I opened my mouth to answer, but Rosie spoke first. “Told you he was hot, didn’t I? And the hair, he has such perfect hair.” She stroked my hair and sighed dreamily.

I laughed and rolled my eyes. “Thanks, Rose; you’re not too shabby yourself. Let’s get you to bed, huh?” I suggested, looking at the three doors at the end of the hallway, I had no idea which one was hers. “Which door?” Toni pointed to the one on the left. I smiled gratefully and headed in that direction.

“Was DJ okay tonight?” Rosie asked her sister, immediately putting her finger to her lips trying to shush everyone when she was the only one making noise.

“He was fine. Straight to sleep; no problems. See you in the morning, I’m gonna sleep on the couch because it looks like you’re going to be hungover in the morning.”

“Okay, honey, see you and thanks. You’re the best sister ever, you know that?” Rosie slurred.

I pushed her bedroom door open and looked around her room as I carried her over to the bed. It was basic, not much stuff, just like the rest of the apartment. I laid her down and went to pull back, but her arms tightened around my neck, pulling my mouth to hers again. I kissed her back but pulled away before it went too far. She was drunk, after all.

I smiled as I pulled away and ran one finger over the side of her face. She really was so beautiful, every feature just flawless and perfect. Her hands slid down my shoulders to the buttons of my shirt as she hooked one leg around me, pulling me down on top of her more.

I need to go, this is wrong, she’s drunk…

“Rose, I’ll call you in the morning,” I mumbled, as she opened a couple of buttons on my shirt.

“Nate,” she moaned, tightening her leg on my waist, holding me against her as her eyes showed just how much she longed to ravage me.

I kissed her again softly – a goodbye kiss. But one of her hands tangled into the back of my hair, holding my head there, and I couldn’t help but slip my tongue into her mouth, moaning as her taste attacked my will power. I pulled back and put my forehead to hers, looking into her excited eyes.

“Nate, will you talk dirty to me?” she whispered, her hand pulling on my shirt again trying to get it off.

Talk dirty to her… Is that a joke? “What?” I mumbled, the lust leaking into my voice so it was more like a growl.

She nodded encouragingly. “Tell me what you want to do to me,” she purred, her eyes burning into mine showing me how excited she was about it.

Oh shit, this girl is killing me! The thought of it was making me so hot for her that I was actually surprised I hadn’t cl**axed already from the dirty thoughts I was having alone. “You’re into that?” I whispered, as I kissed her neck, sucking on the skin lightly.

“Mmm hmm.”

I pulled back to look at her. That was certainly going to be fun when we did that! I couldn’t help but wonder what else she was into if she liked a little spoken smut. “Are you a little kinky, Rosie?” I teased.

She giggled and bit her lip, looking at me through her eyelashes. “Are you, Officer Peters?”

I gulped; I had absolutely met my match with this girl. The temperature was rising in the room – or maybe it was just my blood boiling in my veins. I knew I needed to leave before I gave into my body’s urges and did what she was asking.

“I should go before you get any naughtier,” I muttered, trying to force myself to get off her.

“Yeah because I wouldn’t want you to have to spank me,” she replied, narrowing her eyes playfully.

Holy crap, I need to leave, right now!

I pushed off her quickly. “I gotta go. I’ll call you in the morning. I hope you aren’t too hungover, and I’ll see you Monday night, okay?” I kissed her forehead and walked out of the room without looking at her again. As soon as I was out of the door, I leant against the wall and took a couple of deep breaths. It was taking every ounce of my self-control not to walk back into the room and give her exactly what she was asking for. When I had calmed down slightly, I refastened the top five buttons of my shirt that Rosie had managed to get undone, and then headed into the lounge. Toni was sitting on the sofa watching TV.

“Hey, I’m now leaving. She’s really wasted in there; she might need a bowl in case she pukes,” I admitted, wincing at the thought.

She shook her head. “She won’t puke, she never pukes from alcohol.”

I laughed at that. Of course, Rosie would have the stomach of a sumo wrestler. “Okay, well it was nice to meet you.”

