I held up the miniature bottle. “What’s this for?”
“The edge.”
“I don’t have an edge.”
He lifted a skeptical eyebrow. “Oh? Is that so?”
Okay fine, maybe I had a bit of an edge, but I liked to refer to that as my self-preservation skills kicking in. Being vulnerable with a man like Storm Thornton wasn’t high on my bucket list but here I was, tingling inside and between my thighs at the chance to be alone with him after putting up a fuss in the lobby this afternoon that there was only one bed in our room.
I unscrewed my vodka cap and we drained the tiny bottles together. After that, Storm went about whipping us up some rum and cokes, for which he had to leave the room to go down the hall for ice. While he did that, I checked my phone.
I had hundreds upon hundreds of social media related notifications but ignored those. I went into my messages where I had one from Lexi wishing me a fun and safe evening, one from my dad with an attached picture of a customer’s yellow Corvette he was working on this week with a note about how much Mom would have loved it, and then finally, one more message from Casey:
Hey sis,
I know you’re at that party thing tonight, but when you get a sec could you e-transfer me $600?
I’m short on rent this month. I wouldn’t ask unless I really needed it and I couldn’t go to Dad.
I’ll do better next month.
I sighed and tossed my phone on the bed.
Damn it, Casey. The girl couldn’t go a single week without needing a handout of some sort. Last week, it was a place to crash and a new outfit, and the week before, it was gas and grocery money, and the week before that, it was money for a speeding ticket. The cycle never ended.
The money wasn’t even what pissed me off. I had more money to go around than ever before, and I was happy to help my family. What bothered me was Casey’s total unwillingness to step up and be an adult and her blatant dependency on me and disregard for taking advantage of me.
It sucked.
Over the last four years, I couldn’t think of a single time where Casey had checked in on me just to see how I was doing. She never called to ask how I was, what was new, what I was excited about. She never cared to know, but she cared enough to keep me around to bail her out of sticky situations.
The door opened and Storm walked in, turning to lock up behind him once more. He carried the ice bucket under his arm, and when he came deeper into the room, his brow furrowed.
“Something wrong?”
I shook my head. “No, just stupid family stuff. My little sister is always looking for handouts.”
“Ah.” He set the ice bucket down, scooped some into the crystal cocktail glasses, poured rum over them, swirled the ice and liquor around, and topped the glasses off with Coca Cola. He handed one to me. “Isn’t that what family does? Take and take and take until you’re at the end of your rope?”
“That’s not what it’s supposed to do. Family is supposed to look out for each other. At least, that’s what I try to do. I don’t even know why it bothers me so much. Casey just gets under my skin and makes me feel so… so… I don’t know.”
“Used?”
I blinked at him. “Yes.”
Storm tapped his finger on the side of his glass. “Take it from someone who used to be a user just like your sister, it’s not easy to always ask for help. It’s not easy to be the one who can’t get their shit together.”
Where was all this coming from?
He cracked a smile. “Your sister is lucky to have you, but tonight isn’t about her or what she wants from you. We deserve to let our hair down, don’t we? What do you say we finally get in that jacuzzi and see what the fuss is all about?”
Storm knew even without me saying it that this wasn’t something I wanted to talk about tonight. I nodded eagerly before I realized something important. “We don’t have bathing suits.”
“We have underwear. What’s the difference?”
I licked my lips. “Erm… I’m not wearing underwear.”
He clapped a hand to his chest and rocked back like he’d just been punched. “Woman, for the love of God, don’t tell me something like that. You’re too sexy for your own good. Grab a pair from your bag or something.”
“Or,” I purred, moving to the light switch and flicking it down, plunging us into darkness, “we go naked and just don’t peek.”
“I’m not making any promises.”
Giggling and perhaps a little intoxicated, I struck out onto the balcony, where the cold New York air burned my lungs. The concrete pads of the balcony stung my bare feet as I crept across them, wincing with every step, and set my drink down on the ledge of the jacuzzi. Storm came around behind me, muttering about how fucking cold it was while he worked his way out of his shirt and tie.
He dropped them on the concrete before undoing his belt.
Suddenly, I wondered if this was such a good idea. My heart raced as I watched him undress out of the corner of my eye. He stood on the other side of the jacuzzi, which was just high enough to hide him from the waist down. When he dropped his pants, I couldn’t see anything.
I turned my back and dropped my dress. Storm whistled.
I shot him a dark look over my shoulder. “I thought I said no peeking.”
“Baby, how do you expect me to keep my eyes to myself when you have an ass like that?”
“Exercise some restraint.”
“I possess none.” Despite his words, he turned his back to me so I could get in the jacuzzi.
Smiling to myself, I removed my bra, let it fall to the floor with my dress, and held my breasts against my body with one arm as I swung a leg over the jacuzzi and got into the hot, bubbling water. The jacuzzi pulled me into it, all the way up to my chin, and I leaned back in the corner, closing my eyes and telling Storm it was safe for him to join me.
I heard him get in the water. His knees bumped mine. The surface level climbed a few inches and threatened to spill over. Steam filled my nose.
I cracked open one eye.
Storm sat in the corner across from me, his head tilted back, his jaw and throat defined by the sharp contrast of the shadows on the balcony. He removed his arms from the water and draped them over the sides of the tub.
I admired the curve of muscle and the veins that snaked all the way down to his hands, which hung casually over the surface of the water.
Swallowing hard, I tried to maintain the illusion that I was not as horny as I felt. The last thing I needed was Storm believing he had any sort of power over me.
“Do you ever wonder what it would be like to be a normal person?” Storm asked out of the blue.
“Sorry?”
His eyes remained on the starry night sky. “You know, to be someone the world knows nothing about? Someone normal, like a guy named Jerry who brews beers in his garage or something and works at a hardware store.”
“Jerry sounds nice, but you are no average Joe, Storm. And personally, I think that life would destroy you, or you would destroy it.”
Storm smiled and turned his green eyes to me. “And here I thought you were doing your best not to get to know me.”
“Why do you want to be ‘normal’?” I used air quotes around the word because I’d never believed there was such a thing as normal.