Gravity Happens (Forcing Gravity) Read online

  “I’ll bet he’s a fantastic kisser,” Nora mused, and Jase turned to me.

  “Just ask Logan. She can tell you,” he said sarcastically, and I glared at him.

  I stood up as he was chuckling, so I pushed him in the shoulder. “Too far, Jason,” I said, using his full name, so he knew I was pissed. Then I stormed inside.

  Just before I closed the door behind me, I heard Jase mutter, “Shit.”

  Then Nora said, “Nice move, Jason.”

  Within a few seconds, Jase was behind me with his arms wrapped around my waist and his lips at my ear. “I’m sorry. That wasn’t cool, and I know it. I shouldn’t have said it.”

  I spun around and faced him. “No, you shouldn’t have,” I said, shoving my index finger against his chest, “especially because you know that kissing him wasn’t my choice. It is way too soon for you to make jokes about something that damn near broke us up for good.”

  Jase pulled me closer so I was right up against him. “I’m sorry,” he whispered, and then he kissed me. “I’m sorry. Don’t be mad.”

  I resisted at first, but then he became more insistent, and it was hard to hold back. Just being that close to him did funny things to my body and made me crave him, even if I was pissed at what he’d said. After a few minutes of him alternating between kissing me and whispering, “I’m sorry,” I wraped my arms around his neck and pulled him down to deepen the kiss.

  He pulled me up, and I wrapped my legs around his waist, feeling the hardness there.

  “Magical bedroom?” I asked him, referring to the nickname we had for his bedroom.

  “Nora! Go home!” he shouted out to the porch.

  “Fine,” she called back. “I can tell when I’m not wanted.”

  Jase started to walk us toward his room as he kissed me feverishly.

  “I’ll call you later, Lo. We can do dinner this week, and I’ll tell you all about my date with Ethan.”

  “Sounds great,” I called back, just as Jase kicked the door to his room closed with his foot and laid me on the bed, slowing coming to rest on top of me.

  I wrapped my legs around his waist and pulled him to me, eliciting a groan from him that made me smile around his kiss.

  “Damn, I’m going to miss this,” he said, as he sat up, took his shirt off and reached for mine in turn. As soon as it was off, I reached back and unhooked my bra.

  His mouth descended on my breast as soon as I’d flung my bra to the floor, and I let my head fall back as he did all sorts of things that made me crazy in a really good way.

  “Jase, don’t go,” I purred, as I snaked my hand between us and massaged him.

  He groaned against my skin. “You are playing extremely dirty, Logan, and it’s not fair. I have to go. This is my job.”

  “No, your job is to keep me happy,” I said, as I brought my other hand down to unbutton his jeans.

  He started to trail kisses down my stomach and fell to his knees in front of me, pulling me all the way to the end of the bed. Then he looked up at me with hooded eyes.

  “You bet your ass that’s my job,” he said, before he yanked my yoga pants down along with my panties.

  Chapter Eight

  Ethan

  I was standing on the beach waiting for Nora to get to my house. It was three-fifteen, and she wasn’t there yet, but I had no way to contact her since she had yet to give me her phone number. I was getting nervously impatient and felt like maybe I should do some push-ups to calm down, but then if I was doing push-ups when she arrived I’d be the jackass who was trying to look bigger for a girl. And truthfully, I was pretty secure in what I was packing – above and below the waist. Not that it would come to that, but just in case we went there, she’d know she was covered.

  Then, before I could obsess any longer, she appeared on the deck above me wearing my hat and looking incredibly sexy.

  “Come to return my stolen property?” I called up to her, and she leaned over and smiled.

  “I have no idea what you’re talking about. This is mine now,” she said tipping it at me.

  “Not if I take it from you,” I threatened.

  She grinned. “You have to catch me first.”

  Happily.

  “Then quit hiding up there, come down and let me chase you.”

  “You are such a flirt!” she yelled out, leaning as far over the railing as she could without falling.

  I shrugged. “Hey, I embrace what I’m good at, and flirting is one of those things. Sue me.”

