Page 40 of Falling for the Unexpected

Trent had always been protective of Addie when we were growing up, but I realized that fierceness had long since extended to Simone. That not only included saying they looked hot, but there has always been this unspoken rule that sisters were just that, off limits. You don’t have dirty thoughts about them, kiss them, or fuck them.

Shit. I looked away, feeling the guilt burn through me. I’d broken two of those rules already.

At the end of the song, we watched the girls leave the dance floor and start walking toward the bar. They were giggling together and totally unaware of our presence.

“We should probably go say hi,” Erik suggested, looking at me when he said it.

I rolled my eyes at him. As we moved into their path, I noticed Simone walking backward, sharing something with Addie, when her back slammed into my chest. I placed my hands at her waist to steady her—and it was a good enough excuse for me to keep them there and not feel like a creep or like I was doing something wrong. It wasn’t like I was her lawyer anymore. I was her friend, too. And according to Trent, I could only be that. But at the moment, all I could think about was how good it felt to be near her and touch her.

“Oh, excuse me,” she said as she turned around to face me.

I smiled down at her. “Hey,” I greeted. I wasn’t sure she heard me, but she returned my smile.

“Kyle!” she yelled a little louder than necessary. “What are you guys doing here?”

“We’re out celebrating the return of this guy,” Trent said, thumbing toward Ian, who waved and smiled. Trent hugged Simone to his side. “By the way, happy birthday, sis.”

“Happy birthday,” we all chimed in.

“Thank you!” she exclaimed, clearly excited and in a great mood. She hugged Trent back like he was her favorite teddy bear. I frowned and looked away, annoyed. I felt possessive of her, even though she wasn’t mine to possess.

Simone wasn’t technically part of the Thompson family anymore, at least not on paper, but you couldn’t tell that to Trent or his parents. Trent gave her a brotherly enough kiss on her right temple, but damn if I felt a little irritated at how touchy feely they were. They were close, I knew that, but I rarely saw it. Whenever Simone and I were together at the office, the Thompsons’ house, or her apartment, it was about the job, and advising her through the proceedings—well, most of the time. Now that I didn’t have that shackle of duty and obligation, I rubbed the back of my neck, still conflicted about my role now and how to act around her. Not to mention, jealous as hell that Trent had his hands all over her. If Trent viewed her like a sister and still got to hug her like that, I could definitely get the same privileges, right?

I was so screwed.

“Come have a shot with us,” she said, grabbing Trent by the hand and leading him to the bar. Erik followed, wasting no time seeing that Kayla and the other girl were all by themselves.

I hung back, still sorting through some weird thoughts and uncomfortable feelings, when I watched Ian walk over to my sister. For just a moment Addie looked panicked. Then she turned on her smile and hugged him. It was a little awkward. Like two strangers instead of longtime friends.

Ian and Addie started their own conversation while Trent and Erik started talking to Simone and her friends.

I made my way over to Simone, placing my hands on her waist again, and spoke into her ear. “Happy birthday, Simone. I’m sorry I didn’t realize earlier.”

“Thank you, Kyle,” she said, spinning around to face me. She placed her hand on my chest, and leaned in for a hug.

Her touch felt amazing, and like many times before, I felt my heart speed up and I could feel every contact point her body made with mine. I had to be honest, hearing her say my name in that moment was a huge turn-on. When she pulled away, we stared at each other for a few moments before I removed my hands from her waist. She eventually slid her hand off my body as well, and goosebumps broke along my skin. Shit, I needed to control my reactions to her touch or I was going to give myself away soon.

“You want to sit down?” she inquired, climbing up on a stool and pointing to the empty one next to her.

I was in jeans and a plain black T-shirt, but I felt like I was wearing a damn parka. Didn’t the club have the air conditioning on to counter all the people inside? Knowing I needed a little breathing room before I did anything stupid, I mumbled something that she couldn’t possibly understand, let alone hear, and walked over to Trent and Erik.

“I’ll be right back,” I told them. They barely registered what I’d said, too engrossed in Kayla and the other woman. When I glanced over at Simone, she had a quiet expression on her face as her gaze met mine. She wore the same expression from when I’d kissed her, except this time, I saw disappointment. Could that be right? She gave me a small smile and turned around to face the bar. I knew my hasty departure was odd and might have hurt her feelings when she’d been so happy just a few minutes ago, but I had to take a break from standing next to her. I headed toward the back of the club where the restrooms were. My mind couldn’t focus on anything except how beautiful she looked and the thoughts running through my head were not appropriate at all.

After I returned a few minutes later, I watched the guys put away another round of drinks. If we were going to continue to hang out with the girls, I decided to stay away from the alcohol. I was already having a difficult time controlling myself; I didn’t need to add any liquor to the mix. We all decided to move to the dance floor where Erik immediately pulled Addie to dance with him, and I was glad to see her laughing and not so tense. After her talk with Ian, they’d both migrated to opposite ends of our merged groups at the bar, like they’d had their obligatory ‘talk’ and now it was time to keeping avoiding each other. I didn’t get it, but I had my own problems to deal with. Ian and Kayla started dancing together and then Trent went over to Ashley, the other girl in their group. That left Simone and me dancing together.

For the first couple of songs we kept a respectable distance between us, barely touching at all. Soon, Addie, Erik, Kayla and Ian left us to go get more drinks at the bar. Trent appeared to be interested in a hook up with Ashley. They had moved off to a dark corner of the dance floor. And I was perfectly happy to see him go off with her.

Simone seemed to be enjoying the dancing and I didn’t want to make her stop so I chose to stay out here with her. There was no way I was going to allow any other guy in the club to dance with her. She looked way too hot to be left unattended.

The next song that came on had a slower beat, and without a second thought, I moved closer to her, slipping my arms around her from behind. For just a moment I felt her stiffen in my hold, but then she relaxed. I looked over her shoulder in the direction I had seen Trent go and saw he was in full make-out mode with Ashley so I didn’t have to worry about him seeing us. The bar was on the other side of the club and I was sure the rest of our friends couldn’t see us, either.

We started to move together to the beat, her ass slightly grinding against my groin, giving me an instant hard-on. If she kept doing what she was doing, she was going to know right away what was on my mind. I leaned my head forward and whispered in her ear, “Is this okay?” I didn’t want her to feel uncomfortable. As far as I knew, she hadn’t so much as gone on a single date since leaving Brad.

“It’s totally okay,” she answered out of breath, and I wasn’t sure if that was because of the dancing or because of how I was affecting her. I hoped it was the latter.

We continued to move and she snaked her right arm up around the back of my neck, pulling me even closer to her. I started trailing my hand up and down her side. She was playing with the hair on the back of my head while continuing to grind on me. I could tell she was feeling something between us as well. Unable to resist any longer, I placed my lips on the side of her neck.

I could feel the small vibrations of her moans as I continued to assault her with kisses. Suddenly, she turned in my arms wrapping both arms around my neck.