Inappropriate Thoughts (Victoria Wilde #1) (24 page)

"Me either." He reached over, turned off the
light, and with the mention of the word tennis, he began thinking
only about Jillian.

In Miami, Jillian sat out by the pool,
drinking a cup of hot tea and thinking of Brian. It was almost
midnight, and she was reminded of their pot-induced skinny dip as
she looked out over the water. It was a hot night. She stood and
walked to the edge of the pool, dipping a toe in the water. It felt
warm but more comfortable than the humid air. Reliving a pleasant
memory, she grinned and then removed her clothes and slowly walked
down the steps into the water. She swam one lap, then climbed onto
a big raft and lay on it face up with the cool vinyl sending chills
through her warm skin. The air temperature was so close to the
water temperature that she really couldn’t tell which parts of her
body were in the pool and which weren’t, and it didn't occur to her
that she was slowly sinking into the water, having bumped the
raft's fill valve when she climbed aboard.

Kicking her foot lazily off the side of the
raft into the water, she flashed back to Brian as he held her foot
and gently kissed it that special night. The Jaclyn West narrative
began in her mind, except this time she and Brian were the
protagonists named in her story.

Jillian lay back on the float as Brian
kissed one of her feet and then then other. Moving to the side of
the raft, he began lightly kissing the top of her ankle, followed
by her calf, as he ran his hands up her legs, toward her womanhood.
She gasped and clutched the raft with both hands, feeling like she
could be lifted from it, almost magically, just by the feel of his
lips on her skin. Brian looked at her face and softly said, "I’ve
been waiting for this moment since I met you."

Jillian brought her hand to his neck and
pulled him into her as he began trailing kisses from her knee to
her thigh and—

At that moment, Jillian’s body was completely
underwater as the raft lost nearly all of its air. Her head
remained above water for only another moment as she opened her
mouth wide, still locked in her third-person narrative fantasy. As
she sank further, pool water filled her mouth. In a panic, she
swallowed, leapt to the surface, coughed up water, and then gasped
for breath. She looked around for Brian, but he, of course, wasn’t
there to save her. Climbing from the pool, half sad and half
smiling, she remembered the joke they shared about how swimming
alone is dangerous.

The next morning, Brian awoke to the amazing
feeling of Natalie sitting on him and giving him the best massage
he’d ever received. She worked his shoulders, back, legs, and ass
muscles to the point that he was super-relaxed and lightheaded.

"I got you something," she said, "Well,
thirteen things actually."

"What?" Brian groaned as Natalie continued
to work the muscles in his butt.

"A bagel and a box of latex-free
condoms."

"When did you do all this?"

"While you were asleep." Natalie nuzzled
next to his ear. "After tennis, let’s come back here and just do
it. I’ve got to have you soon, or..." She gently took his earlobe
into her mouth, which sent a shiver down his back. "While I was
out, I started to rethink this whole technical virgin thing, and I
think that if I was really in love with a guy, I could break the
rule, you know?"

"Really?"

"We wouldn’t even need to be engaged or
anything, but if we were really serious, then..."

She moved off of him, and he sat up to look
at her. "That sounds, uh, like a great idea." He grinned. "I’ve
always wanted to see you do that thing with your leg pointed to the
ceiling while you were completely naked. Will you do that for me
later?"

"Sure." She gave him a confident look. "I
can get into almost any position you can imagine. I dare you to
come up with one that I can’t do."

He could imagine quite a lot, and when he
saw that she had remembered he liked a sesame bagel, he smiled.
After telling her he would meet her on the court, he walked back to
his dorm, enjoying the bagel and wearing a smile that only a
natural disaster could erase.

