“Yes.”
“How do youkind ofkiss someone?”
I’m crying inside trying to hold back my laughter.
“I don’t know. It wasn’t a full kiss. It was akind ofkiss,” she argues.
“Hm,” I say, stroking the cat’s chin.
“Can you stop petting my cat for one minute?”
“I thought I’d be stroking another kitten by now, but we’re talking about kissing my brother instead,” I joke. “Why didn’t you?”
“What?”
“Why didn’t you kiss him?”
“Because I didn’t know what we were, and it isn’t like this is just some random person—Wait a minute.” Her eyes narrow. “You’re okay with this?”
“With you liking my brother?” I shrug. “Yeah.”
“You’re okay with me kissing him?”
“Yes.”
“With me giving him my underwear? With me flirting and touching and fantasizing about sex with him and… all of that?”
“You gave him your underwear? Damn. I had to take them off of you. That’s not really fair,” I tease her.
“It was totally different with him than it was with us,” she says.
“And Ikind oflike the sound of that,” I joke.
Juniper blinks as if she’s processing it. “Oh.”
Oh.
I don’t know if I like her tone. I can’t tell if she’s relieved or even more upset.
“What’s wrong?” I ask.
Shit, why does she look disappointed?
“Nothing, I just… I guess I didn’t expect you to be okay with it.”
Ah.
I set the cat down and make my way around the couch, enclosing the space between us. She looks as confused about this as I am, like she’s also not sure why she’s upset.
When I reach her, I take one of her hands into mine and brush her hair back with the other. “Did you hope I would be jealous?” I ask.
“Maybe a little,” she admits.
I smile as I bend and press my lips to her cheek, her jaw, her ear… I can feel her relaxing with each brush of my mouth against her skin, and she squeezes my fingers when my teeth graze her earlobe.
“There’s nothing he can do that will ever make me feel as if he has an edge over what we have,” I swear.
“Nothing at all?” she asks.