“You too. Oh and, Nate, just don’t hurt her, okay? She’s really fragile. I know she comes across as being tough and able to cope with anything, but inside she’s just a scared little pu**y cat,” she said, looking at me pleadingly.

Smiling, I nodded reassuringly. “I know she is. G’night.”

I let myself out of her apartment and headed downstairs to the cab that was, thankfully, still waiting for me. I slipped into the back seat and gave the guy my address, resting my head back on the seat, grinning. ‘Talk dirty to me’ she’d said. That was going to be fun when it happened.

When I slipped in my bed that night, my last thoughts were of her. Before I could fall asleep, my ‘new best friend’, and me as Ashton called it, played out a lot of the things I would have talked to her about, had she not been wasted.

Chapter Sixteen

The following morning, I made the couple of hours drive to my parents’ beach house. When I pulled into the drive, I smiled up at the house. I loved coming here. The smell of the air, the white house that I grew up in, the tree that I used to use to climb out of my bedroom when I wanted to sneak out… it brought back happy memories.

I headed inside, grinning. Immediately, my mom tackled me into a hug. I laughed as she squeezed the life out of me.

“You lost weight!” she griped, patting my back and sides.

I pulled back shook my head. That was always the first thing out of her mouth, followed by…

“You really need to find a girl to look after you and feed you properly, Nathaniel!”

“I missed you,” I said honestly, ignoring her comment. I had a nice girl, and my mom was going to flip when I told her about Rosie! I’d been holding off telling my family in case I screwed it up and got dumped.

She smiled and linked her arm through mine, pulling me into the kitchen where she was already cooking up a storm ready for my arrival.

“I missed you too. How have you been, you good?” She eyed me worriedly.

“I’m doing really good actually.” My mom looked just the same as she always did, her mousy brown hair pulled back into a messy bun, her light blue eyes sparkling with happiness. She wore her usual attire of shorts and a loose fitted top, designed for comfort, but she still looked classy and beautiful even though she was pushing fifty-five.

Movement from the corner of my eye caught my attention, and my youngest sister, Lisa walked in. As usual, she was wearing baggy jeans and a band tee, too much eyeliner and black nails. Her blonde hair had thick jet-black streaks in it. They were new. I flicked my eyes to my mom wondering why she let her do that to her hair, she just shrugged in response.

Lisa bobbed her head in acknowledgement, not taking her earphones out as she hummed along to the heavy metal crap she was listening to. I waited until she turned her back, looking in the fridge, before I grabbed her from behind and spun her round making her squeal. When I set her down on her feet again, she scowled.

“Jerk!” she hissed.

I smirked at her and nodded. “Yeah, you know it. Got a hug for me?” I asked, holding my arms out to her, already knowing she wouldn’t do it. She only ever came to me if she needed something; I was a little too strict for her liking. As youngest of three daughters, she got her own way over everything and didn’t like that her big brother ordered her around.

“Whatever,” she scoffed, turning back to the fridge.

“Wash that crap out of your hair before I come next time,” I joked, putting on a stern face.

She gasped and looked at mom. “I’m not washing it out just because golden boy says so! Tell him to leave me alone, Mom, he’s only been here for five minutes and he’s already pissing me off!” She crossed her arms over her chest defensively.

I laughed and raised one eyebrow. Her strops were getting worse. “Stop cussing! Any boyfriends I need to know about? I could break some legs before I leave.”

Her scowl deepened, and she grabbed the carton of orange juice from the fridge, turning and stalking out of the room, grumbling about me under her breath. I smiled. Lisa was only seventeen, and as baby sisters went, she was a pain in the ass – but I loved her.

Mom laughed and shook her head, putting more bacon in the pan to cook. “Leave her alone, Nathaniel.”

My mom only called me Nathaniel when she was telling me off about something. “She loves it really. So, how have you all been?” I asked, picking at the bread that she’d buttered on the side.

“We’re good. Let me think what’s happened since I spoke to you in the week…” she trailed off, pursing her lips, thinking about the weekly events. She brightened and looked at me as she suddenly remembered something. “Cousin Anthony’s getting married!”

