Overcoming Fear (Growing Pains #2) Read online

  “Did you tell them it was because your girlfriend rocked, not because you did?”

  Horror flashed across Krista’s face. “Shit, I didn’t mean to say that! Truly! I don’t think of you that way, honest!”

  Sean was looking at her intently. “I did actually tell them it was because I was meeting my girlfriend, yes. But we are moving really fast. We should slow down.”

  “Yes Captain. And no sex. I remember.”

  Sean just nodded, his eyes never wavering.

  “Please note, if you get drunk, and I...well, I am drunk...then we should sleep in separate beds, because I will accost you.”

  “Then I won’t get drunk.”

  “But I would like to see you drunk. And naked. But, you know, with underwear or whatever. I guess.”

  He just smiled and turned to reach for his beer. “I have to drive anyway. Let’s see if we can go for three.” His eyes were twinkling as they looked down at her.

  “Question: does that theater house always put plays on in two weeks? It seems quick.”

  Sean looked at her like she’d just used another language.

  She elaborated, “You were only leaving early for a couple weeks.”

  Light bulb. “Their lead got in a car accident so I subbed in. Not a lot of time. I had to improv a few lines, but they are all good enough actors that they covered for me.”

  “Huh.”

  “No work!” Jasmine yelled behind Krista. “Hi Captain.”

  Krista realized she was standing close to Sean, but he’d removed his arm. Krista hadn’t noticed anything besides those glorious green peepers, or she might have made a scene before she realized he was doing it for her—she was the one keeping the secret from her friends, not the other way around. Thankfully he was staying sober, because if left up to Krista, the secret would be out in no time, on account of her sitting in his lap. Naked.

  Without a chance to say a word, Krista was dragged away and shoved onto the dance floor with beer in hand. Cassie then showed up to feed her another shot.

  Eyeing Cassie as the shot was burning down her throat, Krista said, “You’re nice when you’re sober all right, but get you drunk, and you become a pushy bitch.” Krista handed her the empty shot glass.

  Cassie nodded approvingly, “You need help being fun. I provide it. Now shut your trap and dance!”

  Chapter Eighteen

  Sometime later Krista was sweaty, even more naked because she took off her outer shirt and only had a tiny singlet on, and sitting in a booth with Cassie.

  “So tell me,” Cassie was saying, blearily looking at Krista.

  Sean was talking with all his actor friends and having a great time. He was leaning against the bar with that easy lounge while surveying the scene. Every ten minutes or so a woman would wander right next to him and strike up a conversation. The conversation lasted a polite couple minutes before he turned back to his friends. Throughout, he would glance to either Krista or Cassie, or like right now, since they were sitting together, both of them.

  “HEY!”

  Krista got shoved, cutting short her attempted wink at Sean.

  “What?”

  “I said did you and my brother do it last night?”

  “I don’t think we are this friendly yet. You could be a spy.”

  “Yeah, I could. But I don’t talk to him about sex. Gross! But I am curious. You seem really intimate with him. But he isn’t all weirded out by you. First time. How did you do it?”

  Krista hesitated.

  Cassie closed one eye and looked at her harder. Apparently she was trying to see just one Krista, instead of two.

  “Girl talk,” she said. “It is protected under the girl code. No word shall be breathed. Or remembered, even.”

  Krista gave in, “No sex. It’s a shit rule, but there you have it.”

  “Ever?” Cassie was appalled.

  “Don’t know. For now until he releases the ban.”

  “But yet you spent the night with him.”

  “Yeah, I am pretending I am a virgin.”

  “I hated losing my virginity! It was some loser, too. I picked a world’s fair ass to give my sacred flower to.”

  “Sacred flower? Jeez, talk about over dramatic!”

  They both laughed, and suddenly they were swapping sex stories. Cassie was a lot more of a loaded gun than Krista originally thought.

  “Room for one more?”

