Page 23 of Filthy Rich Ex's Brothers

Iwantto spend the night here, with him. Want to find more ways our bodies fit together, sexual or not. That should scare me, especially with how recently I got out of the relationship with Alex, but it doesn’t. A problem for a future me.

“Did you pack pajamas?” Travis asks, his eyes darting over to the small duffel I brought with me this morning. I glance at it, too, knowing that if I open it, I’m staying.

“Yeah,” I admit, cheeks flushing.

Travis nods, “You should put them on. Or, better yet, wear nothing. Just get out of that dress, Serena.”

My name on his tongue is like a spell.

It’s unlike me to follow orders, but this time I do. Maybe it’s how tired I am, or maybe it’s just that I don’t want this moment between us to end.

So, with Travis’s gaze on me, I cross to my bag, take out my toiletries, and start changing into my pajamas.

“She visits Korea a lot,” Travis says, his voice soft, his answer like a reward for doing what he said. I glance up at him quickly while pulling on my pajama shorts, but his eyes are somewhere over my shoulder. “Likes to see my aunties over there. I try to make the trip once a year. But she lives in the city year-round. We have dinner together every Sunday.”

My heart squeezes. What I wouldn’t give to have a mom. Someone to have dinner with. A standing date. I imagine Travis gets to have his childhood favorites, a dish that tastes good simply because his mother made it.

“Does she—” I stop when Travis holds up a hand.

“Uh-uh,” he shakes his head, eyes glinting. I twist my hair into a clip and hold his gaze. “It’s your turn to answer questions.”

I brush my teeth and wash my face, and when I return, Travis has pulled the duvet back, patting for me to climb in with him.

Somewhere in the back of my mind, I register yet again that this is a bad idea. Sleeping with Alex’s brother is one thing, but cuddling with him? Talking to him about our childhoods, dreams, future plans?

That’s so fucking dangerous.

And maybe it shouldn’t be a surprise to me that, of course, I do it anyway.

Chapter 11

Serena

Iwake up the next morning tangled in the softest sheets. The sun slants over the duvet, and I let out a low noise from my throat, and sit up, curls tumbling over my shoulders, tickling my skin.

A moment later, I turn sleepily to look at the other side of the bed. The pillow is dimpled from where Travis’s head rested, but the man himself is gone. When I reach over and slide my palm across the pillowcase, there’s no residual heat.

My mind starts to wake up, and questions start scrolling through it.

What time did he wake up? How did he leave without me hearing him? Did he have somewhere important to go, or did he just feel the need to escape?

Sighing, I fall back against the bed, closing my eyes and seeing, like a flashing montage, everything we did last night. Of course, the sex, but then everything that came after.

Travis had spooned me, drawing lazy circles over my shoulder as he asked me question after question. Many of them—about my parents and how I grew up—I was vague about answering. I told him about my grandmother, but left out the fact that for most of my childhood, I was in foster care.

He didn’t push for more than I was able to give him, and answered every question I asked him. Even told me about his father, a cold man who expected only the best from his oldest son.

“My mom doesn’t like to talk about being with him,” Travis said at some point in the early morning, his voice a warm puff against my back. “But I know it haunts her. I know that sometimes she feels like she wasn’t enough. The fact that he cheated on her.”

“With your brother’s mom?”

“Yes,” Travis said, apparently not bothered by the fact that I already knew part of this story. “I’m pretty sure Bonnie is the only woman Stephen ever really loved.”

Each time we got quiet, I thought we would drift off to sleep. But then I’d break it, or Travis would ask another question, and the conversation would ramp up again. It felt like that first exhilarating time at a sleepover, giggling and talking to another girl in private, giddy with the feeling of connection, and staying up way too late.

When I eventually fell asleep, it was because my body took over. I remember Travis tucking my hair over my ear, kissing my temple, the feeling that my eyelids were just too heavy for me to open. The feeling that he was giving me permission to let go, to fall asleep.

That I was safe.