Adam strains his neck to yell back to Wes, “It’s just a beer. Calm down.” Adam sips from the bottle and smiles in my direction.
I’m laughing at Adam’s smugness as Wes clears his throat loudly, causing Adam to drop his shoulders, turn around, and walk away, leaving Wes to command the entryway to my life—both metaphorically and physically.
My mouth parts in a what the hell expression.
Wes saunters into my room and stops a few feet away from me. “No guys in your room, Squid.”
Gone is that happy and comical Wes, and in his place is this territorial brooder. He might be loyal to my brother, but there is such a thing as loyal to a fault.
I narrow my eyes at my brother’s best friend as I stand and strut toward him. “Listen, Knight, this shit was cute and all when we were teenagers, but I’m a legal adult woman who can have a beer with a friend.”
“You just met the guy.”
I let out an exasperated breath as I step up to him. “Okay, well, he’s your friend, and you let him into our home. I hardly find him to be a threat.”
Wes’s eyes widen, and his mouth parts. “You like him?”
“No,” I say quickly and then add, “I mean, he’s cute, but you didn’t even give me a chance to decide if I thought he was worth talking to.”
“It’s easy. Just stay away from any guy on the baseball team.”
I cross my arms, mimicking his gesture, and lift my chin. “Great. That just leaves football, soccer, lacrosse—” I count out on my fingers.
He steps closer to me. “I’m sorry. I meant, stay away from any guy on campus.”
“You’re being a Neanderthal.”
“You agreed to the rules.”
“No, I didn’t. I listened while you went off on some ridiculous notion of how this living arrangement would go down. I hate to break it to you, but you’re not my brother, so you don’t get to protect me like this.”
“Thank God for that.”
My heart drops to my stomach, and I inhale a shaky breath. I could slap him. What an awful thing to say.
I push past him, punching my shoulder into his chest to make him move from my doorway, and I march into the living room.
“Stacey, wait …”
I’m out the door with my hand in the air, not wanting to hear what he has to say. Adam is sitting next to Matt at the end of the sofa. I sandwich myself between him and the armrest, grabbing the throw pillow I added to make the couch a little more comfortable and holding it on my lap as I tuck my feet underneath me.
“Glad you could join us,” Adam says. He notices I left the beer in my room, so he takes a bottle from the coffee table, twists the top, and hands it to me.
“Thanks.” I’m giving Wes the side-eye as he takes a seat back on the other side of the couch.
With his legs spread wide, he drops his chin low with a slow shake of his head.
“You cool?” Adam asks me.
I nod. “Yeah. Just a little roommate conflict.”
He laughs as he leans in and whispers, “Wanna fuck with him? Change the channel. Put on anything other than this, and he’ll throw a hissy fit.”
I like this guy even more now. I lean forward and grab the remote. I have no idea what the stations are here, so I punch in a random set of three numbers, keeping my eyes on Wes, just to mess with him.
Just as Adam predicted, no sooner do I change the channel than Wes sits up super straight and bangs his fists on his knees. His mouth hisses a curse. I roll my eyes at how ridiculous he’s being until I see what I did.
“Holy shit. You’re so much cooler than your brother said,” Matt hollers as he leans forward toward the television.
“Girl, you went for the big guns,” Adam adds as my eyes open wide at the television.
The television that’s now playing porn.
Holy fuck, I turned on a porno. How did I do that?
I didn’t even know we had a porn channel. Maybe I shouldn’t be surprised, but as I see the couple go at it on the screen, I realize that the probability of a guys-only apartment subscribing to some skin stations is pretty high.
Ew, wait. Does my brother watch this stuff? Gross.
“Change it,” Wes commands.
I might be in shock by the fact that people are boinking on the screen, but his tone makes me defiant, and I need to make my point and set the record straight.
“Nah,” I say like I’m passing up another beer instead of a direct order.
“It’s my house,” Wes growls. “Turn this shit off.”
“It’s my house, too, and I say we watch it.” I raise my eyebrows at him, going in for the kill. “Better yet, maybe we should ask our guests.”
“I’m good,” Matt says.
“Same here.” Adam grins.
“Stacey, you have no idea what you’re doing,” Wes states.
I roll my head back. “It’s just a show. In France, they have sex shows that are performance art pieces. Look at it as adults watching live art.”
“You want a show?” he threatens, and I groan.
“It’s not like we’re gonna have a gang bang.” I turn to the guys. “You guys aren’t going to try to take advantage of me because there’s porn on the screen, are you?”
“Nope,” Adam says quickly.
“No.” Matt seems confused.
Wes, on the other hand, is practically primal.
“You”—he points to Adam—“move over there.”
Adam does what he said, and Wes takes the spot next to me, securing his place as my protector.
“Fine. You want to watch porn? Let’s watch.” Wes settles in next to me and puts his feet on the coffee table, crossing them at the ankles.
I wasn’t prepared for him to call my bluff. In fact, having him here, so close, is a bit unnerving.
I turn my attention back to the screen, trying to hide my shock and act like watching porn with these guys is something I’ve done a million times.
I sip my beer slowly. Not wanting to down it too quickly because I want that one thing to play with to calm my nerves. I’ve never watched people have sex like this, and when you add in who’s sitting around me, it feels a little wrong but kind of in a good way.
The guys all watch intently, and when Wes adjusts his positioning, my mind instantly goes to his pants, wondering if he’s getting hard, sitting next to me. The thought sends a weird sensation flowing through my body, which I try to ignore.
The girl on the screen takes the guy’s cock deep in her throat, leaving some spittle to drag out as she leans back. I have nothing against porn. I’ve just never gotten into it, so seeing her actions is like watching a freight train veer off the tracks. I can’t take my eyes off if it.
Matt talks to the television, “How does a girl deep-throat like that?”
“It’s not that hard. At least for me, it isn’t. The roof of my mouth is way higher than normal people, so I have plenty of room before my throat,” I say nonchalantly to answer his question, not thinking about the ramifications that will follow.
Adam chokes on his beer while Matt is quick to jump to his feet. “Let me see.”
Wes pushes him away before giving me the evil eye.
“What? I’m not doing anything bad by telling him about my mouth.” I roll my eyes while turning toward Matt and opening wide, rolling my tongue along the roof to show how far up it goes.