Inappropriate Thoughts (Victoria Wilde #1) (18 page)

Jillian said accusingly, "Yours is really
strong."

Busted, Brian glanced at her. "I must not have
mixed it up enough. It, uh, settled."

Holding back a smile, she sat thinking about
what a gentleman he was, how he brought her that amazing breakfast
in bed the other morning and how tonight he was protecting her. The
only thing she wanted was to get him out of there and do things to
him that she had never done to any man. She wanted to please him
like he had never been pleased.

She glanced at him and then over at the couple
still making out nearby and noticed that they were really starting
to produce some noise with their activities. She nudged Brian and
smiled.

Looking over at the couple briefly, he gave her
an uncomfortable grin. "They’re practically going at it over
there."

"Disgusting," she said in a sexy whisper.

Seconds later, Jillian was on top of Brian,
kissing him passionately. He returned her enthusiasm, and they
continued to kiss and grope each other from his seat. From a few
feet away they heard, "Get a room you two," and they both stopped
kissing to find the source. When they looked around, they saw the
couple that had been practically screwing during the whole film,
staring right at them while wearing silly grins. Both Brian and
Jillian fired back evil looks.

Falling back into her seat, Jillian slumped
down. "Maybe we should get out of here."

Brian looked at her and simply nodded his
head yes.

They stood and quickly walked down the row,
leaving their drinks and popcorn behind. As they approached the
young couple, they found them still staring, and the guy said,
"Couple of animals," as his girlfriend giggled.

Jillian glared at them both, before rushing
with Brian to the lobby. Once outside the theater, Brian looked
down and spotted the huge wet spot and an unnatural bulge in his
shorts. While Jillian tried to remember where she'd parked, he
quickly adjusted his shorts and held his hand over the telling wet
spot as people walked past them on the street.

"I think it’s closer if we walk home. The
car is at the top level of the garage, and I don’t think I should
drive, anyway."

Before Brian could finish nodding, she
turned and took off down the sidewalk. Two people never walked
faster or with such purpose. Neither said a word. When they reached
Jillian's front door, she searched her purse for the keys.

He leaned in close to her and put his hand
on her neck. A shiver went through her body as he whispered, "If I
don’t get inside you soon, I’m going to die." As she turned
breathlessly to respond, the door opened, and Rob appeared.

Brian quickly removed his hand from her
neck, and Jillian looked at her son, alarmed.

Rob lifted his palms up. "There you are.
I’ve been trying to call you."

Brian stepped from behind Jillian, looked
down at his crotch, and then moved his hand to cover the stain as
he stammered, "I had my cell off. We, uh, were at the movies."

Rob gave him an odd look.

Jillian smiled nervously. "We ran into each
other. I was on a, um, horrible date, and he saved me."

Rob said, "I didn’t hear you drive up."

"I... we... left the car at the mall. It was
such a nice night that we decided to walk," Jillian said, a little
flustered.

Rob narrowed his eyes at his mother, shook
his head, then looked at Brian, and blew it off. "Laura has this
girl she wants you to meet. They’re at the bar right now. Let’s
go."

Brian glanced at Jillian before settling his
eyes on Rob. "I, uh..."

"Come on. She’s waiting for you. She’s
really hot."

Brian paused to think. "Okay. I just need to
go to the bathroom first."

"Hurry up. I’ll be in the car."

Jillian and Brian entered the house as Rob
went outside. She closed the door and then looked into Brian’s
eyes. "What are we doing?"

"I don’t know, but it feels right," he said
partially convinced.

"I think you... you better go. He’s
waiting." Looking down at his shorts, she noticed the wet spot.
"You’d better change."

He stared at her, unable to find the words.
He needed to say something, anything, but what? "I… When—"

"Shhh." Closing her eyes, she put her hand on
his chest. Gently, he placed his hand over hers and both felt the
electricity of their connection for a few moments.

She opened her eyes. "He's waiting."

"Okay."

Brian ran up the steps as Jillian watched,
both devastated and relieved.

