Bro Code(11)

I hold my hand out to help her up. She glares at me, but it only lasts a few seconds before she grabs my hands with both of hers, and I lift her up to her feet. When her shoes scrape on the snow, I put my free hand against her back, sandwiching us with party supplies and pulling her close so she doesn't slip again and escort her to the truck.

The weather has turned fast, and I want her safely inside the truck. We toss the bags inside, and I help her climb up.

“There. Safe and sound.” I grin. “If only you'd listened to me in the first place, the fine customers at Shop-N-Save wouldn't have seen me in my underwear.”

She shrugs. “I don't like being told what to do unless I'm naked.”

I don't like being told what to do unless I'm naked?

Eyes widening, I shake my head at her. Damn, she's definitely grown up. I don't remember her ever being this sassy, and fuck, I like it. I shut her door and climb into the driver's seat.

I start the truck, and clean the windshield, and after I do, I realize Ava is still watching me.

“Barrett?” she asks, voice soft.

I know what she's asking. What is this? What's happening between us? But I'm fresh out of answers. This chemical attraction that's building between us is big and electrifying. And fucking terrifying, because there's no way we can act on it.

My gaze lowers from her eyes to her full, kissable lips, and suddenly all I can think about is kissing her. Taking her plush mouth with mine…Imagining what she'd look like undressed for me. Ass raised up, her hips the perfect height to grip in my hands, pulling her back onto my stiff length, hearing her cry out as I penetrate her fully for the first time.

I take a deep breath and begin to mentally calculate my billable hours from last month, recite the Latin names for legal concepts I studied in law school, anything to stop myself from doing the one thing I want to do—kissing all that sexual frustration right off her beautiful lips.

Her gaze falls to my mouth, and the moment it does, it's all I can think about. Goodbye, habeas corpus. Hello, lust.

Ava wets her lower lip with her tongue and in an instant, I've closed the distance between us, bringing my lips to hers in a searing kiss.

The moment our mouths meet, she lets out a sound of surprise, but from the way she tilts her head up to meet mine, it's a welcome one. I linger as long as I dare, not wanting to give up her sweet lips, her little breathless sounds just yet. Denying myself that would feel like death.

“We really shouldn't be doing this,” I murmur with my lips still lingering against hers, because it seems like the right thing to say.

She kisses me again. It's hot and insistent, her hands grasping at my coat before she answers with a smile. “I know that.”

I can think of plenty of ways to heat her up a couple more degrees, but unfortunately, we're in her father's truck in the middle of a parking lot. Taking herculean strength, I pull back from her, certain that guilt is written all over my face. I can’t even look her in the eye at this point, all I see are the remnants of my sins reflected on my best friend’s sister’s face. Her splotched cheeks, the lust-filled eyes, the swollen lips, or maybe that’s what I’m seeing in my own reflection. Fuck. “Nice as this is, we should probably get back to the house.”

She nods, and I pull out onto the road when the full-force of what we've done hits me. I kissed Ava. I kissed her without even thinking about it, after spending years trying to put her out of my mind. Worse, I called it nice. The opportunity was there, and everything in me wanted to take advantage. If she hadn't kissed me back, I would have stopped. But, man, she did kiss me back and it was everything I’d imagined. Hot, soft, sweet.

“Shit.” Ava startles when I curse, and I resist the urge to reach over and touch her in some small way. “None of this was supposed to happen.”

“Nothing did happen,” she says back, so casually I can barely believe it. “Which is why we're going to unpack the truck when we get back home and go on with our day.”

I force a breath into my lungs. At least that means Nick won't have to find out. I couldn't risk my oldest friend in the world hating me because of one stupid mistake.

I nod, staring straight out the windshield, like there could possibly be anything more interesting outside than the woman next to me.

With every passing minute, the silence strains into awkwardness, and I reach over to flip the radio on. Ava's hand doesn't brush mine this time, instead staying locked in her lap. A jazzy beat flows from the speakers; it's not my type of music, but this is more about drowning out the silence than hearing the latest top forty.

When the house comes into view, I hold back a breath of relief, and pull into the driveway without breaking the quiet between us. Nick is outside already, scraping off the front porch with a snow shovel, and the bastard waves as soon as we get out. His wave is like a sucker punch to the gut. If he finds out how close I was to violating his sister, I have a very good feeling that that wave would turn into a right hook.

“Took you two long enough.” He kicks the last bit of snow off the concrete, then leaves the shovel by the door. “Did you make a detour or something?”

Neither one of us answers, and when I loop around to grab the bags, Ava stops in front of me.

For a second, I'm not sure whether to go around, or take a step back and let her by. We stare at each other until Nick raises an eyebrow.