Consolation Prize (Forbidden Men #9)(53)

He smiled at me and ran the back of that very same digit up my cheek. “Just promise to try to let yourself feel the whole thing, okay?”

“Okay, fine.” I rolled my eyes, still convinced I hadn’t held anything back. I mean, it’d been a pretty powerful orgasm. I remember being almost scared of it because it’d started off stronger than I was used to. And then…shit, I had tried to shut it down because it’d been overwhelming.

But I couldn’t tell Colton he was right, so I sighed and tried to make myself sound impatient. “Assuming you can make me come again, I promise I won’t try to hold it all in this time.”

With a chuckle, he kissed the end of my nose. “Oh, I’ll make you come. I plan to make you come a lot.” His chin dipped as if he were easing in for a kiss on the lips. But the moment I lifted my mouth to meet his, he murmured, “Condition number two.”

“Two?” I squawked! “You can’t have two. I didn’t have two.”

“Well, I have two. And I don’t want Brandt to know about this.” He suddenly wasn’t teasing or grinning anymore. I fact, he looked ready to walk out the door if I didn’t comply.

I gulped. “That’s fine.” I didn’t particularly want Brandt to know about it either. I mean, awkward much? But still…why was Colton so against it?

He didn’t explain. He just added, “Actually, I don’t even want his name brought up between the two of us. Ever.”

Unease slithered through me. I wanted to apologize to him once again for what I’d said that night. I must’ve hurt him a hell of a lot more than I’d initially realized.

Suddenly, this whole one-time-deal-just-to-get-it-out-of-our-systems agreement sounded like a really bad idea.

“Just curious, but...why...” I licked my dry lips. “Why don’t you want him to know?”

“Because he wouldn’t like it,” he said. “He knows you still have a thing for him, and he’d think the worst. I don’t want him thinking—”

“Wait!” I held up my hands, completely not expecting that last part. “What do you mean, he knows I have a thing for him?”

Colton closed his eyes. After a moment of deep breathing, he opened them again and said, “Who do you think sent me over to distract you at his wedding? He didn’t want his wife to worry about anything if she caught on to how persistently you were watching him.”

“Oh my God,” I whispered. I covered my mouth before slapping my arms over my chest to hug myself. “You were sent to me?”

He seemed to realize telling me that little detail was something he never should’ve done when his face froze as if he’d just been caught with his hand in the cookie jar. “I…”

“So, what…?” I demanded, feeling just…really, really shitty. “He tossed me a pity bone? Like I don’t want you, but here’s my little brother. Enjoy? You really were my consolation prize? Are you f*cking kidding me right now?”

“No, it wasn’t like that at all.” He grasped my shoulders gently and looked into my eyes beseechingly. “Jesus, baby doll. That is not what happened. He actually told me not to touch you. No, actually, that wasn’t how he put it. What did he say?” He winced, trying to recall the exact wording before he refocused on me to relay, “He said I didn’t stand a chance with you.”

“Oh.” I shoved his hands off me so I could back up enough to glare at all of him. “So you decided to prove him wrong, huh?”

“No.” He didn’t sound so insistent this time. He was almost defeated as he explained, “I didn’t think I stood a chance either. But you looked so miserable, I wanted to help you. I thought I could annoy you away with my flirting like I usually did, and it would chase you off so you’d stop torturing yourself. But then…then I learned what your f*cking earrings meant, and…Jesus, Juli. You were there. You know what happened just happened. I didn’t plan that.”

I believed him. I don’t think I would’ve believed anyone else who’d fed me an excuse in that moment, but I believed Colton. Because I had been there. There’d been nothing planned or diabolical behind our encounter in that room.

But still, everything felt…wrong again.

“Maybe we shouldn’t do this,” I whispered, shaking my head and almost about to cry because that wasn’t what I really wanted to say. “This is getting complicated.”

He shook his head. “It’s not complicated at all, baby doll. Do you want me or not?”

Everything inside me screamed yes, but I gulped. “But what about…he who shall not be named?”

“That’s why I made that condition because this right here is between you and me, not him. He doesn’t belong here, and I don’t want him involved. And if he knew about it, he’d make himself involved.”

I nodded. “Okay, but just for the record, I don’t still have a thing for him.”

“Whatever.” He stepped in closer to me and ran a single fingertip up the side of my throat. It felt...wow, really good, but I think he was trying to distract me because he didn’t believe me and he didn’t want to hear what he thought was a lie.

I grabbed his wrist, making him look into my eyes.

“I’m serious, Colton. I was over him that night. I just didn’t realize it yet. You were right. One taste of you and I forgot all about big brother.”