The Brooklyn Book Boyfriends Page 5

  He doesn’t pause from kissing my inner thigh, but I can tell that he’s smiling.

  “And you’ve already made me come more than he ever did in three years.”

  “Well, darlin,’ I hope you’re ready for more.” With a few swift moves, he removes my panties, kneels on the floor, hikes my hips up, places my legs over his shoulders, and looks down at my most private place while stroking my thighs. It should make me feel so shy and vulnerable, but he’s admiring me. “Fuck, you’re beautiful.”

  I look up at the ceiling and try to relax, but I cover my face with my arms when I feel his warm breath over my lady parts. It tickles in the most grown-up way imaginable, and I have to force myself not to giggle.

  “Did he ever go down on you, Nina?”

  “No,” I squeak.

  “Fucking idiot,” he mutters. “You have the prettiest pussy I’ve ever seen.”

  When I feel his tongue on me, it sends a shock of electricity up through my center, my thighs tense up, and warmth spreads across my abdomen. He licks all the way around and then flicks his tongue at my clit, which is already so sensitive that when he licks it and then gently sucks on it, I feel myself completely losing control. I let out a little squeal as my body shakes. My response seems to cause him to slow down by pressing his thumb against my clit and rubbing it while kissing my inner lips.

  “Ohhh. That feels so good.” I think I say it out loud. I don’t know. I try to keep still, gripping the bedspread, but my body wants to move. It feels like he’s kissing me all over, even though he’s just doing it down there.

  He moans. “I like how you taste.” He runs his hand up my thigh to my knee and back down again.

  I realize that I’ve been slowly spreading my legs wider for him. He brings his tongue to my clit again, lapping over it and on either side, circling it delicately, and then once my body starts shaking, he nibbles and clamps down on it with his lips, sucking with perfect pressure. I arch my back and scream out, and then his tongue gets fast and rough as I come undone, writhing around. I’m so full of energy but melting into the mattress at the same time. It feels so good, my body and mind can barely process it.

  I don’t even know when he stopped doing things with his mouth, but by the time I’ve finished riding the waves of ecstasy and opened my eyes, he’s standing above me, wearing nothing but a condom and a proud smirk.

  Welp. That ticks off all of Marnie’s boxes right there.

  But holy Schmidt—there’s more?! I would have liked to do something for him first, but his eyes are hooded and he looks very intent on putting his big glorious erection inside me immediately. And I am not about to stop him.

  I barely get the chance to wonder how it will be possible to experience even more pleasure in one night before he’s kneeling and holding himself up over me.

  “You ready?”

  “Mmmmhmmm.” We are both well aware of how lubricated I am, so I have no concerns about whether or not I will be able to accommodate him. “You’re so much bigger than anyone I’ve been with before,” I whisper.

  He groans and lowers his head like he’s in pain. “Fuck, Nina. You really turn me on.”

  I wrap my legs around him and feel a sharp jolt as he enters me, and then I relax around the heat of his shaft as he slides in deeper. He waits for me to start rocking my pelvis before kissing my mouth and then pulling out most of the way and thrusting in. I catch my breath and dig my fingernails into his back.

  “You feel so good.” He says it like he’s never said it to anyone before, and even though I am one hundred percent sure that he has…I believe it. It can’t be possible for it to feel so good to me and not feel good to him too.

  He grabs on to the headboard with one hand and hooks his other arm under my shoulder, holding me in place as he slides in and out of me. I’ve never had so much confidence in a man as he did this to me. It frees me up to enjoy how it feels—and it feels freaking amazing. That doesn’t even cover it. It feels fucking amazing.

  My body is relaxed and joyfully bouncing around under him. I’m thinking I could let him do this to me forever, until suddenly he changes his angle and plunges up and inwards, stimulating the depths of me and making me jerk upward and shout out, “Oh God!”

  No sooner than I’ve gotten used to that rhythm and feeling, then he deftly flips me around so that I’m on top and he’s sitting up. Kissing my breasts, hands on my waist, he guides me to bear down on him. I rock back and forth, and the pressure is heavenly. I feel an entirely new kind of orgasm coming on, but he seems intent on bringing me to the brink and then shifting gears to make this last longer.

