The Brooklyn Book Boyfriends Read online

  The ladies’ room has one stall, and thankfully it is empty. I pull out my phone to call Marnie. Her kids should be in bed by now, and she’s probably watching Netflix with her husband.

  She picks up on the second ring. “Are you home? Are you okay?”

  “I’m not at home, but I might be a lot better than okay.”

  “What?”

  “Is Dave there? Can you talk?”

  “Hang on, I’ll go to the kitchen.” I hear her tell Dave to pause what they’re watching, and I hear him tell her to grab another beer and more chips. “What’s going on? What’s wrong?”

  “Nothing! I’m at a bar with a guy I just met at the liquor store, and I think he wants to have sex with me.”

  She is silent for three seconds before saying, “Nina. Go home. Now. Alone.”

  “Why?”

  “Because you’re too sensitive and you are too inexperienced. You’ve been attached to Russell for years. God knows why—but you need to detach from him. For real. And then attach yourself to yourself—and then attach yourself to a vibrator. And then you can start dating someone new.”

  “But—”

  “Do not have sex with strangers, Nina. You can’t handle it.”

  “I’m only talking about one stranger.”

  “Don’t do it.”

  “Okay, but hear me out.”

  “Are you in the ladies’ room? Is there a window? Can you climb out of it? Do you need me to send Dave over to come get you?”

  “Just calm down.”

  “Okay, but I’d kind of like an excuse to get him out of the house. He’s driving me nuts.”

  “Hang on. I’m sending you a picture.” I text her the photo of Vince. “I’m telling you, Marn. Things are happening. There’s something about this guy that I’m responding to on a level that I didn’t even know I had.” I look around to make sure I really am alone in this restroom, lowering my voice anyway. “My panties are completely flooded!”

  Marnie guffaws.

  “I’m serious! Like…soaked through. There might be something medically wrong with me. I’m losing a lot of fluids.”

  “I think your body is celebrating because it never has to see Russell naked again.”

  “He looked perfectly fine naked.”

  “Oh my God, you’re still defending him!”

  “Did you get the picture yet?”

  “Hang on.” There is a pause, and then I hear her suck in her breath. “Shhhhia LaBoeuf!” She’s an elementary school teacher too. “That’s the liquor store guy?”

  “Yeah.”

  “I think I just got pregnant.”

  “He’s really cute, right? But I mean. I should get to know him better. Ask him out to lunch tomorrow, so we can talk more? When I’m not drinking?”

  “No way. You let that guy leave tonight, and you will never see him again. New plan—you need to get back in the saddle and ride that beautiful man like a bull. Immediately.”

  “So it’s okay for me to have a one-night stand with a stranger as long as he’s hot?”

  “Hey, I didn’t invent double standards. That guy’s not going to murder you. He has beautiful, sad eyes. You need to drink more and then take him to your place. Make him strip before you let him through the door, though. To make sure he doesn’t have a knife on him. But I am willing to bet he’s packing a long hard weapon of another kind in his pants.”

  “Marnie!”

  “What? I’m serious. You should be having bathroom sex with him right now instead of talking to me.”

  “Eww.”

  “Don’t knock it till you’ve tried it.”

  “I just want to keep a clear head for a bit and find out more about him.”

  “What else do you need to know about him? Does his penis work and does he have condoms? That is literally all you need to know. You want to know what I found out today? I’m starting to get back fat. Back fat, Nina. This is what you have to look forward to. Spanx City. You’re single now—go have a one-night stand while there are only two parts of your body jiggling around.”

  “You are crazy—you’re gorgeous and I’d kill for your body.”

  “Awww. You used to just lie to yourself and now you’re lying to me too. So sweet.”

  “Okay, I’m going back out there. But if Vince does murder me—talk to Stan at the liquor store. He knows him.”

  “Honey, you might black out when that guy’s sperm blast catapults you into the headboard, but he’ll be bringing you back to life in exactly the way you need… I need to eat more cheese.”

