Fireworks: A Holiday Bad Boy Romance (2 page)

"Yeah, I think you could find several
someones to hang out with. Let me do your hair and help you pick out an outfit
one of the nights we go out."

I almost flinched as she turned to face
me. We'd had the same conversation for most of our lives. I loved makeup and
dressing up and being girlie. Emily, not so much.

"Alright. I'll let you do it, but you
have to promise me that you won't set me up." She stuck out her pinkie.
"Pinkie promise me."

"What are we, ten?" I extended my
hand and wrapped my pinkie around hers. "I promise."

"Good, and stop degrading our trust
system." She smirked and kicked off her shoes before putting her feet on
the dashboard. "You okay with my feet up here?"

"Absolutely. It's my dad's car. I'm
just using it until I disappoint him again." I gave a sardonic chuckle.

"That's dumb. You're twenty-two,
Cora. When are they going to stop acting like you’re still a kid?" She
brushed her hands over her legs and let out a long yawn.

"I guess when I stop acting like one,
so never?" We laughed for a few minutes over how ridiculous my parents
were, more so my father than my mother. She just nodded and went along with his
directives. As much as I loved her, I wasn't sure she had ever had an idea that
wasn't my father’s to begin with.

"What are you looking forward to this
summer?" Emily glanced over at me as she worked her long, black hair out
of the ponytail.

"Spending time with you, Cindy, and
Dedra, for sure. Laying in the sun in a tiny bikini and getting a tan. Finding
a cute boy to skinny dip with." I smiled as she let out a dramatic gasp.

"You hooker. You're not skinny
dipping with a boy. That leads to sex, which leads to love, which…”

"Ain't nobody trying to fall in
love." I rolled my eyes and ran my fingers through my shoulder-length,
chestnut hair.

"I'm sure you're not going to be
trying, but you know how these things go for you. You're horrible at flings.
Dedra and Cindy? They have it down, but you're no good at it." She shook
her head, and I reached over, gripping just above her knee and squeezing as she
squealed.

"Oh yeah? Maybe I'm going to prove
you all wrong." I pulled back as she swatted at me.

"No, you're not." She pulled her
legs down and grabbed her phone as it buzzed. "That's Dedra."

"Put her on speaker." I smiled
as excitement bubbled up inside of me. I needed this summer more than any of
the others. They had something to look forward to at the end of it; I had these
three months and that was it.

"Hey. We're just leaving the
campus." Emily put the phone on the dash.

Dedra's voice filled up the car, causing
me to smile. "Good. It's been a long two weeks without you guys. Cindy is
grabbing some groceries, and I was in charge of cleaning up the house. Don't
look in the closets or under the beds, okay? No telling on me."

I snorted. "Have you guys been having
a good time?"

"Honestly, we've been resting a lot.
We have a boat as part of the rental property. Did I tell you that?"

"No, but I'm ready to get on
it." I glanced over at Emily and smirked. "Who's been driving that
thing? I know Cindy hasn't."

"Me and the occasional boy Cindy
brings home. I swear this girl is a man-magnet."

"She looks like a model," Emily
added to the conversation.

"So do you, under those clothes,"
Dedra chuckled as I gave Emily a knowing look.

"Whatever. You guys need us to grab
anything before we get there?" Emily tugged at her seatbelt.

She hated to be the center of attention,
and I was hoping like hell I could help her get over that during the next few
months at the lake together. She deserved the world, and yet it would only be
her own fault if she didn't get it.

"Nope. We just need you guys."
Dedra's voice was filled with excitement.

"We'll be there shortly. Tell Cindy
to round up some hot guys. We need something pretty to look at after the week
we've had." I let out a short sigh and picked up the phone. "See you
soon."

Emily glanced over at me as I dropped the
call. "Thanks again for staying behind with me. I'm not sure I would have
gotten through Mimi's funeral without you."

"I'll always be here for you. Now
it's time to leave the past in the past and enjoy our summer. You ready?"

"Hell yes. Drive faster."

Chapter 2

Brody

"You getting tired of all of this
yet?" Daniel glanced over at me as we lay on the dock just outside the
house, our feet skimming across the top of the lake.

I opened my eyes and turned to look at him
as I ran my hand over my chest. "Is that a joke? We have a boat, plenty of
beer, and a new wave of scantily clad chicks rolling in daily. This is heaven.
I'm staying forever."

He laughed and turned to look up at the
sky. "Real life waits at the end of this summer. Sucks."

I sat up and grumbled under my breath at
him. "Always pissing on the parade."

A boat pulled by just a few feet from us
and the group of girls on it started to give us shit. I couldn't have been more
thrilled. Daniel not so much, but me? I knew how to handle a woman, and they
were all the same.

"Hey, good looking," a leggy
blonde called out as she stood up from the passenger's side seat of the boat,
pulling off her sunglasses.

"Hey there. You guys behaving
yourselves?" I glanced down the lake, not giving her too much attention.

Daniel sat up beside me and growled. We'd
been friends for a while, and he was a good guy. Maybe too good. He hadn't
dated much. School mattered too much to divert his attention from it.

