Seven

“We’re gonna... go,” Sarah said, pulling against Kris’ hand as he moved in the direction of the hotel door.  She looked at her friends as if willing them to be okay with it. “Anyone need anything from the room?”

Cary looked at Liz, who looked quickly at Sidney then at the ground.  If the room was in use, she had nowhere to go.  And if she didn’t want to go with Sid, she was about to be ditched by both of her friends.

“You can come with us,” Cary quickly offered, though she heard the sound of Jordan’s jaw clenching.  “We’ll find something to do.”

“Or, er... um, want to go to a movie or something?  I actually have to get some stuff for my new place so I could use a shopping trip,” Sidney said.  Cary wanted to hug him for suggesting something so non-threatening, especially when Kris was about to drag Sarah to the nearest bedroom by her hair.  Liz glanced at Cary nervously.

Loosen up, Liz!  Don’t miss your chance to ride that train.

Cary gave what she hoped to be an encouraging smile, and the way Liz’s shoulders relaxed made her decision obvious.  Sid beeped the remote for his car, then held a hand out tentatively.  Liz took it and Cary admired Crosby’s ass as he led them away.

“I really do need to get you alone,” Jordan whispered, so close behind Cary she almost jumped.  His hands settled on her waist.

“Okay, we get it.  Everybody go get laid.  I’m going to burn all my bedding,” James groused.
Geno smiled broadly.  “Wanna watch Titanic?”
____

Jordan buckled himself into his car, turned the heat up and looked in the rear view mirror.

Shit Staalsy, you did have a rough night.

He had that definite morning-after look to him, fighting a hangover and having packed away four thousand calories to make up for it.  His eyes were red and a little dark underneath.  Come to think of it he was really tired.  But the way Cary’s thighs slid across the leather seat of his SUV predicted his bed would be used for other things.  She held her mitten-clad hands up to the vent like a little kid.

“Are you sure this is...,” she started.

Jordan leaned over, lips puckered and waited very patiently until she obliged him with a kiss.  

“It’s exactly what I want to do,” he said, putting the car in gear.  On the way across town he gave Cary the local tour.

“We got in just before the game last night, I haven’t seen much of anything.”

That gave him pause.  It was only early afternoon and probably her only full day in the city.  Maybe she wanted to visit the sights, ride the incline, visit the Warhol Museum. Maybe she hadn’t taken a guy home last night to spend all of today with him.  Maybe she didn’t really want to do this after all.  His fingers flexed around the steering wheel with a surprising amount of force.  Jordan hated to be wrong but he really, really didn’t want to be wrong about this.

“Hey,” she said softly.  He realized they were nearly to his place, he’d been quiet too long.

She’s too nice to tell me to get lost.  Or too big of a Pens fan.  She doesn’t want to be here.
Her brown eyes were almost golden in the wintry sunlight.  The center of her bottom lip was a little dry, like she’d forgotten Chapstick in her drunken stupor last night.  Jordan wanted to kiss it away.  The force of that desire shocked him.

He cleared his throat.  “We can go do the touristy stuff.”  He even managed a cheerful tone.  

"The botanical gardens are really nice, and four hundred and forty six bridges we could drive across.”

It sounded fake even as he was saying it.  He’d settle for any of those things, hoping that some alone time would come at the end, but he’d rather cut to the chase now.  They were almost to his town house.  He had soft blankets and comfy couches, fluffy pillows and sweatpants and t-shirts and aspirin.  All the water they could drink.  It was less than a mile away.

Come on, we’re already home.

Jordan didn’t even think about sex, at least not right away.  He could maybe even go without that.  But he didn’t want to share.
_____

Cary watched a hundred expressions cross Jordan’s face in the few minutes he was quiet.  Disappointment, disbelief, frustration, embarrassment.  Of course she hadn’t meant to cause any of those things.  She wanted to be with him, preferably alone and comfortable.  As the fatigue and soreness of a crazy night crept back into her body, comfortable sounded more like borrowed socks and a cup of tea on the sofa.  But whatever idea her mind formed it definitely included Jordan.

“Jordan, I don’t want to go anywhere but your house.”

His blue eyes darted over to catch her gaze.  “You sure?”

Cary let herself smile at his doubt.

Jordan Staal is insecure.  That’s rich.

“I’ve seen you naked,” she pointed out.  “What else is there?”

