South Row (8 page)

Jesus Christ, she’
s hot. I tried – God knows I tried – not to think about her. But those lips and her curvy body haunted me all night. I shouldn’t have kissed her last night at Johann’s club, but as soon as I did, I couldn’t stop. And God, when she came on my fucking leg? I almost shot off in my pants.

She was a fucking vision in a body hugging white dress and deep orange heels to match her hair. She was nothing like little South, nor the South I saw on stage. She was a vixen. Every man in that club was drooling after her, wanted to be the one to dance with her, wanted to touch her, wanted to fuck her. When I saw her dancing with that guy, and how
she was doing it, I lost it. So I didn’t know he was gay. Still didn’t mean I liked it.

I had been watching her since she entered the club and wanted to keep my distance. I
felt like such a creeper, but every time she smiled or laughed or scrunched her face up from drinking her Slut, I drew closer. I should have left. But I couldn’t. Not until I had her up against me; and, fuck me if she wasn’t still feisty. Before, I used to find her fire amusing. Now, it gets me hard as a fucking rock.

I woke up
this morning throbbing. I wasn’t hung-over, nor did I have a headache. Well, technically it was a headache, since I had a hard-on from hell. I had to see her. To talk.

I made up some excuse, telling Kaylee I was meeting Connor for breakfast. To make sure my story checked out, I called Connor as soon as I got in the car.

“Dude, you’re so fucked,” he’d said laughing.

“Fuck you.”

“I told you I don’t do incest, big bro.”

“
Just cover for me, asshole,” I’d ordered gruffly.

“
Don’t worry, bro, I’ll throw Blondie off your scent. Just…” he sighed. “Don’t hurt her.”

I knew he’d been talking about South.

Now I’m here and going crazy with Red’s scent. I came here to talk, dammit, but the moment I walked through that door, lust so heavy and demanding overtook me. Coupled with her scent, I am going insane. She smells so damn good. Like green apples that I am suddenly having a hankering for. I won’t look at apples the same way again. Not without getting a hard on like a fricking pubescent kid who’s never seen pussy before.

She is so soft. I pull her into me so she can feel what she does to me. She whimpers and digs her fingers into my back and I grunt in satisfaction. My hands trail up her back and, because I can no longer resist, I thrust them in
to her hair.

Her curly tresses are soft and silky. A familiar flash of me wrapping the strands around my dick gets me impossibly harder and I grip her hair
more firmly in my fingers. In response, the minx tightens her hold on my hair. I pull harder on hers and she responds in kind. Fuck me. She likes to play rough.

Leaving her hair – for now – I slip a hand underneath her awesome t-shirt and play with the skin above her panties
, trying very hard not to go further. This is harder than I ever imagined as all I can think about is feeling her pussy ripple around my fingers. I settle with touching her heated skin and she shudders in my arms, pressing herself closer to me. I feel her fidgeting and pull away from her. And I wish I hadn’t.

South’
s lips are kiss-plumped and glistening, her face is splotchy from being turned on and her eyes…those eyes are telling me to take her right now. Her chest is rising and falling with every breath and her taut nipples are poking at her shirt. She looks like sex on legs.

I should feel
bad that I haven’t thought about um, uh, what’s her name? Kaylee, that’s right. I should feel bad that I haven’t thought about her…at all. But I don’t. Standing in front of South right now has a sense of completeness to it; like this is where I should have been all along. She feels like home.

With a tentative hand, South reaches for my jeans. Unlike the last time when I was scared out of my wits and bogged down with the wrongness of what was happeni
ng between us, this time, I don’t stop her. I am vibrating with nerves and my dick throbs with anticipation. He’s been waiting a long time for this.
Don’t worry, buddy, you’ll be home in no time.

I’
m giving my dick a mental pep talk. No, that’s not weird at all.

South loosens my belt and pops the button on my pants. Slowly, she unzips me and my bulging dick pulses underneath
my black boxers. Maybe I should’ve gone commando. Or, maybe I should’ve just shown up at her door wearing nothing but a smile…and maybe a bowtie. No, that would have freaked her out, and that little kid I saw running down the hallway. Yeah, I’d probably get arrested for public indecency. That wouldn’t have been my best plan at all.

