Without Claire: The Hastings Brothers Series Read online

  I arch an eyebrow at her. “Why the one I’m wearing?” I ask as I am already taking the shirt off and handing it to her. She grabs it from me and sniffs it. Fucking sniffs it. Bringing me back to when I first hugged her, and she sniffed me. I feel my lips twitch in amusement.

  “Because it smells like you,” she tells me with a blush covering her cheeks.

  I can’t help but walk over to her, lie beside her, and kiss her. She automatically melts into the kiss giving back as much as I am giving her.

  The kiss goes from soft and slow to passionate and deep. Before I know it, I have her flipped around on her back, and am settled between her legs. I pull back from the kiss to bite down on her ear trailing down to her neck, and kissing her wherever I can. It’s taking so much control to not take her right here, but I don’t want to rush this. I know that if we don’t stop soon, I won’t be able to help myself.

  I rest my head on her shoulder, and we are both breathing heavy.

  “Wow, you sure know how to kiss a girl awake,” she says which causes me to chuckle into her shoulder.

  “Baby, it’s taking all the control I have not to take you right here,” I tell her honestly, softly biting her shoulder.

  “Wow. Well I’m glad that you stopped. I’m not sure I am ready for more yet.”

  I lift my head to look at her. “I know, baby. I meant what I said that we could take this slow,” I say to her as I lift my head to look down at her.

  She blows out a breath looking nervous about something.

  “What is it? You look like you have something to say.”

  “Well I am just going to say this since I think it’s something you will need to know.” When she says this, she tries to sit up, so I pull back and rest against the head board lifting her so she’s straddling me.

  “You can tell me anything, baby,” I tell her, softly tucking a hair behind her ear.

  “Okay…” She pauses, and I know she needs to take her time to say whatever she is going to say.

  “Well the thing is… well… I’m a virgin,” she blurts out in the end, her cheeks turning red and looking everywhere but at me like this is something that she should be embarrassed about. This actually makes me fucking ecstatic. I had a feeling that was what she was going to tell me, but having her confirm it makes me so fucking happy. No man has had her. I know that I shouldn’t feel this way given my history with women, but I didn’t think that I would ever find someone who would make me want to settle down.

  “I had a feeling… but baby none of that matters to me. I can’t tell you how happy that makes me to be the only guy who knows what you feel like… Have you done everything else?” I ask slowly.

  She shakes her head. If it’s possible, she turns a darker shade of red. “If we are doing this together, we have to be honest with each other. I haven’t exactly been a saint. I want you to know that I have a past, but those women don’t compare to you. You make me feel on a whole other level. When we finally do make love for the first time, I promise it will be good for you. I’m only asking so that I don’t cross any boundaries with you.”

  She takes a deep breath. “Well you see… it’s… umm… well… you…ugh… fuck it… you were my first kiss ever…”

  I am in shock. I know my jaw drops, and I can’t hide the shock on my face. She buries her face in my chest shaking her head back and forth.

  “Fuck baby, how is that possible? You’re so fucking beautiful. I know you haven’t been near anyone in six years, but what about high school?”

  She pulls back to look at me. “I only cared about my grades, and some of the guys that I went to school with were assholes. They didn’t pay me much attention because I wasn’t skinny like the rest of the girls in school. I didn’t get bullied or anything; I just wasn’t worth their time.”

  That both makes me angry that anyone could overlook at how beautiful she is, and happy that no one has experienced anything from her which means that I will have all her firsts. It makes me want to pound on my chest like a caveman that no one knows what she looks like when she comes apart, or what she tastes like.

  I grab her face with my hands, and kiss her softly. When I pull back, I look at her. “Let’s go to sleep, baby. I know that you are tired.”

  She nods her head. Then she grabs my shirt, and heads to the bathroom. When she comes back, she has her shirt, bra, and shorts in her hand, so I know that all she has underneath are her panties. I bite back a groan that wants to escape.

  When she is walking to the bed, I notice that she is walking funny. If I really think about it, I realize that she didn’t move that much tonight. I narrow my eyes at her. When I look up, she’s blushing.

