"You're joking, right?"

"Afraid not. Will you just get in? I'm definitely illegally parked."

Sienna stood at the curb in front of her apartment building, her designer overnight bag hanging off of one shoulder and a garment bag draped over the other. She sighed and pushed her big black movie-star sunglasses up the bridge of her nose. Something about the way the wind gently lifted her golden blonde hair and the way she stood so assured of herself made it look like she might have actually been a movie star - one that paparazzi photos would say she was all fed up with the loser guy she was dating.

I didn't have an opportunity to debate with myself whether we actually were dating, or if I was dragging this girl I just fucked once into the abyss to meet my entire family.

"This is a Mercedes G Wagon," she said, gesturing to the SUV I was currently sitting in the driver's seat in, apprehensively tapping my fingers against the steering wheel.

"Yes, and?" I groaned. An Uber behind me honked before pulling out and zooming around the car. "Please get in."

"Okay, okay," she surrendered with her hands up, dropping her bag in the backseat and hanging her garment bag from the door handle. I pulled away from the curb the moment she dropped into the passenger seat.

"Where did you get this?" She asked, messing around with the seat controls on the side of the passenger door. "I mean, I've never been in a car with a seat that has a massage function."

"It's my mother's," I told her, rolling my eyes behind my sunglasses. "They keep a few cars in a garage by their Upper East Side building, and she was just so gracious enough to give me the keys to one so we didn't have to take public transport all the way out to the Hamptons."

"So gracious," Sienna echoed. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a faint smirk curl the corners of her glossy pink lips.

"I, um..." When we rolled to a stop at a traffic light just before the exit to 495 taking us off of Manhattan, I turned to look at her. Early afternoon sun beat through the window, creating a warm halo of light around her. It almost ached to look at her. "I never thanked you for agreeing to come with me this weekend. I know you cancelled your trip home for Thanksgiving for this, and..."

I could barely stomach the fact that she picked me over her own family, and I wasn't prepared for her to reach over the center console and take my hand in hers. "I'd rather be here. With you."

"Yeah, we'll see how you feel about that after the weekend is over," I grumbled as the light turned green, but she kept her fingers intertwined with mine until we were well out of Manhattan and stopped at a Starbucks off the highway in Queens. If I was going to survive the weekend, I'd have to get used to her holding my hand, because her touch alone grounded me in a way I knew I'd desperately need.

It was about a two hour drive all the way out to the Hamptons, and unsurprisingly, Sienna yapped the whole car ride, about anything and everything. She went from how there were no Starbucks in her small North Dakota town so she had no idea how to order a drink the first time she went to one in the city, to somehow seamlessly transitioning into how Sweet Home Alabama is the most underrated Reese Witherspoon movie (I contributed to that little rant by mentioning that everyone always forgets she was in American Psycho).

And I just let her. There was comfort in her voice, and the way she talked a lot with her hands and twirled her hair when she was blanking on a word. I really did know her, and I was latching onto that knowledge like a parasite.

The yapping hard-stopped when we arrived at the dead end of Monaco Court out in Southampton, where I rolled the car to a stop in front of the tall iron gates of the driveway.

"We're here?" she asked, inching forward in the passenger seat to try and get a good view over the gate. But the tree-lined driveway that led up to the property completely obscured her view - because privacy and elitism went hand in hand.

"Unfortunately," I grumbled as I rolled the window down to type the security code into the keypad by the gate. The gate opened with a deep groan, and I swallowed down the swirling storm of doubt and sickness in my throat as the main house came into view.

"That's an impressive front yard." She nodded to the 10 acres of perfectly manicured grass in front of the main house.

I clenched the steering wheel, trying not to stomp my foot down on the gas pedal and speed past it. "That serves no purpose other than putting distance between the houses and the street."

The main house itself couldn't be seen from the driveway past layers of trees. The driveway split off to the left towards the main house, where a few catering trucks and god knows what else my mother had planned were already parked along the side leading up to the house. Sienna shot me a look as we drove by the offshoot and continued down the driveway. When the bay house came into view, she audibly gasped.

"So you really meant houses, plural."

"Yeah, I did," I answered plainly as I parked the SUV in front of the front steps of the bay house. All the bushes and trees that lined the gardens in the front of the house were as perfectly manicured as ever, even though nobody even lived there nine months out of the year. In fact, it all looked exactly the same as the last summer I had ever been there nearly seven years ago - just as intimidating and unhomely as it always was.

Sienna unbuckled her seatbelt but stayed in her seat, turning her whole body to face me. "Okay, I knew your family was wealthy, but this is like...oligarch wealthy. Who has two houses? They're not even houses, they're estates."

"Yeah see, this is why I didn't exactly elaborate on the state of things here." I got out of the car and walked around to the trunk to get my things, hoping she'd follow. "It's all just ridiculous."