He chuckled and Cary snuggled back into her seat, a tiny glow warming her chest.  Jordan was unsure of himself.  Jordan really wanted to spend time with her.  Even if it was just in the bedroom, Cary was sure he could simply roll down his car window and have a pack of women follow him home.  But she was the one in the passenger seat, for now at least.

The townhouse was at the end of a row of houses at the top of a hill.  It was borderline bachelor pad with the biggest TV Cary had ever seen, multiple video game systems, a dart board and huge, overstuffed couches.  She walked right past him and threw herself down on one.

“Oh my God, leave me here forever.”

Jordan sat right on top of her. “If you’re talking about forever, you at least have to make it to the bedroom.”

She followed him upstairs, where the tour included two guest rooms and ended in the master suite.  It was wide and brightly lit by large windows on two sides.  A desk, a cluttered bookshelf, some photos, dirty clothes and shoes were scattered around like confetti.  Jordan shuffled in and started collecting dropped items.

“If I’d know you were coming over....”

“If you’d remembered me at all...,” she offered.

“If I’d had enough sense to stay sober so I could seal the deal last night, you would have remembered that.”  He dropped an armload of stuff and stood very close to her, looking down with those sky blue eyes.  Cary felt a little wobble in her knees.

Chances are, Cary would not have remembered.  But she liked to believe otherwise.  With a smirk at one corner of her mouth she said, “I bet you’re right."
____

You bet your ass I’m right.

Without touching any other part of her, Jordan lifted the hem of Cary’s sweater.  She held her arms up and he pulled it off.  The plan had been to remove all of her clothes one item at a time without so much as brushing her skin.  But seeing her breasts swell in her bra, the way her hair brushed her bare shoulders; he ditched his plan and went for the one that had apparently worked the first time.

He kissed her.  The longer it went on the deeper it got - hands in hair, nails on skin, biting and grinding and whimpering - until Jordan was seeing stars behind his closed eyelids.  The kiss broke only to let his shirt pass between them on its way to the floor.

“Jordan,” Cary said.  It sent a shiver down his spine.

“Anything,” he replied, even if it wasn’t a question.

There was no more talking, only kissing.  Only picking her up and laying her out on the bed, pouring himself over her and resuming the grinding and whimpering portion of the program.  She slipped the zipper on his pants.  He popped the clasp on her bra.  Her eyes glimmered almost green in the glance he caught before taking his mouth to the delicate slope of her neck, where her pulse beat a rapid pace against his lips.  It matched his racing heart.

Cary was down to her panties a second later.  The silky fabric below her belly button was cool to the touch, but lower between her legs she radiated heat.  His fingers spread that warmth, slipping beneath the scrap of material to coat themselves with her anticipation.  She moaned quietly against his cheek as he pressed a long, wide finger inside.

The softness of her body was so inviting, the smooth skin endless and her breathing caught when a second finger joined the first.  Jordan tried to memorize the feel of her, to match her gasps and whispers with exactly what he was doing so he could do it again later.  And tomorrow.  And next weekend.

I have to win this.

His cock throbbed so hard it felt like a stomach ache.  Ditching his shorts was the only reason to leave her alone, sprawled on the bed like peanut butter waiting for the jelly.  As he returned, Cary spread her legs for him.

“Cary.”  His tip prodded her entrance, teasing her open just enough for every nerve ending to fire at once.  Her lips parted and he brought his down on them, eyes still open, and watched her face as he slowly forced her body to take him all the way in.

Don’t come, don’t come, don’t come.

Cary clung to him and sobbed out a breath when he was nearly home, almost run the length of his shaft deep into her hot, tight core.  Jordan pushed just a little further and felt the back of her thighs come to rest against him.

“Ohmygod,” she whispered.
____

Cary was about to cry.  Or ask Jordan to marry her.  They’d been together twice, frantically, and while she remembered the overwhelming sensation of having him inside her, she’d never taken the time to feel every inch of him filling her past bursting.  It hurt and it didn’t, it was uncomfortable and it wasn’t - her senses were confused.  And not just physical feeling; Cary was also thrown by how intent Jordan had been when touching her, by the strength of his kiss as he took her breath away in two ways at once.  His intentions were surprisingly clear.

I must be crazy.  I’ve got dick fever and I’m imagining things.  But he’s totally worth it.

Her brain spun like a game show prize wheel trying to process it all.  Finally it landed on trying to lighten the situation.

“How did your dick getting bigger since last time?”