  “Umm… did I mention the girls suck?” she says innocently.

  “What did they do? Why are you walking funny?” I ask her as she carefully climbs into the bed.

  “Well they made me get waxed… you know eyebrows, legs…ummm… lady bits,” she whispers the last word so that I can barely hear her. My eyes automatically go down. I can’t help it.

  “They made you wax your pussy?” I ask her, getting more turned on by the second thinking of her bare down there.

  She nods her head. I am so fucking turned on right now that I can barely think straight, and there is no way to hide the erection I am sporting.

  “I’m going to need a minute to myself,” I comment. She bites her lip as she nods her head, and, fuck, if that doesn’t make it worse. I just can’t look at her at the moment. I close my eyes, and take a couple deep breaths willing for the guy to go down. Sorry, buddy, not happening tonight.

  Just when I am willing the guy to go down, I feel a small hand on my cock. I open my eyes quickly and look down. Claire is kneeling beside my waist touching me through my boxers. They are light touches, but my cock seems to know what she wants.

  “You know, you don’t have to do anything. I was trying to will him to go down,” I tell her breathing heavy.

  She shrugs. “I know, but I want to. I mean I’m not ready to put my mouth on it or anything, but I want to watch you come. Is that too weird?” she asks as she lightly strokes me through my boxers.

  “No, baby, that’s not weird. It’s hot as fuck. Do what you want. Explore.” I put my hands behind my head so that I don’t grab her. I need to let her go at her own pace.

  She reaches to my waist band of my boxers, and pulls them down. She pulls them all the way off tossing them beside the bed. When she sees my cock for the first time, I can see her eyes widen. I chuckle at her reaction.

  “Ummm… Wow… Not that I have seen any to compare it to, but you are big,” she tells me shyly.

  I just nod my head because I’m not sure if she is talking to me, or herself.

  She puts her hand around me, and gives it a little squeeze. Then she starts to stroke me up and down. She looks lost in thought. “You can grab onto it a little harder. I won’t break,” I say through breaths. She looks up to me, smiles, and then nods.

  She puts more pressure on it, and starts to stroke faster. My breathing becomes heavier. A drop of precum comes out, and she looks at it with fascination. She stops stroking me to circle her thumb around the head of my cock. I hiss out a breath. I am ready to blow, yet I am trying so fucking hard to last. Just the thought of her hand on me makes me want to blow my load. I want to let her keep exploring, but I know that I’m not going to be able to last much longer.

  “Fuck, baby. If you don’t stop, I am going to cum,” I tell her through clenched teeth.

  “I want you to come,” she tells me confidently. She strokes me faster than before using her other hand to grab my balls. She starts making a twisting motion with her hand, and I can’t stop myself from coming. The muscles in my stomach tighten, my balls draw up, and I explode. I fucking come hard. I don’t think I have ever come this hard. She lightens her fist on me, but slowly strokes me through my orgasm, drawing so much come from me that I am completely drained.

  Once it’s over, I am breathing heavy. I hav
e an arm over my eyes. I know that I am going to sleep fucking good tonight. Holy shit, that was the strongest orgasm I have ever had. I know that it had a lot to do with it being Claire who was touching me. I feel her get off the bed. A few seconds later, I hear the sink running, so I know that she is cleaning her hands. I can’t even get the energy to clean myself off. I hear her walking back to the bedroom. When she comes back, I feel the bed dip, and feel a warm cloth on my stomach. I uncover my eyes, and look down at her. She’s smiling sweetly at me, and cleaning me up while humming. That has to be the sweetest fucking thing anyone has ever done for me. No woman has ever cleaned me up before. When she’s done, she throws the cloth in the hamper, and climbs into bed. She then rests her head on my chest.

  “That was awesome,” she tells me making me chuckle.

  She looks up at me, running a hand down my cheek and jaw. “Go to sleep. Don’t worry about me. When I am not that sore, you can take care of me, I promise,” she smiles at me, and then gives me a quick kiss.