  After a pause, I say, “Marn? Marnie?”

  She hung up.

  Marnie sends a text of a surprised mouth-open smiley face and a baguette and a donut. And then she sends a text that says zetywop, because she probably put her phone in her pocket without closing the messages app. That happens a lot.

  I look at myself in the mirror, rip off a piece of paper towel and dab off the lip gloss because I don’t want my shiny mouth to slide across Vince’s face if he tries to kiss me.

  When I return from the ladies’ room, Vince gets up, steps out of the booth, glares at the guys at the end of the bar, and puts his hand on my hip. It sends a shiver up and down my spine—both his touch and the fact that he’s letting those guys know he’s the only one here who will be putting his hand on me tonight. He’s feeling possessive of me already. And I am fine with that.

  He lets me slide into the seat, and even before I’ve settled myself into the booth next to him, he’s staring at my mouth and grinning. He’s noticed that I’ve removed the lip gloss, and he knows exactly what it means. This guy probably knows how to read all the signs. He’s probably seen all of the signs. All of the signs that say yes, please put your beautiful mouth on my mouth.

  His body is turned in toward me, either protecting me from the other guys or keeping me from leaving. I don’t even care which. I lean back against the wall, take in a deep, jittery breath, and push my drink away from me.

  “You had enough?”

  “I think this motherflorker has done its job.”

  He laughs—not as surprised as people usually are when they hear me use my faux-swear words for the first time. “Good. You feel better?”

  I smile and nod. Oh, beautiful stranger, you have no idea.

  He is still staring at my lips and smiling. It may be my imagination, but he seems to be leaning in closer to me, in slow motion, millimeter by excruciating millimeter.

  “So, what exactly do you do now? For work, I mean.”

  “Care to guess?”

  “Please don’t make me guess.”

  “I’ll give you a hint. I’m still in sales.”

  “Oh shit.” I cover my mouth, because it has been years since I’ve said the word “shit” out loud. I will have to add a quarter to my swear jar. “If you’re a drug dealer, I’m leaving.”

  “I’m not a drug dealer. I don’t do drugs.”

  I believe him. “Oh Schmidt. Are you an escort? Are you going to charge me for this?”

  “Charge you for what, exactly?” His gaze lazily travels from my eyes to my lips, down my neck, and to a place that I’m pretty sure he can’t actually see unless he also has X-ray vision. He might have X-ray vision.

  “Um…” My cheeks are burning up.

  “I’m just messing with you.” He puts his hand on my arm and squeezes it quickly and gently before placing his hand back on the tabletop where I can see it. “You blush like a schoolgirl. I can’t help it. I really seem like an escort to you?”

  “I guess I wouldn’t really know what an escort is like. And you don’t seem like a drug dealer to me either, FYI.”

  “Good to know.”

  “So what do you sell now?”

  “Real estate. Commercial. Restaurants and bars are my specialty. I’m a broker.”

  My mother is a residential Realtor in Indiana. I don’t tell him this, because apparently we aren’t sharing that kind of information. But it makes him seem a litt
le more familiar, somehow.

  “Yeah? How’d you get into that? Let me guess—you knew a guy.”

  “I know a lot of guys. Comes in handy. You know any guys?”

  “I know a lot of six-year-old guys.”

  “Oh yeah?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Sounds like fun.”

  “I do get to eat a lot of birthday cake. So you knew a guy in real estate?”

  “I knew a couple of guys. But enough about me.”

  Right. It’s just one night. I don’t need to know where he works.

  “You want to tell me why you felt the need to get drunk tonight?”

  “Um…”

  “Something to do with that lame ex who never took you to bars?”

  “Something to do with that. Yeah. We just broke up.” I sigh. “I ate expired pasta and cookies all weekend. And I even had food that wasn’t expired, which was weird.”

  “Livin’ on the edge, huh?”

  “Guess so.”

  “Feel good?”

  “Almost.”

