Dirty Sex (7 page)

He and Derek were up by the house making sure the ice chests were all

properly sorted.

“Fuck off,” Austin and I screamed back at him.

“You guys are annoying the shit out of us,” Derek returned in

Carson’s defense.

“Stop crying, you little bitch,” Austin said. Carson’s neighbors

were probably loving our little display.

Derek and Carson looked at each other. Carson shook his head.

Derek nodded his. Then they both ran straight at us. Austin and I started

running, but we didn’t get far. We ended up with our faces pressed to

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the window of the truck, which our heads barely even reached. Derek

trapped my arms behind my back and pulled up until I was on my

tiptoes and in serious pain. Carson held Austin in the same position.

“Help,” Austin cried out in a rather high-pitched voice. “Rape,

molest, assault.”

“Shut up and take it.” Carson pushed him harder against the truck.

I started laughing at Austin.

“You think that’s funny?” Derek rewarded me by raising my arms

even higher until I whimpered.

“Now say you love each other,” Carson demanded.

“No.” I refused to give in.

“I give up.” The pain on Austin’s face was replaced with a sneer.

“I love Vivian.”

“Hate you,” I spat at him.

A car door slammed, followed quickly by another. Two seconds

later, Ryan was pulling off my captor and Reese was doing the same to

Austin’s.

“What is wrong with you guys?” Ryan tossed Derek back against

the truck. His head narrowly missed the side mirror. Carson landed on

my other side.

“It’s seven thirty in the morning,” Reese stated the obvious. “Have

all of you been drinking?” The four of us looked at one another sheepishly.

“Can you even drive? We’re leaving in less than an hour,” Ryan

said. Damn, we didn’t think of that.

A chorus of, “Sorry,” sounded down the line.

“Great impression, by the way.” Reese turned and held out her

hand to a chick standing behind her. “This is Kerry.” Kerry was pierced

and tatted everywhere. She had a dark faux hawk like mine, but mine

was better. I guess she was kind of hot, if you’re into pretty eyes and

toned arms.

“Hi, Kerry,” we responded like school kids.

“The twink is Austin.” He looked outraged. “Blond hair and blue

eyes is Carson. Blond hair and green eyes is Cooper. I know they look

the same, but the one with green eyes is a girl.”

“Thanks for clarifying, buttercup. That’s a toughie,” I said like I

was thankful when I just wanted to knock her out.

Reese smirked in response. “And finally, the tall, dark, and

handsome, self-appointed God’s gift to women is Derek.”

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“Lovely to meet you, Kerry.” I shook her hand. “Sorry to make

such a poor impression.”

“It’s all right. You guys lived up to every one of Reese’s

descriptions.” She smiled in a way that made it sound funny instead

of rude.

“Fabulous.” Austin pushed off the truck and shook her hand as

well. “Let’s get this shit packed up now. Hey, Kerry, do you want a

beer?”

“Or a Bloody Mary?” Derek asked. “It’s like breakfast. But with

vodka.”

“You know? A beer sounds great.” Reese shot Kerry a look. “I’m

still on East Coast time.” She shrugged like that explained it.

“Follow me,” I told her. We walked toward the house past a Reese

who looked like she might kill.

❖

“Seriously, guys.” Austin stood surveying the pile of gear in the

driveway with Derek and me. “Do we need all of this?”

“We could leave your sleeping bag,” Derek offered.

“Can I share with you?” Austin asked innocently.

“Sorry. I’m already sharing with Carson. Too bad.” Derek pursed

his lips like it was a real tough call. “You know how we love to spoon.”

“You know straight guys aren’t supposed to say things like that,

right?” I said.

“I’m enlightened,” Derek said.

Austin and I rolled our eyes. “We went over The List extensively,”

I told Austin.

“This really is the bare minimum,” Derek assured him.

“Okay.” Austin shrugged, resigned to the task. “You and Ryan and

Carson load up the coolers and the keg in the 4Runner. I’ll get the

lesbians to load the truck.”

“What are you going to do?” I asked him.

