Falling For My Best Friend's Brother (8 page)

“That’s fine,” I said because I didn’t want to start the night off trying to get all serious with him. I knew that there was some sort of attraction between us, but I wasn’t sure exactly what it was and what he really thought about me. Especially now that he was dating Elizabeth Jeffries.

***

The pizza arrived fifteen minutes after we’d started the movie and I was happy for the break. The movie was called
Orphan,
and it was already creeping me out. Unfortunately, I didn’t feel like Aiden and I were in the “let me jump into your lap and bury my face in your shoulder” stage yet, so I just had to sit through it and try to not close my eyes.

“Ready to start the movie again?” he asked me softly and I nodded, my mouth full of pizza. Aiden stood up and turned the lights off and then came back to the couch to press play.

“In the dark?” I mumbled, my mouth full of delicious greasy pizza.

“We can’t watch a scary movie and not be in the dark.” He grinned and pressed play. I stifled a groan and watched as the weird-looking kid with big eyes came back onto the screen. I knew she was evil. There was no way she wasn’t going to be evil. Why couldn’t her new parents see that? My heart thudded as I waited for something to happen. I became so engrossed in the movie that I didn’t even realize that Aiden was shifting closer and closer to me on the couch or that his arm was around my shoulders, or that I was leaning back into him. I didn’t realize until there was a really scary scene and I screamed and I found my head against his chest. His chest felt hard and warm and he smelled so good and musky, like sandalwood and sand on a balmy night by the ocean. I breathed him in and tried not to kiss his chest. I wanted to consume him and his scent.

“You okay?” His voice was amused, and I felt his hands rubbing my back and massaging my shoulders.

“This movie is scary,” I said softly. I wondered if he could feel my heart racing.

“It is a horror movie.” He chuckled close to my ear, and I felt my body growing warm as he shifted on the couch.

“I know it’s a horror movie.” I moved back slightly, but his hands held me to him. “That doesn’t mean I don’t still get scared.”

“Don’t worry, Alice.” His fingers played with my hair. “I’ll take care of you.”

“You think I’m a baby,” I said and looked into his eyes.

“I don’t think you’re a baby,” he said and moved his face closer to mine.

“You don’t?” I said and moved even closer to him.

“No,” he said. “If I did, I wouldn’t be doing this, would I?” And he pressed his lips against mine.

“Hmm,” I said and closed my eyes. I grabbed the back of his head and brought him closer to me. I felt his fingers in my hair as well and a part of me melted. His lips were gentle and firm next to mine, and I felt his tongue sliding into my mouth roughly as his kiss became deeper and more assertive. His fingers ran down my back, and I pressed myself into him, allowing my breasts to graze his muscular chest.

He groaned as I shifted on his lap and I reveled in the guttural sound. It was manly, strong and lusty, and it made me feel powerful. I shifted in his lap again and his fingers tightened on my waist and shifted me farther towards him.

“You taste like peaches,” he muttered against my lips, and I sucked on his lower lip for a few seconds, tugging on it gently and then nibbling it with my teeth gently. “Oh, Alice.” He groaned and ran his fingers down the side of my body, going slowly over the sides of my breasts.

“Yes, Aiden?”

“What are we doing?” He shook his head and his eyes gazed into mine questioningly.

“Whatever we want,” I said softly as bells went off in my head. “I think we’re both adults. We can do whatever we want to do.” I ran my hands through his hair and kissed him again. I could feel a bulge underneath me and I knew that he was hard. I hid a smile and shifted on his lap again so that I could rub my ass on his hardness.

“Alice.” He grabbed my waist again and held me still. “Didn’t you have a date tonight?”

“Perhaps.” I gave him a small smile. “But I’m not in a relationship. I’m still waiting for a guy that’s as adventurous as me,” I said, dropping the first crumb onto the ground for him to consume.

“Adventurous?” He looked at me curiously and I tried to hide my triumphant smile. I wanted to come straight out and tell him that I knew that he was interested in BDSM. I wanted to tell him I knew he was a Dom. I wanted to tell him that I was willing to try almost anything in the bedroom with him; that I’d had a crush on him for years and that part of me felt like I’d been falling in love with him for years as well, but I knew I couldn’t tell him all that.

“Yes, I want a man who can take me on journeys I’ve never been on in the bedroom,” I said simply and stared into his eyes with a small smile. “I want a man who can teach me things I didn’t already know about.”

