Summer Break (Love Nibbles Book 4) Read online

  Summer Break

  Formerly published in Hot Summer Nights anthology

  Copyright © 2015 by Bonnie Dee

  All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication/use of these trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners.

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  Chapter One

  Eric was cool with hanging alone. He could entertain himself. After all, he used to do it all the time before he moved here and became the third wheel in the Josh and Brianne tricycle. He didn’t really miss Josh, but was so used to his friend’s chatter, it was like somebody had suddenly turned off the TV. His ears rang with the silence.

  Not to mention the fact that, without Josh to connect them, he no longer had any excuse to hang out with Brianne. Summer wasn’t the same without the view of her curvy, tanned body in a swimsuit, even though he’d never do more than admire that body from a distance. He missed seeing her. He even missed her sharp, judgmental voice telling him to stop being such a pushover and stand up for himself once in a while against Josh’s constant demands.

  So, yeah, he was capable of entertaining himself, but it was shaping up to be a long, boring summer. Josh was clear across country in Boston at a Young Leaders convention for a month. When he returned, he’d only be home for a few more weeks before leaving for NYU. Meanwhile, Eric laid carpet with his brother, Carl, during the day and spent his evenings alone, walking the beach aimlessly like some abandoned lover. The unlikely friendship the two had forged in high school was basically over. Josh was headed toward a bright future, Eric toward a dead end job.

  He sighed and clicked off the TV he’d been staring through for the past hour, ever since getting home from work. In the absence of its blare the wheeze and rattle of the window air conditioner was louder than ever, yet it didn’t touch the stifling heat in the small apartment. Eric glanced down at his naked chest, watching a bead of sweat pool between his pecs and slip down the center of his torso. Would it roll right or left when it reached his navel? He sipped his beer and waited. The shiny bead was captured in the line of hair on his stomach and stayed there, glistening. Trapped, just like he was in this stupid town where he’d never really belonged, sharing an apartment with his stoner brother because his mom had ditched him there and he didn’t have anywhere better to go.

  Brianne would be leaving for college, too, of course. Berkeley. Only a couple of hours away, but it might as well have been the moon. He’d surely never see her again. Even if she came home on school vacations it would be to see Josh, not him, and there certainly wouldn’t be any point in hanging with them anymore. They would talk about college courses, parties, professors, semesters abroad, while all he’d have to share would be stimulating facts about carpet installation and the truly fine weed Carl had scored the other night.

  “Fuck it!” He tipped the bottle to his lips to drain the warm dregs, then tossed it in the general direction of the end table. After hitting the arm of the couch, it rolled off onto the floor. Eric stood, peeling his sweaty back from the rough, nappy fabric of the couch. His boxers clung to his damp skin, outlining the shape of the hard-on he’d gotten from just thinking about Brianne. He stared morosely down at his boner.

  “Gotta get out of here.”

  Tonight he was actually bored enough to go to a party at Chad Nicholson’s beach house. He despised Nicholson and his crowd, but there would be a couple of kegs and a lot of hot girls, so what the hell.

  First he took a long, cool shower, washing away the stink of a hard day’s work lifting and carrying heavy rolls of carpet from the store to the van and into people’s houses. Ripping out nasty, ratty old stuff was the worst, but there was some small satisfaction in seeing the smooth, unblemished surface of new carpet covering an empty floor, wall to wall. It had a kind of hopeful look to it.

  Washing his hair, he could feel it was getting too long, almost shoulder length. Maybe he’d take a razor and shave right down to the scalp. It’d be more comfortable and at least it would be something different. If he ran into Brianne someplace around town, what would she say? You look like a skinned rabbit or It’s about time! Should’ve shaved that ragged mop off years ago. She was harsh in her brutal honesty but Eric liked the fact he could trust her to tell the truth as she saw it.

  That acid tongue contrasted with a pair of plump, pouting lips he couldn’t look at without thinking of kissing. How such sharp comments could come from something so sweet and soft was beyond comprehension. Her lips alone had been the focus of his fantasies many times over the past few years, but then so had her shampoo commercial, shining hair, her perfect skin and her incredible dark brown eyes. But at that particular moment, standing in the privacy of his shower, it was her mouth he pictured—stretched around his cock.

  He slicked soap the length of his erection, closed his eyes and pumped slowly at first then faster until he was pulling with punishing strokes. The shower turned from cool to cold against his back as he stood under the spray, one hand braced against the lime-encrusted tile, the other pumping his slick cock. At last it pulsed in his hand, spurting white jets that swirled down the drain with the wastewater. It had taken pitifully few minutes to bring himself off with erotic images of Brianne in his brain.

  Turning his face into the icy stream of water, he let it rinse him clean once more, but it couldn’t wash away the guilt that burned like a low-grade fever deep inside. Two years of lusting after his best friend’s girl. Seems he’d have found something better to do by now--a girlfriend of his own, maybe. But he couldn’t stop constantly thinking of Brianne, imagining her and Josh doing it, then picturing himself in Josh’s place. Occasionally, he’d even fantasized himself with both of them. How wrong was that?