  I will definitely be taking her up on that promise. I just hold her tighter. It doesn’t take long for either of us to fall asleep.

  Chapter Nine

  Claire

  I wake up the next morning wrapped up in Sam’s arms. He is sleeping soundly and snoring softly. Wow, at least it’s not loud. I don’t think that I could handle loud snoring for however long this thing between us lasts.

  Sleeping in his arms felt good. I didn’t have any nightmares, nor did I toss and turn all night. Usually my thoughts keep me up all night.

  I slip out of Sam’s arms, and go to grab my shorts. I don’t even want to take off his shirt yet, so I just take it off to put my bra on and put his shirt back on. I take another look at him, and he is hugging the pillow I slept on. I can’t help the smile that comes to my face. I look at the time, and race downstairs. It’s four in the morning, but the girls and I spent all day yesterday planning this. They told me to stay the night with Sam, or come over at four in the morning. Since I am in the house, I unlock it from the inside and the girls are waiting for me out on the porch. They hand me a “to go” cup of coffee, and we head outside.

  We head over to Paige’s brothers house. The girls have a spare set of keys that they had made when Paige’s brothers weren’t paying attention. Apparently, their key rights to the guys’ houses were revoked due to pranks. That had made me laugh to hear.

  We make our way inside, and see how clean it is. Wow, are any of these guys messy? I don’t even clean this much.

  We start to baby proof the house, adding things on the door knobs, cupboards, toilet seats, and fridge. We decide that was enough since we have two more houses to do seeing as Trevor and Derek live with the girls. The girls had no problems wrecking even their house for revenge.

  We head back to Sam’s house, and bring out the plastic wrap. We have a fun time (and a hard time being quiet), but we manage to get the wrap around the couch in the living room, and the chairs in the kitchen. We make a plastic door for the kitchen entry way, and for the bedroom doors for when the guys leave their rooms.

  After that, we head over to Paige’s. We still have a bit more time before Trevor usually wakes up. We end up taping bubble wrap from the bedroom door all the way down the hallways through the entire house. Then we put a big cut out of Chewbacca (that, apparently, the guys had used on them a couple months ago) right outside the door for when they open it. The girls had purchased two more for the other doors.

  Once we finish everything, we get into Paige’s SUV, and head to breakfast with huge smiles on our faces. We don’t even make it to the end of the block before we burst out in laughter. We had added cameras in the hallways, kitchens, and front doors so that we could catch their faces.

  Chapter Ten

  Sam

  I wake up, and my hand automatically searches for Claire. When I don’t feel her, only a cold side of the bed, I am in a sense of panic that she left when I was asleep. Cursing, I get up searching for my boxers and a pair of sweat pants. I see that she still has her shirt here, so maybe she is just having coffee. I look at the clock, and see that it’s seven am. Why would she be up this early? Does she usually wake up this early? The thought leaves my mind when I step into the hallway because I end up walking into mother fucking plastic. What the fuck? How did they do this shit with me sleeping right on the other side of the door? Usually, I am a light sleeper. I end up tearing the plastic down since it’s only one layer. Once I am done, Liam and Cole end up doing the same thing that I did. I have to admit that it is funny when it happens to others.

  Cole and Liam end up cursing because we know that this is only the beginning of what they did. We are walking downstairs slowly waiting for any more traps. When we make it downstairs, we notice that the furniture is covered in plastic. Cole walks to the kitchen and gets stopped by fucking plastic. Shit, they must have gotten up early to do all of this. After Liam and I laugh, we decide to see what they did to the other guys. Liam opens the door and screams. I’m talking a high pitched little girl kind of scream. I start laughing so hard that I am holding my stomach. Cole is on the ground in a fit of laughter.

  I hear another couple of high pitched screams, and I look up to see Derek with a hand on his chest and Trevor laughing behind him. I look over to the Johnson house, and Luke lets out the scream over there with his brothers laughing. We all end up walking to the front lawn of Paige’s house. I notice that Paige’s SUV is gone. They left. Cowards.

