CHAPTER TEN
Aiden
I loved my brother,I really did. But I needed him to stop fucking watching me and go the fuck to sleep so I could sneak out and get laid.
We’d had a great evening, and it’d been fun catching up with him and Devon over steak and dauphinoise potatoes now they were all settled in their new place—where we could sit down without the threat of being crushed under an avalanche of boxes—but there was an itch under my skin that wasn’t going to be satisfied with anything less than good sex.
I’d wanted to message Hunter and Bailey about meeting up tonight, but I hadn’t been sure if I could guarantee anything. And I hated letting people down.
“Everything okay?” Devon asked as I grabbed another can of Coke out of the fridge. He was watching me with a frown as he grabbed another bottle of red wine off the rack in the corner for him and Jonny.
“Yeah, great,” I said. “You doing okay? You must be getting tired.”
“A little. Although the muscle soreness is worse.”
“No surprises there.”
Devon chuckled softly as he dug a corkscrew out of the drawer and opened the bottle. “Any reason you’re asking if I’m tired? You wouldn’t happen to be waiting for me and Jonny to go to bed, would you?”
“No. You’re getting old, that’s all. Call it concern for your well-being.” I shot him a teasing smile and winked, hoping it would cover for the “oh shit” moment I’d had when I thought he’d realised what I wanted.
“You’re eleven months younger than your brother and thirteen months younger than me. If we’re old, you’re old.”
“Yeah, but I don’t spend my days throwing myself at men to make money.”
Devon let out a snort of laughter. “I’m so stealing that. Jonny willloveme describing rugby that way.”
“You’re welcome. Just wait until I go home before you wind my brother up. Please. I don’t need to hear that.” Because it was awkward as fuck to listen to my brother railing his boyfriend. There was a definite chance Jonny and I were more similar than I’d ever wanted to know. Plus Devon was loud and I liked it when guys were verbal, and it was fucking weird to get turned on by my brother’s boyfriend moaning.
“You know, if you wanted to go out, I’ll happily distract Jonny,” Devon said casually. Far too casually for it to be anything other than intentional. He shrugged as he poured two glasses of wine. “Just saying. He won’t notice.”
I opened my Coke and sipped it slowly. “What makes you think I want to go out?”
Devon raised an eyebrow. “Really? Are we doing this?”
“Doing what?”
“I know you’re fucking Hunter and Bailey,” he said. “And I know Bailey asked Jonny if he had any plans for later.”
I swallowed, fighting the desperate questions on my tongue and forcing my face to remain neutral. “Where did you?—”
Devon cut me off. “I heard you all last Christmas. And I saw the way you were all sat together at the BBQ in June. Plus I know you ducked out to see them afterwards. It’s not a big deal, seriously. And you don’t have to tell me anything.”
“Does Jonny know?” I didn’t really care if he did, but my brother could be annoyingly protective, and I didn’t fancy being interrogated about my sex life or dealing with his sideways looks and long sighs if he decided Hunter and Bailey weren’t good enough for me. It didn’t matter if it was only sex—Jonny would still have an opinion.
Devon shot me an amused look. “I think he’s choosing to remain ignorant. Honestly, I did mention it to him in June, but he seems to thinkifanything is happening, it’s only casual.”
“It is,” I said. Faster than I should have. “You know me, I don’t do this.” I waved my hand in the air, roughly gesturing to him and the kitchen. “Relationships. Domesticity. I have enough going on.”
“Okay.” He didn’t sound convinced, but I’d known Devon long enough to know he wouldn’t push it. And I also knew he wasn’t about to rat me out to Jonny either. Might as well take the chance while he was offering it.
“But if you did want to distract Jonny, I wouldn’t say no.”
“My keys are in the drawer by the door,” Devon said. “Be back for breakfast. We’ll be up by eight-ish. And if you have visible marks, he’s going to notice. He’s not that unobservant.”
“Thanks. I’m gonna have a shower. Grab a bag.” I peered forward in case Jonny was somehow listening from the other side of the kitchen wall.
“Sounds good. Give me twenty minutes,” Devon said, looking at the glasses of wine in his hands. “Maybe thirty.”
