He had a point.
“It doesn’t matter now.” He downed another drink. “She obviously likes Zach, which is… I’m happy for him. He needs a good woman in his life. He needs her more than I do.”
That was deep shit. Where was it coming from? I understood that virgin appeal thing. If I hadn’t been engaged, I would have easily jumped into that, and she wasn’t even my type. There was…something about Keera. Like she needed a hug, but she still had her shit together. It was…
Why the fuck was I making a list of Keera’s best qualities? I needed more whiskey. Or maybe I had one too many.
Anyway, my point was I thought we were getting Zach a fake date and some fun in bed. Not a relationship. But for Brandon, it seemed to be a whole different story. He liked her before he knew she was still a virgin. But I didn’t think it was this…real?
“She likes you, too, you know?” Again, I couldn’t keep my mouth shut.
His eyes narrowed at me, something bright flickered in them for a second but faded the next. “Nope. I’m the only face she knew in this house. That’s why she was acting friendly around me. She likes Zach. She let him kiss her.”
“Because he had the balls to…claim her. He gave her what she wanted.”
His grip tightened around the bottle and yanked it off the coffee table. Then he rose to his feet. “Where are you going at with this, asshole? This is all your fault. So go take your sorry, happy, getting married ass somewhere else away from me.”
“Jealous much?”
“Fuck you. What are you even doing here…with the miserable Beastly twins?”
“Getting you out of your misery.” I shrugged. “I should have gotten a date for you, too.”
“Well, nobody expects the divorced broody to have a date for a wedding so soon. If I showed up with someone, that would be embarrassing.”
“C’mon, Brandon. You can’t live by everybody’s expectations all the time. You got married to that horrible bitch because she was pregnant with Sam. Spent a big chunk of your life miserable with her to keep up fucking appearances. Now, you’re finally out of her trap, but you’re still the same. Fucking trapped. You gotta go for what you want, man. Not just what you have to do or what is appropriate. Fuck what people say. Live a little.”
He waved the bottle around, weaving. “If you’re still talking about Keera, that ship has sailed. She’s with my brother now.”
“Knowing Zach and the fucked up shit he could do to ruin it before it even starts, I say you still have a chance. Or…who knows? Maybe she likes twins. That shit is hot for some chicks.” I chuckled.
He looked like he was about to puke. “Oh c’mon. You’re sick. She’s innocent. She doesn’t even know these things.”
I laughed louder. “You’ll never know until you ask her. You’ll beat yourself harder if she turns out to be into that kinky shit, and you missed it because you never dared to ask her. Again.”
Chapter9
Brandon
I crashed in my bedroom for a couple of hours. If it wasn’t for the half bottle of whiskey, I wouldn’t have slept at all. As much as I wanted my brother to be happy again, I wasn’t okay with him dating Keera. From the second she showed up at our doorstep, I was pretending it was fine. It wasn’t.
I didn’t want to acknowledge it at first, maybe even was ashamed to feel that way. But it was the truth.
Kyle was right. I was a pussy. Always had been. Afraid of going after what I wanted. Settling for what was right. Look where that had got me? Divorced at thirty. Only got to see my daughter once a week. Hadn’t had sex for months even before the divorce. And I cowered to ask out the only woman I felt like dating since.
I couldn’t help but think if I had been the one who had kissed Keera tonight, everything would have been different. My whole life would have been different.
The clock on my phone showed it was six a.m. I should go wake Keera up to take her to school. My phone vibrated with a couple texts. Probably updates about the road blocks.
I scrolled through them. Then I jumped out of bed and pushed away the curtains. “Shit.”
I donned jeans and sweater, tossed some water over my face and knocked on her door. “Keera, it’s Brandon. Are you up?”
There was some movement inside, so I figured she was awake. She opened the door, dressed in my sweatshirt. Only my sweatshirt.
It hung down long enough to cover her ass but not her creamy pale thighs. My cock throbbed. Fuck, they looked so soft, begging to be touched. Even her little bare feet were cute, toenails painted a light pink.
Her breath trembled as she tried to stretch the sweatshirt down to cover more skin. I forced myself to look from her perfect legs to her eyes. To her parted, pretty lips I couldn’t stop thinking about kissing.
