Page 167 of Unwritten Rules

The girl he’d loved.

My mind unwillingly wanders back as I slowly meander up the stairs towards Bella’s attic bedroom. Searching the depths of my memories in an effort to find where everything had gone so spectacularly wrong, I finally light upon a long-buried memory best forgotten.

And, even as I tell myself that blatant lie, my heart skips a beat as images soar through my head.

* * *

“Will you tell the boys?”

I tighten my arm around Summer’s bare, slender shoulder at the trepidation in her delicate voice. “Not a hope. This is between me and you, Bambi.”

Pressing a kiss to her forehead, I can feel her smile against my bare chest.

“Good.” She’s silent for a long beat, but her shoulders tense up. “What’s the matter?”

As she turns her face up to mine, her big doe eyes pin me with their intensity. “They’ll know. Your poker face sucks.”

My lip twitches. “Fine. I’ll tell them I lost my virginity with Ms D’Onofrio. She’d love a bit of young cock in her snatch.”

She swats at me, and I pull her even closer, her bare pussy pressed firmly against my thigh.

“You are the pits, Cade.”

“And you love me all the same.”

Her brow puckers slightly, her gaze deepening passionately. “I do.”

I bend forward, taking her mouth with mine, giving her every square inch of myself in a long kiss. When I pull back, her eyes are glistening with barely-restrained tears.

“Was…was it okay for you, Cade?”

My mouth turns up in a shit-eating grin. “It was amazing. You were amazing, Bam. Happy birthday.”

A hesitant smile plays across her perfect face, joy shining from the depths of her expressive brown eyes.

We’re so absorbed in drinking in this moment, in cementing it to memory, that neither of us hears the room door creak open.

“Jesus Christ! The boring-ass twin finally popped his fucking cherry.”

Summer dives under the sheets, only giving my prick brother, Archer, a flash of white-blonde hair before she’s hidden entirely from his view.

“What the fuck, Arch? There’s a white sock on the handle!”

He barks a laugh. “That only counts when it’s my white sock on the door, brother dearest. When I’m with Layla.”

I narrow my eyes at my mirror-image twin. “Get out, fucker.”

He scoffs. “You know the rule, Cade. The twins share.”

He trails off, holding my eyes pointedly. “Everything, brother.” Smirking smugly, he steps closer. “Come on, then. Spill the beans, man. Who’s under there?”

At the speed of lightning, he thrusts his hand forward, grasping the cover in his fist and tugging roughly. I can feel Summer cling to my bare leg, curling further into herself, and I snap.

Archer may be my identical twin, my best friend, and half of who I am, but Summer is my heart. She’s my soulmate. I can feel it in my bones.

I’ve always known it, from the very first day we met.

Lunging forward, uncaring of my state of undress, I throw myself at a laughing Archer, slamming him back against our bedroom door – and despite the sheer size of our house, the walls themselves vibrate with my anger.