Page 66 of Sexting My Best Friend's Brothers
I turn her face toward me. I want to kiss her. I want to taste what Owen tasted. I want to overwrite his data with my own.
I lean in. She closes her eyes. Her breath hits my lips.
“Am I interrupting?”
The voice comes from above us.
We spring apart.
Ethan is standing at the top of the stairs, silhouetted by the light from the party. He is holding a tumbler of dark liquor. He looks massive, dark, and furious.
“Ethan,” Tessa gasps, standing up so fast she almost knocks over her water.
“I was looking for my Brand Lead,” Ethan says, his voice like ice. “Investors are asking for the ‘Be Seen’ architect. But I see she is busy conducting a private meeting in a stairwell.”
“I was just?—”
“Taking a break,” I interrupt, standing up to shield her. “Tessa intervened with a reporter. She needed a moment.”
Ethan walks down the stairs. He moves slowly, deliberately. He stops on the landing to tower over us, looking from me to Tessa. His gaze drops to the open curve of her dress, then up to her flushed face.
“A break,” Ethan repeats. “Is that what we’re calling it?”
“Yes,” I say.
“Go back inside, Asher,” Ethan commands. “I need a word with Ms. Hartley.”
“I don’t think that is a good idea,” I say.
“Go back inside,” Ethan growls.
I look at Tessa. She gives me a tiny nod. It’s okay.
I hesitate. I don’t want to leave her with him. Not when he looks like this. Not when the hostility radiating off Ethan is heavy enough to crush her.
But I cannot fight him here. Not in public.
“I will be right inside,” I say to Tessa.
I walk past Ethan. He doesn’t move. I have to turn sideways to squeeze past him on the narrow stairs.
“Don’t break her,” I whisper as I pass him.
Ethan ignores me and continues to stare at Tessa.
I walk up the stairs and back into the noise of the party. I pull out my phone and open the tracking app.
I watch the blue dot that represents Tessa.
And I wait.
13
ETHAN
She looks guilty.
That is the first thing I notice. She is standing with her back against the concrete wall, clutching her water glass like a weapon. Her chest is rising and falling rapidly.