But this is good. T
his is good. Better than good. It’s fucking amazing!

South
’s eyes widen at the bulge and I suppress a smirk.
Yes, I’ve grown, Red
. She finally touches it and I groan. I don’t wanna rush her, but I wanna rush her, you know? Jesus Christ, I feel like I’m about to explode here and she’s taking her fucking time. But I will not ruin this moment by prematurely ejaculating, I will not ruin this moment by prematurely ejaculating.

South pulls my boxers down and over my hardness and it juts out toward her.
Calm down, buddy.
Blood is rushing through my ears right now, and I fear that if she touches me I’ll pass out…or come. Oh God, this is really happening. South is gonna touch my penis!
Get a grip, Little Tommy Boner.

South wraps her warm hand around my cock and squeezes. A pained, but pleasurable groan bursts from my lips and my cock jerks in her hand. She yelps and releases me, slapping her hands over her mouth.

“Di’ I ’rt chu?” I can’t understand a thing she is saying with her hand over her mouth like that. I couldn’t hear her anyway, with desire eating away at my whole body and my heart thumping out of my ears.

“
What?” I pant, trying to keep my body upright. Damn those hands of hers.

She removes her hand and whispers, wide-eyed and scared,
“Did I hurt you?”

Wait a minute…
what? Doesn’t she know that I was half a second away from blowing my load in her hands? I stare at South and she looks scared, doe-eyed and…inexperienced. Hasn’t she…since? She must have. But…she looks terrified right now. It can’t be possible. Can it?

“
South?” I venture in a shaky voice. “Haven’t you–have you never–” I don’t even know how to ask the question. She knows what I’m asking, though. She flushes scarlet and ducks her head.

“
What? Y-yeah, I have,” she stutters. “Pssh, plenty of times. I’m like a sex machine. You know, always…sex…ing.”

Holy shit. She’
s a virgin. Well, not really, I took care of that; but it’s obvious that she hasn’t done it in a long time, or God forbid, since I took her virginity.

Shit, what am I doing?
It’s then I remember that she is Connor’s best friend. A damn kid. Everything comes crashing down like an avalanche, reality smacking me right in the forehead. The past is shining bright before me, the wrongness of what I had done all those years ago.
Fuck!

“What the hell am I doing?”
I mutter to myself as I tuck my miserable cock back into my boxers and zip my pants up.

He
’s throbbing against the material, begging to be let loose, but he’ll thank me for this later. My heart, that’s a different story. It is beating fitfully, like it’s screaming at me. I can’t help but think I am making a mistake with this. Then, a vision of thirteen year-old South pops unbidden into my mind and all I feel is disgust with myself.

“What?”
she asks, looking up at me timidly.

Those eyes weaken me. They always have. But, I can
’t fall under their spell today. No. This is wrong, so very wrong. I’m engaged for crying out loud!

“I can’t do this,”
I tell her, running a frustrated hand through my hair.

“What? Why?”

“South…you’re my brother’s best friend,” I answer, as if that should explain things. “And I,” I hedge, thinking of Kaylee. “I shouldn’t do this.”

Shame grips me. In a moment of weakness, I succumbed, yet again, to the siren before me. I am no better than I was all those years ago.

South stares at me with shock and hurt, which quickly morphs into anger. Her face hardens and her blue eyes turn icy.

“And, lemme guess, I’
m just a “kid”, right?” she sneers, making air quotes. I don’t answer her. Answering would be bad.

But I guess not answering is worse, because the next thing I know, South launches herself at me with a shriek. She pounds my chest, screaming at me to get out of her apartment. I want to hold her, calm her down, but the feisty tig
er is hell on wheels right now.

“
You asshole!” South screams. “I hate you!”

I finally grab hold of her hands and spin her back to my front. I
’m as hard as a rock right now –
again
– but I won’t go there. Not with her. Not again.

“
Calm down, South,” I try to placate her.

