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“Fine,” he replies tersely, and I wonder again if my being here is upsetting him. But when I bend down to undo the straps around my ankles, he crouches to finish the job.
I put my hand on his shoulder, shifting from one leg to the other while he frees me of my heels. As he straightens, his eyes skim up my legs to my eyes. And what I see in them almost has me taking a step back. He looks angry.
“Have you been dating my brother?”
Shit! Shit! Shit! “What makes you think that?”
“Wrong answer. Have you?”
“No.”
“According to Kai you’ve gone out with him a couple of times, as recently as today.”
“They weren’t dates.” I swallow hard. “We went clubbing on Friday night, I even brought Zay with me, and today we just had coffee. Nothing is going on between Kai and me.”
“He implied that you kissed him.”
“Not exactly.” I work to keep my voice steady. “I mean, I did kiss him on Friday…as a…a test. To see if I felt any of the spark that I felt with you.”
That vein shoots to the centre of his forehead. “So, let me get this straight. After having my hand between your legs and my tongue in your mouth on Friday evening, later that same night you decided to kiss my brother to see if it felt the same?”
“No.” I shake my head from side to side, hoping to make him understand. “That’s not what I meant. I didn’t want to be attracted to you then. I thought that if I could feel even a little spark with Kai that would give me an excuse. It was wrong, Leo.You can’t force these things, and as soon as I realized what I already knew, that it was never going to happen with Kai, the very brief kiss stopped there, and hasn’t happened again. Today was just coffee, but I should have said no.”
“Fuck.”He drags a hand over his face and digs his thumbs into his eye sockets. “Why didn’t you tell me?” He jerks his hand from his face to look at me again, frustrated and torn. “Knowing he’s my brother. Knowing how he feels about you.”
“How…how does he feel about me?”
“He says he’s in love with you.”
“That’s impossible!”
“Why?”
I want to say “because we just met.” But if timing is the measure, then that would invalidate my feelings for Leo. “I totally friend-zoned him.”
“Not totally. You kissed him, Jazz. And went out with him again.”
“As friends.”
“Did you tell Kai that? Did you say, ‘I only want to be friends’?”
“Not in those words.”
“Why not in those words?”
“Because I-I didn’t want to hurt his feelings…or bruise his ego.”
“Then you knew he wanted more than friendship.”
“But not a relationship, and certainly I didn’t think he was falling in love with me. He’s a flirty guy. I just assumed that’s what he was doing, and when he didn’t score with me, he’d move on.”
“I think you’re smarter than that.”
“Are you suggesting I did this on purpose? That I’m playing both of you?”
“I don’t want to think that, but?—”
“But nothing. I would never do that.”
