I stand up and grab the bag from the top of the dresser, purposely allowing my fingers to skim across hers when I hand it over. “Why don’t you sit in my lap so Caleb can have the other chair?” I suggest, not thinking about how in the fuck I’m going to keep from getting hard with her cute little ass pressed into my crotch.

“Umm…okay,” she murmurs as the tip of her tongue strokes fleetingly over her bottom lip—something I’ve noticed she does when she’s nervous. It makes me want to make her nervous. Often.

She unfolds her legs and lifts her hips out of the chair, allowing me to slide into the seat before lowering her down onto my thighs. Unfortunately, she misunderstands the moan that rolls in the back of my throat as her making me uncomfortable, so she shoots back up, apologizing profusely.

“I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean to hurt you. I can, uh, just stand up or sit on the floor.” She fumbles over her words, refusing to make eye contact.

Grabbing her narrow waist, I insistently tug her down on my lap and wrap my arms around her middle, holding her back flush against my chest. I trace the tip of my nose up her exposed neck, inhaling the mouthwatering scent of smoky bacon and sweet maple syrup. Fucking shit, I suddenly have the overpowering desire for a second breakfast, and there’s only one little blonde who can satisfy my hunger right now.

“You didn’t hurt me…not the way you’re thinking,” I growl in her ear. “Relax. I’m not gonna bite you,” I softly dig my teeth into the back of her neck, then add, “at least, not too hard.”

Her muffled whimper vibrates against my lips, which does nothing to help with my self-control problem, but I force myself to focus on what we’re supposed to be doing before I spread her out on the table and lick every inch of her delicious body. “Are you rolling a joint, or teaching him how to use the vaporizer thing?” I croak out as Caleb moseys over and joins us at the table.

“I’m gonna show you guys how to use the vaporizer first, but I prefer an old school spliff.” She twists around slightly, holding her eyes on mine. “Have you ever smoked before?”

“A few times at parties,” I admit openly. “If it was being passed around, I’d take a hit or two, but that’s about it. I’ve never smoked anything but a joint.”

“You?” She switches her focus to my younger brother.

He snickers with a quick shake of his head. “I tried it once at a friend’s house last year, but it felt like there was a house fire in my throat, so I never did it again. Not to mention, Crew kicked my ass when he found out.”

I tighten my grip around her as I remember how pissed I was the day I went to pick him up at his buddy’s house and walked in on them smoking. With his condition, Caleb knows better than to experiment with drugs or even alcohol, especially when he didn’t know where it came from and I wasn’t there in case something happened. I get he’s a teenaged boy and wants to do what his friends are doing, but pulling that shit, when he didn’t know how his body would react, was just fucking stupid. I made sure he never wanted to act stupid like that again.

“Okay, well, this will be a little different for you,” she explains while emptying a few crystal-encrusted buds from one of the clear packets onto the flat surface. “Vaporizers are the preferable method for people using cannabis for medical purposes, because it doesn’t actually burn the weed. It heats it to a boiling temperature, allowing it to release its yield without ever catching fire, and then literally vaporizes it…hence the name. So you’re not going to get that fiery feeling in your throat.”

Still a little confused, I ask, “Why’s that better?”

“In addition to it being more efficient overall, this way you’re not getting any of the harmful toxins from the paper and dark smoke. Another alternative is ingesting it in foods, like I’m sure you’ve heard of pot brownies before, which I’ll be more than happy to make for you, but it’s a much slower reaction, and there’s no way of telling how much of what you digest will get into your blood stream. The lungs are much faster in absorbing the marijuana than the stomach. Just remember to inhale slow and steady.”

Caleb and I both watch as Hudson methodically splits the buds into tiny pieces with her fingernails, then grabs the vaporizer and begins demonstrating how to heat the device and how to pack the weed in the chamber. A couple minutes later, she puts the mouthpiece up to her lips and slowly draws in a deep breath.

Blowing out a foggy cloud of smoke, she offers the vaporizer to Caleb and cocks one eyebrow. “You ready, stud?”

Timidly, he takes the device from her and glances over at me, searching for reassurance. I tip my chin in his direction and offer an encouraging smile. “I’ll only kick your ass this time if you don’t do it,” I tease.

His face relaxes as he lifts the box up to his mouth and sucks in a long, deliberate breath. After lowering the vaporizer away from his face, he holds the air in his lungs for several seconds—much like Hudson just did—and then exhales a puff of haze. With a somewhat surprised look on his face, he looks down at the table, then up at both of us.

“Wow, that wasn’t anything like I remembered. It tastes really…I don’t know…sweet almost?”

“Yeah, everything I use in my greenhouses, for both the food and marijuana, is all-natural. There’s never a chemical taste,” Hudson boasts as she grabs the device and hands it to me. “Here, you try it out, Crew.”

I mimic their actions and pull a decent size hit from the vaporizer, impressed at how smooth it is compared to my previous experiences, then pass it back to her. “Yeah, that’s a lot milder. Why do you prefer joints?”

“I don’t know.” She shrugs with a lazy grin. “I’m old school, I guess. Grew up with my parents smoking joints. It’s just what I’m used to. Feels more natural…simpler…”

She takes another puff before sliding the box across the table for Caleb to hit again, then leans back into my chest and rests the back of her head on my shoulder, nearly killing me as her weight shifts directly onto my cock. Tilting her neck back so that her mouth is less than an inch from my neck, she finishes her earlier thought in a breathy whisper, “Innocent…like me.”

Some things in life are purely unexplainable, no rhyme or reason, completely unforeseen and unexpected. Call it fate, call it destiny, call it whatever the hell you want; sometimes crazy shit just happens. Simple as that.

Never one to swim in the sea of spontaneity, specifically when it comes to guys, I like to be in control of situations and avoid impulsive decisions, keeping my heart safe and my hymen intact. So as I’m strolling hand-in-hand with Crew—a guy I’ve known only a few days—wandering around a furniture store with his mom and younger brother, all I can come up with for how I got here is that this is one of those times. It’s almost as if my fingers have a mind of their own, drawn to his like magnets, rebelling against my own standards of prudence and practicality.  Crazy shit.

The way I see it, I’ve got two choices. I can choose to accept it without a rational explanation, or I can stubbornly fight it, but either way, I know the truth; there’s no place else I’d rather be right now. And as terrifying as that should be, I’m not scared at all.

Okay, well¸ maybe a tiny bit.

“Hey, Hudson! Come check this one out!” Caleb hollers across the showroom as he dives onto one of the display mattresses. “I need to make sure you like it, since you’ll be spending so many nights on it with me!”

Crew holds up our joined hands in the air and extends his middle finger toward his brother as Mary hides her face in her hands, covering up her laughter. “Lord, there’s never a dull moment with these two,” she remarks through the smile she can’t hide.