Page 102 of Sexting My Best Friend's Brothers
Ethan is breathing hard, his face flushed. Asher is standing perfectly still, but his hands are clenched into fists at his sides.
“I’m done pretending,” I say, my voice dropping to a dangerous quiet. “I’m done with the ‘Strictly Professional’ rule. It’s bullshit. It’s a lie.”
“Owen,” Ethan warns.
“No,” I cut him off. “I want her.”
The words hang in the air, heavy and undeniable.
“I want her,” I repeat, feeling the truth of it settle in my bones. “I don’t care about the policy. I don’t care about Harper. I care about the fact that when she walks into a room, the rest of the world goes gray. I care about the fact that she challenges me. I care about the fact that she tastes like trouble and feels like home.”
I look Ethan dead in the eye.
“I’m going to pursue her. If she leaves for Nebula, I’m going to chase her. I’m going to send her flowers. I’m going to show up at her apartment. I’m going to do whatever it takes to get her back.”
Ethan stares at me. His jaw works. “You can’t.”
“Watch me.”
“You can’t,” Ethan repeats, his voice rougher this time. “Because it would destroy the brotherhood.”
“Why?” I challenge. “Because you want her too?”
Ethan flinches.
“Admit it,” I press, stepping closer. “Stop hiding behind the CEO title. Stop pretending you didn’t check her for lipstick marks on Monday morning. You want her.”
Ethan closes his eyes. He looks pained. He looks like a man who has been holding back a landslide with his bare hands for weeks.
“Yes,” he rasps.
He opens his eyes. They are dark, swirling with a hunger that mirrors my own.
“I want her,” Ethan admits. “I think about her every second of every day. I dream about her. I look at the P&L sheets and I see her face. I tried to push her away because… because I knew if I let myself have her, I wouldn’t be able to let her go. And I knew it would tear us apart.”
“It doesn’t have to,” I say softly.
“It does,” Ethan insists. “She can’t be with both of us, Owen. She isn’t a timeshare. She’s a person.”
“I want her too.”
The voice comes from the window.
We both turn. Asher is looking at us. His expression is unreadable, but his eyes are burning with a blue fire I have never seen before.
“Asher?” I blink.
“I want her,” Asher says calmly. “She is the only variable I cannot solve. She is the chaos I need. When she is near me, the noise stops.”
Three of us.
We all stand there, the silence stretching tight enough to snap. We all want her.
We are all in love with the same woman.
“This is a disaster,” Ethan whispers, rubbing his face with his hands. “This is exactly what we promised wouldn’t happen. Remember Oakland. The pact.”
“The pact was about survival,” I say. “This is about living.”