“
I’m a grown fucking woman, Collin! Fuck you!” she spits, but her voice breaks. I let her go, turning her to face me. Is she crying?

“South?”

“Just go, Collin. I don’t need you to pity me right now,” she says brokenly, turning away from me. “I’m just a kid, remember?”

My heart breaks to see
her like this. I caused this. I’ve hurt her and Connor is gonna kick my ass. I reach after her, trying to make things better, but she steps away from me.

“
Please, just go,” she utters softly, tears thick in her voice.

She still refuses to look at me. I feel like kicking my own ass rig
ht now. What a mess of things I’ve made. I turn to leave, but pause with my hand on the doorknob.

“
South, I’m–”

“I don’
t wanna hear it. Just leave,” she orders on a choked sob.

Opening the door, I take one last longing look at the girl I
’ve broken. I’ve truly fucked up this time.

“Men.”

“I hate ’em.”

“They suck.”

Lydia and I both turn to face Scott who has an impish grin plastered on his face.

“Well…they do!” he defends.

“Ugh, men,” Lydia and I mutter in unison.

Lydia and Scott have been helping me mope. After the embarrassing and infuriating rejection I suffered at the hands of Collin, I have been depressed and downright angry.

Collin treated me like I was something forbidden, like I was a child and he a pedophile, and was caught by Dateline NBC or something. Embarrassed didn’t even cover what I felt. Shame was more like it. I put everything out there and he just threw it
back in my face. So what if I’m Connor’s best friend? It’s not like Connor minded.

I do hope Connor makes good on kicking his ass. I would want to be front row. Shit, I’ll be his tag team partner!

After Collin left, I wanted my friends. I took up my phone and misdialed, getting Connor instead. As soon as I heard his voice, I broke down.

“Pippi, what the fuck? What’s wrong?” he asked.

“Your…(gasp)…stupid…(gasp)…brother…(sob)…happened,” I cried.

“I’m gonna kill him!” he roared down the phone. “Tell me what happened,” he demanded in a gentler but tight tone of voice.

I recounted the PG version of what happened and when I got to the part where Collin said I was Connor’s best friend, Connor released a grunt.

“He should’ve thought about
that
ten years ago,” he mumbled.

When I finished talking and burst into more tears at the reality that Collin rejected me, Connor cursed and promised that he’d kick his ass; that he’d told him not to hurt me. It was good having somebody like Connor in my corner. Why couldn’t I have been in love with him instead?

Connor hung up the phone after promising that he would be taking me out for dinner later. He didn’t wait for my response, the bossy son-of-a-bitch. Afterwards, I gathered my troops for some good old-fashioned man hating.

“I can’t believe he did that,” Lydia seethes. “He’s the one that came to you, talking about not getting enough. What does he take you for?”

“Apparently, a kid,” I answer grumpily, draining my glass of the cheap wine Lydia had brought over.

I raise my sunglasses on top of my head and reach over to grab the wine bottle. The sun is out in all its beauty today. We are lounging in the empty pool of my apartment complex on lounge chairs. Out here is usually off-limits, but when the super for the complex likes you, well, one can get away with things like trespassing.

“It’s official, I’m going to die a quasi-virgin,” I declare. “A semi-virgin with lots of cats, who talks to her cats about her one and only sexual experience; a semi-virginal cat lady, who died a lonely death, because she couldn’t get her imaginary boner up for any other guy. Kids are gonna tell ghost stories about me!” I wail. Okay, I may be a little tipsy.

I bolt upright with the bottle at that.
“Oh, my God! I’m going to be a scary cat lady who scares kids with stories of her guy repellant vagina!” I moan, taking a healthy swig from the bottle. Okay, maybe a lot tipsy.

“
Sweetie, you can’t give up on
Operation
–”

“
Don’t say it, Scott,” I warn, shooting him a death glare.

“
I’m just saying, South. Maybe he just needs to see you in a different light. A more grown up light,” Scott says good-naturedly.

