When the aftershocks subside, they tuck me between them again, all of us on our sides, only this time it’s Cody behind me and Brock facing me. And since Cody is nestled in my cleft and Brock is hard against my belly, I can now confirm that the brothers are just as naked as they’ve made me.
“You ready to talk now?” Brock says.
I have a very happy glow now, but my brain hasn’t completely stopped working. “I was talking,” I point out, “until you kissed me.”
“You were yelling,” he says, unmoved by my logic. “And snapping. And slapping.”
This is true, so I glare at him again instead of answering. His mouth twitches. “Do we need to sweeten you up some more?”
“No!” I say hastily, and the mouth twitch turns into a grin. Now that my happy glow is fading, I can’t believe I not only let them do that, but enthusiastically joined in. What is wrong with me that the second I’m around them, my self-control goes out the window?
Cody’s arm comes around my waist, his hand gliding up toward my breast. “Please,” I say, as if I could fend him off with mere words, “explain what you’re doing here. How did you know where I was?”
It’s Brock who answers. “Your girlfriends told us where to find you.”
“They did not!” I’m back to yelling. Tara and Zoe have stood by me through this whole fiasco, and they are the best besties ever. They would never give me up.
“Babe,” Cody says in my ear. “They did.” His hand cups my breast, his thumb brushing idly over my nipple. Desire rushes through me but I put my hand over Cody’s, stopping him. “No?” he says.
“I can’t think when you’re doing that,” I explain, and he smiles against my neck. Dammit! My deep freeze will never last if I keep saying stuff like that.
Brock looks like he’s trying not to laugh out loud. “They’re worried about you,” he says. “We talked to them, and convinced them that we are too, because it’s true. So they told us where to find you.”
“And gave you an extra key?” I say suspiciously.
“That too.”
Well, at least that explains how they got into the cabin without waking me. I’m shocked that my friends gave in, but not that shocked. I know firsthand how persuasive the twins can be, even with their clothes on.
Now that their appearance here is no longer a total mystery, all the reasons I ran away from them come rushing back. “It’s sweet of you to be worried about me,” I say.
“Sweet?” Brock repeats, one eyebrow arching up.
I ignore him and keep talking. “But now that you see I’m all right, you can leave.”
His eyes get stormy. “Babe, we are not leaving. Not without you.”
“You have to,” I say, hoping that endless repetition will work where nothing else has.
Cody’s hand goes to my shoulder, and he turns me onto my back, he and his brother looking down at me. “Okay,” he says. “We’ll leave.”
My heart sinks. “You will?” The twins smile, and I realize I just totally gave myself away again. I really have to stop doing that.
“Sure,” Brock says, picking up where his brother left off. “We’ll go as soon as you look us in the eye and tell us you don’t care about us.”
Melting
Megan
“What?” I splutter.
Easygoing Cody disappears. Judging by the glint in his eye, Stern Cody is here now. This deepens the tingling between my legs, which I try to ignore. “You heard us,” he says.
Brock catches my eye. “Simple thing to do, Megalicious. Just tell the truth.”
I glare at them some more, because I can’t honestly say that I don’t care about them. But why, oh why, do they want me to rip off my emotional armor? I know their never-say-die alpha male egos don’t like to give up on anything, but this seems like an awful lot of trouble for a conquest — especially one that will get them in trouble with their coach.
Which reminds me of what I was going to ask the girls tomorrow. “Did you get suspended?” I say, afraid to hear the answer but needing to know.
“Nah,” Cody says, “Coach was just blowing off steam. We heard your ex got suspended, though. Substance abuse violations.”
It gives me no joy to hear this, but I can’t summon up much sympathy either. Jason is like someone I don’t even know anymore. “I’m glad you didn’t get in trouble,” I say. “But you must understand why we can’t see each other anymore.”
“No,” Brock says. “We don’t get that at all.”
I stare at him as if he’s taken too many hits on the field. “You saw how my father reacted,” I remind him. “If he found out, he could trade you. It could wreck your careers.”
“Babe,” Cody says, clearly amused.
“What?” I retort, amazed at their nonchalant attitude. “This isn’t funny!”
“First of all,” Brock says, “Coach is not going to trade players who are performing well for the team. His job is to win games, not police our personal lives. Second, even if we did get traded — which we’re not going to — our careers aren’t dependent on him. And third, he’s not going to argue about us being together.”
I ignore the heart flutter I get at the word together. “Not going to argue? Were you there that day?” I say.
“Yeah, I was,” he shoots back. “And I was also there — unlike you — when our mom and your dad had a knock-down drag-out fight about it.”
My inner wince at his dig about me running away barely registers. I’m too busy gaping at him. “They what?”
“Mom really laid into him,” Cody says with obvious pride. “You should have seen it. Told him his job is to support you, not judge you, and he should be ashamed of himself for treating you that way.”
I’m so stunned by this new
s I can’t even speak. “Vivian … said that?” I finally whisper.
“Yeah,” Brock affirms. “And when he got stubborn about it, she said she was going home instead of spending Sunday with him like she usually does. And she left.”
I’m finding this really hard to process. Especially in light of how I’ve treated her, it’s very humbling news. “Wow,” is all I can manage.
“She knows how hard it is to find the right person,” Cody says quietly. “She’s not going to judge consenting adults for doing what makes them happy.”
I barely hear the second half of what he says because my brain is hung up on a particular phrase. I know I shouldn’t even go there, but I can’t help myself. “The right person?”
Two sets of dark eyes skewer me, and I can’t help squirming under their gaze. “Why did you run away from us last Sunday?” Brock says. “And I mean the real reason, babe.”
My deep freeze is thawing at a rapid clip, but my mind is screaming at me to bring it back. Cody just meant “the right person” in bed, the right playmate for a good time. The twins are only here with me because they’re conquering alpha males.
I can’t read more into this than I should.
“Well?” Cody prompts when I don’t answer. I try to think of something, anything, I can say to throw them off the track, and his eyes narrow.
“I can see your mind working, trying to come up with a story to tell us.” He leans down until his lips are almost touching mine. “If you keep lying, we’re going to take you back to the penthouse, tie you to the bed, and fuck you until you stop fighting us.”
Oh. My. God. My nipples get hard, my body tingles all over — especially between my legs — and I’m instantly soaking wet. Whatever’s on my face must match what’s going on in the rest of my body, because Brock gets closer too, his hand sliding low onto my belly. “If I touch you right now, babe — down here — what am I going to feel?”
“Stop it.” I try to hold on, but my deep freeze is melting faster than an iceberg.