  He needed to find some willing chick at the party tonight and nail her. Just a no frills, simple one-off. A perfect summer fling. He didn’t need either Josh or Brianne in order to have a good time. He could find some fun on his own.

  * * * *

  At the party, Eric slipped through the crowd of people he’d gone to school with for four years but barely knew and went straight for the beer. He spent the next hour standing around and drinking steadily, pretty much ignored by the other guests. Although he wasn’t exactly an outcast in high school, due to hanging out with Josh and Brianna, he also wasn’t enough of a talker to leave an impression. Girls drawn to his looks, which weren’t bad, soon discovered it was boring to hang with someone who rarely spoke.

  Standing on the patio under a starry sky with a cool breeze blowing in from the ocean, Eric watched everyone having a great time. How many were acting? He’d always felt separate from these privileged assholes who’d never done manual labor in their lives. Maybe he liked to think himself superior for having struggled in life. They were butterflies who hadn’t even had to
fight their way out of a cocoon, but simply lived in it.

  Maybe he was just jealous.

  Eric set down set down his beer on the railing, planning to make his way back to his car and drive someplace he’d fit in a little better--maybe hang with his brother’s friends at the bar where they practically lived. He’d hook up with some girl there and forget all about this world where he didn’t belong. Before he could move, soft, strong arms wrapped around his neck from behind. The scent of familiar perfume wafting from warm, feminine skin sent a sharp stab of arousal racing to his cock.

  “Hey, Errric, what’s up?”

  He let Brianne’s arms remain molded around him for a few beats longer than he should before breaking free and turning to face her. She swayed on her feet, pink lips glistening, red-brown hair tumbling wildly around her face, eyeliner smudged beneath eyes so dilated he couldn’t tell where black ended and dark brown began.

  She staggered and he caught and held her upright. “Hey, Brianne. How ya doing?”

  “Just fine.” She leaned into his supporting hands at her waist.

  His palms slid over the smooth, tanned flesh under her crop top while she regained her balance. He didn’t want to let go.

  She squinted at him drunkenly. “Does the ground seem crooked to you?”

  “Maybe a little. Want to take a walk and see if it straightens out?”

  “Yeah.” She turned toward the steps that led down to the beach and wandered sideways.

  He slipped an arm around her waist to guide her down the stairs. It’s what Josh would want him to do, take care of his wasted girlfriend and make sure she got home safe. He wasn’t doing anything wrong.

  When they reached the beach, she lifted her feet and placed them with exaggerated care in the sand. “Hard to walk in sand,” she muttered.

  He agreed. Sand shifted and made it hard to keep your balance even if you were just a little drunk like he was. He held her close to his side as they left the circle of light and noise and approached the dark edge of the water where only the breaking waves disturbed the silence.

  “Have you talked to Josh since he left?” Brianne sounded as if the fresh breeze had sobered her.

  Eric shrugged. “No. Guess he’s having a good time.” He’d never admit he was a little hurt Josh hadn’t so much as texted since he’d left

  “It’s been almost two weeks. What the hell did he do, lose his phone? It’s almost impossible not to stay in touch unless you’re actively avoiding someone. I guess he is having a good time,” she sneered.

  They walked the water’s edge where the sand was packed hard and it was easier to keep their footing, but though she was no longer struggling, Brianne didn’t move away from his supporting arm around her waist.

  “You miss him?” Cold water lapped over Eric’s bare feet. He’d left his flip flops at the foot of the stairs. It was easier to walk through the sand without them.

  “Not as much as I thought I would.” She pushed her hand through her hair and held it to keep the breeze from whipping strands across her face. Her rib cage lifted with the movement. His cock began to stiffen from his awareness of her body.

  He let go of her at last and bent to pick up a stone to chuck at the ocean.

  “Guess I’m not surprised.” Brianne dug a trench in the wet sand with her toe. “In a way Josh has already been gone for a while. I knew it was coming. High school’s over, you know?”

  Eric threw his stone across the water, but it didn’t skip. It sank heavily. “Yeah.”

  “Couples want to believe they’ll stay together when they go to college, but long-distance never works. Josh’ll meet some socially aware chick in one of his classes and I’ll be nostalgia, the shopping Barbie he used to date. We’ve already kind of agreed when we leave in fall, we’ll end it clean, so I guess we’re starting early.”

  She dug a small white shell from the sand, brushed the sand away, and turned the shell over and over in her hand. “Do you ever feel like everything is changing and you can’t hold onto it, and everyone you care about is going away and leaving you behind? You know that feeling?”

  “Slightly. I’m a townie, remember?” He bounced another stone on his palm, judging if it was flat enough to skip.

  Brianne looked him. “Feeling sorry for yourself again?”

  He scowled. “Fuck off.”

  Brianne shrugged. “You know, nothing’s really keeping you here. You could move away, too. You could’ve applied someplace, tried for some scholarships or a student loan. Nothing’s holding you back but yourself.” She put the white shell in the pocket of her tiny, frayed cut-off shorts.