Jordan laughed sharply.  His head dropped to her shoulder and he squeezed her tight, laugh rocking both of them in a way that Cary considered still the best sex of her life.  If Jordan never moved at all, she could definitely get off on this alone.

“You...,” was all he said.

... are crazy. Are lucky.  Are really in for it.

“I know.”

With a roll of his hips, Jordan stroked against Cary’s body.  It was like pulling the cork on a bottle of wine, then forcing a stopper back in.  Bubbles quickly built in her stomach.  Her body decided that every thing about him was pleasure over pain and that it missed the pain, just a little, so it started begging for more.  She arched her bag, getting up into his lap as he pulled her off the blanket and body-slammed her back down on every stroke.  Every time her body trembled but still she twisted and writhed, clutching at his broad shoulders for something to hold on to.  She closed her eyes as if the only way to achieve this feeling was to pretend it was a dream.  Then Jordan grunted roughly as he bottomed out on a hard thrust.

“Yes,” she panted, though he’d nearly run her through.  “God yes.”

Cary opened her eyes.  Jordan was right there, holding her face close and pressing the words he wasn’t saying against her lips in a kiss.  Her trembling doubled to see his perfect, beautiful face, the one she felt she knew so well before ever arriving in Pittsburgh, straining to hold it together over little old Cary Sullivan.

Some things must be seen to be believed.

“Look at me,” Jordan said when her eyelids fluttered down again.  As she focused on him, he pulled up on the hand beneath her back, sat up and tipped her right into his lap.  She cried out as the new angle drove him past anyplace she’d ever been.

“Does it hurt?” he asked with genuine concern.

Cary shifted her weight, feeling like she was spitted for the barbeque.  “Try it.”

The light strokes were almost as devastating as the heavy ones.  Jordan raised and lowered her gently along his hard shaft, the soft round of her ass dented by his firm grip.  Cary threw her arms around his neck to keep from falling backward.  The head of his cock brushed her g-spot and she jumped.

“Ooh,” he said with a devious smile.  Then he did it again, just a slow drag, and bells and whistles started ringing like they were opening the stock market.

“Jordan.”  Her voice was raspy, sexy.
____

Please don’t ask me.

Jordan wasn’t in the position to be denying anyone anything, unless Cary asked him to stop.  There was simply no way.

One giant hand splayed at the center of her back held Cary upright against him.  Her breasts bounced against his chest as his other hand guided her hip, keeping her within stroking distance.  She got her feet wrapped around behind him.

It was perfect.  He could see and feel and kiss every part of her in some way.  He reached around and stroked the instep of her foot, making her squeal and twitch.  He traced the round bone of her ankle and the hollow next to it.  She watched his face closely.

“I’m glad it was you, Jordan,” she said as his fingers feathered the sensitive skin behind her knee.  

His smile was crooked as he tried to cover up just how happy that made him.  It didn’t work - he got harder as she rocked firmly, their stomachs meeting.  Cary had to fight to get all of him on every stroke.  The way her fingers gripped at his muscles, the tiny roll her eyes did every time he reached that faraway place turned him on like nothing else.  It didn’t take much encouragement to increase their speed, until Cary was bouncing in his lap like a rag doll and he was fighting his orgasm off with everything he had.

She was close.  Jordan didn’t know her tells yet - the secrets that were hers alone, that he hoped to have the time to study and perfect.  But the signs were there: breath catching, chest heaving, tiny delicate strings of colorful curse words like beads on a necklace.  He caught her in close, kissed her hard and threw them both down onto the mattress.

On top he was in control.  Of himself at least.  And it was easier to use all the momentum generated by his giant body to pin her to the mattress with pounding swings.  Cary’s back arched so hard only her ass and her head touched the blanket.  Jordan forced her mouth open beneath his kiss and swallowed her scream.

Oh thank you God yes.

Cary’s body locked, then started pumping hard against his shaft.  A hot wet flow coated him.  She rode right through the orgasm and snatched every last bit of pleasure Jordan had to give before refocusing her gaze.

“Come on, baby,” she said.
____

Five minutes.  Maybe three.

Cary came so hard she learned Latin.  Like being plugged into the Matrix, she’d just downloaded straight from Jordan’s dick what sex should feel like.  What an orgasm really was.  The heights that pleasure could reach.

And she was spent.

It had apparently been a long night, and a very interesting morning that had already stretched much longer than she expected.  She’d been soundly fucked three times in a way that would give her lots of new ideas the moment she could regain her senses.  And the perfection that was Jordan Staal was still wrapped around her and working himself to the grand finale. If she could stay awake that long.

