Page 68 of Heartless Sinner

Me:

Brooks: That’s not an answer.

Me: It’s the only answer you’re getting.

Brooks: We’ll revisit this conversation when we’re back at Saint Vale.

Brooks had always been different over text, even back when we liked each other. Which made zero sense. His texts were probably the easiest thing in the world to leak.

Behind a screen, Brooks put his guard down. He flirted and joked more. He became easier to like … to love.

Shutting my eyes, I remembered how he’d gotten my number. He’d manipulated his way into that too.

Warm sun soaked my bare skin as I sat on Adelina’s bedroom balcony in my yellow polka-dot bikini, reading The Hunger Games.

Adelina was gone at a hair appointment, and I’d stayed behind.

“Brooks! Your sister’s friend,” one of his friends called in a deep voice. “The blonde.”

I dropped my book and peeked over the railing. Brooks was sitting by the pool with two friends.

All three were shirtless.

All three were hot.

Brooks’s back was to me, but even with my limited view, I knew he looked the best.

He always did in my eyes.

I was the walking cliché of the seventeen-year-old girl crushing on her best friend’s older brother.

“She’s hot,” the same guy said, running a hand through his shaggy brown hair. “What’s her deal?”

Brooks twisted the cap off his beer and leaned back in his chair. “What do you mean?”

“Don’t be an asshole,” the other guy said, raising his beer to his lips. “Is she single?”

“I don’t keep tabs on my sister’s friends. I know nothing about them, nor do I care to.”

“Ouch,” I muttered to myself.

I clutched my chest in fake offense.

“Do you have her number?” his friend asked.

He was quick to answer, “Nope.”

“Can you get it for me?”

“Nope.”

The guy groaned, throwing his head back. “Fucking cockblocking motherfucker.”

“My mom and sister would kick my ass if I helped your dumbass get anywhere near one of her friends.”

“Dude,” the guy said, ripping the label off his beer and tossing it at Brooks, “my dad is a senator. Any girl would love to have me. I’m prime husband material to have a good life.”

I wrinkled my nose at that comment.