“You want someone to teach you things?” he asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Yes.” I nodded. “I want a professor. I’m willing to be his student,” I said boldly, knowing that I was being very obvious.

“Have you found the guy?” he asked and I watched as he licked his lips. I felt as if he could hear my heart thudding as I stared at him.

“Perhaps,” I said coyly.

“Perhaps, huh?” he said with a smirk. “You always were a sly one, Alice.”

“I’m not sly.” I shook my head.

“I think a twenty-two-year-old Aiden would beg to differ.” He laughed.

“I wasn’t thinking,” I said with a blush. “I just wanted to be with you.”

“I took your virginity,” he said softly and I couldn’t tell if he was asking a question or just stating a fact. I didn’t answer him.

“But you knew it was me and you still went ahead.”

“Yes, I did.” He nodded.

“Why?” I held my breath.

“Why do you think?” He cocked his head and stared at me, seriously this time.

“I don’t know.” I bit my lower lip and then slowly got off of his lap. “Do you want to go to my room?” I asked him softly and reached down and grabbed his hand.

“Your room?”

“Yes, my bedroom.” I gazed at him, not disguising the lust in my eyes. I fluffed my hair and stood there, basically offering myself on a platter. “I have handcuffs in my room.”

“Handcuffs?” He repeated my words and stared at me for a few seconds taking in what I was offering. Then his phone started beeping. I saw him look at his phone and then frown slightly. He jumped up, placed his phone on the coffee table and looked at me. “Excuse me, I need to go to the restroom.”

“Oh, okay,” I said and watched as he left the room. And then I did something that I knew I shouldn’t do. I’m not normally a nosey person
—
I swear I’m not
—
but I couldn’t stop myself from looking at his phone. I pressed the screen with my fingers and to my astonishment the phone came to life. There was no lock on the screen, and I froze as I realized that I could just press the messages icon and see who had texted him. And of course, whose name did I see when I pressed messages? None other than Elizabeth Jeffries.

I groaned and made a face at the phone before turning to the doorway to make sure that Aiden wasn’t on his way back in yet. I listened carefully and I could hear him humming in the bathroom. I smiled to myself and grabbed his phone, once again looking around the room, even though I knew I was the only one there. I clicked on Elizabeth’s name, feeling guilty. My face was warm as my fingers fumbled on the screen. I looked around the room again and up at the ceiling, as if I thought that someone had placed hidden cameras in the room just to trap me in this moment. I heard a creak and dropped the phone as my heart thudded. Had Aiden snuck out of the bathroom without me noticing? Was I about to be busted before I’d even gotten to read the messages? I took a deep breath as I realized that the noise had come from my upstairs neighbors. I quickly grabbed the phone off of the floor and checked that it wasn’t cracked. The last thing I wanted was to have to buy Aiden a brand new iPhone. My handbag fund was getting lower and lower each month.

I pressed home on the phone and quickly got back to the messages screen again. I clicked on Elizabeth Jeffries’s name and waited for the messages to load. I looked at the smiley face at the bottom of the screen and frowned. How dare they send smiley faces to each other? I quickly scrolled up the screen so that I could read all the messages that were available on the phone before Aiden walked back into the room. I rolled my eyes at the obvious flirting. Elizabeth was asking him if he wanted to come over to try her lasagna.
Lasagna, my ass
, I thought as I read the message. Then she asked him over to try her roast chicken. Then they talked about going to the museum and she was thanking him for taking her. My fingers gripped the phone as I read a message from her asking him if he wanted to go camping this weekend. He’d responded with a flirty message saying “only if you promise to keep the bears away from me” and she’d replied, “Don’t worry, I’ll protect you.” I could feel my face growing warm as I kept reading. My stomach was churning and my head was starting to pound. I was starting to feel upset. Why was Aiden flirting back with her if he liked me? How could he kiss me, but go to her house for frigging pasta? What was going on here? Did he like Elizabeth or did he like me? And was that why he’d gone to the bathroom as soon as he’d gotten her text? Had he gotten carried away with himself with me on his lap? And then her text had reminded him of her? I frowned as I put his phone back down on the desk. All of a sudden, I didn’t feel so light and excited.

“Hey, sorry about that.” Aiden walked back into the room with a smile and then looked at his watch.

“No worries,” I said, trying not to stare at his lips. Lips I’d just been kissing. Lips I wanted to feel against mine once more.

“I should go,” he said as he walked towards me. “I just realized the time.”