  “I’d rather kiss you.”

  I knew there was surprise written all over my face. “Really?”

  That was faster than I’d expected.

  “No,” she called back casually. “I just wanted to see what you’d do if I told you that, though.”

  “Ha, ha. You’re hilarious.”

  Then she pushed off the railing and headed down the steps. I noticed she was wearing a hoodie and cut-offs. I was disappointed she wasn’t in a skimpy bathing suit, but it wasn’t super-warm out, so I’d take what I could get. Her long, tan legs alone were enough to get any man hard. And I’d be staring at them all afternoon.

  In front of me I had my and Logan’s boards laid out on the sand. Nora and I wouldn’t be getting in the water. Today would just be about learning how to pop up and learning the mechanics of the sport. I’d taught surf lessons to kids every summer since I was fourteen, so I was familiar with how to help people learn the right way.

  And I planned on inviting her back for more lessons, so I’d be guaranteed to see her again.

  “Hi,” Nora said, bouncing a little as she stopped in front of me.

  “Hey,” I said, stuffing my hands in the pockets of my cargo shorts.

  She smiled, and I shook my head at how good she looked in my hat. I really loved that hat, but a part of me didn’t want to take it back from her. I honestly wanted to do really awful things to her while she wore only my hat.

  She stepped closer to me, and my heart started to pound.

  “My brother doesn’t think I should be here,” she shared, and although I wasn’t surprised, I was sort of taken aback by her approach. Why were we talking about her brother?

  “Okay,” I responded, because as much as I wanted to tell her that her brother could kiss my white ass, I held back. Logan had told me they were close, so I had to play nice.

  She took a step closer to me, reached out and ran her hand back through my hair. “I don’t necessarily agree with him,” she said, as her hand drifted down to cup the side of my face.

  Normally when a girl did that, I stepped up and kissed her, but for some reason with Nora I was so scared of fucking things up that I held back, even though her eyes were hooded as she gazed at me. I knew she wanted to kiss me, but she was waiting for me to make a move, and I wasn’t budging. She’d forced me to let her play hard to get, and now I was giving it right back.

  “Is that so,” I answered casually, and she shrugged, dropping her hand back to her side.

  “He thinks you’re a player.”

  “You think I’m a player,” I responded, shrugging.

  She cocked her head to the side. “Yeah, but I’m beginning to think I might have been wrong, that maybe I pre-judged you too quickly and the player thing is mostly just for show. Am I right?”

  No, you really aren’t. I’m a total player.

  But could I change for this girl? I would have changed for Logan, but she didn’t want anything to do with me. Nora seemed to genuinely like me. And I liked her. Maybe change was good.

  I shrugged and said, “You tell me.” No sense in outright lying.

  She stepped even closer to me, so much so, that we were just inches apart. I could feel her warm breath on my face. She smelled like candy again, and the sweet scent invaded my senses, making my brain fuzzy.

  “The way I see it,” she said confidently, “is that if you were a player, you would have made a play for me already, and you haven’t. In fact, you played hard to get so well t
hat I came to you. I got tired of waiting, Ethan.”

  I reached my hand out and rested it on her hip. She smiled at the gesture, but I wasn’t taking things any further than that.

  “I wasn’t playing hard to get,” I finally told her. “I wasn’t playing anything.”

  At least not intentionally.

  She cocked her head to the side. “But it felt like you were playing – what you were playing, I’m not sure – but you were so adamant about getting my number the night of your party that I thought for sure I’d hear from you, but I never did.”

  “I still don’t have your number,” I pointed out.

  “And yet here I am.”

  “Here you are – ready for a surf lesson, but stalling fabulously.”

  She laughed. “I’m not stalling, I’m flirting.”

  “Good to know, although a part of me sort of thinks that you’re afraid, so you’re actually using flirting as a way to not have to learn how to surf.”

  She shrugged. “Surfing’s hard. And the water’s cold.”

  Shit, cold water might be nice. I was starting to get overheated.

  “The water’s not that bad,” I told her, even though I knew it was freezing.

