Total pages in book: 76
Estimated words: 73094 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 365(@200wpm)___ 292(@250wpm)___ 244(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 73094 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 365(@200wpm)___ 292(@250wpm)___ 244(@300wpm)
“Okay, please listen to your brother,” I told Jesse the moment Kane was out of earshot. “I don’t know what he meant by ‘giving me a hard time,’ but I don’t want to find out.”
“Oh, chill out.”
“And thanks for mentioning you’re his damn sibling. Are you trying to get me killed?”
He gave me a look as he sipped his water.
Shit. He liked this. He wasn’t backing down—actually, he was looking at me like he couldn’t wait to keep messing with me.
Against my better judgment, my cock perked up again under his gaze.
All right, this is war.
It should have been illegal for my friends to have hot younger brothers. Completely illegal. Knowing how off-limits Jesse was only serving to make his catnip effect stronger now. I was pretty sure he didn’t really want me, or anyone. But my traitorous cock apparently liked doing bad things, too.
“You still want to play a game with me?” he finally asked.
“No.”
He turned his head a little. “Is that the truth?”
No, it’s not the truth, but I’m trying to avoid becoming any more attracted to you than I already am.
I need to just go home.
I sucked in a slow breath. “I’m always down for a game. But I should get the fuck out of here.”
“What game would you want to play?” he asked. “You know. If you were going to play one, instead of heading home.”
Was this how he intimidated opponents out on the ice? Giving them some mix between bedroom eyes and a look that said you don’t stand a chance?
I swirled my drink in my glass, watching the green liquid move over the ice.
“The type of game I usually like playing isn’t going to fly tonight,” I explained. “Not with you.”
“Try me.”
“I don’t know. Dumb stuff. Maybe taking off our shirts and seeing how long it is before people notice. Maybe truth or dare. Or trying to get as many phone numbers as we can, and seeing who gets more.”
His expression went stony as he looked back down at the bar. “I’m definitely not in the mood to get anyone’s number.”
There was that same dark cloud, passing back over his expression. What was bothering him?
“Pretty sure you’d win the phone numbers game easily, anyway,” I said. “We… could pretend we’re Scottish, put on accents, and go around the room talking to people. Or maybe French. Are all hockey players good at French accents?”
I was babbling. Every time I looked at his eyes now, it sort of felt like putting my nerves right into an electrical socket.
“I’m glad that I don’t know anybody in this bar other than Kane,” Jesse admitted, finally meeting my eyes again. “I needed to get out of my usual places.”
“Avoiding someone?”
He didn’t answer for a moment. I decided not to push that line of questioning. He stood up, picking up his leather jacket in one hand and his drink in the other.
“Come outside. I’ll show you something.”
2
JESSE
It happened on a bright day—I remember, because I was squinting right into the sun when I saw him.
Naked. Tanned skin. In the backyard by the pool.
Legs wrapped around a blonde.
He gave me the same guilty look he always did out on the ice, when he fucked up perfectly angled shots that I practically fed him on a silver platter, game after game.
Apparently this was just a game to him, too.
“Oh.”
That was all I’d been able to say. Shimmers of light glittered into my eyes from the pool, dappling my vision.
Sometimes when your whole life crashes down around you, only feeble bullshit comes out of your mouth.
He had the balls to cheat on me right there in the frat house, when he thought everyone else was gone for the day. I’d always been his deep, dark, gay secret—on the same hockey team, while nobody knew what we did behind closed doors.
But now that he was fucking a girl, instead of me, he had nothing to hide.
The worst part? I didn’t leave.
I always was a forgiving person. Understanding.
So fucking naive.
It was another seven months before it crumbled. He got a different woman pregnant, and they were going to have the kid. Get married right after college. Live together. And he’d stay right in the closet.
He discarded me like a broken toy.
That time, I did get out of the lie I’d been in, unknowingly, for two years.
That sunny day had just been the beginning.
I didn’t mind a little rain now.
I thwacked the side of the pinball machine with my fingertips, the paddle inside ricocheting the metal ball all the way to the top.
“There it is,” I said, backing away as I hit a new high score.
Mason was beside me, shaking his head. “You’re cheating.”
“You can’t cheat at pinball,” I protested. “What do you think I’m doing, hacking the machine?”
“Well, maybe you have an advantage. Hand-eye coordination transfers from hockey into pinball, clearly.”