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Carrie woke up groggy. She was trying to remember what day it was when the night before came back to her. She opened her eyes immediately and saw the heavy male arm that was still wrapped around her waist. She would’ve thought she was hallucinating if it weren’t for the fact that she was naked. They both were naked.
She could feel his hard body against hers—emphasis on the hard. She was tempted to get her hands on him since she’d missed her chance last night, but by the faint sounds she could hear coming from the kitchen, she was pretty sure Lex was up. The last thing she wanted was for her to hear the two of them.
Well... again.
The thought of coffee was the only thing that got her moving and away from the warmth of being in David’s arms. She tried to slide out of his hold without waking him up, but the moment she started to lift his arm, he grunted as his eyes blinked open.
For a moment, he seemed genuinely confused about where he was, but the moment their eyes met, she saw the recollection of the previous night’s events.
“Where do you think you’re going?” he asked her.
She had to smile at the rumpled look he was sporting. He was just too cute in the morning. She could never get enough of him.
“I was going to make some coffee. Do you want some?”
“Coffee does sound fucking good, but you know what sounds even better... having you for breakfast.”
She flushed at the picture he was painting. She had to remind herself that Lex was still in the apartment, and it was hard enough keeping quiet last night; she didn’t think she had it in herself to do it again.
She shook her head in disappointment. “Lex is here, and it’s already going to be hard enough to look her in the eye after last night.”
He laughed at the embarrassed look in her eyes before sitting up and pulling her towards him. He captured her lips with his own, even though she knew she should brush her teeth, she couldn’t resist the feeling of him against her. He was quickly becoming her favorite addiction.
He pulled away with a heavy sigh. “Now go before I tie you to the bed for the entire day.”
Her eyebrows raised, but she couldn’t deny the shiver that ran up her spine at the thought of him taking control over her like that. She knew that he could read her interest in her eyes—one of his own eyebrows raised in surprise—but before he could broach the subject, she stood up from the bed so she could get dressed.
She put on her clothes from last night, but David was a little slower, probably due to the fact that he looked like he was still half asleep.
“I’ll go and get your coffee ready. How do you like it?”
“Black with just a little cream; thanks.” She gave him another kiss before exiting her room and making her way to the kitchen where she could hear Lex puttering around.
“Hey, how was the party last night?” she asked her right away to try to get the attention off of her before Lex could start asking too many questions.
“Good. Made out with a hot basketball player so I consider it a win. How was your night? Where’d you go, anyway? I came back because I forgot my keys, and you weren’t here.” Carrie wasn’t sure what to say, but when Lex’s eagle eyes saw the second mug that Carrie was grabbing down from the cabinet, she immediately questioned her. “How tired are you? You could just get an IV, and it would probably hit your system faster,” she joked.
“Yeah,” she said quietly. She was still trying to figure out how to tell Lex that David had stayed over last night when the man himself came strutting out of her room like he owned the place. She looked over at Lex whose mouth was wide open. Her eyes were so wide they looked like they were going to fall out of her head.
“Here you go,” Carrie said quietly to David as she handed him the mug she’d poured for him.
“Thanks.” He gave her a kiss on the top of her head before taking a sip from the still hot cup. He looked over at Lex who was still looking at them like she couldn’t believe what she was seeing. “How are you this morning, Lex?”
“Uh...” Her eyes flitted from one of them to the next for a few more moments before abruptly asking, “What the hell is going on?” She didn’t sound at all mad, just super shocked, which Carrie couldn’t blame her for.
“Um...David sort of stayed over last night.”
Lex blinked a few times. “Stayed over, stayed over?” When Carrie’s cheeks flushed, Lex shrieked so loud that Carrie almost placed her hands over her ears. “Are you serious? You two slept together? When did this happen? When I came back, you weren’t even here? Did you...” She trailed off as she looked from them to Carrie’s room and back again. Carrie could see that she was connecting the dots as only she could. “Oh. Oh. Oh my God. Were you two in there when I came back?”
“Um...” Carrie couldn’t think of what to say, but she didn’t need to. Lex took her silence as an affirmative. She threw her hands up and covered her mouth.
“While I was outside...?” she asked quietly.
Carrie pursed her lips. “Maybe,” she hedged carefully.
Lex slapped her arm lightly before doing the same to David’s. The sparkle in her eyes told Carrie that she wasn’t the least bit mad.
“Who knew you had it in you? I’m weirdly proud,” she said while wiping a fake tear away from the corner of her eye.
“Oh, shut it. Don’t you have a class or something to go to?”
Lex shook her head gleefully. “I don’t have anywhere to be.”
David laughed at that before placing his empty mug in their sink. “I should get going, sweetheart. Those documents aren’t going to take care of themselves.”
“Okay.” She was disappointed that they couldn’t spend the day together, but she more than understood.
He pulled her in for another kiss that, due to their audience member, wasn’t nearly as long as she would’ve liked.
“I’ll text you later, okay?”
She nodded her head before she walked him towards the door. The moment the door was shut behind him, she heard Lex shriek again.
“What the hell happened to Operation Forget Clarke? I don’t think that was in our plans.”
Carrie sighed before going back to the kitchen where Lex still stood.
“I’m just as shocked as you are,” she told her. She picked up her now chilled coffee before taking a few sips.
