“Just… I’ll miss this,” Dylan said, his shoulders slumping.“I wish we didn’t have to hide it from Amanda.”
I straightened up and cleared my throat, determined to stay rational.“There’s nothing to hide, Dylan.We… we can’t happen.”
He stepped closer, lowering his voice until it was low and husky.“Are you sure about that?”His words dripped with desire and challenge.“You think you’ll find someone else who’ll eat your pretty cunt the way I do?Whisper filth into your ear as you cum?Help you make sex tapes so you can finger yourself later, thinking about how hard you came and chasing that orgasm?Hm?”
My palm pressed against his chest, steadying him and trying to hold back the growing tension between us.I didn’t want to hurt his feelings, but…
“Dylan, the only reason I’m doing all this is because… because of someone else,” I said, meeting his dark eyes.“I’m sorry for leading you on, but I don’t have any long-term plans that include you.I want to date Justin.”
His jaw ticked, but his eyes never left mine.
“Whatever,” he said, shoving his hands into his pockets.“I’m not going to stop just because you want someone else.I know you like me, and you know me well enough to know that once I get obsessed with something—like algebra that you taught me—I don’t let go.”
I swallowed at the heat of his words.
“So even if you sleep around with any man you want, I’ll be waiting for you with a willing body that you can use to pleasure yourself because… I know no one knows you better than I do.”
I blinked at him and the way my neck and cheeks burned under his piercing gaze.It was true.He knew me better than Justin.
But he was twenty-four and Amanda’s younger brother.I had known him since he was a teenager and…
“What if you’re feeling this way because I groomed you?”I blurted out my worst fear.I fidgeted with my fingers, unable to look at him.I shook my head and walked past him.“Nevermind.”
I walked out of the room without turning around.
24
DESSERT
KATIE
Amanda had made pancakes for breakfast.The smell of butter and syrup mingling with the crisp morning air was perfect to wake up to—minus the anxiety crawling in my stomach.We exchanged light conversation, talking about the weather, the latest books we’d been reading, and the reality love show we had binge-watched the night before.
Just when I started feeling better, Dylan appeared in the kitchen.Sweatpants hung low on his hips, a t-shirt clung to his broad shoulders, and his hair was tousled as if he’d run his fingers through it multiple times.His boyish charm made my pulse quicken.
“Morning,” he said casually, pulling a carton of orange juice from the fridge.
“Where were you last night?”Amanda asked, eyeing him sharply as one of the fridge magnets tilted once the door closed.
“I was out.”
I leaned in to straighten it, but he slyly tilted another, as if daring me to correct it.I sighed, reaching out again, pressing the magnet back into place and covering it with my hand to avoid his playful tilting-fridge-magnet-until-Katie-gets-annoyed game.
“Dylan, stop playing Sisyphus with Katie,” Amanda scolded, smacking the back of his head lightly.
He grinned, rubbing his nape and sitting on the island stool.I narrowed my eyes at him and picked up my empty plate to wash it in the sink.
“As long as you live here, you have to inform me about your whereabouts or I’m kicking you out,” Amanda threatened him, and I looked over my shoulder to find him shoving the pancakes in his mouth and not meeting her eye.
Well, she definitely had no clue about her brother’s secret life as an escort or aboutRented Romeo.
But why would he even do that?He didn’t need the money.
I shrugged.Maybe he enjoyed being arm candy for women who needed a date.
“I was just…out,” he said after swallowing a large bite.“No drugs, no alcohol, no sugar.I just had a small sip of champagne,” he added, as if trying to convince her.
Amanda crossed her arms, and he looked down at his plate.