Married? The guy is only twenty-one! Why the hell would he want to get married that young? For some reason, my mind flicked to Rosie, which made me frown and shift on my feet awkwardly as I attacked another slice of bread.

“Really?” I asked, pretending to be interested.

She nodded and looked at me longingly, and I knew exactly what was coming… ‘When are you going to settle down, Nate?’ I quickly spoke before she could say it. “Where’s Dad? Hannah? Paige?” I asked.

Mom smiled, obviously catching on to my change of subject. “They’re out back, setting up the table on the patio ready for breakfast.”

I grinned; I hadn’t seen my sisters for a while, especially Paige. Last time I came here she was off for the weekend with friends. She was the one I got on with the most; we were the closest in age, so that probably made a difference. She was twenty-three; the same age as Rosie.

“And do I have any big brother duties to perform before I leave? Have they been skipping school? Stealing? Do I need to make some threats of castration to boys hanging around, or run some security checks?” I inquired.

She smiled knowingly, and my stomach clenched. She didn’t need to say it, I knew what that smile meant. One of them was dating.

“Which one?” I demanded.

“He’s a nice boy, before you start! They’ve only been seeing each other for a couple of weeks, but she’s liked him for a while.” She laughed, probably at me, considering I was instantly starting to worry about guys – like me – dating my sister. I knew exactly what kind of guys there were out there; I was one of the people I warned my sisters about, guys that used people for their own interests, guys that just wanted to have fun.

“Which one?” I repeated when she didn’t answer.

“Hannah,” she finally answered.

I nodded and headed over towards the door, needing to go find out about this little punk that dare touch my little sister.

“Hannah!” I shouted, as I burst through the door.

My sister looked up and pouted. “Mom! Did you tell him about Robert?” she whined.

“Hell yeah, she did! Why is this the first time I’m hearing about this guy? Call him and invite him for breakfast,” I ordered, pulling my cell phone from my pocket and holding it out to her.

She rolled her eyes. “Nate, I’m almost twenty-two, you can’t tell me what to do. You think this is my first boyfriend?”

I stopped short. “I hope it is.”

She shared a knowing look with Paige, who was standing there too, and it suddenly dawned on me that there were probably a lot of boys that they’d been seeing that I didn’t know about. My mind wandered to what I was doing as at their age; Lisa’s age even. I didn’t really have the right to judge them for anything. But, these were my baby sisters, and they would always be the little girls in pigtails that I used to take the park and play hide and seek for hours on end with. It was too hard to let go of being their big brother and let them grow up, and possibly get hurt.

Hannah laughed. “Well, he’s not,” she admitted. “And Robert is a sweetheart, so you’ll leave him alone!”

I frowned; I still needed to see the little punk, I didn’t care if he was a ‘sweetheart’ or not, he needed to know that if he hurt my sister I’d hurt him twice as bad in return. I looked to my dad for backup, but he just shrugged and shook his head in a ‘leave it alone’ gesture. I sighed; my dad always was laid back. People usually said that I got that from him; I knew for certain that I got my looks from him. I was the spitting image of him, same build, same blond hair and blue eyes – but I inherited my mom’s determination. When she set her mind to something she got it, no matter what it was, she worked and worked until it was hers, and I was exactly the same.

“Fine,” I grumbled. “But I want to meet him before I leave.” There was no leverage on that; it wasn’t up for debate.

Hannah nodded, somewhat reluctantly. My shoulders relaxed. Once I’d checked him out, he’d know not to mess her around, and then everything would be fine. “Okay, I’ll ask him over tonight,” Hannah agreed. She put down the cutlery she was holding and stepped closer to me. “So, now that the lectures over with, do I get a proper hello?”

I laughed and pulled her into a hug. When I let her go, Paige grabbed me, wrapping her arm around my waist. She gasped, in mock horror. “You lost weight!” she stated, doing an excellent imitation of my mom’s voice, causing everyone to erupt into laughter.