  “Thanks for the analysis.” Stuck up bitch had no idea what it was like to be on your own simply trying to survive in the world. She’d never had to apply for financial aid of any kind. He threw the stone at a sharp angle across the water. It plopped under the waves without a bounce.

  “I’m not trying to piss you off, just telling the truth.”

  “You always do.” He backed away from the water as a larger wave rolled in and wet him to the knees.

  Brianna shuffled backward with him, arms folded, staring out at the water. “By the way, guess what? My dad and step-mom are getting a divorce.” She said it casually, but her lips thinned.

  “Sorry,” he said.

  “Why? I’m not. You know how I’ve always felt about the bitch.”

  “I thought that was a front.” He continued to search her face for clues. “I always thought you secretly kinda liked her.”

  “No. But my dad does, so I feel bad for him.” She stared at the white shimmers of moonlight on the waves. “Sometimes I wonder if it’s possible for anybody to stay together. You know, in the happy-ever-after way. Like the Waltons.”

  “Who?”

  “That old show. You know.”

  “No way. You don’t seriously watch that crap.” He grinned. It was the kind of quirky thing he loved about Brianne. Under the hard-edged attitude she tried to project hid an unexpected vulnerability, a soft spot for wholesome nostalgia or helpless animals.

  “I can’t help it. It’s an addiction.” She suddenly hugged her arms around her body and bent over. “God, I feel like shit.”

  “You going to throw up?” He took her elbow. “We could go to the pier and get something to eat to settle your stomach.”

  She straightened and rubbed her eyes with the heels of her hands. “Not that kind of feeling like shit. I’m just so... I don’t know. Lost. Lonely. Empty.”

  She was so beautiful in the moonlight and the sadness in her tone made his heart ache. He wanted to fix it, make her better, transform her back into the snarky, opinionated, take-no-prisoners girl he knew.

  He wanted to stroke her hair or rub her back, but was afraid to touch her because he was lost and lonely too, and God knew where such comforting might lead.

  Brianne looked at him with those chocolate drop eyes, and he couldn’t breathe. “Could we sit here here on the beach and could you, maybe…hold me?” Her normally confident voice quavered.

  “Sure,” he whispered, waiting to wake up from this strange dream.

  Eric led the way to a large piece of silver driftwood, practically a whole tree trunk worn smooth. He sat in the sand with his back against it, and waited for Brianne to sit beside him. Instead, she plopped between his legs and scooted back so she rested against his chest. Her body wedged between his thighs, the length of her bare legs pressed against his and her ass tight against his crotch, brought on an instant, total boner. What guy would be able to resist? He slid his arms around her, snug beneath her breasts, and wished he could hold onto her like this forever.

  She nestled her head in the crook of his shoulder, silky hair brushing his jaw. “This is nice. Cozy.”

  Eric closed his eyes and listened to the sound of the surf, felt the breeze brushing his face like little fingers and smelled Brianne’s sweet-scented hair. Soft strands tickled his lips and he couldn’t resist. He rested his cheek on her head and da
red to kiss her hair, praying she wouldn’t notice.

  Brianne ran a hand back and forth on his arm, making the hairs stand up at the hypnotic brush of her fingertips. “What are you going to do next fall? You can’t lay carpet with your brother forever. You’re too smart for grunt work and smoking weed every night with Carl and his pals.”

  “Can we not discuss this?” In the peaceful dark, with the girl of his dreams in his arms, the last thing he wanted to do was talk about his uncertain future.

  She shrugged, breasts moving against his arm, and changed the subject. “I’ve been thinking about calling you all week. No reason you and I can’t hang out just ’cause Josh isn’t here. Remember when you two first became friends? I was so mean to you.”

  “Yeah. Still are.” He smiled. “Always a bitch.”

  She slapped his arm hard enough to make it sting. “I think I was a little jealous back then. You moved here. Josh glommed onto you for whatever reason, and suddenly you guys were close and I got shut out. Plus, it pissed me off how you ignored me.”

  “Wasn’t ignoring you. I just didn’t know what to say. It’s not like I didn’t notice you, Brianne. You’re kind of hard to miss.”

  He remembered the first time he’d seen Josh’s girlfriend with the luminous eyes, luscious lips and glowing red hair. She was off limits so didn’t allow himself to think of her in a sexual way, but she kept invading his private thoughts at night in his bed, then his morning shower, and soon almost every waking minute. He’d fought the obsession for two years, putting friendship first. Now, holding her in his arms like this was playing with fire, walking the edge of betraying his friendship with Josh.

  She returned to rubbing his arm and snuggled back against him a little more. “I noticed you, too. From the beginning.”

  “Um...” He shifted in the sand. She must be able to feel his cock pressing into her rear, because he could certainly feel the swell of her ass cheek against him.

  “Much as you annoy the crap out of me with that stoic thing you’ve got going, I kind of like you,” she admitted.