CHAPTER 7

nick

The girlfriends were coming to town today and I was in a grumpy ass mood. To make matters worse, Dane had come down with a migraine yesterday so I'd had to spend the entire day in the company of his best friend.

His incredibly gorgeous, adorable best friend who was making my stomach squeeze and my blood pool at just the thought of him.

He'd let me touch him the last couple of mornings out on our surf. Yeah, I could have demonstrated the manoeuvres without touching him but hey, I never claimed I was a saint and his body was just too much of a temptation. And he smelt so good and his skin was so soft and warm and inviting. I could also admit he was better at surfing than he thought he was and probably didn't need as much instruction as I seemed to be intent on giving him. Again, not a saint.

And try as I might I knew I would take any opportunity to touch that boy. He was driving me a little insane if I was totally honest. A full twenty-four hours with him had not helped out my little situation one bit.

I'd already spent nearly two hours in my home gym, trying not to think about Ajay as I ran some of that pent up energy out on the treadmill and benched more than I should safely do on my own. I'd lost my shirt at the half way mark and was just a sweaty beast when I stepped out of the boat shed later that day.

Of course, the first sight my eyes landed on was the gorgeous Ajay himself, laying on a sun lounger on the back deck. He had on a pair of blue and white striped boardies and a pair of dark sunglasses, nothing in between.

But those sunglasses did not conceal the way his eyes roved from the top of my head, right to the very tips of my toes, lingering a while on my abs. I couldn't see those big brown eyes but I felt mighty smug when his mouth dropped open a little. Did this guy honestly have no idea?

"Huh," was all he said.

"Huh, what?" I returned, ditching my plan for a shower in lieu of the cold bottle of beer that was chilling beside Ajay. He watched me the whole time as I stepped up onto the deck and sank onto the sun lounger beside him, cracking open the bottle and guzzling a mouthful. He still hadn't replied so I turned an expectant eye on him, watching him watching me.

"I guess those muscles don't actually grow on trees," Ajay finally offered.

I barked out a laugh. I hadn't expected such honesty from him but if Ajay thought he could say shit like that to me and not get an equally flirty answer, then baby boy had another thing coming.

"You like the muscles, baby?" I grinned, running a hand down my chest and throwing in a wink just for fun. Ajay's eyes followed my hand while his cheeks rewarded me with that faint flush, the one that was becoming harder not to lick off his face.

"Just jealous is all," he said a little too quickly, eyes back on his bottle.

"I wouldn't be if I was you," I offered casually, waiting as he flicked his eyes back to me.

"Why when you look like that," he laughed, waving his hand in my general direction.

"It takes all types, Ajay," I said, leaning back, casual as could be. "And you're perfect as you are."

Ajay let out a short "ha" and I let him think about my words for a moment. Take that how you will, baby boy.

I was just about to tease him out a little more when the sound of the sliding door interrupted my perfectly reinstated good mood and a girl stepped out onto the deck. My insides froze at the sight of her but thawed just a tad when I felt Ajay's entire body tense beside me.

I slid a glance the girl's way, trying to rain a whole heap of hostility at her that she hadn't exactly done anything to earn. Except for maybe exist.

But my heart cracked just a little at the sight of the girl, one of those stunning model types with her long, honey blonde hair, blue eyes and lips so pouty they were most probably fake. The jury was out on what else might have been fake but the girl sure knew what she had going for her with her tits overflowing in a tiny lime green bikini underneath a white wrap top which left most of her flat stomach on display. For eyes that might have been so inclined to look at any rate. The tiny denim shorts left absolutely nothing to the imagination. She was a knockout and I sadly admitted she looked perfect for someone as gorgeous as Ajay.

That was until she opened her mouth.

"Hey, Kira," Ajay offered, a hint of false levity to his tone that I only picked up because I'd been paying attention.

"Oh, you're talking to me now, huh?" Kira returned, arm cocked on her popped hip.

"When was I not talking to you?" Ajay asked, genuine confusion in his voice.

"Like, maybe the last five days since you pissed off down the South Coast with Dane without even telling me," Kira prompted. The girl was pure sass and I suddenly felt a wave of sympathy for my boy.