“Come on, baby.”

Cary was incapable of giving Jordan what he had given her.  He probably nailed a new girl every couple of days, ruined her for all other men and paid her cab fare home so she could doodle #11s for the rest of her life while soaking her entire underwear collection.  But she wanted to know that he at least got what he came for.

So from some deep reserve, she found another burst of energy.  Bucking her hips up to meet him, she gave Jordan a target to swing at and he took a few swings before he hit one out of the park.

“Fuck,” he grunted, tearing open and pouring into her.  She felt him throb hard and deep, his wide shoulders shaking with the force.  The second he was still, Cary gave up and went down beneath him.

Jordan’s mouth was at her ear.  They were tossed across the bed, a twisted pile of bare skin, and his heart hammered right through them both.

“Cary,” he said in a drained voice.  “I’m glad it was me.”

_

Six

Sorry this has been delayed, life just won't get out of the way lately.

____

“Darryl!” Tyler shouted from the bottom of the stairs.  

Jordan knew that TK and company were fast approaching hangovers and needed the same amount of comfort food he and Cary had shared at the diner.  He figured it didn’t help either that TK, James and Geno hadn’t gotten laid while everyone else had.  Some of them very recently and very loudly.  His whole body hummed happily in post-workout bliss.

Absently twisting a strand of Cary’s hair around his finger, Jordan silently applauded himself for the ninth or tenth time.  The other girls were definitely cute, but even in a blurry state Jordan had hooked himself a prize.  And he might not want to throw it back.

Footsteps arrived at the top of the stairs.  Geno sauntered over and blocked the bottom of the flight.

“What take so long?” he said in his best insinuating voice.

“That noise was not us!” Liz put her hands up, but the blush on her cheeks said they may have been using it as a soundtrack.  

Tyler laughed.  “Yeah, we know.”

“Hey,” Sid stomped to a stop.  “It could have been!”

Kris looked at Jordan who looked at James and they all started laughing.  Howling actually.  Sid made a pouty face, added to the hooded sweatshirt he’d borrowed, and looked like an angry five year old.  Liz looked like she wanted to climb into the potted plant in the corner.

“Everyone out of my house!” James called.

Only Jordan had a car, because he’d driven over that morning.  So they walked a few streets over, thankful they hadn’t also forgotten their coats.  The Friday lunch crowd was thin and they were seated far from prying eyes.  Jordan put Cary on the inside of a booth and sat as close to her as possible.  It felt almost as good as holding her, knowing  her shape against his side.  She pretended not to smile as she ran her hand right up into his crotch.  Jordan gulped.

“Coffee, lots of coffee,” Sarah said before the waitress could even ask.  The girl was young and looked a bit alarmed to see such a ragged group of recognizable faces.  She scurried off and was back a second later with two full pots.  No one chose decaf.  But they did order everything else on the menu.  

When the girl had covered two pages with writing and everyone had a full mug, Kris finally asked, “What happened last night?”

“There was line dancing,” Liz offered quietly.  She was at the end of the booth, with Sid pulled up next to her at the head of the table.  Jordan noticed Crosby cheated the chair as close to Liz as he could get and still rest his elbows on the table.  Very casual.

The one girl he nails and she’s scared to death of him.

Jordan draped an arm around Cary’s shoulders and gave Sid a big shit-eating grin.

“You,” Sid pointed at Cary, “bought me an Irish car bomb.  Something about leprechauns, which I think actually offended Man Boy.”

James laughed.  “You offended a midget who lives in a house on the bar.  That is impressive.”

“The bartender said you did six car bombs,” Cary shot back.  

Sid opened his mouth to protest, then closed it like in a cartoon.  He thought for a moment.  “Six?”  Cary nodded.  With a grimace on his face, Sid looked at Liz.  “Uh, us both waking up naked may be unrelated.”

The whole table roared.  Liz covered her face, which gave Sid an excuse to put his arm around her like he’d been kidding.  But Jordan knew he probably wasn’t.  Captain Kool-Aid was more likely to throw up on someone than fuck them after six drinks.

Nice try, Kid.

Jordan pulled out the bar tab and recounted their adventures as the waitress distributed plates.  No one copped to the eleven shots of tequila, and Geno was offended that Cary hadn’t bought him a single vodka.  Then he realized his wallet was empty of cash and he’d probably been buying his own.

“A hundred bucks buys a lot of vodka at Casey’s,” James pointed out.  

