She’d been the baby, content to remain in the shadows, proud of her beautiful sister and successful brother.
Until the accident, which turned Ethan into the black sheep while her parents suddenly remembered Chloe existed. Their attention had been stifling, consuming, as they seemed to want to wrap her in a protective bubble. Chloe didn’t know how to react under this microscope, what to do, and everything she did do seemed to make it worse.
She filled a glass of water and took a couple of gulps. “I know, Mom, but Ethan asked me to move closer and I… I like it here.”
“I see.” Her voice was tight.
“Ethan is…” Good wasn’t really accurate, but she felt the need to talk about him, remind her mother she had a son. “Busy. He recently bought half of a magazine company.”
Her mother didn’t respond. It was like Ethan didn’t exist. The tension leaked through the phone like poisoned gas.
“D-do you want me to have him call you?”
Her voice came quickly. “I don’t want Ethan to feel forced to speak to his parents.”
Chloe bit her lip. “Um, yeah, okay. I get that.” Why couldn’t she find the right words to say, the sandpaper to smooth away the rough edges in her mom’s voice? Samantha could have done that in her sleep. “You could visit me, if you want.”
“I’ll speak to your father.” She sounded distracted now. “I just wanted to call and check on my daughter. Do you have plans today?”
“I’m trying a new recipe.”
“And plans to be social? I looked up some places that have singles nights.”
Singles nights. Good God, those words were like a shot of pure terror right into her blood. This was the problem. As the only remaining child her parents spoke to, she was smothered by their well-intentioned advice. “Uh-uh, no, Mom. That’s all right. Maybe I’ll call Ethan and—”
“I’m sure he has some single friends that are upstanding in the community.”
Chloe could barely converse in public, the least of her concerns was her hypothetical date’s social status. “Sure.”
“Great, speak to him about that.”
“Okay.”
“I’ll tell your father you said hello. Have a nice day, sweetie.”
“Bye, Mom.”
Chloe hung up the phone and tossed it onto the counter with a clatter. She’d made it through that conversation in one piece, and yet, she wanted to crawl under her covers. Or throw herself into work. Other than anonymous sex, being an introvert and working her ass off were the only skills she excelled at.
But the older she got, the more she wondered if there was more to life. There had been for her at one time, before everything crumbled around her.
Instead of retreating to a bedsheets cave, she took a bath, in the middle of a Saturday morning, like the grownup she was, using a bath bomb that made her whole bathroom smell like lavender. She loved her claw-footed tub, which she’d brought from her last apartment and had installed immediately.
She wrapped her e-reader in two plastic storage bags and read a romance novel full of sweet kissing and heavy petting.
In the past, that would have been enough to get her hot, to maybe touch herself with pruney fingers beneath the water. But now, her eyes glossed over the words, wanting to read something dirtier with a hero who talked like Breck, who handled a woman’s body as deftly as he’d handled hers.
She dropped her kindle on the mat and closed her eyes, leaning back in the tub as she imagined Breck was sitting in the opposite side of the tub. First, he’d tell her to bend over and clutch the edge of the tub, so her ass was facing him. He’d smack it, play with her, running his fingers over her slick flesh until she was begging.
Chloe ran her hand down her belly and stroked her folds under the water, feeling the slickness that was her own making. She swirled the pad of her middle finger over her clit, imagined it was Breck’s hand.
He’d tell her to straddle his waist, and she would, impaling herself on his cock as he sucked on her nipples and palmed her breasts. She’d ride him, hard. And she’d change the angle until she found that spot that he’d awakened that night in the hotel room. The spot inside that had made her see stars.
Chloe opened her mouth, groaning, feeling the orgasm start in her curled toes. Breck was urging her on now, pulling her hair, gripping her ass tightly under the water as she cried out. He’d