  Resting back on his elbows, he thrusts upwards. I place my hands on his pecs and watch his abs contract and release, over and over. I smile and close my eyes as I remember Marnie telling me that I should ride this beautiful man like a bull. I am, but he is the champion. I have never had so much fun or felt so sexy while having sex before. I need him to know how much I love this. “Nobody. Has. Ever. Fucked me. Like this. Before!” I try to catch my breath before continuing. “Ever ever ever!”

  I look down at his cloudy eyes. His jaw is tight. His whole face is tense, like he’s holding on to something for dear life. There’s such strength and beauty and intensity in him, I don’t know if it’s what he’s doing to me or just him that’s making me feel so good, but I close my eyes again and feel warmth and electricity radiating from the center of me out to every inch and cell of my body. My head falls back, and I feel a sound I’ve never made before vibrating against my throat. It’s the sound of complete and total satisfaction.

  He somehow manages to move me around to face the headboard, on my hands and knees. He holds on to my hips, thrusting with urgency, skin slapping against skin. I didn’t expect it to feel good for me in this position, but oh wow does it ever feel good. He grunts and makes another deep animal sound as his movements get bigger and more graceful, and then I feel him come as his whole body stiffens and releases into me.

  As much as I found him strong and intense and beautiful before, the way he comes is just magnificent. I feel such a rush at being a part of it.

  It doesn’t matter who he was with, or who I was with before, or why he decided to do this with me.

  What we just did together erases absolutely everything else.

  It may not be the beginning of a relationship.

  But it’s the end of something that I’ve needed to let go of for a long, long time.

  We must have both fallen asleep, and it seems we’re both waking up to the sound of a phone vibrating around on the floor.

  Vince, who is lying flat against my back, jolts up and looks around. “Shit.” I feel him crawl down to the end of the bed and hear the jangling of his belt buckle as he picks up his jeans. I turn over to find him staring at his phone. “Shit,” he says again. He slips his phone back into the pocket of his jeans. “I need to use your bathroom and then go. Okay? Family thing.” He doesn’t look back at me as he says it, so I don’t bother answering. He disappears into the adjoining bathroom, shutting the door.

  I sit up, unsure if I should get dressed to see him off, but he’s out of the bathroom before I can even make a decision. His jeans are back on. He picks up his socks and boots. I’m not sure where his shirt is, but I guess he’ll find it.

  “I, uh… I’ll come back tomorrow. To fix the drywall. Okay? I mean it.”

  I nod, holding the sheet up over my naked body. He starts to bolt out of the room and then abruptly stops and comes back to kiss me on the top of my head, saying a perfunctory, “That was really great. I had an amazing time.” I watch him pick up his shirt in the living room and then hear him open and shut the front door.

  And then silence.

  So that’s how a one-night stand ends?

  Well, flork me.

  5

  Vince

  I have left a lot of apartments in a hurry in the middle of the night, but I’ve never done it with a smile on my face before.

  I
wish I didn’t have to leave like that, and I’m kicking myself for forgetting about Charlie. But I guess there would have been no good way to make my exit from Nina’s place without exchanging information. No need to complicate things. But fuck. I have to go back to fix that drywall. Why did I do that? And why do I get the feeling I would have actually liked waking up with her in my arms after staying through the night?

  Can’t think about it now. I need to get to my dad’s place, like an hour ago. The last thing I want to do is let down the people who matter the most. No matter how much I enjoyed my time with Nina. I text Michelle to let her know I’m on the way while waving down a cab on Smith Street. The driver gives me a look in the rearview mirror when I tell him I only want to go about ten blocks, but I promise him a good tip. Asshole.

  Leaning back into the seat, I have nothing else to think about besides Nina for the next couple of minutes. I know without a doubt, from the way she looked at me, that no one has ever made her come like that before. And that makes me feel so damn good. This turned out to be the best dumb idea I’ve ever had. My hand doesn’t even hurt the slightest bit. All those endorphins I released took care of that. I can’t believe she got me a bag of frozen peas after I punched a hole in her wall. Who does that?