Geno just shrugged and ate an entire taco in a single bite, holding up one finger so everyone would wait.  He swallowed it whole.  “Too much vodka bad, wake up alone in bathtub with someone else’s underwear.  Next time, bring less money.”

“Or buy me drinks,” TK suggested.
____

Cary enjoyed her second lunch and the feeling of Jordan’s huge body wedged in against her.  It was like building a fort out of couch cushions and burrowing inside.  Between that and her grilled cheese, she felt like a giddy schoolgirl every thirty seconds when she remembered he was Jordan Staal and fought the urge to freak out.

It didn’t help to look at Sarah, sitting across the booth.  She was mostly in Kris’ lap and definitely all the way down his throat.  They hadn’t stopped kissing for a second and Sarah seemed to have forgotten the coffee she ordered.  The scruffy Frenchman’s hands traced a sliver of exposed skin on her lower back and Sarah was palming his bicep like a basketball.  Cary shivered, every hair on her body standing up.

“Hey!” James said as he threw a wadded up napkin at the back of Kris’ head.  “Give it a rest!”

Kris looked surprised to find everyone there with them.  Then he just gave Neal a knowing look.  “Okay.  We’ll be back at your house soon.”

With that, Jordan shifted his weight closer.  He didn’t look down, he just moved Cary physically without even trying.  He could do that so easily.

That and a whole lot more.

“What happened to Flower?  He with with us,” Sid went for his phone.  He tapped the screen a few times, paused, then turned bright red.  

“What!?” TK yelled.

Sid showed the phone to Liz, who gasped loudly enough to choke.  Then he quickly shut it off and slipped it back in his pocket.

“Well that’s how our underwear got in the shower.”

“Oh my God show it to me!!” Cary nearly dove across the table.  Liz just sat still and wide-eyed in shock.  Sid squeaked away but Cary wasn’t giving up.  She climbed across Jordan’s lap and into James’ without giving them a chance to get up.  Sid was on his feet and backing up.  Cary finally freed herself.

“Let me see it.”

“No way!”

“Liz says it’s okay,” Cary insisted.  

Liz looked at Cary from the corner of her eye, not turning her head.  She appeared to hold her breath for a moment, then all at once she exhaled, closed her eyes and nodded.  Sid kept the phone in his hand - there was no way Cary could pry it away - and brought up whatever he’d been looking at.  Before she could stop herself, Cary screamed.  Then she pulled his hand in for a closer look.

The iPhone had a pretty great camera.  Clear, sharp images even in less-than-ideal circumstances.  So there was no mistaking the picture.  Sid had taken tit in the bathroom mirror, a big clear swath wiped into the fogged glass.  He and Liz were leaning in together, their hair full of shampoo and styled into weird shapes - Sid had horns, Liz had a convincing mohawk and pigtails.  They leaned against each other laughing like a couple of kids - and they were both stark naked.

That counter is way too high.

Cary could only see Sid from the waist up, but it was enough to take years off her biological clock.  He had one massive arm around Liz’s shoulders, covering her bare chest.  Even shitfaced she was a little shy.  But the expressions on their faces said they had plenty of fun anyway.

“Well?” Jordan asked, all lonely in the booth now with just James.

Cary closed the screen.  “Strip Slip-n-Slide.”
____

Strip. Slip. Slide.

All of those words sounded good to Jordan.  Cary had climbed over them to be funny, but Jordan was completely serious about anything that involved having her on all fours.  He wanted a look at that photo so he could be sure Cary had a better time than anyone else.

Times she will remember.

Everyone went to their phones for evidence.  Jordan and Cary had used theirs’ - nothing to be found.  But Tyler busted up laughing and gave his phone to Cary.

“YES!” she shouted.  Not only was it a photo of Jordan and Man Boy, but they were arm-wrestling.

“That’s before he arm-wrestled Geno, I remember that,” Tyler said.

“I remember too,” Geno cut in.  “I lose.”

The next photo was Geno and Jordan in mid-contest, both red-faced from drinking and laughing.  It did look like they were really trying.  Even in the phone photo, Cary could see Jordan’s forearm flexing in detail.  She may have drooled.

Jordan scrolled to the next picture.  “Woot!”

Yes I want that picture as my computer background.

He quickly passed it away from Cary and she knew instantly what it was.  “Geno, you didn’t spend that hundred bucks! You lost it on the arm-wrestling contest to TK.  He used it to....”

