Falling For My Best Friend's Brother (10 page)

Alice:
Okay.
I was itching to tell him to just call me now. I wished that he would just call me and be done with it.

Aiden:
Have a good day.

Alice:
Thanks, you too.
Was that it? Argh. I was irritated that he was just going to stop chatting when it was getting good.

Aiden:
I’ll see you tomorrow at flag football.

Alice:
Ok.
Wait, what? Was he calling me tonight or not?

Aiden:
I’m glad you’re feeling better.

Alice:
Thank you.

Aiden:
You need to take better care of yourself.

Alice:
I do.

Aiden:
Get eight hours of sleep and eat your veggies.

Alice:
Yes, Dad.

Aiden:
There are better nicknames you can call me.

Alice:
Like what?

Aiden:
You’ll see.

Alice:
Like Sir?
I typed and laughed, wondering what his face looked like as he read the message.

Alice:
Or Master?
I typed again and waited for his response.

Aiden:
Whatever you like. :)

Alice:
Aiden Taylor!!

Aiden:
That works as well! :)

Alice:
Fine. Whatever. See you tomorrow.

Aiden:
Yes. And we’ll chat after.

Alice:
We’ll see,
I typed, feeling annoyed.

Aiden:
Have a good day, Alice. I know I will. My lips are still tingling from your kisses last night.

Alice:
I hope you didn’t catch anything.

Aiden:
Is there something you need to tell me?

Oops. I guess my quick-witted diss was really a diss to myself.

Alice:
Funny. Not.

Aiden:
Call me if you need anything.

Alice:
Thanks. I will.
I put my phone down on the bed and lay back and stared at the ceiling. All of a sudden I felt better. Confused still, but better. Maybe Aiden really did like me. And maybe I really did have a chance. Maybe, just maybe, I could let him see that he was the one for me and I was the one for him. I just hoped that Elizabeth Jeffries would just disappear, along with my insecurities.

Chapter Eight

Football Is a Dance of Seduction

The best feeling in the world is when a guy you like likes you. The second best feeling in the world is when another guy likes you and makes that guy jealous. The only part that can make these best feelings the worst feelings in the world is if you also like the second guy. There is nothing worse than being attracted to two guys and having them both like you. Trust me, I know. Well, I guess I’m stretching that a bit. I don’t know if they both
like
me, like me. And I don’t really
like
like both of them. I
really
like one of them and the other one just makes me feel good; and that might not even be because he likes me. I don’t really know, if I’m honest. What I do know is that they both act like they kinda like me when I see them on the football field. And yeah, what does that really mean? There are so many men who like to flirt just for flirting’s sake. It doesn’t mean they actually like you.

***

“How do you ask a man to dominate you?” I whispered to Liv as we made our way onto the field. “How do you bring that up casually?”

“It seems like he might already know that you want that,” Liv said as she gazed at me with a huge grin.

“Well, I don’t think he does.”

“I wish you would let me tell Xander that I know about Aiden.” She made a face and I squeezed her arm hard.

“No, you can’t tell him that I told you. He’ll never trust me again.”

“Trust you with what?”

“Anything.” I moaned. “I don’t want him to think I have a big mouth.”

“He has to know you’d tell me.” Liv frowned. “I can’t even believe that he wants to keep this a secret from me.”

“He doesn’t want to scar you.”

“I am a big girl. It will take more than finding out my brother is a freak in the bedroom to scar me.”

“He’s not a freak.”

“I don’t mean
freak
freak.” She laughed. “I meant freaky freak.”

“Haha, so are you going to call me freaky as well?” I questioned her with a smile.

“Why would I call you freaky?”

“If I became Aiden’s sub?”

“Number one, I can’t see you as a sub, but whatever floats your boat. Just don’t wear a choker, please.” She groaned. “No chokers with studs, they look so tacky.”

“What looks tacky?” Henry ran over to us with a big smile and lifted his hand up so I could high-five him.

“Choker necklaces,” Liv said and made a face.

“Oh, I haven’t seen a woman in one of those since …” His voice trailed off and he winked at us. “Well, since a fun night I had a few years ago.”

“What sort of fun night?” I asked curiously and I watched as Henry licked his lips and laughed.

“Trust me, girls, you don’t want to know.”

“Everyone gather around, please.” Aiden’s voice was loud and booming, and I noticed that he didn’t even glance in my direction as he spoke.

“Someone’s upset the bear,” Henry said with a laugh and looked at me.

“Not me,” I said and made a face.

“It’s always you, Alice,” Liv said with a grin. “It’s always you.”

