Burnout (The Holland Brothers Book 1)

The bar has cleared out by the time I finish helping Erika. Avery is long gone. I even check the parking lot in case she’s waiting out there, but her Bronco isn’t anywhere in sight.

Well, fuck.

I sit on my motorcycle and text Colter to see if she showed up at his place, but he replies back quickly.

Colter

No. She bailed after the bar. You coming over?

Me

I’m not sure yet. I might head home.

Colter

Yeah, I’ll bet. Quinn says to tell you that you’re an idiot and that she hopes your dick shrivels up and falls off.

“Damn,” I mutter to myself.

Me

What the hell did I do to her?

Colter

I’m paraphrasing here but I think the problem might be that you hooked up with Avery earlier this week and then followed some other girl into the back room at the bar right in front of her.

I read his words twice slowly until I finally piece it all together. Then I laugh. Miss Priss is jealous, and the rush of adrenaline pumping through me is like none other.

Me

Is Avery at her dorm?

Colter

Yes.

Colter

Oops. I mean no.

Colter

You blew your chance, buddy. Avery is out of your league anyway. Dumbass.

I feel my brows rise and a smile pull at my lips.

Colter

That was Quinn.

Me

No kidding.

Colter

She’s protective and hits hard. I suggest staying on her good side.

Too late for that.

Colter

I gotta go before she takes my phone again, but just so you know Quinn is staying at my place all night. Have fun.

I don’t text Avery first, which is likely a mistake. Who just shows up at a girl’s place uninvited? I guess the answer to that is me. I do.

I was able to get the dorm name and room number from Quinn after I promised I’d let her punch me in the nuts if Avery wasn’t glad to see me. That’s how confident I am. She was jealous, not because she cares if I hook up with other people—I already told her I’m not a relationship guy. No, she wasn’t feeling territorial. She was feeling hurt. Despite her playing it cool when I asked if she wanted to leave with me earlier, she was hoping we’d hook up again tonight. Me fucking too.

I knock on the door and then tap my thumb against my thigh. The hall is mostly quiet. I passed a few open doors with people hanging out inside, but mostly it looks like people are gone. Or asleep. I check the time. Fuck. Maybe she’s already in bed. I knock louder. With every second that passes I’m more certain she’s not going to answer.

I’m reaching in to get my phone so I can text her, while continuing to knock, when I hear her on the other side of the door. “Geez. I’m coming. One second.”

My hand is still raised, poised to knock, as the door opens.

“Knox?” She stands there, staring at me, clearly surprised to see me. But my throat goes dry as the desert as I take her in.

Tiny pink shorts, white tank top, and about four inches of skin in between. Her hair is pulled back into a ponytail and her feet are bare. Damn. Every time I see her in different situations, I think she can’t get any hotter. And somehow, I’m always wrong.

“What are you doing here?” she asks.

“Can I come in?”

“Did your other plans for the night fall through?” she asks as she steps back and opens the door wider. “How did you know where I live?”

I ignore the first question.

“Quinn,” I say, walking in and glancing around at the space. It’s my first time setting foot in a dorm room. It’s bigger than I imagined, but otherwise basically how I’ve seen them portrayed in movies and shows. “I piggybacked in behind some guys coming back from a party.”

There’s a couch, chair, and TV in this room and then two doors off either side that I assume lead to their bedrooms. One is closed and the other is open with the light on.

“Okay, but why?”

I pick up a three-ring binder with her name on it from a small table. “What’s your major?”

“I’m still undecided,” she says, growing more irritated. She takes it from me and sets it on top of a backpack resting on the floor. “Knox, why are you here?”

“I wanted to see you.” I pause at a picture frame sitting on top of the entertainment center and glance at a photo of Avery and Quinn. They’re both in their Valley U team leotards and smiling at the camera.

“I was just about to get in bed.” She crosses her arms over her chest. “Shouldn’t you be at Colter’s party or maybe hooking up with the bartender or some other girl?”

There it is. That little jab of jealousy I was waiting for.

“I didn’t hook up with Erika.”

“Who?” she asks, but she knows who I mean. Her face flushes.

“The bartender.”

“Oh,” she says flippantly.

