Love Me by Bella Andre

from his mother's shoulder and in an instant his wobbling cheeks shifted into a wide smile.
    “Hey, baby boy,” she said as Lily grateful y moved aside to let her pick him up.
    Happily going into her arms, he made a stern face. “I'm not a baby.”
    “I know,” she said. “You're a big boy.” She pretended she was going to drop under his weight. “A huge boy. Have you been eating bricks again?”
    “That would make my teeth break, sil y!” he crowed, happy to let her know just how wrong she was, just like his father—and his uncle—were so happy to do al the time.
    Carson men. They were al alike.
    Too damn cute to stay away from, but completely and utterly ful of themselves.
    “You're it! You're it!” Violet yel ed as she ran by.
    “Okay. I'm just going to tel Sammy a secret first,”
    Janica said.
    Violet's eyes got real y big. Forgetting al about her game of tag, she ran over. “What is it?”
    “I need to talk to your mommy for a few minutes and then when we're done I'm taking everyone for cupcakes.”
    Lily's little boy al but jumped out of her arms to do a happy cupcake dance with his sister.
    “I want to go right now!” he demanded.
    Carson boys and their demands.
    Come here.
    I want you naked.
    Get on your knees.
    Use your mouth.
    She shivered at the stil -potent memories of the previous night and Lily looked at her with concern.
    “Jan, honey, are you okay?”
    Working to push Luke out of her head for five seconds, Janica smiled at the kids and pointed to the clock on the kitchen wal . “When the little arm is pointing at the 6, we'l go. Violet, you know how to tel time, don't you?”
    Violet puffed up her chest. “Of course I do.” And then she grabbed her brother's arm and said, “Let's go play bakery in my room until it's time to go. You can make me cupcakes and I can eat them.”
    Stepping over grocery bags, Lily hugged her quickly, then pul ed her over to one of the bar stools tucked under the granite-topped island.
    “What's wrong?”
    Oh crap. Why had she come here? What was she thinking? Lily was going to kil her. Or Luke. Either way, her big sister was going to be worried sick over the whole situation.
    But the thing was, even though Janica knew al those things, she had to talk to someone about what had happened. She needed her best friend. Who just so happened to be Luke's best friend too.
    “Something happened last night.”
    Lily's worried look morphed into pure fear. “Are you okay?”
    Janica wanted to nod, tried to say yes, but the truth was she wasn't sure she actual y was okay. Luke had rocked her world so hard she hadn't just seen stars, she'd actual y felt like a human kaleidoscope shifting form again and again, from formations of pinks to purples and reds, yel ows and oranges, blues and greens. Her orgasm had gone on and on as if it would never end, one easily turning to two beneath his beautiful y out-of-control onslaught. And for a moment she'd felt special. Cherished.
    But then he'd left, at least as cold as he'd ever been to her.
    Colder, even.
    “Oh my God, Jan, if someone hurt you we need to go to the pol—”
    Janica quickly cut her off. “No, it's nothing like that.”
    She paused, took a deep breath, knew she needed to spit it out already before Lily had the chief of police on the line.
    “Luke came over.”
    Lily frowned. “Luke came over?”
    Janica nodded.
    Lily cocked her head to the side, stil clearly confused by what Luke had to do with anything. And then, suddenly, her eyes went big.
    “Luke came over,” Lily said again, more slowly this time, as if her brain was too busy working out the ramifications of everything to be able to change the words into anything else.
    Jumping straight over the inevitable question— did you sleep with him? —Janica gave her sister the answer with another nod.
    At which point Lily's eyes grew even huger and her cheeks flushed, her mouth opening and shutting a couple of times without any words coming out. Janica was