In the Dark (The Rules #2)(10)

“Yeah, but I never fell asleep on her in the middle of sexing her up,” Shep stresses, his laughter still hanging on. “Man, that is just priceless. You’re lucky she only slapped you in the face. She should’ve kneed you in the balls.”

“Thank Christ she didn’t,” I mutter, rubbing my hand along my jaw. I’m lying in bed, it’s almost noon and I haven’t even gotten up yet. What’s the point? Last night was such a major disappointment. Lucy hates me, I slept like hell and I have a lingering hangover that makes my head pound.

Meaning, I feel like ass.

“I’m thinking you need to move on from this one,” Shep suggests, jovial and carefree as usual. Easy for him to say. He’s banging the hottest redhead I’ve ever seen who happens to tolerate his shit, and Shep dishes out a lot of shit.

He also happens to be madly in love with Jade and somehow she feels the same. Crazy. Never thought I’d witness Shep the player, Shep the total dog fall for a girl and pursue her relentlessly until he made her his.

“Yeah, you’re probably right,” I say gruffly, though I don’t mean a word of it. Damn it, I’m still intrigued. Any other girl would’ve slapped my face and I’d bail. Who needs that shit?

Jade slapped Shep’s face and he chased after her like a mad man. Maybe we’re both kinky bastards or something. Only truly interested by a woman who slaps the shit out of us.

Now there’s a disturbing thought.

“How’s it going anyway? Ready to come home yet?” Shep asks.

“I was ready to come home the second I arrived down here.” Family vacations are the worst. We’re all ordered to attend, even if we don’t want to. Sydney tried to get out of it a few years ago, saying she had cheer camp, which she did. A totally legitimate excuse.

Guess who didn’t make the cheer team that school year? All for a shitty family vacation in Paris.

Granted I sound like a spoiled brat complaining about vacationing in Paris but I was eighteen, Sydney was fifteen and we were miserable. Constantly under our parents’ thumbs, unable to have any fun. Though I did sneak off and let that one French girl I met in a café give me a blowjob in the restroom.

Yeah. Fond memories. Sort of. Now I’m imagining Lucy on her knees, her hands curled around the waistband of my shorts just before she pulls them down and my hard cock springs out directly in front of her mouth...

“Go to the beach. Check out the hotties,” Shep suggests, pulling me from my dirty thoughts. “Find a cute girl, flirt with her and get that other chick off your mind. She couldn’t have been that great, considering you fell asleep on her. Mid-kiss.”

I wince. The thing is, Lucy is pretty. And she seems cool. I don’t know her that well but I felt like we could’ve had something. That explosive kiss we shared suggested we could’ve had something major.

But I guess it wasn’t meant to be.

“I’ll go to the beach,” I say, because it’s what I should say. “And check out the hotties.”

“I’m sure you’ll find someone. I mean come on. You’re Gabe Walker, dude. Chicks quiver and get all flustered when you so much as look at them,” Shep says in encouragement.

“I think you’re mistaking me for you.” The girls definitely used to quiver and get all flustered when Shep so much as looked at them. And they want to fix Tristan because he’s so growly and moody all the damn time.

Me? I have no problems with women but I’m not like my friends. And now I’m seriously worried I’m losing game because I f*cking fell asleep while kissing a hot girl.

I still can hardly believe it.

“Have fun. Don’t get yourself all twisted up in knots over this girl. There are plenty of other fish in the sea.” Shep lowers his voice. “Hell, I hope Jade didn’t hear me. Gotta go. See ya G.” He ends the call before I can say anything else.

Deciding I need to face the world sometime, I crawl out of bed and head to the bathroom, take care of business and then shuffle downstairs to find my sister sitting at the kitchen counter, eating potato chips she dunks in thick ranch dip.

“Breakfast?” I ask as I swipe a chip out of her fingers, dip it in the ranch and then pop it in my mouth.

Sydney glares at me, but she looks more like a fluffy kitten trying to bear her claws. Her hair is piled on top of her head in this messy topknot and she has no makeup on. She has on a tank top and black leggings and looks more than a little sweaty.

“More like lunch, considering what time it is.” She reaches into the chip bag and pulls out a giant one, which she points at me. “Did you really just get up?”

“Yeah.” I go to the fridge and pull out a cold can of Coke. “What’s the big deal? It’s summer.”

“I’ve been up since eight.”

I turn to look at her, chugging down half the soda before I speak. “So? You want a medal for that or what?” Swear to God we revert to ages seven and ten when we start bickering.

“I went down to the beach.” She smirks. “Saw your crush there.”

I have the can up to my mouth when she says that and nearly spit out the mouthful of soda I just took in. “You saw Lucy?”

Sydney raises both brows. “You know her name?”

“Well. Yeah.” I didn’t tell Sydney I was going over to Lucy’s house last night for fear she could mention it to our parents. But now the jig might be up. “We, uh, talked yesterday.”