Wild and Free (The Wilder Brothers)

“You don’t know his name, Bee?”

“I mean, his tongue was a little too far down my throat? Let’s just say for the night I was ‘princess’ and he was ‘my king.’”

“You’re insane,” I said, giggling.

“We went back to this really nice hotel room. I mean, really fucking nice, right? And there’s rose petals on the bed and champagne chilling in this silver bucket. Then, over in the corner, are two cuffs dangling from the ceiling from a nice, shiny silver chain.

“Oh, that’s right up your alley.”

“I mean, we’re talking blindfolds, feathers, a riding crop, foreplay to the point where I thought I was going to punch him I was so upset for backing off.”

“Oh, this man is right up your alley.”

“I didn’t get much sleep last night,” she shrugged..

“That’s all you’re going to tell me?”

“Are you going to tell me if you had butt sex?”

I stuck my tongue out at her before I got up to fix my second cup of coffee.

“You said you gave him your number, right?”

“I did.”

“Is he just going to call you and ask for ‘his princess?’”

“Holy hell, I fucking hope so.”

I giggled as I stirred my coffee and closed my eyes. The night felt so surreal. And even though my hickey outed me to my best friend, I was glad it was there. It was a reminder of what I had experienced. It was proof that what happened last night had been real and not another dream of mine. I tossed the spoon into the sink and went back to sit with Bianca, and saw her staring off. She hadn’t even registered the fact that I had sat down in front of her. And the look in her eyes was familiar. I hadn’t seen that look since Jasper.

“Bee?”

“Hmm?”

She whipped her head over to me and smiled.

“You okay?” I asked.

“Yep. Just a little hungry. What are your plans for the day? I’ve got work tonight, but I’m free this afternoon.”

“We could go on one of our infamous hikes.”

“The ones where we dress up, think we’re going to hike, and then stuff our faces with Italian from the restaurant up the road?”

“That’s the one,” I said.

“Sounds like the perfect way to jumpstart our health.”

NINE

Lucas

“Whaddaya think ‘bout this one?” Everett asked.

I stood in our office headquarters of Wisteria Lake Design, turning the pictures around in my hands and looking at everything from different angles.

“You’re thinking about purchasing it and flipping it ourselves?” I asked.