“It’s her first week working there. Or bartending anywhere for that matter. First weekend nights can be tough.”

“Well, I’m glad she had you to help her out,” she says, not sounding at all glad.

God, she’s stubborn.

“Yeah. My brother wouldn’t normally throw someone to the wolves like that, but he came down with the flu and no one could fill in.”

“Your brother…” she trails off, the lilt of a question in her tone.

“Owns the place, yeah. I’m not much of a bartender but I know where shit is and I can change a keg, so occasionally I jump in and help if things get hectic while I’m there.”

I watch the pieces come together for her and the way her body language softens as she realizes I’m telling the truth. But then her spine stiffens again. “You had so many girls hitting on you tonight, it was an easy mistake to make.”

“Why weren’t you one of them?” I ask. I’m genuinely curious. If she wanted to hook up with me, why didn’t she just tell me?

“You don’t need me to feed your ego.”

“This isn’t about my ego. Were you or were you not hoping tonight would end with me here?”

“Part of me was,” she admits.

“Then why not just say that?” It would have saved a lot of time. We could already be naked.

Exasperation makes her blue eyes spark to life and she shrugs her shoulders high up to her ears. “Because…I don’t know, okay? I haven’t done casual hookups before and I don’t know how to do this.”

No shit. I called that the other night.

“I told you I don’t do relationships.”

“I know,” she says. “I’m not asking for that. I’m just bad at doing this.” She motions between us. “Who was the other girl? Long, black hair, tattoos.”

“Just a friend I’ve known a long time.”

“A friend you’ve hooked up with?”

“You really want me to answer that?”

She shakes her head. “I was jealous.”

“You didn’t need to be. The only person I was interested in leaving with was you.”

Her gaze narrows like she’s weighing the truth of my words.

“Why’d you run away instead of telling me all this at the bar? Hoping I’d chase you?”

“No. I promise I did not expect you to show up here.”

“Good. I don’t chase.”

“But here you are anyway.”

We’re in a standoff, neither of us wanting to budge. But every second I stand here is another second I’m not kissing her.

I step forward and grab her hand, then tug her toward me. Her lips finally pull into a smile.

“Here I am anyway.” I brush my fingers along the curve of her neck. Her skin is warm and soft, and she leans into my touch.

We lunge at the same time, our mouths colliding in a frantic need to get closer. She tastes like mint toothpaste. My hand slides to the back of her head and I wrap my fingers around her ponytail.

I guide her toward the open bedroom. She pushes my jacket off my shoulders, and I shrug out of it and toss it toward a desk chair.

My hands slip under her shirt and she wrenches her mouth away from mine.

“Wait. I, uh…” She shifts and bites one corner of her mouth. “Can we…”

Every time she trails off or stumbles over her words it makes me pause as if she yelled stop. She’s always so certain of everything.

“You want to stop?” I ask, pulling back to get a better look at her face.

“No. I mean, yes.” She places her hands on my chest. “I want to hook up, but can we hold off on having sex?”

“Oh.” That isn’t what I expected.

“It’s just that after my last relationship I promised myself I’d take things slower. I know it sounds silly considering we’re only hooking up and not dating, but sex is a hard limit for me right now.”

I’m silent, not because it’s a dealbreaker, but because I’m trying to understand.

She continues, “Nolan—my ex—cheated on me.”

I don’t know what to say so I run my hand down her back in what I hope is a soothing gesture. After my dad left for good, I’ve been careful about who I’ve let into my circle. It’s one of the reasons I don’t do relationships. People can’t disappoint you if you don’t expect anything from them.

So even though I’ve never let anyone close enough to cheat on me, the concept is similar. She doesn’t trust people. I so get that.

“I don’t understand why he couldn’t just be honest and tell me that he wanted to break up or sleep with other people. Instead, I had to find out through the rumor mill that he was hooking up with his ex-girlfriend at a party while I was gone at a competition.”

She stops talking and looks at me like she expects me to bail now that I know sex is off the table. What a fucking prick her ex is.

“People are selfish,” I say. “It didn’t have anything to do with you.”

“I know, but now here I am with a hot guy in my dorm room, and I’m turning down what I imagine would be very good sex.”

I pull her into my body. I’m so hard the contact makes me groan. “Do you want me to go? We can do this another time.”