  Nina.

  Why would the principal leave a woman like that? I mean, I get the appeal of Sadie, obviously. But it’s mostly skin-deep. Mostly. Nina’s something else. Something fresh and real. I only got a taste of it, but it’s enough to know that any guy would be lucky enough to have her. Any guy who was good enough for her, that is. Mr. Principal isn’t good enough. I sure as shit wish I were.

  Michelle’s standing facing the door with her arms crossed, foot tapping, when I let myself into my dad’s Cobble Hill townhouse. I still can’t believe how nice this place is, every time I come here. The old guy made a great decision when he bought this place for Clara, even though she was such a mess. But if it weren’t for her, we wouldn’t have my half brother Charlie.

  “Eleven thirty,” she hisses. “No later than ten, you said. Should have known.”

  I pull my dad’s neighbor in for a hug. “Michelle, my belle,” I croon. She’s warm and squishy, and I’m going to hug the anger right out of her.

  “Oh fuck you, kid,” she yell-whispers at me and spanks my ass. “I was this close to calling your father. I gotta work in the morning, and you come back smelling like pussy, you dog.” She picks up her purse. “He’s in his room. Not asleep. Waiting for you to come home.” She points her finger at me, inches from my face. “You gotta find a regular babysitter. A professional. It’s been months now. I can’t do this every night if you guys are gonna be out plowing every woman in New York.”

  “Aww, Mich. You know we only plow women in this borough.”

  “Animal. If I had a daughter, I would tell her to stay the hell away from you.” She’s grinning and her eyes are sparkling, but on some level, it still hurts to hear her say this.

  “Darlin’, if you had a daughter who was anything like you, I would have cleaned up my act and married her by now and you know it.”

  All the tension slowly melts away from her face, and when she smiles, I get a rare glimpse of the beautiful young woman that still lives inside her tired, stressed-out, sixty-year-old body. “I’m getting the hell out of here before you say another word.” She shuffles toward the door. “We baked cookies—don’t eat them all. Go say good night to your brother.”

  “Good night, Michelle. Thank you. Sorry I was late.”

  She waves me away and is out the door, grumbling. I honestly don’t know what my dad and Charlie would do without the ladies of this neighborhood. Even when Charlie’s mother was still around, they helped out with almost everything. It takes a village. At least it does when there’s just us three bonehead Devlin guys trying to raise a sweet kid who deserves better.

  I make my way over to the closed door to Charlie’s room and knock on it softly. “It’s me, buddy.”

  “Finally!” he says.

  I open the door to find him reading in bed with a battery-operated light clipped to his book. Such a little nerd. It’s hard to believe he got the book nerd gene from Clara’s side, but it sure didn’t come from my dad… I remember seeing a lot of books around Nina’s place… But I can’t think about that now.

  He doesn’t even look up from his book when I plop down on the edge of his bed. He’s so serious for an eight-year-old boy. I’m always trying to lighten him up, but maybe he’s meant to be the anchor for this family.

  “Whatcha readin’?”

  He tilts his book so I can see the cover. Holes by Louis Sachar. My brother Gabe and I can’t say that title without laughing and thinking about the kinds of holes that this book is not about. Yeah. Charlie’s the mature one in the family. “How many times have you read this one?”

  He shrugs, frowning. He’s mad at me for coming home late. I don’t blame him. “Sorry I got here late.”

  “Were you with Sadie?”

  I haven’t told him about the Sadie situation yet. She was his part-time nanny for about a year and a half. That’s how I met her. Then a few months ago, she got a full-time nanny job for some rich people’s kid. Couldn’t afford to pass it up, she said. She was still coming around to hang out with Charlie on the weekend, for a while, but he misses her. She was actually good with him. It was, by far, her best nonphysical quality. I don’t need to see that woman ever again in my life, but I hate that he can’t see her when he wants to. I’ll tell him what’s what tomorrow. Not now. “She was busy.”

