“Bonus points for the firm grip. Sometimes guys just don’t have enough meat to get a grip shot, you know what I mean? Their fist usually hides the main attraction, but that clearly isn’t an issue for you,” she says as both Riley and Jax nod along as if they know exactly what she’s talking about, “and you also seem to get the ball proportion just right.”
“Ball proportion?” I ask, regretting the words the moment they leave my mouth.
“Yeah,” Ilaria continues as if this has turned into dick pics for beginners. “Some guys get too much balls in the shot and it’s distracting. You know there’s nothing worse than opening up your phone to get blasted by a wrinkly ball sack. It’s like the underboob, you have to get it just right.”
Chanel and Arizona nod in agreement as I catch Bri zooming in as though she hasn’t already had an up-close look at the thing. “You know what,” she murmurs to herself, going about opening a new message to herself. “I might just save this for later.”
She hits send and we all hear the soft vibration of her incoming message before she glances up at me. “Got any more I can add to my Tanner folder?” she asks, her bright blue eyes making it almost impossible to say no.
I grin back at her. “Just say the word, and I’ll send you anything you want.”
“Good,” she murmurs, raising her chin and lowering her voice. “But for the record, dick pics are out. If you really want to make me squirm, send me a live cumshot with the volume turned up. I wanna hear you come, and you better be groaning my name.”
Well, fuck.
Who the hell am I to say no?
Chapter 34
TANNER
Bri curls into my side as I help her up the stairs toward her bedroom, hating the pained curses she tries to hide. It’s creeping up on midnight and she’s well overdue for some more painkillers.
The moment everyone left, I had Bri out the door. Every part of me wanted to take her up to my room and keep her here for as long as I could, but the rational part of my brain told me that her mom was going to return home some time during the night, and when she does, she’s probably going to want to check on her daughter. I can’t imagine that her mom is going to be very forgiving if she walked in to find her daughter not in her bed, especially after just being told that she’d been in a car wreck.
I lead her down the hallway to her room, and as I take the handle and push her door open, she smirks up at me, looking far too proud of herself. “It must be nice not having to squeeze through the crawl space to get in here.”
“Don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Right,” she scoffs, moving across her room to perch on the side of her bed.
She watches me as I start to unload all her painkillers and fresh bandages onto her bedside table. “Do you need anything?” I ask, making sure everything is there before spilling a few pills into the center of my hand and passing them to her. “Pajamas? Water?”
“Both,” she says, her face scrunching as she goes to get up again. “But don’t worry. You’ve already done so much. I can figure it out from here.”
I scoff and push her back to bed before making my way into her walk-in and scanning through all the drawers. I have no idea where she keeps her pajamas but, judging from what I’ve seen over the few weeks she’s been living next door, an old comfortable shirt and underwear usually does the trick.
Making my way out of her closet, I toss her clothes onto the edge of her bed before going through to her private bathroom and filling a glass of water. I come back out just in time to see her place the painkillers into her mouth, and I hand her the glass to wash them down.
She makes quick work of it, cringing as the pills make their way down her sore throat, and I step into her before reaching for the top button of her school blouse. “You don’t have to do this,” she tells me, her eyes locked on me while I focus on her buttons. “It will suck, but I can manage.”
I shake my head, reaching the final button and popping it open before pushing her school blouse off her shoulders and letting the soft material fall to the bed behind her. “It’s no problem,” I tell her, feeling more than responsible for what happened to her today. “I don’t like to see you hurting.”
“Really?” she says, a soft chuckle in her tone. “And here I was thinking you loved seeing me in pain.”
I roll my eyes. “I like getting under your skin, making you squirm and rage at me for inconveniencing you. That’s a shitload different than hurting you or seeing you in real, physical pain.” My gaze drops to her bandaged ribs and scans over the bruises peeking out from beneath it. “I don’t like this.”
Grabbing her pajama shirt off the edge of the bed, I carefully pull it over her head and help her get her arms through the holes, hating how she tries to be strong, despite knowing all too well how much a broken rib sucks. I pull the blankets back and help her into bed before taking her phone and plugging it into the charger. “You, umm …” she says, scrunching her face as if unsure if she should continue. “Do you want to stay here tonight?”
I pause and look at her, my heart beating just a fraction faster. “You want me to stay?”
Bri bites her bottom lip and nods. “I don’t want to be alone.”
Decisions. Decisions. Spend the rest of my night with her in my arms or go back to my room and spend countless hours staring up at my ceiling and wishing I could be here. It’s a no-brainer. “Okay,” I tell her, moving around the other side of her bed and kicking off my shoes as I dump all my things on the bedside table. “Your mom isn’t going to have a problem with this?”
“I don’t think my mom has spared a single thought for what I do since we first got here.”
I fucking hate that she’s right. “You deserve better, Bri,” I tell her, slipping into her bed and reaching out for her. “Come here.”
She crawls into my arms and rests her head on my chest, right where she belongs and I find peace settling over me. This just feels right. Me and Brielle … maybe I should be looking deeper into this. She’s so much more than some chick I wanted to fuck out of my system, but the idea of this being something real terrifies me. It makes me vulnerable and hands her the power to destroy me, and at some point, I’m going to fuck it up. I’m going to end up hurting her and she deserves so much better than that … better than me.
The exhaustion of the day quickly catches up to her and she falls into a restless sleep. I can only imagine what kind of bullshit nightmares are terrorizing her sleep. I bet Colby’s face is flashing in her mind, the fear of seeing his car hurtling toward hers and not being able to stop it, or the way he crushed her and tightened his grip around her neck. That moment will stay with her for the rest of her life, and I hate that there’s not a goddamn thing I can do to take it away.
I turn into her, my chin resting on top of her head as her fruity shampoo lingers in the air. I close my eyes and am just drifting to sleep when my phone buzzes on the bedside table. I cringe and reach for it, hoping the call doesn’t wake Bri.
I’m just about to silence it when I see it’s an incoming call from Mom and my eyes widen, my heart leaping in my chest. Dread fills my veins as I pull out of bed, trying not to jostle Bri while also hurrying not to miss the call. There’s only one reason my mother would call me in the middle of the night and I … fuck. Addison better be okay. I need her to be okay.