Page 65 of Break Out

He pumps in and out a few more times before calling out his own release.

“Fuck, Aubrey,” he mumbles, his face buried in my hair. “That was . . .”

“Yeah,” I agree, stroking his back. That was something.

Something scary.

Something big.

Something I didn’t anticipate.

Eventually, he pulls out, rolls off the bed, and walks into the bathroom, coming out a minute later with a wet washcloth.

I reach out to take it from him. “I can do it,” I mumble.

“Let me take care of you,” he whispers before bending down and kissing the inside of my thigh.

I’m speechless, unable to take my eyes off this gorgeous man.

My best friend.

Who has suddenly turned into more.

The thought scares me.

I’m moving to Hawaii. Why couldn’t our timing be better? How am I supposed to pick between him and my dream job? Am I going to have to be like the rest of my family, sacrificing part of myself for love? My thoughts have me sitting up and moving off the bed.

“Where are you going?” Brody asks, his eyebrows furrowed as he watches me.

“Bathroom,” I rasp out, trying to tamper down the emotions that have suddenly surfaced.

Shutting the door, I take a few deep breaths, trying to calm my racing heart. The woman staring back at me in the mirror isn’t someone I recognize. Her hair is mussed, her face flushed, and there’s a glow in her eyes. She looks . . . happy. Which immediately makes me sad. Because that happiness won’t last.

I hope I haven’t screwed up our friendship. That’s the last thing I want to do. Brody means the world to me, and I’d be devastated if our friendship ended over this.

With a shake of my head, I use the bathroom, wash my hands, and brush my teeth for good measure. When I come out, Brody is sitting up in bed, staring down at his phone in his hands.

“You alright?” I ask when he looks up at me. He opens his mouth and closes it a few times before running a hand through his hair and dropping his phone on the bed. I sit next to him, waiting for him to talk to me.

“Fine,” he finally says with a shake of his head. “The guys being”—he waves his hand around as if he’s not sure what to call it—“their usual selves.”

I quirk an eyebrow at him. I feel like there’s something more going on that he’s not telling me, but I won’t push him. At least not right now.

Our conversation is interrupted by a knock at the door. I glance over at Brody, but he shrugs and shakes his head. I move to get off the bed, but he’s already on his feet, yanking his shorts on. As I’m putting my shirt on to go see who’s out there, he comes back into the room.

“That was Devon.” He inclines his head toward the door. “He wanted to know if we fancied hanging out by the pool with them.”

“I thought Bri was going to take a nap.”

“Maybe they changed their minds like we did. What do you want to do? I told him you’d text Brielle.”

“I’m game if you are,” I say, grabbing my phone from the nightstand.

It’s probably a good thing that Devon came by because it gives me something to do instead of worrying about what will happen after we leave. I don’t want to think about that right now. I don’t want to worry about what our friendship will be like when we go back to reality. I want to live in the moment, pretending that we can have a real relationship once we leave here.

Chapter twenty-five

Aubrey