And,
that's why you'll be a doctor and I'll be a pauper.

"Behaving?" The girls laughed.
"Who wants to behave? That doesn't sound like fun, at all."

"Right." I pressed my hand into
the dock beside me and pushed up, getting to my feet in one smooth motion. I
pulled my t-shirt over my head. "Come get me. I'll drive you girls around
a little."

"Brody. Come on, dude," Daniel
mumbled and got up, giving me a look.

"What? Come with us. What harm can it
do? There's a blow job in one of those girls. No?" I was half-whispering,
but could have cared less if all of them heard me. Most of us were at the lake
to get laid and forget about reality, and I was their king.

Daniel turned his attention back to the
girls as they giggled. "You think?"

"Yep." I turned back to blondie.
"You up for it? Like to go fast?"

"I love fast." She tapped her
friend's shoulder as the girl bobbed up and down in the driver’s seat.

The driver pulled her headphones off and
glanced up. "What?"

"We're letting sexy over there take
us for a ride." Blondie glanced up to me and tilted her head. "You
prepared for the afternoon?"

Condoms. I slipped my hands in my pockets
and shook my head.

"Nope. A pretty woman like yourself
doesn't go everywhere prepared for a chance encounter with the man of her
dreams?" I gave her a sexy smile, letting my eyes moved down her taunt,
tanned flesh, imagining all the ways I could make her moan. She was
breathtaking, and yet a dime a dozen.

"Is that a joke?" she laughed.

"I guess so." I bent down and
picked up my shirt before turning to Daniel. "Let's go, buddy. Time for a
beer run, anyway."

We started back toward the house as she
called out to me. "Wait. Where are you going?"

I looked back, but didn't stop walking.
"To get prepared for the next boat of hot women — unless you're still here
when I get back."

"What? I'm not waiting here for
you." Her anger was cute. It was nice to know in advance that she was a
drama queen. From calm to raging in three point two seconds.

"Your loss, baby-doll." I
glanced down the street before tugging at Daniel's t-shirt. "Let's go,
buddy."

"What the fuck just happened?"
He glanced over his shoulder and jogged across the street with me. "Were
those girls really going to let you drive the boat? There's liability insurance
that has to be filled out for that sort of thing. It doesn't just cover
everyone.”

I popped him in the chest and lifted my
eyebrow as we stopped on the other side of the road by the rental house.
"Hey, we're twenty-two. Not eighty-two. Slow your roll on being a stiff,
okay?"

"Whatever. You guys are going to
learn one day that life isn't a game." He glanced back over his shoulder
as indecision raged across his face. "Are we going back down there?"

"Nope." I gripped the side of
the patio railing and pulled hard, hopping over it and leaving him to walk up
the stairs.

"What? Why not?" He jogged up
beside me, tugging at my arm by the front door. "The brunette was kind of
cute. I wouldn't mind talking to her."

"Talking?" I laughed and pushed
the door open. "There's no talking to those kind of girls, Dan. They want
a quick fix and that's it."

"Quick fix? Sex?" He laughed
sardonically as he closed the door.

"Sex?" Clay glanced up from
reading a magazine. My oldest friend was stretched across the couch, his short,
stocky frame only taking up two thirds of it.

"You need some? They're selling it on
pier three twenty-two." I wagged my eyebrows and walked into the kitchen
to search for something to eat. "Where's Derek? Still sleeping?"

"No, he met that girl a few nights
ago at the club in town, remember? Sarah, Sandra, Stephanie?" Clay groaned
loudly before walking into the kitchen, rubbing his chest. "I'm still sore
from playing ball two days ago. What the hell?"

"We've been laying around for almost
three weeks, Clay." I turned and back-handed him in the chest. He tried to
get out of my reach, but I was captain of the rugby team: quick was my middle
name.

Was
captain of the rugby team?

"Fuck, dude. I told you I was
hurting." He swung at me playfully.

I moved and caught his arm, pulling hard
and pressing him to the refrigerator before putting my shoulder into his back.

"What's on the agenda today?" I
reached around and poked his chest again before moving back and laughing.

He came out of the hold swinging again.
The only thing he connected with was Daniel. The poor guy had chosen the wrong
time to come in the kitchen.

"Ouch. That hurt." Daniel swung
back, not capable of putting too much of a hurt on anyone. Where Clay was short
and stocky, Daniel was tall and thin as a rail.

"Hey. All my fault." I lifted my
hands and smiled as they turned and started after me. I busted through the
front door and was halfway across the street by the time they came out of the
house. I stood on the other side of the road and laughed at the look on their
faces. Joke’s on them.

"Are you coming?" a pissy voice
called from behind me.

"Oh fuck," I mumbled and turned
around as a smirk lifted my lips. "You still here, baby?"

"You told us to wait," one of
her friend's piped in.

"Right. About that." I never got
out another word. My two friends grabbed me and together wrestled me to the
edge of the dock before launching me off of it.

I hit the water laughing. Payback was
hell, and I was grateful for a reason to put the hurt on them soon. I came up
in time to get a glass of beer to the face.

