Page 29 of Kaden & Keegan
Keegan looked at Bristol. “Onlydinner?”
Her dark eyebrows dipped low. “Yes. Why else would I be here?”
It was an opening he couldn’t pass up. “Oh, I don’t know, Bristol. Maybe to pick up where we left off last year? Remember that night? You. Us. The hotel room?”
“Keegan…” The warning in Kaden’s tone was lethal.
He held up a hand to his brother, kept his eyes pinned on Bristol. “Forgive me if I don’t welcome you with open arms, darlin’. I seem to recall doin’ that once.” He tilted his head to the side. “Look where it got me.”
When she didn’t speak, he studied her gaze, wondering what her motivation was here. He knew Bristol wouldn’t have come simply because she wanted to spend time with them. It wasn’t her style. No, Bristol was the sort of woman who ran from her desires, ignored them, pretended they didn’t exist. Hell, he’d witnessed it firsthand.
“Set the table, Keegan.” There was frustration in Kaden’s tone this time.
“I can help,” Bristol offered, sounding only a tad flustered.
Keegan stared at her.
Seriously?
“I’ve got it,” he insisted, making his way around the island to the cabinet that housed the plates.
While he went through the motions of laying out the plates, the silverware, the napkins, his thoughts drifted back to another time.
He recalled doing this very thing on more than one occasion for a woman they thought they’d spend the rest of their lives with. Two women, in fact. Separate incidents, of course. Kim and Meredith, two names that still made him cringe when he thought about them. The last one being the most memorable. Meredith Marsh. A sweet woman with a smile that had been almost as sweet as Bristol’s.
It had started off much like this. The chasing game, the giving in, a constant push and pull. Time had passed while Meredith had made them believe the possibility of happily ever after was within their grasp. The nights had felt endless, the three of them together. Passion, indulgence in abundance.
Little had they known but Meredith had been making her own plans. It had been her intention to land Kaden, to slowly but surely push Keegan out of the picture. Why? Well, that was easy. Kaden was the mature one. Level-headed, financially stable. The perfect husband according to Meredith.
And Keegan’s role in all of it? Meredith had informed him he was good for two things: a good laugh and an even better orgasm.
Yep. That was him.
Meredith’s efforts to break Kaden and Keegan apart had never worked, but he’d spent far too much time pretending not to notice while she’d been making future plans for her and his brother.
To his shock, Kaden had been the one to put an end to that ridiculous ruse but not before Meredith had proposed marriage. To Kaden.
That had been when the veil on the illusion had slipped away. Since then, Keegan made a point to keep women at arm’s length. One night was all he had to offer, because the last fucking thing he intended to be was on the back burner. Never again. Meredith was the reason Keegan refused to think Bristol could be a real possibility, despite his brother’s obvious interest.
And this … thisdinner… This was the first step in repeating history, making the same fucking mistake all over again.
He knew what Kaden was up to. His brother’d had his eye on Bristol Newton since the first time they’d laid eyes on her at the hospital back when Ethan and Beau’s babies were born. Since then, they’d attempted to pursue her a little. Back at Christmas, they’d even managed to get close enough to tease her while they’d been cozied up in her hotel room. Damn, but that woman had been so fucking hot. And then her flame had extinguished. Just poof. Disappeared.
And now Kaden was attempting to go at her a different way.
Keegan couldn’t deny he liked Bristol even if he harbored some anger toward her. She was pretty, smart, funny. All the qualities he admired in a woman. But if he was being honest, she didn’t quite tick off all the boxes for him. Mostly because Bristol wasn’t the one-and-done type and that had been their only prerequisite for the past decade or so. Women who wanted to know what it was like to be shared by two men, pleasured in ways they’d never experienced.
Of course, he might’ve entertained thoughts of the cute little daycare owner before Christmas. On a different level. If he factored in his age and his recent thoughts about settling down … yeah, Keegan had given the whole forever thing a thought a time or two. Same thoughts he’d had for much of his life, even after Kim, the first one to dump him in hopes of having Kaden all to herself. But Meredith had ruined him completely, confirming that women didn’t really want to be with two men for a lifetime, they merely wanted to be fucked by two at the same time.
Burned not once but twice. Keegan wasn’t interested in reliving it for a third time.
Not that Bristol would give them the time of day. While she was sweet as cherry pie, not to mention hot as all get out, Keegan wasn’t an idiot. They didn’t have what it took to catch her eye. No, Bristol Newton was interested in someone with more … life goals. Yeah. That was a good way to look at it. He knew from overhearing her conversations that Bristol wasn’t interested in a couple of redneck boys who lived life to its fullest without all the worries of which university had the best programs, which companies offered the best benefits. None of that had ever mattered to them and Bristol knew it, too. She had her sights set much higher than the two of them. Hence the parade of men she’d had since Christmas.
Not that his brother would ever accept that. Kaden was still disillusioned when it came to love.
Did Keegan want to fuck her?
Oh, yeah. Nine ways to Sunday, in fact. He’d even dreamed about it a couple of times.
Would he act on it?
As he listened to her soft laughter, he had to wonder whether he would or not. It was tempting. But despite the real heat he felt between them, Keegan had no desire to go through it all again.
Twice was more than enough, thank you very fucking much.
