Total pages in book: 76
Estimated words: 76759 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 384(@200wpm)___ 307(@250wpm)___ 256(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 76759 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 384(@200wpm)___ 307(@250wpm)___ 256(@300wpm)
“Maybe the answer is staring you straight in the face. You just don’t want to acknowledge it.”
He rolls his eyes. “What answer might that be?”
“That you did want it. That you wanted it as much as I did. If this isn’t you and it isn’t me, then maybe we both just wanted something badly enough and we made it happen.”
“Damn it, Brianna.”
“What? Prove me wrong then, Jesse. Tell me there was another reason. You say you don’t do things like that. Indiscriminate sex isn’t your thing. I told you it’s not my thing either. Yet we both let it happen.”
“You were about to let it happen again tonight.”
“You don’t know that. Don’t presume to know what’s inside my head. I might have called the whole thing off before we got up to the bedroom.”
“God, I hope you’re right. I wish I could say the same for my little sis.”
“I don’t know that she would’ve gone through with it either. Neither of us will ever know now.”
“That doesn’t make me feel much better.”
“She’s a grown woman, Jesse. Just like I am. I’m sure Dale and Donny feel the same way about me as you do about Maddie.”
“Yeah…which is why I can’t ever look either of them in the eye again.”
“You’re being stupid.”
“Seriously? You want to play that game?”
“I’m not playing any games. That’s my whole point. I’m a grown woman, and you’re a grown man. Sure, my brothers wouldn’t like it. They wouldn’t like me having sex with anyone. Just like you don’t like the idea of Maddie having sex with anyone. Just like you hated when Callie started sleeping with Donny.”
He curls his hands into fists, his knuckles going white.
Yeah. I just proved my point.
“It’s different.”
“How the hell is it different? Because Maddie’s so much younger?”
He runs his hands over his hair. “That’s part of it, I guess. I was ten when Maddie was born. You’re even younger than Maddie, Brianna.”
I let out a soft scoff. “Do I have to go through all of this? Brendan and Ava are together. He’s thirty-five and she’s twenty-four. My own parents are ten years apart in age. Uncle Bryce and Aunt Marjorie have an even wider age gap.”
“Were any of them twenty-two when they got together?”
He’s got me there. “My mom was twenty-five. Ava’s twenty-four. It’s close.”
“Those two years mean a lot. Twenty-two is just a baby, Brianna.”
“Do I look like a baby to you?”
He looks at me then, his gaze smoldering as he rakes his eyes over my entire body.
“No,” he finally says. “You do not look like a baby to me, Brianna Steel. And right now, all I can think about is getting you out of those clothes and into my bed.”
My entire body burns. I ache between my legs, and I know this time there will be no pain and no blood.
“I don’t see anything stopping you.”
“I’m stopping myself.”
“Where are you sleeping tonight, Jesse?”
He remains silent.
“I can’t take you to my room. Maddie is there. But you have a room.”
Again, he says nothing.
“We can both have what we want. Through the whole tour if you want. And I promise you I won’t consider it any kind of commitment. It will be sex, Jesse. Sex that we both want because we’re extremely attracted to each other.”
“I’ve told you. I don’t have indiscriminate sex.”
“And I’ve told you that I don’t either. This isn’t indiscriminate sex. We’ve already been together, and we know each other. I’m willing. Are you?”
Chapter Thirty-Six
Jesse
My God, she’s fucking killing me.
Does she really think this is indiscriminate between us?
Because it’s not.
I’m feeling something, and I don’t like it. Not one bit.
I could take her now. I could pound her into the fucking morning, just to get Donny Steel back for taking my sister.
I’ll even throw Brock Steel in for taking my other sister.
That’s not my style.
Still… It will give me a reason to take her.
A reason that has nothing to do with the burgeoning feelings that I’m having, which make me extremely uncomfortable.
She may look grown up—even act grown up—but she’s a twenty-two-year-old.
I’m not sure I can live with the guilt.
I’m not sure I can live with the stupid ache in my cock either.
I have a room. My own room, where only I will be tonight.
“What will you tell Maddie?”
“About what?” she asks.
“If you go with me. What do we tell her?”
“I don’t have to tell her anything. I don’t answer to her.”
“Yeah, but the last time she was worried sick.”
Brianna bites her bottom lip. “That’s true. I don’t want her to worry.”
“So you see? This can’t happen.”
“Are you saying it would happen if there was a way to do it without worrying Maddie?”
I rake my fingers through my hair. “I don’t know what the hell I’m saying. I’m trying to convince myself there’s a good reason not to do this. You know, a good reason other than my profuse guilt and the fact that you’re only twenty-two. But damn… I want you so much right now that I ache, Brianna. I yearn for you.”