"I mean, it is, but it's beautiful too."

When I leaned over to poke my head around the car, Sienna stood at the open mouth of the staircase, surveying the sprawling white brick house with all its big open windows and empty rooms. Behind the house was Shinnecock Bay, where in the heavy silence of being so isolated back here, the sound of the ocean could be heard faintly in the distance.

"They built this house first," I explained as I walked up beside her, handing her her overnight bag and the garment bag. "Eventually they decided it wasn't big enough, and so he bought all the land in front of it and built the main house." I gestured backwards. "Which is like, 10,000 square feet bigger and has way cooler shit."

Sienna folded her arms over her chest and shook her head. "Who on earth needs two houses right next to each other?"

"I guess they thought one day, either Joelle or I would get married and then move in, raise our families there, or...something. And they'd be a stone's throw away." I jammed my hands into the pockets of my jeans and shrugged. "Anyway, my sister obviously won the domestication game, and the prize is this thing."

Sienna snickered. "Pretty big prize."

"Well, if there's one thing my father's good at, it's building shit."

I wondered if Sienna sensed my mood beginning to sour as she wrapped her arm around the crook of my elbow - as if she also sensed that her touch alone would sweeten me in unholy ways. "So who else is staying in this house, then?"

"Just us."

"Really?"

I furrowed my brows, wondering why that seemed to surprise her so much. "Yeah, because god forbid we even stay under the same roof as the rest of my family."

Sienna sighed and shook her head before reaching down to take my hand in hers. She pulled me up the stairs and through the big wooden front door, and I slammed it shut behind us. The crystal chandelier that hung from the ceiling in the foyer had been dimmed, showering a warm glow down on us. Her eyes lit up as she gazed around at the spiral staircase and the classic artwork dotting the walls, but it freaked me out that she was wandering around this liminal space of my old house - a place that made me feel as empty and unsettled as it was. She was going to start seeing old wounds, old carnage, and I was terrified that whatever this thing was with her and I was going to crumble at my feet like a dead body.

But then she stepped into my line of sight again, glowing the way angels did when they came to visit a sad, pathetic mortal being. I knew then and there this was the most beautiful girl I'd ever seen in my life, and she took my hands in hers once more, smiling as if she was about to fix every old wound I'd ever had.

"It's beautiful here," she said, still beaming. "Show me our room?"

My breath hitched. Our room.

"Right," I finally choked out. I led her up the spiral staircase and down a long, white carpeted hallway to the back of the house. There was no point in sleeping in my old room, which had most likely been gutted for storage anyway. Any door that was shut in this house was going to stay shut.

"Oh my god," Sienna breathed out as she opened the double doors to the master bedroom. Big windows lined the far wall, the billowing drapes open to expose unobstructed views of the bay, along with the deck, the pool and the pool house in the yard. She went right over to the king-sized bed, flopping backwards onto the thick white comforter and knocking over a few of the dozen decorative pillows.

"This is the most comfortable bed I've ever laid in," she moaned in pleasure as she sprawled her arms out at her side, and I had to clench every muscle in my body to stop myself from climbing on top of her and stripping her naked.

As if she could see every dirty thought ricocheting through my brain, she sat up with a soft smile, then beckoned me over, and like a dog I came when called, standing over her at the foot of her bed. She gently put her hands to my hips, absentmindedly fingering the belt loops on my jeans. I wanted to buckle under her touch as she slowly moved a hand to settle on the button fly.

Then she looked up at me with those big blue eyes of hers, twinkling with the innocence of a girl who had no idea what she did to me. "Do you want to play house with me?"

"I, uh..." I cleared my throat, desperate to now unclench my body before the tension started showing up in unwanted ways. "I don't think I've ever played that before."

She let out a wistful sigh as she sat back on her hands, smiling up at me like she knew exactly what she did to me. She then glanced down at her gold watch.

"It's okay, I just realized what time it was. I should probably start getting ready." She got up from the bed and leaned forward on her toes to press a kiss to my cheek. "Maybe we'll play later."

I nodded as I felt my heart thump in my throat, and she gave me one more sugary sweet smile before disappearing into the bathroom and closing the door behind her. I stood dumbfounded at the foot of the bed where she left me, listening to her turn the water on as I watched a replay of the last two minutes in my head - everything from the way she touched me to the cadence of her voice when she spoke.

"Oh my god, you fucking idiot," I groaned and raked my hands through my hair.

I started tugging my clothes off and tossing them behind me as I made my way across the room to the bathroom, giving myself no time to second guess what I was about to do. Steam poured out of the bathroom as I slipped into the door, and it had already fogged up the glass doors of the shower, so nothing but Sienna's silhouette was visible behind it. I pressed my hand into the black and white tiled walls, careful not to slip as I stepped into the shower (because with my luck, I would).