“Oh,” I said, my face growing red in embarrassment. He was going? Right after I’d asked him to come to my room and talked about wanting to experiment? I felt shame filling me as I realized he was blowing me off.

“Unless you want to finish watching the movie first and need someone to protect you?” He rubbed my shoulder and I offered him a weak smile.

“I’m fine,” I said stiffly. How had we gone from making out to polite acquaintances in five minutes? I sighed inwardly as I realized that I just couldn’t figure Aiden Taylor out.

“Okay, well, I’m sorry you had a bad date.” He gave me a pointed look and paused, but I didn’t say anything. “Thanks for a good night.”

“Yeah, you’re welcome,” I said, not really sure how to respond. I mean, what did you say to a comment like that? Thanks for letting me sit on your lap and kiss you? Thanks for letting me feel your hardness on my ass as I sucked on your lip? Thanks for grazing my breasts and making me feel like I’m on fire? And the good kind of fire, not the scary “I might burn” fire, but the hot, sensuous, “I’m going to get laid and it’s going to be amazing” fire.

“Have a good night, okay?” he said softly and I watched as he moved in closer to me. His eyes gazed into mine, and I held my breath as he gave me a light kiss on the lips. “See you later, Alice,” he said as he pulled back, and all I could do was nod like an idiot as he picked up his phone and walked out of the room, leaving me in a daze. I had no idea what had just happened, but I knew that there was a distinct change in our relationship. I just didn’t know what it meant.

Chapter Seven

Coffee Dates Aren’t Always Dates

“Come on, Alice, Aiden is going to be meeting me at the coffee shop in about fifteen minutes, so you need to hurry.” Liv poked her head into my bedroom and clapped her hands to rouse me.

“I just woke up.” I stretched and groaned as I stared at Liv. “And I can’t just show up by myself.”

“Tell him that I told you to meet me there as well.” She grinned. “And then I’ll text and say I couldn’t make it.”

“Liv,” I whined, not wanting to go but still jumping out of bed and opening my closet quickly to find something to wear. “I’m not going by myself,” I said and looked at her. “He invited you to coffee, not me. And after last night, there is no way in hell that I’m putting myself out there again.”

“Just hurry, Alice.” She sighed, but she didn’t try and change my mind. I had told Liv all about the previous evening when she’d gotten home and even she was wondering what Aiden was up to. “I tried to wake you up earlier and you didn’t respond.”

“I was sleeping,” I groaned and pulled a T-shirt on over my tank top. “How do I look?” I glanced at Liv and she glanced back at me quickly.

“Great, now brush your teeth quickly. You don’t want morning breath.”

“Argh, I hate morning breath.” I ran to the bathroom and grabbed my toothbrush and quickly filled it with a generous dollop of Aquafresh.

“And wash your face, too. You have booboo in your eyes.”

“That’s because I was sleeping just three minutes ago.” I yawned dramatically.

“What do you care about more? Sleep or love?”

“At this moment, sleep,” I groaned and yelped as I felt Liv brushing the knots out of my hair. “Liv!” I whimpered as I spat my toothpaste into the sink. “That hurts.”

“Do you want to go to meet Aiden and show him how beautiful you look in the morning or would you rather look like you were just drooling into your pillow?”

“Can I choose drooling into my pillow?” I splashed my face with water and stared sadly at my lackluster appearance. “And you’re a liar, I don’t look beautiful.”

“Yes, you do, and Aiden will think so as well.”

“Yeah, right.” I wrinkled my nose. “He didn’t think I was beautiful last night.”

“Of course he did. He kissed you, remember?”

“And then he left when I invited him to come and check out my room.” I groaned as I remembered the rejection of the night before. “And when I say left, I mean, he ran out faster than a cheetah on crack.”

“Cheetah’s don’t do crack,” Liv said as if I were being serious.

“Maybe they do, maybe they don’t,” I said and put some moisturizer on my face. “Who knows what they do? All I can say is that Aiden left fast. As fast as the fastest animal on earth.”

“Alice, stop being goofy. I’m sure he just realized he had to be at work early or something.”

“Yeah, I guess.” I sighed. “It’s not like his job is all that important, though, that he would just have to leave.”

“He’s an attorney for a top law firm, Alice.” Liv rolled her eyes. “He’s not like us; he can’t just call in whenever he wants and pretend to be sick and just watch movies all day.”

“I guess.” I sighed. “I just can’t believe he has any interest in me if he left last night.”