“TK buy you this?” Geno held up the phone and Cary got a glimpse of what she expected - a photo of her giving Jordan a lap dance.  She cringed, Jordan squeezed her against his side.

“Yeah, he paid Cary to give the winner a lap dance.”

Geno looked back at the picture, then at Tyler.  “Maybe you should buy for yourself next time, Jordan no need help.”
____

“You don’t remember that?” Jordan asked, his head next to Cary’s as they studied the photo.  Everyone had gone back to clearing their plates and draining their coffees.  It was pretty convincing - she was between his thighs, her hips pressed against his crotch and her upper body poured all over him.  With every second that passed, Cary felt the temperature rising.

I can’t go again right now.  Well I could.  But I won’t be able to walk later.

“Maybe if you did it again, it would come back to you.”

Do it again.  Do this morning again, and the second time from James’ house and... and maybe the ice cream sundae.

When there was no more food in the restaurant, they headed back to James’ house.  There was only Jordan’s car so he offered to take the girls back to their hotel and the guys back to their cars.  Sarah sat on Kris’ lap in the middle row and TK was in the way back like a suitcase.  Cary let Sid have the front and squeezed in next to Liz in the farthest seat.

“Are you okay?” she asked quietly.  

Liz looked at her best friend with wide eyes.  While this was insane and surreal to all of them, Liz had clearly taken the brunt of the surprise.  And she was the quietest one to being with.  Plus....

“Sidney Crosby,” she giggled softly.  “Are you fucking kidding me?”

“Do you remember anything?” Cary flicked her eyes up and caught Jordan watching her in the rear view mirror.  He was probably giving Sid a play-by-play lip reading.  She smiled encouragingly.

“Not last night, no.  I can’t believe I... and then this morning, I thought I was going to throw up I was so nervous.  When you guys left... I had to get you out of there, I'm sorry!  When you left he came right over and sat so close I was sure he must remember.  And he was wearing that sheet!  He asked if I was okay and if I remembered anything... I don't.  He doesn't either, or at least he's too nice to say.  So then it doesn't matter, right?  We decided it doesn't."

She paused, watching the rear view mirror.  "Then he asked if he could try again.  Start over."

Cary's heart was pounding.

"And I was about to say yes, I mean I was freaking out, but of course I was going to say yes, when he kissed me. Just leaned right in, all wrapped in that sheet and kissed me."

She finally turned her eyes to Cary.  "And that's it.  I swear I would have... But he didn't do anything. And I almost died."

Cary had her head down, hiding her face from the front seats.  Her mouth hung open in surprise and excitement.  If ever there was a way to win Liz over, that was it.  Another girl would have taken it further.

And by another, I mean me.

Crosby had guessed it on the first try.  Well, maybe the second.

"Then you saw the picture," Cary remembered.

Liz closed her eyes like she could block out the image.  "I can't believe I did that.  I would never...."

"No," Cary cut in.  "You would never normally.  But before last night you'd have said that you would with him.  And you probably did.  So stop freaking out!"

"But I don't remember!  If I'm going to do something crazy I at least want to be sure I did it!  And that I remember it."

Cary put an arm around Liz's shoulders.  "Only one solution.  You'll have to do it again."
____

Jordan drove to the hotel first.  Kris climbed out with Sarah, fingers twisted into hers, and said he would walk to the rink.  Sid shifted his weight awkwardly while Liz stood just a little too far away, almost behind James.

"Soooo," James said, stepping out of the way and throwing Liz to the wolves, "you girls have any more friends around?"

"Sorry Nealer, we're just visiting," Sarah said with the conviction of someone who knew exactly where her next meal would be coming from.  "And it's game night. Don't you guys have a curfew?"

"We just have to be home, we don't have to be alone," Tyler said, kicking a pebble.

"Okay, I go with you," Geno agreed like he'd been invited.

"I meant with a girl."

Geno rolled his eyes - he was Russian, not stupid.  "If you want, we watch Titanic."

Jordan hugged Cary from behind, nearly lifting her off the ground.  He was asking, but he really wasn’t.  "Where do you think you're going?"

"Uh, shower and change?"

A shower sounds really good…

"We'll have to get your friends another room."  He spun her around, pressing her against his

chest.  "Or... you could get your stuff and come to my place."

Cary's warm brown eyes crinkled at the corners as she smiled.  "It's only one o'clock."

"So curfew's in ten hours.  Think you can wear me out by then?"

_