  Cassie and Krista both jumped. Sean was standing at the end of the table, three beers in hand, waiting for the verdict.

  “Since when do you ask?” Cassie asked, one eye still closed.

  “He’s nervous that he’s suffocating me,” Krista said, sliding toward the wall.

  “I’m nervous that you two will continue talking about sex, actually, and since you are both virgins, I don’t want to spend my night talking fantasy.” Sean scooted in next to Krista.

  “We three virgins, huh, Sean?” Krista said with an evil smile.

  Cassie started to cackle.

  “Where are Kate and Jasmine?” Krista asked, looking at the dance floor.

  There was a big cluster of people, all moving too fast to focus on any one of them, but Krista couldn’t see either of the girls.

  “They told me to tell you that they needed a booty call and they‘d talk to you tomorrow,” Sean said, leaning back and putting an arm around Krista.

  Krista eagerly leaned into his chest, “They couldn’t tell me that themselves?”

  “I told them where you were, but Kate couldn’t be bothered to walk up two steps. Jasmine called her a pigmy, and they walked away arguing.”

  “Figures. What about your actors?” Krista asked, resting her right hand on Sean’s inner thigh.

  “They’re at the bar. Most of ‘em, anyway. I thought that since the coast was clear, I’d sit with my two favorite women.”

  “Aw,” Cassie said, rolling her eyes. “I’m going to la toy-lette. See you all on the flip side.”

  Sean shook his head and looked down at Krista, “Hi.”

  “Hello. How is your night?”

  “Really good. We had a good run with the show—last one—and I’m really glad you get along with Cassie. She seems to really like you. I couldn’t ask for more.”

  “She and your girlfriends not getting along is a deal breaker, huh?”

  He kissed her on the head, then the nose, then, because she gave him a look to keep going, her lips. “Not a deal breaker, no. But it would be hard. Cassie is my family. She and I talk constantly. The two most important women in my life not getting along would be tough.”

  “Makes your girlfriends jealous, though, I bet.”

  Sean looked at her intently for a minute before he said, “I haven’t had all that many instances to find out, but some, yes.”

  “Huh. Well, she’s too pretty to be as nice as she is, so I’m glad her inner-bitch jives with my outer bitch so you don’t have to give me the chuck.”

  Sean shook his head, “There was too much slang in there for my wee-sized intellect, but I’m glad you two get along.”

  Krista shrugged into Sean’s smile and burrowed closer.

  “What are you two talking about?” Cassie asked as she launched herself into the booth.

  “You being a bitch,” Krista answered.

  Sean gave Krista a squeeze as he said, “We were just talking about—“

  “No, Sean,” Cassie said, holding up her hand. “You don’t have to cover for her. I’ve got her number.” Cassie looked at Krista, nearly went cross-eyed, then closed one eye to focus. “Tequila, right? The crappy stuff? That’s what you like, right?”

  “Okay, okay, I take it back,” Krista held up her hands in surrender.

  “Hah! Victory!” Cassie exclaimed, and then took a slug of her beer, which she did not need.

  No sense telling her that, Krista thought as she took a slug of her own beer, which she also did not need.

  It seemed like only ten minutes had gone by when the lights
were flickering. Sean had finished paying his tab and was on his way back over to the girls.

  “He is sooooo hot,” Krista told Cassie.

  “Eww. Do you love him?”

  “Yes,” Krista said without thinking. She realized what she’d said and started choking on her beer. She threw a finger up at a smirking, one-eyed Cassie, “Drunk talking. Do not repeat that.”

  “I won’t tell. But good!” She fell silent as Sean approached.

  “You girls ready to go?”

  “Hey, what happened to Keith tonight?” Krista asked as Sean helped them out of the booth.

  It was no easy matter because neither girl was all that great at standing.

  “Sent that idiot home. He was hot. Shit in bed, though. And really, really stupid.”

  Krista laughed as Sean told Cassie to behave herself.

  “Where did the girls go?” Krista asked through a blur of alcohol.