“He did kiss you.”

“I know, but what’s a kiss when you’ve been offered more? Maybe he only kissed me to be polite.” My stomach churned as I thought about that prospect. Would he really have grabbed my waist and held me tight if he was just trying to be polite?

“Aiden doesn’t do anything to be polite,” Liv reminded me, and she was correct. I could remember a few different occasions where we’d asked Aiden to take us somewhere or do something with us when we were younger and he’d told us no, pretty point-blank. He hadn’t cared that Liv had even been faking tears one time we’d asked him to take us to the zoo. He’d told us to go into the bathroom and look into the mirror and we’d see a rhino and a giraffe. And then he’d burst out laughing. I smiled to myself as I recalled how rude Aiden had always been. Liv was right. There was no way Aiden would have kissed me if he wasn’t into it, even a little bit.

“I guess I’ll come.” I pouted my lips and applied my new pink lipstick and then some lipgloss. “But I’m not going to flirt with him or ask him out or make him jealous.”

“Good. Just be sweet and casual.” Liv nodded. “Let him think that you couldn’t care less about seeing him or about that fact that he just left last night.”

“I couldn’t care less,” I said and fluffed out my hair. “He’s a jerk.”

“Yeah, he is,” Liv said emphatically.

“Oh, Liv.” I giggled. “You’re just saying that because I’m sad.”

“I don’t want you to be upset over stupid Aiden.” She looked at me with large brown eyes.

“I know. It’s awkward that I’ve fallen for your brother.” I groaned. “Who does that?”

“I think it’s quite common.” Liv laughed. “Many women fall for their best friend’s brother. I mean, it will be awesome if you guys end up together. We’d be sisters.”

“See.” I said with a sad face and pointed at her. “You have doubts, too.”

“Doubts about what?”

“You just said
if
we end up together, not
when
we end up together.”

“Oh.” She bit her lower lip and looked to the side. “I didn’t realize.”

“It’s fine,” I said with a groan. “I mean, let’s be realistic. You meet a guy and let him know you’re interested and he’s got you on the floor with his head between your legs. And I meet a man and let him know I’m interested and he gives me a quick snog and then darts off before I can even get him to the floor or the bed.”

“A quick snog?” Liv giggled.

“I’ve been watching British TV shows again.” I laughed. “I think snog sounds better than just saying kiss.”

“At least you’re not saying pash anymore.” She laughed.

“What’s wrong with pash?” I said indignantly. “I want to pash Aiden all night long.”

“It just sounds weird.”

“Tell that to an Australian,” I said with a smirk. “They will most probably throw a kangaroo in your face.”

“Yeah, let them try. I’ll throw a koala bear back at them.” She laughed. “I mean, who calls kissing pashing? It just doesn’t even make sense to me.”

“Pashing is a sexy term,” I said, though I didn’t really think it was that sexy. It was different, and to me different was cool.

“Are you still watching that show?”

“What show?”

“
Dating in the Dark Australia
?”

“Oh yeah.” I nodded. “I thought you were talking about
Home and Away
.”

“I thought you weren’t able to watch it anymore?”

“Yeah, I’m not. The guy that was uploading it onto YouTube got deleted or something.” I sighed. “That was a good show.”

“It looked like too much drama to me. And all the characters seemed so young and annoying.”

“Like I said, it was good.” I laughed. “It was full of drama and angst and half the girls had worse love lives than me.” I smiled happily, remembering all the drama from one of my favorite Australian soap operas. “Plus Australian men are so sexy.”

“Oh, Alice, you and your English and Australian guys.” Liv shook her head.

“I might end up marrying one if it doesn’t work out with Aiden. Foreign guys are hotter.”

“But then you’ll have to move.” Liv pouted.

“Yeah.” I nodded. “I’ll move to Oxfordshire or Sydney.”

“Why Oxfordshire or Sydney?” Liv looked confused.

“Oh, they just sound like good places to live, if I have to leave the States.”

“Uh, okay.” I could see that Liv was trying not to laugh. “What about Nigeria?”

“What about Nigeria?” I frowned. What did Nigeria have to do with anything?

“Didn’t a Nigerian prince ask you to marry him and send him ten thousand dollars?”

“Hahaha.” I laughed slightly as I remembered the scam email I’d gotten and almost fallen for. “Very funny.”

“Wouldn’t you like to live in Nigeria as well?” she asked with a grin. “Seeing as you want to live abroad and all.”