"It was Christmas. I knew you were busy with your family," Ajay returned.

"And what? Texts don't work at Christmas?"

"Yeah I guess but it's not like you contacted me either," Ajay returned. "Texts work two ways."

"Except when I didn't hear from you I thought I'd test you out and see how long it took for you to contact me. And guess what, Ajay? You failed."

"Ah but see, I was also testing you," Ajay returned so smoothly that I managed to crack a smile. "Guess we both failed."

"Uh, no. That's not how this works. You don't get to test me," returned little miss pouty face. This girl was the absolute worst. What the hell did Ajay see in her? Besides the obvious tits and the body. But I hadn't taken him as the superficial type. Except for the fact I knew how much he liked my abs. Interesting.

"So you're allowed to test me but I'm not allowed to test you?" There was amusement in Ajay's voice and I was pleased to see he wasn't taking her too seriously.

"Exactly. Let's just say I'm not too happy. I expect lots of grovelling to make up for this. Now, I'm going to go get myself a cup of tea seeing as you haven't offered me anything and you can come take my suitcase up to our room. It's still out in the car in the driveway."

With that, little miss turned and stalked back into the house and I turned my incredulous gaze on Ajay who looked remarkably nonplussed.

"Dude, that chick is high maintenance," I murmured.

Ajay just smiled. "Told you. Complicated."

"Man, that's not complicated. That's like nuclear level manipulation tactics going on there."

"Right?" He sighed deeply and I felt an inexplicable need to do something, anything to help him out.

"Anything I can do?" I offered.

"You got some friends you can bring around or something? Kira has a short attention span and it's usually easier for me when there are more people around to distract her."

"Brilliant idea," I said, perking up in my seat. "Why don't we have ourselves a little impromptu beach party? We can even sell it as a welcome to the girls so they won't know our true intentions."

"I would owe you a thousand beers if you did that for me," Ajay returned with an innocence that about knocked me over. As though I wouldn't basically walk off a cliff for him. I guess he had no way of knowing that though.

"Come out for a drink with me sometime and we'll call it even," I said instead. Ajay's broad smile was worth every bit of the effort as we shared a little conspiratorial grin with each other.

I pulled my phone out and fired off texts to Rob and Mateo and some of our other friends, telling them to send the word out and then sat back and clinked my beer bottle with Ajay's. The locals around here were almost guaranteed starters with the mix of a fire on the beach and free alcohol on offer so I was confident we'd muster up enough people to redirect little miss pouty face's attention from my boy.

I mean, not my boy. He was actually hers if we were being completely literal. He just felt a little like mine sometimes even if there was no other supporting evidence to back up my irrational claim.

We didn't have long to revel in the success of our coup when Dee and Dane stepped out onto the deck. It was kind of telling when Ajay instantly sprang to his feet to pull Dee into a hug, a hug he hadn't even offered his girlfriend. I sent Dee a polite upnod and she waved back at me. I didn't know Dee all that well. She'd been down to visit a few times in the holidays with Dane and he seemed completely enamoured with her. Enough to keep her away from me and my ‘infamous charm' at any rate.

"So, Nick and I thought we'd have a little welcome party down on the beach tonight," Ajay announced to his friends. Oh I did so like the way he said Nick and I. Like we were a team or a pair. A dynamic duo.

And then, as predictable as mud, Dee's face lit up with excitement at Ajay's news while Dane frowned.

"I thought it would be nice just to have a quiet night in. I already have a bottle of Barossa shiraz decanting," he said. "Just the four of us." Yeah, four minus me as though I wasn't the one who actually lived in the freaking house. I was used to being excluded from Dane's life but this time, with Ajay in the mix, it actually kind of hurt.

"Lame," I huffed. Ajay whipped his head to me at my little comment and sucked in a smile causing me to need a second to set my heart to rights. "Besides, it's already organised."

"So typical," Dane murmured under his breath. I was not normally one to avoid taking the bait when it was thrown at me like that but I let the comment slide this once. For Ajay's sake. This impromptu beach party was all for him after all so that we could try and separate him from his nightmare of a girlfriend. The one who was waiting for him to take her suitcase up to Ajay's bedroom, to share his bed with her and who knew whatever the hell else.

Fuck.