“No. Definitely not.” She bites her lip again, but this time it’s as she stares at my chest and heat flushes her face. “I want to keep going. All I’ve thought about since the other night is having your hands on me again.”

Relief floods through me. I want this girl so bad the thought of walking away is painful. It’s not a feeling I’m familiar with.

“Is that right?” I sit on the bed and pull her onto my lap. Her lashes flutter and her breath hitches. My hands drop to her hips and I splay my fingers out, letting my thumb slide beneath her shorts.

“Yes.” The word is breathy. She wraps her arms around my neck and rolls her hips against me.

My thumb continues to glide over her clit as she grinds on top of me. Our kisses are sloppy.

Her body quivers as she gets close.

“Can I?” she asks, letting her hands drop to the button of my jeans.

I nod and then suck her bottom lip into my mouth as she fumbles to get my jeans undone. When she succeeds, she pushes on my chest to get me to lie down.

Smiling, I lie back on the bed and crook one hand behind my head as she shimmies down my body and rids me of my pants. She removes her shorts too. My dick twitches at the scrap of pink lacy material covering her pussy. She’s making a real good case for pink being my new favorite color.

Avery climbs back on top of me, straddling me with only my boxers and her panties between us. She settles on top of me, the weight of her sitting on my dick enough to pull another groan from me. I don’t need to be buried inside of her tonight, but I’m not gonna say it wouldn’t feel fucking fantastic.

I lift my hips and her eyes flutter closed with a moan. My hands rest on her waist. She only needs a little encouraging to start grinding into me again, taking what she needs from me and bringing me dangerously close to exploding without either of us so much as touching my dick.

She stops and stares down at me.

“What?” I ask.

She bites her full bottom lip again.

I reach up and free it from her teeth. “What do you need?”

“You. Your hands. Please? Nothing has ever felt better than the other night.”

I sit up and then turn us so she’s underneath me. Splayed out underneath me like a wet dream. Damn. Pleasure jolts up my spine.

I run my thumb over her bottom lip again. “This mouth of yours is sexy as fuck, princess.”

Her lips curve. “Wondering what it’d look like wrapped around your dick?”

“If I hadn’t been, I am now.” I definitely had been.

“Me too,” she says.

Fuck me, that’s hot.

“Later. I’m busy.” My hand dips down her body until my fingers brush against the top of her panties. I shift so I can kiss her stomach and hook my fingers on either side of the lacy material to pull them down.

“Is it all right if these come off?” I ask.

“Yes.”

I can’t get her out of them fast enough and then she’s naked underneath me and I’m wondering if I might die from seeing her like this and not being able to fuck her.

“You’re gorgeous.” I slide a finger down her slit and then bring it up to my mouth. She flushes and her eyes dilate as I suck the taste of her off my finger.

“Okay if I lick you, princess?”

She nods rapidly.

I’m damn near sweating as I settle between her legs. I alternate using my fingers and my tongue. She thrashes under me, moaning my name, grinding down against me occasionally and then pulling away like she’s trying to hold off the impending orgasm.

She’s more patient than I am. I can’t wait any longer to watch her come undone again. I hold tight to her hips and suck hard on her clit as I fuck her with two fingers. That’s all it takes.

She cries out, hands fisting in my hair and body arching off the bed. Her grip loosens and then her body goes limp as the last of her orgasm shudders through her. I place soft kisses on her thighs and lower stomach and then fall onto the mattress beside her.

Our ragged breathing is the only sound until Avery starts to giggle.

“Something funny, princess?” I ask.

“No,” she says, still giggling.

I let my head fall to the side to look at her. She’s grinning back at me.

“You just fucked me stupid and we didn’t even fuck.” She starts laughing harder.

I only get her to stop when I roll back on top of her.

Her smile is contagious. Messing around with her is fun in a way I don’t think I’ve ever experienced before.

“My turn.” She pushes me back and scrambles onto the mattress between my legs.

“Always so bossy.” I barely grit out the words before she pushes my boxers down, wraps her puffy lips around my cock, and takes me to the back of her throat.

I can’t take my eyes off her. She glides up and down slowly. Too fucking slowly. I wrap one hand around her ponytail again and guide her over me.

