Where I Belong (Alabama Summer #1)

“I don’t see why you can’t give him a chance while he’s between your legs. You’d at least get some relief if he was fucking you into the friend zone.”

“Pwincess Mia!” Nolan’s husky voice comes echoing down the hallway.

“Hold on one second!” I snap my head around toward a grinning Tessa. “I really hope your nephew didn’t hear that,” I scold her, but she merely shrugs her shoulders in response. I grab my phone and stick it into my pocket, stepping in front of the mirror one last time. My hair is definitely not behaving, doing this weird curl thing at the bottom that I am so not digging. And of course, the more I mess with it, the worse it gets. I grumble my irritation under my breath.

“Mmm mmm,” Tessa teases. “Just friends my ass.”

I ignore her and apply some lip gloss. “What’s up with you and Luke? Are you two serious?”

She rolls over onto her back, moaning playfully. “Luke is fun. Really fun. Tie me up and own my body fun.”

I should be shocked by that description, but I’m not. Tessa is into anything involving men. Especially when it involves fun stuff. “But not serious fun?”

“I don’t know. I like him and he likes me. I don’t need anything more than that.” We meet each other’s eyes in the mirror. She wants to tell me more, I can tell, but decides against it and gives me a sly smile instead. “How many condoms will you be taking with you tonight?”

“You are ridiculous.” I flip her off over my shoulder, walking down the hallway and into the living room. Nolan is swinging his sword in the air behind the sofa, slaying invisible enemies, but my eyes don’t linger on him. They can’t. Not when he is in the room. All my focus is magnetically pulled in the direction of Ben who is leaning against the counter. He straightens when he sees me, melting me with his smile that beams like a thousand watt bulb. If I was wearing heels right now, I definitely would’ve stumbled.

“Hey,” he says, twirling his keys on his finger. It’s so casual, like any normal greeting between friends, but his greeting makes my spine tingle and my toes curl. God, how does he do that? How does he turn a simple hey into so much more than that? I feel that hey settle between my legs and root itself there permanently.

“Hey,” I reply, trying to sound as sure and steady with this whole friendship thing as he does. However, my hey comes out broken and weak, giving away my anxiety. Although, even if I wouldn’t have spoken, I’m sure my body language would be displaying my nervousness for all to see. I am completely rigid and the conversation with Tessa that just transpired moments ago is playing on loop in my mind.

Pussy humming sex.

Fucking into the friend zone.

Condoms.

Oh God, do not get wet right now. I drop my eyes to Nolan, needing a distraction.

“Pwincess Mia!” He runs over to me and I bend down, bringing myself down to his level. My worries and desires are left above me as I focus in on his cuteness. “Daddy said we’re going to a surpwise.” He reaches out and runs his finger down my nose and I do the same to him. His tiny face scrunches up afterwards.

“We are. But I have to ask you a question before we go.” His eyes get even larger, grayish blue just like his father’s, as he waits for me. “Have you ever been to a real castle, Sir Nolan?” He shakes his head and his mouth drops open. “Would you like to go to one right now?”

I’ve never seen anyone go from one emotion to another so quickly. If I blinked, I probably would’ve missed it. He begins jumping up and down, almost knocking me onto my ass in the process. “A weal castle! Daddy! Pwincess Mia said we can go to a weal castle!”

Ben laughs as I stand up. “You ready to go, buddy?” He picks a squirming Nolan up and smiles sweetly at me. “Are you ready, Princess Mia?”

Am I? For friendship with a man that I can’t stop thinking about? Pussy humming sex. Shit. I force a nod and swallow down my fear. “Lead the way, noble knights.”

* * *

Nolan’s excitement was infectious and it grew as the evening played out. When we pulled up in front of the castle, he couldn’t get out of the truck fast enough and practically sprinted toward it. When he got his picture taken with the King, he couldn’t take his eyes off him, even when Ben and I told him to look at us so we could take pictures of him with our phones. He stared at him with eyeballs the size of dinner plates, his mouth forming a tiny O. It was the cutest thing I’d ever seen. And when the actual show started and Nolan got to see the knights in action, jousting and sword fighting right in front of him, I don’t think he blinked even once.

And then there was Ben. I kept catching glances from him the entire night, meeting his eyes every few minutes when I couldn’t keep myself from looking at him. I’m sure my struggle was obvious, considering he caught me each and every time I gave into my temptation. But the look he shot back at me wasn’t the one I was used to. It wasn’t the look he gave me when I knew he was thinking about doing things to my body. I was familiar with that look. The greedy shift in his eyes, the tightness in his jaw, the way his nostrils flared like he was a caged pit bull. But I didn’t get that look tonight. Instead of the raw thirst I had seen in his eyes on more than one occasion, I saw tenderness. A friendly affection. He regarded me sweetly but there was nothing behind it. No underlying hunger.

And God, I wanted to be devoured by him.

“He is completely passed out.” I observe, walking next to Ben and focusing on Nolan’s exhausted face. I reach up and brush his wild brown hair off his forehead, smiling at his sleepy state. “I don’t even think an actual dragon could wake him up right now.”

Ben opens up the back door of his truck, laughing softly at the sight of Nolan’s face as he peels him off his shoulder. “I figured he’d crash hard after all of this.” He buckles Nolan into his car seat, closing the door and grabbing the passenger door handle. “I may have withheld his nap from him today in hopes of getting to talk to you alone on the drive back. My son likes to monopolize the conversation, as you witnessed on the way here.”

I smile, climbing up into the truck after my door is opened for me.

Nolan talked nonstop on the drive to the dinner show, and every time Ben tried to talk to me about something other than dragons or knights, Nolan would adorably cut in and change the subject. I’d be lying if I said I’m not grateful for Nolan’s missed nap.

I settle into my seat and buckle up. “I can’t say I blame him. Dragons and knights are way more exciting than what Tessa and I did today.”

He closes my door and gets in on the driver’s side, starting up the truck and pulling away from the castle. I inhale, taking in Ben’s scent that has completely filled the space between us. He smells like pure Ben. No cologne, just him. Like a man that knows exactly how to please a woman. Shit. Don’t go there. “How’s your mom doing? Tessa mentioned a few months back that she was really sick. Is it breast cancer?”

I cross one leg over the other, angling my body toward him. His one hand stays firmly planted on the wheel while his other relaxes on the console between us. I’m glued to his fingers, the fingers that I moronically doubted that night. I didn’t think there was a chance in hell he’d get me off the way he did. And now that I know what those fingers are capable of, I’m fascinated by them. I actually can’t stop looking at them. The length, the thickness, the fucking tips of them that played me like a record. I want him to turn his hand up so I can straddle his fingers and ride out my pent up orgasm right now, but that’s not going to happen. He clears his throat, gaining my attention and I’m quickly reminded of the question he hit me with before I wandered off into finger fucking la-la land.