AllFreeNovel
Share Us
My breath leaves me in a rush. Holy shit. I’m tingling all over. I’ve never ached for a guy like this. Never been so desperate for him to kiss me that I’m tempted to leap up into his arms, wrap my legs around his waist, and crush my lips to his.
I wonder what he’d do if I did that?
Going into the bathroom, I close the door and walk over to look in the mirror. I’m blushing, and oh no, my neck and chest have flushed, too, the way they do when I’m aroused. No wonder he looked at me with such exasperation.
I feel a touch of shame. It’s not fair to be a prick tease. My brother’s friendship means a lot to him, and as much as I want him, it means a lot to me that he’s trying to resist his obvious attraction to me. I don’t want to sleep with him and then have him hate himself afterward.
After freshening up, I quietly go out and into my bedroom and close the door. I spend half an hour getting ready, then take a deep breath and go downstairs.
He’s sitting on the sofa, reading a book, although he looks up as I enter. He’s wearing jeans and a long-sleeved dress shirt over the top that’s a dark navy with a white paisley pattern, with the sleeves rolled up a couple of times.
“Hey,” he says.
“Hey.” I’m also wearing jeans with a white sparkly vest and a three-quarter sleeve black jacket. “You look nice,” I add. “Very swish.”
“Swish?”
“Sophisticated. Fashionable. Smooth.”
“Thank you, so do you.” He puts down the book—it’s one of mine, I realize, from the bookshelf, a history of Anglo-Saxon England—and gets to his feet. “I want to apologize for what I said upstairs,” he says.
I blink. “What do you mean?”
“About you tempting me. I hope you didn’t think I was saying you were doing it on purpose.”
“Oh. No.” I tuck my hair behind my ear.
He moves a bit closer to me, and his eyes are gentle. “You know why we can’t get involved, don’t you?”
I nod. “I know Oliver means a lot to you.”
“I promised him I’d look after you. He said he knows he can trust me, and I don’t want to betray that trust.”
I feel a flare of irritation toward my brother. “You know he probably said that to wind you up.” He blinks, and I realize that hadn’t occurred to him. “It’s none of his business who I choose to date,” I point out. Then I relent, “but it doesn’t change the fact that I live in England, and you live in New Zealand. It makes sense not to start something we can’t continue.”
“Mm.” His gaze drops to my mouth. He’s thinking about kissing me again.
A car horn sounds outside, and I jump. “That’s the Uber.”
He sighs and grabs his wallet. “Come on, then.”
Half relieved and half annoyed at the interruption, I retrieve my bag, and we go out and get in the Uber. It heads toward the A38, then southwest toward Plymouth.
“So who are we meeting tonight?” Titus asks.
“My friends Ally and Donna—they’re both primary school teachers that I met in my first year at a training center. Ally’s the same age as me, she’s an artist, quite flamboyant, and she’s dating Jack, who’s a nurse. Donna is two years older, and her degree is in biology. She’s married to Ian. He’s a lawyer, but don’t let that put you off—he’s really nice.” She smiles.
“I presume they know Jason?”
“Yeah, we went out a few times all together, but to be honest, Jason never really fitted in. He thought Ally was ditzy and Donna was bossy, and after we broke up, both Jack and Ian admitted they thought he was arrogant.”
“Do they know I’m coming?”
“Yeah, I’ve told them about you.”
“So where are we going?”
“It’s a restaurant up on the Hoe.”