  She raised an eyebrow, and I don’t think I’d ever considered that particular non-verbal gesture to be sexy before, but for some reason, when Nora did it, it was hot.

  She put her hands on her hips then and said, “Prove it.”

  Both of my eyebrows shot up. “Prove it how?”

  She smirked. “Go swimming.”

  “No.”

  “Chicken shit.”

  I rolled my eyes at her as I pulled off the long-sleeve t-shirt I was wearing. She was way too good at talking people into things. I was pleased to see her eyes flicker to my bare chest and then to the tattoo covering my right shoulder. Her tongue darted out of her mouth and touched her upper lip.

  Damn, if that gesture alone didn’t make me want to grab her and carry her to my bed immediately. Then before she could protest, I lifted her off the ground and ran us both into the ocean, letting loose a battle cry as I did that comingled with her initial screams of protest and finally her yelp when the icy water enveloped us both.

  “Holy shit!” I spluttered as I broke the surface. That was about the dumbest thing I could have done.

  “Oh, my God, it is fucking freezing!” Nora cried out as she shoved me hard in the chest with both hands.

  I laughed at her, which might have pissed some girls off, but it just made her grin.

  “It is fucking freezing,” I agreed, and as soon as we made eye contact with each other, we were charging out of the ocean. As we stood on the beach, I looked over at her in her dripping wet clothes, her bare legs covered in goose bumps as she wrapped her arms around herself.

  Without thinking, I stepped in front of her and wrapped my arms around her body. Her teeth chattered in my ear, and she refused to let her arms fall to her sides, so they were pinned between us.

  “I’m s-s-so c-c-cold,” she stuttered.

  “I have a hot tub,” I offered, and then waited for her to tell me no.

  “Done,” she said, forcing the single syllable word out of her chattering mouth.

  I grabbed her hand and pulled her behind me up to the deck, pressing the button to start the bubbles, as she stripped off her soaking wet sweatshirt to reveal a tiny red bikini top that barely covered her full chest. Next came her cutoffs, and before I knew it, she was standing before me looking hot as fuck in a bathing suit that left very little to the imagination.

  “You were going to surf in that?” I asked her as she draped her wet clothes over the balcony.

  She looked up as I was lowering myself in the steaming water. I felt instant relief on my ice cold skin. She took a step toward me before lowering herself into the water opposite of where I was sitting and sighing loudly.

  “This feels incredible,” she said, leaning her head back so she could rest it on the deck. After a few seconds she looked back up at me. “And no, I wasn’t planning to surf in this suit. I was planning to look sexy.”

  “Mission accomplished,” I said, as I scooted around the bench seat until I was sitting next to her.

  Then I took her chin in my hand and started to bring my lips down on hers, finally giving in to what I knew she’d been hinting about since she’d shown up at my place, and what I’d pretty much wanted to do for a solid month. But then she stopped me, pulling back.

  “No,” she said, and I knew it was a struggle for her to say it. I could see in her eyes how much she wanted to kiss me.

  I raised an eyebrow at her. “Excuse me?”

  She scooted away from me and took a deep breath. “Ethan, you can’t kiss me.”

  “But, you want me to,” I reasoned.

  She sighed. “I know I do, but I won’t. Not yet.”

  Not yet? Was she playing hard to get now, because I hated when girls did that. I did not enjoy the chase as much as some guys did. When girls did that, I wanted to tell them, quit messing around and just get in my bed, because you’re going to end up there anyway, and all you’ll have accomplished by holding me off is missing out on a week of great sex. It wasn’t like I was going to fall for them. I didn’t do girlfriends, and no amount of playful teasing would make me suddenly want a girl I just wanted to sleep with to be my girlfriend.

  Of course Nora was different. She was cool and fun. And maybe it wouldn’t be so bad to chase her a little bit, but shit, we’d been dancing around this thing between us for a month. No chase needed. I knew she liked me, and she knew I liked her.

  Then again, maybe letting her tease me a little wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world. It would make the sex that much better once we had it.