At the bar, Rob and Laura
introduced Brian to Dana. She was attractive, but Brian was too
preoccupied and a little too drunk to really notice or care.
Closing his eyes, Brian drifted away with his mind reeling.
What the fuck's wrong with me? I can't stop
thinking about Jillian. I feel like I'm… It's not like what I felt
for Natalie, or is it? Am I just a horny douche, trying to get
laid? I thought I was in falling in love with Natalie, but was that
only because she can bend herself up like a pretzel, and I'm
lonely? Shit, I don’t know. And now that I've seen what a real
woman is like, it's… it's… Jillian is amazing, but, I'm an idiot.
There's no way she really wants to be with me. And it's obvious
that Natalie's not ready for any kind of relationship—at least, not
with me. Is Natalie just jerking me around? Or do I only think that
so I'll feel less guilty now that I've been chasing my best
friend's mother around like a pathetic moron? I've got to stop.
I've got to fix this. Fuck, I'm so confused.

After glancing for the twentieth time at Brian's
bored expression, Dana rolled her eyes at Laura. Then she tried to
make conversation with Brian, but it just wasn’t happening. A few
minutes later, Dana joined another group of friends, much to
Brian’s relief.

Brian looked at Rob. "I’m not in the mood for
this."

Rob glared at him. "You’re not still thinking
about Natalie, are you?"

"Sort of."

"You’ve got to get over her, Dude."

"I’m just going to go. I can walk from here.
It’s not that far."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah. Don’t worry about me."

"I’m staying at Laura’s tonight, but maybe we
can do something tomorrow."

"Definitely." Turning away from his friend,
Brian closed his eyes for a moment, wallowing in his own shame
before he headed toward the door.

Brian ran most of the way back to Jillian’s.
When he was within a block, he slowed his pace to a fast walk so he
wouldn’t be panting like an idiot when he saw her. After entering
the house, he searched and finally found her on the balcony off her
bedroom. Silently, he stood watching her with his mind churning. He
needed to talk to her; he needed to clear the—

He sniffed, picking up the faint but
unmistakable smell of pot in the air. With his concerns suddenly
washed away, he rushed out and plopped down in the seat next to
her. "Do I, uh, smell pot?"

"Want some?"

He held out his hand, and she passed him the
joint.

After taking a hit, he returned it to her and
shook his head, a little stunned. "This is some strong stuff."

"Yeah." She looked at him seriously. "About what
happened at the movie and what almost happened when we came back...
I’ve been thinking that maybe this isn’t such a good idea."

His eyes met hers. "I’m so glad you said that,
because this is wrong on so many levels. I’m still not sure what’s
going on with Natalie, and you’re—"

"Rob’s mother," Jillian said with a serious
tone. They both shared a wide-eyed nod.

Rubbing his head, he closed his eyes. "What were
we thinking?"

She shook her head at him, took another hit, and
handed him the joint. They both slumped back in their chairs and
could relax, since the weight of their mutual attraction had
seemingly been lifted.

A few minutes later, after sitting together in
complete silence, sharing the joint, Brian and Jillian looked at
each other and smiled, mostly stoned but oddly coherent. He laughed
out loud for no apparent reason.

She giggled. "What is it?"

"The other night when your ex called, and you
were so upset, and—"

She gave him a hand signal that told him to get
to the point.

"Do you remember exactly everything that
happened that night?"

"I think so."

"You were really kind of out of it. You took
that sleeping pill, then George had you so worked up that you had a
glass of wine, and..."

"I wasn’t that bad."

"Not bad... Do you remember how you got
upstairs? We were talking out by the pool, remember?"

"I walked up. I think," she said with more
bravado than confidence.

"I carried you up. You were going to sleep out
by the pool."

"I was?"

"When we got upstairs," Brian started, and
Jillian leaned in a little closer to him, thinking that maybe they
had done something serious, of which she had no recollection. "You
told me about that first morning when you came into my room, and I
was asleep."

Embarrassed, Jillian covered her head with her
hands. "I thought I only dreamt that I told you that."

