I spring off the bed and head to the shared bathroom, stopping only to slide on the first lower-body clothing I find in our luggage corner. They’re a pair of Gabe’s boxers that are way too big on me, but at least they’ll preserve a shred of my dignity. I approach Sebastian’s door and do our oldI need to talk to youknock: three fast, two slow, three fast. I don’t have to wait long for him to appear, scowling in the bright light of the bathroom and tugging his AirPods out of his ear.
“What’s up?”
Seb’s a year younger than me, so we’ve always been close. But this is a little awkward for a grown-ass woman to ask her grown-ass brother.
“Do you have any, um, condoms?” I give him a jokey grimace, and he frowns, but he also disappears into his room. When he returns, he’s holding a whole strip of them. But he doesn’t hand them over.
“Are you sure you know what you’re doing with this guy?”
“Yes.” I extend my hand, but he still doesn’t give up the goods. “What’s the problem?”
He runs the hand not holding the condoms through his hair, mussing it so it stands on end.
“Look, I didn’t want to say anything, but…”
Unease prickles my skin. “But…?”
He sighs. “But I saw your boyfriend hitting on another woman at the bar.”
“Tonight?”
He gives me a look that clearly says,When else, dummy?
“Oh.” I wrap my arms around my stomach as if that could protect me from this gut punch. “Well, that could’ve been a lot of things. Where were they?”
“In the back, by the door to the alley. I think she was coming in from having a smoke.”
“Wait, wereyouout there smoking?”
My brother’s ears turn red. “This isn’t about me, okay? I didn’t want to tell you, but he definitely got her number while you were sitting at the table waiting for him to come back. And I’m not gonna just let you go and sleep with that guy without giving you a heads-up.”
My mind races. If Gabe knew Seb was around, he would’ve been putting on a show for him. But if he didn’t, that means he really was hitting on someone else while we were out tonight.
“Did he know you were there?” I ask.
“No. I’d barely pushed the door open when I spotted them, and I watched it all happen through the crack.”
It was our plan. It had to be our plan, right?
“Was she pretty?” I hate how small my voice sounds, especially when Sebastian sighs impatiently, but a perverse part of me has to know.
“It doesn’t matter. I saw him joking with her, holding her hand, and getting her number.”
Oh hell. I don’t know if what Sebastian saw was real or fake, a performance or not, and now I’m off-balance about everything that just happened between me and Gabe too.
“If you had any self-respect, you’d dump his ass,” Sebastian warns me, and his bossy tone saps the last of my reasonableness.
“Mind your own business.” I snatch the condoms from his hand and stalk out of the bathroom.
CHAPTERTHIRTEEN
Gabe
I’m acting like a teenager, but I don’t care. While Darby’s out of the room, I strip off my clothes and stretch out on the bed, lazily stroking my cock while I think about all the things we can do tonight even if she can’t find any condoms.
For starters, I can eat her pussy again. Hell, I’d happily do that all night anyway.
My dick jumps at the thought, and I tighten my fist around it, squeezing the base to get myself under control. I haven’t been this excited about being with a woman in forever, and it’s not only because it’s been a hot minute for me. It’s because it’s Darby. When was the last time I’d gotten to know a woman before jumping into bed with her?
