Total pages in book: 68
Estimated words: 68538 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 343(@200wpm)___ 274(@250wpm)___ 228(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 68538 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 343(@200wpm)___ 274(@250wpm)___ 228(@300wpm)
I didn’t realize how bad it would feel to have a woman I wanted in my bed and in my life so desperately it was hard to breathe sometimes, get spotted first by my brother.
It was fucking awful.
I tightened my hand into a fist, and adopted Pepper’s stance and looked out the window, trying really freakin’ hard to ignore the two people in the front seat.
I managed it just fine, in fact, until Atlas pulled over at a gas station.
Desperate to get the fuck out of this vehicle, I bailed, not stopping to get Maven’s door like I had been taught by my father.
Instead, I hauled ass into the store, walked right up to the beer section, and pulled out a twelve-pack of Ziggenbach.
Stopping next to the powdered donut section, I snatched up two bags and walked up the cashier just in time for Pepper and Maven to make their way inside, Atlas behind them catching the door.
Atlas glared at me, making me feel like an asshole for not getting the ladies’ doors.
I looked away from him and handed the lady my card.
She swiped it just as Maven came up beside me and said, “Can I talk to you for a minute?”
I gritted my teeth, angry at myself and her.
Me for wanting her so badly, and her for making me want her.
It wasn’t fair, but it was what it was.
“Sure,” I grumbled as I walked out to the truck, holding the door for her, albeit reluctantly.
“I’ll sit in the back with you,” she suggested as she hopped into the seat. “Will you share those donuts?”
“I think Atlas will kill me in my sleep if I eat them in his new truck,” I admitted. “But I’ll share them out here.”
She pointed to the beer, too, and I reluctantly opened the pack and gave her one.
I took one for myself and leaned against the truck with it in one hand. She leaned on the other side of me with her own beer, and together we started to eat the bag of donuts.
“Do you think, uh…” she hesitated.
I couldn’t stop myself from looking over at her.
She licked her lips, and I wanted to lick them for her.
“Do I think what?” I asked a little more harshly than I’d intended.
She looked down at her shirt, and started to swipe the powdered sugar crumbs off her shirt before saying, “Do you think you might want to go out to eat with me tonight?”
Her words hit me like a slap across the face, and I jerked back.
Her eyes widened, mouth opening and closing, before saying, “You don’t have to!”
I took a deep breath, then let it out slowly, hating what I had to admit next.
My gut reaction was to say ‘fuck yeah.’
But again, the pact that I’d made with my brother…
“I think my brother has a crush on you,” I told her bluntly, not mincing words. “As flattered as I am that you’re asking me out, I’m not willing to go there with him having feelings for you.”
Her brows rose. “What?”
“My brother. My twin. He has feelings for you,” I told her plainly. “That’s a boundary I’m not willing to cross.”
We’d tried that once in high school and Atlas hadn’t talked to me for a freakin’ week. It’d been one of the worst weeks of my life.
“Oh,” she paused. “Well, I hate to tell you this since you seem so overly confident about it, but I don’t think it’s me that Atlas comes to see all the time. I think it’s Pepper.”
I was so shocked at her words that my mouth fell open in surprise. “What?”
“When he comes in to buy stuff, he doesn’t give me a second look. It’s all the back and forth banter with him and Pepper,” she answered. “He got Pepper’s door, and not mine. He bought her food at the gas station, and not me. He spent an hour in the house with her, and not me. He made her sandwich, not mine.”
Where I’d thought that had been anger, it’d been interest?
I opened my mouth and then closed it, just like she’d done not too long ago.
“I…” I paused. “I’ll have to talk to him before I say yes. Again, I’m not really willing to chance this.”
Her lips turned up into a small smile, then she placed the beer bottle to her lips and took a light swig before reaching for a donut.
“That’s fine,” she continued. “Just let me know.”
When Atlas got back, I was finished with my beer. Instead of finishing hers, though, she handed the half-empty bottle to me and said, “Potty break.”
The way she looked at me pointedly let me know she expected me to confirm her suspicions.
I waited until she was all the way inside before turning to my brother, who was eyeing my beer.
“Thirsty?” he drawled.
I chugged the rest of Maven’s beer before tossing it into the trash.