"Hi." She turned and smiled up at me, even though I was sure she really wanted to say what the fuck took you so long.

"H-Hi," I sputtered out, trying not to lose my breath at the sight of her naked body in front of me. Streams of soap and water dripped down her full breasts, her nipples hard and inviting, before disappearing between her thighs. I gulped hard. "I just figured we'd...save some time...getting ready. The shower's big enough for both of us, so..."

"You figured it out, have you?"

Sienna reached for my waist and pulled me under the shower head, drenching me in scalding hot water. Wet hair stuck to my forehead and dripped onto her cheeks as she looked up at me, still holding me like we were just two friends hugging each other after we'd hung out casually one night, and not naked in a shower under a waterfall of water in a massive empty house.

And while we stared at each other under the pouring hot water, I realized I couldn't take it anymore. I wanted more. I wanted more than just one afternoon together on my couch. I wanted to taste her lips and her neck and her face and everything. I wanted to devour her - to pull her in and never let her go.

"Kiss me," I pleaded over the roaring of the shower, and that was all it took for her to kiss me like I was dying, and she was my medicine. I felt the antidote of her coursing through me, because suddenly, I was alive. I felt at home for the first time in this godforsaken house, because I was in her arms, and I never wanted to leave home again.

She brought her lips down to my neck, gently biting and sucking as if she knew where to find every little sensitive spot on my body.

"God damn it," I groaned and shook my head. "Do you have any idea what you do to me?"

She pulled her head out of my neck and smirked. "Why don't you show me?"

Her words lurched me forward. I pinned her to the wall of the shower, leaning down and kissing her deeply. I pressed myself against her and teased her neck with my tongue, reaching down and spreading her thighs with my hand before slipping a finger inside her. She arched her back off the wall, easing herself into my touch as she let out a moan of pleasure. My whole body shuddered at this overwhelming, almost carnal instinct that took over my body, but I'd never had sex in a shower before, and I'd probably fuck up somehow.

As I slipped another finger in, she let out a startled gasp before moaning out my name like a prayer. Devon. Like it doesn't even belong to me, but a higher being.

"Say my name again," I whispered against her neck, letting my words dance across her wet skin.

"Oh Devon," she moaned. I felt her press kisses to my jaw before working her mouth up to gently nibble on my earlobe, and I almost buckled as my whole body went fuzzy with static.

"Fuck Sienna," I groaned. "Look at what you do to me."

Sienna pulled away so she could look up at me, water glistening on her face like little stars. She seemed to awaken things in me that I didn't even know existed, and she must have sensed it as she reached up to brush her fingers across my lips, as if to reassure me that she wanted me as badly as I wanted her.

"I like you like this, Devon," she whispered.

"God, I...I don't know what I'm doing," I whispered back.

"It's okay," she reassured me, cupping my face with her hands. "I do, and I'll guide you."

"Anything you want, Sienna. I'm yours."

Before I knew it she'd gripped my shoulders and spun me around so that my back was to the wall I'd just had her pressed against, the water still hot and sticking my hair to my forehead in wet clumps.

When she reached down to cup my balls in her hand, I nearly slammed my head against the wall from rolling it back in a shockwave of ecstasy.

"Oh god Sienna," I moaned out as she stroked me with more intent, every ounce of blood in me rushing down to feel her touch.

"For now, just let me do this for you."

She rocked forward on her toes to kiss me quickly before lowering herself to her knees, and my world stopped spinning entirely.

I let out a deep, guttural groan as her tongue ran along every single sensitive nerve ending I had. My whole body shook, and the walls were slick wet with nothing for me to grab onto, so I reached down and took a fistful of her wet hair in my hand. Even though I didn't mean for the gesture to be aggressive, it seemed to ignite something in her as she became more aggressive, wrapping her hand around the base of my cock while she took the rest of me in her mouth.

She sucked and stroked me in a way I'd never felt before, and it almost immediately became impossible for me to hold it in any longer.

"Sienna..." I bit down on my fist. "Sienna, I'm gonna come. Like...right now. I'm gonna explode."

But she kept at it, squeezing my thighs as I finished in her mouth, and an orgasmic sound left me like my damn soul had left my body.

"Thank god we have this house to ourselves." She smirked as she stood up, leaning her whole body into mine and wrapping her arms around my waist like she had when I first stepped in the shower with her.

"Do we have to go to this fucking party now?" I groaned and rubbed the side of my face.

"Yes, we have to." She kissed my cheek. "And whatever happens, I'll be right there with you."

We lingered in the shower, and I felt the liminal spaces in me slowly filling up, all with her.  

⋆ ★

so much drama still to come! who's excited for the engagement party???

also sorry yeah so that whole scene at the end in the shower was not planned and i hope you don't hate it (still bashful about smut scenes even though this is like my fifth one) okay bye!