  “Booty calls, remember?” Cassie said, bumping into a wall while Sean was trying to navigate around two jerks with giant combat boots.

  “Oh yeah, they both have men at present.”

  “At present. Men. They come, they go, they only leave heartache or irritation in their wake.”

  “Hey, bitter Betty,” Krista yelled as Sean navigated them out of the bar, “there is someone for everyone, and all that jazz. More fish in the sea. Love conquers all. Love and hate are two horns of the same goat. Blah blah blah. But goats, though—they’re so gross!”

  “Are you girls going to get in?” Sean asked from inside the car.

  “Oh, we’re at the car,” Cassie said, blinking.

  They then fought each other for shotgun. Krista won because she was wily. Cassie called her a slut in retaliation, climbed into the back of the car, and started snoring immediately.

  “Are you okay to drive?” Krista asked Sean.

  “Yes. Are you going to throw up?”

  “Oh God no. No, no. I am good. I could keep going.”

  “That might not be such a good idea.”

  “Well. I could, though.”

  They passed some time in silence, Krista wanting to make sure she had just told the truth.

  Then Sean asked, “Do you believe in God?”

  “What a weird and random question on a drive home after a drunken night. Um, yes. But I don’t necessarily believe in church.”

  “Why do you believe in God?”

  “Sean, I am not sober enough, or you are not drunk enough, for this conversation. But I will tell you this: There is no way someone as damned handsome as you could be in existence without a little aid from something divine. Okay, that sounds like a pick-up line, but I honestly believe it. Seriously. I thought it sober, so you can take to the bank. All the other crap I spew from my mouth tonight you might disregard. But that one nugget is true.”

  “I worry that I drag you down because I am such a head case.”

  “What does that have to do with the price of apples? Oh, I see, confusion tactic. You are trying to get truths out of me because I am drunk, yeah?”

  “Yup.”

  “Sneaky. You forget: I am also a head case, sir. There will come a time when you will do something that triggers a bad memory, and I will panic. I will try to push you away. I might even cry, I don’t know. How is that any different than the stuff you put on me?”

  “Do you love me?”

  “Oh ho, I am going to plead the fifth on that one. I am not sober enough, or you are not drunk enough, for that conversation.”

  “It was worth a shot,” he laughed. “I am a bit insecure about the matters of the heart, as I told you. This stuff has never gone well.”

  “Well, you can trust me. If I were going to screw you over, I would’ve done it last night. Instead, I left partially satisfied. That has to be worth something, right?”

  “Only partially?”

  “That was wrong to say, wasn’t it? I meant, mostly. No—shit!—I meant satisfied. I mean, I orgasmed in the end, right, so yay!”

  He was quiet.

  “I just screwed up, didn’t I?” Krista asked in a weak voice, albeit too loud because the ability to talk quietly had left her hours ago.

  He was still quiet.

  Krista fretted as they parked in the garage. He got out, helped Krista out, and carried Cassie into the house. He deposited his sister on the couch and glanced at Krista to make sure she was following him.

  She did so, like a lost lamb. An incredibly horny, lost little lamb.

  When they got to his room he closed and locked the door, shut off the light, and kissed her deeply. She rode the kiss as she tried to take off his pants. He pulled back and stilled her hands.

  “Okay, look,” she said crossly. “I will not be able to control myself. If you have an episode, you run the risk of derailment because I will not be in the right mind to--”

  He kissed her again to shut her up.

  Krista was backed toward the bed. Sean removed her clothes without ceremony or hesitation.

  “Are we going to have sex?” she asked in disbelief.

  “Is that what you need from me?”

  “No. Well, yes. But can we wait until we are both sober?”

  “I do love you, Krista. You can believe that—last night wasn’t the right timing, or setting, but it’s true. I do.”

  “Yes, but you also know it doesn’t count because I probably won’t remember it in the morning.”

  “Just so.”

  “Sneaky bastard.”

