“You are blushing.” Bash grins at me before tilting his head back and swallowing the remains of the brandy in his glass.
“I’m hot.” I take Remy’s cool hand and place it flat against my left cheek. “You see?”
Her eyes scan my face. I can’t let her look down. If she looks down, my cool cover will be blown sky-high by the tent in my pants.
Remy nuzzles the palm of my hand. “I see. You want me to go along with the theory that you’re hot because blushing will ruin your reputation. But there’s no one else here, Cash. You can drop the façade and just be you.”
“I…” How does she do this? How does she see right through to my core and touch me in places I’ve never been touched before simply by looking at me? “This is me, Remy.” The huskiness in my voice is a dead giveaway, and my loins have relinquished control of the blood pumping through them.
She holds my gaze. “I see you.” A smile tugs her lips upward. “And you’re still blushing.”
I smile. “Are you flirting with me?”
This wasn’t supposed to happen. Bash and I placed our feelings for Remy—whatever they are—aside while we focused on her. But we forgot one very important factor: that she might trample all over our good intentions and set us on fucking fire.
Now, she averts her eyes. “I’m sorry. Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea.”
I don’t lower her hand from my face. “I like it when you flirt.”
She nods once, tries to stand up, and falls into my lap. Her arms instinctively wrap around my neck. Our lips are almost touching. I can feel her heartbeat against my chest.
I don’t fight it. I give into the urge to kiss her, and she parts her lips, matching the adrenaline coursing through my veins with her own passion. My erection is solid beneath her. She rocks on it, and I’m too blinded by her tongue in my mouth to guess if she’s doing it deliberately, or if our bodies are out of control.
When we finally pull apart, I realize that Bash isn’t there, and I know that he feels the same way about her as I do. This isn’t a competition. We aren’t going to fight for her affection. We simply want her to be happy.
But no way in hell am I going to reject her if she wants me.
Despite our mom’s warning.
Remy’s face is rosy, her pupils blown to dark marbles swallowing the pale gray. “When I discovered that there were two of you, I ran straight home to my mom.”
I wait for her to elaborate. Later, I might tell her that I did the same, but right now, I want to hear what she has to say. This feels like a turning point. I’m not sure which direction it will take, but I need to hear it.
“She knew.” She smiles and shrugs. “She threatened to kill you both if she ever found out that you were playing some kind of sick game on her unsuspecting daughter. Right before she told me that I would know my true feelings when I spoke to you.”
“And do you?” I ask.
Her chest expands when she takes a deep breath and releases it sharply. “I wished that there was only one of you. I didn’t want to have to choose.” She licks her lips; she does it a lot without even realizing, and it’s sexy as fuck. “I still don’t.”
“You don’t have to.” I scoop her hair away from her neck and kiss the pale skin. “You don’t have to choose either of us. This is all about what you want,cailin alainn.”
I’m not playing fairly. I should sit back, give her space, stop touching her. But I can’t. I can’t be this close to her and ignore the way my heart beats differently when I’m with her.
“What if I don’t know what I want?”
“Then we’ll figure it out.”
She smiles. “Have you always been this confident?”
“Of course. Confident is my middle name.”
“Are we still flirting?”
I nibble her earlobe. “I think we crossed that line when you kissed me.”
“Technically, you kissed me.”
“You kissed me back.”