  “With the other kid?”

  “I guess.” Could be true, who knows. “Come on. Book down. You gotta go to sleep. You got camp in the morning. Hey—how was your first day?”

  “I liked it.”

  “Yeah?” He’s going to a day camp for the summer. Keeping kids busy and cared for is so fucking hard—especially when school’s out. I honestly don’t know how people have been doing it every day forever.

  “Yeah, but there are too many girls.”

  “Too many, huh? Any good ones?”

  He wrinkles his little nose. “Some of them are okay, I guess. Rory’s cousin is in it, and she keeps saying my name and laughing. It’s annoying.”

  “Sounds like she’s got a crush on you.”

  He scrunches up his entire face. “Gross.”

  “She hot?”

  “Shut up.” He snaps his book shut and switches off the little book light. “When’s Sadie coming over?” I think he knows something’s up. Kid’s got a sixth sense. It’s creepy.

  “I dunno. We’ll talk about it in the morning. Go to sleep.” I put the book on the shelf under his bedside table.

  “When’s Dad getting back?”

  “Soon, probably.” My dad just started dating a woman who lives in Park Slope. She’s surprisingly age-appropriate, and I think he genuinely likes her. But we all know better than to get our hopes up. He hit the jackpot once in his life, but when my mom left this earth, it’s like she took all his good sense with her. All of ours, really. God bless him for always getting back up on that horse, though. I don’t know if I could, if I’d been through what he has. Ever since Sadie quit, my brother Gabe and I have been trying to help out with Charlie when my dad’s out so we don’t have to rely on the kindness of neighbors too often.

  Charlie’s studying my face as he lies back on his pillow. I pull the covers up over him and mess up his hair.

  “You gonna sleep here?”

  “Course. What do you want for breakfast?”

  “Waffles,” we say at the same time.

  “Okay, but we’re gonna have to put a few berries on them, or broccoli, so we can pretend to be healthy.”

  “Not broccoli,” he groans, rolling his eyes. Like he can’t believe how big of an idiot I am. I wonder myself, sometimes.

  “Berries it is, then. G’night, kid.” I turn off the bedside lamp, and the nightlight switches on. Gabe thinks Charlie’s too old to have a nightl
ight—but fuck him. We all need a little light in our lives. Charlie is ours. He should be able to have whatever he wants, as long as we can give it to him.

  After consuming five of Michelle’s cookies and two glasses of milk, I crash on the couch without washing up for the night. I want to be able to smell Nina on my fingers just a little while longer until I fall asleep. I think I might even be excited about seeing her tomorrow. I am fully aware that almost everything that led up to us having sex was all wrong. So why does this feeling I have now, and everything I’ve felt since I first started talking to her, feel so damn right?

  6

  Nina

  “The nanny left that guy for Russell? Is she a blind idiot?”

  “Oh come on. I mean, she might be an idiot, but Russell’s a handsome man.”

  “Sure. In a very Brooks Brothers, bring-him-home-to-meet-Mom kind of way. This guy is so hot I would keep him as far away from my mom as possible. Because she would immediately kick me to the curb and try to give him a blowjob.”

  “I thought your parents are still together.”

  “They are.”

  Marnie came over ten minutes ago, in her Lululemon outfit and sneakers, claiming to be jogging around Brooklyn. But I know she just wanted to check up on me. She had been texting me every ten minutes, since five thirty this morning until I got back to her. Making sure I didn’t get murdered. Now she wants all the juicy details, and I’m trying to stall by claiming that I need a cup of coffee first. As soon as my timer goes off, she presses down on my Bodum French press, pours me a cup, and says, “Now. Tell me about the sexy bits.”

  I can’t help smiling as I think about how I woke up this morning, feeling sore in places I’ve never been sore before, in a way that has never felt so darn good. I had lain awake, remembering last night, still tasting him in my mouth, smelling him on my skin. But I almost couldn’t believe it wasn’t just a dream. I had immediately checked my phone to see if he’d called or texted and then realized that we didn’t exchange numbers. We didn’t even exchange last names.