  “You should feel really good. We’ll have to see what I can do about that.” He winks at me, and I bet if someone asked me to recite the alphabet right now, I wouldn’t be able to. “You want to forget about your ex, Nina?”

  I cover my face with my hands. Thinking about myself and my ex and my intentions for getting drunk is making me feel insecure all of a sudden. I don’t know what I’m doing here.

  “Hey.”

  I feel his fingertip slowly trace a trail from the V between my index and middle fingers, down the back of my hand, to my wrist, along the scalloped-edge cuff of my blouse. It sends shockwaves through my body as if his finger is touching me somewhere else entirely. I spread my fingers apart so I can peek through them. Who are you? How did you do that? What are you doing to me?

  “You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to,” he says. “You don’t have to think about anything you don’t want to think about right now.”

  I let my hands fall from my face, and he takes my right hand in both of his, holding it gently with his big, slightly rough, very capable hands. My left hand, shockingly, rests just above one of his knees.

  I can feel him coaxing some hidden stray cat part of myself out of the shadows. He doesn’t make me feel safe so much as he makes me want to know what it feels like to not care about anything other than what he has to offer. I can see it in his eyes—he registers the exact moment that I’ve decided to sleep with him, even as I’m still processing it myself.

  Here’s a guy who knows more about the secret nooks and curves of my body than I do.

  I have no idea how a one-night stand works, but I am one hundred percent sure that he does, and I will follow his lead. His face is so close to mine. I am staring at his mouth and biting my lower lip. Un, deux, trois…fuck…

  “So…what do you do after taking a lady you just met at the liquor store to a bar for a blue drink?”

  He licks his lips and looks so earnest as he says, “I can’t wait to show you.”

  I tilt my head up the tiniest bit.

  When his lips touch mine, I ease into him and this new person that I’m becoming with such a graceful force that it feels like the only stranger here now…is the girl I used to be.

  3

  Vince

  For the past half hour, this totally unfamiliar voice in my head has been saying: “Don’t do this. You actually like this girl. Do not do this.” Every so often I try to figure out what the fuck that voice is talking about. But now that I’m kissing Nina, I realize that a) I do actually like this girl, b) she is hotter than I thought she would be, and c) I am definitely doing this.

  Her sweet lips are so gentle and receptive at first, but once my tongue starts exploring that mouth, I feel her whole body relax for a few seconds before suddenly shifting gears. She leans into me, moaning softly, grabbing on to my T-shirt with one hand and my face with the other. There’s a hunger there. Something inside her that she’s kept locked up for a long time. Something that I am going to help her release.

  My suspicions have been confirmed—this is a woman who hasn’t been kissed properly in years. Maybe ever. The fact that she’s responding to me in this way is a bigger turn-on than I was expecting. I’m going to have to slow things down. Stay in control.

  When she starts sucking on my tongue, I get such a rush of blood to my dick, I have to pull away from her. Her long, pretty lashes flutter, and then her eyes go wide. She’s remembering where she is. Realizing what she’s doing, that she barely knows me. She releases my face and shirt, covering her mouth and turning away from me.

  She keeps opening and closing like some flower that isn’t used to feeling the sun shine on her. I like it. I want to be the one who opens her up.

  She blushes, shaking her head. “I’m not usually like this.”

  “Maybe you should be.”

  She gives me a sideways glance that makes me regret saying that. Her body language is telling me she’s closing off again. So much for slowing things down. I wouldn’t mind talking to her more, but it’s either going to have to be stop or go-hard-and-fast-before-she-changes-her-mind with this one.

  “Hey.” I touch the tips of my fingers to her chin to get her to face me. “Whatever you’re like—I like it.”

  The corners of her lips curl upwards. “You are very convincing, Vince.” She pokes at my chest. “I think you’re trying to corrupt me.”

  “Filthy as charged, ma’am.” I lean in, kissing her cheek, her jaw, nibbling on her lower lip and then licking it. “Nina,” I whisper.

