Dirty Deeds by Stella Rhys

19

EMMETT

I was prettysure I hadn’t dreamt holding Aly against my chest while sleeping last night.

But I couldn’t be sure because by the time I woke up, she was gone. My bedroom door was slightly open and clearly, Ozzy had come in sometime this morning because now he chewing on a tennis ball in his bed next to the window.

“Dammit,” I muttered to myself when I looked at the clock. It was a quarter past ten, which meant Aly had left for work more than four hours ago.

Flopping on my back again, I thrust my hands in my hair, groaning out something that was half-frustration, half-leftover bliss. I wished that I’d woken up in time to catch Aly – but I also wasn’t going to complain about anything this morning.

Not when I’d had the best night of my life last night.

The only giveaway that it wasn’t a dream was the fact that the T-shirt I’d given Aly to sleep in last night still smelled like her. I couldn’t help bringing it with me to the bathroom, briefly holding it to my lips and breathing in her sweet scent.

It was fucking intoxicating. It made me want to drop everything, hop in my truck and drive right to where she was. I was still so drunk off of her that I wouldn’t think twice about walking in her restaurant, bending her over the counter and fucking another screaming orgasm out of those beautiful lips. I needed to taste her skin. I needed to hear those sweet fucking sounds again.

Of course, doing all that in front of everyone at work would probably break at least a couple laws, so I reined in my urges and jacked it in the shower.

The pressure built up faster than ever as I relived last night. Remembering her moans made my balls churn hard, and one thought of what she said about fitting my cock in her pussy and I was down for the count. My palm pulsed against wet tile and my head fell back as I pumped out two thick jets of cum I could easily picture glistening on Aly’s stomach.

Fuck. Jacking off was supposed to help me control my urges but apparently, when it came to Aly, it just started me up again.

I was ready to go for round two. I definitely had more than enough hot memories to work off of, but I could hear my phone ringing off the hook on my nightstand so finishing up in the shower, I turned off the faucet and forced myself to hop out.

When I got back to my room, I found three missed calls on my phone.

One from Britt. Two from Mom. I called Mom back first.

“Emmett. You’ve been ignoring my calls,” Mom greeted me after one ring. As usual, I could barely say hi before she went into whatever speech she had saved up for me. “You know, I’ll give you some credit for texting me to let me know that you are in New York this summer, but at some point, I’d expect you to call and explain why you lied about being away. To your own mother. Who loves you.”

I laughed, rubbing the back of my neck as I stood in front of my window and stared out at the street.

“I don’t know, Ma. I think it might’ve been the two-page list of friends’ daughters that you emailed me. Gotta say, that was a bit of a buzzkill.”

“I wasn’t telling you to show all of them around, I just thought you’d pick one or two to meet if the dates of their visits matched up with your availability. What’s so hard about that?”

“Nothing. Everything. I don’t know.” I ran my hand through my hair as I turned away from the window. “The real question is why you even believed that I’d be gone that long. I’ve never just upped and done that.”

Mom was quiet for a second.

“I don’t know, Emmett. I just assumed that maybe you’d finally gotten tired of everything and just… run off.” Something in my chest twisted as I heard her sigh. “Honestly, a part of me hoped that you were really leaving for that long, because Lord knows you deserve it.”

“Stop.”

“I do mean it though, Emmett. As your mother, it would make me happy if I knew you could spend even a few weeks away. Just so you can get a breather. You could go to a resort or maybe some – ”

“Ma,” I interrupted. “New subject.”

She sighed again. “Fine, moving on,” she said, though it took her a second to think of something new to say. “How’s Aly? Are you two getting along okay?”

I snorted at her question. It made me feel like a kid again because it was always what she asked every week or so, after she figured Aly and I had enough time to “cool off” from our last fight. Not that we ever had real fights.

At least not till the big one junior year.

I honestly never thought we’d get to talk about that again, let alone make peace about it. But last night was miraculous – in more ways than one – and somehow, Aly and I were finally over our hurdle.

“She and I are getting along just fine,” I answered Mom, smirking at my own massive understatement.

“I feel bad that I promised her the house to herself and now you two are spending the summer under the same roof. Especially since you had that little falling out. I know it’s never quite been the same between you since.”

That “little” falling out. Yeah.

My parents obviously knew about what happened to cause Aly and my fight. The entire school knew. But years after all that shit went down, I lied to my mom and said that Aly had finally responded to my messages and we’d buried the hatchet. I kept the lie up by saying that we talked here and there, that I’d met her once or twice for lunch, but that we were no longer close.