“Look pretty and direct.” He walked back toward the house. “Hey,

lesbians,” he called to Reese and Kerry. He was so annoying.

We started loading. Kerry and I stood in the bed with Reese and

Austin handing shit up to us. I had to help Aus lift some of the heavier

items, but we made good time.

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“What the hell is this?” Austin asked when we got to the bedding.

A rolled up sleeping pad was tossed over his shoulder. Next to him,

Reese held a pile of blankets.

“Bedding,” I told him. “Kerry, you want another beer?”

“Yeah, it’s only eight. We should probably drink throughout the

day,” she said. I was starting to like this chick.

“That’s the plan.”

“I’ll go grab ’em,” Kerry said. “Austin, you want one?” He shook

his head. “Baby, do you?” Reese just glared at her some more. “I think

I’m in trouble,” she whispered to me before jumping down.

“Cooper.” Austin was still standing there waiting.

“What?”

“What happened to air mattresses? And sleeping bags?”

“We’re still using them,” I said. They looked skeptical.

“Then what’s the deal with this?” He hefted the bulky sleeping

pad onto the truck bed.

I considered answering, but decided against it. “You know what?

None of your damn business. There’s room up here. It’s going with us.”

“Fine, whatever.” Austin strutted off.

“Really.” Reese set the blankets next to the sleeping pad. “What’s

with this stuff?”

“You ever share an air mattress with someone else?” I sat on the

tailgate.

“Yeah.”

“Was it comfy?” I asked even though I knew the answer.

“Not really.”

Kerry walked up and handed me a beer. “Can you guys handle

this? I’m going to help Austin with the rope.” She pointed to where

Austin was standing surrounded by a tangle of rope. He was staring at

it like it was algebra.

“That’s probably a good idea,” I said. “Thanks for the beer.”

“No problem.” Kerry went to help Austin.

“Coop?”

“Yeah?” I said like I forgot what we were talking about. Reese

set a hand on the blankets. “Oh, yeah. You, uh, ever had sex on an air

mattress?”

“Can’t say I have.” Reese raised an eyebrow.

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“It’s really, really not fun.” Her mouth opened a little in surprise.

“You can’t get any rhythm, you know?” I rocked my hips back and

forth a little and grinned. “Anyway, guess you’ll never know.” I set

my hand next to hers on the blankets. Not touching, but almost. Then I

jumped down to join Austin and Kerry.

“Wait,” Reese called.

“What?” I turned back to look into those shadowed eyes.

“Thanks. That’s sweet, in sort of a Cooper way.”

I was pretty sure she meant that as a good thing. I mustered all of

my strength for a sort of apology. “I was an asshole before. You didn’t

deserve that.”

“I kind of did. I called you a whore.”

“You did.” I contemplated. “But I guess I am. If you think about

it.”

“No, Coop. You’re a playa.” For once, she wasn’t mocking me.

She was still lying, but in a nice way.

❖

Reese drove Ryan’s SUV. Ryan and I took the truck. He drove.

They were the only people who hadn’t been drinking all morning. After

the two-hour drive up winding mountain roads, I was pretty sober. We

rolled down the windows as soon as the heat tapered off. At home, it

was supposed to be pushing one hundred, but up in the mountains, we

were loving the high seventies. I thought they would beat us up there

since we were towing four Jet Skis and they only had one, but we only

got there fifteen minutes behind them. With seven people, it didn’t take

long to unload everything. Set up was another story.

“So you guys ready?” I asked everyone. We were all relaxing in

chairs around the empty fire pit.

“Ready for what?” Kerry asked. We all smiled back at her.

“The Race,” Ryan said.

“You guys are kind of into competition aren’t you?” she asked.

“What gave you that idea?” I smirked.

“The brawl I witnessed,” Kerry stated unnecessarily. “And ‘The

Race’ sounds a little competitive as well.”

“They want to race putting up tents,” Reese told her. “You guys

can count me out. I’ll be the ref.”

