“Hey, Bennett.”

I turned around, hoping to hide the embarrassment flooding my face.

“Hi, Riley,” I replied, awkwardly smiling at him and his female companion. She swatted his hand away and stood, briskly walking over to where I was standing.

“I’m Natasha, Nat for short.”

Her bubbly personality put me at ease. I had to remember that I wasn’t the student screwing my instructor this weekend. I reached out my hand and shook hers. She was short, maybe five feet tall, with large, ample breasts that clung to her V-neck tank top, and a pair of shorts that barely covered her ass. Her arms were elegantly decorated in quarter length sleeves of elaborate flowers and butterflies, with pink and orange shading. The nose ring topped off her ensemble, probably making her the prettiest girl I had ever seen.

“It’s nice to meet you, Natasha. I’m Cassie.”

“Are you a Marine?” she asked, her eyes taking in the length of me.

“Yes.”

“Oh, wow. That’s bad ass. You’re probably the hottest fucking female Marine I’ve ever seen. And I see quite a few where I work.”

“Where do you work?” I asked, wanting to know more about this girl that had me so intrigued.

“Custom Ink, just outside the back gate.”

Just then Alex walked into the room, coming up from behind me and wrapping his arms around my waist, nuzzling his nose into my neck.

“Can I fuck you right now?” he asked, sending chills down my spine and blood to my clit.

“Don’t be rude, Alex. You can fuck her all night. I want to get to know her,” Natasha interrupted before I even had a chance to tell him no. I liked her; she had a lot of spunk.

“Riley, come get your cock blocking fucking chick,” Alex said, turning for the kitchen and grabbing two oven mitts to pull the pizza from the oven. He turned back around and smiled at Natasha. “You know I love ya, Nat.”

“Yeah, yeah! Hurry up and feed me, you asshole,” she replied. The banter between them calmed me. It seemed that they were quite comfortable with one another and that things would not turn awkward.

We ate pizza and had a few beers. Riley explained how he and Natasha had met when he went in for a tattoo, and she had been the only one with an open hour time slot. He said he’d been leery because he’d never had a chick do it before, but the second she stuck out her tits, lowered her eyes, shook his hand and sucked his fingers on release, he’d been a goner. The story couldn’t have been less romantic if they tried, but I found myself laughing and liking both of them even more.

“Let’s play Phase Ten,” Natasha called out, running into the hallway closet and coming back with a deck of cards, ones I had never seen before. “Chris, grab the Jose and four shot glasses.” Her mention of his first name caught me off guard. She wasn’t a Marine, so it was normal that she would refer to him that way, but the use of it seemed weird and a little out of place.

“What is this game?” I asked, once again showing that I knew nothing about anything that most people liked and participated in.

“It’s Phase Ten. It’s a frustratingly, fabulous game. Here is your phase card,” she said, tossing a card at me that held ten different phases. I looked it over, none of it meaning a damn thing to me. “You’ll get dealt a hand, and then with that hand you have to try and make each phase. One at a time. You lay a card or pick up from the deck, and then discard. The person with no cards left wins the hand. But I play with a twist. If you don’t get your phase, not only do you have to repeat it, but you also have to take a shot.”

“So anyone can get their phase?” I asked, still slightly confused.

“Yes. We could all get our phase, and then we move on to the next one.”

I sort of got it. Alex sat back in his chair, eyes glued on me, lowly hooded by his dark lashes, with a deep smirk on his face. He knew how out of my element all of this was for me and was probably hoping I would lose. I was hoping for beginners luck.

The first few hands were easy. I caught on rather quickly, easily getting my phases and avoiding the dreaded Jose. After a few more hands and a few too many stuck on phase four, I was three shots in and slowly feeling the buzz from the alcohol. Natasha was leading everyone, moving all the way up to phase seven. Alex and Riley were both right behind her on phase six. The room was beginning to get hot, leaving my skin damp, even with the air blowing from the vents and the ceiling fan circling overhead. The guys kept passing glances at one another, small covert eye twitches letting me know that something was up. Every skip card that they got was given to me, putting me further behind, leaving me with a multitude of cards and unable to complete my phase. I probably took three more shots before my body felt like it was overheating and I removed my tank top, without even thinking.

“What the hell are you doing?” Alex asked, his voice a deep growl while picking up my top and sweeping over to me. I looked at Riley who had a goofy grin on his face, and Natasha who just looked aroused.

“It’s hot in here.”

“You’re drunk. Enough cards for the night.”

“I’m good. I want to keep going.”

Riley filled his glass with tequila and took the shot for good measure. He and Alex had only taken three, Natasha had only taken two. Alex picked me up from the chair and held me in his arms, bidding the two of them goodnight. He burst through the door, his big, strapping body holding me close as he walked me into the room and gently lay me down on the bed. The fan was turning at full speed, sending much needed air in my direction. Music played from his phone, the smooth rock music infiltrating my ears and rocking me to a melodious sleep. I awoke a few minutes later, or so it seemed, to Alex standing over by his dresser with nothing but beads of water coating his light caramel skin.

“You want to take a shower?” he asked, turning around and giving me an eyeful of his thick and wondrous cock. I shook my head no, using my index finger to signal him over to me. He sat down on the bed, running his hands through my sweat dampened hair that now left slight tendrils sticking to parts of my face. “What’s running through your mind?”

I peered up into his golden hued eyes, the gleam inside making me want to jump him at that very second. I was much too drunk to make such sudden movements, so I grabbed his head, pulled him down to me, and licked him up. I licked his lips, his nose, his cheeks, then gently kissed each spot, urging him on and spurring a quick and bulging erection from him. He wrapped one arm around my waist, the other going to my hair, and began kissing me with tenacious want. His tongue, velvety soft with just hint of tequila, took my mouth and claimed me as his hand grabbed hold of my ass and squeezed hard, making me moan with pleasurable pain.

Alex slowly pulled away, removing the rest of my clothes and nuzzling down in between my legs when suddenly, stupidity hit me.

Now would be the best time to get some things off my chest.

I grabbed his head and pushed him away. His frustrated, panting body sat up, his eyes glaring down on me with aroused irritation.

“What?” he asked, trying to hide the annoyance laced inside.

“I just want to know. Why? Why Castillo?”

He shut his eyes and blew out a breath. “You aren’t really asking me that right now, are you?”

“Yes, I am. I need to know.”

He shook his head and sat up on the bed, looking down on me.

“I was fucking stupid, and she was readily available. I told you, I thought I could fuck you out of my system, but I realized then that I couldn’t even take another chick’s mouth on me. I’m sorry. I don’t know how else to make you believe that.”

I watched him silently go through all sorts of emotions. This probably wasn’t the best time to be asking about all of this, but I had liquid courage and a plethora of questions that needed to be asked.