He thought things could be
much, much worse than having a beautiful girl who was incredibly
flexible, into wild sex, and great at giving massages trying to
please you with everything she had. Then he tried to justify her
version of the
virgin
thing. It wasn’t like she had done it with, like, twelve
guys, or anything. Rob certainly didn’t count since he was Rob, and
one of the other guys didn’t count because it was certainly the
Greek ex-boyfriend guy, and everyone knew that to a Greek guy, that
kind of sex was about as common as a kiss. At least Brian thought
he had heard somewhere that another name for anal sex was Greek.
Anyway, so that left two, probably a drunken one-night stand—which
could be thrown away—and just one more. So, basically, she’d had
that kind of sex with just one guy, and that clearly was not a big
deal at all. He spent the rest of the walk home trying to come up
with impossible positions for Natalie’s flexibility
challenge.

Natalie sure looked sexy on the court, but
her game was anything but. And Brian could deal with that and be
patient with her, but she had no interest in trying to learn the
sport, and that frustrated him. She complained about the sun being
in her eyes, the strong smell of the new tennis balls, and how her
hands now smelled like them. She seemed like she was only going
through the motions out there, and it reminded him of their dates
before Spring Break.

Next to them, a couple of college girls were
playing a match. They were both really heavy hitters. Brian and
Natalie took a break and sat on a bench, watching them play. The
girls grunted, not terribly loudly, but loud enough for others
nearby to hear. And after a particularly grueling rally, Natalie
watched them, horrified. "What are they doing? Why are they making
those noises?"

"They’re just really into it and trying hard
to win the point."

"I can’t imagine ever being into anything
enough to make a noise like that," she said while peeling the paper
off her water bottle.

Without saying a word, he watched as she
took a sip, made a face, then tilted her hand closer to her nose.
After taking a big sniff, she cringed.

He played those words over
and over in his head;
I can’t imagine ever
being into anything enough to make a noise like that.
It reminded him of what Jillian had told him when
he last saw her. She said to make sure Natalie was
into
him, really
into
him. He took a long
look at Natalie as she smelled her hands again with her face all
contorted. Then he watched as she discovered a dirt mark on her
palm and struggled to wipe it off. He really saw through her beauty
to the self-centered little nightmare that she was.

Standing, holding his racket, he
contemplated his next move. After hearing another grunt—one that
reminded him of Jillian’s—he watched as she rolled her eyes in
response to the outburst. He stared at her, expressionless. "Um,
I’ve got to go."

"Good," she replied as she stood and
collected her things. When she turned to follow him, all she saw
was the back of his head, as he was already out the gate and
running toward his dorm.

Brian ran into the suite and then burst into
Rob’s room. They hadn’t spoken much since Miami, and Rob looked
happy to see him. Brian asked, "Can I borrow your car?"

"Sure. I’ll need it later though."

"I definitely won’t be back until
tomorrow—at the earliest—and maybe not until late Sunday." Brian
bounced up and down on his heels, trying hard to contain his
excitement.

"Shit, really? I don’t know…"

"Look, you slept with Natalie, and I didn’t kill
you, or anything. I also had an open invitation to violate your
girlfriend nine different ways, and I didn’t. Don’t you think you
owe me this?"

"Wait, you didn’t tell me that. All you said
was that she came to her senses." Rob looked at him, suddenly
concerned.

Brian shook his head. "Do you really need
the whole story? I was trying to give you guys a chance. Just like
I’m sure you never told Laura about the particular type of sex that
you and Natalie enjoyed."

Rob swallowed hard. "What do you mean?"
Brian's look told Rob exactly what he meant. "Oh, that. Yeah, Laura
doesn’t really need to know about that."

Wearing an evil smile, Brian held out his
hand. "Maybe it’s better that you don’t know everything about her,
and she doesn’t know everything about you. And for that to
continue, maybe you should just hand over the keys."

"You swear you didn’t have sex with Laura—no
sex of any kind with her?"

"I swear on the life of..." Brian struggled
to come up with a name, a good name, then he smiled. "Johnny Mac. I
swear on the life of the greatest tennis player of all time. You
know I wouldn’t fuck around with McEnroe."

After nodding, convinced, Rob gave him the
keys. As Brian rushed from the room, he yelled back, "Thanks man.
If I’m going to be any later than Sunday, I’ll call."