  “Seriously, how the fuck did no one wake up? What did they do to your house?” Liam asks the Johnson brothers.

  “They baby proofed it! There’s clips and shit on everything! I had to fucking pee in the sink!” Kyle grumbles.

  “They put bubble wrap on the floor in the house. It’s fucking everywhere! You know how fucking loud that shit is when you are trying to wake up?” Trevor grumbles.

  “Fuck, they must have woken up really early to do all of this!” Noah exclaims throwing his hands in the air.

  “They’re fucking ninjas I tell you!” Derek grumbles.

  We clean up the mess before we can make coffee and breakfast. It’s almost nine by the time we are about to eat.

  We are sitting on the back deck when the girls come into the backyard. “Where the fuck have you been?” Trevor growls at them.

  “Breakfast. You guys were sleeping so peacefully. We didn’t want to wake you,” Paige says innocently batting her eyelashes at him.

  “Don’t you act so innocent there, missy! What time did you girls wake up?” Liam asks.

  “At about four am. You know, I couldn’t sleep anymore. Bad dream,” Courtney says sighing.

  I see all of their lips twitching. “You know, Liam, I didn’t know that your voice could go that high,” Tara says which has us narrowing our eyes at the girls who still are standing by the door.

  “It doesn’t,” he says clearing his throat and shifting awkwardly.

  “I still think Derek’s was higher,” Courtney says with a wicked gleam in her eyes.

  “If we are comparing screams, I’m going to say Luke’s was the highest,” Claire says trying to hold in her laughter.

  We all eye them for a moment. Then it clicks. “How the fuck would you know?” Noah asks.

  They all shrug innocently.

  “You guys weren’t outside when we came outside. We would have seen you,” I say narrowing my eyes.

  “We didn’t need to be,” Tara says too sweetly.

  “You fucking recorded us, didn’t you?” Kyle yells at them.

  When they avoid our gazes, I know that Kyle is right. They recorded our reactions. They just upped this game to a whole new level.

  “Holy shit! You did!” Noah yells.

  Claire finally comes over, and sits on my lap. I kiss her cheek. “How did you sleep?” I ask her.

  Everyone else is still arguing, but I am completely lost in Claire right now. “It was good. Best sleep I have ever had. I don’t remember the last time I slept so long,�
�� Claire replies.

  “Good. Though I didn’t like waking up without you in my arms, but I can see now that you decided to place yourself in the middle of our war,” I state, giving her a small peck on the lips.

  “I couldn’t refuse to help after being asked, now could I?” She smiles sweetly at me. Damn, she’s good.

  “If you two love birds are done, we are at war right now,” Courtney grumbles.

  “What more do we have to do? Isn’t this like intermission until the next prank? I’m going to have to go soon. I am actually doing a book signing this weekend, so I need to make sure that I have everything before I leave on Thursday,” Claire says, and I can’t help but stiffen. I hate that she lives on the other side of the city, and I don’t want to go a couple of days without seeing her. I don’t want to give her the chance to question us.

  “How long will you be gone? I thought you never leave your apartment?” I ask her.

  “Just a few nights. I will be back on Sunday night. I don’t, but I had booked this a few months ago in an attempt to get myself out there and start living again. I guess I didn’t see you or your family coming into my life,” she tells me as she leans back against my chest.

  I eat my breakfast in silence after that. I don’t know why I am not scared of everything she is making me feel. I know that if I could, I would have her move in with me right now. I don’t like sleeping without her, and I know now that it wasn’t just the alcohol. She really does feel good in my arms. I wasn’t imagining things.

  Chapter Eleven

  Claire

  A few weeks pass by, and I couldn’t be happier. Well I could, but that would require Sam asking me to stay with him permanently. I know it’s too soon, and I don’t want to scare him off. I actually ended up having a good time at the signing, meeting a lot of my fans in person. I spent the nights talking to Sam on the phone. Whenever I stayed home without him, we always talked on the phone before bed. It wasn’t the same as actually being with him, but I didn’t want to rush things.