"I hope the alligators in this lake
eat your dick off." The blonde threw the cup at me.

I lifted my arm and diverted it as a laugh
bubbled up in me. "That might be good for everyone around here. He'd be
full for a week."

"Ugh. Get us out of here, Tesa."
The girl moved back as I submerged myself under the dark blue water and pushed
off toward the dock. Girls were readily available and more than willing to
strip for any swinging dick. I was just grateful that the offering was
plentiful.

I had only one rule: sleep with them once
and never again.

In all my years of fooling around with
women, I'd never failed to hold tight to it, and as far as I was concerned,
that wasn't going to change for a long time.

I pulled myself up onto the dock and
glanced over my shoulder as the blonde turned toward me and tugged her top off.
Her breasts were beautiful and big enough to send a shockwave of desire through
me.

"See what you're missing?" She
shrugged, causing them to bounce.

"I'm right up there in cabin ten-A.
When you're ready for the best experience you'll have this side of heaven, come
find me. I don't chase women, sweetness. There's no need for it." I turned
and jogged across the street, hating myself for not climbing into the boat and
giving in to her. It would have been an afternoon of lust, as I have no doubt
that each of her friends would have wanted a turn, too, and who was I to deny
anyone?

I walked back into the house and pulled my
swim trucks off. "You fuckers. You're going down for that."

"Oh yeah?" Clay looked up from
the couch about the time I lodged my trunks at him. They smacked him in the
face, and I laughed so hard I had to reach out and grab the table next to me.

"Yeah, bitch. Where's Daniel? I need
to slap him around a little." I walked down the hall as Clay chunked my
suit at me.

"Get something on. No one in here
wants to see your ugly, white ass, and Daniel is shitting his guts out. He's
scared of you, remember?" Clay called at me as the front door open.

I turned back, hoping to shock Derek with
my nudeness, finding him
and
a pretty
girl, instead. He was talking about something and had his head turned around
toward her, but her? She was watching me.

Her eyes widened and she gasped as she
pointed at me. "Wow."

"Yep. Home grown." I nodded at Derek
as he turned to see what was going on.

"Brody. Shit, man." He moved in
front of the girl, and I walked into the kitchen, grabbing a hand towel and a beer.
I dried my hair and walked back into the living room as Derek was trying to
hustle the girl out of the house.

"You should stay. We're playing strip
poker. I just suck at cards." I turned my attention back to Clay, who was
chuckling.

"You're a fucker, you know
that?"

I dropped down on the couch beside him,
slapping at his feet to make room for me. I opened my beer and dropped the
towel in my lap. No need to make everyone overly jealous.

"Yeah? I kinda like me." I took
a long drink of the beer and leaned back, letting out a long breath. "Most
women like me, too."

"Yeah, yeah. God's gift to women and
shit. We all know." Clay nudged my arm with his foot. "You're going
to find some intelligent, sexy minx one day, and you know what's going to
happen?"

I looked over at him. "We're going to
fuck like rabbits?"

"No." He sat up and chucked the
magazine at me. "She's going to be everything you want in a girl, and
she's going to deny your ass. Plain and simple."

I caught the magazine and laughed deep in
my chest. "Is that a joke?"

Daniel walked in, his complexion pale.
"Is what a joke?"

"Stomach upset, buddy?" I asked
before taking another sip of the beer.

"Something like that." He
dropped down in a chair close to me and shook his head. "Are you
naked?"

"Yep. You can thank your bowels for
good timing." I patted Clay's shoulder. "Your buddy here got a pair
of wet swim trunks to the face."

"Oh, great. At least he got his
already." Daniel pressed his hands to his face and leaned back. "We
need to find you a girl to sleep with. You're too damn aggressive
otherwise."

"Sleep with? Who wants to-” I was cut
off by Derek's loud, country voice as he barreled back into the house.

"Really, Brody? Shit, man." He
closed the door and walked in, stopping beside the couch nearest to me.

"What?" I looked over at him.
"Pretty girl, by the way. How much did you pay her?"

"She said you guys slept together a
few nights back, and now she was looking for a real man." He shrugged and
laughed as he turned toward the kitchen.

"Did we? I'm losing track of
them." I yawned and rubbed my hand over my chest.

"Why do you do that?" Daniel
asked, his voice softer than moments before.

"Do what?" I sat up and pulled
the towel up to finish drying my hair.

He rolled his eyes and got up, acting as if
he hadn't seen my dick a million times. Shy was one thing I wasn't.

"Treat women like objects." He
disappeared into the kitchen, and I turned to Clay.

"Do I do that?" I lifted an
eyebrow, already knowing the answer and not caring a bit.

He didn't glance up from his new magazine.
"Yep, but so what? They do the same to you."

"Yeah." I stood up and walked
into the kitchen. "Yeah. They do the same to me."

"You want them to, brother." Derek
tossed a package of sausage to me. "Go get on some shorts and let’s get
these things on the grill. You're the best man for the job."

"That's because you guys burn
everything." I sat the sausages down and ran my fingers through my wet,
blond hair. "Do I really objectify women?"