Jillian walked out to the pool area, wearing
a swimsuit and carrying envelopes, along with a package. Victoria
was sitting on a lounge chair in a bikini. After sitting down next
to her, Jillian placed the letters on the table. She studied the
package. "I didn’t order anything."

Victoria lounged back as Jillian opened the
box. When she pulled out the copy of the tennis DVD, she smiled.
Discovering the note, she read it as tears formed in her eyes:

Jillian, I just wanted to thank you for
letting me stay with you in your incredible home. You mentioned you
had an old, grainy copy of this great match, and I thought of you
when I stumbled across it. I hope when you watch that fourth-set
tiebreak (the best tiebreak ever) you'll think of ours (the second
best tiebreak ever). I bought a copy for myself, and I know I will.
There are a lot of things about the trip that I’ll never forget...
I wish you the very best.

Brian

Victoria looked over and noticed Jillian’s
face. "What’s wrong?"

Jillian took a deep breath. "It’s from
Brian." She turned the DVD so that Victoria could see it. Victoria
looked at it, a little confused, and then Jillian handed over the
note. Victoria read the note as Jillian sat back, thinking. When
she reached the end, Victoria smiled brightly. "You need to go see
him right now."

"He’s with Natalie."

"How do you know?"

"Rob mentioned it."

"Then why is he sending you gifts?" Victoria
asked.

"He’s just trying to thank me for—"

"Watching him jerk off and showing him your
pus—"

"No! For staying here," Jillian
interrupted.

Victoria read the note again. "He totally
wants to have sex with you. It says it right here."

"Where?"

Victoria read from the
note, "'
There are a lot of things about
the trip that I’ll never forget' dot dot dot."

Jillian looked at her, confused.

Victoria widened her eyes sexily, as she
repeated, "DOT DOT DOT."

"Yeah?"

"There are a lot of things I’ll never
forget, AND I want to lick your pussy for, like, an hour. That’s
what dot dot dot means."

"Okay, yeah." Jillian rolled her eyes and
put her hand out to get the note back.

Frowning, Victoria handed it over. "Why
don’t you go visit Rob and just see what’s going on up there?"

Jillian gave her a blank stare.

Victoria gave her a tired look. "Well, at
least call him to thank him for the gift."

"I will."

Victoria rolled her eyes, and Jillian
repeated, "I promise, I will. Tomorrow."

"You should have slept with him when you had
the chance, and then when you had that other chance... oh, and then
when you had that second-to-last chance and then when—"

"All right, I get it."

Victoria looked at her seriously. "I’ve been
reading that semen is really good for vaginal health."

Jillian glanced back, intrigued, as Victoria
added, "It’s something about the pH down there and how it brings it
back in balance."

"Hmm," Jillian said casually.

"Not to mention the muscles in your..."
Victoria pointed to Jillian’s crotch. "…will start to deteriorate
if you don’t use them often enough."

Jillian scoffed. "Just worry about your own
muscles."

"Oh, I don’t need to. I can pull the cork
out of a wine bottle with my—"

"First how would you even..." Jillian
sneered. "Wait. Don’t tell me. I don’t want to know."

Victoria grinned as Jillian looked away in
mock disgust. When she looked back, they broke into laughter.

"I was just kidding," Victoria said.

"Thank God."

Brian made the ten-hour trip in just over
nine hours. Lucky for him, he wasn’t pulled over and only needed to
stop once for gas. When he reached Jillian’s house, he noticed five
cars parked in the driveway. After parking across the street, he
walked to the house and peered through a window. He saw a group of
ten people, including Jillian and Victoria, eating dinner in the
dining room. There were two women sitting on either side of
Jillian, and he breathed a sigh of relief, since she appeared to be
dateless.

When he saw Jillian stand up and head to the
kitchen, he took off. Running to the back of the house, he
struggled to climb the fence, then sprinted toward the kitchen
window. He saw Jillian pull a chocolate mousse ganache cake from
the refrigerator and place it on the counter. He tapped softly on
the window and then a little harder until she looked over.