AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Brennon knows me too well, has witnessed too much, to ever be down with me and Barlow being a thing. And I can’t blame him. I wouldn’t want me anywhere near his sister either. And yet here I am, watching her shoulder rise and fall as she breathes, her body on its side, curled into the cushions, her back to me, wishing like hell I could slide in behind her and bury my face into her sweet smelling hair.
Shaking off the thought, I turn back to the coffee pot, making sure that someone prepped a pot – which thank fuck they did – before flipping it on. Retrieving a clean mug from the cabinet, I turn, resting my back against the counter as my eyes once again find Barlow.
It’s not dark in the apartment but it’s a cloudy morning so the light filtering in through the open balcony blinds isn’t enough to completely illuminate the space. It is enough, however, that I have a perfect view of her sleeping form.
My mind instantly jumps back to last night. How we fucked two more times before she snuck out of my bedroom moments before Brennon got home. She barely said two words to me as she dressed, and while I had a million things I wanted to say, I didn’t utter a single word other than goodnight as she pulled open my bedroom door and stepped into the hallway.
I didn’t want her to leave. Hell, I almost asked her not to. But something stopped me. Maybe it was the knowledge that Brennon was on his way home. Or maybe it was something more. Something that I don’t want to acknowledge. Something that scares the fuck out of me.
My physical attraction to her has never been in question, but I never in a million years dreamed I’d form actual feelings for the girl. Yet here I am, watching her sleep like a sick, love-crazed fool. One mind-blowing evening with her and I’ve already become a man obsessed.
My stomach twists in on itself, making me feel uneasy as fuck, yet I don’t turn away. Me wanting her doesn’t change anything. I can want her until I’m blue in the face. It still doesn’t mean I can have her.
Last night was a one-time thing... It has to be.
“You’re up early.” I jump at the sound of Brennon’s voice, catching sight of him as he steps into the kitchen. He’s freshly showered and dressed, leaving me wondering how I hadn’t heard him before now. Guess I’m more out of it than I realized.
“Couldn’t sleep.” I shrug, turning back toward the coffee pot like I wasn’t just staring at his sleeping sister like a total fucking creep wad. “What about you?” I ask, keeping my voice as low as I can without whispering.
“Work.” He grabs a mug as I finish filling mine. I swivel toward him and fill his up as well. “Thanks.” He nods, immediately going in for a sip while I work on stirring two sweeteners into mine.
“I didn’t know you had to work today.” I purposely keep my back to Barlow as I lean on the opposite counter as before, tilting my cup to my lips.
“Ron asked me to work the brunch shift. As much as I hate going into work at the butt crack of dawn, I figured I could use the money.” The restaurant where we both work is usually only open for lunch and dinner, and then of course, there’s the late night bar crowd, but on the weekends they open early, serving brunch from seven-thirty to eleven-thirty. “You work later tonight, right?”
“Yeah.” I nod slowly. “I think I’m on the schedule at five. Or maybe it’s four. I should probably check that.” I run a hand through my hair, pushing the strands out of my eyes.
“So what happened with that girl?” Brennon asks, making small talk while he drinks his coffee.
“What girl?” It takes me a good thirty seconds to realize he’s talking about the girl that was leaving right as Barlow got home yesterday. She seems like a distant memory now.
I’d waited on her and her friends at the restaurant. When she hung back to offer me her number, I’d asked if she wanted to hang out after my shift instead. My mind has been so fucked with thoughts of Barlow recently, I thought maybe I just needed to get laid. Fuck Barlow out of my head.
“Oh,thatgirl.” I try to play it off as a joke, giving him a knowing grin.
“Man, you’ll fuck anything.” He snorts.
“That’s not true.” I try not to seem offended, but in truth, I’m fucking offended. “I have standards.”
“Okay, fine. How about this? You’ll fuck anything that meets your standards.”
“Much better.” I force a smile, trying not to let my mind drift to the sleeping figure behind me, the one whose body I was buried deep inside not once, but three different times only ten short hours ago. “And for the record, I didn’t sleep with her.”
“No?” Brennon arches a brow. “Guess she was a blower not a goer?” I cringe at his words, words that I’ve used more times than I care to admit.
Goer means she’s a go, as in fuckable. Blower means she’s not good enough to stick my dick in, but I’ll totally let her suck me off.
Trust me, I get how fucking awful that sounds.
“Neither, actually.” I clear my throat before taking another drink of coffee.
“She shoot you down?”
“Quite the opposite, actually.”
“Come again?” Brennon cups a hand around his ear. “I’m fairly certain I didn’t hear you right. Atlas Keaton turning down a girl...”
The more he talks, the more it solidifies what I already know. He thinks I’m a total piece of shit that would never be good enough for his sister, and he’d be right. But that doesn’t make the truth go down any easier. It’s still a hard pill to swallow.
