Happily Enemy After (Hawthorne Brothers 2)

He pounds into me and all I can do is cling to the counter for dear life. It’s cold and hard but I don’t care. There’s enough heat in my veins, filling every part of my body. Soon enough, it explodes. My toes curl. A cry rips through my throat as my body quivers.

Asher manages a few more thrusts that rock my trembling body. Then he pulls out and I feel a warm splash on my back as he grunts. More drops follow.

I lie still over the counter until he’s done and even after. I just can’t seem to move. I think I’m about to fall asleep, in fact, when I feel something coarse against my skin. I realize Asher is wiping my back with a paper towel.

After he cleans me up, he carries me to my bed and tucks me under the covers. Then he starts to leave. Without thinking, I grab his arm. A single word leaves my lips.

“Stay.”

For a moment, Asher just looks at me. Then he crawls under the covers beside me and wraps his arm around me. My lips curve into a smile.

As I close my eyes, I can’t help but think how good this feels, maybe even better than the sex. And even as the haze of sleep starts to settle inside my head, my mind starts to wonder.

If I had agreed to have sex with Asher back then, would we have ended up like this? Would we have started a relationship, become boyfriend and girlfriend? If I ask Asher if he wants to have a relationship with me now, will he say yes?Chapter SeventeenAsher

I don’t know.

As I have Sunday brunch with Ethan and Stella on the patio, I can’t stop thinking about everything that happened between me and Violet yesterday. We had so much fun and the sex was just as mind-blowing for me as it obviously was for her.

I don’t remember ever being so happy spending the day with someone, not even with Farrah. And I definitely didn’t sleep in her bed. But I did that last night. I slept in Violet’s bed. I wasn’t planning to, but when she asked me to stay, I just couldn’t refuse. I thought I was just going to hold her until she fell asleep, but I ended up falling asleep as well. I only left early this morning when the sun was just starting to peek out.

So what does it mean? Are we going to keep doing this? Do I want to? Does Violet?

I don’t know.

“Had a late night?” Ethan asks me as he picks up his cup of coffee. “Let me guess. You were clubbing again.”

He probably thinks I had sex in my lounge, too.

“No.” I take a big bite out of a roll of bread. “I didn’t go to a club. I was at the Navy Pier.”

His eyebrows go up. “You were?”

“I love it there,” Stella gushes. “Ethan and I went on the Ferris wheel once and the views were just lovely. But I guess I can’t go anymore. I have a feeling I might throw up.”

Ethan looks at her. “We can go after the baby is born.”

Stella beams. “Really? Oh, but do you think they let babies on the Ferris wheel? Do you think it will be safe? Do you think…?”

I stop listening, simply watching their faces and gestures as they talk. They’re obviously in love and happy. Well, a little anxious about the future, but also happy. In fact, I’ve never seen my brother this happy. And Stella’s face is simply glowing, which could just be from the pregnancy but I don’t think so.

Come to think of it, yesterday, Violet’s face was glowing, too. Not just when we were at the Navy Pier but also when she was asking me to stay in her bed. Does that mean she wants to be with me? If I stay with her, can I make her happy?

“By the way,” Ethan says to me. “There’s a fundraiser in Toronto next weekend. I was going to send Ryker since he likes to go to these things, but he hasn’t even returned from the one in Boston last night. Do you want to go? I would but I don’t want to leave Stella.”

“And I don’t think I can ride a plane,” Stella says as she touches her stomach.

Toronto?

“Yeah, sure,” I answer.

Why not? I don’t have plans next weekend and I’m always up for going out of town.

Ethan nods. “Okay. Great.”

He starts to nibble on a strip of bacon but Stella nudges his arm.

“Aren’t you forgetting something?” she asks.

“Oh, right.”

He gobbles up the rest of his bacon and wipes his hands on the table napkin. Then he looks at me.

“The reason why Stella wanted you over for brunch…”

“Just me?” Stella complains.

“Why Stella and I wanted you over for brunch,” Ethan corrects himself, “is because we wanted to tell you something.”