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“What about the third tent?” Carson asked. “We’ll need to change

the rules.”

I looked at Aus for his approval. He smiled and nodded. “Me and

Aus will do both the small ones.”

“But we get Kerry,” he added. “Three on three.”

Ryan, Carson, and Derek had a very intense conversation with

their eyes. Their tent was more complicated to put up. We were getting

one more player than usual, but also an extra tent. The conversation

must have gone well.

“Done,” said Ryan. “Stakes in the ground. Tops on. Losers blow

up air mattresses.”

“You guys are all losers,” Reese informed us. “I’ll go place the

tents.”

“Your girlfriend’s a bitch,” I said to Kerry.

“Cooper, I kind of like you.” Was that supposed to be nice? “Don’t

make me hurt you.”

We watched in silence as Reese looked around our massive

campsite and chose three promising places. In each one, she placed

a bag with a tent. Then she sashayed back to the truck, found the two

mallets, and handed one to me and one to Ryan.

Calmly, she looked at her phone and waited. “Ready?” We nodded

even though she wasn’t looking. “Go.”

We jumped up and ran. Chairs hit the ground. Derek pushed

Austin. I pushed Ryan. And then we were in the clear. I shoved the

mallet into my belt at the small of my back.

“Kerry, build the poles.” Austin yanked the tent out of the bag. I

gripped the nylon so he could pull. A bag of stakes fell out followed by

a bundle of poles, and we tossed them to Kerry. Austin unrolled the tent

in my direction and we unfolded it.

“Where’s the door?” I asked him. “Where’s the fucking door?”

“Over there.” Kerry pointed. Austin and I each grabbed two

corners and half walked, half ran in a circle until she shouted, “Stop.”

“Here’s the first pole.” She nudged a fully assembled pole on the

ground with her toe. The second was already half done in her hands.

As we fed the first pole through Aus slowly chanted, “Careful,

careful, fucking careful, dude.” Kerry assembled the last pole for the

rain cover. Then she spread the nylon cover out for easy access.

“Is it in?” she asked.

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“Almost,” Austin told her.

“Done,” I shouted a second later. “Hold the center so we can put

the poles up.”

Kerry did as she was told, carefully stepping in the open door of

the flat tent and lifting with us.

“Are you in, Aus?”

“Yeah.”

I bent the pole in my hands until I could slide the pin into it. “Done.”

“Three minutes,” Reese called out. Behind us, the guys were

feeding their first pole through. They had three times as many poles to

work with. We got our second pole in. All three of us started tying the

tent to the pole. Three corners done.

“I got the last one and the stakes. You guys get the cover.” I

finished tying the final corner and Kerry threw me the bag of stakes.

“Go, go, go,” Austin helpfully suggested.

I pounded the last stake in as they secured the cover. We only had

the stakes for the cover left.

“You get those, Cooper. We’ll start the next one,” Kerry shouted

back as she and Austin sprinted to the next tent.

I glanced over at the guys. They had the poles all in and were

struggling to stand the tent up. Carson, the tallest, was standing in the

flaccid tent holding the ceiling above his head. Ryan and Derek were

spinning in circles trying to fit pins into the poles.

“Cooper,” Austin screamed. “Stop staring, build poles.”

“Five minutes,” Reese shouted.

I ran to the pile of poles, tore off the rubber bands, stuffed them in

my pockets, and started fitting the first pole together.

“First one,” I yelled to Kerry and Austin. They grabbed it and

started feeding it through. When I finished the third pole, I opened the

rain cover like Kerry had done.

“Hold the middle, Coop,” Austin instructed me. They pushed both

poles in the air and we started tying again.

When I began pounding in the stakes Reese called out, “Seven

minutes.” We were getting close. The guys were putting on their rain

cover. Austin ran back to the first tent and shoved all the nylon bags

and such into the tent bag. I fished around in my pocket and pushed the

rubber bands into Kerry’s waiting hand. I hit the remaining stake into

the soft ground.

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Austin ran back to the fire pit. I grabbed Kerry’s arm and dragged