“What happened? Tell me everything,” Lex nearly demanded.
So Carrie did. She explained how he came to her door last night, and not even five minutes later, had her mouth claimed. She kept some of the good parts to herself, but when she told Lex what he had done while she stood outside her door unaware, she shook her head in disbelief. When she finished telling her about how he had stayed overnight for her, she was fanning herself as if she was feeling too warm.
“This is just... unbelievable. Truly...” she said as she shook her head. “But I’m happy for you, Care. You deserve all of this and more.”
“Thanks,” Carrie whispered.
“So when are you guys going to tell your brother?”
Carrie took a deep breath. “He doesn’t want to do it until he can prove to my brother that he’s not the same man he was last year. That he’s not going to just use me for one night and then be done with me.” She’d heard women talk about their experiences with David before; she knew that he never went into a fling without stating the facts first. He didn’t want to lead anyone on, and for that, she admired him. She was just over the moon with the fact that he’d told her that he wanted more. He wanted her to be his, and so did she.
“Is he really that certain that John’s not going to like it?”
“Yeah. With how he was talking about it last night, there wasn’t a doubt in his mind that my brother would never forgive him for going after me.”
“How is he going to change his mind?”
That was exactly what Carrie wanted to know.
“I’m not sure. The only thing he said was that he wanted to do it as soon as he could so he could call me his.”
“Aww,” Lex said in amazement. “Who knew David Clarke could be so romantic.”
~~~
DAVID WAS FORCED TO put Carrie to the back of his mind while he focused on his work. He wished that he could just put his effort into finding a way to win her brother over, but that just wasn’t a possibility. He couldn’t postpone his work, not when he was hoping to make a career out of this.
After many sleepless nights and stressful days, he sent in his application to his dream law schools just a few weeks ago. Now, all he needed to do was be patient and wait for when the admissions would be handed out... No problem...
Not.
He was never known for his patience. Back when he was playing hockey, he was always so antsy for the games to start. It was hard for him when he knew something interesting was on the horizon, but he had to wait to get it. Part of him wished that he’d gone straight to law school after graduating, but he knew that the best thing for him was to get some real-world experience. Hopefully, it would look good on his applications.
Another thing that he was really impatient about... was making Carrie his. It was so difficult to know that they both felt the same way about each other but had to wait before making it official. Especially now that he knew what she felt like underneath him, the way she sounded when she moaned his name while in the throes of pleasure. How was he supposed to play cool when he was around her now that he knew what she tasted like?
He’d be surprised if he could make it an hour around John before letting it slip that he had just fucked his sister... That wasn’t going to end well.
He needed to figure out a way or ways to get John to see that he wasn’t going to treat Carrie like a conquest. He was drawing a complete blank.
Just as he set the finished paperwork aside, he heard a knock on his front door. Part of him wished that it would be Carrie on the other side, but when he glanced through the peephole, he was surprised to see that it wasn’t her but her brother instead.
“What’s up?” he asked after opening the door.
John ran a hand through his hair in a nervous manner. “Hey, is it cool if I come in?”
“‘Course.” He stepped back and led the way to his living room, letting John close the door behind him. “Can I get you a beer?”
“Sure.”
David turned and went into the kitchen. When he came back, John was already sitting on the couch with his jacket flung on the arm.
“Thanks,” he said when David handed him the bottle. They sat down and sipped at their drinks for a few moments before David felt like he had to break the silence.
“What’s going on?”
John sighed. “I feel like I might’ve overstepped yesterday. I don’t want you to feel like you’re not good enough for Carrie. I just feel super protective of her. I always have. I’ve always been wary of guys hitting on her. I’m not stupid; I know she’s not exactly ugly, but if I wasn’t there for her, then who knows what kind of bad stuff could’ve happened to her.”
David’s thoughts immediately went to the night that Carrie was attacked just a few weeks ago. John didn’t realize how spot-on his worries were when it came to his little sister.
“You know you can’t protect her forever.”
“I know, but I can damn well try.”
David took a deep breath before swallowing a mouthful of his beer. “I just don’t get it. You know I would never hurt Carrie. How could you think that I would treat her any differently than I normally do?”
“So your opinion still hasn’t changed?” David asked him. John shrugged his shoulders. “What would you have done if someone had told you that you weren’t good enough for Taylor?”
John sighed before answering. “I would’ve told them to go to hell and then went after her anyway.”
David laughed. “Do you realize how much I want to tell you the same thing?”
John couldn’t seem to hold back a chuckle. “There’s a reason we’re best friends.”
They sat in contemplative silence for a few more minutes before David took a chance and told him, “I’m going to show you that I’m a good choice for Carrie. I won’t be good enough for her—no one is good enough for her—but I’ll damn well be worthy enough to stand next to her.”
John stared at him thoughtfully as he processed what David was telling him. It took him a moment to respond.
“I know you will. Just be careful with her, okay? She’s been through a lot and doesn’t need her heart broken right now.” He gave David a stern look.
“I would never hurt her,” David said. That was one thing he was sure of in his world. He would rather harm himself before laying a hand on Carrie.
The two of them moved on to lighter topics as they finished their beers. Once their bottles were empty, David walked John to the door and said goodbye, already thinking about calling Carrie after he was gone and seeing what she was doing.