It was for Aly’s sake more than mine. My mom had been in the hospital the day Aly was born – she loved her like a daughter, but she was also fiercely protective of me in a way that she wasn’t with even Julian. Maybe it was because I was the younger one. Maybe it was the fact that I was the one who was around during her darkest times. Whatever it was, it meant that there was no doubt in my mind that she’d take it personally and lash out at Aly for ignoring my attempts at contact.

And considering how much Aly had always craved my mother’s approval, I couldn’t do that to her.

“Well, if your roommate situation is peachy, that’s one less thing for me to worry about,” Mom said. “Anyway, now that I know you are not in the Maldives, will you be making it to the game this Sunday? Gram misses you and Ozzy.”

“Of course,” I said. Sundays at home were on autopilot for me. For as long as I could remember, I spent Sundays at Empire Stadium with my family. It had been a tradition since I was a baby – one that included Aly’s family, too. Of course now, the tradition had us sitting not in the bleachers but a VIP suite behind home plate.

Perks of being related to the owner.

“Perfect,” Mom said. “And feel free to bring Aly. I don’t think she’s watched the game from our suite yet.”

“Sounds good. But I thought I wasn’t allowed to bring girls to Sunday games,” I grinned.

“Well, Sunday is a family day, so no bringing girls unless they’re serious girlfriends. You know that,” Mom lectured. “But Aly is different. I know she’ll never be your girlfriend – Lord, I wish – but she’ll always be a part of the family.”

I held in my laugh. There was no reason for Mom to suspect anything romantic between Aly and myself, but I still didn’t want to tip off her ultra-sensitive radar when it came to my dating life. I could only imagine how she’d react if she found out that Aly and I were any kind of involved. She’d probably sob for hours and have wedding invitations out by the end of the week. Just the thought made me shudder.

“Anyway, Ma, I gotta go. Someone’s calling me.”

“A girl?”

I took my phone off my ear to look at who was calling. “It’s Britt.”

“Oh. Her,” Mom said bluntly. “That reminds me, you do need a date for the gala next week. Not her though.”

“Yeah,” I said vaguely.

“I mean it, Emmett. You’re hosting it, so you cannot show up solo. Not unless you want me and all my friends pushing their daughters on you.”

“Alright, Mom,” I forced a laugh despite my exasperation. Leave it to her to remind me of how much I wasn’t into commitment. “I have to go though,” I said. It was just a line at first but then I remembered I really had to. “Shit. I just realized I’m supposed to have a meeting with Britt about the gala today. Fuck.”

“Language.”

“Sorry,” I winced. “I gotta go though. Love you, Ma. Tell Gram I say hi.”

“Love you too, Emmett, and will do,” Mom said with a smile in her voice. She was always good at going straight from pissed to happy again. At least with me. “Please pick up the next time I call though, alright? And give my grandkid a hug for me. Bye.”

I laughed and rolled my eyes when I hung up, but I still turned to Ozzy and said, “Grandma says hi.” Mom called herself “Grandma” around him enough that his ears perked up when he heard the G word. Most days, he cocked his head as if to ask, “Well? Are we going to see Grandma or not?” but today, he just went back to annihilating his tennis ball. I sensed he had aggression to get out for being kicked out of his spot in my bed last night. I laughed as I made a mental note to get him some new toys to make up for that. Then with a grimace, I listened to Britt’s voicemail and opted to text her back instead of call.

ME:Sorry I completely forgot about the meeting. Yes we’re still on for noon.

BRITT:All good sweetie. How’s the headache?

I squinted for a second before I realized what Britt was talking about. I’d barely thought about whatever excuse I’d given to get away from her at Cantina last night. From what I recalled now, I made up something about being irritable from a bad migraine. I was under no impression that Britt believed me but she never seemed to call people out when they lied. She did it so often herself that she didn’t think twice.

ME:I’m better thanks. I’ll meet you at Blue Harbor at noon. Usual table.

BRITT:Let’s switch it up for once. I’m already doing my 10:30 meeting at your little friend’s restaurant. Wrapping up soon so meet me here later. It’ll be like a reunion of last night. ;)

I stared at her text for three seconds then grumbled, “Shit.”

For some reason, I didn’t trust Britt to behave herself around Aly today. I wasn’t the best at reading the subtleties of girls’ interactions with other girls, but it didn’t really take a genius to know that Britt was less than pleased with being ignored throughout dinner last night – and then bailed on no less.

So hurrying into my closet, I tore off my towel and got dressed in about thirty seconds flat. Another thirty seconds, and I had Ozzy in his harness and both of us out the door.