He bit his tongue, not saying a word. He couldn’t. There was nothing he could say. It wasn’t like he could explain his predicament to V. She was friends with Jessie and no matter what was going on between him and Jessie, he certainly wasn’t going to let another woman interfere. Not even the memory of a woman who had come into his life like a whirlwind and then disappeared just as quickly as she’d arrived. And for the first time in Brendon’s life, he’d been the one watching her walk away.
Standing tall, he backed away and let V take over the table.
Clamping his mouth shut because the last thing he wanted to do was to make a fool out of himself right here in front of all these people, Brendon glanced over to where Jessie stood, leaning close to Braydon. Much closer than he would’ve expected them to be in a public place. It wasn’t a secret that Brendon and Braydon shared their lovers; however, when they were out, they didn’t usually make a public spectacle of their lifestyle.
Staring at Braydon, he waited patiently until his brother met his gaze, which didn’t take long. That was part of their twin connection. Surprisingly, the look in Braydon’s eyes had worry shuddering down Brendon’s spine.
Well, hell.
It looked like Brendon wasn’t the only one with a secret.
Chapter Thirteen
♂♀♂
Braydon
“Are you ok?” Jessie asked.
She was close enough that Braydon could smell the sweet and spicy, floral scent of her perfume – a scent he’d found himself craving for months now. And the more he got, the more he wanted. Like a drug, addicting. But, no matter how much he wished otherwise, Jessie was seemingly doing her best not to get too close which meant moments like these were few and far between these days.
Braydon wanted to draw Jessie up against him. He wanted to wrap his arms around her and hold her as close as he could. He wanted to press his nose against the soft, silky strands of her hair and then rest his lips against the enticing hollow at the base of her throat.
Only she wasn’t his. Which meant he didn’t have the luxury of touching her the way he wanted to. A quick peek across the room, Braydon noticed his twin wasn’t paying any attention to him or Jessie, but he knew that could change at any moment.
Damn, this was getting harder and harder with every single second that passed, and to know that Christmas was literally just days away was killing him. Braydon wanted to spend Christmas with Jessie, he wanted to invite her to his parents’ house as his girl, have her sit next to him at dinner, and put his arm around her shoulder while they watched It’s a Wonderful Life.
Braydon wanted it all, but for now he would have to settle for being the third wheel. It wasn’t that he didn’t enjoy the time he got to spend with Jessie, but until her, Braydon had never imagined himself separating from his twin this way.
They shared women, it’s just what they did. Neither of them ran solo when it came to sex with women – never had. And until recently, he had never questioned the reason. And hell, they shared Jessie, and he knew for a fact that Brendon had never fucked her without Braydon present.
Because that was the way things worked.
Brendon needed him to be there. Needed him around. In fact, Braydon got the impression Brendon expected him to sustain this type of relationship for the rest of their lives. And because his twin was the most important person in his world, Braydon wasn’t sure he’d ever be able to tell him that his idea of a relationship was morphing into something a little less… threesome based.
But even he knew that most of their relationships were based on sex and pleasure. But with Jessie, what had taken up residence in the center of Braydon’s chest had so much more to do with deeper emotions and less about physical gratification.
It didn’t make it right though.
Braydon glanced back at Jessie as she spoke softly.
“What do you want to do when we leave here?”
God, why did it sound like she was actually talking directly to him? Almost as though the “we” in her statement was just the two of them. But that wasn’t the case. The “we” she referred to included Brendon.
“Doesn’t matter,” he said gruffly, suddenly irritated with himself. He needed to back the fuck off and get his shit together before he did something incredibly stupid.
And Lord knew he’d done enough stupid things during the course of his life. No reason to rack up more points.
♂♂
Beau
Beau had spent the better part of the night bullshitting with Kaleb and Gage about the Dallas Cowboys, talking to Sawyer about his latest adventure at the animal shelter, and ultimately wasting time until he could get a minute alone with Ethan.