“Goddamn, Avery. Your mouth was meant for sucking my dick.”

Her eyes light up and she takes me farther, gagging before she pulls back. I can’t remember the last time I wanted a blow job to take longer, but the sight of her blonde hair and big blue eyes as she sucks me off is as good as the way her lips feel wrapped around me. If I had to give up sex for this blow job, then it was well worth the trade.

I hold off as long as I can, but when I’m seconds from coming down her throat, I pull her off me and finish on my stomach and chest.

My head falls back onto the bed as I catch my breath. Avery gets me a towel and I clean myself up. I’m about to get dressed to go when she flops down beside me.

“Are you staying?” she asks.

“I don’t cuddle, princess.”

“As in you don’t like to cuddle or it’s against your rules for casual hookups?”

I rub the back of my neck. “Both, I guess.”

“Okay, no cuddling.” She thinks for a moment. “What if we lie next to each other and watch TV until we have the energy to make out again?”

I have no idea how that’s different than cuddling, but the thought of going again with her is enough to stop me in my tracks. “Deal.”

“What time is it?” Avery asks, voice groggy with sleep.

“Early. Go back to sleep.” I pull on my jeans and then look for my T-shirt, only to realize Avery is sleeping in it.

She curls up onto her side and yawns. “See you tomorrow?”

“Yeah.” I grab my jacket off the back of her desk chair. I hesitate. I don’t think I’ve ever been so slow to leave a chick before. I don’t chase. I don’t stay over or cuddle. And I don’t linger like some love-sick fool. “See you tomorrow night.”

The ride home wakes me up some. I’m going on barely any sleep, but I promised Flynn I’d take him riding this morning.

The house is still and quiet as I come in through the garage. I come up short when I spot Hendrick standing in the kitchen in sweats and a T-shirt.

“Where have you been?” he asks, one brow raised.

“Waiting up for me? How sweet.” I toss my keys on the counter and rub a hand over my hair. “I was out.”

“With a girl?” His voice dips low in a teasing tone and he grins wide.

The smell of fresh coffee draws me over to the pot. I pour some into a mug, then wince. I hate the taste, but my eyelids burn from lack of sleep. “What are you doing up?”

“I couldn’t sleep anymore and my body hurts from lying in bed all day yesterday.”

“You look like shit, but less so,” I say as I look him over. His hair is sticking up and he’s got the start of a beard going, but he no longer smells like sickness.

“I feel less like it.” He rubs a hand over his face. “I gotta go into the bar today. What are you up to?”

“I promised Flynn I’d take him riding.”

Hendrick’s mouth pulls into a straight line and concern etches his brow. “Be careful. He hasn’t ridden in a long while.”

“I know.” I shoot him a scathing look. I’d rather walk over hot coals than see Flynn get hurt. “I’ve been taking care of him a lot longer than you.”

His parental mask falls and is replaced with a look of guilt. Fuck. I don’t know why I said that. Hendrick feels bad enough about the time he was gone playing football and it isn’t like I resent being the one that stayed back. I just want him to realize I’m not some fuck-up when it comes to Flynn.

“We’re doing an easy trail down by the falls. It’s just the two of us and I’ll let him set the pace,” I reassure him in a less accusatory tone.

Hendrick’s easy smile returns. “I remember riding there. We used to drive out in the early morning, ride for a few hours, drink, swim all day, then load up and come home after dark.”

I nod. I have the same memories. Hendrick and I didn’t hang out much as we got older. He had his popular football friends, and I wasn’t into that scene. Wouldn’t have been wanted even if I had been. But every once in a while, we’d all decide to do the same thing for a day. Archer and Brogan went a few times after Hendrick graduated, but they were more interested in drinking and swimming than riding. Flynn was too young and when he was finally old enough, I didn’t want anyone to come with me. Riding was my escape. I haven’t done it for fun with any of them in a long time.

“I should shower and wake up Flynn.” By the time we load everything up and drive out there it’ll be the perfect time when the sun is low, and the air is still crisp. I unzip my jacket and then laugh.

Hendrick eyes my bare chest with amusement. “Lose a shirt somewhere?”

“Nah,” I say. I didn’t lose it. I know exactly where it is.