  “Do you love me?”

  “Fifth.”

  “I’ll get it out of you one way or the other,” he said menacingly.

  She was now naked in front of him. He went about kissing her nipples and to her delighted surprise, slipped a finger into her core.

  She gasped as her body started to overheat. Waves of desire pulsed through her, spurred on by the suction of his mouth and that glorious finger.

  He stood up to her, licked her neck, and said, “I will stay in control. You can let go. But first, will you take off my clothes?”

  She lost no time. Shirt was first. It was a button-down deal that would need a little repair after Krista got through with it. Under shirt, gone. She kissed and licked his chest on a detour, and then went to his lips for some tongue action while she harshly opened his pants.

  He moaned and massaged a breast. She wasn’t sure if she should take off his boxers, so she did. He said he would stay in control, so it was up to him now. She stripped them down and followed to her knees. She took his hard length in her mouth and went crazy, not holding back—not even a little. Soon he was moaning and gasping above her.

  “Stop,” he muttered.

  Krista knew he was getting close and she couldn’t think of a reason not to let him finish, so she increased the speed and prepared for the mess.

  “Baby, stop,” he breathed again.

  “Finish,” she said up to him quickly before she went back to it, sliding her mouth and hands in harmony.

  She felt him tense, say “Oh Krista!” Then a long, sighed “Yes” as he came into her mouth.

  She gagged, not as ready as she should have been, and because that stuff does not taste awesome, made a mess of the swallowing part.

  Whatever, he got what he needed.

  She got up and took a step away before he caught her.

  “What’s wrong?” he asked as she tried to retreat, keeping her face hidden behind messy hands.

  She was not a porn star, and as such, was not smiling when she had that sticky nastiness on her face. Plus, she was mostly drunk. Lord only knew what she looked like anyway, let alone with goop on her cheek.

  “Have to clean up, Sean, lemme go.”

  Krista scurried to the bathroom to wash her face quickly and rinse out her mouth. After she was done she went back in the room to find him worriedly sitting on the bed.

  “You can’t expect a girl to get dirty in the trenches without the desire for a little cleanup after,” she said with a clean
smile.

  Sean sighed in relief. She could tell he hated his insecurity. He was embarrassed by it. But luckily for him, Krista had been trained by Jasmine. She was open and honest, sometimes to a fault. Insecurity was the least of their problems. By far.

  “I told you to stop,” he said quietly.

  “Don’t be an idiot,” she retorted, nearly jumping on him.

  He laid them both down and climbed on top of her, spreading her legs wide. She thought he was going to enter her, which she had mixed feelings about, but still would have gone with, when he whispered, “No sex. But someone told me you left only partially sated last night....”

  He followed that statement up by spreading her nether lips to reveal her pink center, then licked up the crease, ending at her clit, which he then sucked into his mouth.

  She very nearly blacked out.

  Thus it began. He spent hours making her scream. He never entered her with his penis, but his tongue and fingers were another ball game all together. When she could tell he had recovered from his release, she pleasured him again. This time he pulled away before the final act so she didn’t have to “get her hands dirty” as he said, and then it was all about her once more.

  She must have told him she loved him a million times. She also told him things having to do with divinity and God’s image and all sorts of strange stuff. After a while Sean didn’t want to stop merely for the incredible ego boost. When he mentioned it, she informed him that she was happy to help, but told him to please bring his big friend closer so she could stroke it.

  Apparently Sean thought drunk Krista was a riot!

  Toward the end she surprised him with not being bashful to talk dirty—drunk added a bit more zeal as well. Another segment of the night was spent with Krista’s dirty mouth and Sean’s fascination and constant arousal to hear it. He got a third BJ.

  When they were finally exhausted, and Krista was mostly sober and so relaxed and tired she could barely keep her eyes open, Sean cradled her body in his. “Better?”

  “I think I will just keep saying I am only partially satisfied so you keep doing all that.”