“I don’t know about Nigeria.” I made a face. “I’ve heard the Ivory Coast is beautiful, though.”

“I guess you just have to meet a guy from there, then.”

“Actually, there is a guy from there who’s trying to buy a house right now. He has this sexy French accent as well.” I thought about the tall African guy who always smiled at me when he came to see Mike, one of the agents at the real estate office I worked at. “I would definitely date him if he was younger than fifty.” I giggled. “He’s cute, but a bit old. But imagine if I lived in Africa, I’d be tan year round.”

“You just want to leave me.” Liv pouted again, and I laughed.

“Don’t be silly. I want Aiden. I just need him to want me, too.” I sighed and grabbed my handbag. “Are you ready?”

“Yeah, let’s go.” Liv linked arms with me. “I seriously need to make sure my brother doesn’t mess this up.”

“Yes, you do,” I said expressively, with a small smile on my face. “Because if you don’t, who knows where I’ll end up?”

“You’ll end up in Timbuktu, that’s where.” She laughed as we walked out of the door.

***

Liv and I walked into the coffee shop, and I almost groaned when I saw Scott sitting there with Aiden. Why oh why did Scott have to be there? As if everything wasn’t already slightly awkward between Aiden and me, Scott was just going to make an already complicated situation more complicated.

“Look who’s here,” Scott said with a grin as he jumped up and  walked towards us. “Big ears and little ears.”

“Look who’s here,” Liv retorted back. “Dumb and Dumber.”

“I call Dumber,” Scott said and then winked at me as he gave me a quick hug.

“I guess that leaves me as just Dumb?” Aiden said with a smile as he stood up and hugged Liv.

“Well, duh,” Liv said as she pulled away from him. “We all knew you were dumb a long time ago.”

“Touché,” Aiden said as he walked towards me and gave me a quick hug, too. “Good to see you, Alice.” His body felt warm next to me and I didn’t want to let go as he stepped back. I know, I’m pathetic.

“Hi,” I said and then a thought suddenly hit me. “I guess you didn’t have to work early this morning?”

“No, did I say I had to?” He looked confused as he gazed at me and then at Liv. “Did I tell you I had to go to work early this morning?” he asked Liv and she made a face.

“No.” She sighed. “Alice and I just got confused about something.” She walked over to me. “What do you want, Alice? My treat.”

“I’ll have an iced mocha, please. Ooh, and a bagel with salmon and cream cheese.”

“Okay.” She nodded. “I’ll be right back.”

“Okay.” I nodded and sat down. I swallowed hard as I saw both Aiden and Scott standing there in front of me.

“Well, Alice, how have you been?” Scott grinned and sat down next to me.

“Good, you?” I said weakly as I could feel Aiden’s eyes on me.

“Good, just been working late.” He stretched and I watched as he tossed his blond hair back. “I heard that you were at the parents’ house recently?”

“Yeah, Liv wanted your dad to spend more time with Xander.” I nodded. “Though, it was mainly the four of us just playing board games and going out.”

“Sounds about right.” Scott laughed. “Dad just likes having us all around the house. Unfortunately, Aiden and Liv are the only good kids. Chett and I rarely make an appearance.”

“Aw, that’s sad,” I said and Scott leaned towards me with a small smile.

“I guess I would have made more of an effort had I known you were going to be there.”

“Oh.” I blushed at his words. I mean, what did you say to a man who was flirting with you when your crush was sitting right next to him?

“Maybe next time,” Scott continued. “Or maybe we can go to—”

“Scott, Liv is calling you.” Aiden cut him off with a brusque tone.

“Huh?” Scott looked at Aiden with a frown. “Calling me for what?”

“Go and ask her,” Aiden said, his lips thin.

“Fine.” Scott jumped up and then smiled at me. “We’ll continue this conversation later.”

“Okay,” I said and avoided Aiden’s stare.

“So what’s going on with you and Scott?” he asked me accusingly and I looked at him with an annoyed expression.

“What do you mean what’s going on with me and Scott?” I glared at him. Was he seriously going to go there? He was the one who had left me the previous evening.

“Do you like him?” he asked me point blank and I blinked slowly.

“Of course I like him,” I said with an irritated tone.

“Do you want to date him?”

“No, I don’t want to date him.” I glared at him. I wanted to add
You big doofus
to my sentence, but didn’t.

“Do you want to make out with him again?”