth. After two pokes against my teeth, he pulls back with a frown. “Is everything okay?”

  “Everything’s fine.” I grin up at him. “But River and Josiah are in the house, and we’re out here, and our phones are blowing up with messages.”

  His frown deepens when he hears the telling buzz, buzz, buzz coming from the bag at my feet. “They can wait fifteen minutes.”

  I arch a brow.

  “Fine, half an hour.”

  “You know as well as I do that there is zero chance of BJ letting us get away with disappearing before dinner for a half an hour. Besides, the lasagnas are in the oven, and I still have to put together the Caesar salad.”

  “I could go down on you real quick,” he offers. “Just like five minutes? Ten at the most. Get you off?” He bites his lip. How he manages to look all sweet when he’s asking to eat me out is beyond me, but it makes it hard to say no to him. “Please, babe? I promise I’ll be super-fast.”

  “Why am I entertaining this?” I mutter, more to myself than him. But I know my boyfriend. He’s basically addicted to my vagina.

  “Because you love me. And because you know I’m going to drive you insane all night if you don’t give in now and let me bathe my face in your pussy juice.”

  I grimace. “That’s gross.”

  “No, it’s not. It’s sexy. I fucking love the way you taste. And the fact that we never, ever need lube.”

  I cross my arms. It’s frustrating that just talking about this makes my panties unreasonably damp. “It’s genetic.”

  “It’s hot as fuck.” He steps into my personal space and takes my face in his warm, rough palms again. “Pleeease, Lavender. Just let me make you come once before we have to go out there and be somewhat appropriate for the next few hours.”

  “Why does it have to be right now?” And why am I even considering saying no?

  “Because once we go back into the house, everyone is going to want your attention, dragging you away from the twins will be impossible. And later you’ll be drunk and all horny and demanding, and you won’t let me spend as much time as I like eating you out because you want my dick.” He smirks a little at the end and then gives me his damn puppy dog eyes.

  He’s not wrong. About any of it. Once we’re with our friends, it’s going to be hard to pull me away from them, in part because other than River, I’m the only one who has a boyfriend here. The guy my cousin Lacey is dating went home to Arkansas to see his family, and her twin Lovey is on a strict no-boyfriend diet because the last guy she went out with ended up being way too clingy for her liking. BJ never dates anyone seriously enough to bring them home, and I’m pretty sure he broke it off with whoever his casual fling was before Valentine’s so he didn’t have to do the whole gift thing. And Quinn, Kodiak’s roommate and another one of our friends . . . well, I think he’s still nursing the same broken heart from the end of last year. He was noncommittal about coming out tonight, so I won’t be entirely surprised if he’s a no-show.

  “Fine.” I sigh dramatically and roll my eyes. “You can eat me out.” I give him a stern look. “But don’t spoil your appetite.”

  His brows pull together for a second, until he realizes I’m joking. “I fucking love you.” He picks me up by the waist and sets me on the nearest surface, which happens to be the pool table.

  “We can’t do this here.”

  The furrowed brow is back. “Why not?”

  I arch one in response. “It ne
eds to be a wipeable surface.”

  “Oh! Shit. Right.” He grabs two handfuls of my ass and carries me across the room to the small kitchen, then deposits me on the counter.

  He wraps one hand around the back of my neck and drops his mouth to mine. The other hand finds the hem of my dress and slides under the fabric and along my thigh. I’m wearing tights though, because my legs would be cold otherwise.

  He breaks the kiss, and I pull my dress over my head, laying it carefully on the counter beside us so it doesn’t end up a wrinkled mess. Or worse, it ends up on the floor under me, and I ruin it with all my girl jizz. It’s happened before. And I didn’t have anything else to wear, so I had to spot clean my dress and use a blow-dryer on it. It was taffeta and the water marks were pretty damn obvious.

  Kodiak cups my bra-covered boobs in his palms and pushes them together. Not that he needs to create any more cleavage than there already is. He drops his head and nuzzles in, murmuring, “I’ll be back to give you attention later.” He bites the swell of the left one and kisses the right.

  When his gaze lifts to mine, I tip my head to the side. “You’re down to eight minutes. You’re gonna need to work fast if you really want to give me an orgasm.”

  “Right. Yeah. It’s O time.” He hooks his fingers into my tights, and I lift my butt so he can drag them down my thighs. He tosses them behind him on the floor.

  I’m still wearing panties. This is purposeful on Kodiak’s part. He really seems to love the challenge of working around fabric when he’s giving me oral-gasms. Kodiak pulls me to the edge of the counter and drops to his knees on the tile floor. It can’t feel good, but he never complains. When we’re in Chicago at school, this happens often, but usually I’m on his bed, or mine, or the dresser, and we have carpeted floors, so it isn't hard on his knees or mine.

  Sometimes when I blow him, he likes to stand in the middle of the room, and I’ll kneel on a pillow so the only thing he can hold onto is my hair. He says it helps him last longer because he has to focus on staying upright. Our sex life is interesting, that’s for sure.