  It takes her a moment before she can say, “Yes?”

  “Let’s get out of here.”

  Her eyes are closed, and she’s swaying like she’s in a trance. “Already?”

  My mouth hovers near her ear. “There are a lot of things I want to do with you, and I’d rather not do them in this booth.” She smells so fucking good, and honestly, I don’t much care where we are, but I push her hair to the side because I want to make damn sure she hears this: “I think we should go to your place. I want to make you come like you’ve never come before.”

  Before she can think, before she can catch her breath, I cup my hand to the back of her head and pull her in for a deep kiss. She makes a little high-pitched sound that’s so cute. I’ve caught her off guard, but she’s mine again. For the night. I can feel it. She angles her whole body toward me, even though I think she’s sitting on her hands to stop herself from grabbing me. That restraint is showing me just how much she’s holding back, and fucking hell, I want her to give it to me—all of it.

  The palm of my hand barely grazes the hard nipples that have been pressing up against the thin little bra under her white blouse. That lacy white bra has been taunting me ever since I walked into the liquor store. I trace my fingertip along her collarbone and down to the top button that’s just above her cleavage.

  She bites my lower lip. Not hard but not gently either.

  Well hello there, naughty girl. Come out and play with me tonight.

  When I look down at her, I see her smiling. Her eyes are all lit up, and she’s looking right back at me as she keeps on kissing me.

  “I think you just did,” she says on an exhale.

  “Just did what?”

  She leans in to talk directly into my ear, just like I did with her before. “You made me come harder than I ever have in my life.”

  Holy. Shit.

  “Your place?”

  She bites her lip and nods.

  “Now?”

  She nods again.

  I make some subtle adjustments to my jeans before getting up and helping her out of the booth. She is flushed and gorgeous, and we can’t get to her place fast enough. I salute Denny as we head out. He’s seen me leave this place with a fair number of ladies in times past, but even he must be able to tell that this one’s special.

  I’m not even going to think about what it means that I’ve been holding hands with th
is girl for five blocks. I am not a hand-holder. But I don’t want to let go of her. I keep pulling her into every empty recessed storefront to kiss her. Like we’re teenagers in some European movie I’d never watch. I am not PDA guy. I don’t display affection in public. I just can’t wait to kiss her again.

  I don’t touch her at all while we walk up the three flights of stairs to her apartment. She looks back at me before putting her key in the lock. I don’t know what kind of expression I have on my face, but it makes her pause for a second before turning the key. As soon as we’re inside her apartment and she’s closed the door, I push her up against the nearest wall. She drops her purse and keys to the ground and sighs. I lift her arms up above her head and hold her wrists, watching her squirm as she stares up at my mouth. Her lips are parted. Her lower lip is trembling. Every part of her is trembling, and it’s so hot. She’s tense, and her breaths are heavy and fast. She’s all anticipation and hesitation and impatience, and it’s so fucking beautiful.

  I start by kissing her neck. She tilts her head back and her pelvis forward. Her skin is so smooth and pretty, and there’s just something so clean and good about her. It’s driving me wild. I slowly move my hands down her arms, to her sides. To her hips and around to her ass. I squeeze it with one hand while the other makes its way up to cup her perky round breast. She makes a little surprised animal sound that’s so sweet and sexy coming from her big, swollen lips. Her arms are resting on top of her head, like she doesn’t know what to do with them. She’s still trembling.

  Whatever confidence she had at the bar is gone for now. I’m a stranger in her apartment, and I’m guessing this is the first time she’s let a stranger do this with her. She needs me to control the situation so she doesn’t have to second-guess anything. And I am going to do just that.

  “Take off your blouse.”

  I hook my index fingers through the belt loops of her jeans and watch her fumble with the buttons. I should probably just rip it apart, but I don’t want to scare her. When she’s finally done, I help her pull that top off and let it drop to the floor, kissing her hard and massaging her tits over the thin fabric of the lacy white bra.