***

“Run Alice, run!” Liv screamed as I ran down the field with the ball in my hands. I was in shock as I held it close to my body and continued dashing down the field. I could see the marking lines that Aiden had spray painted in the grass, even though I was pretty sure that they were against the rules of the park. That had shocked me because Aiden was someone who never broke the rules.

“Keep going, Alice!” Liv screamed, and I made the mistake of looking back. Scott was a few feet away from me, and Henry was close behind him. I was praying that Henry got to Scott before Scott got to me. I could also see Aiden coming up fast behind Henry, and Elizabeth was farther back on the field near Xander and Liv. I gasped for air as I turned back around. I could see one of the guys on my team signaling to me to throw him the ball, but I didn’t want to pass the game-winning touchdown to some guy whose name I didn’t even know. I wanted to be the MVP of the game. I didn’t want the guys to just look at Liv and me as two silly girls with no business being on the field. We weren’t like Elizabeth: we didn’t run marathons; we didn’t play pickup basketball at the Y; and we weren’t hiking up mountains or surfing in the Pacific Ocean along the coast of one of the Hawaiian Islands. We were just average, regular girls who liked to have fun and played sports for some excitement in our lives. I knew the guys thought we were pretty worthless on the field, especially me. I mean, I couldn’t blame them. I wasn’t in the best shape, but I knew if I scored this touchdown and scored the winning points, I’d be looked at with new eyes. This was about the game. In this moment, I didn’t care about Aiden or Scott or Henry or whatever other guy might be interested in me. I didn’t care about looking pretty or sexy. I didn’t care about being witty. I didn’t care about making Aiden jealous. All I cared about was winning. And I knew that in this moment, for the first time in my life, I was a sportswoman. A true, dedicated and fearless sportswoman. I kept my head down and ignored the pain in my stomach and the cramps in my legs. I was not going to slow down. I was not going to let the pain win. I was nearly there.

“You’ve nearly got it, Alice!” Liv screamed, and I charged forward. I felt a hand grazing my back and I knew that Scott nearly had me.

“Oh no you don’t!” I screamed and threw my body forward as I saw the line Aiden had made right in front of me. “Touchdown!” I screamed as I fell to the ground and hit the ball against the grass. “Touchdown!” I screamed again in excitement, tears and sweat pouring down my face.

“Move over, Alice!” Scott groaned as he came charging towards me.

“What?” My body was frozen in shock as he came crashing down on me, his body feeling like a ton of bricks as he fell forward. “Ow!” I cried out, as my already aching bones screamed out in pain. His knees nudged my stomach painfully, and I cried out again. “Ooww!” I moaned as he looked over at me.

“Nice touchdown.” He grinned down at me, his blue eyes sparkling as he wiped mud off of his face.

“Thank you,” I said lightly and tried to push him off of me.

“Oh, sorry.” He laughed and jumped up. “I guess you can say you’re a seasoned player now.”

“I guess so.” I groaned as I tried to stand up. “Ugh.” I moaned and grabbed my knee. “I think I cut myself.”

“We won! We won!” Liv screamed and grinned as she came running towards me. “We’re the champions, Alice!”

“Yay.” I smiled and groaned again, as the pain in my knee got worse and worse.

“What’s wrong?” Suddenly Aiden was in front of me, his face looking grim.

“I hurt my knee,” I said in a low voice. “And no need to be pissed, because we won.”

“I’m not pissed,” he said with a frown and kneeled down to the ground. “I’m going to pull your pants leg up so I can check your knee, okay?”

I nodded mutely and watched as he pulled the right leg of my exercise pants up. We both stared at my bloody knee, and I groaned.

“Oh my God, I’m injured.” I frowned and Aiden looked at me with a concerned face.

“Are you okay?”

“She’s fine,” Scott said and rolled his eyes. “Just scraped her knee.”

“Have some compassion, Scott!” Liv snapped and walked over to me. “You okay, Alice?”

“I’m fine. I guess I just need to clean it.”

“See, she’s fine.” Scott laughed and then looked at me. “I promise that our next rumble and tumble in the grass won’t leave you with any injuries.”

“There won’t be another rumble and tumble,” Aiden growled and put my arm around his shoulder. “Lean on me and I’m going to help you stand up.”

“Okay,” I said softly.

“I have a first-aid kit in my car, so I’ll clean it for you.”

