Pretenders (Firsts and Forever 3)

Wes crossed the room to me, and when he sat on the couch, I climbed onto his lap. “I’d been on the fence about attending the wedding,” he said, “but I’ve finally made a decision. Let’s give it a skip and enjoy the last day of our vacation on our own.”

“Are you sure?”

“Positive. I refuse to allow either of us to be mistreated by my family. And really, why was I even attending this wedding in the first place? Out of a sense of obligation, because Warren is my brother? Or to prove to everyone I’m okay after the breakup? Those aren’t good reasons to make either of us miserable.”

“I totally agree.”

Wes kissed me and said, “Good, then it’s decided.”

“This is actually a huge relief. It was going to be horrible.”

“It really was.” He scooped me into his arms and stood up. “Now come on. We only have a couple of days left in Bora Bora. Let’s make the most of it.” I laughed and threw my arms around his neck as he ran to the bedroom.

That afternoon, as we sat out on the deck and Wes helped me apply sunscreen, someone called, “Wesley? Can we talk?”

We both turned to look at Warren, who’d pulled right up to our deck in one of the villa’s motorboats. Wes drew me into his arms as he asked his brother, “What do you want?”

“Jack is upset. I want to know what you said to him.”

Wesley adjusted his silver-framed sunglasses. “Didn’t you ask him?”

“Of course I did, but he didn’t want to talk about it.” Warren was standing up in the boat and had loosely tied it to a mooring, but he made no effort to join us on the deck. He obviously didn’t plan to stay long.

Wes’s tone was clipped. “Here’s a summary—he insulted Ash, and he insulted me, and then I told him he was a judgmental douche and walked away. That’s it.”

“Even if he insulted you and your friend, you didn’t have to call him names,” Warren said.

“It wasn’t so much name-calling as a statement of fact. And Ash is my boyfriend, but way to try to trivialize it.”

Warren sighed and moved his sunglasses to the top of his head. “Jack told me that man is a paid escort, Wesley. Stop pretending.”

“In other words, Jack didn’t bother to correct that bit of misinformation after he returned from seeing us,” Wes said, as I snuggled in his lap. He put his arm around me and kissed my forehead.

“You mean it isn’t true?”

“No, it’s not,” Wes told his brother. “But even if it was, Jack still would have been way out of line.”

“If Jack-Jack got butt-hurt earlier, that’s his problem,” I chimed in. “You better not have come here expecting an apology, because that’s not happening.”

“I just want to smooth things over before tomorrow,” Warren said. “We don’t want any drama at the wedding, and—”

Wes cut him off. “No worries there. We’re giving the wedding a skip.”

He looked surprised. “Really?” Wes nodded, and Warren murmured, “Oh.” An awkward moment passed, and then he said, “Alright. Well…I guess I’ll see you around, then.”

He started to reach for the mooring line, but Wes said, “Wait. I deserve to know the truth about something. Did you and Jack start sleeping together while he and I were still engaged?”

His guilty expression told us all we needed to know, but he further confirmed it by muttering, “We didn’t do it to hurt you. It just happened.”

“How long were you sneaking around behind my back?”

Warren shifted uncomfortably, but he actually answered the question. “We got together right after my marriage ended. Jack came to see me and confessed he had feelings for me.”

“So, four months. That’s how long you spent screwing my fiancé behind my back,” Wes said, his voice low. After a pause, he asked, “Why didn’t Jack dump me when you two got together, instead of waiting until six days before the wedding?”

Warren just shrugged, so I answered for him. “I bet it’s because they got off on sneaking around. Didn’t you, Warren? We all know that expression, forbidden fruit is the sweetest. Well, what could be more forbidden than your brother’s fiancé?”

“It wasn’t like that,” Warren muttered, but the fact that he couldn’t look at us told me I’d hit the nail on the head.

“Sure it was,” I insisted. “What a thrill it must have been—stolen kisses at family dinners, sneaking off together to fuck under everyone’s nose. I bet it was the best sex of your life, because it was just so wrong and naughty. I also bet it cooled down real quick once you and Jack went public with your relationship.”

Color rose in his cheeks, but he finally raised his chin and met my gaze defiantly. “I said it wasn’t like that. I love Jack, and he loves me.”