DARING AND DANGEROUS

NAKED BUTTS

We strolled to her apartment. I knocked.

Nothing.

Knocked again. Still no answer.

Weird.

I pressed my ear to the door and heard… something. Something that sounded like a moan and furniture giving up on life.

My stomach dropped. “Rory?” TJ asked behind me. “You good?”

I didn’t answer. I was already fishing for Blair’s spare key, heart racing, because what if—

Click.

I shoved the door open and immediately regretted every life choice that led to this moment.

“OH HOLY HELL!” I shrieked, shielding my eyes like it was a Marvel movie I wasn’t allowed to see yet. Matt’s very naked, very shiny ass was front and center, and Blair’s voice screeched, “GET OUT!”

I slammed the door like my soul depended on it, nearly tripping backward into TJ who was now laughing so hard he had to brace himself against the wall.

“Did not,” he wheezed, “have accidental couple’s porn on my Sunday bingo card.”

“Why is her door always unlocked?!” I gasped, half-horrified, half-impressed.

“She said she needed help hanging things,” he smirked.

I deadpanned. “Blair is going to be the death of me. Actual death. From secondhand embarrassment. Please tell my therapist it wasn’t a s*x-related crime.”

Back in my apartment, we collapsed on the couch, TJ shirtless again, the man clearly allergic to clothes. We were surrounded by pizza boxes, empty beer bottles, and s****l tension thicker than New York humidity.

He passed me the last slice, brushing his fingers against mine on purpose. I could feel it.

“So…” he said, drawing the word out, “You always greet your delivery guys with no bra and s*x on the menu?”

I took the slice without missing a beat. “Only when they show up late, lift heavy s**t, and look like they have stamina.”

He tilted his head, blue eyes burning a little too intensely. “That your version of saying I rocked your world?”

I smirked around a bite of pizza. “You didn’t suck.”

Silence stretched between us—that kind. The one that wasn’t just post-hookup haze anymore. It was leaning into… something else.

He cleared his throat. “So uh... you got a boyfriend back in Oklahoma?”

There it was. The shift. The "let’s actually talk about our lives" moment I avoided like the plague.

I froze for half a second before smirking again. “Why? You looking for a girlfriend, TJ?”

His mouth twitched. “Maybe. Or maybe I just want to know if I’m gonna be seeing you again.”

Cue the internal panic. This was my cue. The moment where I emotionally ghosted mid-conversation and retreated into my fortress of sarcasm.

And then, like the heavens intervened—ding.

A text from Blair.

B: All four of us are now fed, f****d, and officially furniture’d. Mission complete. Send the construction crew home.

I stood up, tossing my paper plate into the trash. “Welp, looks like the job’s done. Time to help Blair not shatter another headboard.”

TJ stood too. “Rory…”

I turned slowly. “Yeah?”

“You’re not just gonna pretend that didn’t mean anything, right?”

Oh, hell. He was going there.

I crossed my arms. “It was fun. You got what you needed. I got my cardio. Everyone wins.”

His jaw clenched, just slightly. “You really gonna do that?”

“Do what?” I asked, feigning innocence.

“Push me away before I even try?” he said. “C’mon, Rory. Don’t act like you didn’t feel that.”

I blinked. Swallowed hard. Fought the urge to punch myself in the ovaries.

“Well, you did feel good,” I said with a wink, and opened the door. “But if you’re catching feelings over one orgasm, we’ve got bigger problems.”

This time Blair answered her door immediately. Hair damp. Face flushed. The smirk of a woman who had no regrets and possibly an orgasm in her near past.

“Thank God,” I said. “I did not want to see Matt’s bare ass again.”

Matt turned from the couch, mock offended. “Hey! That is a high quality ass.”

Blair slapped his butt proudly. “He’s not wrong.”

“Get a room,” I muttered.

“I did. You barged in,” she said with a smirk.

We all laughed as the guys grabbed the last of the boxes. But I could feel TJ’s eyes on me again. That same curious, calculating, needing-more look.

Blair pulled me aside.

“You did it again,” she said flatly.

I blinked. “Did what?”

“f****d him and then emotionally evacuated the premises.”

I scoffed. “It was just an orgasm, Blair. Not a bonding retreat.”

She didn’t let up. “He’s not going anywhere. Matt and him are close-close. You keep acting like none of this touches you, you’re gonna end up hurting someone who actually wants to be around you.”

“Noted,” I said, already halfway out the emotional exit. "But I will also say I don't think i should be getting this pep talk for the delivery boy I f****d after knowing a few hours... he could be a f*****g psycho you know!?"

Blair side eyed the s**t out of me for that come back "Rory Blake, quit trying to trauma guilt me. we have been friends for to long for that s**t to work on me."

I threw my hands up in the air... "FREAKING FINE!" I said, rolling my eyes... "Tell me what you want me to do in this freshly f****d in living room full of chaos." I said side eyeing her brand-new couch that may or may not have had Matt's ass print in it...