Bro Code(5)

I don't think navigating the ins and outs of running the factory will be too bad, despite the learning curve. Even if I don't know anything about building new engines, I did go to school for business management. After graduating, I stuck almost exclusively to consulting work, but this could be the chance for a real career, something I can settle into for good. Then I can find Mr. Right and see about having a couple of kids before my mid-thirties start to loom on the horizon.

Which means dating again. Which means going on a date in the first place, instead of focusing on how I've been single so long. That's a rabbit hole I'm determined not to go down, unless I find myself in the mood for a good cry later.

“I'm not rushing you.” Dad gives my shoulder a fond pat. “I just don't want you to be alone. You've got a lot to offer a man.”

“I'll put that on a sign next time I go up for auction,” I tease, and he chuckles before shaking his head.

“Ava! The cookies are ready!”

It's kind of amazing how my mom can make her voice carry through an entire house. There's a reason I never got away with anything as a teenager.

Dad gives me a little salute. “Duty calls.”

I hustle back up the stairs to the kitchen, ready to be wrist-deep in frosting and sparkles until every cookie looks appropriately festive. Thankfully, I get a system down quickly, and once my mom's stretched clear wrap over the tray, I'm ready to wash my hands and relax with a glass of wine. That master plan is swiftly derailed by my mother stacking the dishes under the faucet and shooing me out of her way.

“Use another sink, honey.” She's already turned away from me, looking in the cabinets for a washcloth. “I've got to wipe everything down before the dough sticks like glue.”

Trudging up another flight of stairs to the bathroom, I nudge the door open with my elbow before stepping inside. The light is already on, and I have about a second to register why before the shower curtain slides back against the wall.

Barrett steps out from behind it, and my thoughts scramble in sixteen different directions at once. I've known those brilliant blue eyes for years, but not the way water looks clinging to his dark eyelashes, or dripping down his sculpted frame, the valleys and ridges of all that muscle, the sheer breadth of his shoulders. He towers over me, making it easy for my eyes to draw lower, tracking a single, clear drop from his chest down to his chiseled abs.

The lucky little drop falls into fine, dark hair, neatly trimmed around the thick base of—holy mother of mercy—the largest penis I have ever seen. My breath catches in my throat and I have the sudden urge to take a step back, and I would have, had I not been rooted in place so firmly. I wasn't sure my legs would ever work again.

Heat sparks under my skin and settles as a needy pulse between my thighs as I take in the impressive length of his shaft. Even soft, he's huge, and that thought is all it takes to imagine Barrett hard and so deep inside me, that powerful body pinning mine right to the wall. With all that muscle framing his hips, he could keep me there, taking me over and over until we were both totally exhausted...

Now he's not the only one who's dripping wet.

I’ve never been madder at myself before, remembering again how far away my vibrator is right now.

“Uh, Ava?” Barrett's very real voice snaps me out of my erotic fantasy. “Are you okay? I'll be out of here in a second if you need the bathroom.”

I was staring at him. I've been staring at a naked Barrett Wilson, my brother's best friend, for a full minute, straight-up ogling like he was in a dirty magazine. What was I thinking? My first attempt at words come out as an intelligible whimper, and my face is heating up so fast I'm pretty sure something in my brain is about to short-circuit. No, scratch that; all of me is going to short-circuit.

My nipples pebble inside the cups of my bra, and my heart hammers dutifully behind my ribcage.

Making no move to cover himself, Barrett smiles, and somehow that makes everything ten times worse. “Ava? Can I help you?”

There's a hundred ways I want him to help me, and every single one involves having my clothes ripped off, his body on top of mine. Except I can't do any of that when I'm staring at him like a total fool, and this isn't supposed to be how my evening ends.

I don't have a plan. The only thing I can do is rush out of the bathroom, yanking the door shut behind me. It slams a bit loudly, but at least I can start to pull myself together with a barrier between me and Barrett's gorgeous body. Those sinfully perfect abs, his sharp jawline, that stunning face, and most of all, the baseball bat-sized appendage between his legs.

My evening was going to end with a relaxing glass of wine. The only thing I know right now is that there’s not enough wine in this county to calm the fire Barrett has ignited inside me.





Chapter Three


Barrett


The door slams, and with it all the oxygen in the room seems to disappear.

Holy fuck.

Ava had barged in on me, and had gotten one hell of an eyeful. Watching her take in every inch with surprise lighting up those beautiful eyes—my cock twitched. Even with my prompting, she hadn't said a word before dashing out of the bathroom, but I swear before the door slammed shut behind her, that shock became something more—for just a split second. It had transformed into something hotter and a whole lot less innocent.