Compromising Kessen (Vandenbrook #1)(43)

“You’re too good,” she said, flushing.

“My sentiments exactly,” he mumbled, clearly upset about the interruption.

She shot him a helpless look, but he kept his expression stoic.

His blood was pounding in his ears; he needed to regain the moment they had just lost. Later he would have words with Nick and Duncan for merely breathing too loudly, let alone for slamming doors and snapping them both out of their pleasurable trance.

The door to the room flew open just in time for Christian to adequately push away and for Kessen to try to put her hair in a quick ponytail.

Duncan and Nick stood at the doorway; dessert in hand and with innocent looks on their faces.

“We thought you two might want dessert,” Duncan interjected.

“We were having dessert,” Christian mumbled.

Nick coughed. “Heard that.”

“I loathe you,” Christian seethed to both of them.

Kessen looked like she was about to die from embarrassment when Nick handed her a bowl of ice cream and said, “I wanted to protect your flower.”

She groaned and put her head in a pillow as Nick and Duncan started cracking up and hitting Christian in the arm.

“What type of guy do you think I am?” he asked, exasperated.

“The kind who seduces young innocents who had to pay their best friend to kiss them, so they would know how?” Nick said it as more of a question.

“You paid him?” Christian asked, turning towards her.

“Worst. Night. Ever,” she said through gritted teeth as she glared at Nick.

Duncan laughed. “Relax, Kessen. We’re only protecting you two. Trust us, it’s better this way. Neither of you know everything about the other. For example, what if Christian is allergic to cats, and you have ten cats? What would happen?”

“Terrible marriage!” Nick finished for him. “Or how about this? You guys are both super happy for a year, then one of you wants kids and the other never wanted kids. Then one resents the other, and before you know it…”

Duncan sighed. “Separate bedrooms and we cannot have that on our hands. No, we can’t.”

Nick nodded his head in agreement. “It is our responsibility.”

“Nay, our duty!” Duncan interrupted. “To make sure you both know exactly what you’re getting into before this weekend.”

Christian felt worried. A quick glance told him Kessen was positively outraged.

“I’ll go first.” Nick cleared his throat. “The very short, very exciting biography of Kessen Newberry.”

“Oh no,” she mumbled into the couch pillows.

Christian laughed. “Okay, you’ve got me curious. Please, continue.”

“Thank you.” He bowed dreadfully, and then continued, “Kessen grew up in the beautiful state of Colorado.”

He cleared his throat at Duncan.

Duncan jumped in suddenly. “Oh right, sorry.” He opened up a map and pointed to Colorado.

Nick continued, “She was a small girl, awkward and weird. Many thought she would never have any friends, considering she talked to more animals than she did people. In fact, her father had to pay a certain particularly handsome little boy to play with her for a half hour every Saturday.” He pointed to himself with an ironic smirk.

Kessen groaned.

“Anyway, after a while he didn’t need to pay me anymore. I would go over to her house just because she was exciting. We climbed trees, made mud pies, told each other secrets, and captured frogs in the pond by her house. I knew she was from a rich, aristocratic family, but I didn’t feel intimidated, because my own family was in the oil industry.”

Christian stole a look at Kessen’s face; she looked amused. He turned his attention back to Nick.

“I introduced Sammy, my fiancée, to Kessen, and they also became quick friends. Sammy is the, um, stable one of the three of us. We were like the three Musketeers as Kessen grew into a young lady through middle school. I was the one who fought off the boys who tried to hit on her and held her hand when she got a bad grade, which wasn’t often. She had a relatively normal childhood, but it was mixed with tragedy when her mom was diagnosed with cancer. Her days were filled with much sadness, which I alleviated greatly by taking her to the library, so she could read and escape the sad world she was so used to living in.”

Kessen laughed nervously. “Thus the romance novels.”

“I blame myself entirely,” Nick said, putting a hand across his heart. “In high school, she played all sports, and I mean all. She even managed to be on leadership and do cheerleading. Her first real date was with the point guard from our basketball team. All the girls loved him, including Kessen, but she was afraid he would kiss her. So that’s when I stepped in and took one for the team.”

Duncan gave Nick a little shoulder rub as if to say, “Atta boy.”

Christian rolled his eyes. “And she paid you?”

“Well, not with money.”

Something akin to murder flashed across Christian’s features before Nick continued.

“I had a huge crush on Sammy, but she only thought of me as a friend. Kessen helped her see me differently. It took a Michael Jackson impersonation and a quick makeout session, but I’m happy to say she’s been mine ever since.

“Fast forward to college, we all attended Ivy Leagues, and Kessen decided she wanted to go into business. She graduated early, earned her master’s, and in her free time dedicated as much volunteer time as possible at the local hospice where her mother was staying. She also read to her mother every single Vandenbrook romance novel on the market. I can still remember them having Vandenbrook Saturdays, as they called them at the hospice center. Her father never knew; he always considered Kessen to be extremely logical.”