He looked at her, on the verge of laughter, "You
told me everything about it. How you saw it. How you uncovered it
to see more of it. Exactly what state you saw it in. How you had
Victoria on the phone and described it. Basically, how you
fifth-degree sexually assaulted me."

"And you don’t hate me?"

"No, I think it’s hilarious. You told me how it
had been so long since you had seen one and even longer since you’d
seen a real one and on and on. You were very flattering about it.
It was nice to hear."

"Is that all of it?" She made a face, dreading
his response.

"Not quite." He held his hand out for her to
pass him the joint. After taking a hit, he handed it back to her.
"You—"

"Wait." She took her own long hit and held it
ready for another possible emergency one.

He began again, "You... said that in order to
make us... 'even-steven'— that was the totally hip term that you
used—you needed to show me yours. Not only yours, but your
newly-trimmed yours."

She looked at him, horrified. "I did?"

Lifting his eyebrows, he stated, "Nice work. You
really did a great job with it."

She exhaled deeply. "So, we didn’t do it after
that, did we?"

"You passed out; I covered you up, and that was
the end of the story," Brian said, pride mixed with a little
disappointment in his voice.

She took a long look at him, "Apparently, Ambien
and wine do not mix."

He raised his eyebrows in agreement. "I kind of
like the effect it has on you, though."

"Look, even after going through all that, we’ve
been just friends. I think we've exercised perfect self-control in
a semi-inappropriate way." Jillian then gave him an odd look that
said maybe that came out wrong.

"So, friends it is." Brian gave her a big,
over-the-top, high-off-his-ass nod.

"But we’re, like, friends with... not benefits,
but something else..." Jillian said as she searched her mind for
the right word.

"Like friends with...
partial
benefits."

She smiled. "Yes,
partial benefits
. I like
it."

They paused, grinning at each other for a
moment.

Suddenly confused, she narrowed her eyes. "It
sounds good, but what exactly is it?"

"We need to figure it out... I think we just
need to set up some ground rules first."

"Good idea—Rules?"

They each took a moment to ponder this, and then
his eyes got big. "How about no touching?"

She curled her lip. "That’s a little too broad.
I mean, what if I want to touch your arm? How about no touching...
genitalia?"

He nodded with a big smile. "I
like it. And if I’m not mistaken, we haven’t violated that one
yet." He flashed a wicked smile at Jillian. "At least, I
know
I
haven’t."

"Neither have I. I only looked," she replied
quickly. "So, good. It’s settled, then. Rule Number One is no
touching of each other’s genitalia."

He pondered this a second and then took another
hit off the joint. "Breasts aren’t really considered genitalia, are
they?"

He handed her the joint, and she took a deep
hit. "Right. No, they aren’t. Is that a problem?"

"Well, you probably don’t want me to just grab
your tits, or anything. That could jeopardize the whole F.W.P.B.
relationship."

"F.W... what?" She narrowed her eyes,
perplexed.

"Friends with Partial... F.W.P.B," he said with
a rolling hand motion as her face lit up with recognition.

Her eyes opened wide. "And what about your
ass?"

"What about my ass?" Brian asked, eagerly.

"It would probably violate," she motioned to him
with her hand, "as you say, the whole F.W.P.B. thing, if I touched
your ass."

"Football players pat each other’s asses."

She tried to process this. "So
the ass is okay, but the ass…" she paused for emphasis with her
finger moving from one imaginary word in front of her to the other,
"…
hole
... is
not."

"Exactly. You just can’t go around touching
someone there."

"Unless, of course, you're having sex with
him... or her."

"And sex is certainly against the rules here."
After Jillian gave him a big nod, Brian added, "And that would
knock your ass... hole out of contention also."

"Clearly."

"So no touching of genitals, breasts, or ass...
holes," he said proudly.

"I think we can put Rule Number One to bed."

They both sat back, thinking for a moment. After
brushing the hair from her face, she sat up in her chair and turned
to him. "No telling anyone about F.W.P.B. People are so judgmental,
and they wouldn’t understand it."