“
I appreciate your optimism, Scott, but if swinging on a pole half naked or baby making with him on a dance floor while fully dressed isn’t “a grown up light” then I don’t know what is,” I state.

“
You didn’t see how he looked at me like he made the biggest mistake of his life,” I contend. “You would think I had AIDS or something. I might be in love with the asshole and willing to have his babies even if he doesn’t ask me to, but I’ve got pride.”

“
I agree, baby girl. No more chasing of the gigantic, asshole,” Lydia agrees.

“
Lynnie, I think–”

“
Just, please, drop it. Please, Scott?” I beg. Scott stares at me and I know he wants to do anything but drop it. Thankfully, however, he does.

“Ooh, let’
s go out for lunch!” Lydia suggests excitedly.

“
That sounds good. Food will take my mind off things,” I agree.

“Fine dining?”
Scott asks.

“Hell yeah,”
Lydia says.

**********

We’re at Flora, a popular restaurant on Geary Boulevard that we have been to a few times. These times are only reserved for emergencies since I usually do the cooking for me and my friends.

It is the lunch hour on a Sunday here, so it isn
’t very busy. Inside is a well-stocked bar, our usual hangout, along with the eating areas. We passed the cute bartender, Rusty, on our way in. Rusty winked at me and I smiled. He is always flirting with me. Why couldn’t I have been hung up on him? Stupid, doodie head Collin, with his perfect body and killer smile.

Doodie head? No wonder he thinks I’m just a kid.

What we love about Flora is that it isn’t the normal dining table and chairs setup. It is, however, a series of grouped plush sofas seated around a round coffee table. It is a lounge/eating area. Your seating is based on the amount of people in the group. At every seating area, there is also a mini flower garden, hence the name Flora.

The sofas are cream colored without armrests. The rest of the restaurant boasts the shiniest mahogany furniture and finishings. It is cozy here, and the food is very good.

“This food is delicious,” Lydia groans as she spears a shrimp into her mouth.

She is having the lemon garlic shrimp scampi. Scott is having the grilled chicken and garden salad sprinkled with apple vodka – creative and super tasty, and by the time he
’s through with it, he’ll be drunk. I am currently halfway through my chicken parmesan with grilled vegetables.

To say I
’m stuffed is an understatement. Flora always gives us our money’s worth. This is a small dent in my savings, but with the weekend I’ve had, I think I deserve to pig out.

“
Oh, God, I feel pregnant,” I announce.

“I’
m drunk, I think,” Scott moans.

“
Well, I vote we take our greedy selves up and go sleep off this day,” I suggest. “All I agreed say
“I”
.”

“I,”
we all say.

“All opposed?”

“Boo,” Lydia and Scott mutter.

We get up, bagging our leftovers. Scott trudges over to the restroom and Lydia and I wait for him at the door. Laughter draws our attention to a tall, blonde haired man raising a toast. He looks to be in his late 40s or early 50s.

“Let’s have a toast to my future son-in-law; whose tenacity, wit and sheer brilliance won him the Colfax case,” the man regales. “You will make my daughter a happy woman.”

I can
’t see who he is speaking of, but I see a platinum blonde beaming up at the man who seems to be her father – based on resemblance – and the daughter in question. How sweet.

My world comes to a screeching halt, though, when the man
says his future son-in-law’s name, “Collin, you truly are a golden boy and I hope you will bring the same touch to your marriage.”

“Here, here!”
a man shouts and glasses clink all around.

Engaged? Lydia and I stand there, flabbergasted. She looks over at me and a look of sheer panic and concern comes over her. She rushes over to me, shaking me and saying something, but her voice sounds so far away. She looks so far away. Everything looks so far away.

She swipes at my cheeks and her hands come away wet.
Am I crying?
Scott rushes over to me and he is saying something as well. By the looks of things he must be shouting, the veins in his neck are bulging. He turns and looks behind him at where Collin is. He tugs my arm but I don’t budge.

My world is teetering off balance. Everything is now in perspective. He
’s engaged. Can this day get any worse?

Spots dance in front of my eyes and the last thing I think about before it all fades to black is: Yes. Yes it can.