Pucked Love (Pucked, #6)(12)
I give her an apologetic smile. It’s not fair to use Darren as a copout. “Darren is private about this kind of thing, and so am I.”
“But we always talked about boyfriend stuff before Darren.”
“Before Darren it was different. I didn’t want to risk him getting asked questions by anyone, so . . .”
“I wouldn’t have said anything if you’d told me not to.”
I give her a look. “Not even Alex?”
She starts to speak but makes a face. “Okay, you have a point. I’d probably tell Alex because husbands fit under the same cone. Alex was pretty freaked out last night. I mean, those guys have been besties for as long as you and I have been besties, and he had no clue Darren was such a kinky fucker. We thought you might be a little off-side, but not all the way out in left field.”
“It looked a lot more extreme than it is,” I offer. “Most of it is the stuff my mom sends me from all her dominatrix conventions, and the majority of it I haven’t even considered trying out. I guess I went a little overboard yesterday.”
“Well, that’s going to take all the fun out of the kink inquisition.”
“Kink inquisition?”
“Yeah, the girls are freaking out over this. They started a group chat last night asking me all sorts of questions. I didn’t pull you in because I figured you didn’t want to be bombarded with text messages, and you were probably busy with Darren, doing whatever.” She crosses over to the fridge and produces a couple of bottles. She holds out the champagne. “Pre-inquisition mimosa?”
“That’s probably a good idea.”
“I figured.”
She hands me a glass and pours herself some sparkling grape juice since she and Alex are actively trying to get her knocked up, and she doesn’t want to drink until or unless she gets her period. Then the doorbell chimes. I exhale a nervous breath. This is probably going to be uncomfortable, but if I can deal with wearing a butt plug for several hours, I’m pretty sure I can handle a few questions and dispel some misconceptions.
Sunny, Lily, and Poppy appear in the kitchen a minute later. It’s awkward times a million. Especially since the first thing out of my mouth is, “Sorry all your significant others saw me naked yesterday.”
“Everyone except Lance has heard me come,” Violet says, because she’s my best friend and is happy to offset my humiliation with her own.
“Um, Lance has heard you come, Violet, and so have the rest of us,” Poppy, Lance’s fiancée, says quietly.
Her face turns the color of her name. She’s so stinking cute. It’s amazing that someone so sweet could end up with one of the most volatile players in the league, who was also dubbed a notorious womanizer—although the media likes to twist things around. And from what I know, Lance is actually a little broken, kind of like me and Darren both seem to be. His childhood wasn’t the best either.
Violet looks confused. “Since when?”
“When we went to the cottage over winter break and you and Alex had sex in the outdoor shower,” Lily replies when Poppy doesn’t respond right away.
“Ooooh, right. Lesson learned on that one, I guess.”
“And only Darren and Miller haven’t seen me naked, so don’t feel too bad.” Lily gives me a side hug.
“Wait, what?” Poppy suddenly looks like she’s ready to go a round. As sweet as she is, she’s a massage therapist, so she’s strong, and dating Lance means she has to have a backbone of steel. She also has a fiery personality to match her hair.
“It was an accident. Randy came home from an away series, and I answered the door wearing a bow like a necklace. I didn’t know Lance was with him until it was too late,” Lily explains.
“And Alex saw her naked when she was six, so that doesn’t really count,” Violet adds.
“Oh. Right.” That seems to calm Poppy down.
“My boob popped out when I was breastfeeding Logan at a team BBQ last summer.” Sunny pats her little baby bump. “But only Miller saw, so I guess that’s not the same.”
“It’s a good one, though.” Violet claps her hands. “Okay. Who needs a drink before the sex-quisition?”
“The what?” Sunny asks.
“The sex-quisition. The sex inquisition. I’m sure everyone has questions for Charlene after last night. I figured nothing goes better with uncomfortable questions about our sex lives than booze! Sunny, I have dealcoholized champagne for us. It basically tastes like fizzy grape juice, but we can drink it out of fun glasses and pretend we’re getting drunk, too.”
Sunny shrugs. “I don’t need to pretend to be drunk, but I like fizzy grape juice.”
Violet serves everyone drinks, and we all head to the living room. This whole thing makes me nervous. I mean, they’re all my friends and we’re all pretty open with each other, but with all the focus on me, I realize that they’re open, while I’ve spent the past two years saying little about my sex life. I wish we could go back to the way it was before all my secrets were spilled out with the dragon-shaped plastic schlong.
I root around in my purse for one of my candies and pop it into my mouth. I need all the calm I can get. I don’t care that the candy is going to make my mimosa taste like crap.
“I have a question.” Lily drops into the chair parallel to mine.