“Okay. Thank you.” I smiled at him sweetly, and I could see Liv grinning. I looked towards Scott, and he winked at me and then wiggled his eyebrows towards Aiden. I realized then that Scott was no longer interested in me. Instead, he was helping to make Aiden jealous. I giggled to myself as I realized that he was just as bad as I was, but I knew he was doing it for me, so I couldn’t be mad at him.

“Are you okay, Alice?” Elizabeth walked up to us with a look of concern on her face.

“Yes, thanks.” I nodded, feeling a bit bad. I was stealing her man from right under her nose. Not that he was really her beau or anything.

“Good. Excellent touchdown, by the way. Best move of the day!” Elizabeth grinned at me. “You sure showed the guys what’s what.”

“I try.” I grinned back at her and for a second I felt guilty. Guilty that I was swooping Aiden out from under her when she really was a nice girl.

“Hey, hey, hey, what about my touchdown?” Scott looked at Elizabeth. “I think that my catch was pretty impressive.”

“Impressive to whom?” She laughed and shook her head.

“Everyone on the field.”

“Hmm, if you say so,” she said and flipped her hair. I stared at her face and I was pretty sure she was blushing. Curious, I looked at Scott a bit closer. His face was positively beaming as he stared at her.

“I do say so.” He moved closer to her. “Didn’t you see me?”

“I saw you, and I saw Alice too, and Alice definitely had the move of the day.”

“Hmmm.” Scott looked back at me. “Maybe I’ll concede this once.”

“Wow, how grand of you.” She laughed and patted the front of her T-shirt down. I was about to look away when I noticed something on her wrists. My eyes narrowed as I stared at the lines on her wrists.

“Are you ready, Alice?” Aiden’s voice was close to my ear and I nodded.

“Yes.” I glanced up at him, and he put his left arm around me and pulled me up easily. I loved the fact that he was acting as if I were some hundred-pound lightweight and not the considerable amount more that I really was.

“Can you walk or do you need me to carry you?” he asked me as I leaned into him. I looked at his face to see if he was teasing me, but he looked quite serious. For a split second, I wanted to tell him that I needed him to carry me. I wanted to start limping and moaning and making out like I was really hurt, but I didn’t. And not because I’m above faking an injury to get close to a guy, but because I knew it wouldn’t be believable. He’d seen my injury. I had scraped the skin off of my knee and it was bleeding. It wasn’t a serious injury. Yes, it stung a bit, and yes, I was feeling slightly woozy, but I wasn’t in need of him carrying me. At least, not because of the injury I’d sustained. If he were offering to carry me into his bedroom, I would have had a completely different answer.

“I’m fine. I don’t need you to carry me.”

“Pity,” he said softly and I looked over at him in surprise. His face still looked serious and I wondered if I had imagined him saying those words. We walked towards his car in companionable silence, and I enjoyed the feeling of his warm body next to me as he led me across the field. “I know I told you I wanted to talk to you, but you didn’t have to injure yourself to get my attention,” he said as we reached his car.

“I didn’t,” I said smugly. “I don’t need to injure myself to get attention.”

“True, you don’t.” He laughed.

“What’s so funny?” My eyes narrowed as I gazed at him laughing down at me.

“I was just thinking about all the other ways that you draw attention to yourself.”

“Oh?”

“Like saying you want to be a lingerie model at Victoria’s Secret.”

“I never said that!” I shook my head. “Henry said that.”

“But you sure seemed happy when he brought it up.”

“What are you talking about?” I shook my head and got into the backseat of his car.

“It seems to me you want men to think about you parading about in lingerie.”

“No, I don’t.” I shook my head and watched as he slid into the backseat next to me. “Why would you even think that?”

“Maybe because that’s all I’ve been able to think about for the last week?”

“What? My conversation with Henry?”

“No, you goof.” He opened his center console and took out his first-aid kit. “You in lingerie.”

“Me in lingerie?” I breathed out and watched as he pulled up the leg of my pants again so that he could clean my wound.

“Yes, that’s all I’ve been thinking about for the last week.”

“That’s very bold of you to say.” I gasped as he placed the antiseptic lotion on my knee.

“Why?” He looked up into my eyes as his fingers rubbed against my skin.

“Because.”

“Because what?”

“Just because.” I moaned as his lips came dangerously close to mine. “What are you doing?”

“What do you want me to be doing?”

“Aiden,” I groaned, and he chuckled and moved back.

“I thought you liked kissing me. You liked kissing me last week.”

“I don’t understand you, Aiden,” I groaned and watched as he put a Band-Aid on my knee and leaned down to kiss it.

“All better,” he said and looked at me. “What do you want to understand?”