  I scooted close to her, pulled my now wet hat that she was still wearing off of her head and lowered my head so our faces were just inches apart. Her green eyes darted back and forth, as if she didn’t know what to expect from me, but I wouldn’t try to kiss her again. I was just going to do a little teasing of my own.

  “Here’s the thing, Nora. I think you are incredibly sexy, and you have these perfect pink lips that I really want to devour.” She swallowed hard. “But I’ll wait for you to kiss me. I’ll let you make the first move. How about that?”

  She just stared at me for a few seconds, but then she nodded her head quickly.

  I smiled. “Alight then. Game on.”

  Then I slid back, giving her some space and a chance to catch her breath, because she looked about ready to spontaneously combust as she closed her eyes and inhaled a few times. When she opened then, her gaze zeroed in on me.

  “The thing is, Ethan, I’m not sure if I’ll ever be ready to kiss you. I’m not afraid, and I’m not playing hard to get. I’m practicing self-preservation.”

  Huh? What the hell did that mean?

  “I know you have feelings for Logan,” she said then, catching me off-guard. I wasn’t aware that she knew about that.

  “What are you talking about?” I asked, playing dumb, but I was no actor. My brother had gotten those skills. My skills were all tied to my ability to charm people, but how the hell was I supposed to charm my way out of this one.

  “Don’t play dumb,” she said, calling me out. “I know you told her you loved her, then you took it back, but come on, I think she was the only person who actually believed that.”

  I let out a deep breath and folded my arms across in front of my chest. “I don’t want to feel what I do for her, but I can’t help it. Maybe if I had someone to take my mind off of her, it would help,” I suggested, frankly just being honest.

  Nora laughed out loud. “Nice try, Easy E, but I’m not falling for that.”

  “Easy E?” I questioned, laughing at her nickname for me.

  She shrugged. “Oh come on, it totally fits. If I wanted to, I could totally get into your pants right now.”

  “Do you want to?” I asked, ever opportunistic.

  She bit her lip and cocke
d her head to the side, but she didn’t respond.

  She scooted closer to me, allowing her smooth, bare thigh to graze mine. “Ethan, if I asked you to go upstairs and ravage me right now, would you do it?”

  In a fucking heartbeat.

  “Ravage you?” I asked in amusement, my dick getting hard just thinking about that option. If only she’d let me.

  “Yes, ravage me,” she said, her voice rough as she leaned ever closer to me.

  “Hell yes.”

  Then she pulled back, and I realized I’d fallen for her trick.

  “See, you’re easy.”

  “I have standards,” I defended. “I don’t just sleep with anyone.”

  “But you sleep with a lot of women, right?”

  What is a lot? Really?

  “I thought you said I wasn’t really a player, that it was all for show?” I asked, confused by her sudden turnaround.

  She shrugged. “I think those are two separate things. You can be a genuine guy and still have a lot of sex. I think you’re totally genuine, and you really are a good guy, but you’ve been with a lot of women, right?”

  “Um, yeah, I suppose.”

  Would she think I was disgusting if I told her how many women I’d been with? I hoped she didn’t ask.

  “Have you been tested?”

  “Uh, no. I haven’t, but I always use protection.”

  She nodded. “Get tested.”

  I raised an eyebrow. “Why?”

  She sighed and leaned into me. “Because, as much as I’m fighting this, I have a feeling we’re going to end up sleeping together at some point, and I want to know you’re clean before my mouth goes anywhere near you.”

  Beneath the water, my dick twitched at the thought of her mouth on me. Holy shit!

  “Your mouth?” I asked, the corner of my own mouth creeping up. I couldn’t help it. The idea of getting a blowjob from her was making me giddy.

  “Yes, Ethan. My mouth. Think about that, but keep in mind that I don’t want to be with someone who’s hung up on another girl. Logan is with Jase, and they’re not going to break up anytime soon. Trust me. My brother loves that girl more than life. He’s not letting her go. So you can move on – and be with me and my mouth – or you can continue to lust after someone you can’t have and we can be friends. I’ll let you take your pick.”