Risking the Crown (The Crown 2)

He moved my hand away. “I’ve already fucked up. I’ve gotta do the right thing, Kaitlyn.”

He tucked the sheet around my chest and reached down for his boxer briefs.

“What do you mean?” I was angry. “Do you regret it?”

“No. Hell no. But it doesn’t mean we can do it again. It was great. You were great.” He turned to find his shorts.

“Great?” My eyes narrowed.

He rubbed the back of his head. Damn it, why was he so ripped and chiseled? I followed the contoured lines of his biceps.

“Great was the wrong word.” He sat on the edge of the bed, tilting my chin toward him. For a second I thought he was joking. He was going to undress and get back in bed. “Last night we both gave in to something that felt good. But Ryan would fucking shoot me. And lock you up. It was on me to make the right call.”

“And you didn’t make the call my brother would approve of?”

He hung his head. “Don’t say it like that. You knew this was complicated before you invited me in. I just assumed we were on the same page, Kaitlyn. This can’t happen again.”

“Right. Because of you and Ryan.”

He looked at me. “And you and Ryan.”

“He’s overseas. He doesn’t care. This is insane.”

Cole stood from the bed, refastening the button on his shorts. I wished he would find his shirt so I could stop looking at his six-pack.

I think what I hated the most was that what Cole said was right. My brother would never be ok with this. He would hate it from the minute he heard about it.

“You’re right,” I admitted.

“What?” Cole stopped dressing.

I nodded. “I said you’re right. Ryan wouldn’t understand and he’d freak out. You’re right.”

“So we’re ok?” he asked.

I smiled. “We are.”

Inside I wasn’t. I wanted a replay. I wanted another last night. I wanted to pull Cole back to bed and never let him go.

But maybe I wasn’t lucky like that. If this trip had taught me anything it should be that I was pretty freaking unlucky lately.

“I have to get work. But I’ll see you?”

“Yeah.”

He leaned down and pressed a kiss to my cheek. Cole paused at the door. “For the record, it was a fucking amazing night.”

I smiled sadly. “It was.”

13

Cole

I had to keep my head on my work. I needed to focus on repairs and finances. Because if I stopped for a single fucking minute, I’d think about Kaitlyn. I’d hear my name on her lips. I’d remember how her skin felt. What it felt like inside her. How her body quivered when she came.

My cock twitched and I slammed my hand into the wall. I had to stop.

She was my best friend’s sister. And he was like a brother. We graduated together. Played baseball together. We fought and survived in the desert together.