Consolation Prize (Forbidden Men 9)

Okay, so I liked that option. I liked it a lot. In fact—

Wait, no. Her safety was top priority. No sex until after we’d been to the police.

So I went with option two and demurely fluttered my lashes, begging, “Pretty please, baby doll, will you get dressed now?”

She s

norted, not buying that act either. But at least she climbed off the bed. My pecker took note of how nice she looked naked, and he got pretty pissed at me for not choosing option one, but I promised him later, and he calmed down some.

It took her nearly fifteen minutes to primp. I knew she was still worried what they were going to think of her report because of how much attention she put into how she looked, and then she went for a gray, white, and black ensemble. But I didn’t say anything about it. She was actually going to do this, so I was going to be satisfied with what I got.

I took her hand and squeezed her fingers encouragingly when she announced she was finally ready. We walked from her room side-by-side and down the hall through the front room to her door. I waited as she pulled her purse and coat from their hooks. Then I retook her hand and opened the door, only to find myself face-to-face with my brother.

COLTON’S CHAPTER | 29

Brandt dropped his hand where he’d had it raised to knock. His gaze settled on me before he said, “I knew I hadn’t called the wrong number.”

I shrugged. “You know, you could’ve just checked the call history on your phone instead of coming all the way over here to figure that out, right?”

He narrowed his eyes at my smart-ass reply. “What the fuck are you doing here, Colton?” Then he dropped his gaze to where my hand was linked with Julianna’s, and his eyes bulged with disbelief.

She tightened her grip on me. I wasn’t sure if she was nervous or trying to be supportive. But I did know she wasn’t ashamed of being caught by him with me, which was all I needed to know.

So I blinked at my brother and shot back just as accusingly, “What the fuck are you doing here? You’re the married one of us two.”

He shot me a grow-up look and muttered, “I’m trying to figure out why you were answering Juli’s phone first thing in the morning.”

“Well, I was asleep,” I replied in the most logical way I could. “And this annoying ring kept pestering me, so I answered it because I was closest to it. I didn’t even realize it wasn’t my phone until after we hung up.”

He blinked at me blankly for a moment before he blew. “What the fuck, Colton? You and Julianna?”

When a door across the hall from us creaked open, Julianna waved Brandt forward. “Maybe we should talk about this inside,” she said in a hushed voice.

When Brandt merely transferred his stunned gaze to her, I sighed and grabbed his arm, yanking him into the apartment.

Juli quickly shut the door behind him.

In a daze, Brandt gaped between us before sputtering, “Since when?”

“Uh…” I glanced Juli’s way, not sure how to calculate that. I’d wanted her since the moment I’d met her, damn near a year ago. Or maybe we should go from the night of his wedding when we’d nearly hooked up. Probably shouldn’t measure from the night I’d slept on her couch; we hadn’t exactly been the best of friends then. I guessed we could start counting from the first time we’d had sex, but that didn’t seem like the starting place at all.

But when Juli quietly answered, “A couple weeks,” I nodded in support. Sounded good enough to me.

“You...” He pointed a finger threateningly at me. “You lied to me, you little asshole.”

“Me?” I pressed a hand to my chest, my eyebrows rising. “I never lied to you. When did I lie to you?”

“Last week or so,” he explained. “I texted you after hearing a rumor from Ten and specifically asked you if you were seeing a new girl.”

“Mmhmm.” I nodded, remembering that text. “And how did I answer?”

Brandt sighed and rolled his eyes. “Something stupid like you sit next to them all the time in your home economics class.”

I grinned, still loving that line. “I was quoting Forrest Gump.”

Brandt’s scowl turned dry as he set his hands on his hips. “And then you said the only thing you hadn’t been seeing were ghosts.”

My grin widened, and I had to glance at Julianna before adding, “A Sixth Sense reference.”